From: Ernest Wright <ewright1@alpinecom.net>

Date: November 23, 2006 1:02:47 PM MST

To: Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com

Subject: was Re: new firewire Italian camera

Sorry to hear about the Canadian gov. shenanigans, Milton, and their effect on your reality. My best wishes that your plans for the future will go in your direction. Maybe with patience some alternatives will appear for your elderly parents. I envy you that you still have them in your life.

As to the thread with David, I'm sure I'm not the only one who found it very interesting despite the drift toward a flame war. Isn't it interesting how even with the best wishes these listserves can go in that direction? I for one hope your solid product will always be around for us, preferably in code that runs on the Mac OS. Thanks for your devoted work on Astro IIDC and for providing the support that this listserve offers.

Ernie

On Nov 23, 2006, at 11:46 AM, Milton Aupperle wrote:

Hi Folks;

I have to apologize for letting this "discussion" between David and I
get out of hand and should have either taken it private or snuffed it
right at the start, rather than inflict it on the list.

November has been a very bad month bad for me on several fronts. The
Conservative government waved their "magical fairness" economic wand
and made about 40 billion dollars of income trust investments
disappear on November 1st. So my retirement equity took a 32%
reduction in value overnight, which is going to take me 10 to 15 years
to replace. To make matters worse, I'm also losing the high yields
that income trusts provided, which cuts my monthly dividend income to
1/3 of it's value. So not only have they slashed my equity, they've
severely hampered my ability to replace what I lost. Had this not
transpired, I was planning on moving back to Saskatchewan within next
year to be close to my elderly parents who need some physical support
help. Neither of them are well and I do not want them going into some
underfunded government home to live out their remaining years, as I
can help out so they can stay in their own home as long as possible.
That isn't going to happen now and I'm mad as hell about it.

So I've been under a lot of stress and will have to make some very
hard decisions within the next two months about what I'm going to do.

I any case, sorry for the interruptions and we get can get back to
discussing Mac Astronomy topics.

Milton Aupperle