Two Realizations

Two realizations this morning.

1. I had no blog post and no new material.
2. I hadn't yet done anything much from the week's sledding. That was on Tuesday, and it is Sunday already.

So I did a quickie thing — a pretty silly quickie thing. I composited 5 pics of my one sledding run, and I think my final run ever, into one strip..

The white balance changes throughout as does the background, but this is just for fun, so it doesn't matter.

Maybe I will go through some of the footage of the kids today. It is snowing, and we aren't going anywhere, so . . .

I can't say that I am enthused about it, however.

Caturday 15: Lacey Slakes Her Thirst

A few years ago, Asha, the kid's since departed cat had a thing about licking pop cans. Recently, Lacey has become a licker but of windows.

When it is cold enough outside, the warmer household air tends to condense at the bottom of the window pane.

It does have to be fairly cold, though. I just checked the window, but it is only -5C/23F outside, and that does not appear to be a significant enough temperature difference because there is no condensation this morning.

So, Lacey will not be able to slake her thirst by licking the window this morning: at least not yet. It's early (5:30), and the house temperature is still low for sleeping. Maybe there will be window water for her when the house heats up more. We shall see.

Hospital Reports

I came across these supposedly genuine entries in hospital reports. I've highlighted the ones that I thought a little funnier than the rest. Perhaps #29 is my top choice. Although these things tend to make the rounds, I've never seen these before.

1. The patient has no previous history of suicides.

2. Patient has left her white blood cells at another hospital.

3. Patient's medical history has been remarkably insignificant with only a 40 pound weight gain in the past three days.

4. She has no rigors or shaking chills, but her husband states she was very hot in bed last night.

5. Patient has chest pain if she lies on her left side for over a year.

6. On the second day the knee was better and on the third day it disappeared.

7. The patient is tearful and crying constantly. She also appears to be depressed.

8. The patient has been depressed since she began seeing me in 1993.

9. Discharge status:- Alive, but without my permission.

10. Healthy appearing decrepit 69-year old male, mentally alert, but forgetful.

11. Patient had waffles for breakfast and anorexia for lunch.

12. She is numb from her toes down.

13. While in ER, she was examined, x-rated and sent home.

14. The skin was moist and dry.

15. Occasional, constant infrequent headaches.

16. Patient was alert and unresponsive.

17. Rectal examination revealed a normal size thyroid.

18. She stated that she had been constipated for most of her life until she got a divorce.

19. I saw your patient today, who is still under our care for physical therapy.

20. Both breasts are equal and reactive to light and accommodation.

21 Examination of genitalia reveals that he is circus sized.

22. The lab test indicated abnormal lover function.

23. Skin: somewhat pale, but present.

24. The pelvic exam will be done later on the floor.

25. Large brown stool ambulating in the hall.

26. Patient has two teenage children, but no other abnormalities

27. When she fainted, her eyes rolled around the room.

28. The patient was in his usual state of good health until his airplane ran out of fuel and crashed.

29. Between you and me, we ought to be able to get this lady pregnant.

30. She slipped on the ice and apparently her legs went in separate directions in early December.

31. Patient was seen in consultation by Dr. Smith, who felt we should sit on the abdomen and I agree.

32. The patient was to have a bowel resection. However, he took a job as a stock broker instead.

33. By the time he was admitted, his rapid heart had stopped, and he was feeling better.

Jam and Sled

I have not been too keen to really get into the sledding photos and videos that I shot the other day. Perhaps if I hadn't been otherwise engaged yesterday, which was the day after, I would have done better by now. But, I had a medical appointment in the morning and a musical jam to attend in the afternoon.

The jam was mostly for the benefit of my guitar-playing friend, Bob, for I knew some of the people there, but he didn't, so I helped with introductions. It would have bee difficult for Bob just to show up on his own at a stranger's door. There were about 5 guitar players, a fiddler, and one fellow doing something with a strange percussion instrument that I have never seen before. I think there were 5 of us without instruments, who came to sing a few pieces.

Bob didn't take his guitar this time, wanting just to get a feeling for the session. He has decided that he will return with his instrument next time. It made me wish that I could still play the fiddle, but I gave that up years ago. I do wonder about the mandolin which would be easier on the body but has the same strings as the violin. However, whatever music was printed was just lyrics with chord notes for guitars and not real music notation.

Anyway, I may return once more to take photos. Maybe.

Back to the sledding: I have only dealt with a few of the more up close up, portrait style photos. I do hesitate to call them portraits as that word connotes careful planning. So let us say that they are mainly candid portraits where you get the subject to pause briefly: 2 of JJ, and 1 each of Sue and Danica.

I have some more less portraity candids. This one of Danica taking a spill is, perhaps, my fave of the outing.

JJ not falling on the saucer.

Danica using my camera to take the footage of me that you saw yesterday.

Danica, JJ, and friend trying to build a little jump.

I'm glad we made the effort.

Our Final Run

It has been three years since we took the kids sledding. Back then, we would have them for a Snow Day (school cancelled), and so, we'd usually get to the hill once a winter.

Times change, and we are no longer their before and after school drop-in centre, and we have missed having them on snow days. However, due to circumstances, they had the day off yesterday. We picked them up in late morning, fed them lunch, and took them to the hill.

But this post isn't about them. It's about us.

Both Sue and I wanted to do at least one run in our seventies. We were both 69 on the previous outing.

We shot video to memorialize the event, but it didn't work out very well.

I went first, but Danica wanted to be the videographer. The trouble is that she zoomed and moved the camera mercilessly. Out of however much footage she shot, I managed to salvage a few seconds.

This is my run. I could hardly get my body on the toboggan, but I persisted and made it down the hill.

But Sue was even less fortunate. In the cold, I thought I had pressed the video button, but I missed and only discovered that when I uploaded the event when I got home.

Sigh.

(No doubt, there will be further sledding posts.)

Suddenly Winter and Blue Monday

It has been a relatively tame winter for the most part hereabouts, but things have changed in the past week or so. Last week, we had two dumpings and it also got colder with daytime temperatures often being ~10°C and nighttime closer to -20°C.

I had meant to go out to some prettier spots to get some winter/snow pics, but life gets in the way. Of course, sometimes, life is just simple cowardice and the disinclination to face the cold. Alas, I am a pathetic creature.

What I did do, just for y'all, y'understand, is to pop my head out the door long enough to grab a few quick snaps. I do this as a service to you, so y'all can feel better about yourselves in your environment. You are welcome.

Looking back to ours from the street.

The fire hydrant across the street.

Up the street.

This was on Blue Monday, January 20, supposedly, the most depressing day of the year. I don't know about that, but in the morning I had to trek to an out-of-town hospital to undergo certain probes which I shan't describe. And Shauna said that things were weird at work. Then, the referees didn't show up for JJ's hockey game.

The game was held in an arena with stupidly uncomfortable seats, so I chose not to use them and watched, while standing at rinkside. But that meant that I was away from the pathetically poor heaters that were over the stands. Who but Canadians who choose to spend part of an evening in an ice house on a very cold day?

And I didn't bother to take my camera because I wasn't feeling it. Nope, all I felt was discomfort and cold while I watched the team lose another game. They remain winless in league play. The other team scored on two breakaways, which Jonathan would have had a good chance of preventing had he been playing defence because he is very conscientious about covering his zone, Alas and alack, he was playing forward last night.

So yeah, I guess it was kinda like Blue. Eh?

About Me and Maybe You

A newer blogger friend has posted questions to help get to know one another. Here we go.

1. Where do you live? (Cite, State, Country, etc.)

Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Actually just outside of Ottawa, but that's what I say to make any sense of my location to others.

2. What is your favorite way to communicate with others? (in person, telephone, eMail, text, etc.)

Not telephone. This is only partly due to hearing loss. I just don't love the phone. I will usually drive to something not far away when someone else would do it on the phone. For example: I will drop in to make an appointment to change my tires, which happens twice a year. I do the same with the audiologist. I will, however, phone the doctor for an appointment. You just can't drop in all friendly-like there.

Apart from that, anything will do, whether it be email, texting or social media. Texting, whether on messages (phone) or FB Messenger (phone or computer) is replacing email at quite a clip.

3. What is your favorite breakfast?

I suppose it is bacon and eggs, but we seldom do it. I don't think I ever fry up bacon for breakfast at home. We did go out for breakfast last week where I had bacon, eggs, hash browns, pancake and toast. 

This morning, I had oatmeal. They say that it is very good for you, but I confess to never studying up on the matter. To make it even better for my body, if not necessarily to taste, I usually make it with half water/half apple juice. I then add cinnamon and raisins and not brown sugar This makes me feel quite virtuous. I note, however, that just for today I am having it with brown sugar.

4. Do you have kids?

Well yes, two, but they are older than I was when we had them: quite a bit older as a matter of fact. At my age, you ask if you have grandkids. Yes, two: one of each. We live in proximity and see them fairly frequently.

5. Are you considered outgoing or introverted?

Oh, I am definitely the latter and have written about it.

In fact, when I did a search of my own blog, I was surprised by how often I have referenced it. There were 13 related posts. https://anvilcloud.blogspot.com/search?q=introvert .

That search (above) was primarily for my benefit as are the four that I highlight here. Introversion, The I of ISJT, Body on the Grass, I'm an Innie

I hasten to add that I am, a friendly enough person and am not particularly shy. Some of the posts above explain the difference. Try I'm an Innie for example. Heck, here's a snippet because no one will click.

Outies tend to require social activity to feel good while innies require a calmer, more reflective environment to feel good.

So, you see, we innies are simply wired differently. It is my understanding that introversion has nothing to do with nurture or being shy; it has to do with internal wiring. Introversion and shyness, apparently, have little or nothing to do with each other. Shyness has more to do with fear than with basic personality, and it is quite possible for extroverts to be shy.

6. Would you rather parachute out of an airplane or go “deep-sea-diving”?

I am not sure. I think I would like to go diving, but I am referring to just scuba diving such as looking at reefs and not deep sea diving. The other doesn't interest me. Neither does parachuting, for that matter.

Feel free to pick up the meme if you are so inclined. I am sure that most of us have written similar posts in the past, but both we and are readers change over time, so it doesn't hurt to do it again.