Winter Woes

Last Saturday I woke up early about 6am, to drop a house guest at the subway station. As usual, this time of the year is cold and the snow storm that passed a couple of days ago had left tons of snow all over the place but the roads have been plowed and salted. Suffice to say it is still bloody winter and I am undeniably in the midst of it. After dropping Tim Horton’s drive thru for a couple of coffee to go, I dropped my relative at the subway station and proceeded to drive home taking the regular street and not the highway. It was still a bit dark and this time of the year you’d feel like the sun has difficulty rising in the morning. I moved my radio channel from the monotonous news to music and the device blurted out the 5th Dimension’s century old hit – ” Let the sunshine, let the sunshine, the sunshine in“. Now don’t rub it in. We’re still at the height of the damn winter and I HATE IT to my guts 👿

I disdain winter but love this city and like to live here – how can that be? I have thought about it and realized that I can’t do much about it. Winter is like a nagging housewife or an autocratic boss you have to live with and can’t seem to rid of . You either take or leave them. Maybe there will come a time that I will just pack up and leave, much like giving up on a relationship. This winter season is particularly miserable. The amount of snow to date already surpassed what we had for the last 2 years and reportedly the worst in the last 30 years . So much about global warming. Now I’m thinking that Al Gore is bullshitting about his planet in peril pitch. I never thought I would need a snowplow until I become a septuagenarian but it looks like I have to set my sights on one next year and clear a portion of my garage to accommodate the little monster 👿

So much of being a Pieces and hating winter 😯 I’m looking forward to the school March break when I can drive down south to the Carolinas to escape this freezer to get a glimpse of the sun for a week. Winter officially ends March 21 and it’s not an overly long wait. Officially and actually are two different things though 😐

CANADIAN IMMIGRATION SUED FOR OVERCHARGING

Here’s one news that I thought would come sooner than later – someone suing the government for over charging its immigration fees. This is actually a class action suit , which means that those who have been victims of this alleged exploitation are entitled to a part of the $702M compensation being sought. The money allegedly represents the net profit the government made from tourist visa fees alone for the last 10 years. Now, how much these lawyers fees would amount to is another topic of discussion 🙂 Right off the bat the scheme sounds a bit complex doesn’t it ? Well, for one I would be one of those who was “exploited” because when I extended my in-laws’ tourist visas when they were here to babysit our daughter for a year when my wife returned to work I paid $75 for each of their visas.

Frankly, I’m not expecting anything back but I’d love this lawsuit to be a start of further investigation into the fairness of their immigration fees across the board. Immigration fees nowadays are hefty if not prohibitive. What is more aggravating is the fact that one pays for application fees without any assurance of success. Take the case of a simple tourist visa application. At the Canadian Embassy in Manila the consul can look at you and may not like your mole at he left cheek and deny your application. The money you paid – $75 for a single entry or $150 for a multiple entry is gone in a jiffy 😦 Let’s not even get to the immigration application fees they charge nowadays which has gone more than 10 times we paid in the 80’s . Duh, immigration is one darn good business 👿