Emergency Waiting

            On Saturday after midnight before going to sleep I did my usual search of the baseboards and walls for bedbugs and found none. 

            It was hard to find a resting position for my injured arm that would allow me to sleep. I usually bend my right arm with my hand near my head and stretch out my left arm in front of me as I lie on my left side. The best I could arrive at now was to just rest the right arm along the top of my right side with it slightly bent and my hand on the inside of my thigh. 

            Yoga was almost impossible. I couldn't do two thirds of the usual poses. 

            Shankar's network was off and so I couldn't edit my translation of "La java des chaussettes à clous" (The Tap dance of the Hobnail Boots) by Boris Vian on Christian's Translations. 

            I was surprised that I was able to play guitar but I guess I shouldn't be since it doesn't require any bending of the right arm into the pain zone. If I'd injured the left arm instead I think it would have been impossible to play. 

            I worked out the chords to "La Fautive" (The Whole Fault) by Serge Gainsbourg and ran through it in French. 

            I weighed 89.1 kilos before breakfast.

            In the late morning I went to No Frills. The red grapes were on sale but most were too soft so I only got two bags. I also bought two bags of sorbet green grapes, a bag of Canadian cherries, a basket of nectarines and a watermelon. A woman from Tibet saw me listening to the watermelons and asked for advice on how to pick a good one. I told her it has to be heavy but not dull sounding when the yellow part is tapped. She asked me to pick her one. I also got a loaf of cinnamon-raisin bread, orange juice, Greek yogourt and skyr. 

            After I got home and put my food away I went back out to the liquor store and got a six pack of Creemore.

            I knocked on Shankar's door because the wifi was still off but he said his was on. I asked if he'd restart his modem anyway but he didn't think it was necessary. 

            I looked at the sign in front of the walk-in clinic next door and saw that they were open but the doctor was only available virtually by phone. That seemed to me useless since he would just send me elsewhere for x-rays anyway and so I decided to head for St Joseph's Hospital Health Centre where I could see a doctor in person and have x-rays in the same place, as well as go to the fracture clinic there.

            I haven't ridden that far west for a long time. The whole area between Roncesvalles and the hospital is closed off for construction. I rode along the unused streetcar track and went around the back of the hospital to get to emergency. I had my own mask but they gave me one of theirs to wear. I got number 17 when they were serving 12 but it took at least an hour to be called to a desk. 

           While I was waiting a mother was there with her daughter who'd cut her wrist on broken glass when she fell down stairs. The mother was just recovering from a hernia operation and so she was in a hospital wheelchair while trying to hold and comfort her daughter who was scared of the hospital and crying. 

            After her was a young woman doubled over in pain and calling out "Ow!" continuously. 

            A young man in an orange jump suit and wearing hand and leg cuffs was brought in by two corrections officers. The prisoner and his guards seemed to be chatting amicably together. 

            A slow and loud alarm went off because of a code red in a certain wing and on a certain floor. It continued for several minutes and even the staff was annoyed. 

            When my number was called it didn't take long for my injury to be noted and for me to be called to another desk and then to be told to follow the blue line and to wait at least half an hour to see a doctor. He strongly recommended that I get a tetanus shot and sent me for several x-rays from the shoulder to the elbow. Then I went back to the waiting room to see the doctor again and waited at least twenty minutes. 

           The doctor gave me the good news that there are no obvious breaks in my arm but was concerned about some tendons in my shoulder and gave me an appointment with the fracture clinic for the next morning. Then he told me to wait for a tetanus shot. I figured I'd already had two covid shots so I was on a roll and might as well get the tetanus as well. My doctor had offered it several times in the past but I'd always turned it down. I probably had one when I was a child but it's supposed to be every ten years. The woman who gave it to me didn't remember the last time she had the shot either. It hurt a lot more than the covid vaccination. 

            Hospitals are very well run considering how much staff they have. Everyone has a function and they follow it. Also there was no one of all the people I dealt with that made me feel disrespected.

            I was given a form for the fracture clinic and told to be there before 7:30 and that it is first come first serve. I rode home and was surprised that I'd only been at the hospital for three hours because it seemed like four. 

            I stopped at Metro Cycle before going in my place but the guy doesn't have the kind of front caliper brakes that I need. I'll have to call around but meanwhile my back brakes still function.

            I couldn't lift my bike back up onto its hook and so I just left it leaning against the kitchen table until tomorrow. 

            I weighed 88.4 kilos when I got back from the hospital. 

            I had a late lunch of Breton crackers and old cheddar with a glass of lemonade and then took a siesta until 17:30. 

            The wifi was still off in the evening. 

            I weighed 89.1 kilos at 19:15. 

            I worked on my poem series "My Blood In A Bug." I made pizza on naan with Milanese sauce and extra old cheddar. I had it with a beer while watching two episodes of Gomer Pyle. 

            In the first story Gomer is driving the jeep to town on an errand when he comes across a movie set. But he doesn't realize it's a movie set. In a clearing he sees what looks like a landed flying saucer and out of it emerge three small men in silver suits and wearing bubble helmets. He rushes back to tell Sergeant Carter who yells for him to finish his errand. He goes back and this time finds two of the aliens sitting by the side of the road. The actors are actually having lunch but decide to have some fun with Gomer. When Gomer tries to communicate they respond with beeping noises from mechanisms on their costumes. Gomer runs back to tell Carter and now Carter is becoming worried about Gomer's state of mind. He asks a psychiatrist who suggests Gomer may be looking for attention. Gomer heads back towards town and stops again to look for the aliens. He walks off into the bushes but while he's gone the director of the movie wants to clear the set and the jeep is in the way. One of the actors playing an alien volunteers to drive the jeep. Gomer emerges to see a spaceman drive away with the jeep. Gomer runs back to the base and tells Carter. Carter calls the psychiatrist who advises Carter to humour Gomer and to go with him. When they get there the jeep is exactly where Gomer parked it. Gomer goes to look and finds the aliens but when he brings Carter back they are gone. Carter tells Gomer to drive the second jeep back and he'll drive the first. But in Carter's jeep one of the spaceman actors is asleep in the back. He taps Carter on the shoulder and Carter is shocked. But the n he sees the movie bus pull up and the little men get inside. He's relieved that Gomer isn't crazy. 

            In the second story Carter is leaving on a fishing trip, leaving his prized car in Boyle's care. But at Carter's duty hut Gomer takes a call from Bunny who says Carter left some items for the charity bazaar in the trunk of his car. Gomer says he'll deliver them but while doing so the brakes give out on a hill and Gomer smashes into a truck, wrecking Carter's car. A mechanic agrees to try to fix it before Carter gets back. But it turns out that Carter hasn't left because he remembers the items for the bazaar. But when he sees his car gone he calls the police to report it stolen. Before Gomer leaves the garage the police arrive with a description of the stolen car and arrest Gomer. At the station the police chief doesn't believe Gomer and when Gomer tells him about Bunny having gotten all of the items in the bags from homes and shops he thinks Bunny must be the brains behind the operation and she is arrested as well. Carter is called about the suspects being arrested and goes down to find Gomer and Bunny there. Bunny gives Carter hell and Carter doesn't press charges. The mechanic says Gomer saved Carter's life by being the one driving with a leaking brake line.