T-Bone – And Not The Steak

A day after a lovely birthday meal for Nat, I received a telephone call from older sis, Gail. One and only dear little brother and his wife had been in a major car accident driving home from Casino Rama. Apparently they had been t-boned by a cube van that had been struck from behind by another vehicle during a major snow storm in the North. Gail gave me the details of what she knew at that point – they had to use the Jaws of Life to extricate Clair from his pick-up truck, he was taken to Sudbury Regional Hospital, had busted ribs, possible broken arm, bruised lung and heart, along with possible head injuries. His wife had escaped relatively uninjured – only sore chest. Naturally they would know more in the days to follow. Clair was very lucky in the fact that one (or more) of the OPP officers that attended the scene knew of Clair while working with the Fire Marshall’s Office. That was nice to know.

Nat and I were certainly upset – especially me, as Clair is the only boy in this family of 6 girls. Growing up Clair was spoiled as a youngster and his sisters were always looking out for him despite his objections. With one exception, Clair has never been hospitalized. As a youngster he had a leg disease that saw him wearing a brace for a couple of years, but he recovered relatively unscathed and grew to become involved in the fire and rescue areas, including becoming Fire Chief for the Town of Lincoln and then with the Fire Marshall’s Office once his family moved North. The injustice of it all is that Clair has always been very conscientious as a driver and as a home owner when it comes to safety. He teaches fire and home safety constantly to anyone who will listen. We’ve all learned so much from our brother over the years, even when we were sick of listening!

We will all have to sit back and wait for daily up-dates as they come in. Gail was (and is) keeping us informed of Clair’s progress and Claudia, Thamazine, Darby and Tyler just returned yesterday from seeing Clair in hospital. The progress is very slow, naturally, but everything seems to be going in the right direction for his recovery. As Gail, Bern and Michele are taking the drive themselves on Thursday, I’ve decided to go along. Nat’s still in major pain from his sciatica and can’t tolerate a 5 hour drive no matter how he tries. Each night I’m sitting in my recliner watching Nat as he paces back and forth while watching TV. The only time the pain is somewhat tolerable is when he’s on his feet.

Other news: The God-awful bathroom downstairs has now been renovated into a really cute little bathroom that anyone would want to use. All spruced up and made into a 2-piece with pale yellow walls, a little slatted bench, corner shelving unit and some colourful African pictures. Even Nat and I think it’s a shame no one else may ever see it. At least we now know that the mould is gone, the air vent is properly connected and the whole little area is clean and inviting. A small price to pay for piece of mind.

Nat and I spent a quiet Sunday and then headed to Costco on Monday. We were running extremely low on fish and a few other items, so we made a day of shopping and then packing everything up for the freezer that afternoon. Later that day I finally went down to renew my Health Card. My perm had turned out pretty good so I felt better having my picture taken. Let’s face it, we all hate those suckers!! No matter what we do, somehow that Ministry camera makes us all look as if we’re criminals. At least this criminal’s hair was curled and I think I look better than the one taken five years ago!!

I’m still having troubles with the old memory. For the past couple of months I discovered I’ve been taking Vitamin C pills instead of the Calcium I should have been taking. I can only surmise that my mind played tricks on me when I went to pick up a new bottle (of Calcium) that while perusing the array of Jamieson Vitamins A, B, C, D and so on and so on, looking for Calcium that I had to have picked up the Vitamin C either by mistake or that’s what I thought I went for. There’s just too much going on upstairs and one can get very dizzy trying to sift through the array and varieties of pills at any given drug store. At least I soon realized my mistake and have no corrected it. I really don’t suppose the Vitamin C has done me any harm and so far the old bones aren’t creaking from the lack of Calcium. I think I’m safe for now.