Exercising a Right

I had my trip all lined up when Canadian federal elections were announced for May 2nd. Obviously I wouldn’t be able to exercise my right to choose. And for once it bothered me. When one thinks of the rebellion of common folks in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and a host of other countries, because they are literally dying to have the right to self-govern, I felt at once privileged and ashamed to have disregarded that right in the past. Made little of it. Selfishly.

I had justified my attitude by cockamamie reasons such as “… not a single one of the candidates impresses me”, or “…I’m way too busy to spend time in a futile pursuit”, or “…what’s one single vote among millions?” and other fallacious reasons. Those that many of us often utter shrugging our shoulders when surrendering this hard earned right so casually. Then my electoral id card was dropped in the mailbox.

So I enquired whether I could vote in advance. Of course! I was told. Where? Just a couple of streets down from the house. So I went. It was a breeze. And I thanked my benevolent stars to have been born in North America where democracy might not be perfect; but it is notches above dictatorship, even tyranny, and a host of curses affecting millions. Right now, there are those who are ready to give up their life for the privilege (or right?) to self-govern. And there was a time when women were not even allowed to vote. We’ve come a long way and I, for one, should appreciate having a voice.

I will never surrender that right by neglect. Perhaps it is a bit late but not TOO late.

Back to the Great White North and a Bummer

Before leaving Mexico, I had checked and re-checked the weather forecast for the next 14 days. It looked quite nice, with daytime weather over the freezing mark and sunshine. Okay!

After a delay of a few hours in Mexico, we reached Vancouver in pouring rain. Fortunately, the flight that had been reserved for a quick connection had also been delayed and I made it to Calgary a tad after 2:30 in the morning. The temperature had dropped to 2 Celsius, or something around 35 Fahrenheit. I had to open my suitcase to dig out warmer covering. Immediately I noticed that my jewellery case had been moved on top of everything and was now gloriously empty, save for a single gold earring that had already been an orphan. All my lovely accoutrements had been stolen. What a bummer!

I will present a claim to Air Canada but the agent hinted that I may never be compensated for any of it. However he added that the airline wanted to be advised, even of such “unsecured” stolen items, and that they took this very “…seriously”. However, not seriously enough to compensate the traveller? Double bummer! I’ll put in a claim anyway.

I was way too tired to have any kind of reaction after more than 20 hours without sleep. We arrived at my son’s and daughter-in-law a bit after 4:30 and all that I could muster was a beeline to the bed.

The next day, which in fact was only hours away, was overcast. I had planned to go the the passport office on the day after my arrival, which turned out to be Friday. The forecast was for 20 cm. of snow over the next two days. Here’s what it looked like on my birthday, Saturday April 2nd.

 

 

 

 

As wintery as it was, we still all headed out to Red Lobster for a birthday celebration of my 72nd, all three generations and the fourth one well on her way. It’s a girl whose name will be Brianna. I feel quite blessed. I’m a great-grandmother!

I’m relieved to see that today, Sunday, the sun has already melted some of the snow and I expect that in a day or two, it will be all gone.

I do miss my dogs though…