On Being Somewhat Normal

On Friday, I determined that I would drive my decrepit body to the store around the corner for just a couple of supplies. Shauna has bought in a few aid packages, but we are slowly on the mend, so this was my bold plan.

Sue opined that we needed to take the car for a little drive because it had been sitting in frigid temperatures for a week. Tremulously, I turned the key, and my 2010 CRV, Hermione the Honda, started up on the first try.

Off we went on a little trip, maybe 20 minutes that would take us through the little hamlet of Appleton where there is a dam and where there once was a hydroelectric plant. In fact, the shell of it is still there.

We had to stop because the spray from the water going over the dam was very prettily icing up the nearby trees. I didn't get close enough to get a good photo because I didn't feel like trying to push through the snow. I just stayed by the road and did my best.

Sue pushed in a little farther.

We then treated ourselves to Tim's coffee and turkey bacon club sandwiches and took them to our spot near the park overlooking the river.

Of course, you know what is coming next . . .  😇

I really should have put my cap back on for the selfie,
but we had kept the motor running,
 and I was actually getting too toasty.

It was a treat just to get out as normal people tend to do, and the coffee and lunch in the car seemed like a feast.

Caturday 86: Sabine Steals Christmas

How nice to be able to have the material to compose a Caturday post. Sabine was very present on Christmas morning and gave me even better photo ops than the humans. You've already seen this first one from under the tree, but I think it deserves another showing.

For awhile, she sat on the back of the couch to my right.

Sabine moves around a lot, but when she spent a few minutes on the couch by Danica who was sitting next to me. I zoomed in.

Finally, a touch of rim light caught her on the back of a different couch,

First Day Walk

We are not out of the sick woods yet, but the trees are a little farther apart. Sue was eager to get out for some fresh air. Being a little farther behind in my recovery, I was less keen, but I hate to let her walk alone, so I acquiesced. She was only planning to go the top of the street and back, maybe a half mile in total, maybe a wee bit more, so we donned our gear and off we went.

Before I describe our little walk, however, I feel that I must share Heather's walk. She lives close to Lake Ontario and took the dog down there for sunrise. What a great photo for a New Year sunrise!

Heather reported that there was another spot down in the lake where people were polar dipping. Can you imagine?

Back here, the temperature was probably around -18C/0F. But it was a great day to get out: sunny, no wind, fresh fallen snow. You get your winter duds on and just enjoy the beautiful day. I took this at the top of our block where we turned around.

Walking back toward home, I was too late to photograph the plow coming toward us.

I took a selfie before we went back inside. I was hoping to get more background showing the street behind us, but you don't fiddle around too much in those temperatures.

Frankly speaking, while it was very enjoyable to be out on such a beautiful day, I think we did push the limits of our weak reserves. I am on the upside, but my eyes won't stop watering, and I am trying to recover my voice from wherever it went. Sue still coughs so much that her chest hurts.

I Raised a Toast

I raised a toast to the New Year

It was the least I could do

Given my bodily circumstances,
It was also the most that I could do  

Not a Prediction

Every now and then, I am reminded of my mortality. 

In the summer when I turned 40, I remember walking by a graveyard, and it hit me that I was, quite possibly, halfway to being there.  It was different than just knowing that I will die in the bye and bye because we know that all of the time, but there was a new realization of reality on that day.

It is not something that I dwell on, but on Christmas Day this year, I wondered if this one could possibly be my last one.

We were at the kids house, and for some reason, I felt unsteady every time that I got up. I would get up and take a beat to steady my unsteady self before proceeding on in my petty pace. That is when I thought the thought, not in a morbid way, but simply with a realization that it was within the realm of possibility that this could be my last Christmas. 

I don’t know why I was feeling unsteady on the morning. I do get up and down all of the time without experiencing that feeling, save every now and then at night, as I have posted here twice this year. 

Please don’t get me wrong. I am far from predicting my departure. I do think the chances of my being here are very good. In point of fact, I expect to see next Christmas, but there was just a dawning on that day that went beyond the usual background knowledge that we all have of our mortality. It was a momentary realization and not a doomsday prediction.

Happy New Year

One Measly Hour

What a humdinger of a cold! My sleep totalled 1 hour, which was 15 % of my 6.5 hours goal, which I think is a pretty modest goal. However, I did get 2.5 hours on the previous night. What more could a sick, old man ask for?

Sha had a day off on Monday, so she brought me lozenges and mints. Our neighbour across the street scraped the ice off our drive. We will have to thank him . . .  when we can talk. My diminished voice has Sue feeling like she is the one going deaf. 

Sue is not exactly full of vim, vigour and vitality, but she’s two days farther along in this adventure, so we are making do with food and tea. She fed me an echinacea tea yesterday. I managed to get it down — most of it anyway. My main food is toast because the scratchiness feels pretty good on the throat. 

Meanwhile, waste paper baskets are filling to the brim with discarded tissues, and I am dabbing my sore nose with bag balm. 

That’s enough screen time for my leaky eyes. I’ll see you around. 

Susie MacGyver

My Sue is an impressive problem solver: a Susie MacGyver as it were. She can look around and pull together the necessary items to find a workaround to a problem. While I should have countless examples of this talent, the latest and current example is on my mind.

Thankfully, we got through the Christmas season in good health, but Sue awoke on the 26th with a persistent couch. By the next day, it had developed into a humdinger of a cold. I started to forget about that when I found myself uncomfortable in my chair, where I do most of my sleeping. So, I thought I would go to the bed for awhile. I realized before I got there that Sue's germs made that a bad idea, but since I was up, I peered in regardless to see how the lady was faring.

This ↓↓ is what I saw — in the darkness, of course, because it was nighttime.

A makeshift shelf to hold the supplies for her infirmity.
Note a lack of room for AC in the king-size bed.

I escaped back to my chair in the den, but, unfortunately for me, I did not escape the virus because two days later, I awoke with a sore throat, and it kept getting worse and worse. What a night and morning it has been! Sue's affliction began with a cough and settled into a cold. Her illnesses always seem to begin with a cough. Sickness always seems to hit me in the throat first, but like Sue, my symptoms have also settled into a major cold while my throat continues to Hirt me greatly. 

It was the MacGyver thing more than the health report that roused me from my sick bed to share this with you, but I can’t describe one without the other. 

Meanwhile, I don’t quite know what the weather is doing out there at the moment, for my window has been iced over since 10 o’clock or earlier last night, and I can’t see out. I do know that it is supposed to transition to regular rain about now, which is 7am. Then, the precipitation will turn into snow this afternoon and evening. What a winter we’re having! On days like this, I worry about Shauna’s rural drive to work. However, I am able to not worry about Danica’s transportation for another week.