On protection and politics

I went to a local bike store to buy a new helmet last week. While I am not sure my head hit anything during the collision, I am also not sure that it hit nothing. When in doubt, buy a new helmet. I was quite happy with the Specialized Align II model, so I was looking for "The same, again." The store had one in my size in stock but it was matte black which was exactly the colour I didn't want. So instead, I went about getting the store to order one in an appropriate colour. My first choice would have been the same "safety ion" high visibility green as my previous few helmets, but that would only be available in November. I settled on "deep orange".

I have been working my way through Star Trek : Deep Space Nine on DVD. There was one episode which really caught my attention. It is titled "Melora". It features a certain Ensign Melora arriving on the Deep Space Nine station. She is a member of a species that evolved on a low gravity world and needs external mechanical apparatus in the form of an exoskeleton and a wheelchair to exist comfortably on the station. She is rather determined to be as independent as possible and abruptly refuses various offers of help as well as taking offense at legitimate expressions of concern. As someone who is currently handicapped, I empathized with her and sensed her frustrations at having to explain herself, again. About 30 years ago, someone told me that the character had first been written as a permanent cast member who would represent the physically handicapped but for various reasons, the idea was rejected but later revived as a guest character. Anybody who tells you that the current Star Trek series are "woke" has missed the point that Star Trek has always been socially progressive.

Today is election day here in the True North, Strong and Free. The co-worker who gives me lifts was happy to drop me off opposite the high school where my polling station was. For one thing, it meant that she would have a simpler drive home. I was a little surprised that the polling station was in a part of the high school that I had not previously been to, namely a second floor gym. It was accessible via an elevator, but I could not be bothered to walk the extra distance. It was much simpler to climb the stairs. The election worker at the top of the stairs tried to encourage me to fill out a comment form prior to voting. However, I again couldn't be bothered so I simply voted for the Sensible Party and left via the stairs. The same election worker tried to direct me to the elevator.

On oddities and ointments

Short version: 

This evening, I had my first bath since at least the 1st of September 2023.

Longer version:  

After patient waiting, I have enjoyed the pleasure of being immersed in hot water since the accident. It was not something I did lightly. I'd done a (literal) dress rehearsal or dry run a couple of weeks ago to see how easy it would be for me to get out of the tub. I also made sure that a number of aids were to hand, such as my transfer bench, a step stool and my smartphone. The latter had a dual purpose, namely recording the event and being there to call for help if I needed it. Speaking of the former purpose:

It was a bit weird as my left leg and foot seem to have altered or reduced sensitivity to heat and cold. Indeed, at times my left foot felt oddly cold. It reminded me of the sensation you get after frostbite. Given that the foot didn't get directly damaged, I suspect there is some sort of mild nerve damage. The experience was also odd as it wasn't obvious how to turn myself in order to submerse my chest in my rather shallow bathtub. When I move to a new place, it will have a deeper bathtub.

Now, to make up the other "O", I should go and apply ointments to various parts of my body.

On navigation and nationalism

I wrote this returning from Ottawa after a short visit. In fact it might be qualified as a “revisit” as it mostly covered things I didn’t have time or energy for during my last visit! Mostly, this was shopping for books and DVDs. This involved a fair bit of driving around Ottawa and consequently, navigating around Ottawa. The car I had rented (which may or may not have been the same one I had rented in January) first proved reluctant to connect with my iPhone. Once I had made it connect, it turned out that I couldn’t use the iPhone’s navigation system to display on the car’s large display. Net result: I had to navigate with a combination of paper maps, pen scratching assisted by Google Maps.

I had identified several stores around Ottawa and printed a list. I then marked them on a free but limited map of downtown Ottawa and a better but larger scale map that I bought at Canadian Tire. Google Maps was handy in locating where the stores were on the maps which I marked in pen. I would then use the maps to do the actual navigation. I used a principal which I think of as simplified street navigation. Rather than follow an optimized Google Maps route, I  chose to use streets in such a way that minimized the number of turns to be negotiated. It more or less worked for me. One slight problem was that I wasn’t used to the scale of the map vis-à-vis the scale of Ottawa:  I found that I was overestimating the distances involved.

One bit of shopping that I didn’t need maps for was visiting an LCBO to get some Screech, currently unavailable from the SAQ. In the shop, I saw an ad for the launching of a drink inspired by the Trailer Park Boys TV show. The three main actors would be there as their characters. I was nonplussed by this having been the victim of a driver from a trailer park in the Maritimes with a history of substance abuse including alcohol. I’m half-tempted to go back to Ottawa and crash the event.

An added distraction was the sight of various building, among the most bizarre being one that first caught my attention by the incongruous sight of a large satellite dish on the roof of what looked like a grey stone convent. Getting closer, I saw that it was now the Chinese Embassy. I couldn’t help but remember a quote from Douglas Adams in Last Chance to See about hearing the theme from Hawaii Five-Oh being played in Tiananmen Square in 1988: “It was hard to avoid the feeling that somebody, somewhere, was missing the point. I couldn't even be sure it wasn't me.”

This morning, I sought a couple of stores on Bank Street in the Glebe. I found the street wonderfully eccentric and had I need to live in Ottawa, I would love to live in the Glebe neighbourhood. One note of this eccentricity was an add for an animated South American film that would apparently be shown at a special screening in the original Spanish. The film is based on comic character, and is named after him: Condorito : la Película.

The stores I sought didn’t have anything I really wanted, but there was a Flag Shop which had an indigenous variation on the Canadian flag which caught my eye. I went in to purchase one. While I was making the purchase, a pair of women came in and asked the sales clerk if the store had any combined Canadian and Mongolian flag pins! I commented that the combination was somewhat unusual. One of the women said that they had family who were to be posted to Mongolia.

If I may digress, when I bought a Driza-Bone riding coat in Sydney, Australia back in 2011, I was given an Australian-Canadian flag pin. The lady in that shop said they had a stock of such pins for likely countries. Hence, dual flag pins are a thing. However, I would give you good odds that the shop in Oz didn’t have Australia-Mongolia pins! 

After lunch, I visited the Canada Agriculture Food Museum at the Experimental Farm. I was a bit disappointed that there was only limited amount of space devoted to explaining crops rather than livestock. I would have loved to find out more about boring crops such as wheat, oats and barley. The only crop that was covered in any detail was Canola, a crop that the Experimental Farm had a hand in developing.

A ewe with her four lambs

I did have fun “annoying” the sheep by saying “Miiiiinnnnt saaaauuuuuce”. I also loved petting the lambs and sheep. One of the ewes, a Canadian Arcott, had given birth to four lambs this year. All four were penned with their dam. I don’t know exactly how the ewe sorts out who gets fed first, sheep only having two teats, but the lambs looked like they were thriving. I loved watching the lambs nurse as their tails seem to indicate pure joy. By the way, the breed term “Arcott” is an acronym for “Animal Research Centre in Ottawa”.

A Canadian horse

A Newfoundland pony

RCMP surplus Hanoverian

The Horse and Cattle barn housed both an elderly Canadian horse, age 29, and a Newfoundland pony. Next to the Newfoundland pony was an RCMP surplus Hanoverian. I teased one of the museum employees about the bull in the barn being angered by red as both she and I were wearing red jackets. She explained that cattle can’t actually see the colour red, something that I knew full well.

In the building with historical displays, there was a small section describing a traditional Jamaican Christmas pudding recipe. There was an element of conspicuous inclusivity to it. There was also something in the recipe that reminded me of a recipe provided by a Jamaican-Canadian girlfriend of my brother Stephen. Or rather something that wasn’t in the recipe. There was a reference to adding alcohol marinated fruit to the pudding, but no reference as to the quantities of fruit and alcohol required. The recipe in from my brother’s girlfriend also left out an important ingredient.

Between the Orange Menace (a.k.a. Putin’s Puppet) having upset the established global trade rules the night before and the fact that I was in my nation’s capital, I was feeling somewhat patriotic. Also, a bit silly, as driving towards the car rental place, I mentally described the various government buildings I passed as being guarded by pairs of highly trained RCMP cobra chickens. As well, I stopped at the Canadian Science and Technology Museum to visit its gift shop as it was next to the car rental place. A larger family was boarding an SUV. I was a little perturbed to see that it had an Arkansas license plate. The state’s slogan was “The Natural State”, something that I really didn’t associate with it. As I got back in the car, I noticed a woman directing an SUV into a parking spot with aircraft marshaling type hand signals. This caused me to laugh out loud attracting her attention and causing her to exaggerate her motions even further.

Unlike my previous experiences at Ottawa’s train station (all three of them), this evening’s trip left from the nearest platform to the station. Unlike the other platform, this one was raised so as to allow high level boarding. That is boarding straight into the train without having to negotiate a set of stairs. This is makes life much easier for those with mobility issues or luggage. As I currently have both, I couldn’t help but wonder why the hell Via Rail doesn’t have more of such platforms.

My taxi from Central Station home feature a blue disco type light inside for no real reason other than the driver thought is was a good idea.