Thursday, August 4, 2022

Summer of 2022 – Part 2 – Sealift, PFP, Top Gun, & Road Trip

I stayed in my hometown for the remainder of June.  There were pictures & videos of my Las Vegas trip to sort, edit, and upload, as well as, running around town gathering all the items I would need for the upcoming school year.  I only had until June 28 to get everything to the sealift delivery company.  They would truck everything to Montreal where it would be crated and placed on the ship destined to Arctic Bay.

My sealift shopping list was divided into three categories: personal, school, and cadets.  I must thank my parents for letting me borrow their vehicles.  I’m not sure how much distance I covered, but it was enough to replenish the gas tanks a few times. 

Most of the personal items were ordered from Loblaws.  Heavy items like bottled water, pop, Perrier, and garbage bags.  The usual school supplies I gather over the summer are binders, office stationery, and Bankers boxes.  I also bought those for cadets.   

I successfully in delivered everything on time.  I would see all the items again in Arctic Bay in late August.

I attended a Prayer For Peace rally at Parliament Hill on the morning of June 25.  The event was officially called Prayer For Peace In Ukraine And Throughout The World and was organized by the 31st Canada-Ukraine Parliamentary Program.  Many Ukrainians & supporters arrived wearing traditional Ukrainian clothing, as well as, blue & yellow colours, and some carried large Ukrainian flags.  The Ukrainian anthem was sung and many speeches were made.  A group photo of all attendees was taken for local media outlets. 

The general consensus among the attendees was that hopefully the war in Ukraine will come to an end with a Ukrainian victory, and the evil people in the Kremlin will be brought to justice.

Speaking of the war in Ukraine, a lot has happened since I last wrote about it in April.  Unfortunately, I can’t cover all the events because it will take too long, so I’m just going to comment on a few important events.

The brave and mighty Ukrainian soldiers defending Mariupol were forced to surrender on May 17.  They had been holding out at the Azovstal Iron and Steel Works metallurgical facility for quite some time, but unfortunately, they couldn’t fight their way out to freedom or be rescued by Ukrainian Forces.  It’s a sad, tragic end to the battle for the city, and the fates of these heroes are unknown.  They’ll most likely end up suffering for a long time in the Russian prison system before any possible prisoner swamps.  I agree with the Ukrainian leadership that their fighters have bought Ukraine more time to shore up defenses and prepare counterattacks.  They also depleted elite Russian forces.  The depletion of personnel has gotten so bad that prisoners are being recruited to replenish the ranks.  Even with over a million active soldiers and thousands of reserves, suffering around 42,000 casualties is too much to handle.  Good.  Cut your losses Pootin and withdraw entirely from Ukraine!   

Speaking of depletion, Russia has been forced to pull really old military equipment out of storage for their unjust & illegal war.  I’m talking tanks, vehicles, guns, artillery, anything.  Even though they’re old and obsolete, they still work, are deadly, and there are many.  Russia is also looking at buying and deploying Iranian-made drones because they’ve depleted their own stock of drones. 

Pootin and his maniac cronies in the Kremlin have been ordering the Russian war machine to use all available weapons against Ukrainian soldiers & civilians.  They don’t care at all about human lives.  They’re monsters.  Period.

One major piece of good news for Ukraine: they received and started deploying HIMARS in late June.  HIMARS is a rocket artillery system that launches rockets at very long distances.  The system has become a game changer because Ukrainian Forces can destroy important Russian targets behind enemy lines.  I hope Ukraine receives many more HIMARS and rockets that can travel even farther. 

As long as USA, Canada, and NATO continue supplying Ukraine with modern weaponry and ammunition, the country can hold and push back the Russian onslaught.  Glory to Ukraine!

I saw the movie Top Gun: Maverick at the end of June.  Amazing film!  It was so good.  The practical effects are out of this world!  You feel like you’re in the cockpit with Tom Cruise and the other actors & actresses flying the F-18 Super Hornets.  I know CGI was used in the film, but it does not overshadow the practical effects.  I think the film will win a lot of awards and will influence future films featuring planes.  Tom Cruise has set a new standard for flying films.  I’m already looking forward to the next Mission Impossible film.

I did a road trip of southern Ontario in mid-July.  I was glad I was able to get a rental car because apparently, there’s a shortage of rentals in North America.  The COVID-19 pandemic put a stop to travelling, so rental companies sold much of their cars.  Now with everything returning to the way things were, rental companies are now short on vehicles. 

Anyway, my first destination was Tobermory, Ontario.  This was my second time visiting the community since 2019.  I visited the family of a former co-worker for a day.  It was the same family from 2019.  The co-worker & I explored the marina/harbour and then took a boat cruise on Bruce Anchor Cruises.

The boat took us to the same places as Blue Heron Cruises did in 2019.  We saw the Sweepstakes underwater wreck and the famous flowerpot on Flowerpot Island.  The only difference this time was that we stepped off the boat to explore Flowerpot Island for a few hours.  There are plenty of trails to traverse and rock caves to explore. 

I thanked the co-worker and his wife for their hospitality.  I drove south to Toronto for my next adventure.

To Be Continued . . .

 


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