Pardon me while I shriek.......

Yowelllllll....yip...yip....yip!

This whole business about my pension really is driving me to distraction. Not only am I having to fight for the first years worth of payments, a fight which is increasingly looking like I am not going to win by the way, but now there is a small matter about the fact that the bumbling bureaucrats in Ottawa seems to have miscalculated somehow on the matter of my buyback into the years of service. To especially complicate things they miscalculated both ways, that is, in their infinite wisdom they decided that they owed me $1760, but then they also figure that I owe them $2660! Here comes the really good part. Instead of doing simple math and figuring that I owe them $900, they send me a cheque for the $1760 and then three months later debit my account for the $2660! Merry Christmas! Ho...Ho...Ho...That'll teach you for fighting with us about the first year's benefits. And the really neat thing about Civil Servant Bureaucrats? They really can't be held accountable for their screw ups. They are sort of like College Professors once they have tenure, you're stuck with them.

Anyway. Enough of that.

Another cold morning when I took Peri for his walk. After we dropped Barb off at work we went around the Duck Pond, one of the walks around a small shallow lake on Purcell's Cove Road. The pond isn't completely frozen over yet but the edges are certainly staring to fill in. Soon the poor old ducks will be walking rather than paddling. We were the only ones out for a walk this morning which is rather pleasant, that we have the whole place to ourselves. At the start of the walk there is a sign that shows that if we wanted to we could walk almost from our apartment over to the pond and then back again. We'll have to try that one day. It's only a couple of miles round trip.

On another topic, I have covered myself in silverback glory today. I decided that it might be a good idea to get out the presents that I had bought for the Admiral. Granted there weren't all that many of them so far but there were one or two. Well, guess what? Like the squirrel and his nuts so carefully stored away for the winter, I can't find them! I have looked in all of the places that I think that I would have put them and many of the places that I really believe that I would not but still I can't find them. Rats! The only saving grace is that the apartment is small and when we empty it to put stuff back in storage or take it back to the boat we are bound to find it, but still, how embarrassing.

As for the RNSYS Boatyard Christmas function, Barb and I particularly wanted to attend to say Merry Christmas to the guys in the yard that take such good care of us and our boats during the year. The fact that they had the Food Services people at the club lay on some yummies is a side benefit, so we weren't planning on staying for too long or drinking too much since we still had to drive home. The "do" was great! It was held in the back workshop and the staff hosted it to make sure that the boat owners didn't imbibe too much and socialized with everyone. We got a chance to meet some old friends that we hadn't seen since last year and were able to start the party season properly with some laughs and drinks and good food.

The Binnacle party tomorrow night will be different since we can walk to that but even then I don't plan to consume to excess although I anticipate that it too will be a fun time.