Still a Recession?

As part of the ongoing work on Fernley House, we need to have an electrician in to run some new 220V circuits for the new water heater we expect to install soon and for the dryer, which we bought shortly after we moved in but have never been able to operate. There is an electrical contractor around the corner from our house, and we figured it would be easy for them to find us, so we called them first. It turns out that they are so swamped with work that it would be at least a month before they could even come quote the job! They referred us to a licensed electrician who used to work for them but who they had to let go when the housing boom busted; he's since set up shop on his own. We have left a message with the suggested referral and await a reply.

Our regular plumber, the wonderful Steve from Marraccini's, stopped by this afternoon because he was in the area and scoped out the next phase of work, including the hot water heater (which is why we need the electrical work scoped), with Lisa. Soon we may actually be able to even give Steve a "Go for it" work order. It would be nice to have hot water, a working shower, a working kitchen sink, and a working dishwasher in the house.

Whew, Canada

I am quite relieved to hear that Cheryl Morgan has made it to Toronto safely, not having been denied boarding to her Heathrow-Toronto flight nor refused entry to Canada for a business trip. At least for now, the fact that a foolish confusion between two US agencies (neither of which will acknowledge the error or make the slightest move toward correcting it) resulted in Cheryl being denied entry to the USA has not also led to her being banned from Canada.

( In case you hadn't heard, the USA strong-arms our neighbors and trading partners in a way that we wouldn't take ourselves )

I used to consider the USA the "good guys." Not any more. My own country disappoints me in its ongoing insistence — regardless of who is the elected leader — that there is one set of rules for the USA and another for everyone else. And they wonder why we're hated and distrusted by so many people?