Brian Williams, anchor and managing editor

After tonight’s broadcast and after looting our hotel mini-bars, we’re going to try to brave the blizzard and fly east to home and hearth, and to do laundry well into next week. Before we leave this thoroughly polite country, the polite thing to do is leave behind a thank-you note.

Thank you, Canada:

For being such good hosts.

For your unfailing courtesy.

For your (mostly) beautiful weather.

For scheduling no more than 60 percent of your float plane departures at the exact moment when I was trying to say something on television.

For not seeming to mind the occasional (or constant) good-natured mimicry of your accents.
For your unique TV commercials — for companies like Tim Hortons — which made us laugh and cry.

For securing this massive event without choking security, and without publicly displaying a single automatic weapon.

For having the best garment design and logo-wear of the games — you’ve made wearing your name a cool thing to do.

For the sportsmanship we saw most of your athletes display.

For not honking your horns. I didn’t hear one car horn in 15 days — which also means none of my fellow New Yorkers rented cars while visiting.

For making us aware of how many of you have been watching NBC all these years.

For having the good taste to have an anchorman named Brian Williams on your CTV network, who turns out to be such a nice guy.

For the body scans at the airport which make pat-downs and cavity searches unnecessary.

For designing those really cool LED Olympic rings in the harbor, which turned to gold when your athletes won one.

For always saying nice things about the United States…when you know we’re listening.

For sharing Joannie Rochette with us.

For reminding some of us we used to be a more civil society.

Mostly, for welcoming the world with such ease and making lasting friends with all of us.

There has been this ongoing brainwashing of the American mind, and Canadian also but not to that extent.  Fear of Socialism.  Not sure why but it probably has something to do with Russia and their revolution. 

Stepping back in time, all countries ruled by royalty treated their people like so much dirt under their feet.  All that class system like one was better than another.  Blue blood.  Where did that come from?  Prick Prince William with a needle and show me where you see blue.  And don’t talk to me about it’s a metaphore.  It’s bullshit, that’s what it is.

Industrial revolution and it’s OK to have children work in factories beside the adults.  They’re nothing special.  They’re commoners, not worthy of any respect.  They’re like cattle or oxen.  Livestock and born to toil for their masters.

But I digress.

I hope ordinary Americans have the good sense to see past the fear-mongering Republicans and see where it would benefit them, their children and generations to come.  Even if they have to pay a little more income tax.  So what?  It’s a damn sight cheaper than facing over-the-top medical bills that could ruin them financially.  Personally, I prefer an across-the-board government run program.  It simplifies things.  Hey, but anything is better than what they’ve got now.

So, do my views make me a Socialist?  Maybe they do.  Yeah, I guess they do and I’m proud of it.

Go, Barak.  I’m proud of you.  Well, I’d be more proud if you brought your troops home.

When we first moved to the community we looked for a doctor.  We found one right in Hastings but he wasn’t taking new patients.  One of the neighbours told us about the healthcare facility in Campbellford about a fifteen minute drive.  We went there.  It was a busy Trent Hills Family Health Centre across from  the Hospital.  We filled out applications, registered and went home.  A couple of weeks later they called and gave us an appointment to come in.  We saw our appointed doctor and that was it.

Later, we discovered, they run the local healthcare a little differently.  Instead of your appointed doctor seeing you every time, you may see any of the doctors that are on duty that day.  It makes things more efficient.  On top of which, they have nursing practitioners who are probably better than the doctors in some ways.  They certainly take their time.   They are thorough, that’s for sure. 

My husband had been overly enthusiastic about cutting down those terrible Manitoba Maples.  (Don’t confuse them with our beautiful maples) I don’t even know why they’re called maple trees.  Their leaves look more like sumac.  They are ugly and need to be cut in order for the beautiful maples to grow tall and stately. 

During one of those fellings, he twisted his left knee.  Poor fellow.  He was in a lot of pain.  He got one of those knee braces, kept his leg elevated and put on a bag of frozen peas on the injured knee.  That helped a lot but the next time he went out, the same thing happened.  Those peas were mighty popular last summer.

It was discovered that Charlie needed an MRI on his knee.  He got the appointment lickety-split.  The facility was in Cobourg, about a twenty minute drive.  He was impressed.  All that reading he’d been doing in the Toronto papers about our lousy healthcare system turned out to be a lie.  Why do they write such stories?  Goes to show you, don’t believe what you see on TV or read in the paper.  Check it out yourself. 

I’ll tell you, we couldn’t be more impressed with the system.  Oh, and it looks like the Hastings doctor is taking new patients again.  Well, there have been a few deaths recently.  People do get old and die.  No problem using him since he is part of the Trent Hills Family Health System, anyway.   Furthermore, they also have a nurse practitioner working at his facility.  I ran into her at the Campbellford clinic. 

So, there you have it.

I hope you’ll visit and add to the conversation.  I’m hoping it will be a site for gardeners who want to exchange ideas.  For a greenhorn like me, any input is good input.  All input is appreciated. 

Wish me luck as we sit here in sub zero temperatures, dreaming of wildly wonderful gardens, admired by all. Well, I can dream, can’t I?

One thing I’d like to mention before I go, I will still keep this blog up but I’m going back to my ranting days when I let off steam about anything that bugged me.  After all, it’s a good, safe venue for this sort of thing.