Musings on a Small Life

The Furminator I ordered arrived in the mail yesterday. Thank you, Amazon.ca. for being super-speedy! Like so many other people, I've been skeptical that this really would make a significant difference, but holy cat hair, Batman , I sure had to eat my words last night. (I might have eaten some fur too, with all that was flying around.) Both boys like to be combed/brushed and I do it frequently and thought I was getting a lot of hair out. But wow, with just a few strokes of the Furmniator I got more hair out of both of them, more easily, than with any previous combing and brushing. I made sure to be very gentle and give them lots of praise, because it's not like the massage brush they love so much or even the fine-tooth plastic human comb they're used to. I can see why it's suggested that pets be "Furminated" only once or twice a week, not daily, high shedding season excepted. Bottom line: It was worth the purchase price, and if you don't...

It's been really busy at work this week, still lots on the go. I had several projects due at the end of June, plus that conference, and I'm not sure why I thought things would quiet down afterward. Now I have several more projects due at the end of July, but mercifully no more conferences.  :-) Yesterday's quote on SimpleReminders.com -- I so echo this. Update on my step-dad: He's still in hospital, recovering from the hip surgery. He shocked Mom the other day by calling out something very vulgar and un-Harry-like as she was leaving. It's the dementia, of course, because Harry always has been a very moral person, and never in a million years would say something like that. It was funny, really. I won't repeat what Mom said it was, though. The boys seem okay, though I found another (fatty?) lump on Derry, this time in his right armpit area. I'm having it checked on July 20th, as I know it's an area for lymph nodes. It's very mobile, and I ...

So I sent a top-level agenda out this afternoon, for a regular meeting tomorrow. I don't schedule the meetings, one of the top admin offices does, and I get the meeting tracking/attendee status from the assistant and then send out the agendas. (Don't ask why. It doesn't make any sense to me, either, but there you go.) Anyway, last week I spent considerable time calling the "tentatives" to find out if they'd be there (called their admin assistants, I mean), and so sent the agenda based on what they told me plus the meeting tracking. Well, it turns out that one dean is dialing in (teleconference) and another dean emailed me directly to say she'd be there (her admin assistant had told me she'd be away but the dean decided not to take the day off). So I revised the attendee list and sent the agenda out again...only to get a message from the CIO of another unit telling me HE'D be there too. He's marked under the "regrets" because he's...

I went to Lemoine Point yesterday, or "Lemony Point," as someone out in blog land used to put it. Entry via Rotary Park I didn't go far in, just through Rotary Park and then along the first part of one of the trails in the conservation area. There were lots of geese!          There were lots of ducks of all ages too.         I haven't been out there on my own in a very long time, partly because our region has such a  high concentration of tics and partly because of the ongoing back/hip/leg pain. So instead of putting unrealistic expectations on myself, to walk the perimeter of the area for a couple of hours, I opted to walk for an hour before turning back and heading for the bus stop. (It's about 1.5 kms into the conservation area from the nearest bus stop, therefore another 1.5 kms out. That's a guess based on knowing my own pace--moderate walk time per kilometer.) I did okay, better than I expecte...

Yesterday I read a post over at Layla Morgan Wilde's blog, Boomer Muse, on loving every #^&* word of your life . "What if we loved every fucking word of our life right now? Wretched. Shitty. Tiresome. Depressing. "Okay. "Confusing, overwhelming, nasty, scary. "Fine. "Heart-opening, tiny joy. Awe-inspiring wondrous. Soul-nourishing. Quixotic. Awful to awesome." I can't tell you how much this resonated with me. All sorts of negative words came to mind: Miserable, depressing, stuck, tiring, boring, lonely, frustrating, angry, angry, angry , ANGRY , screaming, hair-pulling...and on and on. And then I started to laugh and other words came to mind: absurd, silly, ridiculous, crazy, joyous. What else can you do but laugh at how truly ridiculous life is? I was talking with Mom yesterday afternoon...She'd been to get a haircut and a man the stylist knew well came in to get his hair cut. He has lung cancer from working with a...

Mom called at 6AM to tell me Harry had fallen yesterday afternoon and broken his left hip. (I was half-fearing, half-expecting that he'd had another stroke or died). Several years ago he'd fallen and broken his right hip (then a year later had fallen and cracked his pelvis), now it's his left hip. Oy. He's back in hospital, of course, awaiting surgery, has to come off some meds first (blood thinners, other). There's also something about an air pocket in his lung. Mom wasn't certain what that was about. The poor man can't catch a break. Sometimes it astonishes me how much the human body can take and still keep going. Anyway, I'm going to focus on healthy living for the rest of the day, and be grateful I'm still mobile. For those of you in Canada, happy Canada Day tomorrow, July 1st! (Image snagged from a Google search) Comments are off. I'm sure everyone is sick of reading about all the grim crap at my end, so at lea...

Well, the "fleas" next door still are there, which means it isn't looking good for a quiet, peaceful summer for me -- or for much-needed time off from work. Last year they were gone the day after school finished, but this year, if they are being packed off to grandma's, the parents are in no hurry to do so. Not that they still couldn't, but if they've not gone by Wednesday, our Canada Day holiday, I think I can give up any lingering kernel of hope. I'm looking ahead to the fall now, to take some time off then, though elementary and secondary school teachers will be in a strike position and work-to-rule and rotating strikes are likely, if not an all-out strike. I'll probably take a couple of extra days around the long weekend at the beginning of August, I'll take a day for Nicki's next vet trip, and I want to carry over 5 vacation days (the maximum amount) for the required trip east, whenever that will be. It's certainly not wh...

The artist  The art work I'm not quite sure how to interpret it. Is it Nicki's comment on the (over) consumerism of humans? A call to do more and better with regard to waste management, and specifically over-packaging? That's the difficulty (for me) with modern art, it can be so difficult to understand the artist's intent! The artist after working on his piece. Peace .

Spied recently.  :-)   Have a lovely weekend! Peace .

I want a button that says "I Survived CUPA 2015." I'm beyond exhausted, wish I had taken today and tomorrow off, as the other two on our planning "committee" did. Smart women. I'm considering asking for Friday after all, but if I do, it's with the knowledge that school now is out. (The fleas next door with their "charming" mother will be home.) All in all I think the conference went well. The event service at the Delta was lacking in the details (ran out of water on the tables Monday afternoon, had to ask for salt/pepper and butter for Tuesday's breakfast, ran out of napkins yesterday morning), but the food was good, and there was plenty of it. A few other things that came with our choice of venue, i.e. nothing is perfect. We had a fantastic meeting room, windows on three sides, and I took pics every chance I got. 83 snapshots in the following Picasa link: [Link removed] You'd think all I did was take snapshots of the ma...

Just a quick post to wish my Derry-Bear a very happy 8th birthday! (This is the date the shelter put on his papers as his b-day, but of course the real date isn't known.) If the image below looks familiar, it's because I've used it previously...beats me when...but I just don't have the time to do anything new right now. Somehow I don't think he'll mind.  :-) Anyway, a very happy birthday with lots of smooches to Derry; he'll forever be my "baby," even though he's a mature cat. Peace . P.S. I have a slew of pics to post at some point, I'm far behind what with this conference. Which, mercifully, is over at noon today. I need two days' sleep to catch up on my rest! LOL.

I saw a doctor today for my MRI test results. Not a resident, an overseeing doctor. My own overseeing doctor was off today, so I saw another--and wish she were my own doctor all the time, she was awesome! Nothing dire. "Mild facet osteoarthritis bilaterally at L3-4 and L4-5...At L5-S1 there is mild DDD and a small left paracentral disc extrusion which mildly narrows the lateral recess and focally contracts the traversing left S1 nerve root, without frank nerve root compression....Impression: Mild spondylotic changes, with a small disc herniation at L5-S1 with a mild mass effect on the left S1 nerve root. No significant spinal stenosis or other neural impairment." Bottom line: Normal wear and tear, with a small disc hernia that likely is the cause (from pressing on the nerve root) of the foot tingling. The doctor suggested chiropractic, which surprised me, given how a lot of MDs feel about chiropractors. Physio also would be an option, but it's physio that...

Harry goes to the care facility today, via ambulance. I hope it goes well, though expect it will be a tough adjustment after 43 years in the same house. Yesterday Mom and a friend took out some of his personal things, put up photos, etc. to make it homier. Fingers crossed. He doesn't understand why Mom can't care for him in their home anymore, but I suppose that's mostly the dementia. As for things at this end: I have brain-freeze when it comes to our conference next week. It's a good thing that it's a team effort, as others are far more on the ball regarding last minute details than I am. I'm just doing what I'm told at this point, I haven't an organized thought in my mind.  :-P So lovely to see the roses in bloom now.   Nicki had a coughing attack yesterday afternoon when I got home, from purring so vigorously. He had the same a couple (?) of weeks ago while being groomed with the massage brush--purred so hard he purred himself into an a...

Our area had a rare power outage last night, from about 8PM to 11PM. Turned out to be a problem with one of the underground cables--I read that on our utility company's public Facebook page. I have to say how unsettling it was, not being without light because I have enough LED candles and flashlights, but to be without background noise . Gone was the sound of my two air purifiers, my two white noise machines, my fridge and my TV, most of which run almost 24/7 (not the TV!). I actually found I couldn't settle down and sleep, it was too quiet. The "fleas" next door went out to play till it was too dark, then surprisingly they made very little noise after that. I drifted off to sleep for about an hour, then woke and lay in bed wondering how long my food would last in the fridge/freezer and worrying about trying to replace it all. So it was a huge relief to hear everything come back on just after 11PM and have the clock radio flashing. I got up to turn off/re...

There are too many choices when it comes to cell phone plans, be they prepaid (as mine is) or on contract. After going into the Telus store in the local mall, I came home and dithered for ages, then ended up just going for their basic add-on of 500 outgoing and unlimited incoming texts, plus 50 minutes of free local calling, at $15 plus tax per month. No data, at least not at this point. None of their prepaid/auto-renew plans has long distance, unfortunately. But at least I can send and receive texts Canada-wide and to the U.S. too. I don't need 500 outgoing texts per month, let alone international capability, but I wanted some voice coverage and this was the only way I could get it. And on the topic of "voice," I spoke with Mom a short time ago. She's found a private facility for Harry; he'll move there on Wednesday, from the hospital. The place is about 20 minutes outside of the city, in a quiet setting, rather like a lodge in the woods. Six or se...

Another mid-week, a third of the way through June already. My days are a blur. My life is a blur! Someone at work, not in our office, commented to me yesterday about how busy I am and that things must be stressful. I laughed and asked, "Why, does it show?" She replied that yes, it does.  Yikes. Apparently I need to do a better job of plastering a smile on my (exhausted) face. Anyway, I had a nice walk down along one of our waterfront parks on Sunday. I had assumed, heading down, that all the midge flies would be gone, but ugh, no, they still were swarming. I kept my mouth closed, took some pics, and didn't linger. Took off my cardigan once I got out of the park and shook it out, shook everything out. ::Shudder::  Snapped with the little Elph, so pic quality not good.                     I had my MRI yesterday (lower back). That was fun. Several of my co-workers have had at least one, so I...