July 13 – Healthy, wealthy and corn!

Last Wednesday Was ‘D Day’….
….for Miz. Jo and Rotzy….Doctor appointments….mine at 10:30 and hers at 11:00. The doc was away but the Nurse-Practitoner (NP) who was filling in was just as thorough as he normally is…maybe more so. This was the quarterly look at my sugar #’s average, which were/are right as rain and she found it interesting (amazing?) I haven’t taken any sugar meds for over a year, so I explained to her I am now an ‘undiabetic’. I also asked after the lab results from the biopsy taken during my colonoscopy, and all’s well! Then she said something about me ‘cutting back on the Tall Boys’, perhaps ‘giving up cigarettes’ and I replied ‘OK’….or something like that. Then it was Miz. Jo’s turn….a follow-up on her recent 6-day stay at BGH….and basically getting/keeping electrolytes, calcium and magnesium all in balance. Speaking of ‘balance’ Jo Ann mentioned her concerns of falling….not in the apartment, but around the grounds here at Harris Place where there are curbs and cetera to contend with, so the NP prescribed a 4-wheel walker. So….SO…. I was having coffee at a friend’s house yesterday ayem and the ‘walker’ came up in our discussion. Long story short, he had a ‘like brand new’ one sitting out in his garage, behind the gas mower and a giant snow blower. Miz. Jo now has it…. the ‘Free-Spirit’*tm model….sitting by the door here in Unit 303. She took it for a ‘test run’ yesterday in the hall, but with it ”feeling like 44C” (*see below) is holding off on her outdoor test run until we get a break in the heat wave. Good idea, and stay tuned. **Sunday AM Update**Miz.Jo had it out for THREE strolls, gets along very well, and methinks I’ll try to find a horn and/or bell for her….if our ‘lease arrangements’ allow it. Anyway, methinks it’s ‘just what the doctor ordered’….or ‘prescribed’ if you will.

The Past Two Weeks….
….here in Brant’s Ford….and cetera….has been absolutely BRUTAL, with Rotzy referring to it as Stelco #9 Forge, a quip from my somewhat short ‘career’ (in the Coke Ovens Department) at the Hilton Steel Works in Hamilton during the late 1960’s. With numerous coke ovens opening and closing all around the area it was always hot (*see above), even in April. Most of my various jobs were outdoors, but I did get close to #9 Forge. For the first couple months I worked with another young guy (Gary from Caledonia, hired same day as me) up on the high rail dock, cleaning up tonnes and tonnes of iron ore ingots that would spill off the rail hopper cars as the train shunted into position to unload into the forge. We had heavy duty wheelbarrows, heavy duty push brooms and heavy duty ‘coal shovels’. Lord only knows how long since the dock was last cleaned, but after the first couple weeks, our foreman came up to us and said ”that’s the cleanest this thing has been in ages”! Then again we had others always warning us ”the last guy who did this job fell in”! Whoa!! We never did find out if they were just hazing us or if they were serious because we were still ‘rookies’? Whatever….it worked VERY well as we were extra cautious when in that area….and I told Gary, “I do not want to become the hood on 1968 Lincoln Mark IV….nor the grille on Cadillac Sedan De Ville. Having said that, it looks/feels like we’re gonna get a break in the temperature as last night’s t-storm and today’s cloudy/threatening skies moved in. The radio and TV folks were talking about the length of this heat wave beating one from the 1970’s….when the term ‘Global Warming’ wasn’t invented, Al Gore was a nobody, and David Suzuki was a CBC wannabe. Imagine.

Readers Write
    Some good stuff here….and only one of them hints at COVID-19. Check ’em out: *Growing your own tomatoes is the best way to devote three months of your life to saving $2.17. (Rotzy thinks that figure might be a tad high) *Jellyfish have survived 650 Million years despite not having a brain. This gives so many people hope. *Remember wishing the weekend would last forever? Happy now?!?!

Say What?
    The world is off its’ axis, people and businesses are financially going tits up daily, ‘normal’ is a pipe dream, every pro sport on the planet is in dire straights, yet somebody, somehow in the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs hierarchy comes up with a new contract extension….for ten years….for their #1 Quarterback! Making Patrick Mahomes the World Of Sports FIRST $500 MILLION DOLLAR MAN!!! Yes, $500,000,000.00 (US) Dollars. Absolutely insane!!! Hey, the kid is a good, young QB….but not the best. Yet. This ‘deal of all deals’ has ‘trouble’ written all over it…..the tyming couldn’t possibly be worse, and when the bubble bursts, it ain’t gonna be pretty. It says here that NOBODY in any league/any sport….where men (and women) get paid to play games that kids play for free/the love of the game….worth THAT kind of money. Don’t get me wrong….Rotzy is a fan of Mahomes, but his own statement as to why he wanted to get the ‘Chiefs life tyme contract’ signed was so pathetically stupid, he sounded like a 14yr old high school kid whose allowance just increased by $10 bucks a week!….plus it was/is not worth quoting. Good luck Patrick….good luck K/C.

Just Wondering….
….if the “F/N” readership has noticed a definite change in people these days….and not for the better….whilst lining up at the bank, Beer Store, supermarket, In and Out Store, Can. Tire, and cetera. And rather than ‘getting used to’ waits of 5, 15, 20 minutes to get in to your destination, they are now stressed to the max. There is little or no conversation, zero back and forth banter from behind masks of every description….and yours truly seriously doubts the masks are concealing grins behind them, let alone a full-blown smile. Unfortunately, if ‘Irish eyes ARE smiling’ on a mask wearer this oldster hasn’t figured how to tell the difference as of yet. Hence, I’m guessing that 8 or 9 out of 10 shoppers…masked and/or un-masked…are NOT having funn, preferring to stare at the taped markers on the ground and texting. But Rotzy is doing just fine thanks, in spite of them/because of them in 40C temps. I betcha ‘Les Miserables’ are likely thinking thoughts about ‘getting back to normal/the way we were’. Well, a million wonderful memories to enjoy isn’t such a bad idea…but…don’t put any stock into ‘normal’ ever happening. Sorry.

*Thought Of The Day…And just like that having a mask, rubber gloves, duct tape, plastic sheeting and a rope in your trunk is okay.

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