Month: May 2016

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Trip Update

As May rolls over into June, I a lot of people are asking me if I’ve bought a plane ticket or have an itinerary yet. Nope. I’m waiting for my passport to show up before that happens.

This delay has been really good because it’s given me time to sit and think about a lot of things I just couldn’t focus on before.  I’ve learned that, really, a ticket and final itinerary are the last things I should be thinking about!

So I have not been idle. I will do individual posts about the following items when things are more set, but here’s what I’ve been working on:

  1. Reducing expenses back home while I’m gone;
  2. Finding healthcare coverage (you apparently cannot enter Bulgaria without a proof of health insurance);
  3. Ensuring that I have insurance coverage for home and my personal effects while away (I got a huge surprise that could have been disastrous);
  4. Understanding the Schengen Area rules, something that will really affect my itinerary and could mean not making Bulgaria my first stop, as well as affecting where I will spend my winter;
  5. Planning my packing list and doing a lot of online shopping;
  6. Trying to learn even a smidgen of Bulgarian and at least getting used to the sound of the language (I can say, “Beer, please” and thank you at this point because I have my priorities straight. Next up, “Where’s the bathroom?”);
  7. Making as much money before I go as I can because I’m really starting to dip into my savings! It would be really nice to not feel rushed to “land” when I get across the pond.

Passport Canada says that it takes up to 20 business days for a passport renewal to arrive. Today marked the halfway point. I will hopefully have my passport by June 14th and then plan to leave in the 10 to 14 days following that. I’ll know my passport is on its way when the credit card charge goes through so I’ve been checking my bank account daily!

This is a huge leap I’m about to take and I have to tamp down my enthusiasm and be pragmatic about it otherwise I would be able to focus on work or get a good night’s sleep! But, believe me, I’m excited!

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A Worthwhile Muddy Drive

Today was the Willow Bunch Community Garage Sale. I don’t know if it’s the population dwindling or if it was the weather, but not very many people participated. As I drove through town looking for balloons and signs around 9:30, I thought my outing would be a bust. Ha!

I drove past the first home that had stuff for sale because it seemed too small to be worth my time. Silly Rae! I went back, thankfully, and found something I have been looking for for ages:

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It’s a small good quality dry erase monthly calendar. I’ve been using a dry erase board for years to track my transcription load, but there was only room to write out a week at a time. You might be surprised that I don’t use an app for that, but I haven’t found a calendar or task app that can let me manage my queue in an effective manner. I can just glance at the board, with each of my clients being colour-coded, and easily move things around. This will get a lot of use!

I also found these:

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They are real leather and are brand new. I will be really happy next time I head to Mexico to have so many good pairs of sandals at the ready!

Then, I went to the library as they were advertising books and magazines for very little. With my line of work, I’m often too brain dead to read anything substantial in the evening, but magazine articles are just the right length. Well, the library took advantage of me:

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The sign said to fill a bag for 25 cents so I was trying to not be greedy and just grabbed a few of whatever titles that interested me, like Our Canada, Canadian Living, and Canadian Geographic. One of the library ladies said, “Oh, someone wants magazines! Yay! What are you interested in?” I told her and she put all the rest of the aforementioned magazines in my bag, a couple of National Geographics, and a bunch of Tastes of Home (good recipes). She would have kept going with more, but that was enough! I paid 50 cents for this whole stack. I can’t wait for the next nice afternoon that I can knock off around 4:00 and go sit in my swing with some of these and my last cold beer!

Next stop was the thrift store. I got a nice tee-shirt and a not-so-nice (pilly and a bit worn) maxi skirt that will be great for just wearing around the house when I’ve got projects on the go and don’t want to have to worry about stains. I also found:

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These are heavy duty appliance casters (wheels) that should work well for my plan to build a rolling platform for my table saw.

And then, for nostalgia’s sake, I picked this up:

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These are the exact kinds of locks we used when I was in high school. Twenty years later, I still remembered how to spin it. The combination is on the back so, yes, I was able to test it. And, yes, I need to memorise said combination and remove the sticker! 🙂

Next stop was a house advertising a bunch of tools. I showed up late and all the good stuff had been picked through, but I got an Allen key set, a mallet, and two tape measures. The guy had so many tape measures he said he’d just give me the second one, so I grabbed it! Now, I can keep one in each out building and one in the RV!

It was still a bit too early for lunch at this point (BBQ at the seniors’ centre), so I decided to mosey on over to the Willow Bunch Museum to see the new Métis room (I have an invitation to attend the official opening on June 21st). I caught up with Nichole at the front desk and then she said to pick out anything I wanted in the gift shop, like a jacket, as a thank you for all the translation I do for them! I was shocked! I tried on a few different ones and this was a winner:

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The shimmery olive colour doesn’t translate well to the screen, but it’s really luxe and will go with everything. The inside is fleece and the outside is apparently water repellent (according to the tag), although I’m not holding my breath about that.

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Can you imagine how much use I’m going to get out of it?! It’s going to be a great hiking jacket. It’s going to Bulgaria with me if I end up deciding to stay up in the mountains.

It does break one of my rules not to wear things with logos and place names:

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But I can live with it. 😉 I’m still reeling from shock at what a nice gift this is!

I then did a blip through the museum, making a note of some of the signs that I need to translate. The new Métis room is really impressive and I’ll make a point to go with my camera next time so I can do a blog write-up.

My next to last stop was the seniors’ centre for the BBB. $5 gave you a choice of a hamburger with a really skinny patty or two hot dogs, plus either water, pop, coffee, or ice cream. I went for two hot dogs with water since I was really hungry and I knew the burger would not be enough. My neighbour Caroline, two of her houseguests, and another neighbour were there, so I joined them. They’d gone for the hamburgers and ice cream. Thankfully, there was only vanilla or strawberry, so I wasn’t tempted. Plus, it was damp and cold, not ice cream weather at all! My hot dogs were good (Mexico spoiled me in that regard!), with the bun being cold but the dogs themselves perfectly BBQed (I expressly asked for the ones that were set aside for being a little too charred). We were all happy with our lunch and happy to support the seniors’ centre.

Finally, we all went to the food store to pick up a few sundries. I just wanted Chinese-style soy sauce for a pork roast marinade and it was on mega sale, yay! I also got a tub of my favourite plain Greek yoghurt for half off, woohoo!

Not counting the food store stop, my budget today was $20, $15 for shopping and $5 for lunch. I came in $2 under budget. 😀

The drive home sucked, though. It was pouring rain and the gravel road was very muddy and slick. I was slipping and sliding all over the place, even at a crawl, and really glad to get home!

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Internet Access Is the Main Reason I Am Going to Emigrate From Canada

This November will mark 20 years of my having access to the internet. And since that fateful night of discovering a service that would change my life completely, bringing me new avenues of accessing knowledge and entertainment, of communication with others, and a way of making a living anywhere, I have had to fight against Canada’s competition laws that give our tiny handful of ISPs too much power. Because there is no competition, there is absolutely no motivation to improve and expand services, and they can charge whatever they want.

I started my internet journey in this country with dial-up, as so many people did. That meant that as soon as phone service went down, so did internet access.

From 2003 to 2007, I lived in a rural community north of Ottawa, in the heart of cottage country. The best internet service I could get was 26Kbps dial-up, fully half of what dial-up service was just a few kilometres from my house. There were no plans to expand service. A local entrepreneur living in the nearest village, which had DSL broadband, had the bright idea of setting up a bunch of repeaters throughout the area so that folks like me outside of coverage could have broadband internet. All the data being used was paid for. He didn’t steal anything. Well, Bell made sure to shut him down. He had no legal recourse because of the competition laws. Never mind that he was offering a service they would not provide and that he was paying them for all the data used. I checked recently and if I still lived in that house in Quebec I would still have only 26Kbps dial-up internet and no cell service.

There were a lot of issues with the phone lines to my community and so service would go out frequently. I lost service once ahead of a massive incoming snowstorm and wanted to make sure that I could call out if needed, so I placed a service call and rated it as an “emergency.” Bell punished me for that by not fixing my service for a full two weeks (10 business days) and the guy who did the “repair” messed it up. I ended up having to fix his mess since I didn’t want to wait another two weeks (so a full month with no phone or internet service) for a repair on the repair.

In 2007, I moved to Gatineau, a large city, and was excited to have broadband internet. After 11 years of dealing with Bell, I was ready to try anyone else and moved on to Vidéotron, who were even worse in terms of customer service. Their catalogue of horrors is long enough to write a book, and I was only with them for 18 months! One of my favourite stories is that my neighbours who shared a wall were moving and asked to have their service turned off. Vidéotron turned mine off instead, said it would be up to two weeks before they could turn it back on, and that I would have to pay a $90 reconnection fee. I fought that fee until until 2009, 18 months after I canceled my service with them.

Another thing they did was that they offered an unlimited plan and then, after a few months, decided to put a 100GB cap on the “unlimited” accounts. Well, there is a silver lining to this story. Customers, including myself, filed a lawsuit against Vidéotron and… we won. The judgment came out in the last year. But, of course, it is under appeal so I doubt I will ever see a payout.

And then, I hit the road. While most of the rest of the world, even many countries in the so-called “third world” have super fast and inexpensive mobile bandwidth, Canada was slow to get on board with that idea. In 2008, there was no point in even considering cellular internet since it was super expensive and service was spotty. But within the next year or so, Canada’s various telecom providers got together and in a fit of madness upgraded cellular service across the country, with towers popping up like mushrooms. I got really excited about this, thinking that Canada was finally going to catch up with the rest of the world. And then, I saw the rates and plans.

These rates and plans really haven’t changed much over the last seven years. You’re looking at about $70 to $80 a month with Bell and Telus for 5GB of bandwidth on your phone (dedicated hot spot devices do a little better). I paid Telus $80 a month for several years for my 5GB and an additional $55 per GB. But, hey, at least I had decent speed internet almost everywhere. Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth and all that.

In 2011 to 2012, I  dealt with hard wired Telus while I was in Lethbridge, both with my own personal account and with internet access in my buildings in general. Their tech support did shoddy work, they refused to replace their own poorly installed wiring, and they couldn’t figure out why I was upset that I wasn’t getting the speeds I was paying for since “at least [I had] service.”

When I moved to Saskatchewan, I went back to Bell because they had the best rate for a mobile hot spot. I have to be fair and say that other than the rates being highway robbery, they gave me good service, especially from a technical point of view, replacing my hot spot repeatedly even when it wasn’t on warranty. But I was paying something like $120 a month for 12GB of data and $10 per GB after that. I use a lot of bandwidth for my transcription business and my internet bill was somewhere around $250 a month.

So I went to SaskTel, whom I discovered have an unlimited data plan.

Most of my readers are familiar with the issues I’ve had with the lack of service in my hamlet, well detailed over last summer, so I won’t rehash those details. But I will give an update.

I’ve had okay internet since I got home because of the heavy duty booster I installed last August. Service has been a bit flaky, but nothing like what I used to experience.

Until last night.

I hit my soft cap and I suddenly could not get internet on my computer anymore and only intermittent data on my phone. I thought there might be a service issue because of the weather, so I waited until this morning to call technical support. Thankfully, I got the Indian lady who knows what she’s doing so she walked me through all the steps of resetting my network settings, bla bla bla. She finally dug deeper into her questioning and pretty much went ha ha when I said that I had slooooooow data back on my phone after doing all that, but was having trouble with my computer.

SaskTel, in their infinite wisdom, apparently made some changes to discourage users from using their phone as a hot spot after hitting their soft cap. I guess those “changes” mean that your data service flickers on and off?

This is not a “you don’t have service and use a booster” issue. I’m experiencing it even up in the cow pasture where I don’t need a booster. This is definitely an account-level issue.

Again, I am paying for unlimited data and my ISP is making it difficult for me to use data. Didn’t another ISP get its ass whooped in court for doing that?

My contract with SaskTel was up in February and I thought of signing a new one to essentially finance a newer iPhone through them (did the math with a service rep and even if I don’t use the service, I wouldn’t be paying much more for the phone over that time than if I paid for it cash today). Moving to a new contract would mean having to move to their new unlimited plan at $120 a month ($40 more than I pay now), but which would give me 15GB of “high speed” internet before being throttled, rather than 10. I thought that this would be worth it, until today. Now, I can’t wait to call SaskTel in a few weeks and tell them to go fuck themselves. Pardon my French. I’m really not sure what I’ll do when I get back to Haven next spring, but knowing that there’s no internet here means that I’ll just be that much more motivated to get my Mexico visa sorted out and start packing up.

So that’s twenty years of dealing with Canadian telecom bullshit and I’ve just had enough now that I’m seeing that this is not “normal.”

My experience with TelMex in Mexico has been the complete opposite. I heard so many negative things about them and yet they have been nothing but customer-oriented, going so far as to send technical help after dark to restore my service after an outage. I didn’t pay them, but finally found out that my landlady was paying about 350 pesos (about 27CAD) a month for unlimited 5Mbps service. I haven’t researched internet prices in all the hardwired communities in Canada, but I’m pretty sure no one is paying less than $30 a month for unlimited and reasonably fast internet.

Mexico also has tons of free WiFi hotspots that anyone can use. It took me until the middle of my second winter on Isla de la Piedra to learn that if my internet went down, I should go to the school and see if their WiFi was up since it was from a different service provider. When in Mazatlán and Mérida, I could sit on a bench in pretty park and use free WiFi instead of mobile bandwidth. And mobile bandwidth in Mexico is less expensive than in Canada, especially if you have a plan instead of doing the pay-as-you-go Amigo route. Even that isn’t a bad deal since some sites, like Facebook and Twitter, are free to use.

I’m also researching mobile bandwidth in Europe, especially Bulgaria, since I will be heading there shortly. One of the reasons why Bulgaria came to the top of my list is its world ranking for internet access, penetration, and prices. A few years ago, it was 3rd in the world, with Canada somewhere around position 130… I’ve had many people assure me that if my apartment is not hard wired, I’ll be able to rely on mobile bandwidth without going broke. I’ve started to do my research on that and am finding that basic mobile pay-as-you-go plans start around $15 for 20GB of high speed data. Bell and SaskTel offer 12GB of high speed data for $120.

“Move back to civilisation” is not an acceptable response to my internet issues at Haven. I live in civilisation and, in fact, I’ve been to truly remote locations that have internet access. Moving to a more populated area will in no way guarantee that I won’t keep butting up against Canadian telecom providers, as illustrated above. This is the 21st century and internet access should be a given. Instead, ISPs treat internet access as a giant favour they are granting to the Canadian populace. Also, our rates are some of, if not the, highest in the developed world.

I’m tired of living in a country that exists in the past. I have a lot more reasons for wanting to emigrate, but the internet situation really covers them all. It represents the government’s short-sightedness and unwillingness to grow with the times. It represents the Canadian populace’s general apathy and willingness to settle for scraps.

I am a digital nomad of the 21st century. Canada not only limits my mobility within my own country, but keeps me from earning a living while taxing me to death. I’m just done with being here. My eyes are wide open at the kind of world I’m going and I’m ready for some new challenges.

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First Boondockers Welcome Visitors!

I’ve been a member of the Boondockers Welcome community since its inception in 2012. This is a fantastic resource pairing folks looking for a place to park overnight with folks who have a place to park overnight. I listed Haven even before I spent any time here!

A few days ago, I got a message through the site from a lovely lady from western Washington state who is driving across Canada to Nova Scotia with a friend and who was wondering if I could accommodate their 17″ Roadtrek. Through messages, I learned that they were going to visit Grasslands National Park, putting me right on their route east. Finally, someone ignored the ignorant instructions to drive through Saskatchewan as fast as they can and are seeing one of the prettiest and least known parts of this country!

I could have offered power and water, but they are self-contained, so there really wasn’t anything to do but give them a level and quiet place to park. I’m working late and so didn’t have much time to socialise. They appeared tired and content to just stay in for the evening anyway, plus it’s been raining on and off so it’s not like we really had any place to sit and chat anyway.

Even if they are my only Boondockers Welcome visitors ever, at least now I feel that I’ve started to pay forward all that hospitality given to me by so many of you lovely strangers who read my blog and invited me to park Miranda in their yard!

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Insurance Matters

I haven’t updated my insurance coverage since I changed my residency to Saskatchewan in 2013. I’ve just been paying for my Aviva Elite full-timer policy that covers the RV with no consideration for my buildings. Now that I’m leaving for a solid ten months (or even longer!) and I had something happen (attempted break-in), I knew it was time to completely revise my insurance coverage.

Here’s what I sent my broker last week (some things redacted):

I switched my policy to your office around August of 2013 after moving from Alberta.

My circumstances have changed dramatically and I need all new coverage.

The motorhome is now parked permanently on my property and is my residence.

My property now has two outbuildings (14”x16” and 18”x16”) for which I also need coverage for them and their contents.

I need to make sure I am insured for fire service (the town suggests $10,000).

I am not going to be onsite for the next ten months or so as I will be traveling. I don’t have any running water, so no risk of damage from frozen pipes, and I have a neighbour who checks in periodically. I want to make sure I have a modicum of coverage during my absence in case of a fire or a tree falling onto my home or my buildings. I am not the kind of person who would make a claim for something small like a window breaking during a hail storm. I’m really looking for catastrophic coverage, if there is such a thing.

The contents to be insured are worth *** (itemized list). There will be nothing of value left in the motorhome during my absence, but I will have a few things stored with a neighbour.

The broker just called and said she spoke to Aviva before calling me and that… nothing changes. I am covered for all that! I just have to let them know when I’ve come home next year.

I knew that I was covered for stuff in outbuildings, but did not realise that I was covered for the outbuildings themselves, a huge surprise!

However, I do not find the coverage for the buildings adequate, so the broker will ask if it can be increased and for how much. She will also see about travel coverage for my electronics and triple check that I’m covered for rural fire service. She thinks I am because I’m in a proper community with a hydrant almost right at my property line but will confirm.

This phone call was quite a surprise. I’m really pleased that my premiums won’t go up, or much if I have to add a little extra coverage. I’m sure you’re all wondering what my policy is costing me. $64 a month. Really.

Next, since my truck will be in “storage” during my absence, I will contact SGI to see if I can suspend my registration/insurance. That will save me $70 a month while I am overseas!