Month: February 2025

This afternoon Jane and I went to the Flying Monkey Brewery here in Barrie to see Mark Carney at a meet and greet session.

He spoke briefly to the cheers of everyone there and spent a short time greeting people.

We didn’t get to speak to him, but we were happy to be there anyway.

Hopefully he will become the next leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and next Prime Minister.

This morning I used Turbo Tax to calculate our income tax returns for 2024. It took about half an hour, made extremely easy because our T4’s can be uploaded directly from the CRA.

It also does an optimal pension splitting calculation which results in the optimum result.

So it’s all done and e-filed for another year.

It was a blast, but it’s great to be back home, sleeping in our own bed, though the bed we had in Krystal Grande was extremely comfortable. In fact, we were trying to determine the brand of mattress in the event we buy a new one.

This morning we had a celebratory breakfast of bacon and eggs before beginning the tedious process of unpacking.

I had already gone to the nearby Circle K to get milk and eggs because, before we left, we had taken all the perishables like produce over to our across- the-street neighbours.

In the next little while, we will have to a major grocery shopping spree an we will, of course, be shopping Canadian.

We woke up to another glorious day in Los Cabos. As usual, the sun is beaming down on us.

We did some packing and then turned in our beach towels. After that we went for a last breakfast at the Grill.

We confirmed our pick up time with Gray Line and then went over to the little Tuck shop to look for some pure vanilla for Chris and Tonya.

It was a wonderful two weeks but both Jane and I are ready to return home.

It’s going to be a long day.

It’s our last day here in Los Cabos at the Krystal Grande Resort. And it’s another day of sunshine and swimming in the pool.

This afternoon it’s time to start thinking about our return home, re-packing clothes, checking boarding passes online and confirming pick up at the airport.

We did meet some very nice people including Marv and Nancy Ostopovich from Sydenham Ontario and even exchanged contact information.

It has been a wonderful two weeks that passed by very quickly.

In between swims and cold drinks I did some work on my first Substack article. I plan on doing one article a week for a year after which I will have them published into a book.

I plan on offering paid yearly subscribers a free hard copy version of this publication which I am tentatively titling “ Substack Chronicles”.

I am still working on exploring all the features Substack offers including payment options and subscription buttons to embed in the Substack articles.

In the meantime, it’s back to the pool.

So here are my latest ideas on my newest project involving Substack. I will try to do a column once a week for the next year. Topics will vary and columns will be around 500 to 1000 words long.

According to AI, that works out to about a 5 minute read which is about the average attention span that readers have depending on the complexity of the subject.

At the end of the year I will compile all of those columns into book form which will be entitled Life Unfolding – A Substack Compilation. I will then self publish that book on Amazon just like I have done with my other books.

The four nations hockey tournament is over and Canada beat the USA team in overtime with Connor McDavid scoring the winning goal.

It was so satisfying seeing Canada beat the USA especially in light of the idiotic comments by their creature talking about a fifty first state.

And it was gratifying to see the enthusiastic reaction of Prime Minister Trudeau when that goal was scored.

Jane and I continue to enjoy the warm Mexican sunshine and hospitality poolside.

Yesterday Jane and I met a couple of ladies from BC while we were enjoying the pool. Mary Anne and Jane Mundy were quite talkative and it turns out Jane Mundy is a freelance writer who did a travel column for the Vancouver Sun and has also written a couple of cookbooks.

She also has begun writing from time to time on an App called Substack which seems to be quite popular these days.

This has got me thinking that maybe I might begin doing some kind of weekly column. I just have to do a bit more research on the workings of the app and decide what i want to write about. And how often.

Stay tuned.

After a delicious breakfast of French toast with maple syrup, we moved on to the nearby adult pool.

There are a lot of Canadians here, mainly from Western Canada as well as Americans from across the USA.

There was even a couple all the way from Germany.

Everyone seems quite affable, but why wouldn’t that be the case? We’re all here for the same thing.

Today we decided to take in one of the excursion trips offered here in Los Cabos. It was an all day thing that took us outside the city to a park featuring dune buggies, horseback riding and camels. Guess what we did.

Yup, that’s right. A camel ride, followed by a nice lunch at the park.

We got back mid afternoon and enjoyed some warm sunshine at the beach and then watched two whales just offshore.

Another enjoyable day.

We are back at the adult pool to enjoy the sunshine and the pool bar.

There’s nothing like cooling off after baking in the Mexican sun.

After lunch we are heading to Walmart to pick up a special cheese dip for Tonya and book a camel ride (yes, camel) for tomorrow.

It is a breezy day at the adult pool, but quite pleasant nonetheless. When we first arrived, there was hardly anyone there. We managed to get a couple of chairs complete with umbrella for shade,

Tonight we’ll have a dinner buffet reserved for Altitude club guests which include us.

We have to find out where that will be.

Today we decided that it would be a good idea to alternate pools from day to day. So this morning, it’s at the Family pool after breakfast at the buffet.

And after sitting in the shade for awhile, we went to the beach and sat near a firepit to enjoy the sun.

And pretty much every day, somebody rings the bell to alert everyone to a whale sighting.

This morning Jane and I decided to try out the adult pool instead of the Family one, so I secured a couple of chairs poolside by placing our towels on them. This seems to be the accepted way of doing it here.

We then had breakfast at the adjacent restaurant after which we returned poolside and chatted with a couple of of fellow Canadians who are from Vancouver.

I went into the pool after a bit to cool off and get a drink from the swim up pool bar.

I swam around a bit and then noticed that I was missing my wedding band. After alerting others in the pool, an all out search by several people in the water resulted in my ring being found and returned to me by another good Canadian.

I tucked it safely away in my wallet and when we get back home, I’ll have it re-sized.

We were up early because of the time zone (3 hours difference) had coffee in the room and sat out on our balcony watching the sun and sea.

Then we headed off to poolside where we got a couple of chairs reserved before going to the adjacent buffet for breakfast.

Then we confirmed our transportation back to the airport on the 25th.

Jane then headed for a dip in the pool which is the Family pool.

Right from the start of the day we had some excitement. While sitting on our balcony looking at the sunrise, Jane spotted two whales right out in front of us about 100 yards offshore. It was an adult with a calf and both of them entertained us with their jumps and spouting for well after half an hour.

And while we were in the middle of that, there was a small tremor from an earthquake which made the whole building shiver for about a second.

Then it was off to the Grill for a la carte breakfast and then up to the seventh floor of the Altitude building which is reserved for guests staying in the building.

We relaxed in the small pool up there and then went to the buffet to have lunch.

In the meantime we did a little walkabout around the property to get familiar with locations of the different restaurants etc.

A great day so far.

The day started at 5:25 am when Simcoe County Shuttle picked us up and got us to the airport.

The checking in was a new experience with everything being done by us scanning bar codes and tagging our own luggage. But after a few anxious moments, we managed to get it done.

The flight was delayed slightly due to a ground equipment malfunction but once underway we got to Los Cabos about a half our late.

We waited a bit for our reserved shuttle to the Krystal Grande and after checking in, we put our stuff away in our spacious room that overlooks the beach. It looks quite inviting but we have been warned that the undertow makes it very dangerous, so we’ll stick to the adults only pool.

Had a great steak dinner at the Grill Restaurant and then returned to our room to relax before turning in.

We have done our packing and reviewed the checklist generated by chatGPT. We’re all set.

We did our check in and baggage payment online and have confirmed our pickup at 5am tomorrow with Simcoe airport transportation.

It’s just a matter of waiting now.

And we’re leaving this behind.

We are all ready for our upcoming trip to Los Cabo’s Mexico which will be happening on Tuesday. Packing is all done and this afternoon Jane gave me a haircut.

I downloaded a movie onto my I Pad in case the on board movie is not to my liking.

Cmon Tuesday.

Today we celebrated Chris’ birthday at his place. Jane prepared a great brunch and there were lots of pastries too. Tonya went out and got a birthday cake to celebrate.

Afterward we went to watch Max at his last skating lesson of the season where he got a graduation ribbon.

We are at Chris & Tonya’s house while Tonya is out with Chris for his birthday. We will be picking Max up from school and making supper for the three of us.

We don’t know when Chris and Tonya will be back, but we do know that Tonya was taking him to see the Lion King and then for dinner.

So it’s going to be fun.

I have pretty much got all of my stuff together and found that it only takes up half of a big suitcase.

It’s possible that there may be enough room for Jane’s things, so we will only have the one piece of checked luggage.

Tomorrow we head off to Chris and Tonya’s to look after Max while Tonya takes Chris out for a birthday surprise.

We’ll be picking Max up from his daycare and staying with him overnight.

It’ll be a blast.

I downloaded a new app which will help me decide whether or not it’s a good drone day.

This app takes into account important factors like wind speed, temperature and satellite visibility.

We are gradually getting our things together for our two week trip to Los Cabos Mexico.

We have already begun reviewing baggage restrictions and check in procedures for the 11th of February departure.

Not only will we be getting away from the cold and snow, but we’ll get away from the toxic political scene created by the creature down south.

C’mon Mexico!

Today Jane went online and reserved our seats on Air Canada to Los Cabos and return.

In addition, we learned that there have been some changes to luggage allowances effective Jan 3, 2025. We may be okay because our tickets were purchased in November of last year.

And in reviewing our room amenities at the Krystal Grande resort, we realized that there is a butler service included. How cool is that.

In our preparations for our upcoming trip to Los Cabos, I got some Apple Air Tags which we will place inside our suitcases in the event they get lost and we can then track them on our I phones.

In addition, because of the animosity by Mexicans against the USA, we are making sure that we identify as Canadian and not American. We have put Canadian flag decals on our luggage and will wear Canadian lapel pins and Canada labelled apparel.

The creature down South has really created a mess.

We are just 10 days away from out 2 week vacation to Los Cabos Mexico where we will be staying at the Krystal Grande resort, an all inclusive place.

We have minimal packing left to do and just have to get some pesos for tips.

It’s been a few years since we took a winter vacation, so we are both looking forward to it.