I am taking a drug called Bicaltulamide because it is the same that Nelson Mandela took in order to live to a hundred. This doesn't make much sense, does it? I know that I'm missing something here, so you'll have to forgive my illogic. That's not the point however. This drug suppresses testosterone and, as a byproduct it causes hair to grow on a balding man. It also causes a loss of sexual desire, of course, and many men, I am sorry to say, accept this so they can feed their vanity with hopes of a head of hair. Fools! Women are not stupid. They know that balding men are virile and they are not averse to a roll in the hay with a virile man. Men are dreamers, women are realistic and practical. My doctor has prescibed this drug for me and I must ask him again the reason. Some hair has been growing on my otherwise bald pate, but not much and I often shave it off. It's neater. By the way, for the first time since IQ testing has been used, women now score higher than men. How about that? God bless them.

Cancer Island

2011 has not been kind to folks in our little city. Our neighbor to our left, age 56, has bone cancer and is in hospital on morphine to counteract the pain. We visited her yesterday and she was in top spirits. thanks to the morphine. She is still her old lively self.

Our other neighbor has prostate cancer, the bleeding kind. He's a gentle soul and is always ready to help with any difficulty. He carries on. Almost anyone we talk to has someone close to them with cancer. It's an epidemic.

Prince Edward Island is famous for it's potatoes. A great amount of herbicides and other chemicals are used. While we cannot lawfully spray our lawns, the farmers can go full tilt. The effect on humans has "not been proven". Oh well.

Where does that leave me? I've just been diagnosed with prostate cancer, It is the "slow kind" and with treatment, including pills and an injection every three months I should live another 20 years. That gives me lots of time to die of other causes. I'm told that Nelson Mandela has the same cancer as I, getting the same treatment as I and is pushing 100 years old. I will die with cancer not of it. Ok, I'm agreeable.

The Children of Privilege

Kate and Will have been thrilling people in one city after another, according to my on-line news source. Each day sees another city being thrilled. Ottawa. Edmonton. Vancouver. All these thrills block out any other news.

These two celebrities spent part of a day in Summerside. What a spectacle! It so happens I had to drive to Lower Freetown, a journey of 20 minutes at the most. It took me the best part of 90 minutes because I encountered a crowd of pedestrians coming from the waterfront where Will had demonstrated his "bravery" and skill by lifting aloft in one of our latest choppers and landing it on a cruiser. (Show-off time.)This line of pedestrians coming from the Royal Presence was at least a mile long, to say nothing of the vehicle traffic. Man, did I pick the wrong time to go to Lower Freetown.

Thank God, they're finally gone and I celebrate the return of sanity. As a proud Canadian and an avowed anti-monarchist, I resent these Royals coming here and acting like Lords of the Realm. Had I any say in the matter, I would politely ask them to leave and delare a Republic of Canada with an elected President.

The Great Dictator

Man, was I ever wrong about the Canadian election. First, I didn't think Prime Minister Harper would win a majority of seats, but he did. He did it by character assasination, inuendo, blatant lies and all the dirty tricks you can imagine. Secondly, I was greatly impressed by the youth movement to get out the vote, thinking that young voters could hardly stomach Harper. Wrong again! They voted for him overwhelmingly. A number of survays revealed that uppermost in young minds was first, the economy, second, health care. If the economy tanked, they might have to move back in with their parents, and they were concerned about health care being available when they would need it later in life. And, after all, was Stephen Harper not the guarantor of the economy? Not so fast.

The Canadian economy is healthy because of Paul Martin who, with the Chrétien government following the huge deficit left by Mulroney's Progressive Conservatives, nursed the nation back to fiscal health and passed legislation to make sure our banks would not follow the example of the U.S. financial institutions. As a result, our banks enjoy a reputation second to none on the world stage.

But no, our blind and naive electorate just didn't get it. They saw Harper in his Captain Canada suit with CANADA enblazened across his chest - how juvenile can you get? They flocked to him. Canada and Harper are synonyms! On TV, we saw his supporters holding Harper and Canada placards. Presumably, other candidates are not credible Canadians, especially Harvard professors who are only here on a lark, which our learned fool Iggy did little to dispel.

One credible Canadian, however, is Jack Layton. His victory, if you can call it that, was displacing the Liberals as official opposition. As if it matters! It was not an NDP victory as such, it was a Layton victory. There is a difference. Jack could have led the Rhinocerous Party to a similar "victory". That man really resonated with the people. Especially in Quebec, where a number of his candidates, whose names could have been chosen from a phone book, won handily. Actually, they were students. One especially, hardly speaks French, spent the prior week in Las Vegas, doesn't know where her riding is, but now is one of our legislators. Who knows, she may do well. I feel really sorry for Gilles Duceppe of the Bloc Québecois who, despite his avowed purpose of Quebec separation, gained the respect of all parties as a skilled parliamentarian. He had said that as long as Québec remained in Canada, he would be a loyal Canadian and act accordingly. He did so. Along with Ignatieff, he lost his seat and the Bloc is decimated. Sad, but when the wave comes, look out!

I am willing to bet that after four years of a Harper dictatorship, and that is what it will be, we might have trouble finding an elector who will admit to having voted for him. You can hold me to that.

This blog has lain dormant for some time and I'm thinking of deleting it, but first I may make a hard copy of some of the articles. It seems to me that publishing my thoughts is really a foolish exercise in egotism. So this is the end of the line.

My lost slippers

I was looking for my slippers. They are usually by my Laz-y-boy in front of the TV in the rec room, but they weren't there. I must have left them by the daybed in my den. No, not there either. Perhaps the bathroom. Nope. I climbed to the main level and looked around, no luck. I must have left them in the bedroom, so up another level. You see, our house is a split level - four levels; there is a cellar (my wine cellar), then the rec (family) room, then the main level, finally the top level, the bedrooms. So I came down all the way to the cellar but no better luck. Up again to the main level and out to the garage, but no slippers there. For the next quarter hour or so, I travelled up and down several times and finally, exhausted, frustrated and angry, I slumped into my Laz-y-boy, reached for the lever to raise the footrest, put my feet up and took a few deep breaths, looked around the room. It was then that I found my slippers. They were on my feet!

Update

I finally had my lumbar puncture, Oct. 7, and immediarely afterward was able to walk normally. This lasted until the return to Summerside but not the next couple of days when I was back to my ataxic gait. The fluid was analysed and nothing untoward was found.

Now, two weeks later, for some reason, I seem to be walking normally. Not 100% but maybe 95%. Who knows why? I return to see my neurologist Nov. 2 and I'll have many questions for him. He anticipated my seeing a neurosurgeon in Moncton - the solution is to put a shunt from my brain to my stomach, a risky operation at best, to drain off excess fluid. I want no part of it. I can live with my present condition even if the ataxic gait returns. If it gets worse I'll deal with it then. So, once again, stay tuned.