I’m driving a manual transmission car. That’s not the firsts though. I knew how to drive one before this but I’ve gotten much, much, much more practice shifting than I ever figured I would. Bran can’t drive for another 3 weeks so I’m primary chauffeur. I’ve driven to and from the hospital, to and from work, to and from stores, to and from Boy’s work and to and from the highway where Costco is. That’s more driving than I think I’ve done in the past 10 years.
Today was the Costco run. Bran and I went to get some fruit and other essentials that we were running out of or didn’t have to begin with. One was white poultry meat. Another was some kind of spice that doesn’t have salt. Mrs. Dash was the only one of many. The rest had salt as either the primary ingredient, or listed in the top 5. Really, even lemon pepper had salt first.
We got fruit, lots of apples, oranges and grapefruit. The oranges are the delicious little zipper skins (Satsuma or Japanese oranges depending on where they’re grown). The grapefruit are the lovely sweet red ones. Red grapefruit are the sweetest of the varieties. Ruby Red is the best. We eat them like oranges but I don’t eat the hard section skin and avoid the white as it’s mega bitter. The apples, well they’re Gala and Bran likes them. Since he’s the apple eater, he gets to pick.
We also got salad fixings, cucumber, and vine ripened tomatoes. Toast and tomato for breakfast!
We looked at the salad dressings, but they didn’t have anything suitable (or frankly, appetizing in appearance) for us. I’ll be making a light oil and balsamic vinegar dressing for the salad…something good and simple.
I’m never going to make a judgment on a person who doesn’t help their spouse carry heavy things. Bran isn’t supposed to lift anything over 5 pounds and not with his right hand (that’s the hand they did the second angioplasty and stent insertion). Since it was to Costco you know that there was nothing in the cart that weighed under 5 pounds. I had to carry everything in and put it away.
So now I’m sautéing up three breasts (one for each of us – Boy will have leftovers when he gets home), the salad is ready (love the premixes, in this case bibb lettuces and spring mix) and leftover baby potatoes that can be nuked. The chicken is spiced with Mrs. Dash and paprika and sautéed in about 1 tsp of oil and a tablespoon or two of lemon juice. It smells lovely.
Later tonight I’ll package up the rest of the meat so that it doesn’t go to waste.
I don’t like driving. I don’t know if I ever told anyone here, but I don’t. That’s why this is such a difficult month for me. I mean, it’s hard on Bran the most, but it’s hard on all of us in our very own ways. Think about being phobic and not wanting to leave the house, add onto that an activity that is undesirable in a car that doesn’t have an automatic transmission and it’s an arduous time. Happily I’ve not braved parallel parking in it.
Work was ok. I spent a lot of time going through the wire working magazines I got. Two are paper, the other 4 are on disc. There are lots of wonderful ideas for making jewelry that I can hardly wait to try out. However, because Rings & Things shipped me the wrong wire I have to go to Michael’s to get some at retail cost. Ouch. I repacked it up in the original box and sent it back to them at their cost. It’s only fair. I’ll be jiggered (whatever that is) if I’m going to pay for shipping more than once, especially for their error.
I was hoping to have a few weeks of practice before I started milling out the stuff for the Spirit Moves Us: Pagan Crafters Showcase and Sale in late November and CFCR Craftacular on October 29th and 30th. I’m not sure I can do both especially now that I don’t have wire. What a pain! Yeah, cal me a waaaa-mulance, right?
Anyway, supper is ready and it’s time for me to eat. I’m somewhat peckish.
There’s been both nothing to write and so much change in the past while since my last posting. After being moved to the cardiac ward above ground, Bran has improved dramatically. His spirits lifted with the ability to go for a walk. He now has a little bag that holds a monitor which transmits his heart information over air waves. He goes for short walks, generally 2-3 troops around the ward. This has helped his blood sugar control, his blood pressure, not to mention his morale.
He hasn’t had the second stent put in yet. They planned it for today and had him fasting in the morning, but something (probably an emergency procedure) pushed him off the schedule. We’re hoping for tomorrow. He was feeling somewhat low tonight so I texted him offering him a sugar free cake with a file baked in it. At any rate, hopefully tomorrow will be the magic stent insertion. That would mean if all went well, he’d be coming home on Saturday.
They’re still trying to poison Bran. Night before last, for supper, they gave him (a diabetic) sweet and sour chicken on white rice. Yeah. The nurse hunted down a meal that Bran could eat without sending him into a diabetic coma. He got cream of wheat again as well. What is wrong with these people?! They’re supposed to know what the fuck they’re doing and yet they make such frequent mistakes I have to wonder who’s running the show. A friend of ours is in another hospital in town. She has a severe wheat allergy. She got cream of wheat too. I guess it’s their way of cleaning out patients. Kill them.
I have a bit of a full day tomorrow. I have to pick up a package from the post depot. Then I have to get a script filled and request the pharmacist fill one of Bran’s. Then it’s off to the university to have the department head sign my withdrawal letter. Then off to visit Bran…unless he’s downstairs having the stent put in. If he is then I might just go home, leaving Boy there, and get more sleep.
I’ve not mentioned Boy much in all this. He’s been exceptional. Not that it’s unusual for him to be so, but even more than the usual exceptional-ness. He’s gone to visit his Dad on his own, is cooking for himself because I’m not home to do so, and is generally helping out a whole lot which reduces my stress levels considerably. He’s been the joy of joys of my life. He’s also helped me hold myself together. It distresses him to see me distressed and he does his level best to ease things for me. I couldn’t have asked for a better son.
Today I went to training at the CSC training centre. It was presented by two police officers (one from Saskatoon, one from RCMP in Regina) and one CSC analyst. It was all about organized crime and street gangs in Saskatchewan. It was an extremely interesting presentation by three very intelligent and savvy men. Saskatchewan has it’s share of the well known gangs like Hell’s Angels, but vastly outnumbering them in membership is the Aboriginal gangs like Native Syndicate, Indian Posse, former Crips now Cash Boyz, and Terror Squad. Some of the gang members, some rather high ranking members, have come through the centre for urinalysis or as part of their reporting requirements. We’ve never had trouble with them, but the potential issues are rather scary. We never house known and active gang members at the house…thank goodness, but we don’t have control over who comes on for extra reporting requirements.
Anyway, after that it was my regular shift. Thank goodness everyone was in a good mood. One guy is going to find out the hard way next time I’m on evenings that doing his laundry in the evening means getting it done before 11, not ignoring it and then “remembering” that it needs to be dried for the next day. It’s all about responsibility. He’s always trying to get away with short cuts and special exemptions. Tonight I was just too tired to care. I won’t be so forgiving next time.
In a few weeks I’ll be going to a “Creating Choices” thing at Wanaskewin. This one will be focusing on women prisoners somehow. If you google Creating Choices you’ll encounter a document created by CSC (Correctional Services of Canada) in response to the scathing Arbour Commission Report (that you can also google) about “certain incidents” at Prison for Women at Kingston Penitentiary (aka P4W). Of course, being a large bureaucracy they’re very adept at making it look like they’re making progress in terms of positive change without actually doing anything. Canada went from having a central prison for women to having 5 prisons for women as well as healing lodges (low security prisons for Aboriginal female prisoners that should be focusing on Aboriginal traditions and healing). The healing lodges are all on reserves.
Anyway, I hope it’s as interesting as today’s stuff was.
I’ve decided, after talking it over with Bran, and much thought and consideration (redundancy can be fun too), to withdraw from the graduate studies program. After Dad died it became somewhat pointless and now with Bran becoming sick it’s just one more pressure on me to try and deal with.
I was going to take a year off to consider my options, but the requirements to get that year off are far too intrusive on my privacy to even consider. As someone who’s been on welfare and had that department’s nose in my life, I have no wish to have another bureaucrat decide things for me. So I’m going to print up the withdrawal letter tonight, get the department head to sign it and turn it into the grad studies people and be done with it. Maybe I’ll regret it and try again at a later date, but somehow I doubt I’ll want to.
Now I’m home after 16 hours of work. I’m trying to wind down but it’s not working very well. I guess I’m over stimulated or something. I’d love to have a cup of coffee right now but that would screw with my sleep and it’s stupid enough right now.
Let’s see. The highlight of my week was getting my fingers caught in the car door. Again. This time it was my forefinger and middle fingers to get the brunt of the damage. Bran rolled his eyes and Boy was underwhelmed (it was he who closed the door on them, again). My forefinger isn’t very happy with bruising across the nail and a nasty scraping of skin off just below it. The middle finger just has a bit of bruising under my fingernail. Nothing was broken and everything is healing nicely. My boss is threatening to get me a helmet to wear because he’s convinced that someday I’m going to decapitate myself. Bran and I figure that something like lacrosse gloves or hockey gloves would be of more use. The residents just wince and then laugh at me.
My piercings are healing up nicely and look marvellous. I love them! I’m already thinking about getting more. The next one I want to get is tragus done next. I just can’t decide if I want to get both ears done or just one, and if one, which one. I might not though, I just read about how it might interfere with the use of ear buds. Hmmm…I’ll have to think some more. It’s a good thing I don’t get holes punched in my ears more often than once a year or longer.
I got some of my beading orders. I have the display racks for bracelets and earrings and the earring cards. They’re set aside and will go into a plastic box when I get one. I have more beads and tools. Alas, I ordered the wrong wire. I ordered 1/2 round. I should’ve ordered round. 1/2 round is shaped like it says. It works well for wire wrapping but not for other things. I’ve been playing with it regardless and done a few nice things. I ordered the round wire last night. I should arrive sometime next week. I got a new, metal jig. It’ll come in handy when I made chandelier earrings. I can also make my own hooks an closers with it.
I have a tool that I call the clapper. It’s two pieces of thick plastic, similar to what cutting boards are made of but somewhat harder. You put the metal work in between them and either use a hammer or hand, pound on the top piece. It helps to make the metal harder without damaging it.
I also have a neat tool that will allow me to make my own jump rings of various sizes as well as other round shapes with wire. I also have a pair of nylon tip pliers that will help me make scrolls without damaging the wire at all. Before I got this tool the pliers I used marred the wire. That makes oxidizing more likely. Of course, the wire I’ll be working with won’t oxidize as it will be surgical grade stainless steel.
I got some leopard skin jasper and aquamarine beads. They’re all quite lovely.
I’ve been looking at real estate in town for the past couple of weeks as well. It’s good to see that there are houses available that we’ll be able to afford once the will is settled and dispersed. We probably won’t end up in the area that Bran most desires. That tends to be an expensive area anyway, but prices are still coming down. It’s possible that by the time everything is ready (including us) we’ll be able to afford to buy in that area. There is one loft condo in an old warehouse that would be nice. 1800 square feet of living area. It’s out of our affordable range, but who knows? Maybe we’ll win the lottery, right?
I’m surprised at the number of new houses being built that don’t have things like closets at the front and back door. I mean, if you’re coming inside after gardening or even taking the trash out on a rainy day, don’t you want to have a place to put your shoes that isn’t in front of the fridge? If you have company come over, don’t you want a place to hang their coats? I just don’t understand that. So it’s a requirement for me, to have that.
Another annoyance to me is a fireplace. I mean, sure, they look good, but they interfere with furniture arrangement. I wouldn’t use a fireplace. When we had one at the last place we rented we only used it a couple of times. It was never used for heating. We finally put the couch in front of it because that’s where I wanted seating. That goes for those wood stoves too.
I like the idea of a galley kitchen. There are lots of houses that have that and then the eating area to the side. It’s similar to what many apartments have in terms of cooking/eating arrangement. It’s compact. The weird ones have the fridge or stove sitting all by themselves off to the side like little orphans. I want a surface next to the stove to put stuff if needs must.
You’ll get to see photos of the place we move into and of the yard. Chances are the yard will change because I’m not keen on grass. It’s a large monoculture space that lacks colour variety. Though I won’t take up the entire lawn immediately, I’ll work on making flower, vegetable and herb gardens larger and larger until there is little or no grass left. Perennials take less care than grass and are definitely prettier. Flowers encourage the population of pollinators like bees and butterflies. We need more of them in the world.
A friend is in town visiting. Right now she’s staying at other friends’ places but on Sunday she comes here. So I’ll be helping finish up the cleaning (the bathroom is long overdue) and getting laundry done. Laundry needs to be done anyway. We’re all kind of short on clothes.
That’s about it. I think I’m going to take apart some bracelets.
Today was another adventure in my life. Today I visited Saskatchewan Penitentiary, River Bend Institution and Willow Cree Healing Lodge to recruit new residents for the half-way house. The Pen wasn’t as intimidating as I’d anticipated. Maybe it was because I wasn’t there to be incarcerated or as a family member to visit an inmate. Let’s see…I’ll start at the beginning of the day and go from there.
First, I was awake at 6 am and was ready by 6:30. My ride arrived about 6:45. We drover her sister to a friend’s place and then we headed out of town. After a 2 hour drive we got to Prince Albert where the prison is, just on the edge of town. Prince Albert is a prison based town. Not only do they have the Pen, they have Willow Grove, the provincial jail for women and a men’s provincial jail.
Oh, I should do a little review about Canada the Criminal Code of Canada and prisons since many of my readers are not in Canada (and even Canadians don’t know their own legal system).
Canada doesn’t have the same kind of division of criminal laws that the United States has. The Criminal Code of Canada is the document that states what a crime in Canada is. The federal government is the body that determines criminal law. So it is Parliament that creates, votes on and establishes criminal law in Canada.
Criminal laws are divided into three different categories: summary offences, indictable offences and offences that could be either depending on the determination of the Crown Prosecutor. The Crown Prosecutor represents the government, much like the District Attorney does, but isn’t elected. They’re hired like any other civil servant.
Summary offences are ones that are less severe, petit theft, robbery without violence, and the like can be summary offences. These will receive community service, fines, probation or sentences that are two years less a day (with or without probation determined at sentencing). Indictable offences are more severe such as bank robbery, theft with a weapon/violence, assault causing bodily harm and murder. These offences result in sentences two years and over.
People who are sentenced to two years less a day are sent to provincial jails. They are run by the individual provinces and overseen by each province’s Department of Justice. These people will serve part of their sentence and then be released on probation (as opposed to parole) at their early release date.
People who are sentenced to two or more years are sent to a federal penitentiary. Right now a prisoner will have to serve at least 1/3 of their sentence in prison. That might be a maximum, medium or minimum facility. At 1/3 of their sentence they can apply to go on day parole. The parole board might decide to let them go on day parole or to hold them longer in the system. After a prisoner has served 2/3 of their sentence they are eligible for statutory release. This doesn’t mean they are released, just that they are eligible. Most prisoners with a finite sentence (if they didn’t get day parole) will be released on full parole at that time. Very few people are kept to their warrant expiry (end of their sentence) because CSC prefers to gradually reintegrate people back into society. It tends to be more successful that way.
The government has introduced a bill to Parliament that would get rid of accelerated parole (where day parole lasts only 1-2 months), statutory release is eliminated meaning that every prisoner will have to go through a day parole release or stay in prison to their warrant expiry and getting rid of 2X the time credit for time spent in remand. The theory behind 2X the time (2 days credit for every day spent in remand) is that remand is so unpleasant and restrictive that it counts for twice the time in a regular prison/jail). I worry that more men and women will spend their entire sentences in prison and be released into the community without any resources already set up (as they can on day parole) and without any adaptation to the outside. It’s as sure a way of setting people up for failure as the accelerated parole has been for many offenders.
The exception to this are those who are on life sentences. These people can also apply for parole, but they are rarely released on full parole straight out of the prison. The reason for this is that they have been inside for too long to cope effectively directly out of prison. No amount of watching television prepares a person for that amount of culture shock. People serving life sentences are released on day parole that will last 1 or more years at a half-way house. This is to help them get used to being out and allow for a more gradual reintegration into the community. If they are revoked for some reason (usually a breach of conditions such as drinking) they go back for a few years. They can apply for another round of day parole after they’ve been back in prison for a time. We’ve had a couple of guys a few times on day parole who are lifers who went back and were released again on day parole.
There are also a fewer number of people who are released after 2/3 of their sentence on statutory release with a residency requirement. This means that they have to live at a half-way house as a condition of their release. They have a few more rules to follow, but it functions, for all intents and purposes, the same as day parole except that they have to check in for all meals and stay during the ½ hour meal time.
The people we spoke to at the prisons weren’t just offenders. We also presented what we do to in-house parole officers. They are expecting to get more Section 84 releases (Aboriginal offenders who want to be released to places that have cultural sensitivity and/or programs in place and are Section 84 approved by CSC) from Sask Pen. We’ve already had several from Willow Cree, which isn’t surprising considering is a Healing Lodge for Aboriginal offenders. Anyway having the in-house parole officers more acquainted with our place means that they will be more likely to refer people to our place. This helps them direct offenders who are coming up to their day parole release decide where to go. We saw only 1 man at Sask. Pen, about 8 or 9 at River Bend and 4 at Willow Cree.
So now you know the population of offenders that I work with.
Now, onto the prisons. Sask. Pen. wasn’t quite as intimidating as I thought it would be. I expected razor wire on top of the 99 year old tall walls. The wire was on the inner yards, but not the exterior tall brick walls. You can Google pictures if you want. The front door was just a regular door. There is a sliding locked door that closes this off when they open the door to the prison itself. This prevents any prisoners inside that door (that’s where intake and outgo are ) from bolting and trying to escape. Then you walk through a metal detector that shows the level of your body that metal is. The metal of the underwire of my bra set it off was well as my volume of earrings. Across from this are were two people in a central area who monitored the prison yards on cameras. We went through a door there and then to a meeting room where we spoke to the parole officers and to an offender who was interested in coming to our half-way house. After that, we had a short tour of the facility.
The majority of prisoners housed at PA are medium to maximum security. They have two gang ranges one on the main floor tier and the other on the third floor tier on opposite sides of the quad. When each of the gang tiers are out the entire quad area movement is closed down. This prevents the gangs from being able to recruit people and equally importantly, not fight each other. So when one gang pod is taken to meals or to exercise the other pods (rows/tiers) are locked down. They have one that consists of people who require extra security to protect them. This can be high profile sex offenders, child molesters and/or people with psychiatric issues. There are two general population ranges, two ranges of older men (40 and over and 50 and over) and segregation as well. Most of the people in this building (a very large building) were medium security prisoners. One of the parole officers we spoke to would’ve rated them at high medium security.
We didn’t go into the maximum security building. That’s where the special handling unit (or SHU) used to be. They no longer have the SHU at that facility. That’s in Edmonton. We were shown where programs, Aboriginal programs and workshops were. All in all a very interesting tour.
There was only one loud clanging door like I expected to hear all over the institution. That was the door off the front foyer to the admissions and out-go. Apparently there are a whole lot more of them in the maximum security building.
Next we went to River Bend. That’s the minimum security facility at PA. It used to be a farm growing vegetables and breeding animals, running a piggery and a dairy farm as well as chicken/egg production. The farm ceased operation about a year ago. The farm operations will be replaced with more trades training that will give the prisoners the necessary skills to get a job in the outside world. While working on the farm kept the men occupied and provided food for the facility (as well as other facilities including half-way houses) the work they did there didn’t give them skills to get jobs anywhere other than a farm. How much call is there for people to grade eggs, work on dairies, or muck barns?
This was a more relaxed facility. There are 17 houses where anywhere from 6 to 8 men live. Each house (literally) has a bedroom for each man, a kitchen and living room area. The men buy their own food, cook for themselves and clean their own living spaces. The only cameras in this area focus on the main yard. There are no fences around this facility to hold people in. The men aren’t there to make trouble for themselves. It’s atmosphere was more like ours. From the meeting we had with the prisoners there we’re likely to get more people from there. Most of our residents come from River Bend.
After we had lunch (not very good Chinese food – I rarely get gas from Chinese food that doesn’t tofu in it, today I did) we headed to Willow Cree. Willow Cree is a minimum security facility located on a reserve. The staff are nearly all Aboriginal. Elders were hired to help facilitate the healing of men who were damaged by residential schools (the root of enormous pain for Aboriginal people and their communities) and younger men who are affected by the generational cycle of abuse rooted in the harm done by residential schools and the federal government’s policies aimed at getting rid of the Aboriginal people covered under the Indian Act. It’s a very long and tragic story for Aboriginal people and a massive black scar on the image of Canada being a place where human rights are purportedly respected. Since we’d had a tour last year at the AGM hosted in Saskatoon we didn’t need one today. We talked to several men who were interested in coming to Saskatoon. Their acceptance at our half-way house is nearly guaranteed as they will be minimum security and come to us under Section 84.
Then it was a 1 hour drive back to town and home.
All in all it was a very nice, informative and interesting day. I very much enjoyed meeting the people I met and look forward to going back sometime in the future. Next time my co-worker will be going up with the Director. I hope she enjoys her trip as much as I did mine.
All the news that’s fit to print (and some that isn’t).
Direct from The Star Phoenix July 5, 2010, Page 4 (Local News)
Man charged in city shooting
A man wanted on charges related to a June 6 shooting was arrested Saturday.
The Saskatoon Police emergency response team assisted in the arrest of Wray Lyle Musqua at an address in the 200 block of 26th Street West at approximately 5:20 p.m.
Musqua faces eight Criminal Code charges related to a shooting that occurred on the 400 block of Vancouver Avenue North. A 21-year-old victim was shot in the head and was still in hospital in serious condition as of last week. Police said previously that the incident was not a random act of violence, and both the suspect and victim were known to each other.
We don’t often get shootings here. It’s usually assault with whatever’s handy to hit someone with – chair, bat, pipe – or stabbing someone with a knife (or in one case in June, a bbq fork). I mean, this is the country where a man broke into the Prime Minister’s residence and threatened him with a plastic fork. His attempt to assassinate Mr. Cretien was foiled when Mme. Cretien shut and locked the door. (It was a great embarrassment to the RCMP that the guy was able to get so close to the leader of the country). Gun play is definitely not the norm. That explains why it was the ERT that went in.
In weather related news, June was a wet month. Our usual rainfall is just a bit over 2 inches. This past June was a bit over 5 inches.
I got to go to the parole office today. It was somewhat different from the grey neutrals I’d expected. The carpet was a blue colour as were the walls (light blue) and the partitions (dark blue). The parole officers all have offices of their own instead of cubicles like the had in their old offices (so I was told as I’d never been there). I got to use the boss’s umbrella as it was raining (no surprise there) again and I didn’t wear a jacket or have an umbrella of my own. I didn’t expect to go anywhere other than the car. It was a lovely walk, though somewhat warm.
Today was report day to that’s what most of my day (save the hour at parole) was spent doing. Then it was off to the safety and security of my home…without the guy who shot someone even though I didn’t know he was there until today.
My trip to Edmonton was quite pleasurable. It would have been better if I’d had my own room. I’ll go into details of that later.
Edmonton is a 4-5 hour trip from Saskatoon. It’s the capital of the province of Alberta. It boasts many things including an extremely large indoor mall, many acres of wilderness within the city, a large research hospital (attached to the University of Alberta) and forward looking recycling program attempting to keep upwards of 90% of the waste out of the landfill.
We stayed at the Varscona Hotel on Whyte (though the address is on 106 St NW). Whyte Avenue is a very long avenue with many small boutiques, coffee shops, specialty stores and small restaurants. We have an area like that on Broadway Avenue. Whyte Avenue is about a gagillion miles longer.
The stay at the hotel was meh. The beds were too soft and so my back suffered from that. It was a standard spring mattress so that meant that there were areas of pressure on my ribs and hips that made for very uncomfortable spots on my body. There were no fans in the bathrooms. This meant that the mirror got very steamed up and other bathroom activities (if you get my drift) hung around like an unwanted neighbour. Let’s just say I used more public facilities to save my roommates. I shared with two other women. I ended up with my own bed because Bran was right, I am a bed hog…and I snore…but I didn’t have my own pillow so I get cut slack (in my mind if nowhere else) for that.
The conference room ranged from too warm in one area to too chilly in another. The chairs (having to sit in them for 4 hours on Wednesday, 7 hours on Thursday then again another 3 on Friday) were horrible. My butt was so sore.
The complimentary continental breakfast was the usual. A variety of muffins, bagels, croissants, danishes and other carb laden foods were available for free along with coffee, tea, and juice. Nothing like creating a carb coma before sitting for 3 hours. I minimized what I ate as I wanted to make it through without doing a face plant on the table.
The venue was chosen by the board because they liked it so much when they had their meeting there earlier in the year. I can’t think why. I’m sure there were other, more comfortable hotels in Edmonton to choose from.
The AGM was boring, pretty much like all AGMs are. The saving factor was that part was very short. The rest of the three days ranged from amusing to ok, to really excellent. I learned about how the Edmonton Police handle people who are being supervised under section 810 and 820 of the Criminal Code. There was some really good information about what is involved in testifying in court and an excellent presentation by a CSC psychologist about dealing with gang members.
We went to West Edmonton Mall and was suitably impressed by its size, the number of stores, the displays and activities and wore out my feet. I’ll load up pictures I took of the trip and the mall sometime soon. They’re on my computer, I just don’t have the energy to do the editing right now. Here’s a video of the fire breathing dragon at the ScotiaBank Theatre.
The food courts were something to behold. There was all kinds of ethnic foods from two Japanese places (one sushi one noodles), Chinese (Szechuan and dim sum), three Greek paces, the ubiquitous fast food places, crepes, and so much more. The second night we were there we went to the food court and then on to doing separate things (in my case, shopping for a new shirt because I underpacked). That night I had curry chick peas (to DIE for), potato and cauliflower and nan bread. This was a bit of a tactical error on my part as I’m no longer used to legumes anymore and it had the usual unfortunate side effects. Happily there were no fatalities.
Then my co-worker and I wandered the mall looking in various stores (she underpacked as well) for tops. I found Cotton Ginny. They have “plus” sizes for fat women like me and everything they sell (except for lingerie) is made of cotton, organic cotton at that. I got two blouses for a total of $25. They were on sale and then had 30% taken off that. It was great. If I had more money I would have spent more money.
Then we went to a place called Millenium that sells knives and swords, spiky leather jewelry and boots, black clothing (most if it having metal studs and the like on it), incense, trolls and dragons and other neat stuff. That’s where I picked up an incense sample pack for Bran. It was created by the same people who make his favourite Nag Champa. I also got a poster of Zombie Survival Guide for Boy (to go with the book I bought at Chapters the day before). I loved that store though one of the sales clerks was a bit freaked out and didn’t approve of me being in there. You should’ve seen her face when I asked what was the largest size boot they sell. Yeah, I was looking for Boy. They also had a great pair with spikes on the toes that my supervisor (and me and my co-worker) thought would be fabulous additions to the “ass kicking line” we’d like to have.
I swear I walked at least 10 miles in the two shopping trips to that mall, probably more. The first night I wore thongs (flip-flops to the dirty minded young folk out there). I didn’t make that mistake a second time and wore sandals. On Friday morning my calves were very stiff.
I wish I had more money though. I could’ve gone nuts in Cotton Ginny and there was another store for fat women there that I didn’t even look into (it was on the second level and we were on the first when I saw it on Thursday evening – by then we were pretty worn out).
The trip to and from were fun. There was all kinds of work chat that we don’t get a chance to do when we’re at work. The scenery was prairie lovely including a really neat cloud bank that turned out to be a fog bank with dark clouds above it. I have a photo of it, but I couldn’t do it justice through the window of a moving car, mostly because trees kept getting in the way. There was water galore because of the extremely we spring we’ve had. (As a side note, apparently it’s extremely difficult to get mosquito repellent in Saskatoon. My co-worker had to pick up some in Edmonton.) On the way home I played Trivial Pursuit on my supervisor/co-worker’s phone. I think she won more than I did, but at least I won some.
When I got home the paperwork for the enduring power of attorney was here. Since I didn’t get home until after 6 pm on Friday we (Bran and I) went to bank branch and took care of it on Saturday afternoon. It was fairly painless as far as legal paperwork goes. Now I’m registered to be the conjoined legal twin to my sister in terms of Dad’s business.
Someone in Saskatchewan won $25 million. That takes my odds down from 1 in however many billion/million to 1 in around 900,000. I’m not quitting my day job though.
Behind the cut is a brief rundown of the talk I learned most in. (more…)
Well, I’ve done some processing of my visit to see Dad this past weekend. I don’t like processing. It implies feelings and I don’t do them very well.
What it all boils down to is that Dad’s mental condition is such that he’s not going to go home again. His needs far outstrip my brother’s capability of caring for him. Dad needs 24/7 care. My brother would have to have someone come in and, in essence, babysit Dad just so that grocery shopping and the like could be done.
I think the most painful thing for me was to see Dad, in his moments of clarity (and there were few of them) didn’t realize the state he was in. It’s better for him, I know. I mean, it would break him to know the state he’s in. But it brought home to me just how bad he is if even in times of relative clarity, he can’t recognize things. The weirdest thing was he remembered Bran’s name. I’m not sure he remembered it more than a hand full of times since we’ve been married in 1986.
Dad’s short term memory is shot. If you leave the room and come back he’ll greet you like he’s not seen you for an age. His cognitive abilities are damaged. He can’t keep track of conversations. He regresses in his memory, thinking that the entire family is at home or remembering my sister or oldest brother as living in Saskatoon.
Physically he’s very feeble. This man, who used to walk upwards of 10 miles a day doing errands can’t walk 10 feet without losing balance. His strides are about 1 foot.
He’s totally preoccupied with his watch and time. When he first arrived at the hospital the nurses took it from him (as they do with all jewelry in ER) and it distressed him enough that they gave it back to him. He told them that he was a navigator in the war and precise time was very important to him.
The practicalities are taken care of thanks to him creating a power of attorney for my sister and I. He thought that was what was needed in case of his death. It’s a good thing he had it drawn up because now we don’t have to go to the work of a competency hearing and such. The down side is that neither my sister nor I live in Dad’s city. We’ll be doing things as a team. That’s how the power of attorney works. Anything that needs to be signed needs both our signatures.
Interestingly, a power of attorney ends at death, so it would have done no good then. The business of the decedent is handed over to the executors (again my sister and myself) to dissolve, pay taxes and distribute the estate. However, it’s a damn good thing it was made up to take care of things now.
So that’s how things are right now. My sister is mailing up some paperwork for me to take care of when I get back from Edmonton at the end of the week.
Speaking of Edmonton…I have to be at the office at 6:30 am. (0630 – for those on the 24 hour clock). I’ve got most of my stuff gathered together but not packed up. I’ll be doing my showering in the evening before we go anywhere (if we do) tomorrow evening and Thursday) I imagine the other 2 women will want to shower in the morning. This saves some congestion at the bathroom.
XMarks saved my ass today. One of the things I regularly do (once every few months or so) is manage to delete a folder of bookmarks. Usually it’s a folder of folders of bookmarks that get lost. XMarks saves my ass each time. I don’t know when I did it, but sometime after I read blogs and when I noticed they were gone, I deleted my blogs folder. That meant that every single blog I read as well as all the sites I use for graphics, Flickr and more were gone too. XMarks gives you the ability to download older bookmarks versions that were synchronized previously. So that’s what I did and now I can read all the blogs that allow me to read them. If you don’t have something like XMarks, then you need to seriously get something. It also means that if you’re away from your computer and you want to read your comics, or blogs or find that site for something you want to show someone, then having a service like XMarks is a good thing.
Working on the weekend sucks, but there was no one else available. One of my co-workers has been ill for a few days. She tried to make it through the entire shift, but wasn’t. I got a call at about 3 pm yesterday from the boss asking me to save him from going in to work. I figured I’d go in. We worked it out that I’ll be taking the hours as time in lieu after my holidays. I work days that week so the counsellor can work two shifts for me.
I realized yesterday that I did have enough holiday time accrued to take a full two weeks. My brain screwed up the calculations. However, because of working this weekend I get two days off with pay that I wouldn’t have had otherwise. My boss is beholden to me (well, not really, but it’s nice to think that way sometimes) and the residents get someone who can cook and not burn the french fries.
My first Pride Parade (with photos) was yesterday. I went with Bran, Michelle and Boy. I had some worries about being out in a crowd, but all in all I did not too badly. I didn’t march though. Bran and Michelle did. Boy kept me company in the shade (and despite this I still had a bit of a sun burn from the walk to and from the parade). I came home with a silicone rainbow pride bracelet and a rainbow streamer for our back yard, when we get one of our very own, with a fence, out of the city, on an acreage, away from people…sense a theme?
I should have taken a spot along the parade route. That way I could’ve gotten lots of excellent photos of the entire parade instead of the mob scene at the end. However, I didn’t so you get to see the best of the crap I took.
The very front of the parade:
Some of the marchers (love the kiss):
There were also teachers marching holding up signs saying things about non-hostile workplaces, equality and such. It was good to see that kind of support. There was also a GSA group from one of the high schools (oddly enough, not Boy’s though I think some of their members marched).
The float for The Avenue Community Centre for Gender and Sexual Diversity, Inc.
One of the queens on the Avenue Centre’s float:
These two drove the truck pulling one of the floats. I can’t remember which one. I think it was the Boyz float:
Speaking of boyz:
Last but not least are Mrs. and Mr. Gay Regina:
Those are some bodacious tatas.
After the parade I took some flower photos on the way home. One of them was a very neat purple and yellow flower that resembled an orchid. However, it was growing outside in Saskatchewan. I don’t know of any domesticated orchids that do that. I took a photo of it, but it was very grainy.
Here are the other ones I took:
A dandelion in full fluff:
This was taken with my point-and-shoot Fuji Film digital camera that Bran bought for me with Shoppers Optimum points. It works pretty darned well, don’t you think?
My niece knows the name of this purple daisy flower, but I don’t. The only thing that could have made this photo better is if a honey or bumble bee were on the daisy.
Another macro shot, this time of a flower that is either part of a tree or of a plant growing up the tree. Either way, the flower is quite pretty (prettier than the photo). There’s also one blooming on the ground, which is why I thought maybe it wasn’t a bloom from the tree itself.
And finally, some horticultural porn, just for you. I wouldn’t display such nastiness for just anyone. Spread that pollen, baby!
Yesterday was the first full day of sunshine we’ve gotten in weeks. It’s sunny again today. It’s quite a change from the rather drab, rainy days of the past months. I’ve heard many people comment on how relieved they are that the sun is out again. Certainly the ground is saturated through. Last night Bran and I saw some rather deep ruts caused by someone missing their turn and going up onto the grassy boulevard. Judging from the depth of the ruts, they didn’t get out of there without help.
So that’s it. I have to go to a building check soon, so have a good Sunday…or what’s left of it.
I went to my first Pride Parade today. I have photos but they haven’t been edited yet.
I got a silicon bracelet (rainbow, of course) and a rainbow windsock. I want a rainbow umbrella. I found out who makes them and will be looking on line for them.
I had to work today. Well, I didn’t have to. I chose to. One of the weekend staff was ill and couldn’t finish her shift. So I worked 5 hours. I’ll also be working her shift tomorrow. I’ll be taking time in lieu for the 17 hours I work. I can live with that.
I have a kitty on my left shoulder. Ok, I had a kitty on my left shoulder. She abandoned me. It was nice hearing her creaky purr in my ear.
It turns out I don’t have enough holiday pay banked up to take two full weeks off. So come July I’ll be taking only one week. That’s ok. I’ll take more time later in the year or else just keep working until next summer and take two weeks off then, or three right after month end is done.
I finally got totally frustrated with the left under wire of my bra and took it out. Then I felt lop-sided. It was a weird feeling having one wire supporting and the other one sort of, well, not. It’s all moot now since I had Bran set free the boobies.
It’s raining. Again. In the past three weeks I think we’ve had two or three sunny days. The rest were overcast and rainy. According to Environment Canada, Saskatchewan has received record rainfall for April and May this year. June is following the trend. I don’t mind rain but our golf umbrella is now dust (it was old and wearing out anyway) and we don’t have a replacement yet. I’m hoping that there will be rainbow umbrellas available at the Pride Parade on Saturday (predicted to be mostly sunny – cross your fingers, ok?)
Work is going smoothly. It’s been a nice quiet week after last week’s high stress. Tuesday evening saw our boss buy a passel of Chinese food for supper. You bet that I was there noshing down. It was quite yummy. The deep fried shrimp could have been better though, but their special chow mien was really yummy.
It’s murder and mayhem night. Bran needs me to go along with him to take Boy to work and we’re going to pick up some Japanese (ish) food from Edo’s and bring it home to eat. Then I’ll continue on watching First 48s. There’s a new one tonight and I’m quite looking forward to it.
Speaking of television…as a family we discussed getting rid of Max (the telephone company’s version of cable tv) because we really don’t watch enough of it to make it worth having. When Bran called to cancel it they made him an offer to have basic Max and the package that has A&E for free for 6 months. He figured that was ok. So I still get my bi-weekly dose of murder and mayhem. We can also watch some of the network television should we want to.
I’m a whole lot less tired than I have been the past nights. I made it to 10 pm last night so was able to sleep right through to my alarm rather than waking up at midnight, two or three o’clock. Of course it happens late in the week when I get used to working days. It’s just in time to shift my sleep patterns so I can work evenings next week.
In two weeks I’ll be in Edmonton for the AGM. I have books to read on the trip and after in the hotel room. I have music as well. Since we’re driving I’m taking my computer. That will allow me to charge up my player. I just have to find the proper cord to do that. I don’t know if I’ll be able to access any wireless internet at the hotel we’re staying at so I might be off the grid for a few days.
That’s about all that’s been happening in my life. I hope that next week is as quiet as this week has been. It’d be nice after my last week of evenings.
