i've just learned something really f*ed about the quebec health care system. i've developed this lower back pain, a combination of spending my day sitting down at work and playing bball with the guys. i recently consulted two doctors who told me something in my back is basically pinching my sciatic never... which then creates pain in my lower back and all the way down my leg. they both referred me over to do physio, only that is *not* covered by our provincial healthcare plan. which will require me to shed several hundred dollars worth of treatement.

however, if surgery is required, the government will pay for it.

so basically, if i was a bit tight on money, i should just wait until my situation got worse so that i'd get free surgery.

prevention, though, comes at a price.

lovely.

oh, fred told me quite a story today.

he was at the dog park (which schweppes of course!) when he saw this strange dog that seemed to be a bit agressive. his master seemed to control it, though, so fred decided to take our dog in the fenced-in area. a boy ran up to fred and asked if he could pet schweppes, if he was gentle. he had apparently been bit by the other dog (that also looked like it could be a golden).

anyhow, schweppes played with the other dogs for a while and fred was talking to other owners until he heard barking and wimpering. the dog was climbed up on schweppes, attacking and biting him! fred asked the owner to control his dog (who had been showing off earlier about being good at controling!) which didn't work. fred got excited and started screaming so loud that the dog backed off and left schweppes alone.

the owner eventually told fred : 'no need to get all worked up, man, it's only a dog.' fred made a couple of angry comments and then left the park saying that aggressive dogs should not be allowed to play there.

i looked up information and the city actually is supposed to control and inspect play areas. unfortunately, no signs are posted dictating the behavior of owners and pets in this area. and, well, i've certainly never seen an inspector anywhere in this city! also, dogs that are caught biting a human or another dog are supposed to be museled and eventually put to sleep if training classes do not improve their behavior... though no one really knows about this bylaw. further more, you are apparently supposed to report that incident, to the cops while specifying the address of the owner... now, i'm not sure it would be very smart to follow the owner around just to get their address!

even more troubling, a guy fred knows told him he no longer takes his dog to dog parks since he saw a dog literally get killed by another one in a park.

i'm really not sure what to do about this. we thought of putting up a sign at the dog-pen stating that law and giving the number you should call to report such an even. maybe it would deter a couple of people from taking their agressive dog there... as long as the sign stays up!

in the mean time, the smart thing seems to be to avoid that place altogether!

yesterday i was watching a documentary on TV about China (yes, I sometimes watch TV apprently). my brother subscribed to Bell ExpressVu a little while ago, without being warned of some, hmm, inconveniences. the main one being that the satellite won't work if anything gets in its way. anything being a couple of leaves from a tree, a cloud or a gigantic elephant.

seeing as we have a big tree in front of our place, we can only watch TV in the winter, when the leaves are gone. but then, it also depends if there is an overcast or not. in other words, we can only watch TV on sunny, cold, days.

yesterday, though, it was quite a bit windy so the branches from the tree got in front of the satellite on an occasional basis... that is until Fred got annoyed and went to curve them so i could watch the documentary. it seemed mostly fine, as long as he stayed on the porch and held the branches!! i wonder how much that would work as a sales pitch.

when i was really yound i think i wanted to be a teacher or a vet. later on, i came to integrate the concept of needing to make ends meet (ou gagner sa vie en bon francais), i chose socially acceptable answers to the usually what do you want to be when you grow up. i thought up of answers that would make my dad proud, up until those rebellious years where i thought up of answers that would completly piss him off. and then i settled for something in between.

it's funny because these days i find myself meeting grown ups who are faced again with the infamous what do you want to be when you grow up. some of them have had the same job for the better part of their lives, some others have tried different things before ending up accross the desk from me.

some are looking for something that they are passionate about, some a looking for a specific number of dollar signs, no nights or weekends, a place i could bike to, something where i can just sit down and not do much, i just want to stay home and take care of my daughters. all kinds of answers, all of them right.

i think sometime how much of our identity depends on what we do for a living. i mean, i see truck drivers who've been in the business for the longest time. they are completely shattered when they loose their job because they can no longer say i'm a trucker. they dealt with the ups and downs of their hard line of work, but still felt a sense of pride when talking about their way of earning a living.

on the other end, though i remember how i was taught a long time ago that i needed to find something i was passionate about. truly. really. and i remember being really anxious about never finding that one thing. never being able to say i'm this or that, with the same assurance as my trucker did. maybe i've learn to deal with that uncertainty, that fluidity of being someone whose identity will most likely still be in progress in the years to come. but i go to work every day not really questioning if i'll be there the next day, or year. am i starting to get settle? am i letting down my guard and being uncritical about my personal objectives or did i find my niche?

- i went to the laundromat the other day. there was a woman there with a young child, a boy, sitting in a stroller. there was also a rather strange man who, as my father would say, did not look crazy enough to start a fire but not clever enough to put it out either. you could see the man was very much fascinated with the child and, whenever the mother had her back turned, the man would bend down to kiss the child on his forehead.

- i passed by a car with a man sitting in it, the engine on idle. i'm pretty sure i would not have notice the car had it not been a in strange spot, with the engine on for no apparent reason. i peeked inside the car and every empty seat was full of mail, papers and envelopes. a single occupant in what seemed like a see of papers.

- joan of arc, jeanne d'arc, my grandfather's sister has decided to move away to another old folks home. she says her 90 something year old husband has been charming the ladies a little bit too much. she apparently walked in to one italian woman's place and started screaming at her. the italian woman just turned her hands and hushered her out. the only polite way to say i think you are absolutely nuts between two people who do not speak a common language.