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Border Restrictions Will Ground Many Snowbirds This Winter

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Behold the Beauty: Pregnant Dreaming, ‘Dreams 2‘ by Rubén Belloso

In the pastel painting “Dreams 2,” an expectant mother, dressed in pure white and just a few weeks away from giving birth, nestles among cushions as if embraced by clouds that have gently lulled her to sleep. She looks content, with one hand resting gently over her baby, perhaps subconsciously ensuring her baby rests too.  “Dreams 2,” by Rubén Belloso. Pastel; 15.5 inches by 11.63 inches. (Courtesy of Rubén Belloso)The painting is the second image in a series that master pastel painter Rubén Belloso created of his wife’s pregnancy. The couple had had trouble conceiving and so when they discovered she was pregnant, they felt “extreme happiness,” Belloso says in his online artist statement. It was a time of immense inspiration for him, and he painted his wife’s portrait a…

Border Restrictions Will Ground Many Snowbirds This Winter

In a normal year, between 300,000 and 375,000 Canadians would spend the winter in the United States or Mexico, but the pandemic makes that unlikely this year. The ban on non-essential travel for vehicles crossing the border has been renewed until Nov. 21, and may be extended after that.

Until that changes, many snowbirds are grounded at home.

Kelly Brems discovered Catemaco in Veracruz, Mexico, while on a motorcycling road trip. For the past two winters, he and his partner Amy Simmonds have put their motorcycles in their truck, driven from their home in Carlyle, Saskatchewan, to Oklahoma, where they left the truck with a friend and then motorcycled the remaining 600 kilometres to Catemaco.

“It’s so relaxed,” Simmonds said in an interview. “For me it’s the lifestyle. It’s just a lot slower pace and it’s cheap—super cheap where we are.”

The couple rent a two-bedroom apartment for $167 a month. Cell coverage, internet, and power add less than $25 to that. For $7,000 they can make the journey in November, enjoy laid-back Mexico, and return the first week of May.

“I own a construction company and we do home renovations and new construction builds. So now that I’m older I just work six months of the year,” says Brems.

Last winter, the couple enjoyed the extravagant local Christmas and New Year festivals and the small parades they watched almost daily from atop their apartment building. But this winter will be colder, less eventful, and more expensive, as they won’t be going south due to the COVID-19 border restrictions.

“This year is going to be really hard on us, because up here we have to pay for the power and we have to heat the house, and you know just gas getting anywhere and food—it’ll definitely hit the pocketbook,” Simmonds says.

Fred Atkey plans to be in the southern United States in December. He’d prefer to drive as usual, but if he is forced to fly, he will. Travelling south is an annual ritual for the former City of Edmonton employee.

“I’ve been going south since I retired in 2007, so been doing this for 13 years. When I first started out I was renting, and then I bought a place in Phoenix in 2011. Then I sold that in 2017 and so now I’m back to renting again,” Atkey said.

“The last couple of winters I’ve been going to St. George, Utah. That was actually one of the first places I went to. I really enjoy the area around there. … It’s a lot cheaper—way less expensive to rent property there versus Phoenix. It’s not quite as warm, but it’s still a lot better than the winters we have,” Atkey said, adding that the Edmonton winters are hard on him.

“I just can’t stand the cold anymore—the old bones don’t like it. So it’s basically just to get away from winter. Plus, there’s places for me to enjoy, to go walking and biking.”

Atkey says he won’t have to quarantine when he gets to the United States, but he will when he returns to Canada. He joined a Facebook group for snowbirds and says many are staying home.

“A lot of people are saying that they’re concerned and they’re not going to be going anywhere because of COVID. It doesn’t bother me to head down there. I know the cases are higher in states like Arizona.”

Mexican-Canadian Hernan Rodriguez has lived in Canada for 24 years. Dedication to his children in Vancouver shortens his trips south, but in his mid-30s, when he was semi-retired, he often spent months at a time in his original homeland.

“It was a dream. For a bachelor life it was the best. … I’ve been out fishing four times a week in the Caribbean. You can’t really beat that,” he says.

Rodriguez’s trip to Mexico in August was like none before due to the pandemic. Virus precautions were everywhere, he says, with infrared laser guns used to check temperatures and even chlorinated mats to walk on before entering places of business, as well as the requisite masks and hand sanitizers. Air passengers must have their finger pricked for a COVID-19 blood test before boarding flights.

Cozumel was quiet, since hotels are limited to one-quarter capacity, he says, and in Mexico City the streets were eerily void of traffic, similar to what it was like in Canada during the nationwide lockdown.

“There was 500 metres in between cars when normally it’s bumper to bumper. So it was like a movie with Will Smith where he’s the only survivor in the planet or whatever. Yeah, it was kind of freaky.”

Focus News: Border Restrictions Will Ground Many Snowbirds This Winter

Cooking With Love, Paprika, and MusicalsCooking for the StarsThrill of a Good MealMusic and a Meal

Dinner and a movie is a popular plan for evenings at home. This concept goes beyond eating in front of the television when the recipe comes from the movie’s producer. Joe Pasternak, who made over 100 movies during his three-decade career, was called the “Cooking Producer” because he loved making Hungarian delicacies for his Hollywood friends. His culinary flair was captured in a 1966 cookbook called “Cooking With Love and Paprika,” which is much more than a collection of traditional European recipes. It is a collection of stories about golden era movie stars’ favorite pastime after working hours—eating! Joe Pasternak in 1957. He was known as the “Cooking Producer.” (Public Domain)A perfect Pasternak production to pair with a recipe from this book is “Thrill of a Romance” (1945), his first…