SAN ANTONIO RIVER WALK

Our company arrived late Tuesday after a long day's drive all the way from Oklahoma City, with a slight accidental detour though Laredo.  

Wednesday was spent relaxing, socializing, pool time, topped off with a nice patio Bar-B-Q dinner.  Then Thursday, was more relaxing and pool time, then they ventured out on a disappointing personal quest, which was followed by another nice patio dinner and before you knew it we were planning our trip north to San Antonio for the next day.  

  Friday morning we were packed up and off to San Antonio for Gary to hop a plane back to Winnipeg.  He just came to accompany Tracy Elizabeth on her Journey to our little winter home.  He only had a weeks holiday so we decided to accompany him back to San Antonio and DO the River Walk together before his departure.  

Friday we are off to San Antonio and the River Walk. 
We got checked into our Motel, then walked the River Walk for a couple of hours. 
 

Then we stopped for a lovely dinner to end the evening. 

Then 5:30 am the next morning we were up and at it to drop Gary at the airport by 6:00 am and tackled the 31/2 hour drive back to Paradise Park. 

IT HAS BEEN A HECTIC  FEW DAYS. 

WE ARE GOING TO HAVE COMPANY

We are very pleased that our Daughter Tracy "Elizabeth" is coming down for a visit.  

Her and her husband Gary are driving down.  They are supposed to be leaving Winnipeg today.  They should be here by Tuesday.  Daisy is coming too. 

Gary only has a weeks holiday, so he will be flying home next weekend.  

But Elizabeth and Daisy are staying on for an extended Holiday and will follow us home later in the spring.  



I'M REALLY LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS VISIT


 

WHAT"S BEEN GOING ON?

When last I posted to my blog, Dan was working on the foundation of Dwight's trailer and it was coming along great.  

 

 Then, it was my birthday and we were going out dancing right?  That is what we did!  We went out dancing to one of our favourite bands.  "The Agency".  And had a great time. 

The next morning I woke up with a bit of a scratchy throat, but thought it was just acid reflux, which I sometimes suffer from.  So, I ignored it.  The following morning I knew I was wrong, it was "The Texas Crud", as my throat was worse and I was coughing and coughing.  Time to start a Z-Pack.  (The goto cure for the Crud.) Two days later, Dan was down as well and starting his own Z-Pack.  So, that began a whole week of us being as sick as dogs.  Although Sea-Enna (the dog) breezed through it.  Other than not getting out for her walks as often as she would like. 

While we were laid up we had a vicious wind storm, that blew a lot of leaves off of our fruit trees.and knocked a lot of the fruit to the ground. 

Sick or not, that was a mess that had to be cleaned up.

Once we were on the mend we got to go out to a show dance at our park hall.  

So now that we are feeling better, it is time for me to get on with next months Newspaper.  My cut off for printing it is 25th.  Then I can relax until next month.  

TIME TO GET BACK TO NORMAL.  

ALLEGIANCE TO CANADA

The second year we travelled into the USA, someone introduced us to the 8840 Form, to be registered with the American IRS.  This is a form whereby you state your allegiance to Canada, even though you spend a lot of time in the USA. 

In this form you are also stating where you household belongings are?.  Canada.  Where is your main bank?  Canada.   Did you have any USA income?  No. Where do you pay your taxes?  Canada.  Who issued you drivers license?     Canada.   etc… etc…

                                                           

                      

                                            

And it isn’t a simple calculation of making sure you don’t spend more than (183 days) 6 month in the US, like most people think.  You have to declare how many days you were here last year, the year before, and the year before that and they calculate it based on a "Substantial Presence Test".  You are considered a U.S. resident if you meet the substantial presence test for 2016. You meet this test if you were physically present in the United States for at least:  31 days during 2016 and183 days during the period 2016, 2015, and 2014, counting all the days of physical presence in 2016 but only 1/3 of the number of days of presence in 2015 and only 1/6 the number of days in 2014.   How’s that for complicating things.   

So, I got that done this past week, and now it is my Birthday, so I’m going out dancing tonight.  

 HAPPY WEEKEND EVERYONE.