DEAR MISS LONELYHEARTS: Our big cabin has always been Party Central during summer season at the lake — for our big, extended family. But this year, the bombs have started falling on that situation.

Two couples in the family have been in secret negotiations to buy their own cabins — and the deals recently went through. I guess I should be happy for them, but I’m not that nice!

I feel sad — deflated really. Our place has always been the hub. It was exciting to be there early on Fridays and see who would arrive, and come bounding up to our screen door with platters of food and bottles of wine! Now, I’m afraid our big family parties will be splitting up, and it might get competitive. So much for our cabin being the centre! Please help.

— Sad and a Bit Jealous, North End

The recent thoroughly provocative investigative series in the Free Press about child care has brought back a lot of memories about the experiences my wife and I had when our children were younger.

Many of them bad.

To be honest, back in the day we did not have trouble finding space in a daycare. The problem was finding a space in a facility that synced up with our working schedules.

Some of the facilities did not do any kind of early morning drop off. Others had a hard and fast 5 p.m. deadline for pickup that came with a warning that three instances of showing up late would result in a call to Child and Family Services.

DEAR MISS LONELYHEARTS: I’m a younger woman and I have a middle-aged lover who owns a boat. The one big thing this guy and I agree on is plenty of lovemaking, which he’s good at — surprisingly great for his age.

He told me his last girlfriend told him he was a young man hiding in an old man’s body. I sure hope so. It can get tedious always hanging out on a boat. Then I just found out last weekend that he’s also the type who loves to sit by the lake and read war stories half the day. Boring.

I’m going to want to play golf and badminton with him, go out to eat and explore different beaches. Is there any thing I can do to wake this guy up to having better kinds of fun this summer?

— Thinking Ahead, on Lake Winnipeg

DEAR MISS LONELYHEARTS: It’s “celebrating-parents season” again. Yikes! As a foster parent I have something to say about that. Take Father’s Day, for instance.

Some kids who have lived with us for some time want to make a card for my husband — their foster dad —because he’s such a nice guy. I happily provide the colourful materials for making cards, and leave them out on a table for a week.

If they want to make cards for a birth parent — a trickier situation — I let them know the materials can be for that, too. Sadly, it’s often not appropriate for them.

Are we doing the right thing by honouring these days? I really don’t know how to handle the big emotions after they’re finally over. I don’t want the kids to know I sometimes feel so sad for them, thinking about their birth-parent experiences, that I cry in my husband’s arms afterward. I don’t mean sniffling either!

DEAR MISS LONELYHEARTS: My over-excited wife just started inviting her siblings and families to come out in August to visit us at the cabin I just bought with inheritance money from my side of the family.

I told her it was too soon to have people over, since the place needs a ton of work before we can host. She said that her family is full of handy people who can build and fix anything, which would save us a lot of money. Saving money is not the issue.

I’m a do-it-yourself guy and need to do things right. That means we really need this summer totally free of company so I can do it properly. My wife said no. Her family would bring tents and she would organize meals.

I suddenly got it. She wants to be running this renovation show and be the big star. My nerves are already shot thinking about dealing with her, plus her know-it-all relatives.

DEAR MISS LONELYHEARTS: I play in a band and my new girlfriend was there specially to hear me when this drunk idiot got up in front of the stage during our final set. He started shouting repeatedly, “Play 'I’m Too Sexy'.”

Yes, we knew how to play that stupid song by Right Said Fred, but no, we didn’t want this bar star and his drunk sports team getting in on our act. In the end, we finished our set 15 minutes early and the manager had to deal with them.

But it made for a bad feeling, and people started leaving the bar early, so less booze was sold. What should we have done?

— Annoyed by Idiot, Westwood

DEAR MISS LONELYHEARTS: I started dating a girl on Valentine’s Day and I thought we had real magic from that night on. Now it’s June, and she has had a tour of the inside of me, my head and heart, and has decided she’s had enough. That really tears me up. Before she knew me well she thought I was perfect.

I’m a musician and I wrote many songs for her in the few months we were together. Then, suddenly, I was too mushy for her. She said she couldn’t breathe and she couldn’t live up to the vision of perfection I had of her in my love songs.

I told her I would back off the love songs, and she said way too loudly, “Yes, leave me alone.”

I didn’t call her for a week and when I finally did, she actually said, “Ha. I bet myself you couldn’t go a whole week.” I just hung up. I was shocked and could not speak. What do you think of this?

The ER is a barometer for how well or unwell the larger health-care system is performing.

We used to say this when I worked at the head office of the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority. It was true then and remains true today. The ER is ground zero for the health-care system and the portal of entry for many people. Dysfunction of the ER affects the larger system and dysfunction of the larger system affects the ER. This is part of the reason why fixing the problems plaguing ERs is so complicated, because, to some degree, it is factors outside the ER causing long wait times.

We have a huge problem. Our wait times continue to increase, especially at St. Boniface Hospital. I can only speculate that being the hub for cardiac care for the province may have something to do with wait times being longer at that site. But regardless, based on the latest data released, wait times are getting worse, not better. This is very concerning.

I’m not going to blame the NDP, as they’ve only been in power for seven months. They inherited a huge mess from the former Tory government. There are so many things that need fixing. ER wait times and working conditions desperately need attention. Otherwise, wait times will continue to increase and we risk losing more staff. We’re burning people out. We’ve been lucky our health human resources are loyal and dedicated and care about patients. But even they can only take so much chaos and dysfunction.