Government Forms Are Designed to Discourage

Last year I reached an age when I could apply for my Canada Pension Plan. Have you ever tried to fill out a government form?  I ended up having to phone them to find out what they wanted me to do. 

The first problem was that the form stated that if I had not lived in Canada my entire life, I needed to provide documentation.  I lived in England as a small child and had no idea where, or how to to get my hands on that sort of thing.  When I phoned they informed me that just applied to people who had lived outside of Canada from the age of 16 onward.  I read them the form where it clearly said "ENTIRE LIFE" and once again they said that if I was here all of my adult life not to just ignore that.  Then I read them the line at the bottom about making false or misleading statements.  I didn't want to be charged with an offence.  I see that entire portion of the form has now been eliminated and they just have a question about the possibility of qualifying for benefits in another country if you lived or worked there during your adult life.  I must hot have been the only one that called about that.

Then there is the section where you apply for the child rearing provision.  If a parent was at home during any part of the first 7 years so a chile's life, the Canada Pension might be increased to reflect that.  They give you plenty of room to list your children, but only one place to answer yes or no as to whether or not you were at home with them.  Well, ummmm.... I was at home with one of them right from birth though to the age of 7, but I was only home with my oldest from the time he turned 6 onward. There is no room to express that.  I was told to write it in the margin.  I'm sure I'm not the only one that's asked about that and I'm surprised that has not been fixed yet. 

The whole wording of  the child rearing provision portion of the form is also very confusing, and I think that is so people will give up trying to figure out what they are saying and just not apply for it.  That's pretty standard practice, I believe.

More recently I needed to renew my passport. There are portions of the simplified renewal form that also confused me.  I tried to phone the number given and got a lot of automated choices to choose from, but not one of them had anything to do with answering a question about the form, and there was no option to speak to a live person.  Instead of mailing this form in and getting it rejected, we decided to take it into the Canada Services office in Brockville.  It's a good thing too, as the lady had me change a few things, and initial the changes.  I told her there was one section of the form that confused me, but that was not where the changes had to be made.  She asked which section confused me, and when I told her she said that people were always putting strange answers in there.  Some of them were very creative, she said.  I hope that indicates to someone that this is another form that is not well designed.

Honestly, I do think the government designs forms to discourage people from filling them out.  Every time someone gives up and doesn't complete a form, the government likely saves money.  Well, it's not going to work on us now that I've discovered the Canada Services Office.  The lady there was very friendly and helpful.  I'll be sure to send my hubby there to get his Canada Pension Plan papers filled out correctly.  He doesn't like forms and I personally do not want to have to go through that form filling process again.

Deal or No Deal

Have you ever bought one of those online deals?  You know the kind, where you sign up for an e-mail about deals in the area where you live or plan to visit.  I've tried three different deal companies so far.

Living Social is a good one.  I paid $15 for $30 worth of fare at a local restaurant I had never tried before.  When I got there I made a point of asking it it was good towards anything on the menu, or if there were only certain things it could be used for.  The waiter said these deals were all different, but when he saw which one I had, he said, "Oh, that's just like cash.  You have $30 there to spend on anything you want."  We had a lovely meal, but likely didn't save as much as we might have, since we decided to spurge on dessert too.  We almost never do that. 

The second deal I purchased was from Groupon.  Once again I spent $15 but this time it was for a play, and it was a two for one deal.  The play was in a church in Kingston and mentioned that outting in a previous blog post.  It wasn't a wise choice if I really wanted to save money, as we had to travel to Kingston. Since the play was at night, we decided, in advance, to stay the night and go to the Sheep Dog Trials the next day.  It was a nice weekend, for sure, but certainly not the bargain it could have been if we had lived in that area.

The third deal I bought was from WagJag. They were offering $20 credit certificates for $10 at one of my favorite restaurants.  I bought two of them. The thing was that although this is a restaurant chain the certificates are only good for lunch, and only at one particular location.  Though that end of Ottawa is someplace we only go to now and then, it was really no problem as I had until November to use the coupons.  We went today.  Once again, the credit certificate is used just like cash.  Our remaining bill came to $2.23 plus the tip.  I'm glad I bought two as I know we will enjoy doing this again sometime this fall.

I do have one problem with WagJag. It seems my account and someone else's have somehow merged together. I've only purchased this one deal from them but my account shows several other purchases in the past.  You can be sure I quickly changed my password and printed off my certificates right away.  I e-mailed WagJag to tell them what was going on, and they would like me to phone them to straighten this out.  I hate the phone but I guess I will have to do that as I definitely want to feel free to purchase other good deals from them in the future.

So, if you have thought about getting in on some of these deals, don't be afraid to do so.  They are well worth it if you pick something you know you will enjoy, or if you just want to try someplace new without paying full price. 

I think I may have to watch for a nice overnight stay somewhere now.  :)

Some Treasures Don't Fit in Cache Containers

It seemed like a good day to go geocaching, so we headed out with no particular goal in mind, but with the GPS loaded with a whole slew of caches off to the east of us.  We approached the first one from the wrong direction, which made it next to impossible to reach without a lot of backtracking, so after determining where it was located, decided to leave it for another day and moved on.  The second one was really not hard to find because it was in a distinctive container.  The instructions were not to photograph it, and after seeing it, I understood exactly why.  It would make it entirely too easy for anyone who ever saw that picture to find it and that would take the fun out of the process.

Then we went to Hallville.  There is a cache there, that is supposed to be at eye level, but even though I stood at ground zero, that one eluded me. I'll put a watch on it and see if I can get some clues as to where to look.  We found better treasure at this location though. The General Store has a little cafe at the back. Besides subs and other lunch items, you can get home made tarts and other goodies.  We chose the last cherry tart and a scrumptious butter tart.  We were delighted with the floor show that took place while we sat and ate these treats. A young girl was in the process of mixing up some more pastry dough.

When we were finished there we drove off down some back roads, but one cache had been discontinued while another was simply not on the road we were following, and we came to a dead end. There was a really interesting house at the end of that road though, and we never would have seen it if we had not been out looking for treasure.

A look at the gas gauge reminded us that we really shouldn't venture any further without getting some gas, but as we headed toward Kemptville my hubby spotted someone he had not seen in many years.  She was out in her garden watering plants.  He pulled in to say hello, and we not only stayed to have a little visit, we took her for a ride to show her how to look for geocaches herself.  While chatting we discovered we have a lot of things in common.

This might not sound like a very successful day. Though geocaching may be about hunting down caches, the best treasures we find are often not those that are hidden in the cache containers.  We saw wild turkeys in someone's driveway. We had wonderful tarts and got to see them being made. We spotted an interesting house in an out of the way place.  We spent some time in the company of a lovely lady. The best treasure of all for this day is that I may have made a  new friend.

Picking Up An Old Hobby

There was a time when I was heavily into photography.  I took the course from the New York Institute of Photography back in the mid 80's and got involved in online photography forums.  The people there helped me along quite a bit, but I don't think I was progressing as quickly as they wanted me to, and I just felt that the time had come when they had basically given up on me.  It was a hobby for me, you see, while most of those folks took it very seriously. 

Still, I had some success without actually trying.  I joined The North Grenville Arts Guild and took part in some art shows and made a few sales right from the start.  I've had photos published both in local and national newspapers, and on the covers of two books. I currently have a long term contract with a developer so he can use my photos in his brochures and on his web page. I have framed photos for sale and hanging in a local business at the owners request.  Last year a lady from California tracked me down and asked me to take some pictures of something local for a book she was writing.  She seemed thrilled with the pictures I sent her.  Yet some how, like the pros on the forums, I never felt that I lived up to the title of Photographer, with a capital P and have drifted away from that pursuit.
Recently I made a new friend who has a strong interest in photography. He talks to me about it all the time, and convinced me to get a Flikr account, not only to share my own photos, but so I can more easily see his.  The two of us gather with another lady once a week for a sort of show and tell where we all tend to learn things from one another, not just about photography, but about painting as well. We seem to have inspired my new friend to take up painting again after so many years, and he has inspired and encouraged  me to pick up the camera again as well.

On Friday the three of us went on a little photo shoot.  We drove down some back roads to see what we could find.  Though we were all taking pictures in the same area, we naturally came up with different shots. It was great fun and I do hope we do it again soon.  It was a good reminder that I don't have to be one of the best in order to enjoy something.  I'm thankful to my friend for rekindling an interest in this particular hobby.

Side Tracked

Thar be Pirates in Gananoque. Arrrrrr

Gananoque was holding its annual Pirate Festival, complete with a Captain Jack look alike contest and it just seemed like the perfect day to go spend some time by the water and enjoy all the fun.  I decided, since we were heading to an area that we don't get to all that often, I would download a few geocaches along the way.  It just seemed in keeping with a day with pirates, since pirates and treasures seem to go together.

Off we went and when we got to Crosby we discovered that their flee market was in full swing. Well, hey, treasure can be found at a place like that too, so we stopped and had a look around.  Before we were done, we had purchased three things.  If we had been heading for home, we would likely have left even more money there.  But some things just don't keep well in a hot car all day, so we'll just have to make a point of going back there before the season is over.

From there I noticed that there were some geocaches off to the right, and figured they were at the various locks nearby.  My satelight map somehow did not land on my GPS this time when I downloaded it, and though it showed up on my Base Camp program, the file could not be found even with a computer search, so I could not transfer it.  That meant we were pretty well flying blind.  My GPS has a basic map but if you go off a main highway none of the other roads show up on the screen. 

We followed the road to Davis Locks.  By the time we got there I thought we were actually driving around the lake, as we were driving away from the posted geocaches.  The road turned out to be a dead end when we got to the locks.  Still, it was a lovely spot, and very popular on this beautiful day.

By this time we were well aware that it was too hot to go to Gananoque and walk around all afternoon.  On our journey back to the main road we saw a sign pointing us to Chaffey's Mills. There are locks there too, so we took that road. Once more, I was amazed to discover we were headed away from the geocaches.  By this time we were getting hungry and thirsty so we found a little general store that served sandwiches and burgers. We had the latter along with a bag of chips and some soft drinks.  That helped refuel us for more explorations. 

Once we had thoroughly explored this location we decided to go through Forfar and head over to Athens.  It seems they had a tornado earlier this week.  There was lots of evidence of trees being snapped off and uprooted.  We saw a couple of garages that had definitely been hit by falling trees.  Most of the downed trees had been cleaned up, but not all of them.  There was one still leaning on a house. 

From there we headed for home, stopping to pick up a few groceries and a cooked chicken along the way.  It was not the day we had originally planned. We never did get to Gananoque, see any pirates, or even go looking for geocaching treasures.  Still, it turned out to be a perfect day and the treasures we found were the sights we saw.

Free Time Does Not Equal Boredom

A few days ago I posted this on my facebook page.  While most people seemed to agree with me (it got many likes and was shared several times) someone else suggested that teenagers need entertainment from time to time.  A bored teenager is just trouble waiting to happen, apparently. 

This got me thinking back to my own teen years.  I lived on an air force base, well away from anything resembling a city.  There was a movie theatre there, and we had "Teen Town" dances once a week, but there were no other organized activities for us. Yet somehow, I never suffered from boredom.

My friends basically hung out at my place most evenings. We would listen to AM radio and just talk.  Other than that, we would go for walks and ride our bikes to a nearby beach. We would attend school dances that happened occasionally throughout the year. That was a bigger deal than teen town as we tended to get dressed up for the school dances. We weren't bored. We were enjoying each other's company.

Kids today are over scheduled.  Both parents have to work these days, just to make ends meet, so the kids are commonly shuffled off to day care at a very early age.  Then they find themselves in Kindergarten a few years later.  In my day you were at least 5 before you were in this sort of regimented environment.  Today's kids have scheduled times to do things at a much earlier age, and when they don't have a scheduled activity to take part in, they no longer seem to know what to do with themselves.

I think unscheduled time is extremely good for all of us. It gives us time to dream and experiment and even invent. We're all capable of amusing ourselves if someone doesn't give us the notion, at a very early age, that we have to be entertained by something outside of ourselves.

Things have changed over the past few generations.  There was no TV in my mother's day. I heard stories of her digging her fingers deep into the wool on sheep as she tried to ride on them.  She had a pet crow who could talk, and her dog used to go to school with her, and even lay at her feet in the classroom.  They played Cowboys and Indians with real BB guns.  She even shot her own mother with one once.  My Nana was playing with the kids and they were quiet so long that she thought they were gone and so she stood up from behind the rock where she had been hiding and POW!

In my own childhood we amused ourselves by putting on theatrical productions for my grandmother when she visited.  We even created a Circus a couple of times, complete with a parade, a gypsy fortune teller and games where you dropped pennies into a tub of water. Participants could win candy prizes if they managed to get one into a submerged cup. We were even fortunate enough to have a friend whose father had a cotton candy machine, and he would cooperate with us when we had a circus..  When we were not busy with big productions like that, we created a mail system where we wrote and delivered each other little notes. There was no e-mail or texting back then, of course, but the idea was the same.  We played in the woods and built forts and climbed trees, and if we wanted some extra money we knocked on doors and offered to clean people's basement windows. We played marbles and games like Red Rover and  hopscotch. We played Cowboys and Indians too, but we had cap pistols.  And when we did get a pellet gun, we were told not to shoot at anything live.  TV was something new and there were only a few channels back then. We were outside until the sun when down and we never looked to our parents to find us something to do. They would have found us some chores.

My own kids also spent time outside with their friends. They had a more defined boundary than I did, but they were still out there someplace, out of sight and often in the woods.  They didn't play Cowboys and Indians anymore. It was more like a game of war or something.  They were still shooting at one another, but since not all kids were allowed to have even  toy guns anymore, some of them just picked up a stick and pretended.  There were major arguements about whether the imaginary bullets hit the intended targets or not. This generation grew up with TV so sometimes it was hard to get the cartoons turned off and get them moving on weekends. There was swimming lessons in the summer, and things like soccer, bowling and karate were also available, but not everyone took part, and if they did, they usually only got involved in one or two things.

Today we seldom see a child outdoors, let alone unsupervised.  Not only are children now shepherded to and from school, they are always indoors, or under the watchful eye of some adult. There are all kinds of organized sports and other activities for them to take part in, and most of them know more about how to operate a multitudes of electronic devices that fascinate them to the point that they hardly move at all.  School is out now, and while the streets and woods would have been full of kids in past generations, it is eerily quiet out there now.

I feel sorry for today's children. They don't get the same chance to run and play freely as we did. They don't get to make up games and find innovative ways to amuse themselves. They rely on adults and electronic devices to keep them busy.  I'm thankful my own grandchildren have a cottage to go to, where they can explore nature and daydream from time to time. 

There have been many great inventors in this country. Our modern life would not be what it is if it had not been for them. But if our current crop of children do not get some unscheduled time to explore their world and have time to dream, they will never be able to work out how to do the things they dream of.  These are our future inventors. They need time and freedom to become creative.   I'd like to see today's adults take a step back, and let that happen. 

If kids have a chance to learn to amuse themselves when they are little, they continue to be able to do that throughout their lives.  Intelligent people are not usually bored , but I sure see how that might happen if a mind isn't given the chance to experience some unscheduled time and learn what might be done with it from an early age onward.

The Latest Technology

Seven years ago I started to wear a hearing aid.  Even then, it was likely over due. But the darn things don't last as long as you would think, given the price, and though I got a couple more years than expected, the old one finally died just before Christmas.  Oh yes, I have been driving people mad by asking them to repeat things ever since.  As I said, they are not cheap and there were other places to spend the money but since I could no longer stand not to know what the people around me were talking about, I finally went and got a new one this week.

I was told that the technology had changed a lot since I got my last one. In fact I was even warned that the new technology might be too much for me.  So, while I was very excited to be going to get the new assistive device, I was also a bit worried about what they meant by that statement.

My old unit was a good one. It had a wee button on it that let me adjust the sound to get rid of background noise, and it was also supposed to be adjustable so that it would work with the phone. Well, I never did get it to work with the phone, though I had it adjusted a couple of times because of that. I ended up listening on the phone with my right ear, so I had to hold it there with my left hand if I had to write anything down. Awkward, but at least I could still hear on the phone. 

Yes, in case you are wondering, I am supposed to wear two hearing aids, but I guess it's a good thing I only accepted one, or I never would have been able to use the phone at all. 

The old unit also came with a little remote control, so I could adjust the volume.  I only ever used it if I was at a play, or in a restaurant. Then I would get rid of the background noise and boost the volume.  That worked very well for me.  The other setting on that remote put the whole unit into automatic mode. That means it would adjust itself, as needed, as I went from one environment to another.   I found that to be very annoying as it had a slight delay and usually changed as I was leaving the new environment and passing on to another one that it was no longer set up for.  I gave up on that option shortly after I got the first hearing aid.

This new aid has that little button and a remote too, but it has a few interesting differences.  I don't need to set it up to use it on the phone. It changes settings on it's own, both when you start to use the phone and when you stop. It senses that all by itself.  Other than that, there is still a little button on the unit that gets rid of background noises, and has another setting for wind!  That surprised me, as when I got the first hearing aid, I was told these little computers don't like wind.  This new one has a wind shield and with this new setting, I might actually hear people I walk with on windy days. I'll get to test that out this week.  My fingers are crossed for that to work!

The main difference with this unit is that it sends me signals as to what it's doing.  It will play me a little tune when it first turns on, so I know it's up and running. It will tell me in words, what mode I'm in as I change from on to another. Yes, it talks to me!  It will even tell me when the battery is about to die.  If I mess around with the volume control on the remote control to much, and loose track of what setting I have it on, I can reset it by hitting the Home button, but if I still don't think that it's set to the original mode or volume, then I can open and close the battery door three times and it will reset everything, or, if it can't, it will actually tell me, "Make an Appointment!" 

I've been wearing it since Friday morning when I got it.  It doesn't have too much technology for me, and I'm still not sure what they meant by that.  I'm doing fine, and so happy to be back in the world of the living.  I was almost in tears one night last week as I sat in the home of some friends while they had a good visit with my hubby. I couldn't hear my friend, who was sitting right beside me on the left. I couldn't hear my hubby who was sitting on the opposite side of the room. I could only hear the person on my right, and he didn't do much of the talking.  Not being able to hear is not fun!  Last night we were at a little dinner party with two other couples, and even though it was outside on the patio, I had  no trouble hearing at all.  I'll be needing a slight fit adjustment, but otherwise I'm quite happy with this new unit.