10:10

Yesterday afternoon, I dropped into Service Ontario to renew both my driver’s licence and my health card. I had received a notice by mail that my licence needed to be renewed. I somehow already known about the health card without being notified. Perhaps they hadn’t alerted me yet because it is still good until September. There was fee attached to the licence renewal, but the health card would be free although it is almost worth its wright in gold because it gives me access to free health care.

There was a small line in the little storefront facility, but the transactions ahead of me were taking forever, so I stood and stood, but my own session wouldn’t take long because I had brought the forms with me after filling them in at home.

But first I broke the camera. Well, not quite, but the camera wasn’t liking me and the photos weren’t turning out. She told me to move back after several failures. My body brushed the screen behind me which the notice said not to do, so I inched back forward. More camera clicks but still no joy.

Almost in despair, she told me to move to the . . . Then she had to stop and figure out whether it would be my right or hers. It’s was to my right, so I shuffled over.

“No, not that far. Move back a little.“

So, I did, and we finally achieved a result.

Then, and this was really to be the point of the post, but I do go on and on, I was asked to draw a clock.

She shoved a form toward me, one that had some information at the top. She pointed to the space at the bottom of the paper. “Make a circle in this space. Fill in all of the numbers of the clock. Show the time to be 10 minutes after 10 o’clock.”

The request surprised me. I know they do this test for octogenarians, but I am two years short of that wondrous milestone.

I made a very imperfect circle, filled in the numbers not terribly evenly, and drew a little hour hand to near the 10, trying to get it a little past the number to show some movement of time since the hour. Then, now get this, I drew the long minute hand also to the 10. 

I began to slide the paper toward her but snatched it back in the nick of time, for I realized that I had marked 10 to 10 and not 10 after 10 as requested. I quickly scratched out the erroneous minute hand, drew it correctly toward 2. It was a mess, I tell you, but at least it was a corrected mess.

To think that I almost failed to draw a flipping clock.

I am not a very precise person, and I make many daft errors like this on a somewhat regular basis. Thank goodness, I caught this one in time.