Author: Doug Rutherford

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Day 1 Post Surgery

I had my knee repaired again yesterday. I’m not totally sure how much of what got done, other than generically.

The plans were to grind down the rough spots, grind down any bone spurs that may be catching on other parts of the knee. He also washed out the joint to remove any bone pieces that may have been floating in the knee and cut any loose flaps of cartlidge that may be there.

Last, but not least, the idea of the surgery was a chance for an inspection tour and see if the X-rays may be a bit more optimistic than the actual facts. While the pain level is closer to what one would expect with Stage IV arthritis, the X-rays suggest that I’m only at Stage III. Stage IV, the worst case, is where you get a knee replacement, regardless of age.

However, I didn’t get to see the doctor after surgery. He had more in the queue so I’ll actually get the report when I get the stitches out in two weeks.

Picture of kneeGenerally, I don’t move very quickly and usually run around the house, when necessary, with my cane. It’s a bit sore but I have lovely drugs that keep it in line and I’m allowed to stack my pain killers. T-3s and ibuprofen are a legal mix and I have spread them two hours apart.

As for the visual evidence, there isn’t much to see. Just a tensor bandage over a 6×6 telfa pad, which I can get rid of tomorrow afternoon. There will be three little incisions: one for the light, one for the camera and one for the tools.  Each is an X less than 1/2 inch long.

The interesting point is that there are some important things to consider with anaesthesia. I am considered impaired and cannot drive for 24 hours after surgery. However, I am also considered impaired and cannot sign a legal document for 48 hours after surgery. I’m not sure why there’s a discrepency. It doesn’t really matter much as I have been condemned to imprisonment on the first floor of the house by Clara, and her rules take precedence…

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Potential Action Against the Neighbour: Revised

I beginning to think my birth certificate is wrong and that I may actually have been born in Missouri, where the motto is “Show me.” If I don’t see it, I’m not going to believe it. I think I may be beginning to believe we may see some motion on the neighbour across the street. I received the following e-mail this morning:

Doug –
I’m following up on your inquiry on behalf of Jon Bowen as he is out of town for the rest of the week. After speaking with the City of Whitehorse Planning department, I have confirmed that the zoning of 15 Maple Street does not support a commercial special waste collection business. As a result Environment Yukon will be examining what steps we can take to amend the special waste permit to reflect that a new storage location for these wastes must be found.
Again, thanks for bringing this matter to our attention.
Shannon Jensen
Manager, Standards & Approvals
Environmental Programs Branch

I’m not going to ask why it was issued in the first place or why the City wasn’t aware of this. I’m hoping now that at least we won’t have to worry about glowing in the dark or some other wonderful consequence. Now, if we could see some action from the city regarding him running his waste disposal business here, since the territorial government has confirmed this, it would be really nice…

Addendum:

As much as the guy applied for a hazardous waste permit for his business on the property, the manager of Bylaw Services for the city says that it’s impossible to prove he’s doing commercial activity on the lot. Sadly, this is apparently not enough for the city to take it to court.

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I’m Back

Surgery’s done and I have eaten. All is now well with the world. It went well although I don’t get the surgeon’s report until two weeks and we won’t know if there will be any benefit for about three months. There is often no improvement with additional scopes and this is sort of a “hit or miss” thing. However, the last one did give me more than a year of no pain at all in my knee during most activities.

Now, I get to spend a week condemned to the first floor of the house…

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Waiting to Go to the Hospital

What sort of person schedules you for fasting after midnight and surgery for 1 PM?

Worse yet, where do they get the weird definitions? The strangest thing that gets me today is that I can’t eat solid foods and I am allowed “clear liquids” until 10 AM. Here’s the rub? What’s a “clear liquid?” Here’s where the English language goes slightly off course. I’m allowed to have water, apple juice and the time honoured tea without milk. What you might want to consider is that the sugar in your tea isn’t considered solid food. I suppose that, in solution, you could consider the sugar as a liquid. However, the item I’m having as we type this is another clear liquid, namely, black coffee. What’s that clear about black coffee? 

I’m not sure what’s more confusing: medical terminology or plain English? This is probably why your doctor went to university for almost as long as an anthropologist…

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Environmental Protection’s Response

Well, after much phone/e-mail tag, I did get a chance to talk and correspond with the director of environmental protection at the Yukon Territorial Government. I put forward my question as to why he had a permit in a residential neighbourhood. He seemed to think that this was a good question and he wanted an answer to it as well. He did think that the issue of the permit was probably done in error, although he did wonder if the area had previously been zoned commercially.

Actually, the zoning did change when the City decided to rename some of the zones… although what could actually be there has not with the new name. Inspectors are on their way to deal appropriately with the situation.

Our conversation, though, has raised another question. He no longer has the contract to salvage from seven of the Yukon Government community dumps because of failure to meet its tems. Why does he still have his permit and where is the crap coming from? This is a question for the city potentially and I’ll send a request to the Manager of Bylaw Services to see if he has a permit to salvage from the city landfill and whether or not that can be pulled. And, so it goes…

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You Get What You Ask For

More batteries
He dropped off the last load - and brought back more.

He left a while ago with the truck with the batteries in it. Of course, he came back with another load of batteries… in fact more than the earlier load.

I think I’m giving Environment until noon on Monday…

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So How Bad Is He?

I’ve been asked how bad the neighbour is. So, here’s a few more pictures.

Truck load of car batteries
A truck load of car batteries... hopefully going somewhere else.

 Propane tanks and oil jug.

Here’s an example of what he’s storing on the property that we can see. Large numbers of car batteries and numerous empty, I assume, propane tanks and oil jugs can be easily seen. They’re easy to see, by the way, since these are pictures of his front lawn.

I guess it’s time to ask City Council an important question. If they have no legal way to enforce the Maintenance and Zoning Bylaws, does the same apply to the Property Tax Bylaw?

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Still Waiting for Reassurance…

I asked for  clarification in the ongoing question about “special” waste storage and asked if our neighbour actually had a permit to store it here, as well as why the department would issue one in the middle of a residential neighbourhood. The answer I received was to contact the director of environmental protection.

However, I discovered that trying to get hold of a government department director on a Friday is not an area where one counts on success. I left a lengthy voice mail with his phone, but have  not yet received a response.

Part of the yard across the street.

Now, the neighbour has gone a bit weirder on us. He’s run a rope across the front of his driveway with bizarre things across the front. There’s some chairs, a vacuum, an exercise bike and a toilet seat tied to the rope. I’m not sure why the rope is there. I’m really not sure why the toilet seat is there. I am sure, though, that I don’t want to know why there’s a package of tampons on each of the chairs….

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No Reassurance Yet

Well, in continuation of our last post, I did get an answer from the office of the Minister of the Environment Department. We were looking for reassurance that the guy across the street wasn’t storing hazardous wastes in the neighbourhood.

I say “hazardous” for the purpose of clarity. Here, the government refers to these as “special waste,” since the old term sounds dangerous and you wouldn’t want to needlessly worry if some were to spill. The newer one, “special,” just makes them sound… well, special.

The only problem is that their answer really isn’t reassuring at all. When the response about potentially storing hazardous waste is that “he has a permit.” Ahhh?

My hope, and we have asked for clarification, is that the answer is not as well worded as it could have been, or maybe a little more generic than it was intended. I am, of course, working on the assumption that the Environment Department would not issue a waste storage permit for the middle of a residential neighbourhood. Of course, making assumptions is never a good practice, is it?

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Our Neighbour Does Match a Certain Stereotype, Doesn’t He?

Looking across the street is a lot like watching Deliverance. We have been trying for three years to get the current tenant across the street to clean up his property. Sadly, this is a losing battle on several levels. The neighbour is running a recycling/dump service/used car business in a residential neighbourhood.

We have made several attempts to have something done through the Maintenance Bylaw and the Zoning Bylaw, but there has been no success. Keep in mind that he previously lived about a mile away and his previous neighbours complained for almost ten years to get that place cleaned up. By the way, the owner sold the property so he had to move before the City was capable of making him clean the property.

What is he like? Well, he’s had about 50 tickets issued against him in the last two years. Yet, here’s what you face when you give him a ticket. He’s from Texas and, as has been mentioned in previous court appearances, believes that he just living his lifestyle. The fact that 7 or more of his immediate neighbours might complain about his property at least weekly is their problem, not his.

The interesting thing is, it doesn’t matter how many fines he gets since he doesn’t own the property. If he doesn’t pay, it just gets added to the property tax bill and the property owner is impossible to find, in Alberta, and his daughter. In short, going to the landlord is not an option.

We have a new ploy. We’ve asked the environment department to guarantee that he is not housing hazardous waste on the street. This was put to the Environmental Protection department and the minister four days ago. Unfortunately, there has been no response. Another request was sent this evening. If there is no answer by Monday, we’re going to ask the new premier and the press why the Minister and the department aren’t answering us.

How bad is it? He moved in after the previous tenants were evicted by the territorial government. If we’d known what we were getting, most of us would have fought the eviction. After all, a crack house was highly preferable to the current neighbour and the particularly telling point is that doesn’t bother him at all….