This and That

Attila likes to be busy, physically, all of the time. After sitting, for any reason, for more than thirty minutes he becomes restless, starts to fidget, and the projects begin to call his name. He always answers the call.

Some of the projects he tackles, that keep him very busy, aren’t exactly recreational, or satisfying (until they are completed). Installing skirting around the perimeter of the house is not a pleasure motivated project. Installing the EVR was definitely not a pleasure motivated project. Food, well there we have it, Attila finds most projects involving food production, preservation, and preparation for consumption extremely pleasurable, and the journey as satisfying as the destination.

The skirting project takes up a lot of time, but Attila finds time to water the garden. The garden is starting to produce. Today Attila harvested beets for our dinner, and napa cabbage to blanch and freeze for the winter months. Attila cooks for himself for breakfast and lunch, and he is a big fan of hearty soups. Now that he is retired, he has lots of time to whip up his favourite soups. In gardening season his soups are full of fresh vegetables from the garden. In the winter months his soups are full of frozen garden vegetables.

This is Attila’s second summer of retirement, and he is enthusiastically taking responsibility for dehydrating our garden produce, and for blanching and freezing some of it as well. I remain responsible for all the canning projects, but now I have an assistant, Attila, who helps prepare the produce for the jars.

Our kitchen is very much a shared kitchen.

I, on the other hand, could sit for hours and hours, reading, watching an Asian drama episode or a movie, viewing the odd YouTube video, writing, and often just gazing out at the world, glad to be where I am. I seldom feel compelled to action. However, due to the arthritis in my coccyx, sitting for long periods of time is no longer as pleasant as it once was. So I “multitask” my activities. I usually have a book to read beside my chair, an episode or movie that I am in the process of watching, and several online lines of exploration on the go. I usually have projects going on all over the house, in the kitchen milling flour, paperwork like paying bills, organizing “stuff”, cleaning, hanging laundry out to dry, providing Ginger with the attention he feels he deserves, and the list goes on.

The only thing missing in our retirement experience is youthful health, which was going to fade away even without being able to retire. Oh, but wouldn’t it be grand to maintain youthful health through one’s entire life span! Really, I can’t complain much though, so far I can avoid chronic pain by altering my lifestyle to accommodate physical changes. I can still walk and talk and see and hear and think, I am pretty pleased about all that!

Attila and I will spend a short time every evening watching a streamed program of some kind on the computer. Recently we really enjoyed Pachinko, found Shrinking entertaining, and are currently watching The Studio. The Studio is interesting because we find none of the characters to be likable, although the character played by Catherine O’Hara comes close. There are a lot of talented high profile actors in the production, and it probably comes close to portraying the culture of movie production, so it has those things going for it.

When I left the academy, my reading slowed down, as I took up other long neglected interests. Library books were hit and miss, mostly miss, as my tastes in books are not mainstream. After trying to read a series of books that were poorly written, and quite inane, my reading slowed down even further. I was delighted to get a Kobo for digital reading, and paid for a subscription for books from them, but found that the only good books the subscription offered I had already read, and what was left on offer were of no interest. That subscription was cancelled. I replaced it by purchasing an ebook that looked interesting, The Calamity Club, by Kathryn Stockett, which I enjoyed. I had read another book of hers that I enjoyed, The Help. This inspired me to purchase more books to read.

I am currently reading The Round House, by Louise Erdrich, which I am enjoying. I purchase the books when they are on sale, so my recent purchase of six books cost around $13.00. Luckily Kobo allows one to read a preview, the first pages of the book, so that I can tell by the writing in the first few pages whether the book is well written, and if I will find interesting. I can take as long as I like to read these books, if life gets in the way the purchased book will always patiently wait for my return, unlike library books.

Attila talked with the Dental Plan people today, they told him his case would be reviewed by the end of October. Previously he had been told it would be reviewed within eight to ten weeks, that date came and went weeks and weeks ago. October, that will make it eleven months since his teeth were pulled, after which they suddenly declared his coverage invalid. I am not impressed, not one little bit.

We would not have made the decisions we did about his dental care if we had known he would be disqualified due to their poorly thought out computer algorithms. He was also told that he might not have coverage going forward. I am starting to look at ways to save the funds to replace the teeth the Dental Plan lured him into having removed, and the funds we will need to repay the government the cost of those extractions if things don’t go fairly. This issue has to have affected hundreds, if not thousands of people who retired and lost their benefits the day they retired. I spent a few hours being very angry, but have since given that up. There is no use wasting emotion when one finds oneself without timely recourse with an inhumane algorithm.

We can’t move forward with Attila’s dental work, in case the coverage is eventually restored. He needs the coverage, which is why he was approved for the Dental Plan in the first place. The program will not pay retroactively for work that is paid for up front. And so we wait until October, and at that point Attila will call the Dental Plan people again.

Worldly

Weather

14°C
Date: 8:00 PM EDT Monday 15 June 2026
Condition: Mostly Cloudy
Pressure: 101.1 kPa
Tendency: Rising
Temperature: 14.4°C
Dew point: 8.2°C
Humidity: 66%
Wind: SW 15 km/h
Visibility: 24 km

Quote

“Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.”
Robert Frost
1874 – 1963

Well… I think my education has yet to be completed! I have a temper.