Back From A Break!

I have just spent five fabulous days at my sister's cottage.....great warm and sunny weather, beautiful refreshing swims in the lake, relaxing on the sand beach with a magazine, canoeing while trying to capture loons on camera, walking on the hilly cottage roads, feasting on tasty barbecued dinners, gorgeous sunsets and best of all - lighthearted and fun company!

We even made the annual visit to a resort to hear my brother-in-law play guitar and sing at a regular gig on a screened off porch overlooking a lake. There was also a huge craft fair in the closest town (a forty minute drive) where I picked up quite a few cool gifts for people.

I could so be a cottage person! You just can't beat summer in Ontario's Muskoka North!

***Caught this deer coming right up to the deck to munch on foliage early one morning.

***Me holding the much too short paddle after a tour around the lake.

My Medical Update

Today, I finally got the results of several tests I had taken at The Stroke Prevention Clinic.
Results of various tests were generally better than anticipated!





MRI:

No evidence of acute stroke. (Yah!)

Carotid Arteries (Neck): Right has a little plaque, left has none. (Yah! That means no surgery to remove plaque!)

There are non-specific white matter changes which may be ischemic in nature. (localised tissue anemia due to obstruction of the inflow of arterial blood) (And I thought it was the GREY that MATTERED! Not really sure what all that could mean.)

Demyelination (indicating MS) is a possibility, though the diagnosis cannot be made on the basis of this MRI. (I'm hoping never to get MS.)



And Just as a Bonus they found...!

My pituitary gland is prominent and at the upper limits of normal for size. (Does this mean I may still grow?!!)

There is fluid through the right mastoid bone and into the middle ear cavity.
NO KIDDING! I have not been able to hear for 5 months now! I had my ear drum punctured and vacuumed (ouch!) last Friday and it simply filled up again. The ear and bone/muscles attaching all over my neck and back of the ear are very sore and I will most likely require surgery to insert tubes in my ears.

Bottom line is ...it could be a lot worse and....I need to tighten blood sugar control, (it's not good!) exercise as much as I can, and keep taking meds for cholesterol and to thin blood. I'm going to go to a Diabetes Education Centre and perhaps get more information on the insulin pump. (I am resistant to this as I tried it before and hated the needle constantly under the skin of the abdomen, but we'll see.)

I'll be going on some holidays to my sister's cottage from Wed. to Sun.!
Catch you all later and thanks for your concern!

Poetry Friday..Hail

Sponsored by Maggie this week : HAIL

Hail The Haiku

farmers don't want it
spells sure disaster for crops
this forecast for hail

pelts down on the corn
damaging all in its wake
it levels the grain

the beans climb no more
the cabbage is all shredded
the pea pods are split

the apples are bruised
but still used for applesauce
there is no crunch left

except in the funds
the farmer no longer has
his time has run out

one more has gone broke
all hail breaks loose at the bank
the loan is called in

Dedicated to all the farmers who have ever lost a whole crop due to a hail storm.

Hail...Goes With Above Post

Mooky See, Mooky Do!

This IS Cats on Tuesdays for many and I couldn't resist putting this up after the last post of Socks, eating the spikes off my plants. My younger cat, Mooky, copies everything Socks does and I just caught her doing the same plant-eating trick with a somewhat similar style!

Now, if I could only capture them climbing the screen door to let us know they want to be indoors!!

July's Abundance!

Some neat July things in my line of vision!

The first pic is a beautiful pot of begonias with the biggest and richest red flowers I've ever seen!

The next one is a clump of gorgeous full astilbe in our new garden just at their peak!

Caught in the act! Then, there's my naughty kitty, Socks, feverishly chomping down on her favourite, the pointed ends of the spike plants in the box on our back porch! She does the same with our indoor plants...we're spikeless! And it's POINTLESS to chastise her, cats don't care!

We live next door to this amazing flower shop so we have to strive to keep our place looking almost as good in this business section of the main street. They live upstairs over their store and are wonderful neighbours and friends.

Last, we have huge full hanging baskets hanging on both sides at the front of our house. We buy these from the flower shop, who orders them to hang from each lamp post in our town. They are an eye-catcher and we get plenty of compliments on them. My husband feeds all these plants once every two weeks.

Our 27th Wedding Anniversary!

I awoke beside the guy who I have been married to for 27 years, and had been going out with for 5 years before that. Yikes! I've been with him over half my life! At first, I couldn't think of where our old wedding photo album was so I looked in a place that hosts just about everything, my attic. I didn't find it there but I did come across two other neat things.

In an old box were the first and only two letters my husband has ever written me. They were sent to me while I was at summer camp after we'd been going out a year and were a hoot! He's talking about how boring life was in the city and how much the "bush babies" missed me. These were nocturnal monkey-like creatures he had in a cage in his apartment because his room mate was studying them ...well, how they used their thigh muscles to jump so far, for his doctorate in Anthropology. Yes, they could jump far and they freaked me out regularly!

Opening a special old wooden box, I found the three love candles we had used in the wedding ceremony. I remember I thought it was a bad omen because they had broken during one of our moves. But now, because it has been so hot in our attic, they seemed to have softened and somehow melded together once again, shaping themselves together into simply a nice comfortable fit.

Hmmm.....maybe that's a neat metaphor for what happens in a marriage after such a long time together.

In fact, I'm sure that it is.

High Vibing It!

Rapunzel, from her castle, has tagged me for the High Vibes meme: What raises your vibes?
Hmmm..I have many actually!

1. My husband, family and friends always high vibe me. They are the most important entities in my life. I love connecting, sharing time at meals, coffees, or on holidays up at the lake. I spend a lot of energy e-mailing, phoning and getting together with these people in order to stay connected. Having no kids, we are able to do this more easily and these people have all expressed their appreciation that we have always done this well.



2. My cats are almost real people to me! Mooky and Socks are my little children and we give unconditional love to each other constantly. They give me much joy and feature prominently in my life as High Vibers!



3. Kids in school or other people's kids give me a lot of joy and amusement. I have a good rapport with kids and can establish a really fun relationship with them easily.



4. Music...my two choirs, singing to guitar with kids or by myself, listening to my Cd's, and going to the odd concert raise my energy and appreciation of life. I am really emotionally touched by much music and it makes me feel connected to the world in a spiritual way.



5. SALES! garage sales, flea markets, second hand stores and getting a good bargain at any store gets my adrenaline going! I love clothes, antiques, and knick-knacks and I can always rationalise a purchase if it's a steal.



6. Physical Touch...I love massage and treat myself to one every week. I couldn't live without a lot of hugging my husband, family and friends. I crave cuddling with my husband.



7. Exercise. As much as this is sometimes difficult for me, I feel good and proud after I've walked, biked, or had a good session of working out. I usually only do it for 40 minutes, but with all my health issues, that's doing well for me.



8. Writing. I left this till last since it's almost a given for most bloggers. I've always tried to express myself by writing stories and poems since about Gr. 3. It is an excellent way for me to get all the thoughts, feelings, and issues that are rolling around my head, out outside myself. There is a sense of relief and accomplishment when you see your writing in a concrete form on paper or a computer screen.





I think that's it for now! If you'd like to grab this meme, please do. It's a great way to focus on the positive aspects of your life. It helped me do that especially now when I have some precarious health issues pending.

Thanks, Rapunzel!

Moving On Without a Backward Glance!

Mona gave us some free reign for today's poetry word and I've been wanting to post this for a long time.

stray cat

the stray tomcat
greedily laps up all the milk
you carefully poured
because he craves it
and it is there…
you offer it unconditionally,
he gobbles the kibble hungrily
only to satiate a nutritional need
but he keeps none of it,
indeed, he treasures not a morsel
of this nourishment,
feels no obligation,
no threads of attachment,
his heart well hidden
under the rough, dull, lack-lustre fur,
covered with burrs,
the only hint of where he’s been,
the only attachment known to him,
evidence of his tough life-
his sandpaper tongue darts out
as he quickly opens and shuts his mouth
only to briefly savour your gift
before sauntering off,
one thirst quenched -
another greater need arising
and he is gone
with a mere flick of his tail -
no looking back.

Perhaps you know people like this too. They take what they need from you and move on, completely disconnected. Did they use you or simply take what you offered them? How are we to feel? Glad that they took our "gift" or sad and hurt that they used us and did not appear appreciative? I'm still pondering.

Mother of Invention, still trying to figure out how people can do this.

Testing Day! (MRI)

Today I had an MRI to check for MS and mini-strokes. I'm not claustrophobic so that worked in my favour. I was actually pretty chilled out and just listened to a great CD I had brought them to pipe in through the earphones they gave me.

You had to lie perfectly still the whole time. There were weird noises and it was quite loud at times, resembling a jackhammer. They'd stop after each set of shots (about every 3 minutes) to ask how I was and tell me what they were doing next.

Okay..this next thing threw me. They took me out of the tube part of the machine and said they were going to inject my vein with a contrast, which is a dye because the radiologist needed more information. Yikes! Maybe he'd seen something weird? A tumour? My imagination wandered. They finally found a vein and did two shots, saline first to make sure they got the vein, and then the dye. They did 2 more minutes of pictures and then let me go.

The whole thing took 1/2 hour and wasn't too bad, but I was glad to see my husband in the waiting room afterwards. The doctor won't have results for a week and who knows when I'll actually hear what they are. I know there's nothing I can do about anything so I just have to wait. That's the hard part. I'm in no man's land. I may wish I were back here in the suspended time capsule of ignorance if it's something bad. I'll just lull here awhile until I have to deal with whatever cards I've been dealt.

Happy Canada Day 2007!

Today is Canada's Birthday! Yahay! We finally have a permanent flagpole on the roof of my husband's office at the front of our house.
Now I feel like a proud Canadian!


See last year's post in which I praise Americans for their obvious pride in their country as opposed to our reticence to show this.

(My Create a post is stuck in Edit Html mode instead of Compose! Does anyone know how I get out of this?! I've clicked on both a number of times and it doesn't change anything.)