YEAR END 2016 NEWS LETTER

          Aloha everyone, hope all is well, I will try to be polite and politically correct, but unfortunately, knowing myself and my current state of mind, I fear that this newsletter’s theme will feel more like a big complaint about the society we live in.
          But let’s start by the beginning… pain….joints, muscle, knee, wrists, neck, feet, head, butt, just pick and choose, I think you all heard it before, the warranty runs out at 50 and it’s all downhill from there on. Some say it occurs at 40, but I don’t believe in this statement, so yeah.. it’s wearing out, but somehow the grey cells are acting differently, somehow we discover that we can analyze a situation and immediately foresee the possible outcome, that we can quantify the risks and development that can potentially be associated to any action we take, some call it maturity or experience, I think of it as the precursor of some sort of incipient dementia or the sine qua non of aging.
           One more time, we can say that we had an exciting year, so exciting that we wish it’s already over by now, feel the irony? You have surely heard it from the media, we all wish that the door shuts hard on the butt of 2016 and kicks it out of the picture, and it has been the same for us, be it at Café Campagne or at Polarpak,  I am sadly discovering the perks of working for a publicly traded company, squeeze the juice until it starts bleeding, yep, that’s how it feels like.  The quarterly budget, the Ebitda, gross margin, contribution, shortfalls, earning, payback, capital expenditures, acquisition, mergers, consolidation, growth, sweet words, all related to sweet numbers that make or break your day. But hey, this is the capitalism we all chose to embrace, so now let’s live with its pitfalls and succumb to its pressure and stress .
          But, regardless, we are still alive and well, not necessarily 100% mentally or physically well, this year has taken its toll on us, we simply cannot wait for Jan.08^th where we will leave for our annual vacation, upper management ironically calls it my sabbatical, three well deserved weeks down south where there will be nothing but sand, sun, surf, wind, waves and saltwater, three weeks where the ubiquity of capitalism will be none existent, so I wish.




Berchtesgaden national park-Austria

             We had it easy all these years until we discovered how vicious a neighbor can be and how cruel the corporate world can be. About the former, well we now have a new neighbor at Café Campagne, the type that will force its way through a crowd, sticking its elbows out to make way. The belligerent, pugnacious, hostile, confrontational and hypocritical type of neighbor and she also happens to be a Biatch, and I am being polite. But strangely, I strongly believe that nature has its ways of balancing things out, not that I wish anyone harm but it is inevitable, things will balance out. What goes up has to come down, spit in the air it will fall back on you, action-reaction, Newton’s 3^rd law of motion, oh I love it!!
            As for the latter, well the freaking north American dream, oh yes, lies, words, brainwashing, the corporate world has its ways of making us all believe that all is well and pristine, they use professionals to create videos, training, brochures, newsletters that all repeat the same things over and over and over again until you buy into it, repeat the same thing ad nauseam until you believe, but if you step back and take the time to look at the big picture, you suddenly discover that what was being preached is the opposite of what is being practiced, you discover that what was imparted and expressed was simply a smoke screen, you suddenly wake up and discover that you are in the middle of this huge ocean and have no choice but continue to sail until you reach a certain destination. Hollywood…  the 7^th art, they are proficient at it and now they have social media to indoctrinate us all to surmise that it’s all legal.   

Streets of Salzburg

           In fact, it’s all legal, a legal type of Mafia, the control on the market, the financials, the oil and in my field of expertise, the plastic resin market which is basically a derivative of oil. But I will leave this discussion for another time or for another exchange when we meet head to head.  So yes, it can drive you sick or insane, some of my colleagues succumbed to depression, some younger potentials left the company, but not necessarily for greener grass as some would believe. And now they have Donald!! Ha! Ha!! Live by the sword, die by the sword. Anyhow…enough of my rant against this capitalist society, I have substantially digressed from the subject of this narrative, sorry.     

Mother's day at Café Campagne

            The summer has been very busy at the Café, we were also very busy finding an alternative for our parking areas since the new Biatch wanted us to pay an arm and a leg to rent her parking, but we now have a new parking lot that we have constructed from scratch, it is conveniently located  on the opposite of the Café, it was not an easy task because of the fact that we had to deal with two levels of government for permissions, license, rules and regulations. You think red tape? Well we went through hell trying to decipher how to tackle the municipal by laws and the rules of the ministry of transportation!! And the battle is not over yet.  Did I mention the incompetence of a civil engineering firm whose services we had to hire to design an engineering plan for the parking lot, full of errors and mistakes, there were numerous discussions and email exchanges that tested our patience.  This basically reinforced my belief that it’s like anything else in this life, there are good mechanics and bad mechanics, good cooks, bad cooks, good doctors, bad doctors, good architects and bad architects, good lawyers and really bad ones, good engineers and BAD engineers!!! For the latter two, I can proudly say that I have experienced it live and in person. But we can proudly say that we came out of this battle educated and in awe,  these encounters have essentially enhanced our maturity.
                  We also had a decent summer sailing OneEye, she is swift and fast, unfortunately, because of the headaches with the neighbor and the parking lot, we started our season later that what we had expected, we did not put as much hours as we intended to on OneEye . Caroline also had summer school so we felt the absence of our primary sail trimmer for the first part of the season.
  

Hudson J24 Regatta

         I also had the opportunity to crew as the bow man on Premature grey for the J24 Quebec district championship. We did well, very well, 2^nd in the September regatta and First for the Quebec District championship. 
Follow the link below for some more info and pictures. https://j24quebec.wordpress.com/
           

          Caroline is reaching the end of her studies, but she intends to spend another year at HEC (http://www.hec.ca/en/) for another program of some sort, sounds like “Certificate in organizational leadership”, or it also sounds like Mum and Dad , I will keep spending your money until you retire.
           Peenut is getting old and grumpy, just like his master, his senses are not as sharp as it used to be, barking at every shadow or rustle, but he is still healthy for an 9-year-old dog, running around in the yard all summer, chasing ghosts, I guess this is what actually keeps him in shape, the running I mean.



Catch of the day

         Late September, a week before bow hunting season, I escaped for  4 days for a fishing trip with my best buddy, Bern, Ronald and Dad, we went somewhere remote to fish for Rainbow and Lake trout. It was Sunny and hot, the worst condition ever for trout fishing, but thanks to the expertise of my friends, we caught our fair share of fish, Dad as you can see enjoyed his days waiting for the ultimate bite, it happened the day before the last. I presume he is hooked, since he intends to be with us the next time out.



Rainbow



One of those priceless mornings , alone on a lake.

            So there again, another year went by and we made it without losing our sanity, we simply hope 2017 will be easier, will it be downhill from here on? Well that's what it looks like contemplating from up here, only time will tell. Meanwhile, keep safe and keep going, life is full of surprises, enjoy the most of it, the jar of life, stick to the golf balls and ignore the sand and always take time for a beer or two. If you are wondering what the jar of life is, follow this link: https://youtu.be/SqGRnlXplx0

             In regards to the legal mafia that was aforementioned , well I hope this will make you think, or are we so indoctrinated that we will simply shrug it off and revert back to our old routines a few minutes after having visualized it , Scientist and Doctors in the family, sorry ,  but they are stronger than us, they have control of the $$, control over the government, control over the FDA and directly or indirectly control of the whole society , they have infiltrated every organization that can benefit their bottom line, their quarterly budget, this the American dream, the ethos of the US of A. Follow the link below and be your own judge.   https://youtu.be/2xWzHiaYRok
     Again, the opinions expressed above are a derivative of my current state of mind, but I am convinced there are a lot of truth to it, if not then let's pretend that it's my way of keeping my sanity in check, anyhow, when you are around in the boonies, just drop by , we can discuss for hours on end.. over a beer or two.

      Aloha and Mahalo,  from the Wan’s in the boonies and a grumpier old man , AKA OldBwan Knobie