In the news

I notice that the Nova Scotia minimum wage is rising on April 1 and going to be up again by the end of the year when it will reach $9.65. I realize the cost of living has gone spectacularly up since i was working minimum wage jobs in school in the late 1970s. When i worked at Simpson's department store, they paid over the minimum. I seem to recall near the end of my time there in 1979 I was making just over 4 dollars an hour so minimum must have been around $3.50 or $3.75 in that area. In retrospect, in over 30 years, it hasn't really seem to have gone up as much as you'd think, has it? It still seems like a good wage to me, for students at least, or part timers, to be making nearly 10 dollars an hour. I realize, though, it's not enough to survive on if you're working full time and supporting yourself, but if you're working part time, it's not half bad if you're getting 20 - 30 hours a week. Am I being naive? Yeah probably.

The Halifax international Air Show is coming back to the base at Shearwater this year. I might even go. I've not been for some time as it's expensive and a nuisance to get to but they put on direct bus service even if you have to sit in all the traffic to get there. I think i'd like to take some photos. It sounds like they may have some classic old aircraft there this year in celebration of the Canadian Navy's 100th anniversary and 65th anniversary of Canadian Naval aviation. Sept. 11 and 12. If the weather's good, it'll be a nice afternoon out and the airshow is usually interesting to watch. I particularly like the F18 fighter jet and the Snowbird acrobatic team is always cool.