JOHN MAHONEY

We would need some British pounds, right? I asked my Caisse bank manger if he could get them. Yes, he said, but you will have to pay for the armored car to bring them to Rock Island.

Forget that.

He advised going to the exchange window at the Banque Nationale at the Carrefour shopping center in Sherbrooke. We did.

We waited in line for a long time. We got to the window. We're all good hearts and broad smiles.

"Good morning," we said. "You take VISA, right?"

Wrong. The BN takes all the other credit cards but not VISA.

Bad karma.

We'd just had a French-English run-in with a snarky, fecking, francophone woman clerk in the Men's Department at Sears where I was buying a raincoat that left my French-speaking wife spitting bullets. They'll take your money but won't speak your language – how's that for a title for a Quebec country song?

Plus Jane can't find the kind of walking shoes she needs. Bummer.

We drive home – it's a 100-mile round trip – and Jane calls CAA to order some British currency. We're members and they handled our airline tickets with British Air. Jane gets put on hold, then told they'll call her.

An hour or more goes by. No call. Now a little nervous about the money, Jane calls back.

No, the lady says, you have to reserve it in person. That means another 100-mile round trip.

No, the lady says, we don't take VISA for cash, you have to bring cash.

Jane asks her why the receptionist didn't tell her that the first time she called and save all this time and telephone calls.

"That's not her job," the woman says.

Don't you love that?

That's not her job…

We finally got the pounds through BN with another call to a sympathetic clerk who reserved the money for pick-up days later. For cash, of course.

Today is fly-day. At 9:10 tonight we're scheduled to leave Dorval for London. It will be 8:45 a.m. their time when we arrive at Heathrow, where Kathy has arranged to have a cab waiting.

Here's how today began:

• It was 27 degrees. Frost, of course. Pity the squash, cukes, lush purple basil, and unriped tomatoes. Oh, well.

• I had to take my car to leave at the L.P. Garage in town. Some vital fluid is leaking from up front. Oh, well.

• Jane says her car is nearly out of gas. We need it to get back home. The grass is soaked, my feet are soaked, and my hands are covered with gasoline from filling her tank. Oh, well.