Saturday, September 6, 2025

Five For Friday - oops, Six for Saturday

 1. I was looking through my camera roll and found these pictures of my mother's day and birthday gifts from Eve. She makes everything so beautiful all the way through.

2. I also found these pictures of Angus when he stood in a former Elmira teammate's wedding in August. He doesn't take a lot of pictures so when he's far away I don't see him virtually or in person - with Eve there are always pictures of what's going on. So these are precious.

3. We have reached a sort of breathing space with my parents situation (trying to move them from their house to something smaller). There is a 55-plus apartment building connected to the fancy retirement residence about a five-minute drive from our house. It looks perfect for them, but there is a waiting list (I am kicking myself for not thinking a couple of years ago that we should get them on some waiting lists. I guess the whole point of being in denial is often that you don't actually realize you're in denial?) The lovely woman who gave us the tour did say that even though the waiting list is robust, it is quite often that when someone's name comes up they are not ready to move, or do not want to move in the winter etc. My parents are fine to stay in their house for now, so if their name came up within a year we would be good. If something changes, we will adapt, but for now at least there is a solution everyone is happy with and every day does not bring new fretting.

4. I drove my mom to do her driver's license renewal yesterday - she is over eighty so she has to do the vision test and draw the clock. My dad is also over eighty, and super fun is the fact that they were born three years apart, so I have to take one of them to do this every September! 

The last two times were fine - it was a group thing, and my mom's was at the Stittsville Legion and my dad's was in a little strip mall. It was not made clear while I was booking my mom's appointment that it is no longer a group test, and the appointment I was making her was for a regular Service Ontario, which is always a jam-packed little circle of Hell, reeking of impotent rage and despair. It wasn't clear where she was supposed to check in, even, and she has hearing loss, so I had to fight my way to a desk to figure it out, which is fine, but for goodness sake - even if someone doesn't have hearing loss, it's a crowded room and there is plexiglass in front of the employees, should they not be making an effort to speak clearly anyway? She did have an appointment and they were on time, which was wonderful, even if when they called her up to counter #2 the employee at counter #2 looked mystified as to why she was there. I completely agree with all the signs saying that verbal abuse of employees will not be tolerated, but sometimes it seems like the employees have a little pact that they will do everything in their power to make people want to abuse them. 

Anyway, we both held it together and were much relieved when it was over. On the drive home I said I could give them feedback but it was probably useless because it wasn't like anyone can pick an alternative service with which to get this done. But! When I checked my email later, I found this.


I was tough, but fair.

5. Tuesday after Labour Day, Matt went back to work and I was alone in the house for the first time in quite a while. I came downstairs and sat down at the kitchen table to start working through my list. The first thing on my list was to make a vet appointment for Lucy - after her surgery last year we kind of got off our schedule. The employee asked if we had any concerns, and I said she did sometimes limp a little on her back leg. The employee said "the surgery leg?" I said "I think so, but now that the hair's grown back I'm often not certain". After that I hung up with a great sense of satisfaction, and then realized I had lost the list and the next thing on my list had to be finding the list.

6. I felt like my last post got a little unwieldy, so I am going to pick a meme at random from my new favourite meme delivery source. Oh! This one is relevant to the lactose intolerant content from my last post:

Plus Lucy, because Lucy.


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Five For Friday - oops, Six for Saturday

 1. I was looking through my camera roll and found these pictures of my mother's day and birthday gifts from Eve. She makes everything s...