Busy day

Part of yesterday was planned as I needed to go shopping and yes I agree prices are rising. I no longer pay $75 a week and I estimate that I am perhaps at $90 a week (it varies one week to the next because I buy 12 chicken thighs and freeze 11 of them after I cook them in the oven with spices/herbs, olive oil and I also buy one piece of salmon big enough for me for three meals). That means that I spend in total $65 in each three week period on meat only. I then make a fresh chicken stew every day (figured that out on my retreat with the dogs, the cats and the fish). It was nice to have a fresh stew every day with the chicken out of the freezer. Absolutely delicious. So four days a week I eat chicken stew and three days a week I eat fish (usually scallops one night (frozen in a bag by a company for the store I shop at and the bag lasts maybe four weeks (I usually eat about 15 or 20 as they are small)) and then salmon for dinner two nights and for lunch one day). I come from a family with high cholesterol and almost never eat red meat I keep it under control. I do not buy prepared foods and there are more and more of them all prepared. It looks nice but I have 24 hours a day that belong to me and so I cook everything from scratch. We store a lot of vegetables for winter use in Canada and I use mostly them. Money will be tight I expect for the next little while; we were warned. 

Yesterday was also the day to cook my banana bread as I had the three ripe bananas left from last weeks purchase (I try to get a bundle of ten bananas so that I have enough for my favourite cake which I butter when I slice it as icing does not appeal to me). I do not have a sweet tooth. I did buy a bar of dark chocolate with mint in it made in Quebec (absolutely delicious and lasts me the entire week). My expensive extra. I neither drink alcohol to any degree (a glass of wine with my younger daughter on occasion) nor do I smoke or take any type of drugs. That saves a lot of money I think but because I have never smoked or drank particularly or used recreational drugs I do not really know how much I save to be honest. 

Then I did my run of 30 minutes which is four days a week as I clean three days a week and I was finding that maybe running every day was too much as I reached 80 (although if I feel running I do).  I watch television as I do that and it was the time for the Leader of the Conservative of Canada to speak. Does he know that CBC can be heard all around the world? I wonder about that sometimes. As for affordability, the Conservatives were opposed to dental care (the intent of which was to help people with their health care), the Conservatives were opposed to day care support and the list goes on so crying affordability now just seems weird to be honest. Good policies would be supporting the pipelines (I mean they could be there in BC helping with discussions to get this going). All he does is whine about restrictions and insult the Prime Minister which I do not think of as policy when really the first Nations need to see that this is of value as it crosses their land as we gradually do move away from fossil fuels but this is not yet the time but it is there in the future. I also fail to see the value in the Conservative Leader going on a talk show in the United States; I found that very weird and I have been Conservative all of my voting life except for rare occasions (all of which I have regretted so tend to avoid that). However I do feel the government in place is taking us on the right paths to make Canada more independent as we were when I was a child but the Leader of the Opposition has no such memories and clings to an economic state that no longer works for Canada. 

There is no slacking on getting the military going and the protection of the Arctic is a joint project with all the members of NATO but particularly the Arctic NATO countries. The XL pipeline has finally been approved in the US and we will see how that goes (it has been approved in Canada for a long time). I fail to see a value in televising Question Period these days (perhaps we could have a program on archaeological finds that would be exciting). We want investors to come to Canada and sharing all of that negativity which is fake really does not seem constructive. The new trade committee has several prior Conservative government members which is good to see. Lots of interesting people in that group. 

As for Chief Tecumseh and Sir Isaac Brock I was very proud to hear the Prime Minister talk about them. I went to Tecumseh Avenue Public School for my entire elementary school education. We were proud of  Tecumseh. We all knew the stories about Chief Tecumseh and forever he will be remembered in that namesake school. Mentioning them brings home once again the need for all Canadians to come together on all of these projects as they slowly but surely work their way forward. This needs to be a Unity Government and thank you to the Conservatives who gave the majority to the Prime Minister. I support them 100% for wanting after eleven years of being in opposition (or less) to help their communities since that was why they went into politics. Sarnia in particular could have oil refineries again and not buy our now refined oil back from the United States at three times what they pay us for the oil  (hence a pipeline to Thunder Bay would facilitate that as ships can take the oil to Sarnia not as fast as a pipeline but it takes time to build pipelines and we already have the ships). The two big gas guzzling provinces (Ontario and Quebec) could then have locally refined gasoline for their cars and still pay the same with the money benefiting everyone as Ontario doesn't mind paying taxes to the federal government and we in Ontario are by far the biggest users of gas in our cars. The company doing the refining pays taxes (by employing people and by making so much money) to the government especially their health care payment along with our personal Health Care Tax in Ontario we will not be struggling to look after the Baby Boomers as they age. Lots more money in the federal pot for everyone to share because this is Canada and that is what we do. 

The afternoon yesterday was a time of reflection and planning. It was beautiful outside and I can remember as a child my mother calling up to the attic and telling me to stop reading and go outside and play on such a day. I didn't go out though yesterday as the gardening just looks overwhelming; my mother wasn't here to send me out! My daughter tends to get me out when she comes to do her research. Walking and kayaking and gardening but the road is still flooded at Petrie so not happening yet. Good news is the Ottawa River appears to have peaked so by mid May we may be able to get into Petrie. AI is such a neat item to do research on for sure (the implementation is the key). It needs to be set up in a systematic and robust way so that it can be incorporated into our world in the best way.  Can you actually get a robot to consider all the alternatives when they are not yet really developed that actually does not make sense (they need to be sentient and I am dubious of that; humans are sentient); processes have to be established so that we do not get useless material back that has to be filtered through (that is a waste of time). The asset of AI is the amount of memory it can hold but the deficit lies in the inability of AI to manage that data without expert human control. Better to have expert people trained in how to question AI so that the best results are obtained. Soon I will use AI on my huge table once it is completely ready and it will help me with creating my genealogical tables. I need to also continue with the "Phasing" of my great grandparents as they are all born between 1837 and 1859. Except for Grace Gray they were all born in England and are all known to me and on the census (all of my grandparents mentioned these people to me in meaningful ways because they knew all of them so I have a sort of picture of them and even some of the 2x great grandparents actually as many of them were know to my grandfather not so much my grandmother). Luckily Grace (Gray) Pincombe was the first cousin of Sir John Carling and that family is well written up so lots of detail and I have done quite a bit of research going back. 

Hopefully this is truly a research day; I do not have any other plans other than my exercises which are the second most important thing in my day to work at.  

Tea to drink and solitaire puzzles to do.  May God be with the world and help us to reach that plain of peace where all can live without fear. Europe has found peace and that is beautiful to see and they will enforce their keeping of that peace; they are ready or getting ready to do that very thing in a much bigger way and we along with them as part of NATO. But peace is preferred. Ukraine would also like peace but they are not willing to sacrifice any of their people on the stolen lands; they want the people and their lands back and no one can blame them. Russians who do not like where they live can always go back to Russia (and that goes for anyone who doesn't like something where they live (they can get to like it or leave so that the bulk of the people do not have to listen to such things)). Go somewhere where you can be happy (usually it is just greed that causes unhappiness and greed does need to go). In the case of Russia so many young men have lost their lives in this useless war that they likely need the people in Russia and then they will stop being a thorn in the side in countries where they cause trouble. Israel and the United States are no longer accepting that Iran can export terror with the intention of annihilating Israel using their proxies Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis amongst others to attack Israel. That would be peace then and living the rules that God gave to us. They are good rules and the closer we live to those rules the better off the world would be. 

I think I shall stop watching the news once again. It distracts me from my work.