A few days ago I decided to update my blogs with a new blog signature image to replace the old text based signature. What this meant was creating an image, adding it to the blog HTML then removing the existing signature. That is easier said than done as I know of no easy way to remove the existing signature other than manually. Now, consider I have 6 blogs I am making this change to which means six different images and manually opening each existing post to make the change. On this blog alone there are 1564 posts spanning 63 pages. That is a massive lot of work! At the same time I am adding labels, correcting spelling and adding alt tags where necessary so it is beyond a massive amount of behind the scenes blog tweaking. It is slow going and it is creating a considerable amount of eye strain because it is all coding that I'm going through. The end result will give a better reading experience but it is still a lot of work. So far, two of my blogs have been fully updated and I'm now working on this one. Three more to go and life will be good :)
Oh wow! I did not realize how much my posting here had dropped off. It wasn't intentional, it just sort of happened. Quite frankly, 2012 has been a bad blogging year for me all the way around. Part of that is due to moving here in September of 2011 then spending almost three months spanning three periods at our vacation home in the sunny south. Part of it is due to still unpacking and getting organized combined with necessary new house work. Part is due to do things like painting and dealing with woodworkers, plumbers and those type of things. Believe me they can eat up a week's worth of time in a blink of an eye. Part is due to significantly increasing my home canning to compensate for almost two years of reduced home canning. And part of it is due to sheer exhaustion from a serious injury, a husband hospitalized and life in general. The past year has really been a merry-go-round of chaos. Well, there you have it in a nutshell the reasons for the lack of posts.
It's not that I don't have blog fodder, it is I have too much blog fodder. I haven't even finished writing about our spring vacation to Florida and Aruba yet and here we are gearing up for our fall vacation to the sunny south.
Ok, time to get back into the blogging loop to have a strong finish for the third quarter of 2012. I have added a new signature image to replace the old text base one and am not working through manually removing the text based sig from older posts, correcting spelling and adding label. So there is a lot of behind the scene activity going on. Progress is being made!
This past week has been rather hectic between my husband being in the hospital, trips back and forth to the hospital, trying to work home canning around that and life in general. I am beyond exhausted but so very pleased that my husband was discharged from the hospital earlier this week and is well on the way to a full recovery! What a wonderful blessing! Oh, and I did manage to home can chili sauce and tomato stock while he was in the hospital. The past couple of days, I canned salsa and seafood sauce with more tomato stock to be canned today. It is a blessing to be able to stock our pantry with delicious, additive free, home canned foods!
Blog posts have been rather hit or miss on this blog lately. I'm working on changing that so you should see more regular posts for the last quarter of 2012. The biggest change is I have changed from a text based blog signature to an image based one. It will take me a day or two to remove all the old text based signatures from older posts. I think the image signature looks a bit classier. Quite some time ago, I was going to eliminated the Blog Your Blessings Sunday posts. Most of the original members of the meme have moved on and are no longer participating. However, it is a good way to remind me to stop and count my blessings so I will likely continue those Sunday posts. I'm working on a few other changes for this blog just to help get my blogging mojo back as well. Here's to a strong blogging end for 2012!
Despite living in the most populated region of Canada, many communities in southwestern Ontario are under serviced for doctors and many are having their small community hospitals dealing with severe cutbacks combined with threats of closure. Yes, Dalton McGuinty's government has not been very kind. Ours is one such community. Many here including my husband do not have a doctor. There is no walk-in clinic so our small local hospital's emergency room fills in the void. It's not ideal and wait times can be long, but it is better than nothing. Our hospital is facing the chopping block even though we are under serviced. Many services that were once performed at the hospital (eg. obstetrics, overnight and extended sick care) have been moved to the next largest hospital in the system. Our hospital has now become a 2 bed overnight and extended sick care, palliative care, emergency care and ambulatory care facility. The cafeteria offers a meal on Thursdays only but you can get a sandwich, salad or small entré from the vending machine as well as beverages. It now costs $4 per day to park there.
We try very hard not to abuse the emergency room services. I have used them for serious injuries requiring x-rays and my husband last used the ER for severe unexplained leg swelling later followed by an unexplained gastrointestinal infection though to have been contracted at one of the airports while traveling. Last Wednesday, we rushed him to the ER in severe and I do mean severe abdominal pain. After a blood work, a quick ultra sound, IV (morphine, anti-spasmotic, antibiotics, saline) they admitted him where he remains today. He has had amazing care! I have been able to be with him most of the time, driving only a rather short distance (less than 10 minutes) home for a short break and at night to sleep. They aren't sticklers about visiting hours which is really nice.
We are so very blessed to have such a wonderful hospital that was built by the community, for the community and that is a real asset to the community. It is too bad that Dalton McGuinty and his cronies want to take it away from us. Our hospital is a huge part of our community. It keeps our loved ones in the community, keeps members of our community employed, and strengthens our community by attracting industry. It provides medical care to an under serviced area that would easily see folks going without medical care if the hospital were closed. Our community needs our hospital!
Garden Gnome
©2006-2012
