An odds and ends week

This has been a week of finishing up lingering projects. The painting of Avery and Stormy posted weeks ago has been bugging me ever since, and an "Aha!" moment occurred when I realised the yellowy green grass colors didnt tie in at all to the background so I applied a thin wash of greeny blue and now it seems to be more agreeable with the spruce trees. Stormys muzzle needed some lenghtening , a tweak here and there...and now its finally done...I think.


I always found crossing off finished items from the to do list to be very satisfying. This week the bathroom grout has been sealed, caulking done, carpet-to-tile wood threshold made, and the income tax papers dropped off. But the biggest procrastination of all...my citizenship papers are ready to mail.

Here we are, a happy little band of immigrants in 1957, happy that we weren't seasick and throwing up for the first time in 11 days...
as we approached Newfoundland, first stop on our way to a new life in Nova Scotia. What is it with the Brits and their obligatory neckties? We're on an immigrant ship for heavens sake.
So Ive been a landed immigrant for 52 years and it was a great shock after 9/11 to find out I would now have to have a $50. plastic card to prove it! Enormous amounts of paperwork later...(what record of landing??) I got my card only to find out they would charge me another $50 or more every 5 years to renew it. The final straw was driving over the Maine border this February to be told, you have a British passport so you have to pay $6.00. I was about to hit the roof with righteous indignation when wise hubby shushed me , muttering in my ear about the folly of arguing with american border guards. So feeling thoroughly discriminated against, this week I downloaded the citizenship papers for the final insult, $200.00 after being a contributing Canadian taxpayer all my adult life!! Well, at least I'll be able to vote legally, (somebody should have told me that years ago I guess) and being over 55 I dont have to write the test. Yay !