Be forewarned: this is a multiple segment posting. The first part I wrote several weeks ago after I thought I was done with my first round of working within the Canadian health system. In fact, I wrote up the first part on the way back from my 2nd visit to the health clinic in the very coffee shop where I am now writing. However, upon returning to the apartment, I found a note which prompted part 2 and changed my overall perception of things.

The first post; written on July 13, 2007

Pre-Part X or I have (no) insurance?
So, it was a dark and stormy night. Well…not quite. But my stomach was hurting near my naval and it was hurting bad. We’d just finished moving and the pain was acute. So I had to do something.

Ana asked HR about what I should do. They realized we should be covered but nobody had put us in the system. And that, while our forms went through, we should pay out of pocket and would get reimbursed at a later date. No problem. And, it would give me the chance to see some things first hand.

Where to go? Toronto is currently understaffed with medical professionals. Finding a doctor can take time. You have to call around and find one who is currently taking patients. So, if you don’t have a doctor, as I don’t, you go to the walk-in clinic.

I find a list. The closest is not far from the house. So I pack up some reading material and head out. Only to get lost. Nobody can tell me where the clinic is. I’m in the right building, but I can’t find a map. After wandering a bit, I do locate a small tri-fold map in a stand in the basement of the building and manage to locate it on the top floor. Glad I wasn’t bleeding or they would have had a hell of a mess to clean up…

So, up the stairs and to reception. The nice lady says, “Just go to the left and give them your Health Card.”

“Urm…I don’t have a health card. But I do have insurance, but haven’t received that yet either.”

“Oh, no problem. Just pay them via credit card.”

Okay, let’s go in.

Section A: Getting to Dr. Pokey-finger
So, I’m officially within the confines of the clinic (no longer standing outside in the pseudo-mall that is First Canadian Center) and looking through a plexiglas window at a gentleman. He says, “What do you need?”

I say, “I need to see a doctor for some abdominal pain.”

He says, “Eh?”

So, I lean down, way down, kind of sticking my butt out and say, through the small metal mesh, “I need to see a doctor for some abdominal pain.”

“Oh,” he says, “Let me see your Health Card.”

Well, we then go through the explanation that I don’t have one and will have to pay out of pocket. Blah, blah, blah. “Have a seat.”

Sitting down to read a bit, I look around the room. This isn’t my idea of a clinic. Some of these people are wearing three piece suits. Nobody looks destitute on any level. There doesn’t seem to be the same view of public health clinics I think exists in the States.

After a bit of a wait, they call me back. The nurse comes in and asks my info (no blood pressure or weight check) such as allergies and symptoms. I give her the basics and she says the doctor will see me soon.

Soon must be Canadian slang for next week because that is what it felt like. But, she finally did arrive and I hopped up on the table and unbuttoned my shirt.

Now, the pain I was having was located around or in my naval. Sometimes it was pretty bad. Kind of like my belly button decided to pop off and roll around on the floor. Fortunately, it didn’t, but was throwing a tantrum over the lack of freedom.

Dr….well, let’s just stick with Pokey-finger said, “I think it might be a hernia.” Which I already knew because a friend of mine had just had hernia surgery for pain in the exact same spot and, upon comparing symptoms, he said, “Yeah, you need to see a Dr. now. Don’t put it off.”

She then decided there was gold and jewels hiding in the nether portions of my naval and did the best job she could to find them. She probed DEEP. Very DEEP. It was excruciating. I came close to falsely admitting I was part of the war on terror when I remembered I wasn’t in Gitmo, but on an examination table in Toronto. No, I’m not playing that up. (Well, maybe a little)

Dr. Pokey-finger said, “Well, I can’t find it.” As I lay there cringing. “But, it sounds like a hernia. Since you’re paying out of pocket, let’s just send you to get the stitches instead of having to pay for the ultrasound.”

Slowly, between the bouts of weeping, I explained that I did have insurance but was paying out of pocket until we got our cards and such. So, she decided to send me for an ultrasound and turned to flee the room. I stopped her with a few quick questions which she said she couldn’t answer and left to get me a referral.

Out to reception. Payed $65 and then I limped home.

End of part one.

Section B: The Ultrasound
There is a story about how difficult it was to find the ultrasound center, but it is just too long. The short form is: I walked around downtown trying to find a number for ANY of the businesses. The road I was on had so many large buildings they all had numbers on the perpendicular roads which were much larger streets than the one on which the center was located. Finally asked a deliver guy who said, “I wish I had $5 every time someone asked me that. I bet I get that exact questions three times a day.” I believe it, it was a pain.

Off to the building, up to the floor and into the waiting room. Pay $171 (they had said it would be $275 on the phone) and into the changing room. Down to the skivvies and into the robe. Lock up my backpack and off to the area that looks like a living room only there are two women who are clothed and I’m not wearing much. Okay, interesting, I can deal with this. At least I’m wearing a robe.

After a ten minute wait I get called in. They goop me up and pull out the little bar-code scanning-like thingy and I get to look at my individual organs on the monitor. “Breathe in and hold. There’s your gall-bladder.” Looks like I swallowed a baseball. Cool.

Over on one side, over on the other. On your back. Now, she’s scanning down the center line of my abdominal muscles. I can actually see the individual overlapping muscles. Then a good amount of focus on my naval area. My eye couldn’t see any gaping holes, but then I am not trained and was looking at the screen upside down and puffed up like a blowfish most of the time.

And…we’re done. Thank you very much. The doctor will call you in 3-5 business days.

Back into my clothes and I have to find food. It is almost 11 and I haven’t had anything to eat since before midnight. Lashing down my inner-cannibal I manage not to eat any of the tasty looking members of society until I find a Quizno’s open (most places don’t open for lunch until 11:30) and pounced on a sub with all claws extended. Mmmmm….calories.

Now it is time to wait.

Section C: Could I get a call?/Good news
After more than a week had passed, I decided to call the clinic. Ha! Good luck finding it on the website. Realizing, no matter that I am really good at finding things on the net, this website is certainly designed to foil the best of us. So I call them up and, on the third try, manage to get a human being. This human being says, “Nobody is answering, can I take a message.” Sure.

They call back and I am told, “Your test came back negative for a hernia.” Okay, what do I do now? “Well, go see a doctor.”

Great. So I grab up my backpack and take off for the clinic. Sign in, tell the same guy through the same grate who I am. Then wait (though this wait was much less) and I saw a different doctor. Repeat most of the early experience without the horrid probing. The doctors says “You probably pulled something in your abdominal walls. Just take care and give it time to heal. Let pain be your guide.”

Fortunately, I just read an article about arthroscopic knee surgery. The article said that most of this type of surgery has no benefit for the patient other than making them rest and rehab the joint for a few weeks. Something which should always be done first since the surgery is invasive and does carry risk. That article carries some weight for me. Since I would have been down 4-6 weeks with simple hernia surgery, I’ve decided to just kick back until the beginning of August before considering any training or serious physical effort. Let the body heal up before starting to break it down again.

I’ll limit myself to groceries and carrying my backpack full of books and my laptop to the coffee shop for the time being.

Conclusions (part the first)
Not a bad system, though I’ve only touched a snowball on a glacier. Overall, my experience, if I had been paying out of pocket with no hope of reimbursement, would have been around $300. We could absorb that without hurting ourselves. It just means I would have to put off buying a Wii for another month or two (if Ana will ever let me buy a friggin’ Wii), but not a serious financial hit.

But, the original doctor wanted to send me straight to surgery to save some money. All of $171. If I hadn’t had insurance, how much would the surgery have cost? I’m sure it would have been quite a bit more. And I would have had stitches and local anesthesia and the whole ball game.

Add to that the fact that the ultrasound came back negative. Admitting the person who gave the ultrasound could have missed something or not known her job well, I could still have a very small tear. But I think it kind of doubtful.

How much would that hurt a family who is on limited means? That kind of burden could be a month’s groceries. Easily. So far, I’m not entirely certain it is a better system. But it is something I’m certain to experience as I progress in this society. Once we buy a house, we’ll find doctors close to home or work. And I’m certain I’ll have some more small injuries over time.

Time to leave the coffee shop, meet the wife and start the weekend. Adios.

The second post: July 27, 2007 (two weeks later)
Well, let’s follow what happened since the first post. I went home, planning to post part 1. However, upon getting the mail, I discover a letter from the clinic. Inside is a letter sending me to a local hernia clinic. Which left me saying, “What????”

I made several phone calls, none of which was able to get anyone who could tell me what was happening. As a result, I had to just wait until Monday morning to find out more information. It was not a short weekend.

Monday I call the clinic and ask if someone can give me some information. They took my name and number and said they would look into it. A few hours later, I got a call from the lady who wrote the referral. What I find out is she did not know there was a referral for an ultrasound. Her referral simply said I needed to be scheduled for surgery and the only place I could work with was this particular center.

She did tell me that if the ultrasound came back negative, I should not go to the hernia center, but should just wait out the pain and see if it subsides. Something I had already figured on prior to the weekend.

Updated conclusions
As you can read above, up to the 13th I was pretty happy with the system. Different from my experiences in the States, but I had a personal doctor and knew the system. Centralization can make most things easier and more comfortable.

However, after getting the letter and bouncing back into limbo, I can only conclude the system here does suffer from an over-abundance of beaurocracy. Without a central figure to help manage things, it seems you can get misinformation in the shuffle.

I’m not slamming the system as a result. I have cranked the grade down a bit, not quite the B+ I would have given it before, but still above average. Yet there is a more pressing thought about this type of scenario. Why I don’t know if national health care is possible in the States.

Being truthful, the Canadians have it together. I have not waited overly long in any government line. I can always get someone helpful on the phone if I have questions. In fact, almost every aspect of the every government agency, so far, has made the US system look like something from 17th century Antarctica (though I think the Penguins could do a better job) and is a bit embarrassing by comparison.

If this system is so well funded and the people seem to be very serious about the jobs they do (not to mention easy to speak with, patient and knowledgeable) and still has some problems, what will a US national health system look like? Considering how poorly our government would fund such a system (do you really think the hard-line conservatives wouldn’t fight to keep it from getting the $s to do the job right?) and the number of ambulance chasers who will be drooling to sue every time the slightest mistake occurs, how could it possibly launch with great success? And the scope of the US is massive. Almost better to start it up in major cities and roll out from there.

Please don’t get me wrong. I’m not against the US developing such a system. But the few cracks I see here will be chasms there. Make certain you have a good doctor and be ready with a major alotment of patience.

Let’s start with: What the hell does that title mean? I’m not sure. But I started with “An Awareness of Space” and realized it wasn’t working. I’m being a bit metacognative about this and needed to changes something, so there it is. Complete in my mind.

Some ideas stick with you over time. One I consistently enjoy is from a subject in education. Someone (I don’t remember if it was an artist or psychologist) drew some images of a person’s vision of their own body over time. As an example, a newborn would be very aware of hands and mouth but have very little idea of their legs or feet. So, if you drew a child based on their awareness, they would have massive heads, arms and hands and very small torsos and nearly non-existent legs and feet.

Moving forward ten years would get you a very different shape. One more balanced and in line with actual body part dimensions. Yet, they might have little or no awareness of gender specific body parts. Move forward another ten years and you see a fully fleshed out human with most subjects. Yet, individuals who are primarily cranial about their approach to life or athletes who leave little time for education might appear with their body awareness skewed a bit.

Agree with it or don’t, it is an interesting view and creates some interesting thoughts to stumble through.

Here, in a new city, I find myself interested in how I view my surrounding territory and how some portions are “larger” in my mind than others. Let’s look at it a bit as I have developed to where I am now.

Toronto wasn’t completely new to me when we moved here. Having two other visits gave me a certain awareness which remained with me upon the move. Mostly, this was a very small awareness of Yonge Street and the waterfront. Though some of the memories are still not pinned to my mental map as accurately as they are in the reality that is Toronto.

Also, we had visited the Danforth region (Greektown) as well as the area around Finch and Yonge and the area around Shepherd and Yonge with our realtor on our spring visit. But I didn’t drive the distances and you can always get turned around hopping on/off highways as we did.

Driving up had a benefit. Upon arriving, I now had a tether to the states. Not a virtual link created by looking at an almanac or by seeing the land roll by through an airplane window. But a real sentience of the terrain and features from Niagara Falls to here (and a further awareness of Richmond to here). A new path cutting through the fog of uncertainty most unvisited places retain until you stand in them on your own two feet.

We started venturing from the apartment in short bursts. Every block full of information, people, smells and sounds you find in any city. And we attempt to take them in all at once. So a single block of city can seem like a very long distance. The same block, the 10th time you travel it, seems like the 97 steps it takes to walk the length.

But walk we did. And take the subway and meet our realtor to look at homes. Slowly, the city opened up. You start to get an impression of where things lie. Let’s take a look at a few directions:

West: Queen, Richmond and King all run into Spadina. There are restaurants on all three though more on King and Queen. Spadina is the edge of my knowledge on all but Queen. I did walk several blocks past on Queen just to see what is there. I have a vague notion and, in my head, it is a very small line which withers out once past Spadina.

Going north on Spadina takes you to one of the China towns in Toronto. I know that area well because I have walked it several times (mostly to get cakes from the Fukarama (I think that is how it is spelled) cake place and plan many more sojourns before we move) and can picture the blocks out up and back very well.

Some of the blocks stand out very well. As does the block between our place and the book store and theater. Only two blocks, I can close my eyes and envision most every building. Same goes for going up to Queen and west for one short block. There is a store there which has groceries and movies and I have visited it many times.

Yet, while both of those routes are very clear in my mind. Strong tendrils with high quality rendering. I cannot envision the streets which connect them very well since I have only walked it a few times and do not have a clear memory.

South: This direction takes us to the waterfront and Loblaw’s, the big grocery store. Ana and I have walked University to York to the waterfront several times and taken alternative paths on multiple occasions. As a result, I have a decently developed tendril of University to York and some memories of Spadina, Yonge and Jarvis to the waterfront as well. But my strongest impression is of the waterfront. While the memory of getting there is limited, I can easily envision most of the waterfront from Spadina to Jarvis very well having driven it and walked it on several occasions, some of the dating back to November. Added to that the great scenery, which increases the chance of impression, and we can understand why.

East: This is the trickiest. I’ve been east on several occasions, but only once to most places and no more than three times to any single place. The strongest tendril is Queen east of Yonge for about 7 blocks. That was where I had my windshield replaced and had plenty of time to walk from the shop to my home and back in the afternoon, plus driving both twice.

The other locations are limited. I’ve driven out Front, but only as far as Jarvis. And I’ve been driven out and then up to the Danforth multiple times. As a result, as clear as the blocks near the house are clear to me, the region to the east is patchy and disoriented. I can picture areas but, like blurry puzzle pieces, I can’t tell you how they arrange yet. I only have some idea of what might be north or east or south of what. Fortunately I haven’t been far East or I would also be mixed up on what is east or west of what as well.

North: This is where things get very interesting. Most of our northern travel has been on Yonge and a majority of that has been on the subway. Fortunately, we did take a drive a few weekends ago and, by making a circular tour, have a better impression of the layout of the city. But the popping in and out of subway terminals takes away much of the scope. You have very clear impressions of areas and where they are on the north/south corridor, but not of how far apart they are by foot.

In fact, I’m still struggling as to where the individual subway stops are (in my defense, I’ve been on that route less than 20 times) and how far apart they are. You can use the subway intervals as a general rule, but there have been multiple occasions where the subway has slowed down or stopped and this throws off your perception until you ride it on a regular basis. Ana, having used the subway every day for weeks now, can probably do a much better job than I of envisioning this corridor but couldn’t describe the areas near the apartment as well.

In my head: What? Why are you here? Oh, I invited you. That’s right. Well, let’s see what this looks like.

As you can see (no, there isn’t a picture, I’m speaking figuratively), there is something resembling a spider web. But the angles are mostly square and some webs are much thicker than others. The development is splotchy as well. Near the waterfront (that is where the web ends at the bottom of the page) there is a single thick line which runs to the left and doesn’t seem to end. That takes us around the lake to NY.

And there is a crosshatching of strands above it. The think ones running north are Jarvis, Yonge and York (east to west). They intersect with King, Adelaide, Richmond and Queen going north. The strange one, which kind of dips through and then runs off the map, is Front to the east and University to the north.

Each of those intersect with Spadina to the west and an unknown road to the east. This road leads us up to another well defined area, broken down like a quadrant map, which is the intersection of Danforth and Pape. Please note how quickly it fades off in each direction. And the tenuous line running west from Danforth to Yonge is mostly the subway as I have not yet travelled that line fully above ground.

The strong lines running north seems to fail, don’t they? The strongest is Yonge and it ends around Summerhill. University is similar and fails at DuPont. Why? That’s the Canadian Tire location where I had my truck inspected. I have driven it twice going up on Yonge and back on Avenue/University.

Then follow the faded line north. That, again, is the subway. It intersects with Shepherd, where a line runs to the east. Part of our tour of Toronto in the truck. And see how well developed that is. We’ve spent some time around Shepherd. And Eglinton as well. That’s the little dot just south of there.

Then, one more area just north. It is composed of two strong primary dots. The lower one is North York Centre and the furthest north is Finch. And currently works at Finch and will be moving, with the business, to the other. Also, the hotel we stayed at in March is located at the North York Centre location. There are webs around it. Those would be the neighborhoods we have driven/walked while looking for a home.

And finally, see that one last tendril running north of the 401 on Yonge? That would be up to our realtor’s office and then, just one single trip, up to see a mortgage broker.

How strange and fragile a thing it is. And it will grow over the years. In leaps and spurts it will begin to fill in. If I remember, I should redo this on a yearly basis. Not so much to see what I’ve seen, but to see what I haven’t and make a purpose to visit those locations to find what hidden gems they might possess.

Let’s start with: What the hell does that title mean? I’m not sure. But I started with “An Awareness of Space” and realized it wasn’t working. I’m being a bit metacognative about this and needed to changes something, so there it is. Complete in my mind.

Some ideas stick with you over time. One I consistently enjoy is from a subject in education. Someone (I don’t remember if it was an artist or psychologist) drew some images of a person’s vision of their own body over time. As an example, a newborn would be very aware of hands and mouth but have very little idea of their legs or feet. So, if you drew a child based on their awareness, they would have massive heads, arms and hands and very small torsos and nearly non-existent legs and feet.

Moving forward ten years would get you a very different shape. One more balanced and in line with actual body part dimensions. Yet, they might have little or no awareness of gender specific body parts. Move forward another ten years and you see a fully fleshed out human with most subjects. Yet, individuals who are primarily cranial about their approach to life or athletes who leave little time for education might appear with their body awareness skewed a bit.

Agree with it or don’t, it is an interesting view and creates some interesting thoughts to stumble through.

Here, in a new city, I find myself interested in how I view my surrounding territory and how some portions are “larger” in my mind than others. Let’s look at it a bit as I have developed to where I am now.

Toronto wasn’t completely new to me when we moved here. Having two other visits gave me a certain awareness which remained with me upon the move. Mostly, this was a very small awareness of Yonge Street and the waterfront. Though some of the memories are still not pinned to my mental map as accurately as they are in the reality that is Toronto.

Also, we had visited the Danforth region (Greektown) as well as the area around Finch and Yonge and the area around Shepherd and Yonge with our realtor on our spring visit. But I didn’t drive the distances and you can always get turned around hopping on/off highways as we did.

Driving up had a benefit. Upon arriving, I now had a tether to the states. Not a virtual link created by looking at an almanac or by seeing the land roll by through an airplane window. But a real sentience of the terrain and features from Niagara Falls to here (and a further awareness of Richmond to here). A new path cutting through the fog of uncertainty most unvisited places retain until you stand in them on your own two feet.

We started venturing from the apartment in short bursts. Every block full of information, people, smells and sounds you find in any city. And we attempt to take them in all at once. So a single block of city can seem like a very long distance. The same block, the 10th time you travel it, seems like the 97 steps it takes to walk the length.

But walk we did. And take the subway and meet our realtor to look at homes. Slowly, the city opened up. You start to get an impression of where things lie. Let’s take a look at a few directions:

West: Queen, Richmond and King all run into Spadina. There are restaurants on all three though more on King and Queen. Spadina is the edge of my knowledge on all but Queen. I did walk several blocks past on Queen just to see what is there. I have a vague notion and, in my head, it is a very small line which withers out once past Spadina.

Going north on Spadina takes you to one of the China towns in Toronto. I know that area well because I have walked it several times (mostly to get cakes from the Fukarama (I think that is how it is spelled) cake place and plan many more sojourns before we move) and can picture the blocks out up and back very well.

Some of the blocks stand out very well. As does the block between our place and the book store and theater. Only two blocks, I can close my eyes and envision most every building. Same goes for going up to Queen and west for one short block. There is a store there which has groceries and movies and I have visited it many times.

Yet, while both of those routes are very clear in my mind. Strong tendrils with high quality rendering. I cannot envision the streets which connect them very well since I have only walked it a few times and do not have a clear memory.

South: This direction takes us to the waterfront and Loblaw’s, the big grocery store. Ana and I have walked University to York to the waterfront several times and taken alternative paths on multiple occasions. As a result, I have a decently developed tendril of University to York and some memories of Spadina, Yonge and Jarvis to the waterfront as well. But my strongest impression is of the waterfront. While the memory of getting there is limited, I can easily envision most of the waterfront from Spadina to Jarvis very well having driven it and walked it on several occasions, some of the dating back to November. Added to that the great scenery, which increases the chance of impression, and we can understand why.

East: This is the trickiest. I’ve been east on several occasions, but only once to most places and no more than three times to any single place. The strongest tendril is Queen east of Yonge for about 7 blocks. That was where I had my windshield replaced and had plenty of time to walk from the shop to my home and back in the afternoon, plus driving both twice.

The other locations are limited. I’ve driven out Front, but only as far as Jarvis. And I’ve been driven out and then up to the Danforth multiple times. As a result, as clear as the blocks near the house are clear to me, the region to the east is patchy and disoriented. I can picture areas but, like blurry puzzle pieces, I can’t tell you how they arrange yet. I only have some idea of what might be north or east or south of what. Fortunately I haven’t been far East or I would also be mixed up on what is east or west of what as well.

North: This is where things get very interesting. Most of our northern travel has been on Yonge and a majority of that has been on the subway. Fortunately, we did take a drive a few weekends ago and, by making a circular tour, have a better impression of the layout of the city. But the popping in and out of subway terminals takes away much of the scope. You have very clear impressions of areas and where they are on the north/south corridor, but not of how far apart they are by foot.

In fact, I’m still struggling as to where the individual subway stops are (in my defense, I’ve been on that route less than 20 times) and how far apart they are. You can use the subway intervals as a general rule, but there have been multiple occasions where the subway has slowed down or stopped and this throws off your perception until you ride it on a regular basis. Ana, having used the subway every day for weeks now, can probably do a much better job than I of envisioning this corridor but couldn’t describe the areas near the apartment as well.

In my head: What? Why are you here? Oh, I invited you. That’s right. Well, let’s see what this looks like.

As you can see (no, there isn’t a picture, I’m speaking figuratively), there is something resembling a spider web. But the angles are mostly square and some webs are much thicker than others. The development is splotchy as well. Near the waterfront (that is where the web ends at the bottom of the page) there is a single thick line which runs to the left and doesn’t seem to end. That takes us around the lake to NY.

And there is a crosshatching of strands above it. The think ones running north are Jarvis, Yonge and York (east to west). They intersect with King, Adelaide, Richmond and Queen going north. The strange one, which kind of dips through and then runs off the map, is Front to the east and University to the north.

Each of those intersect with Spadina to the west and an unknown road to the east. This road leads us up to another well defined area, broken down like a quadrant map, which is the intersection of Danforth and Pape. Please note how quickly it fades off in each direction. And the tenuous line running west from Danforth to Yonge is mostly the subway as I have not yet travelled that line fully above ground.

The strong lines running north seems to fail, don’t they? The strongest is Yonge and it ends around Summerhill. University is similar and fails at DuPont. Why? That’s the Canadian Tire location where I had my truck inspected. I have driven it twice going up on Yonge and back on Avenue/University.

Then follow the faded line north. That, again, is the subway. It intersects with Shepherd, where a line runs to the east. Part of our tour of Toronto in the truck. And see how well developed that is. We’ve spent some time around Shepherd. And Eglinton as well. That’s the little dot just south of there.

Then, one more area just north. It is composed of two strong primary dots. The lower one is North York Centre and the furthest north is Finch. And currently works at Finch and will be moving, with the business, to the other. Also, the hotel we stayed at in March is located at the North York Centre location. There are webs around it. Those would be the neighborhoods we have driven/walked while looking for a home.

And finally, see that one last tendril running north of the 401 on Yonge? That would be up to our realtor’s office and then, just one single trip, up to see a mortgage broker.

How strange and fragile a thing it is. And it will grow over the years. In leaps and spurts it will begin to fill in. If I remember, I should redo this on a yearly basis. Not so much to see what I’ve seen, but to see what I haven’t and make a purpose to visit those locations to find what hidden gems they might possess.

How to organize your cluttered desktop and regain your sanity at LifeClever

Picked this up a few weeks ago.  Set it up on my Mac and have just let things come together.  So far, so good.  I’ve been keeping the desktop clean and everything is where it belongs.  Easy to find.  Now, I’m not as busy as I would be if I had a job.  I’m certain my work desktop (remembering those few short months ago) would be much busier and harder to keep clean.  As it stands, I’ll keep rolling with this and see where it leads me.