Canadian Dreaming

Today I woke up to a snow-covered world. The rain falling yesterday afternoon and evening turned to snow in the wee hours and continued into the morning. The temperatures, in the mid-thirties, caused most of it to melt as the day wore on. As one anxious for weather conducive to outside activities, this was a setback.

The time inside gave me the opportunity to plan for spring weather as it will arrive eventually. Lately I have been thinking about my fishing trip to Canada in May. After several years of annual trips, the pandemic has prevented me from going since 2019. At this point it appears that the border will be open. It will be a matter of making sure I have whatever proof of vaccination and testing is required at the border and having all of it with me.

Yesterday I ordered a new fishing rod from St. Croix Rods in Park Falls, WI. They are available in the local sporting goods shops, but I may not have been able to find exactly what I wanted. In addition, I watched a video of someone who ordered from the factory and his excitement over getting it straight from Park Falls made me want to order it. I called to make sure they had it in stock and Peter, the phone representative, said it would ship in one week. I am going to use it primarily for walleye fishing. Now I am searching for the right reel for it. As with everything else, there are a lot of choices. 

In order to fish in Ontario, I will need an Outdoors Card and a license. The Outdoors Card allows the bearer to purchase fishing and hunting licenses. The card is good for a three-year period. I bought one in early 2020, before the pandemic shut down the border, so mine is good until 2023. My fishing trip will be for eight days, so I will purchase the eight-day license. 

The Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry offers two types of fishing licenses, conservation and sportsman. These vary in cost and the number of fish you can have in your possession. I fish for walleye, northern pike and lake trout. If one purchases a sportsman license, the more expensive of the two, he or she can have four walleye, four northern pike and two lake trout at any one time. A conservation license allows half of each of those amounts. No one can eat that many fish in one day, so the limits really only affect how many fish you can bring home. I will get the conservation license and that will be plenty of fish for me. 

The final two things to check today were my passport and Canadian cash. My passport is good until 2027, so there are no worries there. I have $55 Canadian left over from 2019, so I will go to Associated Bank in May and exchange enough American dollars to get another $150 Canadian. I don't like to be up there with no Canadian cash. 

As I look at the snow and hear the wind blowing, I am happy that this year I have the trip to the wilds of Ontario, Canada to look forward to. 

Nice Canadian Walleye

Another Year of Chaos?

 At the close of 2020 I thought that I would never experience another year of such confusion and calamity. Over the next twelve months of 2021, not all that much changed. The Covid vaccinations became available and tentative steps were taken to resume a life somewhat similar to the one I knew in 2019. Then the omicron variant appeared in Africa and within days was in the United States. I was back in the throes of the pandemic once again and it continued into the new year. I had high hopes that 2022 would be the year that the country, and the world, would recover from the confusion and calamity of the last two years.

2022 began well as far as the pandemic was concerned. Case numbers and infections dropped steadily in January and February. There was no new and scary variant popping up anywhere in the world. Schools were open and by early March I was feeling safe enough to visit restaurants and bars without a mask. The winter had been a gentle one and I was looking forward to an early spring.

But events in Asia changed all of my hard-earned optimism. Vladimir Putin, the former KGB operative and current Russian president, invaded a sovereign country. His m invasion and destruction of the Ukraine threw the entire world into a tailspin replete with nightmare images of a possible Third World War. All of the efforts over the past thirty years to build peaceful relationships among North American, European and Asian nations were destroyed in a matter of days. As a nation, we are now left to decide how to react to Russian aggression reminiscent of its actions in the years following the Second World War.

How this will end is difficult to determine. The Russian people are being told lies about the war. They do not have the ability to vote Putin out of office or control his actions in any way. Many of the writers and media people have left the country, fearing even greater crackdowns on their freedom of expression. The oligarchs have money, but no power. In Russia, money does not equal power as it does in the United States. We are left to impose sanctions on Russia and help the Ukrainians with everything we can short of providing American fighters. Our country and NATO have presented a united front which has isolated Russia from much of the world. Prayers and money do not seem to be enough, but for many of us it is all we can offer to the brave Ukrainian people. 

The warm spring weather I had anticipated has not arrived, although there were a couple of warm days last week. The temperatures show no sign of improving in the next week.  I have gotten out for a couple of rides on my BMW R1250 GSA and my bicycle has seen some action. It is not the start to 2022 I had hoped for, but it is still early. One bright spot is that my church choir will be performing at the Easter Vigil Mass. This welcome turn of events is a good reason to get out my Takamine acoustic electric guitar and practice on these cold and wet March days. 

The calendar will turn to April soon, and the celebration of Easter is not far off. Perhaps this is the month that we as a nation can cast off the gloom of the past two years and walk into a bright future of peace and good health.