h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Friday, September 15th was my last day at work. I gave two weeks notice which I spent trying to show people some of what I was doing, and also of course trying to remember what it was I did there. Everyone was nice and three colleages took me out to lunch and gave me a card and a nice gift.

I quit because my wife and I want to live in our own country again. We would have had to move back sooner or later, as we don't have green cards and can't be permanent U.S. residents. Our parents are now very old and frail and we worry about living so far away. Soon we hope to settle somewhere within a couple hours drive. I'm typing this at the library as we don't have internet anymore at home. Most of our stuff is already on its way up north and we will be flying out of Atlanta this Sunday.

Bon voyage, mate and missus. And welcome home.

Thanks Nick. It's great to be back in our own country.

Hey, you made it !!! Where did you finally choose to settle in, atleast for now?

Brockville, Ontario. It's great, so far -- except it's been raining way too much. We're taking a break, buying car, furniture etc. and settling in. I won't be looking for work until sometime next year. That will be the clincher, if I can find any kind of work that I can do in Brockville. Doesn't matter if it's computer work -- just something I can do.

Just a little way up the 401 then. About 100-110 miles or so ... I'm glad you made it back and are settling in well.

Wow, wish I was doing the same! Tokyo is nice but after ten years one does get a little homesick for hockey, peameal bacon and the CBC.

There is just something about returning to one's own country... Last week we drove to the nearest OHIP office in Kingston to apply for our provincial health insurance coverage. In the USA we had to buy our own health insurance and the fees and the deductibles kept rising with our age.

Whenever we ventured out of the USA I would get anxious about whether we would be allowed back in. Now we're back in the one country that won't ever throw us out. Our project for the New Year is to find jobs here.

I know the run to the Kingston OHIP offices well. Finally now, with enough notice, one can book an appointment in Trenton or Belleville for card renewals. They only send out the folks once or twice a month ...

It's been quite a lot of years since I paid OHIP premiums, and I guess we do take it for granted now.

Yes, when our cards expire we should be able to make an appointment to get them renewed in Brockville or Prescott.

Now that you mention it, I do remember having to pay OHIP premiums back in the '70s when I used to live in Ontario. Usually it was my employer who payed them. When we applied for our new cards we weren't asked to pay anything. I wonder if the premiums have been abolished or if we'll get a bill later? We're still waiting for our new cards to arrive in the mail. Even if there are premiums they would be nothing compared to what we had to pay for private or group coverage in the US.

You'll probably find that your new cards are valid for about 3 years, running to the next nearest birthday of each of you. The renewals after that are valid for 5 years at a time, again coming due on individual birthdays. (I just refreshed mine in October)

The premiums used to be paid by the employer, or if a person was a 'transient' as I was for a time, paid by the person. I believe around 1984 or so, it was revised to come out of Ontario Income Taxes. So every working stiff that pays income tax is supporting it. Folks on support systems get it all for free, in the end.

And you're right, compared to some of the health plans that I've seen costs for, even if the old rates were quadrupled, they'd still be a steal.

Meanwhile, have you gotten into the spirit of the season, and killed a tree?

My wife did a great job of trimming our two foot high tree plus Christmas shopping and wrapping the gifts. The tree is an artificial green one that we used for previous Christmases in Macon. According to the Weather Network on TV recently, we don't get any points for not killing our artificial tree. Apparently, using a real tree is more environmentally friendly if you mulch it up afterwards.

Most towns and cities now take away the carcass, and have them mulched for parks and other city landscaping. So it's not so bad as just tossing it in a ditch somewhere, eh?

We've had a 6'ish foot atrificial one for perhaps 8 years now, and it's still producing a full and pleasing shape. That is my job, the erection of it, and the loading of the lights. After that, I get the out of the way. She loves to decorate for any conceiveable occassion.

Looking out the window, our first Christmas in Canada looks a lot like past Christmases in Georgia... No snow. That's OK -- we can wait.

A Merry Christmas to you and yours Nick!

And to yuou and your missus ...

Take a peek at my home page (clicking on my name) ... There's an e-mail address near the end that looks like an envelope.