Mac Williamson contacted me last Thursday to say that Robert Campbell was at the Civic hospital in Ottawa. Two days prior to that, Robert experienced chest pain, even when sitting in his favourite chair. So he drove to Casselman to see his doctor who, after taking a quick look, old him to get back in his car and head straight to the Ottawa Civic emergency room. As soon as I heard the news, I e-mailed Robert’s sister Gwen Pollock (who lives out west) to make sure she knew. She did. Apparently, whenever Robert has a medical appointment in Ottawa, he parks his car at their cousin’s place near the Civic. When he hadn’t returned for his vehicle by midnight, their cousin was frantic and notified Gwen.
The consensus of his physician and the ER doctors was that Robert needed an angiogram, but there was no bed available at the Ottawa Heart Institute. So poor Robert haunted the hall of the Civic’s Emergency Department for days until a space at the Heart Institute finally became available this past Friday. I spoke with Robert on Monday morning and he told me that the diagnostic procedure would be done shortly. In the meantime, he looks for ways to fight the boredom. Unfortunately, in the rush to get to his doctor, Robert forgot his reading glasses. So the distraction offered by books and magazines are a few diopters beyond his reach. He tells me though that arrangements have been made for a temporary replacement pair.
While Robert is away, Mac Williamson and Brenda Kennedy are kindly looking after Robert’s dog. Mac told me, “Stanley is waiting patiently for his return.” And so are we. Speedy recovery, Robert. We miss your friendly wave as we go by.
Masterpieces in wool
It was with great shock that the news of Ruby MacGregor’s death passed through the tightly knit local textile arts community a week ago. Ruby passed away peacefully at home on Monday, November 6. Two friends who had arranged to drop in that morning for an informal rug hooking session found her.
From the time she owned and operated Ruby’s Country Store on Main Street in Maxville, Ruby was renowned for her talent as a quilter. In more recent times, she turned her focus to rug hooking, an art form where she also excelled. I first saw the depth of this woman’s talent at the Glengarry Pioneer Museum’s Quilt & Fibre Show in 2014. The rugs she had on display were truly amazing. As was her “Clipping” rug that greeted sharp-eyed visitors who stopped by Munro & Morris in Maxville last week to pay their respects. The piece itself was tiny, perhaps only seven or eight inches by four inches. However, the miniature abstract design hooked using the scraps or “clippings” from other projects showed her complete mastery of colour.
Ruby was not a resident of Dunvegan. Nevertheless, she was a honourary member of this small community… having contributed for years to the Dunvegan museum through the Martintown Wild and Woolley Rug Hookers. At a hook-in held in Martintown last Saturday morning in her honour, fellow members of the rug hooking groups passed along their memories of this kind and immensely talented woman. Here are just a few.
“Who can forget Ruby’s Country Store? Ruby was a mentor, a talented artist of many genres and a lovely lady. An incredible loss to our community… Ruby could make you feel you were a lifelong friend even if you only knew her for a short time… Just the best soul ever, funny, helpful and so generous.”
Starring… a Coca-Cola bottle
I’m told the DRA has a little-known comedic gem in store for this weekend’s Saturday Night at the Movies event on November18th at 7:00 PM. The Gods Must be Crazy was made in Botswana in 1980. The IMDb web site describes it as “a comic allegory about a traveling Bushman who encounters modern civilization and its stranger aspects, including a clumsy scientist and a band of revolutionaries.”
Bring your own refreshments and a comfy cushion or chair and the DRA will supply the popcorn. While there’s no formal admission, donations towards the new playground equipment will be gratefully accepted. Remember, this is not intended as a family event. Instead, the idea is to provide a night out close to home for us older folks.
Pet mill conspiracy?
Has anyone else noticed that the only pets people seem to have these days are “rescue” ones? In place of the pedigree papers (or even the less formal “Heinz 57” label) that accompanied critters in the past, each rescue animal comes complete with a tearful tale of woe guaranteed to stimulate the tear ducts. One has to wonder about the headwaters of this river of unfortunate beasts. Are there really that many unqualified pet owners who must give up their mistreated charges? Or are these creatures being surreptitiously imported from the Rescue® pet mill in China?
Winter… ticking time bomb?
Breathing a sigh of relief for making it through another tick season unscathed? You might want to tighten those sphincters again. I recently read an article that suggested deer ticks were becoming a year-round problem. Naturally, like most negative occurrences these days (except those attributed to Trump or, retroactively, to Harper), it was blamed on anthropomorphic global warming.
In case this was the IPCC version of a plague of locusts, I checked with Ms. Google. She had references too numerous to count that suggested ticks may indeed be a yearlong scourge. There is even one version of the creepy critters that is officially called a ‘winter tick’ (Dermacentor albipictus). It is much larger that the deer tick (measuring up to 15 millimetres), and preys on moose in many regions of Québec. These infestations peak towards the end of winter and can be deadly for the already physically stressed moose.
August fogs, bring winter slogs
Ed MacDonald, Glengarry’s chimney sweep of note, shared a prediction with me. It seems that a long time customer of his, Mrs. Collard on Marcoux Road, bases her estimate of the upcoming winter’s severity on the number of foggy mornings during the month of August. By her count, there were eight such morns this year, which translates into an equal number of severe winter storms. A bit of a folk forecaster himself, Ed agrees. He says that “bees in the trees are hiving high”… a sure sign of many snow days to come. We’ll check back in the spring to see who’s correct: Ed and Mrs. Collard or Environment Canada’s forecast of palm trees in February.
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