Bits and Bobs

Just a little of this and that today.

1. I have a new keyboard. I like it because it is backlit and the keys feel good, but some of you may have noticed that my comments to you have occasionally slipped to all caps. I am not a touch typist by any means, but this keyboard is laid out a bit differently, and somehow, when I think I am hitting the SHIFT key, I am in fact pressing CAPS LOCK. It's the same with the minus key on the numeric keyboard. I hit the lock key, just above it, instead, so I have to log back into my own computer, mid-sentence. eVIDentLY (oops) I have been typing more by memory or touch that I had thought.

2. I follow hockey, and my team gets a lot of press in French. While can often get the general gist of a short tweet, I would not try to read a full-length article. While Google Translate does a fine job, I do notice, however, that French writers use different idioms than we Anglos. While I notice them frequently, I have not been keeping  track, but here is one from yesterday: Not only did the Ducks go hunting with butter knives against the Canadian ... Of course, it means that the Anaheim Ducks didn't come properly equipped for battle on that evening. I like it.

3. Sue's prompt yesterday was to make a paper heart. Look what she came up with. She posted the second one to her group. Both are good. The red of the first suits the day more, but the orange of the second is vivid and dramatic. Well, done, my girl.

4. I made fettucine for Valentine supper last night. While I am not about to post the lengthy recipe, tuna and peas were part of the mix. I needed to use about 3 dozen dishes and pots to get everything sorted. I am sure that it drives Sue crazy. However, it was a somewhat unusual dish for us, so I am glad that I made the effort. I have seen on the grocery shelves that there is a pre-made, bottled fettucine sauce that I could purchase. Maybe I will give it a try some day, but I thought yesterday deserved the full treatment.

5. I will be meeting with the photo boys this morning. last time, Bob got confused and went on the wrong day, and then he didn't get there on the right day because he had the wrong time. We're none of us getting any younger, eh?

==== I had more, but I've cut for your benefit. ====
==== Perhaps, I'll continue, tomorrow. ====

Buried Deep Within

I was reading Vicki's blog, the one where she talks about taking drama lessons when she was young. She mentioned rehearsing some lines between Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning. Then, from the deep past, all of the way from high school in the mid-sixties, which is sixty years past, it hit me that we had studied a play about those two. I didn't remember the name. The Heiress came to mind, but I was sure that was another play. 

Suddenly, it burst forth from the deep and dank recesses of my brain: The Barrett's of Wimpole Street. Could that be correct? I didn't know for sure.

I checked with Google and found that it was more than a play but also a 1934 movie, based on the play, that was published four years earlier, in 1930.

In a sense one would wonder why we were studying a 1930 play in the mid-sixties, but then I realized that just about all that we studied then was old. For example: I remember Barchester Towers by Anthony Trollope, and there was Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. I have since taught high school English, but apart from The Bard, most of our stuff at least a little more current than that.

Just in writing the above, I now recall Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy. In 1966, My friend, Stuart, and I drove from the burbs to the big public library in Toronto one fine Saturday morning to do research for an essay on Tess that had been assigned by Miss McDonald. 

My memory is an odd thing, and I suppose everyone's is. These days, when I want a word, especially a name, I often go into stall mode and look a bit stupid. But here I am easily remembering Trollope, Bronte and Hardy, not to mention Wimpole Street, The Heiress and Tess, and Stuart, and Miss McDonald and the trip to the Toronto Public Library. Good grief.

There's a lot of trivia stored up there under my chrome dome, but I never know what it is until something triggers it. I need a nudge, like a question in Trivial Pursuit back in the 80s when people would wonder how I knew some obscure fact.  I have always needed a trigger, like a question, to unlock whatever minutiae is otherwise firmly locked inside.

While I require a nudge, Sue has more of an associative memory. She will somehow make a connection from what is being discussed to something else. Once she reveals the memory, I usually remember it too, but I would never have made the association that she did. Being a linear thinker is likely why, as discussed here recently, that Sudoku suits me much more than Connections, while the lateral thinking Sue, much prefers the latter.

Did this post unlock any old memories for you? What book did you study in grade 12 English? Who was your teacher? Does a certain event from that year spring to mind? What kind of thinker are you? Maybe you would even like to blog about it.

Clear Walking and the Baines Building

We have found an alternative for our walkies. It's a small part of the 200 km Ottawa Valley Recreation Trail along the old Canadian Pacific Railroad line. Outside of our town, most, if not all, of it is unpaved, but the section through our town is partly paved and fully paved over the bridge. On Sunday, the paved part was welcomely clear and very walkable.

The trail to the left with the derelict Baines Machine Shop in the centre, and the Little (Gillies) bridge on the right.
Doubtless, the old building will be refurbished into apartments at some future point.

I composed the Baines building to be the main subject of a sequence of photos. I know that I expressed some dissatisfaction with some of the the photos from my compact camera, but I am reasonably content with this lot. At least there is a definite subject, one that will not be very visible after the trees leaf-out. But that won't happen for awhile yet.

It's nice to have an alternative while the other trails are unfit for pedestrians. 

Forlorn February . . . along with Hope

Isn't this photo of Sue walking in the half-slush/half-ice in a dreary park on a dreary February day, just about the most forlorn sight possible? Relatively speaking, of course.

Look at the slushy but also icy path.

We had attached crampons to our boots, so we were physically able to walk the path, but it was a slog, and it was depressing. We didn't go much farther before we thought better of it. We turned about and went for a walk downtown on the clear sidewalks.

This has not been a typical February. I mean it is usually not half-and-half like this, neither winter nor spring. A regular winter is better. It's just no fun like this.

This is Eastern Ontario. If we were to drive just a little west and just a little south, we'd be in the Toronto region where all would be clear. It's odd how such a small distance puts us in a different climate zone. I don't much mind our longer, colder and snowier winters, but I am not liking this particular month too much. I suppose, however, that you may have, possibly, already gleaned this little fact from my recent and incessive whinging.

However . . . look at this ↓ bit of sweetness. 

Due to the otherwise miserable weather, it has been warm enough to cause a bit of a flow of sap, as posted by our favourite maple sugar camp. Although it won't last, it is a harbinger of the spring that is to come, and it does raise hope in our spirits. In another month or so, we will make our annual spring pilgrimage, and it will be a grand beginning to the next season. At that point, it will just be a beginning, but it will be a happy occurrence, nonetheless. 

Life Goes On

We're still trying to get out and about on an almost daily basis, but the footing has not been easy, and neither has the photography.

Following are two photos showing the walking conditions. The first is by downtown behind town hall, the second in our neighbourhood park. Temperatures have been above freezing during the past few days, so those little paths were a little bit mushy on top of the ice. They were still very tricky, however, particularly in the second photo.

I have been using my compact camera. It's not up to snuff compared to my big camera, but I have been determined to work with it because it fits in my coat pocket. Of course, the deplorable conditions haven't helped. As you can see, the second photo, below, goes with the first one, above. I can't be bothered to fiddle with placement.

The colour wasn't very good, so I flipped to b&w, but they're still not exactly stellar shots. One does what one can.

I did catch another sunset from the bedroom, but it wasn't nearly as glorious as the one that I showed a few days ago. It's okay, though.

Here is yet another sunset from another evening. It's been a good week for sunsets.

Before I post this, I am going to check to see what is on Sue's phone  . . . 

I don't usually make a fuss over dogs, but this guy had laid in the snow and was refusing to move for his human. When I started to talk to him, he found quite a surge of energy. I wish the photo showed his enthusiasm more because he was jumping deliriously. 

You have seen Sue on the slide previously, but that was my photo, and she wanted one on her phone for her project.

When I look back, I guess the the week was better than I had thought.

Responses

I don't usually respond directly to comments on my blog. If there is a question that requires a reply, I will usually either email or post on your blogs. That being the general case, I occasionally answer in my comment section too, but I don't think that anybody ever returns to check. 

But I have several questions or comments that I will reply to here.

Comment: It took me six months to heal completely. It involved a lot of exercises and heat! 

Me: Of course, this refers to my rotator cuff issue. It has been close to six months for me, and I have not made much progress. Many exercises seem to hurt more than help, so I now only do the gentle ones. I've given up on the elastic band, for example, and my therapist concurred.

Comment: Maybe you covered this, but why don't they just do surgery? Have you had cortisone shots directly into the joint? This sounds gruesome, but my experience was that it was not. 

Me: I was covered for ten physios, and I was lucky to get that. Doctors and hospitals are covered comprehensively, but ancillary services are hit and miss in terms of universal coverage although there are plenty available privately.

So yes, I will see my doctor again in the fulness of time and will ask about next steps. I have been waiting to see how therapy would go and then how I would fare after therapy was completed. The initial assessment was that this tear would not be amenable to surgery, but we'll have to see if that assessment still stands.

Comment: I really like fish and chips. When I was in British Columbia I saw some people dipping there fries/chips in apple cider vinegar. Do people do that there?

Me: I have never heard of that way to garnish fries. My personal choice is to add salt and to sprinkle plain white vinegar. I don't use ketchup or mayo. I think this is, or at least once was, the more British way, and I am only two generations removed. Three of my four grandparents immigrated from Britain, and I lived with one of them for awhile.

I leave with this photo by Sue.  Her theme one recent day was Pink.  She used a 50 year-old throw crocheted by her aunt for baby Shauna. I bought the bigger pink bear for Shauna when she was born. How sweet is that?

Off the Cuff

I should update you on my rotator cuff problem. My allotted time for free physio has come to an end. I could pursue more therapy privately, but I don't think it would be likely to help.

It has been two weeks since my last therapy session, and, at least I am doing better than I was after the two two-week gaps during my sessions. While I was having weekly therapy, we twice missed a week, and I did suffer more then than I have been lately. 

After the ten sessions my pain is not usually as acute as it was several months ago. I do still have a constant pain, or perhaps I should call it a background awareness* that something is amiss. I also get a lot of yips resulting in yelps when I move my arm too much and am reminded that not all is copacetic. 

I continue to sleep in my recliner with an over-sized pillow to support my arm when I want to sleep on my left side. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work, or at least not for long. Most of my sleep has to be on my right side which, oddly enough, is the injured side.

I am endeavouring to continue a few range-of-motion exercises once or twice per day, but, in accordance with my therapist's view, I have pretty well given up on the strengthening exercises as they seem to hurt more than help.

I will continue to monitor the situation but will probably revisit my doctor at some point to discuss the therapist's report and my ongoing predicament. Perhaps a cortisone shot might help sometime down the line. 

*There was something more than just ‘background awareness’ as I sat in my chair typing this post on my tablet. I am not sure why the discomfort ratchets up sometimes more than others.