Coyote crossed my path this week. As I have mentioned before, I have been actively looking for work. New to the area, my efforts and applications are almost entirely ignored. Until this week, that is. I received a telephone call this week, asking me to attend an interview for a position I would truly like to have. An interview time and place were scheduled for the next day. For hours I experienced euphoric relief.

Then the telephone rang again, it was the prospective employer.

"I forgot to mention," she said, "our government funding demands that we hire only those between the age of 18 and 24 years. I wanted to make sure you qualify before you drive all the way here for an interview."

"Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha...," echoed Coyote.

My tax dollars working for me, as always.

There is something eerily biblical about looking for work as a mature, well-educated woman, with excellent references. It is a real "no room at the inn" experience. The prejudice may not be cohesive, but it is dreadfully consistent. It is little wonder that women over the age of 65 experience one of the highest rates of poverty in our country. Our government describes the phenomena here: The Dynamics of Women's Poverty in Canada.

On the bright side, Attila enjoys his job. Before we moved, he worked long, long hours, suffered from a severe sleep deficit and carried a heavy load of responsibility. Now he is much more relaxed at the end of a hard day's work. If he falls behind in his sleep, he catches up at the weekend, to start each week refreshed and anew.

We are experiencing a bit of a heat wave. A daytime high temperature of 29 degrees centigrade is predicted today. Luckily, it has been cooling down at night, allowing us to sleep comfortably.

I indulged in a baking spree a few days ago, taking advantage of the cooler weather we had then. I have taken to baking my bread on cookie sheets, spread out like pizza dough, but not so thin. Sliced into any shape we like, it works well for hotdog, hamburger or sandwich buns. I baked two loaves, that will hopefully last throughout the present heat wave. I also baked a couple of Raisin Walnut loaves for Attila's lunches, and froze one of those.

What I really like about preparing our own food from basic ingredients, is that we are not consuming undesirable elements, such as preservatives, and trans and saturated fats. Even the forbidden sweets in our diet are relatively healthy, compared to their equivalents on the supermarket shelves.

My gardening efforts are beginning to pay off. We have a couple of planters perched on the railings of our deck. Two weeks ago I planted the Morning Glory seeds the girls gave me for Mother's Day. In the last few days the seedlings have managed to struggle out of the soil. Morning Glories climb, but these will have to "fall". I wonder how it will work out.

We live in the country. What that means, in our case, is that we live near the bush. There are lots of marshes and low wet spots in our bush. We breed our own mosquitoes here. We are very good at it.

I like to walk, and usually make my way into the bush every day. I think the mosquitoes know me by my first name. My popularity is overwhelming. I have been gauging the populace of my fan club, watching their patterns of behavior with great interest. Some days, they approach me as soon as I move away from the house. Other days they ignore me until I have walked long enough to draw breath more deeply. The hum of their activity, as they swirl and dance around me, is loud enough to compete with bird song.

This morning I had an interesting experience as I stood on the shore, looking out over the bay. I first noticed the dragonfly when it perched itself briefly on my shoulder. It took flight to dip and dive around me, feeding on those who would feed on me. Bravo!

It was interesting to think of myself as a human at the bottom of the food chain, as my education had led me to believe that humans are naturally placed near the top.

Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha...