On duty and dogs

By luck and my sense of duty, when I left on my fateful vacation in August of 2023, I had left my work more or less up to date. There was nothing truly outstanding. I had several electronic carts of DVDs and Blu-Rays lined up for purchase for the various upcoming months in which they would become available. Most were relatively obvious or non-essential. This was good as it made it easy for my superior at work to take over in my forced absence. However, there was a certain exception. This was the recent movie “Golda” starring Helen Mirren as the titular character Golda Meir, prime minister of Israel during the Yom Kippur War. It was due out in October and programming department wanted it for a screening in December. I take a certain pride in my work, so I actually phoned my superior to ask her to make sure she ordered it.

When I returned to work in July, I discovered that the Library’s usual supplier had decided not to get it, despite the fact that they had advertised it as “coming soon” at one point. What with the effort of restarting work, I didn’t pursue the matter any further.

For some reason, on Friday, my last day of work before the holidays, I looked it up on Amazon and was surprised to see that they were selling it. I immediately asked my superior if the Library might buy it once we are authorized to order things in the new year. She said she would have to get approval from the Director of the Library as are all purchases from Amazon. Pleasingly, she approved it more or less immediately. I felt like I had been given an early Christmas gift, as my sense of duty had been fulfilled.

After work, the Library held its Christmas staff party. At one point, the Director was sitting beside me, so I made a point of thanking her for her prompt decision. In the following conversation, it came out that she had thought I was asking to purchase the older movie “A woman called Golda”. However, when I enlightened her, she was intrigued and asked if the movie was available through Netflix. I confessed I didn’t know. When I told the story to Saint Michael the Holy Mole the following day, he asked the same question which only goes to show that I am behind the times as far as digital media is concerned.

(Please note that the opinions stated above are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer.)

On Sunday, I drove over to James’ house to deliver Christmas presents and to see his parents, currently living in his basement as Judy, his mother, is terminally ill. I was greeted by Jennifer as well as Duffy, James’ dog and Rufus, James’ his parents’ dog, respectively. Both dogs are terriers or at least mostly terriers. As bad luck would have it, the pants I was wearing didn’t fit well over my external fixation and thus my lower left leg was very exposed to their noses. They both tried to lick my wounds despite the best efforts of various people, including myself. Both Duffy and Rufus are nice enough dogs though somewhat undisciplined.

I made my way carefully down the stairs, for as luck would have it, it was a good day for Judy so she was able to receive me. I hadn’t seen her in over two years. It had been over a year since I had seen Robin when he came to visit me during my first stay at the Montreal General. We had a very nice chat and caught up on various subjects. I was very pleased to be able to see Judy as I may not have another opportunity.

On cookies and crutch tips

Owing to the postal strike, I volunteered to bake some hazelnut shortbreads and take them to my Aunt Helle on behalf of my cousin Kristine. I had wanted to also take some to my Aunt Suzanne "Who is so Nice" but she was busy today. 

(Her demurral email was extremely kind making reference to a night when I gone to her and my uncle Donald's house at Margo's behest when Suzanne thought she was having a heart attack. I ended up staying the night to watch over Donald while she was being checked out at a hospital. In the end, it was determined she was "only" stressed out.)

Anyway, I booked a car from Communauto to make the delivery and used the opportunity to go out to Medicus, the big medical supply store on Sherbrooke Street East to see if they had good replacement crutch tips as the two previous pairs I had bought from pharmacies had worn out far too quickly. I found sturdier ones at the store. I double checked with a staff member that they were the right caliber, before waiting to pay for them. The cashier first asked if a member of the staff had helped me. I said that someone had, but all I had needed was confirmation of the size. I casually indicated person in question. He then came over and offered to install them. As my tips were quite worn, I accepted. I waited in a chair for a few minutes while he did the work. When he came back, I checked to see if the "crampons" still fitted over the tips. This was prompted by the fact that I had used them that morning as Montreal has just received ts first major snowfall of the winter. The new tips were slightly longer so the crampons need to be adjusted. The man cheerfully volunteered to do this, even though I could have do so myself, had I a screwdriver. He was so nice, I was tempted to go back to car to fetch him a hazelnut shortbread!

I gave Helle the cookies on my way back. She was impressed by my mobility, something that seemed more than it was as I had walked from the car to her door using only one crutch so as to have a hand free for the cookie tin. Her mobility seems to have gone down since I last saw her.

I ran another errand before returning the car. When I got home, I was surprised to see a box from Simons on my doorstep. This proved to be bicycle themed T-shirt that Kristine had ordered for me. I am going to have to weed my T-shirt drawer. No good deed goes unpunished. ;-)