Today's Artoon...

Where's our fearless leader these days? He must be avoiding crowds and washing his hands like the rest of us.
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Cold Comfort!

On our Family Day drive in the country I had to go back and snap this picture of a snowman next to the grave of somebody's loved one.

Stand by me. Rest in peace Amelia!
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Artoon for Today

"We need to make sure the Left knows where you stand, and there’s no better way to do that then by proudly wearing your favorite Trump gear for everyone to see.

Just use coupon code: PRESIDENT to get 25% off your order.

This offer is only available to you for a very limited amount of time. Place your order NOW.
 
Thank you,

Donald J. Trump
President of the United States"

Keep Amarica Grate. God help them!
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Getting Ready?

Of course we are all hoping this global pandemic will fail to materialize but just in case...

We have been stocking up on essentials and plan to stockpile some canned goods that we will use eventually anyway. If this thing does turn nastier, there may be a run on the things we take for granted. I just hope we are wrong.

I don't wish to over-react but last year was not a good one for me as far as lungs and breathing is concerned. In April the doctor diagnosed me with asthma and possible COPD. In July I was in emerg. with a pneumonia (possibly from aspirating something) and then down with another pneumonia infection in October which was cleared up with a powerful antibiotic. I really only fully recovered by January. I really don't want to catch the flu or worse as I know it will hit me hard.

To see the COVID-19 'Dashboard' LIVE:  CLICK HERE.

Read this about WHO Underestimates...  CLICK HERE

UPDATE: March 1 - 88,582 Cases Worldwide 3,038 Dead
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Be Mine...

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A Quote For Today

"I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig.  You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it."  George Bernard Shaw - Dramatist (1856 - 1950) 
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Groundhog Day 2020

Looks like no shadows around here, Spring is surely just around the corner...

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The BIG Trip Cancellation Cheque!

Wow! I never thought I'd see a FULL REFUND of all the money we paid for our December cruise and airfare, but here it is...

It renews my faith in Master Card Trip Cancellation Insurance. As you know we had to cancel our trip because of Wendy's eye surgery which came up unexpectedly less than a week before we were to leave the country.

Good luck was the reason it all worked out. You see, Wendy's eye surgery was deemed a new condition because she hadn't had any previous meds or diagnoses for that condition for the past year. If however, we had been forced to cancel for some ailment for which she had already been diagnosed and treated for in the past 12 months, the insurance would not cover it. In other words if you know when you book a cruise, that there is a "pre-existing condition", then don't expect to receive the insurance if that condition flares up or otherwise causes the cancellation. Doesn't seem fair does it? Insurance should cover the cancellation what ever the insurable reason. People don't buy cancellation insurance to defraud the company by cancelling their trip just to get their money back. It makes no sense to me.

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Let Me Try On Justin's Beard...

I never could grow a very good beard so this little experiment encouraged me to never try again.

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A Dinghy Ride in 2012, Point Edward.

"A Night In Winter Harbour" September 4, 10 pm, 2012.

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Hamilton Bay - My Artsy Pic For Today

Inspired by our 2018 boat ride around Hamilton Bay and the steel mills.

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Peter and Kay Snowed-in In Newfoundland

The outdoor bar in the center of the cruise terminal in St Kitts

You might remember the cruising friends Peter and Kay, we met on a Celebrity cruise out of Miami three years ago. They hail from St. John's Newfoundland so that inspired me to drop them a note after hearing about the recent blizzard which hit their island.

Here's what Peter wrote back:

"Thanks for reaching out to us.   We survived unscathed but had quite a few hours of shovelling over 3 days – luckily the good NL’ers came through as usual – our “younger” next door neighbour helped shovel the first day and the second day he got his brother to use his Kubota snowblower to get rid of most of the drifted snow that we had left after the first day of shovelling (picture with shovel against the bank).  The first picture gives an idea of what we were dealing with when we started – there was no snow along the side of the house and at the back of the driveway yet the 3 vehicles, our 2 and our neighbours, the white lump to the right of the truck, were encased in snow and the drift went to the road – about another 20 feet from the shovel, 15 feet from where Kay is standing – probably 8-10 feet out into the road which still hasn’t been pushed back.   The most terrifying part of the whole ordeal was that the wind had sustained strength of 100 km plus for 15 hours – that is a lot of wind – the house shook.    Highest wind in St. John’s was about 135 km while some areas had gusts to over 170 km so we were lucky."

 "Anyway we were home and it is probably good that we were – would have been hard to be away and not know what was going on.    We were supposed to be in Vancouver all week at the conference and then go to the interior on Thursday for skiing with our son, DIL and grandsons (supposed to leave Sat AM, then Sunday AM, then Tuesday AM and now we are going to Kelowna on Thursday for Kay and Friday for me) – the airport remains closed – supposed to open again as long as the State of Emergency is lifted, tomorrow, Wed at 5 AM.     It has been a tough weekend and into the week – they are allowing grocery stores to open today as people are starting to run out of things – we are OK although we are running out of coffee cream – not that important for sure."

"Hope that your winter goes better than ours has to date."

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Ooops, We Lost!

"Two months and 881 entries later, with artwork coming in from every province AND territory, we are proud to announce the winner of our Catalogue Cover contest!
Kim Collins' "Rad Dad" beat out our other two semi-finalists and will grace our cover this coming March. "Rad Dad" really resonated with us: back in the 80s we didn't have cell phones, internet access, and hundreds of channels of TV to watch, so we all made our own fun! In Kim's case it was building a soap box racer and repairing a beloved red wagon with the help of dad (and the pets too, of course).
Congratulations Kim! And a huge thank you to everyone who entered. You didn't make it easy for us to pick a winner! Keep an eye on the comments below to find out who our other two semi-finalists were."

Above is the winner, congratulations!

First and second runner-ups. I like the one below.

Oh well, we'll never know what the actual criteria was to pick the winning entries. Looking over the winners I suspect it could have be a legal issue since I used actual photos. There might be a perception of copyright/permission problems with actual human models. Anyway, as I say, we'll never know, but certainly it was worth a try because I had a lot of fun doing my three entries. CLICK HERE or scroll down to see mine.
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My 'Artsy' For Today "Vernon and Irene 1912"

"Vernon and Irene 1912"

My coloured interpretation of a black and white PD image of Vernon and Irene Castle, c.1912

"Irene Castle 1919"

 Click any picture to enlarge it.
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Flashback: Leaving St Kitts On Wendy's Birthday 2015

Flashback, to November 23 2015 as our ship, the Oosterdam leaves the beautiful island of St Kitts.

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