Quietness

I had a supremely lazy day yesterday, and apart from having a series of phone/video calls and an early nap, did very little.  It was a bit cooler than it has been, but it’s still quite sticky.  Today was similar, in that it was a bit humid although cooler than earlier in the week.  Jerry was too funny yesterday; my support worker comes around 4pm on the days she’s here (Saturday is not one of her days) but at 3:45 yesterday he was perched on my lap, fully alert, waiting for her.  He stayed like that until shortly after 4, and I told him several times that she wasn’t coming!  She came at 3 today, so caught him off guard, but as soon as he heard the door he was off my lap and jumping on her for his cuddles!  It’s so funny to watch!  Don is again watching sports, but it’s so warm that he’s wandering around shirtless… I was teasing him about flexing his muscles for the young girls, and he just gave his trademark giggle, eyeroll and went about his affairs, ordering off of Amazon LOL

I cooked today, with the help of my worker.  I have been craving stewed chicken for a few days, and I took out a package of frozen wings to thaw.  When she came she chopped all the vegetables, I started the sugar and browning the chicken, and she kept an eye on it while we did other stuff.  It’s annoying that heat makes it uncomfortable to breathe, but since she was here, I was able to leave the chicken in her care (just pausing to taste and adjust seasoning).  It’s done, and we also steamed some rice and I reheated some frozen lentils that I’d cooked a while ago.  I very much enjoyed my dinner, although it didn’t taste like Auntie Ming’s.  I’ve never been able to duplicate her cooking.  I’ve got meals for a few days, and I’ll try something else simple later in the week.

I have to ask — how do people give directions where you’re from?  I was talking to a friend who said that they were going to the local supermarket, but called it by the name of the previous owner who’d sold it and changed the name over 10 years ago.  Frankly, I still refer to it by the old name too, as do most of my neighbours.  When I’d first come to Ottawa, the building where I worked was referred to by the name of a business that had closed 20 years before my arrival, it had a sign with a different name, but nobody used it.  These days, it’s occasionally referred to by the old name, but more often by the name of the government department that’s there.  I’ve realized that many people give directions by historical names, as opposed to current ones.  It’s worse out in the country, where someone will say, “Oh, turn by the Donaldson place,” when the last Donaldson left there 50 years ago!  Or, they’ll say, “You know where the Sentinel hotel is?  Well, just…” The Sentinel went out of business during the Korean War, has been replaced by a string of other businesses, and is now a parking lot waiting to be turned into condos, but it’s still “the Sentinel”  

I’d say that it was a purely Canadian thing, but I have memories of driving through a rural part of Trinidad where the directions were, “go past the second herd of cows and then turn by the third heap of garbage,” or else were given with vague waves of the arms.  Does that happen everywhere?  And do you ever find yourself giving those kinds of directions?  I imagine it’s less prevalent, what with Google Maps, Waze and Siri taking over directions, and those are probably more accurate, but less entertaining than personalized, “it’s just up the road by so <hand wave>” where ‘up the road’ can mean anything from 100m to 50km!

I’m having some odd thoughts this evening; they’re specifically designed to distract me from some upcoming appointments which are raising some anxiety, so please excuse my silly rambles.  My little dog is poking my leg with his nose, and I guess he thinks that my lap needs a dog dozing on it!  Good night!