Stilly, do you take probiotic capsules? Recurring bouts of diverticulitis made me occasionally miserable for years, but all that ended when I started using them on the advice of the gut doctor who did my last colonoscopy. The best ones require refrigeration and, alas, cost a bomb. I read the labels obsessively to find the kind with the most organisms in the widest range of species.

As for the opiate-induced stasis, I can heartily recommend a potion of polyethylene glycol 3350 made by Bayer and sold in Ontario under the trade name RestoraLAX. "No taste, no grit" it says on the label, truthfully, and it does its job without drama.

My car shed its front licence plate the other day, possibly as a result of an interrupted attempt to steal it (the plate). I bought new plate-holders at Canadian Tire and confidently set out to switch them, only to discover that a "universal" plate-holder will not fit on the front bumper of a 2021 VW Golf GTI. Heigh-ho, that'll be another half-day trip to the dealer in Kitchener ... next week. Until then, the front plate sits on the dashboard and I hope not to attract any more official attention than necessary.

On the housekeeping front, I took part in Stratford's semi-annual Household Hazardous Waste Day (dead batteries, compact fluorescent light bulbs, elderly paint and Edmund's 30-year accumulation of partly-used tins of shoe polish), and swept the garage floor clean of winter grit and dead leaves. Then I washed the car. That's quite enough virtue to be going on with for now.

It's still steamy in Stratford, but we had a bit of rain yesterday and may get more today -- the sky is overcast and a slight, suggestive wind is blowing through the trees.