At 2:30 a.m. this morning I abruptly awoke. I won’t say that I was sparky but my mind was churning. I knew I had to be up by 7:00 a.m. to make my 9:30 a.m. coffee engagement at Equator Coffee on Ottawa Street at the northeast end of Town. There was nothing to disturb me about the meeting.  On the contrary the gathering was an invitation from a man whom I respect and have known for over forty years  I have always taken pleasure in getting caught up with him whether as a casual rally or for a more deliberate purpose. There was a calculated aspect about today’s rendezvous. First, the invitation had come out of the blue; second, my friend hinted that he wanted to seek my counsel. This naturally heightened my interest and sharpened my wit. I had an inkling that the core of the enquiry was one which had lately been before Town Council and widely reported in the Millstone News (our local e-newspaper).  It turns out that my surmise was correct. It was upon these speculations that I ruminated while lying in bed for the next two hours before finally relenting and throwing off the blanket and covers to put feet to the floorboards.

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A great deal has been said lately in the media and in private about the decorum expected of our public officials. Their behaviour has been the subject of close scrutiny and a source of endless commentary. The conduct of public officials is a very palatable diet and one which is greedily consumed by voters. The most obvious impetus for this current conversation has been the ascendency of Mr. Donald J. Trump in the Republican Party primaries of the United States of America in the lead-up to the Presidential election in November, 2016. On a more personal level our local politicians have garnered significant attention for their own conduct since the municipal election last Fall, 2015. The conclusion appears to be that as in all matters of politics there is a variety of opinion.  Some (those generally aligned with a more conservative view) prefer our public officials to be characterized by traits of traditional presence and conduct; while others (perhaps more liberal or even radical) happily withstand anything bordering upon or embracing what is commonly called vulgarity. There may even be a middle-road adopted by those whose philosophic view wanders indiscriminately between strict social convention and trendy realism.

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Grant me, if you will, that we all have our weaknesses.  Mine is jewellery, an unquestionable frailty and a scornful affectation. Whether as an attempt to excuse my extravagance or to palliate my grudging self-reproach (the incongruity does after all prompt a raised eyebrow), I retail my gusto for jewelry as a fondness for metal. However both the excuse and the palliative are a deceit. I am at heart an unapologetic swaggerer, a shallow materialist intent upon brazen adornment and exhibition. In defence – and to quell supercilious opposition – I hasten to add that unlike many others my absorption in jewelry is not for the gems, rather it is only for the metal (platinum, gold, silver and even bronze). I nonetheless compound my imperfection by shamelessly conceding that the heavier the metal, the better. I have for example an instinctive disdain for hollow pieces (unless they compensate in size for the loss of weight). A bracelet I had made weighed almost a pound:

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It requires mile upon mile to bring a rolling freight train to a complete halt. There is similarly a remarkable inertia acquired over 40 years of zealous and uninterrupted employment. It is a seasoned condition, an unrelenting propulsion, a perpetual and seemingly unstoppable ambition. It does however in time subside. One’s ship eventually comes in and docks for good. I am at last cultivating a habit of a new order: unmitigated leisure, my own brand of purposelessness. Instead of the ringing of the telephone or the knocking at the door I content myself to listen to the soothing chorus of the wind in a stand of poplar trees, the unmistakeable desktop music for nowhere to go, nothing to do.

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For the fourth morning in a row this week we were up early and on the road. This morning for example we were traveling no later than 7:20 a.m. to get to a meeting in Stittsville at 8:05 a.m. Each of the meetings has involved important medical, dental, orthodontic, legal or estate planning matters. Because each of the meetings involved advisory professionals we were naturally inclined to be prompt or even overly punctual. For people like us who are unaccustomed to time tables and pressing exigencies, these meetings weighed heavily upon us.  As a result we responded to the pressure in dynamic ways and of course we are at last pleased to have accomplished all that we set out to do.

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What began today strictly as a functional attendance in the City to sign papers for the transfer of the administration of a family plot at Notre-Dame Cemetery to a younger member of the clan developed into a crescendo of eating and dining experiences.

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Though it would constitute a misdescription to say that our winter months of untempered leisure on Hilton Head Island are “detached”, it is nonetheless true that many of our business affairs are purposively marginalized and effectively “postponed” until our return home in the spring.  Some of these tiresome details can only be dealt with within the narrow window of our return while others are simply better addressed either in person or upon terra firma. Since our arrival in Almonte mid-April our shared calendar has been conspicuous for its denotation of meetings and reminders all associated with getting our affairs in order. Certainly this prosecution has been enlarged by reason of my having to attend to many of the same exigencies for my elderly mother.

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This is not the first time I have commented that dieting is my final frontier.  Nor is it the first time I have mentioned Reducing Diet #4 from the Shouldice Hospital. About a year ago in anticipation of inguinal hernia surgery I was introduced to Reducing Diet #4 from the Shouldice Hospital. I hasten to add that the Shouldice Hospital turned me away until I lost 45 pounds. Although I never lost 45 pounds (and therefore never had my hernia surgery at Shouldice Hospital) I nonetheless adopted the diet for about a month or six weeks. I can happily report that I lost some weight.  When however my hernia surgery was accomplished I gradually returned to my old habits and added weight again.

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Often I have remarked that the clue to many riddles in life lies not in the answer but rather in the question. It is astonishing that I have nonetheless allowed myself to become distracted by attempting to formulate the answer to life’s imponderables; this I have woefully discovered does nothing but confound the dilemma. If however one turns the enquiry upon its head and seeks to frame the question properly then the possibility of a resolution is exponentially enlarged. I know this instinctively even though it is contrary to one’s intellectual bent.  Everything I have been taught about logic and reasoning leads me to believe that a conclusion flows only from premises; that is, the answer lies in the statement of facts properly (deductively) ordered. This of course begs the question – literally! If the conclusions we draw about life are of necessity based upon the very truth of our initial observations then we have effectively overlooked an analysis of those premises. It is after all an analysis of the major premises of life that is at the heart of the enquiry.

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At 11:00 o’clock this morning I met with my physician to review a shopping list of queries.  The primary question was, “Is there anything I should be doing to address my various concerns?” As might be expected most of my questions revolved around the same general complaint; namely, lower back pain and numbness radiating into my legs and feet. The physician answered that while there was MRI evidence of degeneration of a disc in my spine, the condition was not so far gone as to warrant the risk of corrective surgery. Instead he recommended physiotherapy to strengthen the muscles surrounding the spine in order to provide better support of the load-bearing mechanics. The physician also reported that my latest blood work indicated an escalation of cholesterol.  As a result I am continuing to take Lipitor (for coronary heart disease).  Further, because the latest blood tests do not improve on the results obtained when I was still taking all my customary prescription and non-prescription drugs, I am returning to my former drug regime.  This makes me just as happy because I was becoming agitated by the perpetual low-level pain I was having to endure without Tylenol and Celebrex for example.  I may however cut back on the Celebrex.  I’d like to see whether the Tylenol is adequate to kill the pain without having to draw upon whatever magic Celebrex purports to have.

This latest round with the medical types just about puts the lid on my concerns.  I have yet to hear from a neurologist about a “nerve conductivity test” but frankly I think the most to come out of that will be an admission that I have a problem and not likely one that can be repaired. Meanwhile I am satisfied that my incremental physical declension is just part of getting old; that bicycling is still a good thing; that pain killers are on the menu; and that the standard stretching will be the order of the day.

We have even toyed with the idea of resuming martinis, a prospect which perhaps alarmingly acquires greater persuasion each time we re-visit the theme.