By Daniel McSweeney
Leamington Spa, England
FOR THE PAST FEW WEEKS, it appeared we might return to Canada much sooner than expected. This would have created a ‘wine dilemma’ here in the Canal House. I had, you see, stocked up way too much wine – figuring we would host scads of visitors with a passion for the grape. That all went out the window with the arrival of COVID-19 that has brought the world to a crashing halt. Altogether I had about 14 bottles left on our wine rack and might have had just a few weeks to consume them. I am a bottle a week guy so I calculated my consumption would have to at least double or triple. Doing this calculation (using various time frames) got me thinking about calculating other stuff in my life; like the three billion times or so my heart has beaten over 72 years; the more than 100 million steps I have taken; the 11 communities in which I have lived; the 23 houses I called home, the 10 automobiles we have had on the road, the four out of 10 provinces in which I lived. I even tallied up the number of days I have slept – somewhere around 6,000. There are some things for which I can’t calculate. The numbers would be too large: like the number of times I was told to close the refrigerator door; empty the dishwasher and to pick up clothes on the bedroom floor. Speaking of ‘work,’ it is time to return to the wine rack where much work must be done even though we will stay here for another half year. My brother-in-law Roy, the garage vintner of the delicious ‘Chateau Longleah’ in Amherst, Nova Scotia, would jump at the chance to lend me a helping elbow. I will keep you posted Roy. Work, work work. Be assured I am enjoying every minute of my labours. And all this time, I thought I was retired.
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