International incidents: Saturday with the family

[mdlbear]

The morning was almost entirely eaten up taking chaoswolf and selkit to the bank so they could set up a joint account. The bank we've been using since before we were married, Union Bank of California, is one of the few with a branch in Canada, which made it an obvious choice as well as convenient for all. It still took two hours for them to figure out how to handle a Canadian's identity. Feh!

After that, we piled the whole gang plus the wheelchair (Igor), into the flower_cat's minivan (the Rambling Silver Rose -- yes, the song was an afterthought) and went to the local Greek Orthodox church's Greek Festival. It's not about the music, the dancing, or the hucksters: it's about the food. Everyone in the family has something they like there, even the normally-super-picky Younger Daughter, who invariably has the deep-fried squid strips and a big box of honey-dipped, deep-fried dough balls for desert. Colleen had lamb, and I had a skewer of pork cubes; both of us drank retsina. Yum. The Cat and I finished lunch with Greek coffee (sometimes described as caffeinated sludge served in tiny cups at knife-point) and baklava.

Went over to the stage, and I joined a line dancing a Syrtos. Took a while for the pattern to come back to my feet, but I eventually got it. Left after that because the music really was a bit too loud. No walkies, but I got my exercise with the RollyCat. I'd parked only a couple of blocks away, so it wasn't worthwhile going around for a pickup.

After that, I took selkit to Fry's to exchange the Fujitsu tablet laptop he'd bought back in March, and which has been giving him considerable trouble, for a new Sony. Tedious but straightforward; I got a smile out of the salesdroid by mentioning to Selkit that one of the reasons I really like Fry's is their return policy.

Welsh rabbit (yes, that's really what it's called, not "rarebit" -- hint: it's an English dish) for a quick, light dinner.

After dinner the Cat, Emmy and I got dressed up and went out to the Mountain View Masonic Center for the installation of the Y.D.'s best friend Kaylee as Worthy Advisor of the local Rainbow Girls assembly. Needless to say, this was far, far outside my experience, or Emmy's for that matter. (Colleen had been to one, four decades ago.) K. seemed a little surprised, but delighted, to see us (it was her Mom who had given us the invitation). But, you know, you have to support your friends.

I found it fascinating. Girls in long dresses floating in precise patterns across the floor, simple but effective ritual hand-offs from the old officers to the new, a little bit of ad-hoc silliness to lighten things up... Light reception afterwards -- we came home with a plate of cucumber sandwiches. Emmy's sotto voce remark was that it was too religious for her -- too explicitly Christian, in fact; she described herself on the way home as "spiritual but not religious". It's a part of her friend's life that she's never going to share to any great extent, but we were all glad to have been there.

I said the Pledge of Allegiance as I originally learned it, without "under God". It's a small protest, but I do it anyway.

Comments

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

without "under God". It's a small protest, but I do it anyway.

Part of me says that's not a protest, that's just doing it the way it was intended.... and part of me says, yes it is a protest, and as it should be.

I haven't sung that filk of a damnable English drinking song since I figured out that the jive turkey in the other Washington was jerking us around, and I won't until somebody worthy of that office occupies it. My own form of protest. I still stand respectfully at attention... as if I were an alien. Which is rather what I feel like; this is not my country. I want my country back, dammit.

[angharads-house.livejournal.com]

{Illudium-243 space modulator, ready arms, two rounds, FIRE! Ka-thump, Ka-thump!!}

I stand at attention for the anthems of foreign powers, and think hard about what those anthems are meant to say. We don't have a pledge of allegiance in quite such a way as do you; our Idiot Party in Ottawa is trying to enact one, but neither Commons nor the Red Chamber are having any of it, and without both houses of Parliament it won't happen. Doesn't stop the awfully bloated Prime Minister's Office from trying, though....

Cross-border banking is really tough. We have lots of FINTRAC provisions with which to deal, now. Used to be that you signed a signature card and that's it, but now the Gouvernement du Canada wants all sorts of hard-copy ID and documentation, including proof of physical domicile; all mailing addresses are now being tied to UTM coordinates of physical domicile. Everyone needs to have a fixed address, and the real ruckus is coming from fishers and truckers who simply might not have a home base.

Getting the Belovedest signed up on my/our joint chequing account took about an hour of hard work, followed by the faxing of various documents up from the States; my vouching for her identity was simply no longer enough. I suspect that it'll be damned near impossible for me to joing her bank account over in New England; for example, I don't have an SSN and I never yet met an American institution that did not expect the entire world population to have an SSN....

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Actually, it's been done; the United Bank of California actually has a branch somewhere north of the S&W line, and although it took'em two hours to figure out how to handle a friend's Royal Canadian ID, they did manage it. Interesting that it took only half the time on your side of the line, though...

There is actually a place here in the Emerald City that was set up precisely for fishermen to have a permanent mailing address; I forget the name of it now, but it's splat in the middle of yon market, not in the arcade but the buildings across from it... they've got post boxes, a shipping facility, and (get this) a couple of public terminals where you can sit down and get your e-post. Not that I'd do that with anything other than Fastmail (which is (a) Aussie, (b) operates https on command, and (c) has no truck with No Such Agency et al) or my own secure webmail.... but still. The requirements are a bit more onerous than they were, and they're pricey to boot, but it can still be done.

The only problem I have with "O Canada" is they haven't updated the pronouns for 21st century equality. But hey, I suppose it's good to have *some* tradition... at least yours is *singable*, instead of something that was quite literally whistled up whilst three sheets in the wind....

Hmph. Now there's a filk project. An anthem for cyberspace. A couple ideas come to mind, and one for filkdom... but. hmm. Now you've got me thinkin'. Could be dangerous....

[angharads-house.livejournal.com]

You write it, we'll sing it. Any form. (this extends to the invidious Munchkin, too, who reminds me that the best drink in the world is Assam tea, black, spiked with gin).

Freedom, it's more than an advertising slogan,

herself, the dreamer....

[saffronrose.livejournal.com]

As written, before the McCarthy Era divine intervention:
"I pledge allegiance to my flag and the republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty, equality, and justice for all."—Francis Bellamy (1892)
Funny how "equality" fell off...

As for me, it's Assam, Harmutty Estate, strong, with milk/cream and splenda.

[mdlbear]

I don't remember equality being in there, so it must have fallen out at least 3 years before god came in.

[saffronrose.livejournal.com]

Hmm. The implications for this on a universal, dare I say, catholic, scale is very sad. Certainly many cultures were more or less equal for those not slaves before Christianity hit them.

Oh, and Emmy was right--the Masons are an interesting combo of Western Occult Tradition and Christianity.

[mdlbear]

It was hard to miss the Christian connection, but I give Emmy full points for not only noticing it but mentioning it to us on the way home.