Barrhaven: well, at least it isn’t Kanata

Got up in a fine humour and decided that I had so little to do that I could actually make it out to Barrhaven, aka the Hole at the End of the Highway, to see my friend Armand, who is in a nursing home there and whom I had not visited for a couple of months. It was a lovely morning, so I made it there in time and, when I was signing in, I saw to my surprise that his daughter Shelly was also there. I hadn’t seen her for a long time - in fact, since before Ottawacker Jr. was born. (It's a long story.) 

She was in the process of conducting a review of Armand’s health care with a nurse practitioner when I barged in with rather excessive gusto. At first,  I was a little taken aback to not get the usual response to my “so how the fecking hell are you?”, but then I noticed the nurse sitting int he corner of the room. The nurse looked a little shocked; Armand giggled; Shelly went red.
 
I left pretty quickly and went to get some Timbits at the local Tim Hortons – a place I detest and never frequent but in which I seem to be spending all my time of late – and returned some 30 minutes later. Then we all went for a coffee in the lobby, and sat around catching up. Armand, who is suffering from memory issues, was completely with it, asking after Mrs. Ottawacker and Ottawacker Jr., remembering the work he did for us (he is a fantastic carpenter) and reminding me that I still owed him $20 from 1999. As he is using a walker/Zimmer frame, I fancied my chances of outrunning him – but took the gentleman’s way out and offered him double or quits. All he had to do was get round the lobby three times in under 20 seconds.
 
Stayed afterwards and had a chat with Shelly, then drove back to Ottawacker, had lunch with Mrs. Ottawacker, and settled down to an afternoon of ticking things off my list. One of the items on said list was ordering a copy of the book that Shelly’s daughter had written (called Shadow Sword). I’m more than a little pissed off that she got her novel out quicker than I did, but I do at least have the satisfaction of knowing that the last time we met, she peed herself because I told her to pull my finger. She did, with the obvious result, and the 9-year-old girl that she was then completely dissolved into gales of laughter. If that happens to one of the characters in the book, I’m demanding a percentage. Seriously though, she is a lovely person and if you fancy some quality fantasy fiction, check her out.