Yesterday was wet and rainy and last night it froze so, of course, the wooden front steps to the apartment building where we live had become a wooden skating rink. When I took the hound out for his walk this morning I wasn't expecting it so when I set foot on the steps I performed an excellent slide across the first one and jump to the second step. Scores averaged around 8.5 from all the judges and Peri did an admirable side step to avoid my thundering bulk. Throughout the rest of his walk and in between street pole and fire hydrant sniffs he kept giving me little sidelong glances to see if I was going to exhibit any other strange behaviour.

Not sure if I'm coming down with a flu or what, but lately I have had a back ache and minor aches and pains in the joints and all over the carcass. I'm pretty sure that the back ache is due to the kidney stone but I can't help wondering everything else might not be linked somehow as well. After all, if any part of the elementary canal is upset in its process, stuff that is supposed to be voided stays with you and that can't be good. I figure that a stone in the kidney might be interfering with its ability to do kidney stuff. At least I won't have too long to wait as I have another appointment with the lithotripsy chamber in about two weeks.

Towards the end of yesterday I completed the documentation necessary for my grievance and sent it off electronically to Ottawa. Today the hard copy went out by snail-mail. Now all that's left is some more of the waiting game. We'll see what happens.

Late yesterday I discovered that our daughter Kayt was planning to visit Halifax and intended it to be a surprise to Barb. Then just as she was arriving in town she got a phone call from a friend back in Saint John. Their mother's house had caught fire and burnt to the ground. Fortunately the human residents got out but the family dog died in the fire. Obviously Kayt was significantly distraught but we managed to keep her presence in Halifax a secret from her Mom. Today Barb got a nice surprise when Kayt phoned her and invited her out to lunch.

To top it off, my 93 year old Dad is having a bad time of it back in Ottawa. It's not the first time that I have been very grateful that my mother is still comparatively healthy and that my brother it there with them. Needless to say I waited until this morning to pass this tidbit on to Kayt as yet since she had quite enough on her plate. Not looking forward to that or any other news from Ottawa.

Sigh!

And we still haven't won anything major on the lottery! What's wrong with this picture? We're good folks. We're not selfish. We'd share the prize with other folk. We don't even need the grand prize, just something bigger than $20.....