All But Complete

A task at which Helen has laboured for several years is now all but complete. The last of four in the series of family histories of her ancestors went to the printers yesterday. Today we heard from the printer that they would like us to see the first run of the document they have produced. I am not sure that means a problem has developed, but we shall find out when we go down there tomorrow. It is possible that they have discovered some of the pictures to be too dark to photocopy well. OTOH, I speculate.

In the opinion of various media comments, the Manley Report on Afghanistan has given both the Liberals and the Conservatives an opportunity to work toward a national consensus. Whether either of the party leaders will be willing to change their previous rather strong and opposing positions remains to be seen. Like so much else in politics - and in much of life - everything is in flux.

For a few hours today we were without heat. The thermocouple that signals the furnace to burn more gas and provide heat for the house needed to be replaced. By the time we had learned that the furnace was not functioning and had called the service department of Union Gas - now a corporate subsidiary - the house temperature had fallen several degrees. Happily, the service man came soon after 1 p.m. and within five minutes had the furnace operating again. The service man also expressed his opinion that our 22 year old furnace should be replaced by a modern, more efficient model. Since ours is operating satisfactorily, why change? It isn't broken.