Remembering Lacey

This is the first anniversary of Lacey's crossing of the rainbow bridge. Although I certainly posted about her passing at the time, I left a few photos in the queue from the preceding days and weeks, just to post today.

She, perhaps, paid her final visit to my lap almost three weeks earlier, or at least the last of which I managed to grab my phone. While she was not my lap cat, she knew that treats might, somehow, appear.

She was Sue's lap cat. I remain thankful that Lacey was able to get her portion of loving up until the end.

She ate a good final meal before we took her into the vet. Her jaw was cancerous, so she had been having difficulty getting the food out of the dish. That morning I sat on the kitchen floor with her and rolled up bits that she could pick up. I remain thankful that I thought to do that for the poor, old girl.

The Moon at 4

With the current meds for my ear, my sleep has been quite fitful, even more than usual. It's mostly from the decongestants, which the doctor declared that she ordinarily would not like to prescribe to a 79-year-old man.

When I awoke to unowat at 4, I was stunned to see the full moon is a spot where I had never seen it, just over the trees before it would soon begin to dip out of sight.

It was 4am. I went back to bed chair. My inner voice whispered, “No, John. That won’t do. You really must get up and try to get a photo.”

I didn’t want to waken Sue by pulling out the screen, so I shot through it and also through the window pane that I could have opened more had I not been tiptoeing. I pressed the shutter, with the phone commanding me to hold for 2 seconds, or maybe it was 3. That’s hard, but I did my best  

Those were not ideal circumstances, but I tried regardless, and with a little help from photoshop to remove extra window reflections, I think the photo is good enough to post here.

I did, eventually, get back to sleep until 6, which gave me a total of 5 hours — not great but just about enough to keep me from getting too crotchety.

Spick and Span

In a recent comment (of course I forget to whom) I recently used the phrase (not technically a phrase but you know . . .), spic and span. And then I wondered, where the heck did that come from. We all know the phrase means very clean to the average person, or "spotlessly clean and neat" according to dictionary.com.

What I didn't realize until I did my bit an internet sleuthing as that it should be spelled spick and not spic. Of course it was Spic and Span in the old cleaning product. I say old because I haven't seen it on the shelves or at least not noticed it on the shelves for quite awhile.

What interested me was the history of the phrase, and I discovered that it dates to the 16th and 17th centuries when it came to mean new and fresh. That is because spick was the word for nail, which a workman would use to fashion something new. The span part probably dates back to Norse, referring to a chip of wood, as in newly carved wood. If you put them together, it seems that you would be nailing something new with wood.

Although its secondary meaning can still refer to fresh and new, over time the spotlessly clean and neat meaning has become dominant.

I wonder if it is one of those phrases that will become lost as we are succeeded by a generation with new and rapidly evolving vocabulary.

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I searched for the cleaning product and found that it can still be found at Walmart, Amazon and fine retailers everywhere. I must remember to look in my own grocery store.

False Frost Warning

It was odd on Monday to receive a frost-warning popup on my phone because the projected low night temperature was only 6C. In the morning, I asked Alexa what the overnight low had been, and she replied with a curious 22C. I think she got stuck in the wrong month. 

I was later able to scrub back on the weather app on my phone and saw that the low temperature was 5C. We remain frost-free for the time being, but the highland parts of the region have already experienced frost and even a hard frost. 

This is one year when part of me wishes for a hard, early frost because, as I have previously written, I have the flicker of a  hope that a hard frost might unplug my almost-deaf left ear.

I have my doubts that a cure will wrought by a frost, but we walked over to the health centre yesterday to consult with our doctor to see if there was anything else I could do in the interim, other than the antihistamine and nasal spray that I have been taking daily.

As we waited, I made a guess that this young fellow’s complaint might have to do with his foot. Do you concur?

Then, I was called. As the nurse and I began out walk to the examining room, she asked, "So, what are you seeing Dr X about today?"

I replied, "I am here to see Dy Y."

We stopped our progress, and she went back to check and discovered that it was a different John's turn. John isn't as common a name as it used to be, but there were two of us on the premises. I know there were once three of us in one of my classes when I was a boy, but the name is not so common anymore. Even my grandson is a Jonathan rather than a plain John although he is named for me. Poor boy.

I returned to me seat but was called again soon after, and when the doctor checked my ear, she saw fluid that the student doctor missed last time. I don't think that miss matters much because the treatment doesn't really change. However, I will be on a stronger anti-histamine for a bit and I will add a decongestant to the protocol for 3 days to try to boost a reaction. 

My seniors' drugs are largely covered except except for a small dispensing fee, but I was charged full price of $90 for 60 tablets on this occasion. There are a few medications that aren't covered by the system, but this surprises me. I will check with the pharmacy with crossed fingers later this morning to see if this was an error.

Meanwhile, the doctor continues to think that the blockage is being caused by an allergy. When I told her that I had once been tested and that it was determined that I pretty well have no allergies, she replied that there are many that the test might have missed. Certainly my stuffy and runny nose and frequent sneezing indicate that there is something plaguing me. She also felt that I should continue to use the nasal spray even when the current blockage clears up because that has been my second bout of the year. In other words, she wants me to use the spray for the rest of my life to try to prevent future occurrences.

On the way home we stopped at Dark & Deadly for coffee and a breakfast sandwich — in our case it became a lunch sandwich. The favoured coffee of the day was blueberry. It was good, as was peanut butter and jam the other day. A few of you were thinking that you couldn't abide a pbj coffee, and I admit that I was dubious. However, I tell you that I cannot discern the flavours, other than to appreciate that they go down pretty well. I mean my peanut butter and jam coffee certainly didn't taste like pbj to me. Same with blueberry, a fruit that I otherwise eat almost daily.

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I think I understand the frost warning now. It's a general warning for  broad region but does not apply to every bit of the region. We are in the Lanark section of the green, but our town was not included in the specific paces mentioned in the accompanying material.

Do You Deserve a Tip of the Hat?

I use all but one. If you know and use most and/or you can guess which one I don't use, I tip my cap to you. (My answer will appear somewhat below the next photo.)

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The only word that I don't use cattywumpus, but maybe I should try  

How did you do?

Hand and Band

Yesterday, I donned my red-black jacket for our walk. Heaver than a windbreaker but lighter than a winter coat, it seemed the thing to grab for mid-fifties weather. I also wore one glove a la Michaël Jackson — on my heft hand that holds the cane, because it would be continuously exposed. The other hand, I could shove into my pocket at will.

It did get warmer before we were done, largely from sun warmth more than temperature warmth. 

As we continued past the bridge we began to hear music.

We got closer and saw and heard the bagpipes. This is just a few second clip.

I took a few snaps from a distance. The photos were awful with distractions, so I extracted two of the musicians from their compatriots and composited them into a cheesy image. It's terrible, but I unashamedly reveal all here. Well, maybe not all, but I reveal much — both the good and not so good.

A street was blocked for for a march by the three bands, but we found a space on the grounds behind the Legion building where people were gathered and there was seating available. The three bands took their time marching, each finishing its song and march before the next one started. We couldn't see very much, not enough to bother with photos, but we could see some and hear well. It was an unexpected pleasure on a Sunday morning.

Cold Sunrise

She who runs at an out-of-kilter temperature was surprised when she came into my den yesterday morning. Because. I had the heater on by my computer chair!

Not only that, but I was wearing my winter sweater.

The nights have been cold. Alexa informed me that it was only 2C/36F outside at 7:15.

As you know, our game is to not turn on the heat until the end of October. We have made it to the end of October only once as far as I can recall, but we give it a good shot. We'll see how we do this year. The countdown isn't on yet, but some nights are getting very cool. At present (written yesterday morning), I am heating the bathroom in preparation for my biannual shower. ;)

There was a bit of colour over the opposite rooftops at 6:30. I shot on an angle from the non-screen side of my little window. Come winter, I shall remove the screen, so that I can shoot from either side, likely to photograph the neighbours shovelling snow.

On Friday, the heron was at the pond. I shot at full 8x magnification and then cropped, so of course, the image is anything but sharp. But it's a heron! And the light is good enough. Eh?

Addendum (still referring to yesterday, Saturday)

When I went into the bedroom at 8 to gather my after-shower clothing, Sue had the windows open and was sitting in a very light, Mrs Roper, caftan. Oddly enough, when we go out, she often seems more concerned about the cold than I.