Mellow in Chilliwack

We're starting to feel like this is home. We got our address and I've almost learned it already:
105-9-45905 Yale Road
Chilliwack, BC V.....

I never can remember the damn postal code. V2P 8E6 .. good thing I keep it in my pocket.

We've been over to Abbotsford a couple of times but we have figured out how to do that without having to go out onto the parking lot called #1 highway. "Numero uno" as CJ said repeatedly a couple of years ago is pretty congested this far down. Yesterday I was cruising along taking my time on the service road north of the highway when I realized that I was fairly blazing past the traffic which was almost at a standstill on the highway. And that was maybe 2:30 in the afternoon.

We found the Fraser Valley Waterski Club and I went for a rip behind their club boat, a 2009 Response LXI. That's a slightly longer heavier version of our boat - and of course 10 years newer. For a family that doesn't own a boat the club membership is a hell of a deal. Its pretty tempting even for us. Cultus Lake, where we are right now, is pretty and I'm sure it is much less crowded when the kids are in school. Right now its a gong show on the water. Lakes and boats are kind of the last bastion of a lawless frontier where everybody can do their own thing, go as fast as they like and go wherever they like. In theory there is some law on the water and some rules to abide by but probably 75% of the people on the lake on any given day in July and August haven't a clue what those laws consist of and likely half of that number would tell you that there weren't any laws. That's the big appeal of the waterski club - a location where idiots are banned and you can't drive the boat unless you are a member. We won't rush into it this year because we have to be back in SK for much of August but I think its high on the list for 2010.

Marilyn has been off the water for a few days now. She rattled her gourd on a wake the last time out and appears to have dislodged something in one of her eyes. We went to see a Dr. about it but he didn't think it was any big deal, just needs time to settle down again. I've tried to convince her that it needs further shaking but so far she hasn't gone back on the water.

Father's situation hasn't changed. For a while they were moving him pretty well on a daily basis but lately he has been stuck in one room. One of his overnight guests when they were moving him so much apparently developed one of those resistant infections that hospitals are lamentably becoming famous for. That prompted them to put father into some kind of mini-quarantine. Apparently they have degrees of quarantine because Diane has seen higher security protocols than what he is being subjected to but it still means that it is more difficult for people to visit him and he is pretty lonely. It must be just over a month since he went into the hospital now - it seems longer.

The fatal flaw in the Canadian healthcare system is that it has no market sensitivity to demand. If/when father gets accepted into the public system it will cost him roughly $1500 per month for his care. He can buy care in the private system for around $4000 per month and he can afford that. The problem is finding private care that can handle his needs. As a society we need to figure out how to allow him to buy the care that he needs so that additional $2500 per month (4000-1500) can stimulate the system to create new beds. We need to get our heads past the notion that everybody is entitled to equal treatment and start talking about equitable treatment. "Equal" treatment presumes that everyone has the same needs and abilities and therefore deserves identical access. "Equitable" treatment could establish a baseline and provide enhanced treatment based on ability to pay. Until we get there we are doomed to put our parents in storage in places like the Pasqua hospital which is unfair to the inmates but more importantly it drags down the level of acute care that the hospital can offer.