About being boring…

I do not worry about being boring. I know at the core of my being that boring is good news, boring is better than interesting, better than drama. There is a curse, “may you live in interesting times”. Being interesting is not a goal of mine. Here I write about being boring, it is the part of life I cherish the most. I am so boring I find other people’s boring lives interesting, comforting, real. I do not want to live in interesting times, globally, federally, provincially, municipally, or here at home in Mist Cottage.

Interesting comes into a life on its own, sometimes it sneaks in through the boring and innocuous looking cracks, and other times it blasts through walls. There is enough of it to go around, we get our share.

I don’t write much about the sad or scary parts of life here in this journal, about the disappointments and heartaches. Sometimes life can be very complex, and really, who can possibly comprehend the whole context of an experience or issue if they have not lived it. Attila gives understanding a fair go, as do I, but even after all these years together our understanding of each other is limited. Nothing trumps experience, and we each have our own. Humans are unique in many ways… that is something I love about humans.

Humans as individuals are a package deal, strengths and weaknesses, foibles and talents, we come as we are no matter how hard we may try to appear otherwise.

Well, enough talk about boring, back to just being it.

Attila painted the bare exterior concrete walls of the basement. Although no one else might notice it, we both think it makes the house look a lot better. Now Attila is digging a trench around the perimeter of the basement wall, and filling it with the load of gravel we had delivered yesterday. When that is done he will install a pressure treated wood skirting around the basement, shielding the waterproof membrane (black) from the elements.

I don’t know if it is a coincidence, or if we are onto something. The day Attila finished painting the exterior concrete, the radon level in the house failed to rise to dangerous levels overnight. It didn’t rise through the day, or since, to dangerous levels. It is a heat wave, the windows have remained closed. Did the paint job prevent the radon from entering the house? It is too early to tell. Attila has another theory, he thinks it might be because the weather is so dry here, that the radon is dissipating through the cracks in the soil. He could be right. Eventually we are going to discover how to keep those radon levels down 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

I got the call from the surgeon’s office booking the cataract surgery in one of my eyes, the date for the second eye was not established. The surgery will take place at the end of the summer, unless a cancellation comes up. I was advised to get the prescriptions needed for the surgery right away, just in case an earlier opening pops up. I am a bit nervous. I know it is a safe surgery, but it is possible to run into issues. I also wonder what it will be like to have one good eye that doesn’t need the glasses I am wearing, and one untreated eye that does need the glasses I am wearing. There could be quite a lag time between the first and the second surgery, when this would be the case.

After visiting the Service Canada website, we are hopeful that Attila’s Senior’s Dental Plan status has been rightfully reinstated. We got a letter directing Attila to provide proof that he had no benefits after his retirement, and proof of retirement date, that was done months ago and he has heard nothing official back from the government. It isn’t great to have only four teeth, making eating challenging, and it does show when Attila talks or smiles. After July 1st a call will go in to the dentist to see if they can access the plan for him, so he can move forward.

Our Prime Minister has announced investments in food production, processing, and distribution systems. Most of what is proposed are things I’ve been talking about for many many years (only implied here in the journal). The proposed strategy is a long term and systemic approach, not a quick fix or a magic bullet. This is no political “beer for bullies” populist appeal.

We Canadians have someone at the helm who understands the importance of infrastructure, and who is interested in doing what needs to be done for the country and its people (the real stakeholders of the country). I seldom mention politics here, but investments in Canadian food systems are big news in my world. My academic research focused on food systems in Canada, the Prime Minister seems right on the money. The challenge will be to make it so.

And oh the garden! This morning it was the usual breakfast with some additions, two fresh strawberries, and two edible pod peas, from the garden. The evening salad is now primarily lettuce from the garden. Rhubarb and fresh herbs continue to be harvested and frozen or dehydrated. It is very dry here, which means hours of watering every day. It is very fortunate that Attila enjoys gardening!

The Garden

Worldly

Weather

29°C
Date: 2:00 PM EDT Friday 12 June 2026
Condition: Mostly Cloudy
Pressure: 100.5 kPa
Tendency: Falling
Temperature: 29.2°C
Feels Like: 37°C
Dew point: 19.6°C
Humidity: 63%
Wind: SW 29 gusts 44 km/h

Quote

“As a scientist, I am not sure anymore that life can be reduced to a class struggle, to dialectical materialism, or any set of formulas. Life is spontaneous and it is unpredictable, it is magical. I think that we have struggled so hard with the tangible that we have forgotten the intangible.”
Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider
Northern Exposure
Zarya, 1994