The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 3,900 times in 2013. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 3 trips to carry that many people.
photo is of my Parker T-Ball Jotter collection, I somehow misplaced my favourite, the stainless steel version, ordered a new one and it arrived in time for Christmas, thank you, Amazon.ca.
see also http://www.parkerpen.com/en-US/jotter
Today is nearly the last day of the dialysis holiday schedule switcheroo. Normally I would be in dialysis this morning, instead I have a free day, tomorrow which is normally free will be a dialysis day and by Thursday all will be returned to “normal”. It was very strange going into the clinic the past two Sunday mornings. As a result the nurses, a few of the other patients, and I found that we had a very tenuous grip on what day of the week we happened to be habitating.
On a more serious note, three patients have developed chest line infections on two of the four shifts at PENETANG HOSPITAL where I go. Although this information is kept mostly private, I have never heard of this number in the past five years. Perhaps it is a common problem. But it makes me wonder if something is being done a little wrong at the clinic. I know the nurses are reviewing and muttering about the cleaning materials used, there are several and several problems with some of them, when they clean the dialysis machines. I hope I do not get a chest line infection. One of the patients who did, told me she had her chest line removed. Since she has a pacemaker, they were unable to put a chest line on the left side of her chest. So they ended up putting one in the back of her left hip. Knock wood.
It must be all the holiday fare ingested, but I have been having a series of unusually bizarre dreams, my own personal, new wave, surreal, mostly horror laced film festival. I look forward to returning to regular programming soon.
On the cultural front I am still trying to figure out the Christmas component of the Criminal Minds marathon this week that I lost my sister to. Murder, mayhem, mistletoe.
“ranches of isolation” is a phrase from a poem by W.H. Auden.
It seems to me that isolation is a large factor today. Larger and larger. Digital isolation replacing personal connections in a form of Alice in Wonderland twists. Many seniors are isolated.
In North America many people are living alone.
I remember when I got the news about my kidney disease. I realize more completely now that I considered my life was over. I made quite a few bad decisions after that moment. Choices small, medium, large, and ginormous. I tried to connect but I think I also held back in those moments. Fear is a drag and cuts the lift from your wings.
Now I have been given the word to expect a kidney transplant within a year. I have no live donor. It makes me pause to reflect that someone will have to die for me to gain that kidney. I have been told that my general state of health is good and that a kidney will allow me to return to full, normal life.
I am doing my best to prepare and adjust to this news.
100 miles north of Toronto just south of Georgian Bay, the east end of Lake Huron, in central Ontario, Tay Township and just near by to it, not far from where I live. A bit of freezing rain on the trees, we may just miss the larger freezing rain storm blasting through Southern Ontario over the next 24 hours.
Sony Nex F3 with 18-55mm lens
Today dialysis run was smooth. Seasonal joy took a dip when I along with the other patients was gifted with a rectal swab, checking for super bugs. Partway through the run a nasal swab. I am not especially aggressive by nature, but a nasal swab makes feel invaded and angry. I remarked to the nurse, “One more nostril and I may start swinging.” The snow started falling early in the run and carried on. When I drove home visibility was about 100 feet through Penetang and Midland and along Hwy 12 until Victoria Harbour where things cleared. I don’t think I got above 50kph in an 80kph zone. Very few cars on Hwy 12 at noontime.
Holy fahrenheit, this morning at 620 AM it was -23 Celsius with virtually no wind. Huge bright, fat moon hanging brightly in the sky as I took off in the car. Drove to Penetang for my regularly scheduled dialysis, more about that schedule in a moment. One hitch, I got the wrong disc from Season 1 of The Good Wife from the library on Saturday, one I had already viewed. Drat. Great series by the way.
The D run was smooth. Generally I have been feeling better and that has persisted. I have more energy.
I was asked yet again to switch my “fourth” run. Starting this Thursday I will be going in first thing in the morning not at noon time. This was to help out another patient who needed to change from the mornings.
Also for the next two weeks to accommodate Christmas Day and New Year’s Day, all the patients make mini-shifts. My main difference is going in first thing on the next two Sundays. Ho, Ho, HO.
smooth run, a moment of risk driving in this morning, lost control for a moment on the ramp from Hwy 12 to Hwy 93 but only for a moment, by the time I drove home, the wind stopped and bright if frozen sunshine. awkward moment when my gas cap cover did not want to open, but it was persuaded to let me refuel……feeling better this week.
taken by me today using a Sony NEX F3 with 18-55 lens
100 miles north of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, just south of Georgian Bay, the Sturgeon River
It is interesting to keep returning to the same spots through the four seasons. Today I noticed that with all the foliage down, I could now see from a slightly different position a view of the Sturgeon River, little more than creek sized, that during the full grown season was invisible. This section of the river was the water supply for a 17th century Huron village. A haunting spot.
Smooth run today. Sloppy drive in this morning, with rain and a lot of moisture flying around from passing cars and trucks. Temp was just above freezing. I was out of there by 1150am.
I read from my IBook file of Tracy Kidder‘s My Detachment, his Viet Nam service. I first encountered one of his books a long time ago, Soul of a New Machine, about the development of an early mini-computer. He is a great American writer or non-fiction.
Back for more dialysis tomorrow at 1215pm until 1630pm.
Friday morning dialysis from 715am to 1145am.
Then in the afternoon from 4-7 pm on Friday, the retirement party for Jamie Hunter after 29 years at the Huronia Museum in Midland, Ontario.
Two video clips interviewing Jamie Hunter on his early interest in history and his first day at the Huronia Museum:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zx0E-gpwkAw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPD8uqsQZAU
amateur videographer Bill Gibson, Huronia Museum volunteer
