Life in the Slow Lane ...

I drove a very long way through countryside on Sunday to deposit a cheque in my account.  My bank has few branches in this part of Quebec.  I bought gas for the same price I pay in Ontario. It's not that Quebec gas got any cheaper; just that Ontarians are now paying the HST so they are being hit as hard now as Quebecers always have been.

On my way home I saw a sight that warmed the cockles of my heart, but would probably have horrified people from the generation raising children.  A grandfatherly man on a large riding mower was cutting the grass in the culvert adjoining his property.  Clutched tightly and protectively in one of his arms was a little grandson.  I suspect that both will remember that experience for the rest of their lives. 

This morning I began teaching Roger, a young Swiss carpenter with a good sense of humour and a weak grasp of English tenses.  I like him, and I suspect that we will have as good a time as Sybeille, Yoshiko and I enjoyed.  The dog from his home stay followed his bike all the way and slept under the table while we had our lesson.  Sweet dog ... a border collie called Kiwi.  Roger decided that so many Canadian pets were named after foods that perhaps we ate our dogs ...   Muffin, Pumpkin, and Tootsy Roll. were three he mentioned in addition to Kiwi ... he was kidding.

When I got home I made turkey soup broth from the leftovers from last night's dinner with Tammy and Carlos, and then Tango arrived.  Tango has been here a few times.  In appearance, he reminds me of  Chance, the dog I adopted in Eleuthera.  Kenya treats him with kid gloves unless he does something really bad.  This is because his first response to a new dog is to growl menacingly.  She has decided that he is the alpha male ...  and she even  lets him get the sticks when they both go to retrieve them in the lake, but she will not allow him to growl at me ... or at Sadie.   I think he is responding to a new situation with an attitude of "the best defence is a strong offence" ... and by tomorrow or the next day he will relax and just enjoy being at a doggies' holiday spa.  Today after a long walk with both dogs, I played in the lake with the two of them.  Part of my time was spent teaching Tango that he is not to mob me in the water.  I was just recovering from Charlie's claw marks and now I have more.  Charlie acted out of fear.  I think Tango, who is very comfortable in the water, might have been trying to save me from drowning.

So ... August is beginning to look like both a socially active and busily profitable month here at the lake.  maybe I will get that dental work covered after all!