Poetry...SATURDAY?!

Mona gave the word for all to HEAR!

Hear YE! Hear YE!

Friends, Romans, Countrymen,

Lend me your ears!

(they've got to be better than mine!)

Do your ears hang low do they....

Listen up! Ecoutez!

Hear me out....

Do you hear what I hear?

A startling cry pierced my ears....

or was that the jeweller in the mall?

"Speak up, don't you mumble...."

(James Taylor said it best.)

Damned hearing aids get tangled in my hair

and earrings,

trying to tear them out too quickly

as the jet's engines

roar to life down the runway

and no one warned me!

Why, yesterday, it was only a mere robin

in that distant tree

that was annoying me,

assaulting my sensitized ear drums

with his grating chirp!

Gotta get the set volume turned down on these babies...

But that does seem rather redundant,

doncha think?!!

Ears to ya!

Mother of Invention, who will never quite get used to wearing the cursed things!

One Last Kick At Summer!

Last weekend we went to our friend's cottage. We have gone there for about 16 years and it is usually in July but this year we just couldn't get our schedules together till now.

I learned that you can enjoy a cottage just as much in early fall as you can in the heat of July. We slept well during the crisp night and enjoyed the fireplace all the more, not to mention our coffee!
We went canoeing and kayaking, and really appreciated the bright warm sun....once we took off our canoeing gloves! I caught a few early and anxious maple leaves tinged with red...always exciting!
Dave went for a long bike ride and a run, followed by a swim...but as you can glean from the photo, he was a little reluctant!

Fall and friends, you can't beat that!

Poetry Friday- Sight

Mona sensed this one....

Sight
Set your sights on it

Set them high

You're out of sight, man!

You were a sight for sore eyes.
(what does that mean anyway?
will it help your eyes that are sore feel better

or make them more sore?
always got that mixed up!)
Hindsight is always 20/20
so why did I still need glasses yesterday?!
Love is blind....
until it slams some people with its near-sightedness...
maybe love should come with a prescription for glasses
just in case the the eyes grow dim
("my eyes are dim, I can not see,
I have not brought my specs with me...")
but then, what's up with the rose-coloured glasses?
better to be clearly focused on now
with neither the microscope
nor the magnifying glass-
a fine balance

A Texan Wedding!

Hi y'all!

Just blew in from Texas last night with Ike behind us! We actually got spared the big stuff down there for the wedding with just wind and rain but there was an anxiety element for sure in out hotel which was full of evacuees from Houston and Galveston. All TV's were on the Weather Net. and we were fully expecting power outages. Funny that when we came home late last night, we had no power due to high winds. Ironically, we had the flashlights for Ike in our suitcases so had to get those out as went in the house!

Fabulous wedding weekend! We were there by noon on Fri. and hung out in the hot sun by the pool for a bit before the pool party BBQ at my niece's condo. Neat idea so that everyone could meet and mingle with the same folks we'd be seeing at all the events and in the hotel. The wedding took place at a heritage site similar to our Black Creek Pioneer Village and the church was small and quaint. (You can see my dad waving from the doorway in one of the pics to come!) They had a stringed quartet playing at the front. The vows had a comical tone when they included to "help with the cleaning" in both of their vows! Wise move inclusion!

The reception was at a downtown Dallas Art Centre and the dancing after the wonderful meal,was the big hit. Mom and dad were seen on the dance floor often, and not only for the old swing tunes either! The wedding cake topper was the best; Karen, the hockey queen with our flag and Pete, the golf guy with the US flag.
We had a wedding brunch the next morning at the hotel where afterwards, everyone was reluctant to break the magic bubble of the whole weekend with good-byes. By now, we felt we all knew each other. It was neat for my whole family to be on a plane together, having just spent the entire weekend at the same places. I am sure it is a once-in-a-lifetime event for us and will be treasured by all.

(My pics aren't great but I just wanted to share what I have. I seriously need lessons!)

Then, I got to finally meet a real live blogger! I constantly read about all you bloggers meeting up with each other and here I am stuck in far away Canada. I don't travel much at all. What were the chances that I'd ever be going to any city where any of you lived? It turns out that Steve, at Bullet Holes In The Mail Box, lives in Texas. It was a busy weekend so we only got to meet at the airport for a short time but we'll do at least a cup of coffee next time!

Upper Decking It!

This is the new deck! You get to it by going through our winter bedroom into the summer bedroom, out the door onto the covered balcony and step up onto it as you can see here. It goes the whole width of the back of the house and we are truly

in the trees!

In the morning I make coffee in the summer room and take it out to the deck to watch the sun rise. I have great "alone" time up there.

I'm going to be spending a lot of time here I can tell! I'd better set up the coffee maker now so we will wake up to the
sounds and smell of java jivingI'm going to be spending a lot of time here I can tell! I'd better set up the coffee maker now so we will wake up to the sounds and smell of java jiving!

The Mixed Bag of Results!

I've e-mailed this to some friends and I thought I'd just post it here for anyone who happens to follow my blog.


The angiogram procedure itself went well with no problems such as bleeding etc. It’s pretty amazing really that I wasn’t even given a sedative, only a local freezing (he said sorry for the ouch but it was not even as bothersome as my insulin needles!) and I’m talking to him the whole 20 min. while he’s “tickling” my heart as he put it. It feels like a butterfly when it’s in the left auricle! You get a huge heat rush from your head to thighs when they shoot in the contrast agent (dye) so they can take pics…and I was quick to tell him that just in case any male patients wanted to know, this felt just like a huge hot flash….X 20! (Except for the sensation of peeing your pants which I had yesterday!!)

Bottom line results….kinda mixed…

Good news part:

My actual heart muscle is in the top category 1 for a strong pumper and having no damage.
My cholesterol is really excellent
I don’t need a bypass (phew!) at this point…

I’m just to continue with my same meds and manage symptoms of angina with nitro spray.

Not so wonderful part:

There were several smaller arteries that were anywhere from 70%-90% blocked but the main artery was only (! Ha!) 50% and they don’t do any bypasses until it’s 70%. So I have some more time before the huge surgery. I see him in 6 months. I only need to do 20-30 min. of moderate walking or swimming per day…that is supposedly enough, although I’d love to be able to do what I was doing before.

And, of course, there’s the sugar to control, which is the main reason my arteries are blocked. The ever-elusive sugar. It is almost impossible for me to have under great control but it is better. The whole huge Mash-type unit yesterday (and I presume every day) was filled with mostly diabetics, albeit all older than me. This condition does ugly things to your insides and it is mostly the straying from low to high sugar that contributes to the coating and sticking to the arteries. I truly hope there is a cure for diabetes some day for it has certainly had its way with me in many areas.

Really Fabulous Part: !!!

He said I should go to Dallas on the 13th to my niece’s wedding!
Even though my insurance will not cover anything related to my heart, he told me that even though I’m a higher risk than most people, that he didn’t really think I was in danger of having a huge episode in the near future. It is only for 3 days. Let’s hope he’s right. I’m not a huge risk taker, but come on, in the big Casino of My Life, surely I can be granted 3 days episode free!??

We are lucky to have our health care system, such as it is and as much as we always complain about it. What I saw yesterday sure fostered my “faith in the process” type thing. The place ran like a well-oiled machine and the level of care was excellent. I was surrounded by happy upbeat people. In fact, with all my dealings with the various hospitals and doctors I have had, I have always found them to be excellent.

I have sincere gratitude for my many blessings in life; a wonderful caring, understanding husband, a close-knit loving family, (the best ever!) and fabulous friendships with so many people it is hard to believe. I thank my Creator several times a day actually….and most recently from the new upper deck in the trees where I am closer to the Universe!

Thanks to you all for always being so thoughtful and supportive of me.

I’m just taking it easy for the next few days…..and then I'm packing for Dallas!!!