I went to sit on the throne the other day and was shocked when the toilet seat fell off.
It was, as my partner would say, a Kodak moment.
I was not amused and ventured off to a large store in search of a replacement.
The toilet seat aisle had numerous choices - wooden seats, wood composite seats, slow closing seats, bidets and plastic lids like the one that snapped off.
One toilet seat in particular caught my eye. It was a self-cleaning seat on sale for $119.99.
That was out of my price range. I'd never heard of self-cleaning toilet seats. Guess I don't get out enough.
These fixtures are common in rest rooms of European cities and some United States cities.
The unit on sale at this Moose Jaw store has dual nozzles for front and rear wash. With my luck it would start running while I'm seated.
Water pressure is adjustable. Oh, oh.
In some self-cleaning toilet seats a robotic arm sweeps the parts clean. Imagine a malfunction when the robot cleanses while the toilet is in use, swishing the butt unexpectedly. Not for me.
On another shopping venture I was looking for a cordless hand vacuum to clean the car.
I found a Shark model with a regular price of $129.99 on sale for $79 - a great saving until I opened the box at home.
There was no charger for the unit. The promotion on the box didn't mention the charger was excluded.
None of our three Apple devices fit. Why can't chargers be standardized like USB cables?
Off I went to the same store looking for a charger. The aisle listed for chargers had none.
Next stop was a store specializing in technology where I found a charger on clearance for $38. My $50 saving had diminished to $12.
___
In a Sept. 26 column about the $2 million MRI donation rejected by Sask. Health mention was made of the fight to save the hyperbaric chamber when the new Moose Jaw hospital was built and how busy the chamber was.
Since then I have heard rumour the hyperbaric chamber in the Moose Jaw hospital has been secretly mothballed.
People requiring treatment in such a chamber have to go to Regina and sit in a mini-chamber.
Moose Jaw health care has lost a unique feature to centralization.
The reason, this person speculated and offered for mothballing the chamber was "not enough trained staff [here in Moose Jaw.]" The question being, why in Regina and not Moose Jaw?
Our MLAs should be fighting for the chamber.
Personally, I believe this is another example of a crumbling health care system.
Ron Walter can be reached at ronjoy@sasktel.net
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of this publication.
