My Blog

It’s been so hot for the last week. Tonight we’re sitting outside and the temperature is just perfect. Birds are singing. Frogs are croaking. The neighbour’s air conditioner finally switched off. Out in the distance you can hear a motorcycle rev up as it heads north on the number twelve highway. Sue is sitting in the lounger working on a crossword. I had a little snooze on the couch after supper. Soon it is time to go for an ice cream. Good as it gets.

Hey, it’s the middle of June already! Mom’s 80th birthday celebration has come and gone. So has Linda, who came here for the party and whom I brought back to the airport today. And Alex is off on our ‘big event’ — an overnight with her grade 6 class at the museum in Winnipeg. And Tim is just finishing up the silicone on the new tub enclosure in the bathroom. And Sue and Rudy both missed their Wednesday night golf dates tonight.

But the lawn is mowed. Rain is in the forecast. WordPress is updated to version 3.4. All is well.

This morning I went to the hospital. No, not sick. My doctor ordered some routine blood tests for me. He advised me to fast, and to be at the hospital 15 minutes before the official 8:00 opening time. That way I wouldn’t have to wait so long.

Hmmm… not sure about that last part. I got up early, showered, did NOT make coffee, put on my rain jacket, and walked down to the Bethesda. Got there at quarter to eight. Check-in. Can I just go down to the lab? No, sit here and we’ll call you. So I join a throng of waiting patients hoping to get their tests early.

I don’t spend a lot of time at the hospital. Or at the doctor’s. So this is a bit of an eye-opening experience for me.

I recognize a few of the other waiting patients. I don’t really want to visit with anyone here. So I go sit in the last row of chairs and study the ‘donor’ wall of fame. Nope, the Nikkels are not on there. That’s weird. I thought we were sending in our annual cheques. There’s a few plaques for some of our friends, but no Rudy and Sue, no Nikkel Holdings, no Holiday Travel. i’ll check into that.

The waiting room seems to equalize the classes — there’s MF (or FM, as I like to call him). And Mrs GP. But there’s also a bunch of immigrants; moms with kids, speaking Spanish, speaking French, speaking another language I don’t recognize. And we’re all here together. and there’s nothing cool about this.

After hearing the nurse who has to find each patient’s file call out everyone I know and quite a few more, she finally calls for “Rudolf Nikkel”. It’s finally my turn to have my blood test. But no, not yet. I follow the yellow arrows on the floor and they lead me to another waiting room. Hmmm… I sit down. The lady across from me motions that I need to ‘take a number’ — she’s got number 9. I get number 10. And I wait some more.

Eventually, after alternately avoiding eye contact and staring at the two big guys sitting across from me, it’s time for number 10. I follow the girl into the room where 2 other patients are getting their arms poked.

She draws 3 vials from me and then hands me a cup to fill. I go into the big bathroom and pee into the cup. I park the warm cup on the counter and then stand there wondering what’s next. Oh, I have to also have a heart test. But the other lady is ahead of me so it’s back to the waiting room. The same two guys are still sitting in the same chairs, across from me.

Finally, about 2 hours after I left home for my early morning beat-the-rush blood test, I am in the heart test room. The woman tells me to remove my shirt and lie down on the bed. I can keep my shoes on. She sticks about a dozen stickers all over my chest, and then attaches probes to each sticker. Don’t move. I hear her printer spitting out a ream of paper. Then she rips off the probes, peels off the stickers, and tells me I’m done. I get dressed and walk out of the hospital. Done for today.

I march home in the mist. I am seriously late for my first cup of coffee. The fast is over.

Thursday: What did I do today? Looked longingly at the golf course while I ate my morning toast in the sunroom. Is it still too cold? Hmmm… I met Brian and Robert and Roger Loewen at Smitty’s for a morning coffee. I also stopped by Holiday Travel — the girls were having a meeting.

After lunch Dave came over with some nice drill bits and helped me install my new electronic keypad deadbolt in the front door. We celebrated that accomplishment with a beer. Meanwhile, Sue was wrecking her back outside, hoeing the weeds in all our plantings.

I read the news and learned that Levon Helm, lead singer of The Band, died of cancer today. Sad news. I pulled up my Levon Helm’s tunes on my computer and we listened to that for a while.

Sue and I watched the local news before I went out to barbecue hamburgers. Another evening of NHL playoff hockey tonight.

Today I stubbed my toe. Just though you’d like to know that.

not that i don’t like going to school. no, i love my job. and once i’m there it’s always great. but i sure do like sitting here all lazy in the morning and drinking my cup of copy, listening to itunes, and updating stuff on my computer. it’s as good as it gets.but now i better leave this and go get ready for another day. i’m listening to the latest k.d. lang and sheryl crow albums. not bad.

Well, it’s been a long time since I’ve posted. Today I’m marking Canadian Studies (grade 11) ‘Western Gazette’ newspaper projects. In fact, I’m NOT marking — I’m fooling around with my blog instead — anything to keep me from doing what I ought (and hate) to do. Mom always said (in Low German) the sooner you get started, the sooner you’ll be finished. So, now that I’ve posted and looked at my new theme for this old blog (and updated wordpress and most of the plug-ins) I’ll get my second cup of coffee and ‘have at ‘er’. Until next time, adios.

good thing i mowed the lawn last night. now it’s wed. morning and it’s raining again. we had a wicked rain on sunday just after we finished cycling the mcc bike the interlake cyclathon — 200kms. and now it’s raining again. it’s days like this, when i get up early and sit at my computer with my first cup of coffee and look out the front window of my house — and it’s all gray outside, the driveway’s washed clean by the rain, sheryl crow is singing sort of country music on my itunes, and i think to myself, this must be what retirement will be like. ahhh. and one week from today exams begin, and there will be no more lessons to teach until next fall. this will be a good day.

So I got home tonight and thought I had the whole evening to do nothing — maybe just sit and watch TV. Then I got caught up reading the journals of the students in my web design class — and then I started marking finished web projects — and although I took an hour break to go for a drive and get a Dairy Queen blizzard and a Tim Horton’s coffee, I ended up marking until 10:30 — the CBC news was mostly over — and BINGO! another evening’s dead and gone. Oh well, the weekend is almost upon us.

Happy Mother’s Day