Notes from Nanaimo

Affirmation

2009-03-21T19:58:00.000-07:00

Yesterday's mail crushed any remaining qualms about moving to Canada. We received the annual notice of the increase in our health insurance premium. It's rising from $412/month to $466.50/month, or by $654/year. That's a 13% increase. And the insurer (Blue Cross/Blue Shield) again raised our annual deductible, this time from $5,700 to $6,000. So if we had medical costs, we'd pay $11,598 over the

We're Moving to Nanaimo

2009-03-11T19:04:00.000-07:00

Well looks like we're moving. For me the major deciding factors, in more or less order of importance, are:The idyllic setting here and much wild-ness and ready opportunity for outdoor adventure and commune on Vancouver IslandThe huge appeal of being covered by a first-world health insurance system.As best I can tell, by and large, Canadians don't admire and aspire to ignorance, belligerence, and

Pipers Lagoon Park

2009-02-15T11:20:00.000-08:00

Countdown

2009-02-07T08:47:00.000-08:00

With only eight weeks left before the Gentrys reclaim their condo, our minds are shifting from letting things percolate to making a decision soon about moving permanently. I’m not sure of the best way to make what feels like a rather life-defining decision, but we’ve been talking intermittently about discrete pieces of the puzzle, in hopes that will somehow help gel a

Aliens Visit Nanaimo?

2009-01-23T13:58:00.000-08:00

U.S. Inauguration Day

2009-01-20T11:16:00.000-08:00

I watched today the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s CNN-like (though much less inane, admittedly a very low bar) coverage of today’s inaugural events. Observing the inauguration of a new American President from a foreign perspective vividly elucidated a rather amorphous, for this American, sense of the space the U.S. occupies in the psyche of at least a slice of the 95% of the planet’s

Departure Bay

2009-01-18T15:11:00.001-08:00

We took advantage of a rare sunny day recently to walk 'up Island' from our borrowed condo to Departure Bay, a distance I would guess of about 6 kilometers. Though the temps were in the 40sF, with little wind and a bright sun, it surely felt springlike, a nice mid-January respite. People were lounging on the beach and, seemingly as always, gathered just to soak up the serenity and watch the

My Walk

2009-01-13T20:14:00.000-08:00

View Larger MapOn most days I, or often we, enjoy a particular walk of perhaps 4 kilometers. From our borrowed condo I walk east toward Newcastle Channel and, adjacent to the clustered white masts of the Nanaimo Yacht Club, pick up the Queen Elizabeth II Promenade segment of the seawall pedestrian & bike trail. I follow the trail ‘down island’ along the north end of the Nanaimo Harbour waterfront

(Nearly) Random Rambling

2009-01-03T23:26:00.000-08:00

New Years and the approaching midpoint of our housesitting term seem justification enough for some reflection. Nearing the merciful end in 1979 of the chemical engineering curriculum at the University of Illinois, I told a headhunter in a letter that he should assume I’d live nowhere east of the Mississippi River. Though I’m sure he consequently joined the ranks of the many

Before & After

2008-12-22T13:07:00.000-08:00

Meeting People

2008-12-21T21:29:00.000-08:00

I’ve been very impressed with the people we’ve met here so far. For example: There’s Su, who met me for coffee once and then invited me to two parties - one was at her house, where she made gourmet pizzas (she’s a foodie) but I had to miss that due to snow. And Su’s sister Lee, who made me feel so welcome at the party I did attend. There’s Tracy, who works in marketing and

Moral Values

2008-12-20T10:37:00.000-08:00

Canada’s role continues as a refuge for Americans unhappy, or fearful, enough about their government to become expatriates. In the Nanaimo newspaper this week is the story of 28-year old Clifford Cornell, originally from Mountain Home, Arkansas. Mr. Cornell has lived the past three years on Gabriola Island, a large, autonomous island 20 minutes by ferry from Nanaimo. He’s been working for two

Snow

2008-12-14T19:55:00.000-08:00

After a 4-inch snowfall the past 24 hours, in the late afternoon the clouds ended somewhere over the Georgia Strait to our east, and the sun lit up the tops of the Coastal Mountains on the B.C. mainland, visible here between Newcastle Island (left) and Protection Island (right).

Paid Employment

2008-12-10T12:32:00.000-08:00

I’ve concluded that Vancouver Island’s foremost industries are government, forestry, fishing, and marijuana cultivation, not necessarily in that order. The first, government, exists mainly in the Provincial capital Victoria, as evidenced by the city’s 3.3% unemployment rate (versus 6.3% nationally). Forestry and fishing are in recession, if not depression. The marijuana business, while apparently

A Day in the Park

2008-12-07T20:07:00.000-08:00

We’re still getting used to the mild climate here! Today we hiked in Biggs Park, just a "spit" of land reaching out into the straight of Georgia from Nanaimo. It was about 50 degrees and sunny -- sun is a bit rare here during the winter. As we walked, we saw two bald eagles drifting directly overhead and we had a view of Nanaimo--and Mount Benson, behind it--across the water. The trail ended with

Progressive Energy Policy

2008-12-07T09:00:00.001-08:00

If there is debate among Canadians about whether global warming is real or, as Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe said in a July 2003 Senate floor speech, “the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people,” I haven’t detected it. On July 1st of this year British Columbia became the first jurisdiction in North America to introduce a consumer-based carbon tax. The tax applies to virtually all

Government, Canadian-Style

2008-12-01T12:28:00.000-08:00

We’re getting a fascinating firsthand lesson in Canada’s form of government and political parties as dramatic and, the Canadian media say unprecedented, events are underway.Five political parties of significance exist in Canada: Conservative, Liberal, New Democrats (NDP), Bloc Quebecois (BQ), and Green. The most recent election, just held on October 14, resulted in the Conservatives retaining the

Westwood Park

2008-11-23T16:22:00.000-08:00

Today I visited for the first time this trip my favorite Nanaimo park, 20-acre Westwood. Surrounding Westwood Lake, the park lies at the base of 1,023-meter Mount Benson, Nanaimo’s locally iconic backdrop. A beautiful 6-kilometer footpath circles the picturesque lake, making for a wilderness-like feeling inside city limits. After a walk around the Lake, driving back east

Birds and Beer

2008-11-22T10:58:00.000-08:00

We’re keenly tuned to the cost of living in Nanaimo, particularly given the, we can only hope temporary, vaporization of a chunk of our retirement savings over the past few months. Two items we buy regularly in the States--poultry and beer--are quite a lot more costly in Nanaimo. We normally eat almost no beef, little pork, a lot of chicken and somewhat less turkey. Maybe because Canadians grow a

Election Results

2008-11-16T10:07:00.000-08:00

No, not that election. British Columbia held Province-wide municipal elections yesterday. In Nanaimo, Vancouver Island's second largest city with 80,000 residents, voters overwhelmingly rejected incumbent mayor Gary Korpan despite his 25 years on the city’s council, the last 15 as mayor. Korpan finished third with less than 16 percent of the vote. Mayor-elect John Ruttan (photo) is a long-time

Sunshine

2008-11-10T14:20:00.000-08:00

We've been here long enough to understand why a wintertime sunny day is cause for celebration. Spent the day wandering around downtown and the compact harbour it embraces.

Connecting

2008-11-10T06:41:00.000-08:00

I'm jumping in trying to connect with people and possible employers - heck, since we've come all the way here, we might as well see if it's where we want to end up or not. Last week I met two interesting guys at a company called Concerto Marketing (www.concertomarketing.com). These two head up the marketing research dept. for this company and have a very interesting consumer

Settled In

2008-11-02T07:21:00.000-08:00

Last Thursday (Oct 30) about 2:30 we first buzzed the Gentrys--John and Maureen--the owners of the condo where we’re staying for the winter. They’d offered to put us up for the night before they departed for their Mexican winter. Was a great opportunity for us not only to get to know them but also to quiz them about the area. Maureen has spent much of her life in Nanaimo and

Made It!

2008-10-29T18:32:00.000-07:00

Well, we finally made it to our destination - Nanaimo, BC on Vancouver Island. It’s great to know that we’ll unpack soon … for five months. Today on the ferry we were lucky enough to see a large school of Pacific white-sided dolphins. I usually don’t use the word “frolicking” but they really did seem to be frolicking in the water, despite the chilly, rainy weather. If you

British Columbia

2008-10-28T18:21:00.000-07:00

British Columbia's marketing slogan is "The Best Place on Earth." Quite a claim. But after driving across the Province from Banff National Park in the east to Kamloops in the west, the Province's declaration does not to me seem boastful, at least with respect to beauty. These photos are scenes in Banff, the one with water at Lake Louise. To be fair, Lake Louise is in Alberta, not B.C., barely.We’

Barney's

2008-10-25T17:21:00.000-07:00

(written evening of Friday, October 24th) First, happy birthday Mom! We crossed the border uneventfully and quickly this morning, only three vehicles in line when we arrived.We’re staying the night in Brandon, Manitoba at a motel called Barney’s. Given the current owner’s apparent Chinese or perhaps Korean ancestry, we guessed correctly he is not named Barney, but the previous owner was indeed

Our Route from Roseville to Nanaimo

2008-10-19T18:13:00.001-07:00

We plan tentatively to spend nights in Grand Forks, North Dakota; Brandon, Manitoba; Swift Current, Saskatchewan; Calgary, Alberta; Golden, British Columbia; and Merritt, British Columbia. The itinerary (constructed by Laurie), though not leisurely, has some slack built in to allow for fooling around in the Canadian Rockies, potential snow/ice, and my aversion to driving after dark, especially

Thoughts Before Leaving

2008-10-16T06:47:00.000-07:00

We depart by car on October 23rd for Nanaimo and a Vancouver Island winter! Our emotions are diverse and keen: excitement, confusion, a bit of anxiety--but mostly excitement. What a great time for us both to choose to have no job or earned income, eh? On the other hand, though I left a part-time job to enable this adventure, Laurie was between jobs anyway, and given ‘the state of things’ even she