The View From Here - Various thoughts and travels
This is the car you'd take to the Drive-In for an all-nighter. Pretty nice! Don't forget to detach the speaker from the window before you head for home.
Remember "Wake Up Little Susie" by the Everly Brothers?
Spotted near Wayne, Alberta.
Michael Truman
A friend of mine had been wanting to go to the Bruce Hotel in Bruce, Alberta. A few weeks back I decided one can talk about doing something or you can do it. So I made a reservation and we were there yesterday. You definitely need a reservation. I had to book a few weeks in advance.
Bruce, Alberta is probably less than seventy people. The hotel was built in 1911. The hotel is only open Friday and Saturday nights. There is no menu, you go there to eat steak.
I did not know how this dinner operated. We got there a little before my booked reservation at five. The place opens at five. You are shown to your table. The waitress explained that everything is like a buffet. You are told when you can go up and get your salad. They ask how you want your steak and will deliver it later. We got up to get our salads and there are paper plates with metal cutlery. There were about seven different salads.
Your steak arrives on a styrofoam plate at your table and you go back to get your sides. There were baked potatoes with dill sauce on the side, fried mushrooms, shrimp, sausage, garlic bread, and baked beans. The steak was just how I like it - medium rare - and all the food was homemade and damn good. The owner comes around to all the tables and is serious that your steak is done the way you like it and that your are happy with it. The hotel was absolutely packed. I would bet they have a few hundred people a night.
Damn right I will be back.
I am having problems booking physiotherapy appointments as they are short-staffed at the moment. Yesterday at 5:00pm was the latest that I ever had a session and it went well. It seems that the legs and knees are getting a bit stronger. On the AlterG Anti-Gravity Treadmill I did twenty minutes at forty-five percent body weight with a slight incline and did forty percent of a mile. Considering last year at this time I could do barely do five minutes at a snail’s pace and I needed help stepping on the treadmill. I still have to use crutches.
The next day I have some stiffness and a little pain. The good thing is the discomfort the next day is ever so slowly getting less and less as the months pass. There were days after in the past I would be in very bad pain the day following a physiotherapy session. Progress is being made.
My friend Glen Bowe came with me on this trip and I was glad to have him. From the range road you have to go through two separate gates on a path bordering a farmers field. According to a marker at the cemetery the Presbyterian Church applied for, and was granted, forty acres by Queen Victoria in 1895. The four acre cemetery was established in 1916. No mention of an church. About half the area is covered in trees and dense brush. There is not much here in the surrounding area. Someone likely had big plans for this area.
I had a routine follow up with my surgeon. My x-rays are great and nothing negative.
My mother had a RRIF (Registered Retirement Income Fund for those readers that are not Canadian). My sister and I are beneficiaries. I was sent forms to sign and return so the investment firm that administered the RRIF can send us the proceeds. I signed the forms and sent them back. They then advised me that the forms need my signature and my sister’s signature. It was suggested that she could be emailed the forms, sign them, scan them and email them back. Nice in theory except my sister is in the midst of a move and her stuff is in boxes. So I drove a little over two hours to meet her and get forms signed. As a bonus I stopped at a specialty store that sells soda and candy and loaded up on hard to get root beer. In the near future will have to drive down again as notarized signatures will be required on a final set of forms.
So why is my sister not able to drive up here? Some things with some people are just easier being done a certain way. Plus, if I drive down again I can get more root beer.About every three months I get to hear from the insurance companies. I believe my auto insurance company is resigned to paying me certain benefits up to February 2026 which will be the two year anniversary of the accident. In Alberta auto insurance no fault Accident Benefits coverage, or Section B of the policy, is only for two years from the date of loss. My group health insurer wants me to get a medical update from my surgeon. They have made veiled threats about having this done by a certain date or they will do something unspecified. So I will be meeting with my surgeon next week. Thankfully he is a great guy who is willing to help deal with bureaucracy. No, I do not feel like I am in condition to go back to work at this time.
In my last physiotherapy session I tackled the stationary bike which I had not been on in some time. Damn, the legs were moving in a nice fluid motion and it looked okay. I could not do it for long, about ten minutes, but it felt good. I remember vividly months ago when I could move the pedals back and forth unable to do a complete revolution. I have visions of trying a gym. The rehab specialist that I saw on October 8 said that was not a good idea. I have to be patient.
My lawyer contacted me regarded the suit I have against the other party that drove into me and caused my injuries. She asked if I was free for the second week of February 2026 for questioning with the other party’s lawyer. I responded that I did not need to check my calendar as I am sure I am free that day.
In the meantime I keep plodding along getting better in barely noticeable increments over months. I look forward to the day I can chuck the crutches.
In the past I would joke about dying creating paperwork. Well it does.
Being executor of my mother’s estate is not that big of a deal. There is not a huge amount of work involved. What is a problem is the incompetence I am encountering.
I got a lawyer to handle probate. It takes them two weeks to get back to me with a letter of engagement. They spell her name wrong.
She had an account with an investment firm. They spell my last name wrong in one of the first emails and the English is bad. In another email they got my last name spelled right but my first name was now spelled wrong. They emailed me forms to sign which I signed, scanned, and sent back. I was then informed later that the forms need my signature and my sister’s signature as well. So the forms need to be redone. Never mind that before sending the forms I asked for clear instructions as to what they needed beforehand. I complained about the misspelling and got a feeble apology.
Mom banked with two different banks. In the past tellers did a lot of tasks. Now you cannot open a bank account without making an appointment. One bank was fine to deal with, the other had to order a balance at time of death. That was on October 3. I am still waiting.
Picked up mom’s ashes yesterday. It is a little strange to see someone reduced to a small cardboard box.
I arranged for the last of her items to be removed from her room at the retirement home. Some was given to other residents that wanted things. Her clothes were given away as well as things like pillows and blankets. It is odd what things you find. For some reason she had twenty-three bars of soap. I kept a few things and my sister claimed some items previously.
A relative, a friend, and a seventeen year old strapping guy that my relative knew and asked to help out. My relative is my cousin’s daughter who is in her forties and has a farm with her husband. The kid lives on a farm and she knows the family. She asked him to volunteer and help out. I was useless as I am still using crutches to get around.
Everything got moved out within an hour. Mom was on the fourth floor. As things were being moved I chatted with a few residents. I asked them if they liked it there. They would rather be living on their own. I can sympathize, I would rather mom lived independently but she had strokes and fell too many times. My sister and I did all we could for her and visited as much as possible. We visited more than people who lived in the same town as the retirement home.
Many years ago when I lived in Calgary, not far removed from high school, working and taking classes, there were many times I would drive up on a weekend to Drayton Valley to see my grandmother in the senior lodge and visit. It was about three hours one way. Usually I would take her out for lunch with what meagre money I had. I loved the lady. My grandmother loved the lodge, no more cooking and cleaning. There was a well stocked craft room where she made wonderful quilts and she knew everyone. I never really told anyone about my visits because I did it for me and her. My mother made it her mission to dislike the retirement home, not socialize or get involved, and be miserable. I wanted so much more for her and she made it so hard in her remaining years.
I slipped the young guy a hundred in cash before we started. During the move I heard he had a date later in the evening. I got his attention and gave him another fifty and said I knew what it was like to date with not a lot of money. He was helping me when I was in a bit of a bind and I did not mind overpaying him. I hope he and his date had a great time.
One last look at her space to check. It is odd to see it stripped bare and nothing of her remaining. I made it a point to thank the staff.
Thank you for all the kind words.
Busy day yesterday regarding mom. I am the executor so I have responsibilities.
Quick stop at the hospital. Got paperwork and her personal effects. Thanked the staff for their care. I suspect they are a little overworked but they never failed to answer my questions on prior visits.
Next stop was a funeral home. Arranged cremation. No service as that is what she wanted. My father died in 1997 and cremation prices, as with everything, have gone up since then. The funeral home will notify the Government of Canada and Alberta that she is deceased. I pick up the ashes this coming week.
Met up with her brother. Out of a family of four kids he is the last one on her side. No one is left on my father’s side. You grow up meeting a lot of people along the way and as you grow older they become less and less in number.
Retirement home was next. Met with the general manager and she had already got word that mom is deceased. In a smaller town word travels fast. My sister and I arranged for her room to be packed up. She did not have much in her room as it was not a big space. The floor plans in her building were two bedroom, one bedroom, and studio. She had the last type. Anything she had wanted we would have arranged it. She did not want much.
This coming week I will get a lawyer. I am not sure if I will need to use one. Her estate is a few bank accounts and an investment fund, nothing more. I will inform her accountant and the investment firm. Her taxes were ridiculously easy for the last few years as there was very little to report but because she used the same firm for decades, and liked them, she insisted on overpaying for a tax return to be done by a professional accountant.
Any keepsakes were given to my sister and me a few years ago. Mom was difficult and unpleasant for her last bit of time. I hope she is in a better place and found peace.
I have been spending a fair amount of time in hospitals lately. A friend of mine had a mishap and ignored it. He is a farmer, whacked his leg on some equipment, carried on working in his fields because at this time of year according to him that came first. It was not until he started to get ill that he went to a hospital to deal with a nasty leg infection. He spent two and a half weeks in the hospital and was released yesterday. He was easy to visit because he wound up in the hospital in my town. He lives about an hour from me.
Time has been spent visiting mom in the hospital. It is a little over an hour one way to see her. She is not doing well. She was admitted about two weeks ago for something minor and she has deteriorated since then. She sleeps all day. She does not eat and will not take her pills. When I visit she has not been coherent. Yesterday she did not acknowledge my presence, I do not think she can, she likely does not know I am there. Last week she attempted to communicate, now there is nothing. She seems to be in some pain and they are keeping her comfortable. With every visit she is a little less.
That was yesterday.
I got a call that she died just after three this morning.
.jpeg)
