What bliss! A refreshing shower after a morning bike ride! Followed by the judicious application of various hair compounds spanning the breadth of gloss and goo, paste and mud. Earlier we delayed our constitutional bike ride long enough to compose a sustaining breakfast of sliced green apple, a veggie omelet and a “round” of Nan bread. And lots and lots of coffee, the dark roast espresso model. This morning I commenced my physiotherapy exercises which, while surprisingly humble, nonetheless portend improvement of my condition. I am charged to repeat the exercises twice daily.  I have also begun using small weights in an equally unpretentious routine.

It’s raining.  At last.  The weather suits us today.  We’re going to shop for a few personal items, T-shirts (from Mark’s) and specialty toothbrushes (from the Rainbow Health Food Store in Ottawa). Later – as usual – we’ll drop in to see my elderly mother.  I need to have her sign an application to the administering insurers of the Public Service Health Care Plan for reimbursement of part of the cost of her wheelchair. I wonder how many people never exercise their right to claim such reimbursement?  There must be thousands of former public servants who continue to pay into the PSHCP but never use it unless they’re admitted to hospital. It requires a certain mentality to use a system to one’s advantage. We’ve succeeded to obtain prescriptions from mother’s medical doctor to support further claims for physiotherapy and foot care.

An old friend called a moment ago.  He is by any standard doing well, an accomplished professional and an aspiring socialite. He hasn’t however yet embraced the retirement vernacular to which he transitioned last December 31st.  He persists in doing almost anything to imitate the appearance of work.  In his defence his “work” is exclusively charitable, mainly fund raising (though I suspect he hasn’t yet cottoned to the fact that he’s being “used”).  In fairness he did suggest he is starting to withdraw from certain boards but naturally that will take time.  Those honorary mantels are far easier to don than to shed.  Charitable boards are constantly on the lookout for the next victim, luring him or her with wafts of prominence and prestige (though I’ve never known anyone on those boards who wasn’t conveniently suffering from some contemporaneous ego issue). The only exception is of course those who get paid for their attendance. That’s an entirely different ball game; and the only exception to that exception is those who were invited to be paid but who have so much money they decline to accept, preferring instead to be known as a “$1 a year man”. There are obviously not many of those.

My new driver’s licence arrived in the mail today.  So did my Health Card but to my astonishment it expires on the same date as the one I was renewing!  Clearly there is a glitch somewhere in the government computer system.  When I attended to renew my Health Card, Service Ontario not only punctured my old Health Card but also issued me a temporary paper card which specifically states the new card will expire in 2021.  It is with gusto that I shall reattend upon the mandarins of Service Ontario tomorrow to point out this conundrum.  It isn’t often one has the privilege of adjusting a bureaucrat!  I can tell you that after 40 years of having dealt with bureaucrats in the banking, insurance and land registry system, it is with glee that I anticipate this event! It will truly be a metaphorical experience! Of course I have no intention of making myself taller by standing on anyone, but I am curious to a fault to see how they shall handle it.  Possibly I am the author of my own misfortune but everything I have considered to this point leads me to believe I am not to blame.  Such intrigue!