I actually got good service from the Ontario Government!!

If you've read my blog recently, you know that I fell and banged up my knee pretty good. Another cool / gross thing that's been happening is I've had an accumulation of fluid on my knee too. It's like having grandma's famous jello growing on my kneecap. It's actually mildly entertaining just to sit on the couch and poke the knee to watch it jiggle. It has a different jiggle than my belly, which is probably why it amuses me so much. Anyway, the fluid was there for about a week and I finally decided maybe I should get it looked at. One problem – my wallet got stolen last October and I didn't have my healthcard. So, I head off to the local Ministry of Health to get a new one.

Well, apparently my card had been expired for a while because according to the Ministry, I was "VOID" in their system. In other words – I was dead to them. I know of a few people to whom I am dead, but I never put the Ministry of Health in that group. I thought we'd always got along relatively well. I paid my taxes, I didn't go to the doctor for every ache, pain or fracture. I thought we had a good thing going. Apparently I was wrong. I even asked the guy if I could get a rebate on my taxes because I was paying for something I wasn't eligible for. He wasn't amused and grumbled something to the effect of "it doesn't work that way, but nice try. NEXT!"

Anyway, the guy at the counter told me that I had to go to another office to get UNVOIDED. I get in the office and it's just crazy packed. I could not believe the crowds. The only thing that would have brought in more people was if Justin Bieber was doing an autograph signing. I checked it out, and I don't think he was there. Although if he was, his demographic is a hell of a lot different than I would have thought. I thought he appealed to the 'tween set, not middle aged people from all corners of the world.

I explain to the guy at the front desk my plight, and how I'd been sent there from another office, and out of the kindness of his heart, he gave me a priority ticket so I didn't have to wait in the full line. I was in and out of there in less than 10 minutes. Thankfully - because it would have likely taken me three hours to work through that mass of humanity. Another positive to come out of this, in the time since I woke up yesterday and picked up my temporary healthcard, the swelling has gone down considerably. Who knows, maybe even one day I might be able to play hockey again.

You gotta have dreams kids. You gotta have dreams.