I’m staying back at my parent’s house, ‘home’, the house I grew up in and yet it doesn’t feel like ‘home’ to me at all.

This last month has been crazy, living out of a suitcase, hardly seeing my own family.

My mom’s doing better. Today she forgot her walker behind a couple of times and hobbled dangerously without, it so she must be feeling better.

I went for a walk on the old trail. I think it’s part of the Bruce trail, many many kilometres long. It used to be a railroad track. I still remember when trains ran along there, it was called the T H & B railway and it stood for Toronto, Hamilton and Buffalo.

They pulled up the tracks and turned it into a walking trail. The forest is encroaching on both sides but it’s very scenic.

There was sweet william growing in areas beside the path. I went close to sunset so their scent was wafting all over the pathway.

Butterflies, startled by joggers and bicylists, flew by in silent panic.

And there was a little traffic jam where a doe was cropping grass off the side of the pathway.

A little piece of peace in a very hectic month, but hey, you have to grab those moments of peace when you can.

On top of recovering from knee replacement surgery, there’s been another wrench in the works. 

My parents bought a Toyota RAV 4 last year, before all the problems with the engineering became known!

My seventy-four year old father has had the engine rev out of control five times, narrowly escaping with his life.

But of course every time he takes it back to the dealersip they can’t find a thing wrong with the vehicle.

If you  buy a faulty blender, you can exchange it for a repleacement. If you buy a faulty microwave, you can exchange it too.

Why not a car where you’ve invested tens of thousandsa of dollars ? 

Why won’t a company replace that?

Toyota has treated my parents extremely shabby! It makes my blood boil to see how callous they can be with their customers’ safety. My father had to practically stand on the breake to stop the vehicle in time. If my mom had been driving, no way with her bad knees, could she had accomplished it!

This is how they repay customer loyalty???

My parents owned a Sienna before for twelve problem free years. After having been loyal GM patrons till they likewise abused their patronage.

And now Toyota. It just seems like the car companies, once they get to a certain size, think they can just screw their customers over.

I told my parents they should have bought a Hyundai. They’re still small enough to treat their customers with respect.

Sigh.

Tomorrow I’ll walk again on the trail, and insha Allah, God willing, I will find that peace again.