Friday, September 11, 2009

Not only will I be "Out of Pocket"...

...this weekend, but I'll be out of the country as well (for about two hours or so). I'll be taking my son back to school in New Hampshire and we plan on driving through Canada for part of the journey. I was a little worried about the border-crossing process at first, especially on a day like September 11, but my son has assured me that there's nothing for an old "Time-Nazi" like me to be afraid of. "What are they going to do, Dad, detain us and give us free health care?"

Which got me to thinking, maybe this two hour jaunt across southern Ontario might be just the opportunity I've been looking for to take a good, hard look at the Canadian health care system. We plan on pulling off the road and having dinner someplace anyway, mostly so we can sample their exotic accents first-hand and brush up on our Ugly American schticks. ("Waddaya mean, you can't get the Cubs game on? Is there something wrong with your TV?") So maybe we'll just drop in at a clinic or two while we're there and interview a couple of doctors and patients. I'm sure it will all be very edifying.

Then it's on through upstate New York (which is actually quite beautiful), southern Vermont (which is also beautiful) and across the Connecticut River to the state whose motto is "Live Free or Die." (My son thought that sounded just a tad extreme when he first heard it. "Hey, I like freedom as much as the next guy, but...")

So once again, BOWG will go "dark," as they say, for at least a couple of days. But I should be back on Sunday night, hopefully with some humorous anecdotes and some observations about our socialist neighbors to the North. Have a great weekend everybody!

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