Hey Mayor!!!!!! The Toronto Police would like a raise? Apparently they are being ignored. You wouldn't do that, would you?

Aw, Toronto, the land of the brave - my home town, that has grown, especially the crime. Why on earth would our police want a raise? I mean really? Why would the Mayor ignore them? But, that is me. What do I know about running a city? I am not a politician. I am just one of many others, who call Toronto home. After all everyone has an opinion. Now let's get back to Toronto Police who want a raise and perhaps some other benefits. The Police Chief reported that this year 550 Officers were hurt. Is that all? I believe it is their Association head telling us that Police are leaving Toronto and that other neighbouring Police Forces are getting 5000. more. Boy, I was sure that in the past, Toronto Police was the best paid - what happened? I am not going to talk too much today about this, but I do want to say that there is rarely a weekend, I don't hear gun shots and I never report it because I want to protect our Police. They do so much with so little appreciation. I have always lived in Toronto unless my work took me elsewhere and my work certainly did that. Retiring here in my third career has certainly been an eye opener. I have seen crime rise in the city and the news excusing it, reporting that it is good compared to other places in the world. Well, I don't live in those other countries, I live here. I believe that the majority of Torontonians are great people. We are a diverse city, rich in both tradition and newcomers. We are friendly and love everything the city offers. We do have a criminal element but I believe that they are the minority and with a few changes in the law, we can surely get that in control. We need to support our Police. Olivia Chow prove me wrong. Give the Police the raise and resources they desparately need. Do a happy dance for them please and at least show them that you may care. After all they keep you safe too.

Scholar's Hub @ Home | Health in the Workplace: Thriving, not Just Survi...

RCMP Cadet Mental Health by Dr Nick Carleton, Psychologist

I just attended this EHN hour lecture and found it very useful for all police and emergency personnel. I will be getting the video and posting it here. I do hope that all emergency response persons watch it. There are about 13 emergency response persons to each 1500 Canadians. Keep in mind that the 13 is across the board. One may be a fire fighter, another a paramedic and etc..and so it is not a collective 13 of each such as 13 police. The one police officer and another firefighter is included as a separate number so that if you have one police officer responding, you now have 12 others which includes all job responses. It is obvious to me in Toronto that we don't have enough police and that is what is needed for their personal wellness. Dr Carleton reported that more personnel is required. There is a demand do more and more, with less. Since I will be posting the video here as soon as I get it, I won't go much further. I will give you some resources however for the study and resources. University of Regina. Sleep 101 Tablet; Suicide fact sheet; health promotion and chronic diseases in Canadian Journal. RCMP Study; self monitoring, www.rcmpstudy.ca www.saskptsisstudy.ca Of course I am behind due to the leg thing. I have another video that was sent to me by York University because I had to cancel a seminar which is about PTSD. Once I have the opportunity to watch it I will also post it here. I know that people read my blog worldwide. This will also apply to all of you. I will have to miss the conference with the American Association of Famly Therapy this year because they are going live at Disney World. Can you believe it? My favourity place in the world and I can't go. I am still on crutches and I can't travel because Mr Attitude is still alive. I could have mixed work and play, but the timing is not right. Yesterday I went to city hall in my area for the proof that I paid my taxes for revenue Canada and I decided to sit in and watch the Justice of the Peace in action. Of course my crutches set off the alarm and my purse contents are now all over the place but it was interesting and it actually felt like home. I have been in a few courts in my day but I never saw anything as small as this. It was cute. Now I did try to send off the proof today on line to Revenue Canada but of course I can't remember who my favourite history character is and I think I spelled my favourite author's name wrong so now I probably have to find a different route so it appears I may have to ask for an extension which I wasn't able to do because there was a 30 minute to 60 minute wait. Really? Really? Come on people, hire more!!!!!I will have to try to get this sorted tomorrow. So have a good day; have a good weekend. And please, please, if you are an emergency response person keep a look out for the video. Good talk.

OAMFT DISSOLUTION

I just attended the meeting to vote and it was passed. The Ontario Association of Marriage and Family Therapy is an organization I joined as a student and will be sorry to have it gone. Due to decreasing membership through out the years and lack of volunteers for Executive positions it had no choice. A scholarship will be set up with the American Association of Couple and Family Therapy for students from Ontario. There will be one final Annual General Meeting Oct 5, 24 at Tyndal College where all members and previous members and executives may attend. Of course I will be there with or without crutches. We will all be getting our invitations tomorrow. I will be able to catch up with previous students, colleagues etc....and saying goodbye to OAMFT is going to be difficult. We are also going to have a speaker and the topic is Organizational and Personal Goodbyes. I do volunteer for one organization for many years and due to my injury am paused as Eucharistic Minister due to the stairs at the altar. The calf is healing, however now the muscle by the knee is painful and after that heals, I should be good. I may just give up the gym. When Mr Attitude dies, I shall be focusing on condo's. I just bought a St Margaret lottery to see if I can win the condo by the waterfront. Yeah right! Oh guess what? Revenue Canada has once again reached out to me to prove that I paid my property taxes. I wish Revenue Canada was a lottery. They keep telling me I am randomly selected each year. It took 30 minutes to get 611 to disconnect me after such a wait. After another 30 minutes I finally got a woman with a sense of humour. I was the only person who paid my taxes who was calling. I complained due to the wait time and I did get a call about that. I suggested that perhaps the city should not send out notices to the entire city at the same time so the wait is not as long. They thought that was a good idea. Should I send them a bill? I am not going to be able to hop along my city hall to have the stamp and receipt Reveue Canada wants right now. However, Revenue Canada informed me I could ask for an extension. I am hoping to have more energy next week. For now, I am trying to get physio twice a week to expedite my healing. Should I try swimming? Yup, I tried to suspend my gym membership while I heal but they want a doctor's note. Can you believe that? Just to suspend? I won't be doing that unless my doctor calls me in because he is obviously overworked and I am not going to ask for something a high school student may need. So, have a good weekend you all!!!!! If you want to read one of my books, make it an ebook please at https://www.silvaredigonda.ca Later.

Tired and Wired: Sleep and Hyperarousal

Hey Guy Buy Me sold at the Coptic Centre. Thank you Olive Steele and her volunteer

As you know I had to miss this signing event and it appears "Hey Guy Buy Me" was the people's choice. I thank Olive Steele, author and organizer and her supportive volunteer for doing this for me.

Due to my injury I will not be able to attend Word on The Street.

This leg business has been something else. I have had to defer from attending Word On the Street this year because I was told yesterday that I would need to be on crutches for another month or two. Two is not a number I was looking at and one is too much of a gamble since today is the deadline. I am just grateful that I will not be losing my money and can use it towards next year. This leg business started with me being at the gym and all excited that I was feeling my best. I felt like I was in great shape. Then I went home and I got a shooting pain within my right calf that evening. It was so bad that I cried. I took a tylonal to help ease some pain so I could sleep. I haven't had a perfect night sleep since. I also haven't taken any pain meds since. I have seen so many clients become addicted due to pain medicine which was initially prescribed, that I would rather suffer the pain and boy did I ever. That happened on a Friday. I thought the pain would subside but Monday, I was doing paperwork all day and by the end of it I was no better off. I was worse. I managed to get to see a physio therapist and he wanted me to go to the hospital. We compromised on me going to see a physician. I tried my own doctor's office, which had closed for the day and then limped to the walk-in-clinic which was also closed. The pain only enhanced. I finally decided to go to Sunnybrook emergency and again limped all over the place to find parking. They don't accept credit cards and I had limited cash for the emergency area. One person on a scooter led me to a parking space and I used all my cash for about 2 hours parking. Limping became more difficult. I got into the emerg and now you have to supply all your info to a machine. The last time I went to emerg was due to a sprained ankle years ago and boy a lot has changed. I was informed by a staff member that my purse was on a print out machine and so I removed it which is where I received a receipt and number. I limped towards a seat in a congested area. A man was loudly speaking into his cell phone about conspiracy theories. This was just after the attempted killing of Trump. I found an empty seat as far as possible from him but he continued to be just as loud. I looked up at the tv screen which indicated we were 110 in the waiting room and it would take 10 hours for most of us to see triage. Another half hour later we should be able to see a physician. The operative word here is "should". Triage has sure changed since my days in the military. Triage was conducted to determine the state of seriousness of injury. It sure didn't mean most should be seen in 10 hours and maybe you will see a doctor a half hour later. The man kept on saying the same thing and I thought there was no way I could hear about Trump for another 10 hours. The only sane thing he said was that he had never seen an emergency room like this. That I agreed with. A woman in front of me kept glaring at him and yelling out that no one wanted to hear him. Of course he couldn't hear her because he was too busy hearing himself. You know buddy, if any leader wanted someone dead, he would be dead and a sharp shooter is all that is needed. Not everyone is as obvious as Putin and North Korea. The tv screen again indicated that the numbers on our cards was not indicative of where we stood in being seen. I decided that I could not wait in the emergency throughout the entire night. I got up and while limping by the Security Officer, I informed him I would rather die comfortably at home than wait here for 10 hours minimum. He appologized and suggested I try another hospital. There was no way that was going to happen. I let him know that it wasn't his fault. I went home after meeting the parking Enforcement Officer near my car. I spoke to him briefly. Glad that at about $5.50 an hour I still had time on the meter. I tried using my credit card initially but it said it was counterfeit. I was so glad that I had no problem using my card after that and finding that it was not so. The next day I managed to see my physician and I told him that my physio therapist suggested that I get an untra sound. I see now that everyone was concerned I may have a blood clot. I suppose if I had, I wouldn't have made it by then. The temp secretary (the regular secretary was on holidays) was informed to get me in soonest and she said that the primary place the technician was away (I learned later that he wasn't away, he was just fully booked). The Secretary tried to call another place and there was no answer so she gave me a form of the primary location and directions to the second place. So I went, limping and suffering more pain. Now this was the day Toronto flooded. I went to the place recommended and the place was full of water flowing from the ceiling and there was no electricity, thankfully. They informed me to go to another location and guess what? They too had no power and there was flooding. My pain was only increasing as I was limping away. When I got home I called the first place and I had an appointment for the next day. Guess what - no blood clot. All is ok. I just need to elevate leg and ice it, rest being the operative word. After all that I decided I needed crutches because by this time I couldn't walk without support. My doctor wanted me to use a cane and the physio therapist wanted me to use a walker. I compromised and got crutches which I have had experience with and trust more. I could walk with support and just hang out when I got tired. Am I trying to be funny? Nope - all true. Two weeks ago I started physio, missing my own physio therapist who moved to Brandford so he and his wife could afford to buy a house. My loss is their gain because he is good. I go for physio and afterwards I can't walk at all because the pain has moved to the heel of my foot and my toes were numb. I told the therapist and then the leg was massaged upwards rather than downwards. After that the pain moved to my knee which was really bad. Then yesterday I went for physio to the same person who had recommended hospital and though I couldn't walk because of the knee pain, today is better but not by much. He gave me a lecture while lazer was used on my lower leg and then a much needed massage of the lower leg. He thought the swelling had increased since that first day when he wanted me to go to emerg. Today I recevied an email from Word On the Street and I had to let them know that it would take another month or two to be able to walk without crutches. Since it also appeared to be a deadline at noon, I was permitted to defer - thankfully. I won't be losing all the money I paid to be there - it will be deferred as payment for next year. Though I shall miss not being there, I can now relax with something less to think about getting to. I took a month off work and am slowly easing myself to seeing existing clients on line. I had to cancel for a month because I couldn't sit for 50 minutes. Today I managed to sit long enough in the backyard to drink my coffee. I never thought sitting in the backyard would be a big deal. What did I learn from all this? There is no way I am going to an emergency room again unless it is on a stretcher. We definitely have a problem Houston. I remember years ago a person died in the emergency room in New York City. I thought it was unbelievable at the time. I can easily see that happening in Toronto before something is done. Emergency should be just for emergency. Also, if you go to a walk-in clinic now when you have a physician, your physician is penalized. We need to make things better here. Another thing I have experienced is the kindness of strangers. So many people have asked if they can help. One neighbour brought me food for a week and she has cancer and is undergoing chemo. My next door neighbour has been taking the trash in and out for me. I have hired a refugee to help with household chores. I thought I was doing her a favour when I hired her, but boy did that get reversed quickly. People are always trying to help me and the jokes are endless. I didn't know I wasn't 16 years old anymore and shouldn't be climbing ropes - that from my garbage man. There was one woman who approached me in the parking lot near my car. I was on alert due to the recent distraction theft. She told me that she felt bad for me and she admired my independance. She said she was still suffering pain from a knee surgery two years ago. Men have approached me asking me if they can help and I always say no thank you and wonder if they want to rob me or help? I was even grateful that when I went to get cash at the bank instant teller that I wasn't robbed by the two men inside and said so to the third man with a radiant man who opened the door for me from the outside. So for you, who were looking forward to seeing me as much as I was to see you at Word on The Street, I am afraid I have to skip it this year. I will be at the legion though for their Christmas sale in December. I'll give you more info on that later. May I ask you to say a prayer for me? I am a big sucky baby.