Family Doctor

Every day of the last week of August, when I was at the clinic with Jerome for the change of his dressing, I stopped into the office of the lady who's responsible for the making the schedule of the new doctor. I wanted to know when the schedule would be ready...she said Spetember 1st (that's not a Monday which is the day on which she had previously said she made her schedules). So each day I poked my head in her office, to get her to confirm "Mercredi prochain?"..."Oui", she'd reply. So, early Wednesday morning, Michele and I showed up at her office and managed to get an appointment for the entie family. Yeah!! Jerome and I will be up first on September 14th.

Family Doctor 2nd Update

Michele called the clinic again today and was told the schedule has not yet been made for the new doctor at the clinic and suggests we try again in September. Aye yi yi!

Family Doctor Update

So, Michele called on Friday to find out if the schedule had been done so that we would know whether to show up at the clinic on Monday (yesterday) to schedule an appointment with the new doctor. Once again, the schedule had not yet been done and they still won't create a waiting list of those waiting for a chance to be assigned a family doctor. How hard can it be to make a schedule? So, another week passes without success.

Family Doctor

Michele and I arose at 05:30 yesterday in order to be near the front of the line at the clinic. When we arrived at the clinic at 06:30, there were already about 40 people waiting ahead of us. The clinic opened at 08:00 and, as it turned out, almost everyone was waiting for blood tests. So, Michele and I were near the front of the line for the inscriptions with the new doctor...turns out that although yesterday was supposed to be the day for inscribing new patients, the available appointment schedule had not yet been set up. Such bureaucratic inefficiency is typical within our medical civil service. We were told to come back next Monday by which time they "hoped" to have the schedule ready. Recently, the Quebec government announced their intention to pay with public funds for in vitro fertilization. We can't afford to boost our population of doctors, but we can afford this. The clinics are now in panic mode because they cannot keep up with the "in vitro" demand and the OBGN's are warning that there definitely won't be enough of them to meet the anticipated wave of pregnancies nine months from now ad infinitum. It has been speculated that this recent decison by the government is nothing more than a shallow attempt to gain more of the women's votes. Just another example of Quebec tax dollars going to good use.

Wales

More photos available at http://picasaweb.google.com/dcrowe2/Wales#

On May 16th, I flew to Cardiff via Amsterdam to discuss a business plan for a possible laytime service company. On that particular day, the airports at both Cardiff and Amsterdam were closed due to volcanic ash drifting from Iceland. So,the plane was redirected to Frankfurty where KLM organized a bus to drive us to Amsterdam. By the time we got there, Cardiff had reopened, and I was able to catch the final flight to Cardiff within 30 minutes of the bus' arrival. Michele arrived on the 20th at which point we rented a car and headed off to Pembrokeshire for 4 days of hiking along the coastal trails near St Davids. After dropping the car back in Cardiff, we took the train north to Bangor where we caught the bus to Llanberis and then another bus to the Pen-Y-Gwyrd Hotel in Snowdonia within hiking distance of the summit at Snowdon, the UL's highest peak. There we enjoyed another 3 days of hiking in the craggy sheep filled hills. Weather was great and unusually warm and dry. Returned home on May 29th without incident and now busy with imposing some sense of unnatural domesticated control over the garden which has a propensity to go wild when not closely attended.

Busted

On Monday, Apr.26, I decided to take advantage of the nice weather before our trip to Wales to repair the lawn and to plant a couple of decorative pots. So, I made a mix of peat moss, black soil and grass seed and spread it over the damaged areas of the lawn, and purchased a new hisbiscus bush and a laurel tree. There were weather wanings of snow for the next day, but I thought, "how bad can it be?"...the weather was hitting the high teens for several days now, and if it snowed, it wouldn't be a lot, right? I woke up on Tuesday morning, and, indeed, it was snowing, and it kept snowing (non-stop) the entire day. I dragged the hibiscus pot into the garage, but the laurel was immovable (save for digging it up again which I really didn't want to do)...so, I went out a few times to brush off the accumulating snow under which the delicate branches were drooping. On Wednesday, temperatures rose again to 19C...Tuesday's weather was a pure fluke, and I got caught trying to dodge nature's whims too early. Live and learn.

First lawn mowing of the year

Rose at 04:00 in order to drive Helene to Longueuil where she would meet her lift to Quebec city at 05:30. Today, I mowed the lawn for the first time this year. There are a few spots that need to be augmented with seed and soil. Went cycling with Michele in the afternoon. Bought a travel guide for Wales at Indigo, hiking boots (with Jerome's employee discount) at Sail, Michele bought a skirt at Winners and groceries for supper.