Various government initiatives

1.

Unexpectedly, we received a cheque for $3054.00 from the federal government on Wednesday afternoon. This was our 'eco-energy' rebate, and it was unexpected because the accredited inspector who submitted our paperwork in early October told us we could probably expect to wait 90 days, give our take, to get our rebate. It was more like 40 days, a welcome efficiency in government service.

$3054! Hooray! Actually, we can expect to receive (within 90 days?) the provincial portion of our rebate, which matches the federal funds, so another $3054. I just like to write that number down, because it seems so satisfying large. Let's gloss over for the moment the fact that the renovations being rebated cost more in the line of $18,000, and that all rebate monies are being applied directly against a line of credit, rather than funding a trip, say, to Paris.

My 30s seem to be about tankless water heaters a little more than about trips to Paris. Oh well.

Our energy inspector gave us a new sticker for our electrical panel, to reflect the value of all the changes we've made to the house. At our first inspection, our house score a 12. If you're wondering, that's 12 OUT OF A HUNDRED, where 100 means your house is airtight and distills its own water from the vapour in your breath, and 1 means you live on an uncovered porch. After installing a new furnace, new air conditioner, new water heater, and insulating all the exterior walls, we're up to a ... (drum roll) ... 64! Which is apparently very very good for a house built in 1917.

2.

Pynchon and I both work at the university, and on Thursday the university health services opened its H1N1 vaccination clinic to the general university population, after a couple of weeks of rationing and targeting.

Naturally, we made a Friday lunch date to go get needled.

There was hardly a lineup at all and the whole process was very organized. I had heard that the injection was more painful than the normal flu shot so I was pleasantly surprised to find it didn't hurt at all! And no bleeding! And no sore arm. I crowed about the sheer niceness of the whole experience and basked in my 15 minutes of enforced relaxation with my husband in the don't-drop-dead-of-shock waiting area after we were vaccinated.

I felt, I gotta tell you, quite good about the whole experience.

Until today, when the fatigue walloped me like a Black Friday crowd trying to get at the early bird TV specials at a New Jersey Wal-Mart.

Holy smokes I'm tired. I don't remember feeling this wiped out for a really long time, not without being sick. I guess I should be feeling better by tomorrow. I'll let you know.