Meetings

Within the past four weeks following our return from Hilton Head Island I have met with my hairdresser, lawyer, dentist, eye doctor and physician.  This morning I capped it all with a visit to the blood laboratory for some routine testing.  The overriding commitment at this time of year is however Canada Revenue Agency for the annual trek to the shrine with one’s tithe.  This latter obligation is a nagging annoyance and one filled with perpetual speculation until the impenetrable accountant makes the final determination.  Meanwhile we’re in limbo awaiting advice.  Considering that our affairs are planned upwards of a year in advance the intelligence upon current obligations is not without its import.  I won’t pretend that we have so carefully gauged our expenditures that we can cast fate to the wind.  A current milestone would distinctly assist in the calculation of our plans. Nonetheless it doesn’t help to become impatient.  The plight of accountants at this time of year to work seven days a week leaves little if any room for accommodation of zealous clients;  we must wait in line for pronouncement of our sentence.

I have added to the mix a consultation with a retailer regarding the fabrication of a much-desired bauble, a project which has been brewing for months.  I won’t diminish the ambition as mere frippery as it carries particular weight with me.  The word “symbol” or “hallmark” is closer to the truth, more than a metaphor.  Because I am having it custom-made it perhaps substitutes for what historically qualified as an insignia or escutcheon, the inherited badge or emblem of a clan or family.  Any association with such membership would for me amount to pretence, an out-dated affectation more suited to people who insist upon wearing a kilt at least once a year.  Instead I have latched onto this tribute to my imagined position in society as a modest mark of my cultivation and achievement.  It is however ostentatious enough to qualify as singular and mildly amusing from any perspective.  And if the truth be known I draw especial satisfaction from material such as this, the precious metal gold.

My final concession to the importance of branding was to order new lenses for a pair of Ray-Ban sunglasses I discovered by accident in a store on Hilton Head Island.  The model has been around for many years and I would have thought it had been abandoned, but apparently not so.