This is a picture of a scene I have enjoyed often: San Pedro Harbour, Vincent Thomas Bridge, Los Angeles, California.  I got a ticket for speeding across this bridge once; cost me all of $50. 

But that is nothing by what I have just been “fined.”  I have just had to cancel a stay with the Nomad Inn in Fort McMurray (the link to their site works intermittently–too busy charging cancellees.)  They charged me a whopping $216 cancellation fee.  Can’t say I have ever had that happen to me before: you know, cancel 36 hours before you sign in and you get whacked with a fee greater than the cost of your room.  True, the young girl was “new here”, and she also said sorry, but that hardly constitutes the kind of service intended to incline you to return to the hotel.

But then I suppose they just do not care.  This is the oil sands patch and there is no shortage of people wanting rooms and cars and services.  Screw the customer: make a buck of them and punish them if they do not come.   It kind of reminds you of the truth of the plea by the (obviously) old time Saskatchewan resident who writes with (obvious) horror:

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