Saturday 7 March 2015

Please hold...............

Oh, yes, it seems that we are still on hold for PJ's retirement funds.  He officially retired January 5 and has not yet seen one thin dime of pension money.  Thank goodness we have my investment money to dip into and also that he has been putting in a few hours work.  I'm not trying to say that we are destitute, far from it, but the man is entitled to his money and worked hard for many years for that benefit.  It is sad what hoops he must jump through to get what is rightfully his.  Oh, well, no point in crying about it; it will come eventually.
Tee is still doing exceptionally well at school.  After 10 courses, he is still maintaining honours average.  I could not be prouder of him.  PJ and I are so thankful that he has found something that truly moves him.
My gorgeous Coco celebrated her birthday yesterday.  I won't say how many years exactly, but I cannot believe it has been that many since that blustery cold morning in March that she was born.  It was a beautifully sunshiny but deceivingly cold day and I remember looking out the window and seeing the blue sky.  She did not come easily into this world; I was in labour for quite a while but that sweet little face and fantastic blue eyes were worth every second.  She was the apple of my father's eye - it was he who nicknamed her Katie.  Ironically from a commercial that he thought was cute.  He would sit and read the newspaper and rock her for hours.  I never saw him laugh as much or as often as when she would do something comical, which was pretty much anything in his adoring view.  
Saturday, Mar. 7:
PJ and Coco are on a mission today.  Coco's car was crashed on Sunday and there is good news and bad news.  The good news is that Big Daddy was the only one in the car - he had just dropped off the teenies, so thankfully they were not traumatized by the accident, and it was NOT his fault.  He was hit by a young man thinking that he could make a left turn quicker than he could.  Unfortunately, Big Daddy did sustain some neck and back injuries but he is okay for the most part.  The bad news is that although Coco was planning on buying something new this spring, this crash has just pushed that plan into motion a little sooner than expected.  PJ had intended on "helping" Coco with financing but since we are in a holding pattern, this is just the icing on the cake of craziness.  You know, sometimes you just have to deal with it all at once, so they are looking at some vehicles today in hopes of at least getting some ideas around prices and features.  We shall see what comes of it, so stay tuned on the "Coco's New Vehicle" project.  
And hopefully there will be some good news about PJ's retirement soon.  
Secretly, the only thing I am looking forward to right now is some lovely spring flowers budding.  Winter, go away, you are old and tired.  And take your snow with you!
Love from Lulu, xxxx

Wednesday 18 February 2015

The End of An Era - Part 2

Although I initially wrote about PJ's retirement at the beginning of January, it was all just a sham.  Yes, it is true.  He lied to me.  The unraveling of his tale began with an innocuous phone call from his "friend" (and former supervisor), Wayne.  Oh, yes, he could come in to "help out" with one of his former accounts at the warehouse.  No problem.  Just a couple of hours.  No biggy.  Then he comes home from an innocent (?) trip to Tim's for a coffee with an announcement that not only had he met the big boss over there - he lives in our community - but also that he was offered 3 days a week!  They would put him back on the payroll......what????  OK, I admit that he hasn't actually gone back on the payroll........yet!  The further unraveling of this terrible travesty was when he was asked by the beautiful and talented financial advisor at our bank to get his retirement info so she could review it and advise us accordingly.  Well, it turns out that upon PJ's request to the company, he was told it would take "a couple of weeks" for him to get the paperwork.  That was mid January.  An email on February 12th to the person in charge of said paperwork then revealed that she had "just recieved" his details and would forward them to the investment firm handling the pension funds and he would likely hear from them in.......you guessed it......"a couple of weeks"!!  As an investigative journalist, I have taken all this evidence into consideration.  I think that this whole "retirement" scam is just a cover up for spending all MY money!  I know, I was shocked too!  I am beginning to think there is no real pension and he has just been teasing me with his talk of big money.  And how elaborate to actually have the big boss and the company finance person in on the scheme.  This must have taken months to orchestrate.  Oh, well, folks, there is the plain truth, but stayed tuned.  Who knows what will happen next?
On a brighter note, I have a brand new dishwasher in my kitchen.  PJ went shopping for it a while ago and found a great model that was on sale.  He bought it right there and then.  A week or so later, I suggested we stop in at the local Home Depot to have a look at hardware and countertops for my soon-to-be renovated kitchen.  While there, he was looking at the appliances and discovered one of the same model he bought.  No price tag but with an ever mysterious and tantalizing "Clearance" tag on it.  OH,my.  Sure enough it was $150 cheaper than the other store's price - mainly because it was a floor model.  He got the info and went back to the original store.  Oh, yes, they price match and also give a 10% DISCOUNT OVER THAT PRICE!!!!  What??  Ya, he is the king of shopping now.  So maybe I can forgive the whole retirement scam.
With love from Lulu xxx

Thursday 8 January 2015

Back in the Day...

The cold weather is here and I am not happy.  Even being a native Canadian and growing up with the extreme weather changes that we experience from summer to winter, I still hate the cold.  I didn't always hate the cold.  I remember as a kid toboganning down the hill on the other side of the park behind our house with all my friends.  We would stay out til either or hands and feet were numb or our mitts got wet - this, of course, was a direct result of throwing snow balls at eachother or generally just diving into the snow drifts.  As a matter of fact, no one "went in" til one of those conditions was present or you were labelled a baby.  And if somebody's mom called them, well, that was just the icing on the humiliation cake.  This was of course decades before video games, internet and electronic devices.  If we were bored, we had 2 choices: play indoors or play outdoors.  And just because it was snowing and -10 didn't deter the latter.  Of course, those were also the 2 choices we had in the summer as well.  The difference being that the limitation of going "in" time was the street lights.  Once they came on, everybody went home.  Cuz everybody's moms all had the same rule.  Life was a lot simpler back then.  We all had the same family experiences, except some were bigger families than others, but the economics, traditions and day to day existence was pretty much the same.  We all went to the same school and our mom's all shopped at the same department stores.  There was no status difference.  Nobody wore brand name clothes or shoes.  Nobody had the state of the art electronics, kitchen appliance or fashion accessory.  All the girls played Barbies - one friend's mom used to knit Barbie clothes for her so we always wanted to see the new outfits her mom had made.  All the boys played street hockey (summer and winter) screeching the infamous "car" when the game was interrupted by someone actually wanting to drive down the street (?!?! - the nerve!).  Some of the girls were invited to play street hockey in order to make up enough team members but once the other boys came out, we were uninvited very quickly.  It was common to have moms and dads sitting outside on their porches to get a breath of cool air on a summer evening (cuz no one had air conditioning - that was for the rich folk) and no one dared misbehave cuz everybody's mom or dad would give you "the treatment" whether you belonged to them or not.  Looking back it was a pretty good life back then.  But I guess you don't appreciate what you've got til it's gone, right?  I don't want to end this on a negative note, so I will say that my life now is great and I would not change a thing, but how fun would it be to just spend one day back in the 60's?  No dishwasher, no cell phone, no Xbox, no cable TV.  Wait....... maybe I'm changing my mind.  LOL
Love from Lulu, xoxo