An exhausting week

 This has been an exhausting week. I will never book a dentist appointment again when I am looking after the dogs. It wasn't their fault at all; entirely me and my nervous disorder (uncharacterized and I just never got around to working on that and probably never will). Seeing myself in my grandson has been an eye opener for sure. As his speech improves I can remember that when I was his age. So perhaps it is part of the Autism Spectrum who knows and at 81 it probably doesn't really matter. I seldom have conversations with people; I seldom work with people and my time not spent working on my research is spent with my family. My nerves though are somewhat frayed and need a nice rest and that is happening. I shall continue spending the month of September renewing my nerves and doing my research I find that very relaxing. Although I suggested a dental appointment between 8 Sep and 22 Sep to fill the tiny cavity. I have not heard back so will not contact them again until after September. I keep thinking if I had driven myself to the dentist then discovering the change in the setup of wearing indoor shoes I could have just popped out to the car and got my shoe bag and all would have been solved (except I really was quite tired but cancelling two years in a row would have been dreadful and I wasn't infectious) but it is just part of a block away and did consider going back home to get my bag actually. I was quite tired though and the migraine was settled in somewhat. Anyway water under the bridge and I will take care of that tooth soon enough. Although it might be exciting to think of never having to go to a dentist again the reality is that your own teeth are really better and I do know that as an adult. Although my grandmother certainly never complained about her false teeth but she was a realist and I suspect I am also! Plus I do pay for the dental plan so might as well use it! Some years I actually do use everything that I pay into it but mostly not. But I might one day.

So no research done yet. The dogs have been fed and had a run. They are sleeping it off. They weight around 50 pounds and around 65 pounds each so taking them for a walk is not something I would contemplate at any time. One at a time I could manage. They are such good dogs although the one is a barker but she lives in the country with a woods behind her and it just not used to city noises and people. The older dog rarely barks which is great. But they are good sleepers; in bed at 9 and up at 8 and very well rested. I never hear anything from them in the night. Well they do move around a bit. I did sleep in the same room with them for a couple of nights to help them with the change but I disturb them and so I slept elsewhere but close by.  

My Bible Readings have suffered this week but I will go into 2 Chronicles soon and read a couple of chapters. I did think this might happen and it has. These two books are really repeating the stories of the Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Judah that have already been discussed in earlier chapters but are a wonderful recitation of those times and were apparently written for the Jewish people in exile in Babylon (and I think Assyria not sure about that). Babylon is Iraq these days - interesting when one looks back in history.  I used to think it was Iran but did a quick check on that and within the modern country of Iraq is the original location of Babylon. 

Research today hopefully working on the last block of matches and then back to phasing my great grandparents. This has truly been a rather fascinating path that I entered into around 2005. My mother was into family research and started asking me about DNA in the late 1990s. She was interested in the identification of family lines. I explained yDNA, atDNA and mtDNA to her but really yDNA and mtDNA were the only two that were really in the news so to speak at this time. I did tell her that eventually atDNA would become mainstream and that was the way to really identify cousin matches. I did promise her that I would investigate this and our last visit together we talked about yDNA and I was a bit slow contacting my uncle in that regard (her brother) but it was in his thoughts. It just didn't happen. He was 89 and lived in Toronto; I lived in Ottawa and was working full time. My interest in genealogy about zilch but I always listened to both of them and can recall our conversations on the topic. They both found it fascinating that they could test to relate to people. I was very interested in DNA as a child when the first papers were released on the helical shape of DNA in 1953 in the April issue of Nature and that it carries genetic information. I was pretty young but it is surprising how some topics can catch a child's interest. This was 1951-2 when the experiments were done and one mustn't forget the work of Rosalind Franklin and her student Raymond Gosling capturing the x-ray diffraction image of the helical shape of DNA along with the work of James Watson and Francis Crick on the actual structure of DNA in Cambridge, England. 

Already time for my first 250 steps at 9 a.m. My readings and then solitaire puzzles.  

Internet up again

Rogers was attacked again by vandals. It is an excellent Internet Provider and they are back up earlier than they predicted. 

 

I got very distracted for a couple of days but mind is back in place once again and hopefully I accomplish a little research the next couple of days. 

 

I really like both my dentist and my doctor (mind you I do not actually know them and perhaps a better term would be respect) and they are both very hard working. I just get upset easily by items probably due to my 81 years of age.  Fortunately I seldom go anywhere which works well for me. Just adding in some rules to aid me along this path I am on.

internet down

Internet down all day. Probably up later today. Surprisingly most of my writing is for the books and does not need the internet

Chatted with my other daughter

 The conclusion is that I had a bad headache and wasn't sleeping well; Ottawa Public Health hasn't recorded any West Nile Virus as of August 2026. I was using this mouth appliance that the dentist prescribed but had to stop because of headaches. I meant to ask her about that and forgot (often happens since I reached the age of 81). Since I have given up the appliance it doesn't really matter. I think I was grinding my teeth for a bit; the earlier dentist noticed it as well. But I seem to have given up grinding my teeth apparently; no one mentioned it. So I guess the appliance worked but has become an archaic symbol of my past. I wonder when all my teeth will fall out. Probably doesn't happen quickly; too bad. I still think these false teeth are a great idea and they look nice. 

My daughter says to go to the doctor if I do not get better soon but I am actually improving nicely.  

My daughter told me that there are tests to distinguish all of these viruses that one can acquire but we do not test for them because the test kits are too expensive for us to afford them all across the country. Even in the ER it is not possible to afford these test kits which would be so very helpful there. In her ER they see more than 18 thousand people a year but they do not get money even for a CT scanner. That seems to be some what limiting when their ER never closes. 

We need to get this economy going so that we can afford all of these items.  

It is at such moments in time that I contemplate if I actually do have autism

 My only real memory that could allude to such a diagnosis stretches back far into the past when I was five years of age and in kindergarten and the school asked that I be tested for my hearing (the teachers apparently thought I could not hear their instructions) but the reality was I did not want to play musical chairs, I did not like sitting on the floor and singing, I came to school to learn. I did love to read and there was in the one corner of that room a whole lot of books so I was slightly disobedient so that I would be put into that corner but they did catch on). My mother and I went to somewhere on the bus (my father ran his own company and I was the fourth child) and I was tested using tuning forks I still remember that. Lovely man that tested my hearing (I still remember him but no idea what his specialty was (he was a doctor of something)); talked to me for a while and then said to my mother she is very quick to learn but puzzles it all out on her own in her mind. I will let the school know she is a quick learner and her hearing is affected by that and needs more challenges not fun so my mother said. So did that make me Autistic? No idea on that but as I watch my youngest grandchild grow up he reminds me of myself; my speech difficulties and my tendency to run everything that I was doing - to be in control. Certainly many of my teachers appreciated that tendency as they could always count on an answer. In those days there was just one class of each age group pretty much and some split classes; I tended to go into the split being in the lower part like 2/3 and 3/4 and then not going to 4 at all but being promoted to Grade 5 and it continued that way until Grade 8. I was just twelve years of age when I went to High School. 

My classmates were years older than me it always felt like. I had already decided that I would take bookkeeping and typing in Grade 9 instead of Latin but none the less the Guidance Teachers insisted on talking to me about that from day one nearly but I persisted and stayed in that class. I did not want to wash baby bottles to go to University as my sister had. I wanted a real job that didn't involve that and so it happened and so I went to University where I was also too young. One can be too young and now I am 81 and it is fascinating but do I actually have autism. No ideas on that but I relish my own time although I love being with my children etc. But I can also be alone writing my books. 

I must let the dogs out; they got upset because a cat came on their porch. They did so well until the cat came on the porch and then they lost it. So they have been  penalized just a little by not being able to look out the window. But a good run will make them feel better. The neighbour's cat is tough and can withstand the barking of caged dogs!

In again, my headache is keeping me from doing any real work on my research day but the dogs are interesting always and they will not always be here (dogs do not last as long as humans) whereas my research will be. Contemplating when I might move and it will be sooner hopefully but probably three or four years. Too bad really. Imagine living in the same house for 50 years or more and I lived 17 years in my last family home and three years in the one before that which I can only vaguely recall. That means for ten years Edward and I lived in other houses. The last 1.5 years was the house that we bought in London area and it was lovely and I hated leaving it behind because my first child came home to that house. We rented for 6 years before buying the house and then rented here for a couple of years. It was visiting some friends in Orleans from Western University that we saw these Carriage Homes and I loved them. Perfect for life without close family; no real entertainment area but lots of family room. Edward did think about moving a few years later up on the hill but he loved this yard and so we stayed and we are still here but he would hate this yard as I can not keep it up the way that he did. 

Good to see that the trade agreement is moving along and plans to sign it on Friday. I am not really keeping up with it. The machinations around trade agreements are many and so many people to keep happy. Liquor back on the shelves does not affect me; I never buy any; I do not drink other than the occasional glass of wine at my children's homes on special days.  I do think the Prime Minister is doing an excellent job although I did vote Conservative as I normally do. Minister LeBlanc has been fabulous through all of this; he has never once lost that smile on his face. He is such a perfect pick for this job. I do give ex-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau high marks for buying and then building the pipeline even if I do disagree on  all the new charges against the government he created. My own party needs to shape up and get a platform - whining is just boring. Get out there and help the young get jobs what else are you doing this summer? A three month paid vacation is ridiculous. I am not surprised to see disagreement but Prime Minister Carney is a conservative and head of the liberal party and he is winning. So get in line and support all these projects as much as you can. Canada needs to grow to be that country that the Fathers of Confederation dreamed and created - they did all that hard work of keeping Canada together and growing it at the same time. They didn't do it by whining. Sure they disagreed but when the work needed to be done they were in there doing it.