h/t ICanHasCheezburger

Question: What do you get when you mix the infamous Serious Cat

with batshit crazy Scientologist Tom Cruise?  



(warning:  9 minutes long. view at your own barf/hairball threshold)

Like many people, I really wanted a horse when I was a child. I used to day dream about riding through meadows filled with wildflowers, running across streams and through forests. Our family, of course, couldn’t afford a horse, and I doubt they’d have gotten me one even if we had more money.

So my aspirations were quickly focused on horse-back riding lessons. Well, we really didn’t have the money for that, either. It’s hardly a cheap activity and requires considerable parental involvement, shuttling the rider to and from a stable each week. I did participate in a horse-back riding week-long summer camp two years in a row, but that wasn’t enough to really teach me how to ride.

One day, my family decided to go to a fair. It wasn’t a big fair, by any standards, but they had a number of fun rides, and cotton candy, and silly games, like whack-a-mole. I always felt sorry for the poor mole.

I thought there might be a pony ride at the fair. My hopes were raised when I heard another little girl say that she’d just gone riding. So I looked and looked, but didn’t see any ponies. I did, however, see a camel. With a child riding on its back.

And that’s how I came to ride on a camel. I think I’d have preferred a pony.

G’morning, all.

I watched a classic movie over the weekend – This is Spinal Tap. I hadn’t seen it in years and I was reminded of just how funny a movie it is. Christopher Guest and Michael McKean are hilarious together. So, I wanted to share one of my favorite scenes: Stonehenge.

Simon and Garfunkel II

At the Zoo

Simon and Garfunkel I

Sounds of Silence

My grandmother ended up on the Ortho floor when she got admitted. I think even though her initial problem was fatigue and respiratory difficulties that was the only bed open at the time. She was there for two weeks and frankly probably one of the more mentally alert and physically mobile people on the ward. Although the hospital was in was a bit old and cramped, it was clean and she got good care. I trained there as a nursing student and was astonished at how similar it still looked. The resident in charge of her care was a thoughtful and soft spoken young man who was initially a bit wary of me. I asked so many questions about tests and the plan of care he asked if I was an MD. I laughed, twenty years ago nobody would have asked a middled aged woman that question. He nicknamed my mother and I the “advocates” and when he came in to see my grandmother he asked if “the advocates” were coming in to visit. We were there every day and sometimes not at the same time as him. The local hospital system has a thorough program of assessing all elderly patients who are admitted with a goal of keeping them independent. That was why my mother was taken aback my the probing questions by the social worker upon admission. They did not suspect abuse as my mother feared but were just starting the protocol of team assessment. Health care in Canada is far from perfect, the care people receive in small towns and isolated areas is very spotty, small communities have a hard time attracting MDs, and there are wait lists for non-emergent procedures that are longer than in the US. But, my grandmother happens to live in a city with several hospitals, and the system despite flaws works quite well for ordinary people. Wealthy people or those who want special  VIP treatment tend to complain about it and claim they were forced to go to the US for treatment.

Talked to grandmother today and she sounds alright.

Well… enough rambling… I will show you a few more pictures from the glass exhibit.

On the way to visiting the hospital I took a detour to the RBG ( Royal Botanical Gardens) in the Hamilton-Burlington area to see a glass exhibit. My mother wasn’t interested initially but I heard her tell a friend on the phone how lovely it was. It wasn’t officially open but all the displays were up and we had a nice talk with the director/manager who was catching a quiet moment on a bench enjoying the hypnotically calm atmosphere of the indoor gardens. She told us that due to budget cuts, she had about half the staff she used to and every time they had a new exhibit, they wondered if they could even get it done. It made me realize that one of the unspoken necessities of urban life are public spaces where people can enjoy low cost or free entertainment/education with their family. When gardens, libraries, parks, and other “public spaces” disappear, we become less of a democracy, more of a lemming like consumer organism.

Here are a few pictures. All of the glass items were done by local artists….

When I was a university student on a budget, my then boyfriend and I often went to the outdoor portion of the local RBG gardens for a picnic. He was an artist  (painting,photography, graphic design)and I often acted as his “assistant” finding items that had visual appeal. It never occurred to me I might try and develop my own creative side at that time. I was more into local political activism and thinking I was going to help change the world.

Well, I got plenty of “winter driving” experience in since most days were built around going to the hospital. I had a particularly charming drive in a white out on slippery roads. I desperately wanted to find another car to follow and discovered that I was the pied piper leading a row of equally cautious cars.

It was a stressful visit but one full of learning experiences, in fact, I have not quite determined all of the lessons the universe decided to bestow upon me. My grandmother got discharged from the hospital the yesterday and we decided that until a suitable retirement/nursing home can be found we are going to get extra care to help her out in her apartment. She is not ill enough for a tradition long term care facility but clearly not quite able to manage on her own for much longer. I left feeling as worried about my mother who confessed that she felt very overwhelmed and was glad I came down just to help out and be a sounding board. Two of my old friends offered to check in on my grandmother on a regular basis. One friend surprised me by being very unavailable, she is resuming her art career and clearly saw me as a distraction. When I was younger, this would have angered or hurt me. I simply accepted that she chose not to see me and move on. Knowing I had an on line home full of kind people who were sending good vibes my way helped tremendously. It could have been much worse.

My aunt and uncle, who are very unstable, called demanding that we let grandmother move in with them. My grandmother rolled her eyes and said she would rather live in the worst nursing home on the planet. Three days later my uncle called again to announce that he was leaving my aunt and that he was drowning. My mother and I rolled our eyes.

I took some random shots of the area around my mother’s place with “ye old back up camera”, not my best stuff and I am firmly blaming the camera….

Oddly enough, it being winter in Southern Ontario, we had snow…

Long shot of my mother’s place from the road. We won’t even have the discussion about the fact that my 68 year old mother lives in an isolated rural area on 65 acres….

Pre-snow at my mother’s place….