Distractions

 The intent is to get back to the Siderfin book today. Cleaning all accomplished and getting ready for Christmas. I have a few projects beside the Siderfin book that have been neglected. I also took on the Probate Index for the Guild of one name studies. Since I contributed thousands of lines it would appear that I could help out with that for a bit. I said no promises as I am working on 80 this year coming. There are a lot of Blake lines in the probate index. I am behind submitting my latest set so it will be easy now. 

I shall avoid the news for a bit; perhaps surface again in four years and see where we are at! I still think becoming 13 states in the United States is interesting for Canada and restores this entire North American continent to a singleton country land mass allowing for the natural migration of the animal species and it is good for human travel as well. That way all the borders are water borders except for the border with Mexico and it does sound like that is going to be better managed (although tunneling does appear to be a problem as well). Definitely water borders are easier to handle. Since the present day American States do have collegial groupings already we can simply retain the "Canadian" label for our group and Turtle Island will be one once again. The name is beginning to grow on me! The French in Quebec could continue to flourish and a natural grouping already exists with all of the people who have migrated from Quebec to the New England States being able to be a group as well (one can belong to more than one group!). Quite fascinating the United States of America actually is and this next four years will demonstrate how their checks and balances work (it appears the Robber Barons are back perhaps but if they are benevolent then it worked well before!). Would we lose our commonwealth status? No idea on that and my English roots are very deep for sure with three grandparents and my father born and raised in England (my father was just nine when he came here with his parents in 1913). Personally I am first generation Canadian on my father's side and my tiny line running back on my mother's side has her father and his mother born in what became Canada and was Upper Canada at the time for the furtherest back Grace (Gray) Pincombe. Amazingly her first cousin was Sir John Carling (one of the early members of the government at and after Confederation) as we share my 3x great grandparents Thomas Routledge and Elizabeth (Routledge) Routledge (they were Sir John's and Grace's grandparents as their mothers were sisters) my first migrant ancestors coming in the late summer of 1818 (all of my migrant ancestors came from England proper). My mother grew up hearing about Sir John from her father who knew him well. Love the King and the Royal House but I think Canada would benefit greatly from such a union properly done respecting our contribution (with the consent of the First Nations as they own huge swathes of land) that would emerge as thirteen new states in the Union. The protective nature of such a venture is huge. Our provinces/territories control education, health care and many other services which is similar to many of the current States in the Union it appears and the Federal government transfers the necessary funding to them but I am not an expert (it just appears that way). Their taxes are higher than ours in the particular levels - noting 33% instead of 20.5% with which I am familiar but they properly equip their military/policing services which is important. 

I do think that the present waste by the government here is a problem and not one that is going to get solved easily (even the conservatives voted for the Block proposal to increase the OAS for the 65 to 74 year olds, it should never have been added  to the OAS for my group). There are several other reasons beside this one with the OAS:  because we are a separate country from our largest client in terms of them purchasing our goods and now at the mercy of possible tariffs; because the government does not spend enough on the military and I do not see that changing without a really different outlook and because we are becoming a welfare state. Being a welfare state which is where we are headed doesn't work especially if our largest customer has a 25% tariff on goods imported from us even with the depressed Canadian dollar. I think being a welfare state is a problem that grows as one can see in some of the European countries as they scramble to upgrade their defense. Plus it is simply not fair to put huge debt on the generations that follow - we the old, and the baby boomers and I am actually the Quiet Generation apparently as born just two weeks after VJ day, must make sure that Canada does not head too far down into that welfare state. Currently we have seen school lunch programs (should be able to find a way to fund them that doesn't cost so much - provide compulsory lunches for all and charge those who can pay a sufficient amount so that the program pays for itself (the biggest problem would be food allergies)), free dental care which simply will cost too much money (increase GIS and have receipts entered in the yearly income tax to prove the use of the money), pharmacare and I am really opposed to this one because it is too expensive unless everyone is going to use generic and we make them here (that stifles research and private drug industry). It is nice to be benevolent and we need to get the 0.1% ers to pay appropriate taxes as they are huge users of the systems here although they likely do not think so and they could support programs (donations) instead of flying their jets all over the place and polluting the air or other such wasteful practices.

The freezing rain did not really happen here yesterday. I cleared the 2 cm snowfall (sort of sleet/snow) and brought out the de-icer but it didn't get used yet. I looked out and it looks good out there but will check it out before moving on to the rest of the day as we need to get groceries at some point. I decided to do my own shoveling of the porch and patio since it actually isn't that much plus I do not do ultra which is 2 cm or so I think and stayed with 5 cm. It is the end of the laneway that attracts me to this snow removal service. Basically on a heavy snow day I can not move that snow at the end of my laneway but in actual fact I haven't driven the car out in quite a while anyway. Generally I take it out once a month at the most when I am on my own. It does tend to go out every day when I am not alone! The walking has been great actually and I have enjoyed it. I got out my clip on cleats and will wear them when it is icy or just stay home!

So finish the index today. Reread the text with the original book and then publish it. Sounds good and the 15th is probably not doable but a few days later maybe. I will be happy to have it off of my plate as interesting as it has been working out the little kinks in that Siderfin family tree. I am sure there are more records that could be interesting but for me the saga of Siderfin is now complete as I did what I wanted to do. Prove my line back to John Siderfin who lived at Luxborough around 1500. 

The newsletter I am missing is actually Pincombe/Pinkham and it will come out just after I finish the Siderfin book. I have a few ideas for it as I have acquired some new material that is interesting to share. Mostly the newsletter will detail my work on the Pincombe book for the next couple of years and any other interesting details that I acquire. We now have two known distinct yDNA lines for the Pincombe/Pinkham family and perhaps as the research continues we will learn more about both of these lines. 

Breakfast completed and Latin is next. I am late today but that is the gift of retirement; the work gets done when it gets done.