Friday the 13^th turned out to be unlucky for poor old Denis. Sometime that morning I’d received an email from Luke saying Denis had gone to the Grand Forks hospital on Wednesday due to a bad reaction to Ozempic but presumably was released. Luke then emailed me on Friday saying he’s been texting his dad, but no reply. I said call the Grand Forks Hospital.

Luke then emailed he’d called, but the hospital said he wasn’t there. I then tried phoning Denis and got no reply, so I thought something funny must be going on, so sent a text to his sister Monica in San Diego saying try to text Denis as he always replies to you. She got no reply and felt concerned by that so texted Kevin on Pender Island, and he phoned their friend Mike who lives in Midway and told him to go by Denis’ house.

Mike arrived and knocked, no answer, so he called 911. The police broke in and found Denis in a coma, so called the ambulance and he was transported to Trail Hospital.  Denis was in bad shape given he could’ve been in that coma for two days for all we know. However he did bounce back and is now at home being tended to by a few of his brothers and both of our boys who were very worried about their old dad.

Hence, had Luke not let me know he couldn’t reach his dad, and had I not felt worried that I couldn’t contact him either, the whole chain of events wouldn’t have occurred, and Denis surely would be dead. His body temperature was 30 degrees C when they found him, so God only knows how long he was lying there.

Aside from that roller coaster ride all else was normal. Sylvie and I went to the Perch restaurant downtown for Happy Hour and just as we were about to be served our food it began to rain so we had to run inside. There was a huge clap of thunder that made all of us jump, then laugh. I plan to return with Margaret when she visits next month.

Petra and I went to Road 13 Winery in Oliver to watch the annual Weiner Dog races and managed to catch one of the heats. We had lunch at the Flealess Hound Pub at Gallagher’s outside Oliver, and I don’t need to tell you that I had the chicken burger, do I? All my friends just laugh as it’s an actual “thing” when I go to a restaurant. I am nuts for them, okay?

Marie came for lunch and I made a lettuce salad with ripe cherries. I had the recipe in the July 2024 issue of my newsletter. One also adds red onions and feta cheese and then top with a delicious dressing made with Dijon mustard, honey, oil, and red wine vinegar. I had found a very nice recipe for chicken cashew which I served with rice for the main course.

I suppose some people would view madcap food consumption and constant cooking and baking as overt hedonism, however they, like thrift store shopping, spark joy. I love handing a bag of cookies to Gilles the handyman whose eyes light up at the sight of them. He knows I like to make cannabis laced chocolate chip cookies too, so he always ensures these are the “normal” kind and I say Yes, Gilles, these are the normal kind.

Once again, we all thought wow, gramma at 100 could out-live Denis but thankfully, he prevailed, and I believe I’ve pretty much secured my spot in Heaven. Right?