wayner

When I was growing up, St. John’s had exactly one homeless person that I knew about. Hobo Bill. Everyone knew Hobo Bill. Maybe not personally, but they did know him.

I heard stories that he was from a Scandinavian country or something like that and disagreed with the Canadian Government and was trying to get back but wouldn’t take a hand out for the trip. It didn’t really make sense at the time but it was the only theory I had ever heard.

Anita sent me an article from The Telegram about Hobo Bill passing away on Christmas Eve. But it also tells the truth about Bill.

It seems right that the Story of Hobo Bill has not been known to most till after his passing. The mystery isn’t needed with the man gone.

The Telegram doesn’t keep articles available for too long so here are the facts for all that would like to know:

His name was William Cherniwchan, referred to himself as Bill Chan and thought that CSIS was were affecting his knees. And in typical Newfoundland fashion – he wasn’t actually homeless. He had a small apartment until May of 2006 – then he was homeless.

He was hospitalized at the Waterford for diabetes, but the place also has a reputation for dealing with people who would think that CSIS was trying to kill them.

He was from from the West and one day decided to hitchhike across Canada and stopped when he reached here.

It’s believed he has a daughter in B.C.

Update: CBC has their own story.

I’m still tired from the party we had Saturday night.

We invited close to 30 people, and to our great surprise, just about everybody showed up!

The house was packed and we didn’t really get a chance to talk to anyone. Everytime I turned around someone was arriving or leaving.

But all in all, I had a good time and I hope everyone else did too.

I was exhausted from cleaning the whole day and then decorating the Christmas Tree! Next year I hope to be ready a little earlier! …actually, maybe even start a little earlier, might even get a chance to actually meet my guests!

I got a call from Mom tonight, Dad has won a lottery!

I’m not exactly sure what it was for, but the 1^st prize was $10,000!!!!

Now Mom & Dad want me to figure out how to spend a couple of thousand on myself.

The title is suppose to be a pun/joke on a couple of different levels but I’m very tired so it might not work so great…

Another Monday night and another trip to the hospital. Only this was a different hospital and a different reason.

Anita started a new medication and it was reacting poorly with her. Very poorly.

So we arrived at Montfort at around 8pm or so and checked ourselves into the lineup in the Emergency ward.

Let me just say right here that over the past month or so I’ve got to see Ontario’s health care system from a few different views. And….

(wait for it)

Dalton McGuinty is a bold faced liar! The (Canadian) TV channels are filled with his ads saying how wait times are reduced. LIES! What bastard lovechild of Voodoo Economics mathematics are they using to justify that statement?

When we sat down to begin our wait people who had been checked in at 2pm where just being called in. That’s a 6 hour wait.

What about us? Well let’s do the simple math:

Arrived: 8 pm
Called to be seen by a doctor: 3:30 AM

A quick count on my fingers produces: over 7 hours.

And that’s just to see a Doctor.

Many people left at various times, just unable to stay any longer or with children to return to. God forbid, they have anything serious that remains untreated.

One of the receptionists told a new patient (this was somewhere around the 1:30am mark) that there is NEVER less then a two hour wait.

There were people bleeding with just gauze and tape to tide them over.

If you are in a situation where there is never less then a two hour wait, the only solution is to increase capacity. Dalton, quite simply, needs to throw money at the problem.

And as for us poor saps stuck waiting, what does the hospital provide? Parking meters that run 2:30 for a quarter. Bottles of water for $2.25. The most uncomfortable chairs – which should be criminal to ask someone to sit down for at least two hours.

Doctors are required to take the Hippocratic Oath, perhaps it’s time for the same to be said about the rest of the staff.

And then there was three.

We are cat sitting Pico for a while and we just picked her up today.

Things should be interesting. There have been no fights, but boy have there be growling and hissing.

But I think Presto doesn’t really know why he’s growling. He was sitting on the couch behind me earlier and Pico was growling from across the room. Presto wasn’t even looking at her, just kinda absorbed in something else, and would let out this little weak “grrr” every now and then. It was so funny because of the absent mindedness of his attempt. He’s just following everybody else.