I think I'll be a vet when I grow up ...

My dog has to go to the vet tomorrow to have a tooth pulled.  Now, I love my dog, and I sometimes wonder if vets don't play on that love.  'Darcy' has an abscess on a tooth, (apparently) and the swelling on her face was what prompted the vet's visit today.  She didn't seem to be in any pain, and I'm ashamed to admit that the lump has been there for some time, but even though family funds are short right now, my husband felt she ought to be seen. (Note I'm blaming my husband for this one.)

The vet examined her teeth (as much as Darcy would let him), felt around the lump and pronounced that it was "probably an abscess caused by a broken tooth. That will be $96 please." (Well, he didn't actually say the last bit, but his receptionist was quick to add it.)  I think the few generic anti-biotic tablets he gave us for her were included in that price.  $96 for a ten minute visit.  Why, that's $576 an hour - I doubt if my own family doctor makes anything close to that much!

Tomorrow she'll have the tooth pulled at a cost of over $700.

Friends of ours have a 14 year old dog who pulled a tendon in his leg before Christmas.  The dog is recovering fairly well, but has a limp and can't walk as far as he used to - well, he is 98 in people years after all, I don't suppose many 98 year olds can walk too far.  However, this couple is paying over $4,000 for an operation on the dog's leg to help him walk better - and there's no guarantees!

Has the world gone mad?  Have I gone mad?

Would people in Haiti think us mad?

Maybe I'm just thick ...

Just returned from my weekly yoga class, and my whole body, from the tip of my  head to my toes is whispering thank you, thank you!

Why is it we often don't know what we are missing until we find it again?

I haven't been to yoga since before Ray's operation, almost 2 months.  Driving him around and with Christmas stuff to do I didn't put out enough effort to get to class.  But, as soon as we started into the stretches this morning my body sighed with recognition and joy and I realized then that this was what it had been needing.

Maybe I'm just thick, but it's the same with getting outside for a lovely long walk.  I look out the window and think "Nope, way too cold, takes too much effort", but if I shut my mind off, and force myself, it feels great to be striding out through the countryside breathing the crisp, cold air.

I don't think my brain is my best friend ...

Bye for now!

Season's tickets?

Now that we live in Canada's capital, and feeling very grateful for having all this culture on our doorstep, I purchased theatre season's tickets last fall for Ray and I to see 5 plays at the National Arts Centre.  (Ottawa has as many theatres as some cities have pubs and there are lots of choices, but we thought we'd start at the top and work our way down.)

Are season's tickets ever a good buy????

I'm struggling with that.  The pros are obvious.  Buy the tickets, save money (usually getting 5 plays, or more, for the price of 4), often get priority seats, you write the dates on the calendar, put the tickets in a safe place, and there you have it - a season of entertainment and you can then forget all about it until your designated theatre night.

However, the cons are beginning to surface for us.  First, you only save money if you actually attend all plays, and although most theatres allow you to swap nights, it often involves driving downtown to the box office and physically switching tickets for another date.  Sometimes you have a choice of plays, but in our case at the NAC it came as a package of 5, and you must be open-minded and take your chances that it will be something you will enjoy (or, as in some cases, at least understand!)

Which brings me to last night.

Ray and I attended out 3rd play of the season, it was called "Mother Courage and her Children".  It featured a woman during the 17th century pulling her cart and three grown children around Europe following the waring armies (either side, she wasn't fussy) selling everyday items and alcohol to the soldiers.  A tinker of sorts, but always profiting from the war.  Whilst set in the Thirty Years War, it is the story of war everywhere and at all times. It was stark, raw and bleak.  It was also very long!  The director used a modern stage setting consisting of six pianos which were occasionally played, but generally turned around and their backs provided stage divisions.  I spent a good part of the first half wondering about the piano's significance. (Why choose pianos?  Is it as a contrast to the harshness of war, since pianos often bring joy?)  I had to agree with one comment I overheard as we filed out for a much needed break during Intermission, "This is arduous!"  Indeed it was.  Many must have thought so, as the theatre (only half full to begin with) had an even smaller audience after Intermission.  We drove home after the play in a rather dour mood, trying to make sense of all the plays' symbols and wondering if we are stupid, or was the play just too obscure.  Whatever, it definitely was NOT one we'd freely pick.

Returning to the topic of season's tickets - we were not able to attend the 2nd play of the season because my husband had just had surgery, so gave the tickets to family members.  That leaves us with two plays left, (I have to admit that the first of the season was fabulous!!) 

Hmmm, are season's tickets ever worth it???

Bye for now ...

I've just been looking at some of the horrific photographs coming out of Haiti these days after the 7.0 earthquake stuck their poor already ravaged country.  So, I was feeling rather sober and not a little down, when I suddenly spied a headline which instantly lightened my mood - in fact it made me laugh my head off!!!

"PARENTHOOD LOWERS BLOOD PRESSURE: STUDY"

Now, I love the 3 children I gave life to as much as the next person does theirs ... but, did they lower my blood pressure??  What??  Is this a joke????  It HAD to be written by a man ...

So, wiping my eyes, I read on ...

"It is thought the fulfilment of children giving life meaning makes parents more content which has an effect on blood pressure, researchers from Brigham Young University in Utah said."

I kid you not, this is apparently a true study, printed in today's UK 'Telegraph'.  Now, don't misunderstand me, I wouldn't trade the experience of being a mother for anything, but, as someone once said: "Motherhood is not for Wimps!" (I think I still have some notelets somewhere from my 'young mum' days which showed a woman in boxing gear, complete with boxing gloves, standing in her toy/food/clothes strewn kitchen ... I used them for encouragement notes to my other 'stay-at-home-mum' friends)

Actually, I have been conducting my own unofficial study for many years now.  Basically, it involves reading the obituaries (isn't it funny how once your age starts getting 'up there' that page takes on more meaning?)  I note people are adding photographs more often these days, and that really helps with my study, because I search out the ones of elderly women, particularly those who still look good for their age.  Invariably I find a photograph of an aged, well-lined face but with a serene, confident (dare I say, smug??) smile, and upon checking I note the woman's age as being way up in the 90's, with NO mention of children!  But, instead, a long list of accomplishments and accolades collected throughout a long and very active life. So, my conclusions are that childless/husband-less women: a) live longer, b) keep their looks, and c) die with a smug ("I know something you don't know") smile on their face.

I accept that this is a totally unscientific study, and the Telegraph would never publish it ... but next time you read the paper, look in the Obituaries, and checkout the smug looking women who died in their 90's. I bet they were childless!

Now, if the headline had said:

"GRAND PARENTHOOD LOWERS BLOOD PRESSURE"

well, then I could totally understand it - because everyone knows that!  (They are our reward for having children! ;-)

Bye for now ...

I've just finished reading "The Boy in the Moon" ... wow, Ian Brown really writes a mean sentence!  I watch him on T.V.O. introducing The Human Edge and The View from Here and have always admired his brutal honesty and no-nonsense talk.  That's exactly how he writes about his profoundly disabled son, Walker, in this book.  From the first 10 pages in which Brown describes the incredibly complex and frustrating steps he must go through to get his boy a drink of warm milk and change his diaper during the night, he has you hooked.  You are with him ... you feel his frustrations, his worries, his joys, his fatigue, and also his incredible love for this child.

But, this is not simply a father/son love story.  The sub-title is "A Father's Search for his Disabled Son", and that is the real theme of the book.  Brown's search for the person inside, the boy behind the crying, the hitting, the feeding tube and the diapers that is his son. He asks, "Are you there Walker?  Do you know me? What is going on in your mind?"   And, we anguish with him as he watches constantly for signs beyond the simple clicks that father and son have developed as a type of communication.  Ian Brown allows us into his own mind, into his thoughts, feelings and fears ... his honesty is at times disarming, but I found I could not stop reading, even through my tears.

An extraordinary book, it opens a small window into daily living with a profoundly disabled child, and I guarantee it will make you reflect, weep, engage ... and, yes, even cheer.

Paula Todd  wrote an excellent review of this book in the 'Globe and Mail' and summed it up perfectly.  http://www.theglobeandmail.com/books/review-the-boy-in-the-moon-by-ian-brown/article1301478/

I'm back!

Hello again, it's been a while since I posted anything here. But, now that the winter winds are blowing outside, and the snow is piling up at the door (along with the rest of the world's doors, it seems) I have lots of extra time on my hands ... and there is nothing I like better than writing (after reading and gardening!)

Does anyone else have a problem remembering all the different security codes we need to use these days??? I'm extremely bad and do what I've been told I'm NOT to do, and use the same series of numbers and letters for just about everything (hackers/forgers etc. forget it, I have no money, so move onto someone else!) Anyway, we recently received a new credit card which has one of those ultra, super-duper security chips in it, so instead of just swiping I must now punch in yet another series of numbers to use it. My husband set it up, and for the life of me I cannot remember the numbers he chose! Apparently, writing them down and hiding them in my purse is a complete no-no, so, he gave me a verbal clue to remember them.

An hour ago I was out buying a rather delicious bottle of wine (my favourite kind of errand.) At the check-out I tentatively put my charge card in the machine, thought of the verbal clue hubby had provided me, and confidently punched in the required numbers. It told me I had made a mistake. So, I took my time and did it again, slowly - again I was reprimanded by the machine - wrong security code. It told me I had one last chance to get it right - seriously, the tiny machine actually chastised me!! (Luckily, the sales clerk was a lady of advanced years and unlimited patience, and had probably seen this many times, she smiled sympathetically at me.) The 3rd try was also rejected. Now, this was getting very embarrassing as I had no cash to pay for the wine. So, I reluctantly removed my card from the feisty little machine and replaced it with my debit card. As soon as I saw my debit card I realized what I had done - yup, I had punched in my debit card code for the charge card code. The sales clerk was as happy as I was when it was accepted and I high-tailed it out of there asap!!

Did I ever tell you how much I hate numbers??? I loath them, they make my head go dizzy, I can't remember them, they confuse me ... I even had to take my math GCE exam twice!!! (Thank heavens I'm married to an engineer!!)



Until next time, bye for now.