digital garbage

We got a bookcase and filing cabinet for my office, a table for the living room and coffee table, end tables and some display tables.
Because I have a place to put even more stuff that I should have gotten rid of, I'm going through all of my stuff to put it away.
Somehow it's hard to part with gadgets that I've collected over time. That's not so bad. But I even keep manuals for the gadgets. I figure I never know when I might need to refer them, not that I ever refer to paper manuals; I get all my tech help online.
But this has gone a bit far. I opened one of the manual that I transported up here at about 70 cents a pound. It is a Pocket PC manual -- in German. It has been taking up space in our house in Huntington.
Now it will be taking up space in a Vancouver recycling plant, unless there's a German-speaking tenant in my building who has lost his or her Pocket PC manual snatches it out of the recycling bin.
Boy are we getting tired setting up all this new furniture. Luis has been crouched over putting together the kitchen table and chairs. He just said, "I need to see a doctor about the back in my pain."
I said, "You need to see a speech therapist for that problem."

Prescription coverage

We met our three-month mark, so I called up for prescription drug coverage, which is based on income.
The representative just asked for our social insurance number, medical care card number and 2006 U.S. income. She gave us our Pharmacare number right over the phone. I was quite surprised how easy it was.
But I didn't realize it wouldn't be very useful for us. The deductible is $1,500. After the deductible is met, the plan covers 70 percent of the cost of prescription drugs. After I've paid $2,000, the plan will cover 100 percent.
We don't even approach $1,500 by along shot, fortunately So it won't really help us.
I had a pretty good income in the United States. So it's understandable there would be a high deductible. This is an income-based plan.
I mean, there's no additional premium for prescription drugs, as it's part of our dirt-cheap $96 monthly premium for our healthcare coverage. That's $96 total for two of us. So we can't complain.
But I imagine it's a good plan for anyone who requires a lot of prescription drugs. And for low-income people, the deductible would be a lot lower.
So far, I still give Canada high marks on its medical care coverage. As I've said, the coverage will actually make it feasible for me to freelance.

a beautiful sunny day

Staples delivered some bookcases an hour ago. It would be nice to install them and get things organized.
But it's going to be a LONG fall and winter of rainy, rainy days. And today is a beautiful, sunny day.
Later this week is going to be crazy as more data is coming in for me to analyze for my freelance project.
So we're going outside to enjoy the nice weather while we can.
Oh, my driver's license arrived in the mail today. I can't believe it was so fast. I went to the office mid-day Thursday. I'm hoping for the renewal I won't have a double-chin for the photo.
I can't wait to watch the debate tonight.
My absentee ballot should arrive tomorrow. I'm looking forward to voting. I don't want to state the candidate I'll vote for.
I'll just say I favor an intelligent, well-spoken candidate who focuses on the issues, understands the economy during these difficult economic times and has chosen a qualified running mate.

I miss my bomb shelter

Luis and I had a big, unfinished basement on Long Island. We would go to Costco and buy everything in bulk. There were shelves alongside the staircase to the basement and then lots of shelves in the basement, all filled with food, neatly arranged.
Someone once dubbed it a "bomb shelter." There was enough food for a couple of years. I learned from my Mom to buy in bulk when things are on sale.
Now we have a little locked storage area in our apartment's ground level. Maybe it's 5-feet-by-8-feet and about 7 feet high.
We had lots of storage area in our apartment and the storage area -- until 63 boxes of our belongings arrived just under two weeks ago.
Yesterday, we just went grocery shopping, and then we had to figure where to put all the stuff.
In addition to ground-level storage, the apartment has a storage area right near the apartment's front door but we use that as my office. That room can't fit all of my office stuff.
In the living room, we've got our collectibles -- fossils, kaleidoscopes, crystals -- all over the windowsill and on the mantel.
So we just bought a bookcase and little tables for the living room and a bookcase for the office.
All of this comes AFTER we purged so much stuff before our move. We had two garage sales, made lots of trips to the thrift store and gave away stuff.
It was actually very cathartic to purge all that stuff. But every once in a while, I say, "Do we have this or that or did we sell it, give it away or donate it?"
But the apartment is very nice.
At least we aren't making trips upstairs, downstairs and all over the place. With 650 square feet, including the 45-square-foot balcony, there's not a lot of place to move around.
And as I've said in earlier posts, we are in the heart of the city. We overlook the inlet, the mountains, part of the skyline and even Stanley Park - the Central Park of Vancouver, though it's not as central here -- it's at the west end of the city.
And at least we have parking in an underground garage, so we don't have to worry about driving around forever looking for parking.
So overall, it's nice. But we've decided we'll only stay here until our lease expires July 15. Then we'll look for another place.
So for my family and friends reading this, if you want to experience the heart of Vancouver, you'll have to visit by July. Who knows where we'll be next. Maybe Saskatoon.

Our 3-month Anniversay

Today marks three months from the date we got on a ferry in Seattle and arrived in Victoria, BC, becoming new residents. I cannot believe all that has happened in three months. It feels like a year.
The other day I said to Luis that we had such a long to-do list and only two things remained:

• get a driver's license
• get a job :)
  

OK. So the last one is a big task. I got my driver's license today, though. Luis already has his. So now we're just onto the last item.
I'm going to do some freelance and see how that works out.
Luis will try to get a job as a lab assistant, as that doesn't require a license.
We're starting to see the beginnings of fall / winter here, with lots of rain. I guess you just have to remember to always have an umbrella in "Rain City."

We've got healthcare and other news

This is just a mix of various items...

• New residents receive health insurance two months from the 1st of the month after their arrival. We arrived on July 2, so the two-month anniversary from Aug. 1 is today. So we have health insurance. We applied soon after we arrived, and had already received our cards with today's start date. That means I can now go to a doctor for my hypothyroidism. We still have to wait for our prescription coverage. But, as I may have written before, prescription drugs are so cheap here.
• I finished tutoring one of my students in the SAT. He takes the test on Saturday. He's hoping to go to a university in California. He started out with a very low grade on the grammar. Now he's getting either a perfect score or just missing one or two questions. That's awesome. He also improved in the math section. I started on blog on my SAT tutoring in Vancouver, hoping to attract new clients.
• Tonight I had my fourth "Introduction to Broadcasting" class. It's really interesting how broadcast writing is so different from newspaper writing. The leads have to be in the present tense. We had to interview another student and write about it. I wrote about how this other student became a volunteer in emergency preparedness after a fire struck his apartment building. He told how Luis and I came here to get married and that our commitment ceremony will be on TV.
• Funny that I just had to pay $375 for the last two months of my electric bill from Long Island Power Authority (LIPA). Today, I received my first bill here: $37. I thought, "Wow! that is so cheap for one month." Then I saw that it was for TWO months. Sure, I'm in a smaller apartment. I really think LIPA scams people. There have been times when I was away on vacation for a month and still had a big LIPA bill. Come on. My refrigerator doesn't use that much electricity.
  
• Earlier this week was insane because I was doing my freelance for the AP. I had to analyze a government database that was in complete disarray. So it took so much work. I was up until 8:30 a.m. on Monday working on it.
• I've cut back on the work as an extra on TV and movie sets because I want to focus on doing more freelance work. Yesterday, Luis was on the set of a movie called "Tooth Fairy" with The Rock.
• I might be going back to New York later this fall. I got a call from the law firm representing Newsday and me in a lawsuit filed by the subject of a story I wrote. I have to go back to New York for a deposition. The lawyers haven't set the date yet, though.

Settling In

Now we're really settling in. On Friday, I got my license plate, which says "Beautiful British Columbia." It was very exciting to finally have a license plate.
I now have insurance in New York and British Columbia because I can't cancel my insurance there until the state provides me with proof that British Columbia destroyed my license plate.
And the next part of settling in... Our goods arrived today. They arrived on four very tall skids. Our boxes were inside a giant box with the thickest cardboard I've ever seen.
Because we had everything in boxes, I used a cargo shipper, not a regular mover. It was so much cheaper. They actually shipped very quickly after I had finalized everything. It just took me a while to finalize everything because we had so much else going on.
In other news, I'm doing some freelance for the Associated Press.
I've also been tutoring in the SAT.
We've also been very busy doing extra work. We were on the set of The L Word a lot last week. It's the last season of the show.
We were also extras a movie called Trust a week ago.
So we've been very, very busy.
Now with our stuff arriving, it's going to be crazy here.

Bear Warning

This bear-warning sign, sent from a blog fan, speaks for itself.
Click on the picture to see it larger.
WARNING to squirrel lovers: You may not want to read this.

Luis and I have a date... on TV, that is

Our commitment ceremony will appear on The Sytle Network on Oct. 21. Read all about it
TV show page of our wedding Web site.

The story of a speeding ticket and my lost wedding ring

We spent two days on the set of Night at the Museum 2 on Monday and Tuesday. We were on the set with Ben Stiller. He's such a nice guy, very down-to-earth.
The Wednesday shooting was canceled, so I decided to head down the States to import my car, which had been sitting in the Bellingham International Airport parking lot for 12 days.
I picked up the car and drove to Blaine, Wash., to get the title, which my Mom mailed there. (It's sort of my U.S. address for parcels and priority mail.)
As I was driving to US customs to export the car, I pulled over to look at a map. Then, way in the distance, I saw a police car with sirens on. "Good thing I pulled over so he can pass me," I thought.
Well, he didn't pass me. He pulled up behind me, then got out and told me I had been driving 40 mph in a 25 mph zone. He said this is a neighborhood with children. I asked, "Are you going to give me a ticket. I just moved here, and I really can't afford it." He said, "You were going pretty fast." Then he went back to his car and I could see him writing up the ticket. A few minutes later, he walked up, and I could see him holding the yellow ticket.
"I rarely do this," he said, "but I'm just going to give you a written warning." I was so relieved.
I then got my title stamped to export the car. I wanted to then turn around and go grocery shopping in the States, where groceries are much cheaper. But the US officer said I had to enter Canada, then I could turn around. So I imported the car through Canadian customs, then I returned.
I then drove on Interstate 5, which goes from the border down to Bellingham, Seattle and all the way to San Diego. All of the sudden, I just looked at my ring finger and said, "Oh, my God!" Where's my ring??? My heart started racing.
Dam! I knew it. It must have slipped off in the bus on the way down. The bathroom light was broken. I had to hold the lock on the door to keep the light on. Then the sink was broken, too. It was full of towels. There was only that alcohol hand cleaner crap. So I used that. But it was all sticky, like a combination of soap and alcohol cleaner. I dried off with toilet paper and threw it out in the garbage. My ring must have gone in the garbage with my toilet paper.
Then I thought it could have happened when I went to the bathroom at Bellingham Int'l Airport to clean that crap off my hands. Wait! I remember that when I washed there, which was after the bus, my ring was on because I remember trying to get the water off my hands without losing my ring, which had seemed a little loose over the last few days.
I went back to the airport and looked in the bathroom, including the garbage. Nothing.
So I left.
Later, I figured I would call there to ask for a lost and found. But 411 gave me the phone number to a guy who fuels the planes on the runway.
I then called the bus company, too, thinking I could have been mistaken about having my ring.
I even thought that maybe I hadn't put my ring back on after I had taken it off for the second day of Night at the Museum 2. I remembered putting it on in the morning, but I thought maybe I had just dreamt that I put my ring back on.
Anyway, I was having difficulty finding the right people at the airport and bus company. And, at this point, it's in some garbage bin somewhere. It's never going to be found. So I just went shopping at Costco and returned home.
I looked in the spot near the bed where I had placed my ring on Tuesday. "There it is!," I thought. "Oh, no ,that's my hematite ring."
I guess I was a bit on edge. No ring. I just began crying.
I placed a call to the airport using a number I found online. I was forwarded to a voicemail in an administrative office, and I left a message. It was very clear how despondent I was.
I could replace the physical ring, but this is special. It's the ring Luis placed on my finger when we had our commitment ceremony on May 31 and our marriage on July 4.
I was so depressed.
All day, Luis was working on "The L Word" as an extra, so I couldn't even cry on his shoulder.
But I had my first class in broadcast journalism at 6:45 p..m., and it was 6:41 p.m. So I hopped a cab and went to class.
Later, I picked up Luis and told him what happened. He was very supportive. He said that it's not the first time a guy has lost a wedding ring. I thought of my cousin Judy's husband, who has lost his ring four times. What he must have gone through each time! It's so devastating.
This morning, I got a call. "Hi! It's Patsy from the Bellingham Airport. Is this Rich?"
"Yes"
"We found your ring."
"You did! You found it. Luis, they found it!!!"
"We did find it."
"You didn't find it???? What???"
"No, we found it. Guess where it was?"
"On the floor?"
"No. It was in the garbage."
"Can you give me the name of the person who found it?"
"It was the cleaning person. Normally, the cleaning person just pulls out the entire garbage bag and throws it out. But there weren't a lot of paper towels. So she reached in and just pulled out a few paper towels. And she saw the ring. We can mail it to you."
"No, I'll pick it up. Thank you so much."
This was just a miracle. I will be so, so, so cautious from now on with that ring. I think I'm going to be checking it every time after I wash my hands.
I was so happy after I just got the written warning for speeding. And that was quickly replaced by sadness over the lost ring. But to get word, just a day later, that it was found, is awesome. I'm so happy!