I have to assume that my pOp is okay. Anybody who can destroy a plate of ribs like that, while pink of cheek and clear of eye, has to be in fine form. It’s dreffle easy to panic when no reason exists.
Category: Health
Google – is stupid the new evil?
Google is sucking these days….
A reason to go to Ottawa…. (I mean, what the hell kind of country pays for public art that will scare the bejasus outta small kids and arachnophobes).
In family news, the elephant has decided to sit on pOp’s chest again. This means medical attention, which entirely sucks. In further family news, the surgical drain has been removed from my mother, who’s damned happy about this improvement in her well being.
I watched Stargate Atlantis for the first time last night. The script had me pecking a bit, but the charm of the personalities shone through nevertheless. Finished up a re-rendered copy of Robinson Crusoe on Mars (does Paul Mantee EVER have nice body hair! Yowza!). Watched a Family Guy episode all the way through (1st time ever) and laughed my ass off. Hitler juggling three fish on a unicycle? Instant hysteria! Why? Mostly, says Jeff, it’s the snippet of music that goes with it.
We finished de junking the kitchen, dealt with the linen closet and itemized all the furniture for Geek House, as well as figuring out some stuff for storage, Craigslist, etc… I hardly took any cooking stuff when I left the Augur Inn, so I did grab a couple of small boxes of stuff – they will all get merged back into Geek House but I can use it in the meantime.
Today, we see Unca Barry and Auntie Mary and go for dinner with my parents – if they can lever themselves away from the emergency room. Yeah, I know I sound like I don’t give a shit. I am concerned and anxious, but how does that help?
Happy news
I saw the underside of 180 pounds today.
me happy
Takes balls to do this.
fwded from Chipper
And not once did he either thank or curse God
Ya gotta love the internet
Mum update
mOm informs me that the BC Cancer Agency protocols continue to grind on; she has seen the surgeon. There will be surgery, a rest, then radiation. As she put it wryly, “Well, that about wraps up my fall.” Indeed.
so anyway (family bad news)
Now, my mother will kick my heinie if I talk about any of this in a sloppy, sentimental or overly dramatic way, but I think the sensitive viewer will admit that finding out that your mom has cancer is one of those things that makes you very preoccupied and introspective.
Having said that I must hasten to add a number of facts:
She’ll still probably live a long time. By the numbers – and we’re kind of funny that way, as a family, thinking about probabilities in as realistic a fashion as we can – it’s true.
She’s going to get excellent care.
She’s not scared, freaked out or lying on the bathroom floor washing tranks down with red wine, while my dad frantically beats on the door calling her name. Actually, I find it rather amusing to even suggest that she’d do such a thing, it’s so far away from what she’s like. In fact, I’d pay good money to watch her pretend to do that.
Everything that’s about to happen is going to be an inconvenience. That’s the way she’s treating it, and I’m going to line up behind her on that one, although you can bet your sweet ass I’ll be visiting her somewhat more frequently in future, now that my 8 months of navel gazing are done. I’ll be more comfortable knowing what the course of treatment is going to be, but I’m not going to waste two seconds feeling sorry for her or me. If you have her contact info you can fire off an email to her directly or you can post comments to this if you feel so inclined.
The waiting is hard. We’ll be better when there’s something to be done.
off to the clinic
I am grateful I live someplace where dealing with health problems is so trivial.
No dice.
I went home like a lady in a walker, so sore in the back (and suffering from another ailment that my father will thank me not to elucidate) that I could scarcely lift my feet. LTGW showed up later for a beer and to fill me in on the days of his lives (good, bad, and yowch!) and then very kindly offered to take me to a walkin clinic which was full and another clinic, which was closed (and then dropped me off at home which was more than decent of him). Since the notion of spending six to eight hours at RCH waiting to be seen for a non life threatening ailment was more than I could stand, I’ll be down the hill at 8 tomorrow morning when the clinic opens. Meantime I’m pushing cranberry juice and feeling very sorry for myself and covering myself in blankies, because I’m so cold I’ve got the shakes.
But it’ll be fixed soon, and in the meantime I have the warm and fuzzy feeling of having been looked after by a friend.
Elly’s journey
My friend Elly is the subject of a ten minute documentary about her recovery from bipolar illness. As I have seen her in a very bad way, and been her friend over 20 years, and I conveniently live in Vancouver, I got elected to talk a bit about the difference between then and now. Frankly, she’s not the same person, and everybody’s really happy about that, especially Elly.
Recovery from mental illness is not always possible. It is not easy to have enough insight to start working on it. Step one, take responsibility for it. Step two, learn to cope with stress and learn what your triggers are. Step three, eatrightexercisemeditate&sleep. Step four, let people into your life who support your recovery with open arms, and move away from people who don’t support your recovery – without taking on a big load of grief or guilt. Rinse. Repeat. The steps are simple. Doing it is backbreaking work. I’d like to point out the link to her website here, commercial plug.
The energy level, sincerity and professionalism of the VFS students making the film was a palpable thing – I got a contact high hanging out with them.
And one of them showed me a Youtube video he made. It was SO GOOD! I think I’ll watch it again. It’s called Making me Nervous, and the band is called Brad Sucks.
Sad…..
It’s time to cross fingers, hold breath and pray for strength.
“I’m not afraid
to believe
I won’t be asked to carry
more than I can bear…”
Love holds loss in the hollow of its hands. Stay tuned…. as with many things in my life, I may be cavitating, levitating, warping, woofing, weaving and ducking for no good reason at all.
Weekend continues
Mike appeared looking like he could use a break from plumbing issues. How many weeks has it been since the drainage went verklemt in the old place?
I need to do laundry, like instantly. Fortunately Mike, who decided to crash on the sofa last night after slaughtering the last beer, is up so I can start. He and Paul got on the phone and I must say the part of the phone call I overheard was most entertaining as it had to do with making beer. Otherwise my conversation with Paul went quite well, and we continue to mosey through the last ten percent of the separation agreement with high levels of communication and trust. Although not a lot of speed – I’ve been overly engaged in my social life and not sticking to my best interests.
Note to self- make sure people are parked downstairs in the secured lot on weekends.
I sent flowers to Catherine’s mum, who is about five weeks post op, and I send her a special hug. I will share why this is the case off line with my earflapping posse. Tact came late to Allegra, but it’s still a welcome thing. The flower people called me to tell me that the flowers would be not exactly as shown and a day late, but I told them I authorized them to do what was necessary and they are supposed to show up today.
I gotta get daughter Katie’s (and my) passport apps in. And now I gotta run, period, because I’ve got two hours to get some food and get into New West for my haircut….
Nice to know the boffins are on the job….
Hoof and mouth, brought to us by a research facility.
Public service denouncement
This little bastard is Culex tarsalis, the mosquito most likely to spread West Nile virus in Canada.
