Musings from Lot 12

Here are two photos of our yard taken 10 days apart. The first shows what it looked like on April 12th and the second what it looks like today, April 22nd.

What a difference in just 10 days.

Yesterday we were in SSM for the day and about 11.30 am the usual conversation took place.

“Where do you want to go for lunch?”

” I don’t know . Where do you want to go?”

After a few minutes of this we settled on Vincenzo’s, a very good little restaurant right on Queen Street. Not surprisingly for SSM it is a family run place that has been open for many years and specializes in home made Italian food. As in they make all their own sauces and much of the pasta is home made. We go there occasionally and have never had a bad meal.

Yesterday when we arrived I was checking the daily specials, Monday its a Vinnie burger and cappeletti soup. The server came with water and explained the specials and ended with ” We have rabbit in red sauce and it is very good. I allowed as how that sounded very tasty but I wanted something a little lighter for lunch. Val asked for a couple of minutes to decide. The server left and promptly returned with a small piece of the rabbit in a bowl and said “Here try a taste.” When was the last time you experienced that in a restaurant. I did, it was tender and succulent and I was sold. Val announced that she was going to have gnocci and meatballs and I ordered the rabbit with salad. It turned out to be a great choice.

When lunch came there were three pieces of rabbit and very fresh salad along with a piece of garlic toast to sop up the sauce and believe me I did, it was just plain delicious. Val’s gnocci were obviously hand made, tender and soon gone.

We relaxed, we chatted and we enjoyed our lunch. When we were paying the bill the server told us that rabbit is only on the menu a few times a year and after taking my phone number said that they will call us the next time it is going to be available. As a parting gesture she handed us a copy of the special dinner menu that the chef had prepared that included the recipe for the rabbit! Again, when was the last time that restaurant offered to share their recipe. It was a great lunch!

Tuesday morning I was lounging around in sweatpants and a teeshirt. About 10am it was time to get dressed to go out on a number of errands. Upstairs I went, took off my glasses and pulled on a shirt and pair of pants. I collected the parcels for the mail, cellphone, wallet etc etc and out to the car I went. it was a beautiful warm and very sunny day. About 5 minutes into the trip I reached for my magnetic clip-on sunglasses and put them up to my glasses. When I let go the fell onto my nose and then into my lap. I felt my face and confirmed it, my glasses were still on my dresser!

We got home from SSM yesterday and the flag on the mailbox was up meaning there was something there. I pulled into the driveway, jumped out to retrieve it and as I got back into the car noticed a white business envelope with the return address:

Ministry of The Attorney General

Provincial Court House, Queen St.

Sault Ste Marie

Now I’m curious! I know that I have not been charged with anything and that I have not witnessed anything that would require me to testify in court. Gee, I wonder. We got parked and after a couple of trips all the bags and parcels were inside. Now time to check the mail and sure enough, inside the envelope was a Summons To A Juror. For the very first time I have been selected for jury duty. For almost all of my working life I was a sworn Peace Officer and therefore not eligible for jury duty. I often wondered if that exemption ended with my retirement and now I guess I know. So on May 12th I have to present myself at the court house in SSM and stay/return until I am released from my duty. I was in courts many many times over my career both as a crown witness and later on as a prosecutor but never in a jury trial. This will be a whole new experience. I am both looking forward to it and at the same time dreading what I might have to listen to. There is also the small issue to twp paid for and non-refundable tickets to Vancouver on May 27th to meet Arlo’s new sibling. Sorry, CF but I can not bring myself to call her/him Hippo .

So, I have to wait until May12th and then I’ll tell you as much about the experience as I can.

We occasionally cross the border into the US for various reasons. Yesterday the primary reason was to pick up a package that contained a toy for Arlo. Val bought it on eBay and had it shipped to an address in Sault MI. The other attraction is lower priced gasoline. More on that a little later. Crossing the border into the US at this crossing is not a real big deal either in terms of the amount of times it takes or the degree of scrutiny you are normally forced to endure. While it can be slow due to volume if you pick your time of day and avoid the obvious busy days it does become fairly routine to the point where you have to remind yourself that you are entering a foreign country. This becomes glaringly clear on occasion. Yesterday we drove into the US Border Protection Agency plaza and right up to one of the booths. I handed the BPA agent our passports and answered the usual questions.

Citizenship?

Canadian

Where do you live?

St. Joseph Island

Whats the purpose of your visit to the US?

To get a gift for our Grandson and buy a tank of gas.

This should have been the point at which the officer said something like “Have a nice day.” and handed back our passports. Instead I noticed that he was looking at his computer monitor and then heard the words that have become more common recently.

“You have been randomly selected for a secondary inspection. Pull under the canopy on the right and remain in your car.” With that he slapped a yellow piece of paper on the windshield and handed me our passports. We pulled under the canopy and waited as instructed. Out came two BPA agents who, while I don’t know them, I recognized. They instructed me to turn off the car, leave the keys in the ignition and take our passports and go inside. We followed the orders and when we got inside another agent took our passports. After perhaps a minute the two agents who were inspecting the car came inside with smiles on their faces and not looking at all like they had found any contraband hidden the vehicle (there wasn’t any). One of them came up to the counter and uttered a sentence that I never expected to hear.

“William, (the first name on my passport) why are you importing corn into the United Sates under the hood of your car?

With apologies to Dave Broadfoot, when I regained consciousness I started to laugh. “That would be our red squirrel that did that.”

BPA guy, “well you have 10 or 12 kernels of corn stashed under your hood. You should make sure they don’t start chewing the wires. I left the hood up so you can see. Here are your passports. Have a nice day.” We walked out chuckling and this is what we saw.

A brief stop to pay the bridge toll and we headed to the Walmart where Val found several bargains. The next stop was at the Admiral gas station. Unleaded regular fuel yesterday was selling at US$3.489/US gallon. If you do the math that translates to C$0.94/L. On our side of the river yesterday gasoline was selling for C$1.229/L. Our car took 49.9 litres of fuel for saving of $14.42. At the same time we bought two gallons of milk at a savings of $2.00/gallon over the current price on our side.That saving paid the bridge tolls. In total worth the trip. After a short stop at the Goodwill (no real treasures this trip) and picking up a great toy for Arlo we headed back across the border. We drove up to Canada Customs, no waiting today and were asked

“Where do you live”

St.Joseph Island

“How long were you out of the country?”

“About 2 hours”

What is the value of items you obtained?”

“$58.97 cents and a tank of gas”

“Have a nice day.”

Safe on our side again.

Yesterday morning we were headed to SSM about 8Am. In mid April it is nice and bright by this time of day. As we pulled around the corner onto the highway there were three wild turkeys in the middle of the road and as we watched they walked into our woodlot followed closely by a white-tailed deer. Good siting. About 10 km further on I spotted movement in the left side ditch and up onto the highway came a red fox with a rabbit in its mouth! Ah, nature at its finest. A half hour later, along a newly opened stretch of the TCH where there are several osprey nests on power line towers right in the highway right-of-way. In the first one, two osprey heads. Wow! in the next one perhaps 1 km. away another head. Double wow! Ospreys are fishing eating raptors that are easy to identify because of their white head and very distinctive crest. Along the way there were pairs of Canada geese and sandhill cranes. I love spring as critters become more active and birds return.

Late winter/early spring is a time when forest critters who have spent the winter either trying to survive or sleeping are all hungry. Does are within weeks of giving birth after having spent most of their pregnancy living off accumulated fat and eating low value food that often takes more calories to acquire than it provides. They are constantly hungry. Their overall health is at its lowest point. Deer are very cautious animals, they rarely relax. They have very sharp eyesight and hearing. They run at the first sign of danger. Even severe hunger does not allow them to relax. They are, however adept at discovering new sources of food. Some of that food is found in our driveway. After last fall’s deer hunt I had a couple of bags of whole corn which I started feeding the deer a couple of weeks ago. When it ran out I said “no more”. Right. Did I mention that these hungry deer keep returning to the site of the last free lunch and stand looking in the window at us with those big brown, soft, hungry eyes. What to do? In the Island Clippings last week there was an ad by a local farmer offering to sell mixed oats and barley for $10 a bag. So last Sunday afternoon Val and I drover to Perry’s and picked up 3 big bags of grain. Every day since I have deposited a pail of grain in the drive and we have had 6 or 7 deer show up to enjoy it. No, thats not right. They don’t enjoy it in the sense that we enjoy food. they gobble up as much as they can as quickly as they can so as to try and get more than any other deer. They kick each other, they butt each other. The bigger deer get more than the small deer because it is strictly about survival.

Here’s the conundrum. It does the deer no good to for me to feed them. They quickly become habituated to handouts and can become less wary. Yes they are hungry and yes they can use the food but they will probably survive the winter without it. The snow is going fast and they will soon be able to graze the fields and open areas. But it is pleasant to have them come into the yard and it does make us feel good to feed them.

Where to start? Every year for the last 8 or so I have had an appointment with an ophthalmologist, named appropriately, Dr. Sharp. He checks my eyes for any signs of damage caused by the type 2 diabetes I live with. That damage is referred to as Diabetic Retinopathy . Checking for diabetic retinopathy consists of dilating the pupil and then shining a very bight into the eye so that the doctor can study the back of your eyeball looking for damage to the retina. Having a doctor look at the inside of your eyeball is much the same as having a doctor study the inside of your ear . You know what is going on but you have no idea what the doctor is is seeing. Three years ago I started going to an optometrist to have my eyes checked to see if I needed new glasses. In his examining room is an LCD monitor Last year he showed me digital images of the inside of eyeballs as he talked to me about retinopathy and other diseases and conditions of the eye. I was fascinated. This year when I went he said that he was going to take a digital image of the inside of each of my eyes so that he could have a very good look at what is going on and also as a record against which future checks can be compared. When I asked he readily agreed to email me copies of the photos so without further ado meet the inside of my right eyeball. -

A brief geography lesson. The light coloured circle on the right side is the optic nerve and the dark lines emanating from it are veins and arteries. The really important thing about this photo is that this is the inside of MY eye. i actually got see what the optometrist got to see and when he explained what he did not see, any evidence of retinopathy I was thrilled. A large percentage of type 2 diabetics who are 15 years post diagnosis commonly show symptoms of the disease. I am no poster child for diabetes management but I do try and it seems that the trying is paying off. Two weeks after I saw the optometrist I had my annual appointment with Dr. Sharp. To my surprise and great pleasure , at the end of the appointment he announced that there was no need for me to come for an annual examination until such time as there is a change in the health of my eyes. He said to continue going to the optometrist every year that that if he noted any change he would refer me back to Dr. Sharp. Wow!

Any time I have too deal with Bell Canada, aka “The phone company” or any of its sudsiduries my blood pressure goes up. Just that first few seconds of “Emily” the annoying voice of the most satanic voice mail system ever devised is enough to drive me completely friggin’ wild. I avoid calling them like the plague. But today I had to and therein lies the reason for this particular posting.

We have had a Bell Expressvu system in our house for well over 10 years. The original receiver that we purchased back when is still in operation in our living room. It still works but is probably has the equivelant of an 8086 processor in your computer. It works but is old and slow and there are lots of new features that aren’t available on the old clunker. I have thought of buying a new one but I’m just too cheap.

Last week when we got to London we discovered that my sister had rearranged the main floor of her house and turned their family room into a mini-spa. Their giant tv now resides in the living room. The cable that connected their Bell Expreesvu satellite dish to said tv is not nearly long enough to reach said tv in its new location. My sister’s solution, cancel the satellite service and connect o Roger’s Cable. This is a workable if somewhat drastic solution. This meant that their two receivers wwere now surplus to their needs. I had a brain wave. I offered to buy the newer of the two from her for half the retail price and thereby upgrade my receiver at a good price.

We brought the receiver home on Friday and there it sat because I had to go to work Saturday and Sunday. During a phone call home Sunday mid-afternoon Val mentioned that she had connected the new receiver to our tv and it was working fine. Great. I got home last night and while surfing the channels I realized that we were getting the channels that my sister subscribed to not our usual package. This morning I set out to make the switch. I called Expressvu and after more than 35 minutes on hold I got person who said that he could help me. We were doing just fine until I gave him the serial number of the receiver and he told me that my sister had not de-activated it on her system. I wasn’t happy but now I knew. I left a voice mail for my sister asking her to call Bell and de-activate the receiver.

After supper Val was watching tv when all of a suddent here were no channels being received. Ah ha! Cathy had made the call. So I called Bell back and after a mercifully short wait I was again talking to a live person who promised to help me. We got to about the same spot in the process as this morning and he advised me that he could not activate the receiver on my system as my sister had not given her authorization. She had called and de-activated the receiver but apparently had unknowingly not taken this vital second step. I was furious and let the call centre agent know it. I told him that I had not been told if this requirement during the earlier call etc etc. He was very sorry but because of policy could do nothing for me. Now I was really pissed off and in full flight, it wasn’t very pretty and as I write this 1½ hours later I am feeling pretty juvenile. I told him in no uncertain terms that I wanted his co-worker reported to a supervisor for giving me the wrong information. The next thing I knew I was talking to a supervisor, thats a first! I told him about the long wait and the wrong information and he was very sorry but company policy etc etc etc. I finally ended the call and emailed Cathy to ask her to call Bell yet again.

A few minutes later she called to say that she had an Expressvu rep on her other phone and a few minutes later we were all three connected on a mini conference call. The person we were dealing with this time was very helpful and got everything sorted out in jig time. She also had me download the latest version of the software for the receiver. Then just as we were finishing up she told us that she would be reporting the two staff from the previous call because in fact the authorization for me to use the receiver was in the notes! Agh. My faith in the competence of Bell is re-established just a little.

Losing one’s temper is not a good thing to do. In fact it is very counter productive, I know that. I used to instruct tactical communications and and I know all about maintaining your cool. A well used and still true adage I have taught many times is “If it feels good, don’t say it”. This is particularly important when you are going to make a sarcastic or rude comment, or raise your voice in anger. To know something intellectually and then to put it into practice yourself in a stressful situation are often two very different things. This started out as a rant against the phone company and it is turning into a something totally different. In spite of the fact that thiose two workers tonight made a mistake as did the first person earlier in the day it did me absolutley no good to lose my temper. I feel like crap.

I am going to go now and turn on the tv and see if the software update is complete and we are back watching tv in the living room. But I still detest dealing with Bell and I always will.

We returned home after a month away recently. The fellow who kept our yard open while we were gone did a good job but using a truck with a blade he was limited as to where he could put all the snow we have received this winter and it is a lot. This is easily the snowiest winter since 1997. It took me & my snowblower 4 solid days to get things cleaned up. By the end my right forearm was quite sore. Muscle strain I thought, coupled with some “you’re not as young as you used to be” and a little “you’ve been sitting on your ass a lot lately”. Problem explained, carry on and quit whining. So I gave it a bit of a rest, tried mousing with my left hand and it seemed to be getting better. Until Thursday.

Thursday afternoon I had an appointment with my doctor, a regular thing and since it was a locum I didn’t know I did not say anything about the sore arm. We got home while it was still light so I decided to spend a few minutes chipping ice that had accumulated on the back porch. It was cold and the ice was generally not in any mood to be chipped so my efforts were not yielding great results. I decided to quit, sweep off the little bit of ice that had come free and leave the rest for another day. As i swept the broom back and forth (not too vigorously) something in my right forearm went snap, no noise but I was instantly in pretty severe pain. I spent quite a miserable evening. I had a light supper, some ibuprofen, some acetaminophen and tried to find a position to hold my arm in that let me feel comfortable. We debated going to the hospital to get it checked but after some discussion decided to wait until morning and see how it felt. After a night that passed more comfortably then I had expected It was still very sore Friday morning so I called the clinic and yes there was an opening- come right away. So off we went, Val driving with barely 1 cup of coffee in her system. Well it was a medical emergency. Arrived and was taken in almost immediately. Same doctor comes in and I started to explain the problem. He begins to manipulate my arm and press here and there asking the expected question,Does this hurt? Does this hurt?” Then he started running his thumb along the length of my forearm asking, “Does it hurt here? “Is this where it hurts?” He then mumbled something about a subdural whatchamacallit of the anterior thingamajig. Then the really surprising question, “How do feel about an acupuncture treatment?” “Fine” says I and the next thing you know I had 6 or 7 little needles sticking out of my left leg from the knee to the ankle. Each time he would press with his thumb asking, ” Can you feel this?” Then in would go this really fine needle. It didn’t hurt going in, in fact I barely felt it but then he would give it a little twist until I felt something akin to a very slight electrical shock which invariably made me jump. Every time he inserted a needle he would return to questioning me about how the arm felt and where is the pain now and I would try to give him specifics. By the end of 15 minutes or so I had needles in my left leg , one just above my right ankle, one in my skull and another right beside the nail on my right index finger, that one hurt going in. While this was going on he was talking to himself about the spleen and the large intestine and other organs. He explained that acupuncture is all about balancing the forces within the body and some of the history and lexicon of acupuncture.
All in all it was an interesting experience and my arm did feel better when he was finished. After withdrawing all of the needles he prescribed a course of anti-inflammatory medication and told me to rest the arm for a few days. It is now Sunday morning and the arm is still sore but it is getting better.

ps I did tell him I was going to blog this.