There are good and bad knots.  The good knots secure your shoes upon your feet; or, straighten a silk about your neck. The bad knots are the events which obstruct a purpose. Very often the bad knots are merely the uncomfortable consequence of living. No matter how the knots are portrayed, tying them up is an alleviation.

For the past several days I have been unsettled about an on-line order I had made a week ago with a retailer in Edmonton, Alberta.  After punctuating my enquiry for the fourth time today I at last got a reply.  My order has been cancelled. The product is not in stock; and, reportedly, “A full refund has been submitted and should appear on the original payment method within 3–5 business days.” I was previously told by the same person (Jennifer) that my order was “in a queue” and that they were very busy, that I would receive an email when it had been packaged and sent. I’ll rely upon the former intelligence and expect that it unfolds as stated.  I have put a note on my diary.

Yesterday – for the fourth or fifth time – a car wash facility to which I bought a subscription exactly one month ago failed to operate. The episode wasn’t merely an understandable shut-down linked to the freezing temperatures.  It was in the circumstance a violent breakdown.  The malfunction happened aggressively while my car was in the wash bay.  Luckily for me, without noticeable damage to the car.  In addition, as it happens, my subscription expires today so, while it was a regrettable way to highlight the end of the introductory subscription, at least I haven’t to engage in application for refund.  Several days ago – when I was already becoming uneasy about allowing my credit card to be used for automatic renewal of the subscription – I cancelled future activity on my account. Today, by contrast to this unfavourable sequence, I initiated a subscription I reactivated at Petro-Canada and benefited immediately from the decision to do so.  I have a long history of dealing with Petro-Canada – going back 50 years or more – and I was not disappointed to revive the alliance today.  Tying up a knot.

Meanwhile we’ve become embroiled in the matter of creating a chequing account in the United States of America.  We had one for years – in Sarasota, Florida with Bank of Montreal – but we drained the account at the beginning of the Trump violation of Canadian sovereignty. As might have been anticipated our nationalism no longer prevails sufficiently to dissuade us from our beloved Hilton Head Island.  Recent correspondence with our erstwhile estate agent on Hilton Head Island has re-energized the need for local banking instruments.  The paperwork which began arriving today is formidable – although in fairness there is nothing extraordinarily unusual. The private banking system is nonetheless somewhat intrusive for the privilege to pay vacation expenses.  But we’re being accommodating.  At the moment we require the advice of the “Cross-Border Support Team for Private Wealth” to complete the documentation.  These are not knots; but until we subdue the initiative, they feel that they too require tying up. Allow me the dignity to presume the endeavour constitutes moderate engagement with life’s limited perils.

Apart from this middling activity – and happily sharing correspondence with my dear friend in Australia as he continues his seemingly endless and repetitive trek about the globe – I gratified myself to exhibit my own remorsefully pedantry habit by driving to Arnprior and back along the dry pavement. The excursion was a welcome reprieve from the slush and ice of recent days.  Chatting later in the afternoon in the subterranean garage with another resident, she assured me that this year’s weather has been uncommonly cold and blustery compared to recent years. She exalted the exhaustion of January and the approach of Valentine’s Day in February. As evidence of same she gave us a box of chocolates. That most certainly merits the award for humouring the metaphor and tying up knots!