Wordless Wednesday - The Shark Tank

The Shark Tank at Golden Nugget

May 15, 2011

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

Airport Security

We have had the great pleasure of flying recently.  That means if you are really interested you can see me nakkid if you hack into the airport security.  I'm told the images are short lived and I should not be glowing in the dark.  Since I'm sleeping in the dark I doubt I will notice any glowing anyway but so far I have grown fangs or anything strange although I have noticed a few more grey hairs and wrinkles.  I'm not sure if they are due to the x-ray machine or not but suspect they are because I was firm and fit before walking through that scanner ;)  I'm not kidding after raising kids and a long term marriage I still looked like a 19 year old.  Ok and if you buy that one I have a bridge for sale.  I swear I have full title on it!

Anyway, airport security has tightened up and that's a good thing in my books.  What I don't understand is some folks simply don't want to comply with airport security.  It boggles my mind!  The TSA says all liquids under 3 oz need to be in a clear plastic zipper bag otherwise discard it.  Which part of 3 oz don't these people understand and when they have to dump the item they complain to high heaven and yet the rules are clearly spelled out.  Then there are the idiots who can't understand the simple command "seat belts on when seated". Apparently that is some skin off their nose so they just don't have to wear their seat belts.  These very same people will use electronic devices when they aren't supposed to because they are 'special'.  The rules just don't apply to them.  I honestly would like to slap these folks and I'm not kidding.  They show a lack of respect for the airline and their inconsiderate actions takes the attention from the safety of the aircraft over to their self-centred nonsense.  Here's a flipping clue - if you don't want to conform to the rules of flying DON'T FLY!  Do everyone a favour and find another mode of transportation.

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

The Pigeon on Fremont Street

The Pigeon on Fremont Street

May 9, 2011

Walking down Fremont Street under the canopy in Las Vegas, I marveled at how much things had changed since our last visit.  The Plaza at the end of Fremont Street was closed and under construction.  A ride had been added near the other end allowing those brave enough to be suspended from a cable to ride along a portion of the canopy above the crowds.  Neonopolis on the east end of the canopy is virtually a ghost town.  All the little shops are closed up, the courtyard empty with the exception of transients.  The ideal of convincing families that Las Vegas is a great place for a family vacation appears to have disappeared.  The Golden Gate now has scantily clad dancers inside on mini stages between the tables and outside on the bar.  Wandering around Fremont Street are a multitude of the famous like Marilyn Monroe, Mike Myers and Michael Jackson.  Yours truly even had her picture taken with Beetlejuice!  Pigeons seemed to have full reign of the street, happily walking along with the tourists stopping to pick up whatever morsels they could.  A striking difference was the large number of transients and homeless on Fremont Street.

They provide a striking contrast to the merry making tourists.  In the past they had been strongly discouraged from loitering on Fremont Street with security pushing them to the side streets away from the canopy.  The reason for this was a combination of public safety and to prevent them from begging mainly to support their drug and alcohol addictions as well as solicitation.  There was a quiet form of begging as well as one organization asking for donations to help the homeless.  Blatant begging will draw attention of security who keep a rather close eye on the transients, always ready to move them away from the canopy.  The casinos on Fremont Street won't tolerate them inside at all.  When we first started going to Las Vegas I was shocked at the homelessness but now I have come to realize that this is a chosen lifestyle for many of them.

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

Blog Your blessing Sunday - Resilience

I have to admit when I first started out on line over 20 years ago I was a newbie.  I let things bother me and I took things to heart.  Fast forward to now and I'm a seasoned online user in several mediums.  I've been a member of a particular online group for a number of years.   One particular member has decided to make me his punching bag.  Now the beauty of any troll type messages as long as you don't respond they have no idea if their comments ever hit the mark.  A couple of days ago, he decided to send yet another nasty message off list of course so I decided I had had enough.  If you are going to make a response, make it big so I did.  I honestly could never have survived what I have without developing a bit of resilience.  If some nameless person thinks they are going to be able to take me down by bombarding me with nasty emails all I can say is good luck.  It's not going to happen because I have a very well developed resilience that serves me quite nicely.  Resilience is a blessing!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

Blogger Outage

My apologies.  Due to the recent Blogger outage, you have likely seen a few strange things going on with the blog.  All posts made after Wednesday, May 11 at 7:37 AM were temporarily removed due to a Blogger maintenance issue.  They were slowly being restored this morning so by now all should be back to normal.  In the meantime you may have seen a post then the post was missing then it reappeared.  Normal posting on this blog will resume as soon as the Blogger platform becomes stable again which I suspect will not be long.  Blogger never goes down for this length of time so I'm sure it has been as frustrating for them as it has been for bloggers. At any rate it looks like things are starting to work properly so we shall see...

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

A Bit Off Track

I am a bit off track with blogging so need to get my blogging mojo back.  It's time to find a bit of blog fodder for this blog to get the posts going again.  Now where shall I look?  I have a couple of ideas.  Perhaps there will be a couple of good emails to share from my email file.  Oh and the telemarketers also provide a bit of comic relief. Off to find blog fodder...

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

Blog Your Blessings Sunday - Mother's Day

Today is Mother's Day so first off to all the Moms out there Happy Mother's Day.  Oh gosh, today is one of those bittersweet days.  My biological Mom died shortly after I was born and my foster Mom in 1989.  For some reason I am extremely nostalgic this year.  I would love for my Mom, the one who gave birth to me to see what I have become.  I'd love to hear her voice.  I never heard it that I can remember so I wonder if I sound like her.   I know I look like her side but I wonder about the manerisms I have even though I've been told I'm so much like her.   I'd love her to see that despite everything, I'm ok. I'd love her to get to know the beautiful little grandchildren who have come into our lives, her great grandchildren.    I'm sure she is looking down from above and seeing all is well perhaps putting in a helping hand from time to time.  I tell you we can always use a helping hand from and angel above.

Right now though I am really missing the Mom who raised me.  This Mom taught me all the values and gave me the skills to survive all of what life can toss my way.  She taught me to laugh, stay strong in the face of adversity and never give up.  She taught me that the world can be mean and cruel, sometimes you have to be an ornery bitch at times but for the most part the world is a wonderful and loving place to be, to embrace the good and tolerate the bad if need be.  She taught me that failure is not an option, a B instead of an A is never an option and performance at the drop of a hat is key.  Perfection ruled!  Hugs were not the norm but that twinkle in her eyes said all I needed.  There have been days that oh my God, I never thought I could get through but I somehow did (RIP GMT 1960-1995) and it is because of this Mom that I was able to.  I am a stronger person because of this Mom and oh my gosh, I miss her so very, very much!  If I could have just one day back to share with her...just one day....I love you so much Mom.

Now I would be very remise in the uncharactistic sentimental blog post to not mention my mother-in-law.  I don't think she really liked me all that much at first but hey I took away her oldest while knowing nothing about being a wife.  She became in every meaning of the word my Mom.   Other folks talk about how they don't like their MIL but I liked mine.  I respected her, her opinions and her values.  She taught me how to cook the dishes her son now my husband loved so much.  She taught me the basics of canning.  She was there for us and continued to support us no matter what and I'm sure we did a few things she did not approve of but she was never judgemental.  I would love to have her see our kids now, one who is the spitting image of her and the grandkids, her greatgrandkids.  She seriously would get such a hoot of of the grandkids.  I can see her up there in heaven chuckling at their antics!  Actually it wouldn't be a chuckle it would be an all out heartly laugh enjoying them to their fullest the very way she lived her life. 

I proudly wear my tulips for all three Moms today.

In memorium DBL 1941-1961
In memorium HMR 1903-1989
In memorium MAV 1938-1989

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

Today's Shopping Experience

I broke down to go shopping today.  Goodness, I hate shopping and I forgot it would be busy with the last minute Mother's Day shoppers.  The reason behind the shopping trip was our One:One single cup coffee maker is leaking profusely.  This small appliance is a must have given the entertaining we do.  I can brew one cup of fresh coffee rather than a full pot in the percolator and the taste is so much nicer than instant.  So I was off shopping, stopping first at Walmart where it was a toss-up between a Tassimo, lower end Keurig or a Hamilton Beach.  A couple of our kids give two thumbs up for the Keurig so trusting their judgement I mosied over to Canadian Tire.  They too had the lower end Keurig that isn't programmable.  I figure if I'm going to buy one I might as well get some rather handy features on it.  With no success at Walmart or Canadian Tire I headed home to check online.  Jeesh I wish I had thought of that before heading out ;)  I found the recommended Keurig at Future Shop so headed there where I promptly dropped $200, thanked them very much and was on my way back home.  I am now sitting sipping on a lovely fresh brewed coffee recouping from my very traumatic shopping day.  Hopefully none of the other small appliances decide to quite on me...oh wait we already know the food processor has issues and is only partly usable [sigh].  Apparently at some point I will have to repeat the horrid shopping experience.

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

A Couple of Thoughts on Marriage

My husband and I have a unique marriage based on respect but unlike those who quip they never fight we do.  Oh gosh, we've had a few dilly fights because I have a temper.  However there are some topics while we may discuss on the surface just are not up for discussion in our married life.  They are religion, politics and personal decisions regarding health care.  It's not that we don't agree or that we do it is just that these topics are not ones up for discussion to the point because they evoke very strong emotions that could cause a more than nasty fight.  We learned a long time ago that we were not going to change each other's minds on these topics so not delving into the details manages to keep peace in the household.

Just imagine being a fly on our wall over the last five weeks with the upcoming, forced election.  My gosh, talk about fight fodder!  Yet the only thing said in our home during the entire five weeks related to the election was "Where are the voter's cards?"  That's it!  There wasn't even so much a a comment in passing as we drove to the polling station or on the way to eat out after.  Nada, nothing a testimony to the respect we share for each other  as a couple :)

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

Is Osama bin Laden Dead

My gosh, within a couple minutes of the tweets on Twitter announcing Osama bin Laden's death well before Obama gave an official announcement the conspiracy therorists were in full gear.  The real question right now is Osama bin Laden dead?  The reality is there is evidence on both sides.  There is even evidence the evil one died shortly after 9/11.  The DNA evidence at best is scant by using markers from Osama's sister.  Now if it were his mother or father that might be a different story.  The fact that Obama will not release the pictures of Osama's corpse speaks of a couple of issues and the one they are purporting is the images coulud incite anti-US violence.  But there have been almost nothing so far to date as far as anti-US demonstrations.  In fairness even if they did show images of the corpse it could easily be a bogus picture achieved via Photoshop.  Someone with an average knowledge of using Photoshop could easily doctor a picture of Osama to include whatever they wanted including horns if they so chose so this isn't a real Eistein thing.  One could speculate the US is not releasing the images because the images don't exist in the first place.  Once could question as to why the news of Osama bin Laden's death was masterminded to be on May 1 the same day as Hitler's death and one could even go further as to question why his death was released on the heels of Donald Trumps accusation that Obama is not a full fledged American.  To give credit to the consipiracy theorists there is more than ample ammunition as to whether things happened as the US is reporting.

Some things the US is reporting just don't jive.  Apparently they found all this information on Osama's computers and yet there was no internet connection?  Ok, so perhaps they were passing information all via flash drives and CDs.  Now that is possible but not as practical as it sounds.  The US says the burial was at sea taking into account Muslim burial traditions.  Hello!  The guy was responsible for hundreds of death so how on earth does his burial fall under Muslim traditions?  Let's just say this evil one was entitled to a religious burial, one officer who claims to have been there said on air that there is no way they would have honoured a religious burial for Osama. 

Adding to the conspiracy theory is the US has announced that Osama bin Laden was not armed when they claimed to have killed him.  Fake photos have already been circulating.  There has been absolutely no chatter on the terrorist network since the claimed killing.  It is as if the terrorist knew Osama either died long agon or is still alive but either way they are not fizzed about the new events.  Then there is that nice little comment that Osama was dead but his death would not be announced until it was politically beneficial.  Oh I don't know, announcing you killed public enemy number one in the midst of political controversy as to whether the president really is American, kind of takes away from the citizenship issue, doesn't it.  I'm just saying!  Something is not adding up here and quite frankly the evidence is leaning heavily towards the conspiracy theorists at the moment.

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

Wordless Wednesday - Old Glory

Old Glory

April 10, 2011

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

Peace on Earth is an Oxymoron

On the heels of Osama Bin Laden's death Sunday evening there were many voicing their sentiments that finally there could be peace.  These folks as good as their intentions are are sadly deluding themselves.  There has never in the history of the world been peace on earth and quite frankly given human nature there never will be.  War and violence started with the beginning of mankind and it will continue until the end of mankind.  My gosh some are forgetting the Holy Wars and how many battles have been fought over religion.  How many lives have been lost because of religion?  Canada was founded based on war as was pretty much every country in the world.  So the reality is peace on earth is an oxymoron.  It's a nice sentiment but a myth.

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

Osama Bin Laden

Last night I was finishing up a bit of online activity when the news of Osama Bin Laden's death started trickling down through Twitter.  I immediately turned on the new to see if it was true.  It didn't matter that I was exhausted I had to see this breaking news.  I watched the press release last night and have been watching the news all day today.  Unlike some I will not be dancing in the streets over the death of another but I can't say I'm disappointed in the news of his death either.  War is war.  Bin Laden as the leader of Al Qaeda was responsible for so many deaths.  There is no doubt that he was every bit as evil as Aldolf Hitler.  It's ironic that his death came on Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) further binding his association with Hitler for eternity.  I am glad Osama Bin Laden was buried at sea.  This measure will prevent any land site becoming a shrine to such an evil being. 

The sad thing is Osama Bin Laden's death will not bring back the innocent lives lost through his reign of terror nor will it ease the pain of those who lost loved ones via his hand.  I sincerely hope on some level that his death will bring some closure to those victims of 9/11.  There is already talk of his of his death being avenged.  I'm hoping this prediction will not come to pass.  There has been enough bloodshed and loss of innocent lives. 

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

Blog our blessings Sunday - Secrets

I swear a pinkie in my eye...or whatever oath you shall give to swear your unwavering stance to keep a secret.  I have one of the best secrets ever but I swore the sacred oath so I can't divulge just yet.  Now, there are only two of us in this whole wide world that know the secret and neither one of us are telling.  Isn't it great to have such blind trust and faith in another that the secret will remain just between the two? 

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

End of April Already!

My gosh, here it is the last day of April already!  Where does the time go?  The worst of the weather is over or should be and yet we had snow in April.  Last night the temperatures dropped to close to freezing.  The boat came down so is ready to use but we'd need snowsuits.  We've been rather busy with a fair amount of excitement that has helped the time pass.  I have a couple of secrets that I will share later but for now things are interesting to say the least.  In my spare time I've been decluttering ever hopeful the house will finally sell.  As a diversion I've been playing CityVille and FrontierVille on Facebook.  It's a toss up which one I like the most but what is really nice is our kids are playing both games too so we have a bit of extra daily interaction.  I really enjoy that!  Honestly though, April went by in the blink of an eye. 

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

Wordless Wednesday - Decorating the Driveway

Decorating the Driveway

April 24, 2011

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

Change is in the Air

Change is in the air!  It's all around us, swirling in a sparkling, golden, tantalizing glow.  I can feel it in my bones and on my skin with the sweet kisses of the sun's rays.  We are supposed to have rather rainy weather this week but soon, very soon we will be enjoying nicer weather. 

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

Spring Notice

[from my email files and oh so true this year]
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 INSTALLING SPRING...
 ███████████████░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░

44% DONE.

Install delayed....please wait.
Installation failed. Please try again. 404 error: Season not found.
Season "Spring" cannot be located. The season you are looking for might have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable. Please try again.
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Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

Blog Your Blessings Sunday - Happy Easter

It has been a very busy but pleasant Easter weekend here.  The kids and grandkids were here yesterday and part of today.  What an absolute treasure the little ones are!  The weather wasn't ideal but it was dry enough the grandkids could play with the sidewalk chalk.  After everyone left, I sat on the dock for awhile soaking in a few rays of sun.  Gosh, it was just a gorgeous weekend!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

A Pissy Mood Adverted

I was up bright and early at 5 AM this morning but in a very foul pissy mood.  The reason I was in a pissy mood is because I went to bed in a pissy mood.  The reason I went to bed in a pissy mood all relates to comment spam on my blogs.  I work hard to put out good content on a regular basis.  I pay to advertise my blogs so when a member from one of the blog advertising networks that I pay money to decides to spam my blogs I more than get pissy.  I talked with one of our kids last night, formulated a game plan as to how to deal with the situation then acted.  That did not stop me from being in a pissy mood.

Here's the thing.  This is Easter weekend and three of the most gorgeous grandkids will be visiting us today.  I don't have time for a pissy mood, thank-you very much.  As you may know I play CityVille on Facebook.  So in my pissiness with coffee in hand I sat down to check my city.  All of a sudden I was in tears of laughter!  Here one of our kids went on, set me a bunch of stuff and is going hog wild on a game that was not quite to their liking but that appears to have changed.  I'm seriously busting myself laughing at the antics!  This one has always been able to make me laugh and good gosh what perfect timing!  And let the Easter celebrations begin.  Oh and to add to the fun our traditional Easter dinner is ham, scallop potatoes, and the fixings.  By request this year today we are having homemade pizza with the grandkids topping their own slice.  What the heck :)  We will have our traditional Easter dinner tomorrow night but for tonight we shall party hardy with the grandkids leading the way!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

I'm Not a Shopper

Yesterday I had to go shopping for a couple of items to fill the grandkids' Easter baskets.  Normally I would get my husband to pick something up but he is extremely busy so I broke down and went myself.  I am not a shopper by any stretch of the imagination at least by normal standards.  You would never catch me wandering aimlessly through a mall for something to do.   In fact I hate just about everything related to shopping.  I hate the deer-in-the-headlight look of other shoppers, bright lights, chemical smells, the usually horrid music, the noise upon more noise, the blatant consumerism and spending money.  The very fact that I had to shop amidst the hustle and bustle of other Easter present shoppers was almost enough to send me into a panic!

I will however, go out of my way to shop at an antique shop or flea market.  Farmers' markets and farm stands are one of my favourite places to shop.  I love the beautiful colours and the tantalizing aroma of fresh produce.  I even love going to the mushroom farm where it is cool in the heat of summer with a unique musty, earthy smell.  While I wouldn't dream of paying $10 for some cheap do-dad in a department store I wouldn't even hesitate to spend the same on some food item that caught my attention.  I love shopping in quaint little, Mom & Pop stores like the old fashioned hardware store we found on one of our travels.  It had the squeaky wood floors, items arranged in wooden compartments atop counters and an amazing wooden ladder that moved across one wall to get items stored in the upper level.  The whole store couldn't have been much more than 1,000 square feet!  I could spend hours shopping for plants, breathing in the wonderful smells while enjoying their beauty imagining where I could tuck that plant into my garden.  So the shopping experience that most envision is not for me but that's ok.

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

Wordless Wednesday - BBC Jade

BBC Jade

April 14, 2011

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

Restlessness

The general theme for my mood has been an unexplained restlessness since about mid-February.  Perhaps the long, drawn out winter with considerably more days spent indoors is the explanation, somewhat like cabin fever.  The endless days of everything being dull and grey certainly are not helping matters!  Perhaps it is the stress of the house being on the market for so long, antsy to get things settled back into a normal routine.  There's no doubt about it that keeping the house ready to show on short notice has affected my cooking style.  Cooking has always been one of my major stress reducers so not being able to cook what I want, when I want for fear of lingering cooking odours or just bad timing is not sitting well with me at all.  I've even reduced the amount of off-season canning in anticipation of moving since empty jars are easier to move than filled ones and I don't have to worry about being in the middle of canning something if there's an opportunity to show the house.  The restlessness and lack of concentration are affecting my blogging to the point of just coming up with a topic is like pulling teeth.  Ah well, this too shall pass...

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

Oh Mother Nature...I'd Like a Word With You

Morning Snow

April 18, 2011

Is this some kind of joke?  This morning we had almost two inches of snow on the ground.  What the heck is that all about?  April is more than half over and the boat will be in the water a week from today.  This is not funny, Mother Nature!  Our furnace has been off for a little over a week and there is no way I'm putting it back on.  I did break down and put the gas fireplace on while shutting off all rooms not being used.  I put on my long johns too because I am not putting that furnace back on.  And what about my poor spring bulbs just about ready to burst into bloom while those in bloom are fighting back the blanket of snow.  Then the robin does not look over pleased with the snow either.  I have more than had it with the snow this year.  It's time for Old Man Winter to clear out once and for all!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

Blog Your Blessing Sunday - Good Quality Food

Even as newlyweds back when our finances were stretched well beyond ever possibly being able to splurge on anything, the one thing we refused to do was skimp on food.   Good quality food has always been one aspect of life that we as a couple have focused on.  Food really is much more than physical nourishment! 

We have the very good fortune of living in beautiful Ontario, Canada where good food is plentiful.  Farm stands and orchards are within easy access so we aren't forced to have to buy produce in the grocery stores unless desired or out of season.  We buy our beef and pork directly from farmers we have known for years.  Our honey and maple syrup come directly from the beekeepers and sugar bush.  We eat a lot of locally caught fish mainly perch, pickerel and bass.  In fact, it would not be difficult for us to eat foods grown within the magic 100 mile radius of home.  There are salt mines, several cheese factories, grain mills, a multitude of wineries, mushroom farms, microbreweries, distillery, and just coming in under the 100 mile mark at 98.5 miles a sugar plant for processing sugar beets grown in Ontario.  Aside of a few seasonings like cinnamon, some nuts, rices, some fruits, teas and coffees we could easily eat within a 100 mile radius of our home.  What an absolutely amazing thing that is to be able to say!  It boggles the mind to think of how very lucky we are to be surrounded by and have easy access to such high quality, locally grown and produced foods.

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

Bone Chilly to the Cold Bone

Time has a way of marching on bringing new signs of aging each day.  The cold bothers both of us more than it used to.  We tend to hibernate indoors out of the cold as much as possible during the winter months.  Our winter vacation is spent in the sunny south out of Old Man Winter's grasp for the most part.  My biggest problem is getting a chill to my feet or wrists that goes right to the bone resulting in a dull, burning, achy sensation for several hours.  Unfortunately our below grade kitchen floor is ceramic tile, just the perfect antagonist to keeping feet warm and toasty.  Even in the midst of summer the lower level floors are cold.  Ah well, spring is here so at least things are warming up outside so we will be able to get a bit more without dealing with the effects of the cold.

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

Wordless Wednesday - A Misty Journey

A Misty Journey

April 3, 2011

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

Can Verses Can't

There have been more than a few rough spots in my life and quite frankly some of them were so rough I never though I would get through them and they still leave a very vivid impression that affects my life daily.  It's funny though when the going gets tough I've always been that buck it and get it in gear type of gal.  If someone tells me I can't I will find a way to turn it into a can. 

Today more and more folks are facing the out fall of hard economic times.  I hear about it through comments left on my blogs, through newgroups and other forums and in real life conversations.  I am still surprised at how often that can't comes up.  It seems to me that some will use any excuse possible to not help themselves.  I'm sorry but you come into this world not by your choice but how you live your life is entirely your choice.  You can choose to help yourself any dog gone time you desire.  If you don't like something, change it.  If you don't like a person in your life, get rid of them.  If you are having finacial difficulties or problems putting food on the table then learn ways to solve those problems for good.  I'm not kidding!  Learn the skills it takes to become self sufficient and toss the can't right out the window!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

Blog Your Blessing Sunday - Sleep

I am likely one of the worst sleepers there ever was.  On a good night I may actually sleep a full two hours at a time.  In fact if I sleep more than that it is a sure sign I'm sick.  Well, with my leg injury sleep became more of a challenge.  You see I do not sleep well on my back, I need to be on my side in almost a foetal position.  Then I change back and forth through the night in the allergy shuffle.  With my injury I had no choice but to sleep on my back with my leg elevated.  It has been pure misery with me now in a constant state of sleep deprivation.  My eyes have the biggest saddle bags ever that when combined with my allergiy shiners, well lets just say I won't be in a beauty pagent anytime soon.

This past week I found with the use of a pillow for support I can sleep on my right side.  The left side still is a no go because I can't get pressure on my leg even with a pillow.  I woke with a start Wednesday after sleeping soundly for a good four hours!  Oh my gosh, that just shows how exhausted I really am.  Being able to sleep on my side again just makes things right.  I can't do the allergy shuffle just yet but I'm sure it won't be long now.   I am just so happy to be able to be sleeping on my side again.  What a blessing to get back into my normal sleeping habit!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

A Wee Little Glitch

The Boats

April 7, 2011

Since being laid up I have become rather fond of CityVille and FrontierVille on Facebook.  Yes I know it is not the best way to spend my time but I like both and they give me a bit of linear thought so that isn't a bad thing.  I have what I think a rather awesome city in CityVille.  Every single time I go there to check I end up moving stuff around and doing a bit of tweaking.  Hey, it's just one of those things I can do in the wee hours of the morning when I can't sleep.  Anyway on Aril 6 I noticed a bit of an oddity with boats going up and down my one street.  I knew I hadn't done anything to cause this but figured by the next reset of which Zynga seems to require a lot of, the problem would be gone.  Nope.  The following day the strange boats going along the roadways was the norm.  I even took a couple of videos because in a bizarre way was this was a hoot.  And so there you go, my humour is coming out even with an online game.  I should say what the hell since Zynga changed the rules of the game so I'm not a happy camper but this was funny!
on
Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

Don't Pump Gas on April,15th 2011

[from my email files - This is a worthy boycott that may make a difference. If you can avoid buying gas on April 15, please support the cause.]

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Subject: don't pump gas on April,15th 2011

What the heck, I'll go do it! If running low, just get your gas the day before on April 14 or the day after on April 16. Every little bit helps

In April 1997, there was a "gas out" conducted nationwide in protest of gas prices. Gasoline prices dropped 30 cents a gallon overnight.

On April 15th 2011, all Internet users are to not go to a gas station in protest of high gas prices. Gas is now over $1.20 a liter in most places.

If all users did not go to the pump on the 15th, it would take $2,292,000,000.00 (that's almost 3 BILLION) out of the oil companies pockets for just one day, so please do not go to the gas station on April 15th and let's try to put a dent in the Middle Eastern oil industry for at least one day.

If you agree (which I can't see why you wouldn't) resend this to all your contact list. With it saying, "Don't pump gas on April 15th"

-----
Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

Foggy Mornings

Fog Over the Water

April 3, 2011

My gosh, my two least favourite months are November and March because they are transitional weather months.  April usually is filled with rain mixed with beautiful bright bursts of sunshine.  So far this year April has been nothing like April.  We've had snow, freezing rain, heavy slush, rain and cold temperatures.  The sun has peeked out only a couple of times and then for very brief periods.  The days are still dull and grey with foggy mornings that cause poor driving conditions and school bus delays.  The only cheery highlights are the return of the robins and crocuses poking their way through the ground.  I don't know about anyone else but I think it is time for Old Man Winter to skidaddle!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

Wordless Wednesday - Evening's Promise

Evening's Promise

March 30, 2011

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

Leg Update

Thanks to everyone who has asked how I am doing.  I was going to post a picture on today's post of what my leg looked like shortly after the injury back in February.   I decided against it because even I can't believe how horrible it looked.  So on to today's leg update.  The haemotoma is still quite large with bruising around it for a nice colour effect.  The pretty shades of red, purple and green come and go thanks to the arnica cream that is helping with the bruising.  Much of the swelling is around my ankle and foot, making it painful for wearing shoes and walking.  There is still pain at the site of the injury with the bulk of it coming from the bone itself.   I am able to get around the house quite nicely although kneeling is still a no go.  I've been out to the doctor's, done a bit of very brief shopping (about 15 minutes at a time) and visited the kids/grandkids over the weekend where I did a lot of sitting.  Other than thak I think the healing is progressing as fast as possible without any further complications.

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

Oh Goodness!

Apparently in the excitement of the day or lack there of I forgot to write a post for today.  Nothing really exciting happened today.  In fact it was blistfully quiet and uneventful.  We spent a good portion of the weekend visiting our kids and grandkids which meant a lot of traveling.  On the way home last night we ran into some rather nasty road conditions with thick slush and freezing rain.  It was sure nice to arrive safe and sound at the house.  By 3 AM when my husband got up to go into the office the weather had turned milder with just wet roads and by the time I got up at 6 AM the snow patches were gone.  It was a dull grey, rainy day but at least mild temperatures.  Winter sure does not want to move along this year.  Like many I'm tired of it, looking forward instead to nicer weather.  Soon, very soon...

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

Blog Your Blessing Sunday - Birthdays!

Over the weekend we were blessed in sharing the birthdays of two very special little sweethearts.  I'm telling you kids are a true blessing then they give you grandkids that are just the icing on the cake.  Being able to enjoy your grandkids is one of the greatest blessings their is! Oh what an absolutely gorgeous way to spend a bit of quality time...

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

The First Quarter of 2011

My gosh, where does time go?  The first quarter of 2011 has ended, not so much as a lamb but not really a roaring lion either.  The cold is hanging on and snow is still threatening.  Like many, I will be glad to see the last of winter's chilly grip.  The first three months of 2011 has been an eventful one for us.  We were at our vacation home in the sunny south for the first week of 2011 then is was back to trying to sell our house while maintaining our daily routine.  Despite several showings there still hasn't been an offer on the house so we won't be renewing the contract when it expires in a week.  We experienced above average snowfalls with many a day of treacherous road conditions but thankfully none of our loved ones came to any harm.  In mid-February I suffered a leg injury that kept me off my feet for two full weeks followed by painful hobbling for most of March.  Here it is April 2 and my leg still looks horrid but I'm able to get around better. 

I'm not sure how much of an influence my injury had on my mood but emotionally this has likely been the worst three months of my life in quite some time.  I suppose the endless grey days combined with being housebound hasn't helped but I'm a homebody anyway so being at home doesn't really bother me.  Not being able to cook for an extended period of time definitely adversely affected my mood.  What really has affected it though is the long, drawn out winter.  It's time for nice weather now.  Let's go Mother Nature, get rid of the snow and bring us a nice spring so I can get out in the garden!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

My New Spouse

My New Spouse

March 31, 2011

That's right folks...yours truly has a brand new spouse!  Lo and behold when I refreshed FrontierVille there he was.  I didn't ask for a new spouse because quite frankly I'm rather pleased with the old one.  Besides it has taken me over thirty years to train the old spouse to be the perfect spouse that he is.  The new spouse has a few issues.  First, he just showed up declaring we were married.  Hmm, sounds a bit fishy if you ask me.  Second, I either slept through the wedding because I was exhausted from tending crops and animals, rescuing sick animals, fending off bears and other wild critters, building buildings, and visiting neighbouring farms or the new spouse simply omitted that little bit of legality.  Well since the new spouse is here I've decided to make the best of sticky situation.

Now the new spouse does have a few perks in that I get to choose his wardrobe.  Unlike my old spouse the new spouse will not be wearing Hawaiian shirts, short or sandals 365 days of the year!  The new spouse is appropriately attired for work on the homestead.  The new spouse will not be enjoying golfing, going to hockey games, playing darts, hosting game nights, boating or traveling because he will be working on the homestead.  And here is where we have had our first marital discourse.  New spouse likes to hang out in the mint patch watching me do all the work like tilling, planting, hammering, clearing and looking after the animals.  He just stands there doing nothing!  I suspect he moseys over to visit Hank at the General Store when I'm not looking.  Hank is another suspicious character that just stands there watching me work.  The new spouse does nothing!  Honestly now, I am just a tad too old to be training another spouse.  He arrived yesterday so it isn't an April Fool's joke either.  Goodness, I think I'm going to have to get that still going on the homestead ;)

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

My Apologies

I had yesterday's Wordless Wednesday blog post ready and pre-scheduled to go live at 7:00 AM as per normal.  For some reason Blogger did not post as it was scheduled which has happened a couple of times in the past.  I usually make it a point to check in the morning to be sure all scheduled posts actually were posted but life got in the way yesterday.  Thank goodness this is a only a minor glitch that happens on the rare occasion.  At any rate yesterday's post is now live.  I'm really sorry as I know many look forward to the Wordless Wednesday posts.

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

Wordless Wednesday - On the Wall

On the Wall

March 23, 2011

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

Butter Fingers

Butter Fingers

March 27, 2011

We have a small twenty-inch wide counter between the refrigerator and stove.  It is my coffee and tea making station with the upper cabinet holding my collection of teas, coffees, hot chocolate and the breadbox.  The area is home to the espresso maker, the only kitchen appliance other than my KitchenAid stand mixer to stay on the counters.  Tucked on the side by the refrigerator, I have a small glass butter dish.  The electric tea kettle sits just in front of the espresso make when in use but otherwise it is put away. 

I have been on an herbal tea kick the last couple of weeks or so.  I put an empty herbal tea box in front of the butter dish closer to the edge of the counter to put any of the tea wrappings as some of the herbal tea bags are individually wrapped.  Somehow and I'm not sure how but suspect the house gnomes were having a wee bit of St. Paddy's fun the box and butter dish got switched around with the butter dish closest to the edge of the counter.  Well you can guess what happened as evidenced from the mess pictured.  Most of my kitchen food storage is glass so occasionally breakage it to be expected.  I was a bit ticked that there was about a quarter of a pound of butter wasted.  However, I was very thankful the thick glass bowl did not hit my foot.  It landed about an inch from my foot on my injured leg!  My foot is already swollen and painful from the drainage in my leg so having the butter dish fall on it would not have been a good thing. 

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

Online Social Games

I've played a lot of games over the year.  For the most part aside of slots, most games are social at some level.  As previously mentioned I recently started playing FrontierVille and CityVille on Facebook.  These are social games in that to get the maximum enjoyment from them you need neighbours, lots and lots of neighbours.  Hundreds and gazillions of neighbours.  Each game has a multitude of quests to complete for various rewards.  For example completing some quests in CityVille rewards you with businesses you can't buy.   In order to complete these quests you need neighbours to bug the snot out of requesting various items from them.  If they send you an item they get something back in return.  Adding to the neighbour issue is certain parts of the game can only be unlocked if you have X number of neighbours.  Well that is just fine and dandy if you are the social type interested in giving a gazillion people you don't know access to your Facebook wall.

I'm on Twitter so have a lot of followers that I don't personally know.  I choose to keep Facebook private and intimate limiting access to those people I have an actual relationship with aka family and friends.  Call me anti-social but I want to keep Facebook that way without adding a lot of people I don't know.  Unfortunately that means I won't be able to finish some quests but that's ok.  The neighbours I have on both games are friends and family. 

In pondering my dilemma, I went to Zynga's forums to see what others are doing about this situation.  Apparently many are not happy they have to keep asking friends to click for gifts and few are happy at having to have a lot of neighbours.  So I'm going to do like many of them, enjoy the games for what they are knowing there are some quests I can't complete.  Oh well!  I've managed to get a few items from the forums which is a nice surprise.  I will likely buy a few credits to complete some of things that having neighbours would do but I have no intentions of spending more than $10 in a month.  It's cheap entertainment for the time being.

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

Blog Your Blessings Sunday - Hanging Tough

All in all it was a somewhat good but stressful week once again.  External stressors were the focus of my husband's week with them coming to a climax late in the week so hopefully that is the end of that matter.  He's working long hours right now so really doesn't need that kind of hassle from such juvenile folks.  I went to my doctor's mid-week for another check-up on my leg.  The hematoma is still quite large with swelling and bruising now settling around my ankle and bottom of my foot.  According to her it wil be quite some time before the lump fully dissolves.  Isn't that special but the good news is I am able to get around the house so I'm a happy camper.  We had the hassle of showing the house a couple of times this week.  I'm seriously gritting my teeth waiting for the current real estate contract to expire!  Honestly, I would hate to see our real estate agent use good old fashioned, face-to-face communication.   The real theme of the week was hanging tough...and this to shall pass.  That simple mantra was a blessing this past week.

Garden Gnome

Oh My!

The month or so has been rather out of sorts.  There's the leg injury that is still ongoing and the disruption of the house being on the market.  There's blogger's block and yet plenty of blog fodder.  There's getting the private blog up and running for renting out our vacation home.  Then there is the itch of spring fever setting in to be squashed by snow spells.  And now on top of everything there is political unrest in Canada.  And so it goes...

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

The Ongoing Saga of Selling Our House

Our house has now been on the market for the better part of the past year.  It was briefly off the market last September/October for about 3 weeks but other than that we've been at the potential buyers' beck and call.  Let me tell you it is getting very old!  We showed the house yesterday and again today.  It's rather ironic that there haven't been very many showings over the past couple of months but with the contract drawing to an end with this real estate company, all of a sudden they are pushing it?  The should have been pushing it harder earlier as we have no intentions of extending the contract.  If there is no offer by the time the contract expires, that's it.  We will take it private and sell it ourselves.  I've had it up to my eyeballs with fickle real estate agents!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

The Persistent Telemarketer

Over the past two month, actually since arriving home from our winter vacation on January 9th, we have had the great pleasure of receiving two to three calls daily from 1-855-422-0416.  After the first couple of calls I Googled to find that the number was indeed a telemarketer who had got our phone number from CAA.  Well isn't that just special!  See we are on Canada's National Do Not Call Registry which is about the biggest farce the CRTC has come up with yet.  For a government agency that is suppose to protect the rights of consumers the get a big FAIL.  In reality what happens is the CRTC sells the list to telemarketers who are supposed to add your number to their do not call list, and perhaps some do.  But then those telemarketers turn around and sell that list to other telemarketers to recoup their costs so you get bombarded with calls from the second telemarketer.  Now that we have established the CRTC are nothing but a bunch of total nincompoops and for so many more reasons than just the do not call registry, onto our current persistent telemarketer.

We bought a new phone system in November of 2009.  It has all the onboard features that you would have to pay for from your telephone provider.  The only thing needed to make them work is subscribing to your telephone provider's Caller ID.  When I add a phone number to my blocked caller list on our phone, if that number calls again it rings once for the Caller ID to recognize it then disconnects the caller and shows on the caller list as an arrow with a line through it rather than just the arrow for calls that are not blocked.  A log is kept of these calls as well so I can easily check to see if a blocked number keeps calling in the event a complaint needs to be filed. 

Since January this number has called two to three times a day except for Sundays.  Now either it is one very dimwitted who can't get it through that one brain cell that obviously we are using some type of block so they will never get through to us or they are using some type of autodialer.  I thought the CRTC said no autodialers but it's not like they will do anything about it.  Today after two calls I used *67 to call the number.  It is the EMS Contact Centre for Comperaction or something like that calling us with a very interesting offer and they will call us back again according to their message.  Let's see the 62 plus calls they have made here since January 10 that have been automatically disconnected by our phone system is not clue enough we are not interested?  Honestly, how dumb are these people?

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

Wordless Wednesday - Shimmering Sheets of Ice

Shimmering Sheets of Ice

February 10, 2011

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

Gnome Empire

Gnome Empire

March 21, 2011

I have had a lot of down time with my leg injury so along with FrontierVille, I also discovered CityVille, FarmVille, Cafe World, and Mafia Wars.  I'm quite active in both FrontierVille and CityVille as those are the two I enjoy the most.  At any rate I was surprised I enjoyed CityVille so much.  The premise is you build the city of your dreams.  That includes community buildings, housing, decorations, and commerce.  To supply goods for commerces you need to grow crops as well as bring goods in via shipping and rail.  Expansions are possible with each expansion cost more and requiring more permits that can be given by friends or purchased.  That's one thing about Zynga games is all of them have an option to purchase the currency (eg. horseshoes in FrontierVille, city dollars in CityVille) or you can wait and let the currency build as you move up levels, earning one currency per level.  I have spent $10 on the game which is considerably less than what I would spend at a casino or even buying a video game and I can play it 24/7 if I want.  The thing is you don't have to buy credits if you don't want to.  The more neighbours you have the more you can hire for positions in your community buildings rather than paying for the position but you do need the community buildings as they determine your population cap.

Pictured is my city, Gnome Empire as it looked yesterday morning.  The look changes on a daily basis as I twaek and expand.  My city has a population cap of 1840 with 1170 as the current population so I can still add more housing.  As you can see I have expanded quite a bit.  My next expansion will cost me 43,000 (coins not city dollars) and  9 permits or 9 city dollars.  I have 6 permits so far and am hoping some of my friends send me more.  Yesterday I added the shipping piers to my newest expansion.  I'm finding that this game has a bit of finesse to it.  It is not as easy as plucking down buildings and hoping for the best.  Of all the Zynga games this is likely the one I will continue playing on a regular basis.

I have encountered one problem with the gam and that is loading my friends and neighbours.  The game simply refuses to do that even though they load fine for the other Zynga games so it is a problem specific to the game itself.  As a result I can't hire my friends or send gifts to them from the free gift section.  I contacted customer service who is working on the problem.  Other than that I really like the game!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

A Splash of Red

A Splash of Red

March 19, 2011

My husband knows I don't like the dull, grey days of March so he tends to do little things to cheer me up.  A couple of days ago he brought home a bouquet of red tulips.  They weren't fully opened yet.  I put them in my standard mason jar vase then set them in the kitchen.  By next morning the tulips had opened putting on a bright, showy and cheerful display of red.  Aren't they lovely?

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

Blog Your Blessings Sunday - Humour Trumps in a Stressful Week

The past week has been a rather stressful one here.  My husband is currently working 16 to 18 hour days and due to a couple of external issues apart from home and office life, his stress level has reached a new high level interfering with what little sleep he is getting.  My leg is still in the healing process.  After a month, I expected things to be cleared right up but it wasn't meant to be.  We went out to a fish fry with friends Friday.  They were shocked to see how nasty my leg still looks!  I'm getting behind in things I want to do like paint our bedroom and get some canning done but I still can't do that so it's adding to my stress and frustration.  Despite the stress, we have managed to find a few moments to share a bit of laughter.  Honestly, anytime you can laugh is a good time but laughing in the face of adversity is one of the best coping mechanisms there is.  Keeping that sense of humour goes a long way when having to deal with unpleasant people and issues as well.  This week our sense of humour served us well.  What a blessing it was to be able to laugh a little!

Garden Gnome
©2009-2011

Spring Thaw

Log in the Water

March 17, 2011

The weather has turned milder which has been quite welcomed after what seems like a long winter.  While we didn't have any really bitter cold like we normally do, we had a lot of snowfall.  The snow came in a series of rather nasty storms that brought accumulations of 15 to 25 cm at a time with high winds resulting drifting and blowing snow.  As a result the driving conditions were quite hazardous on numerous occasions. 

The milder weather has brought ice down from the lakes.  Along with the ice is other debris, mainly logs and brush.  There has been a fair amount of run-off from the spring thaw as well.  The nice thing is we have been heating mainly with our gas fireplace that keeps the living level warm enough so that the furnace doesn't kick on.  I will be so glad when we can turn both the furnace and gas fireplace off!  Our heating bills are more than reasonable coming in about the third of the average for our area but we are very energy conscious and have done a lot of winterizing so it is to be expected they would be less.  Oh and I saw my first robin of the season too!  At any rate, spring is on the way...

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

Pots of Gold!

FrontierVille Pots of Gold

March 18, 2011

During the first two weeks of my leg injury where my mobility was greatly reduced, I started getting involved in Facebook.  There I discovered a game called FrontierVille and while that has led me to also playing CityVille and FarmVille, FrontierVille is my favourite.  On March 16 the leprechauns came to FrontierVille in celebration of St. Patrick's Day.  They were to replace that pesky groundhog but what I didn't realize is you had to have finished the find a spouse mission and plant certain crops (10 clover, 15 potatoes, 20 cabbage) for the leprechauns to appear.  I was a bit disappointed as I haven't finished that mission yet.  Then when I was feeding some of the animals a collectable appeared for the St. Patrick's Day Collection.  You need to collect a penny whistle, pint glass, shamrock, hurly stick and celtic harpWithin a short time I had collected enough of the various collectables for this collect so traded in for my first pot of gold!  The pot of gold is just the packaging though.  Inside each pot of gold can hold goodies like: green waterfall, green fountain, leprechaun statue, festive table, or keg of green liquid.  I haven't opened mine yet but will likely when I'm finished playing tonight.

By evening I had 4 pots of gold but then all Zynga games went down so I wasn't able to play further.  This morning I finally got FrontierVille to load and quickly traded in another collection for a pot of gold.  I'm having a hard time getting FrontierVille to load right now so there are some ongoing issues that need fixing.  Hopefully they get things fixed soon!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

Happy St. Patrick's Day

May the road rise to meet you,

May the wind be always at your back,

May the sun shine warm upon your face,

The rains fall soft upon your fields and,

Until we meet again,

May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

Wordless Wednesday - Give Me Five

Give Me Five

December 24, 2010

Garden Gnome

Leg Update

Thank-you to all who have asked how I'm doing.  It's been three and a half weeks since I injured my leg.  A week ago Monday I was able to start hobbling about without crutches.  I saw my doctor last week who said if I kept doing what I was doing the healing should continue all be it slow.  It is still rather ugly looking and despite the length of time rather painful especially after periods of sitting or when first getting up in the morning.  The swelling has increased so I am back to elevating and resting a bit more.  It seems like the healing is taking a little detour at the moment.  Hopefully, things settle back down!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

My Husband's Fries

All Stacked Up

March 11, 2011

My husband and I have been married over thirty years.  While we compliment each other nicely we are about as opposite as you can get except when it comes to the important values of family, friends, honesty and integrity.  It's funny that each of us have our own stress relievers and sometimes they result in a lot of laughter.  After all laugher itself is a stress reliever so when an action that is a stress reliever results in laughter, well you just can't get better than that!

My husband is under a lot of stress right now but unless you knew him like I do, you would not even guess it.  Friday nights were always take-out or family pizza night but we became empty nesters we went back to fish on Fridays with either take-out or eating out at our favourite English style pub.  Recently we have been eating in on Friday nights.  The fare is usually pan fried perch and pickerel or sometimes cod with fresh cut French fries and so it was this past Friday night.  As Coronation Street was finishing up I looked at my husband's plate then burst into a fit of laughter.  I don't even think he realized what he was doing but here he had stacked up all his fries log style!  At any rate we both got a good belly laugh, one of the best stress relievers there ever was!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

Blog Your Blessings Sunday - Dodging Bullets

This past week has been one filled with many blessings.  We've had two horrid winter storms which during one of them we were entertaining.  Everyone from that event got home safe and sound despite the horrible driving conditions.  Later in the week another storm hit very much like the first but a bit later in the evening.  My husband managed to still get into the office the following morning even though the roads had not been plowed.  The snow was quite thick and drifting making for treacherous driving conditions.  Early in the week, I saw my doctor for a follow-up on my leg injury.  I was quite thankful for clear, dry roads combined with rather mild temperatures that day.  She is keeping a close eye on it so I will be making a few more trips there but the best news is surgery isn't required barring any further complications.  She warned me the healing process is going to be slow going so while I won't be dancing a jig any time soon, I am up and about.  I was reminded what a miraculous machine the human body is, well capable of healing itself if given half a chance!  I had been house bound for seventeen days so getting out into the fresh air felt good as well.  What a great week it was all the way around!

Garden Gnome

The Hundred-Year Lie

The Hundred-Year Lie

March 12, 2011

I have a rather extensive book collection that at some point would like to use one room in our home as a library.  We shall see if that is possible in our next house if we ever get this house sold.  The vast majority of the books in my collection are non-fiction.  I've never been much into fictional literary works so my book collection reflects that.  Like many books in my collection, I am re-reading The Hundred-Year Lie by Randal Fitzgerald.  This is a documentary style account of how food and medicine are destroying our health.

Over the past couple of weeks while nursing the worst of my injury, I had ample time to ponder the pharmaceutical aspect of this book.  Let's face facts.  In North America we have an abundance of over the counter drugs for everything imaginable, many of them pain relief oriented.  Heaven forbid if we feel any pain, our body's natural signal that there is something wrong!  We seriously numb every single little pain right down to a mosquito bite!  When our kids were teething, they got a wet wash cloth to chew on and unless spiking a fever, that's it.  Fast forward to our grandkids teething and they are given medication to stop any pain.  I really fear this is a negative thing though.  Kids have gone through teething since the beginning of mankind.  A mother's loving arms to sooth a teething baby seems to me the better choice than medications.  The problem is the pharmaceutical companies have brainwashed us into believing pain is bad. It isn't.  Pain serves a specific purpose.

It is not in the best interests of the pharmaceutical companies to cure any disease with their drugs.  If they cure the disease they lose a market for their high priced drugs aka they lose money.  Have you ever noticed that some of these drugs actually do a lot more damage than good?  I'm sorry but if getting a bit of pain relief from symptom X is going to cause me to go cross-eyed, bald, walk pigeon-toed and cluck around like a chicken then that drug regardless of any benefit cannot be good for the human body.  The worst part is the doctors as in those who took an oath to do no harm buy into the pharmaceutical hype by prescribing drugs to their patients that ARE going to do harm on some level.  Think back on the drug thalidomide given to pregnant women for nausea.  My gosh those children affected by the terrible side effects of thalidomide have paid a huge price.  Have we learned nothing?  No!  On a personal level one drug I was taking for asthma results in decreased bone density and another one increased risk for depression and suicide along with a myriad of other side effects.  I upped my dosage of Vitamin C and D then gave both drugs the boot.

There is no doubt the pharmaceutical companies are killing us.  How much we buy into their propaganda is up to us though.  There are a lot of ways of dealing with illnesses, diseases, and minor discomforts without resorting to these powerful drugs that are doing more harm than good!

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

Electronic Word Finder

WordFinder™ 220 

March 10, 2011

The other day I was clearing my desk a bit.  Anyone who knows me knows my desk is always organized chaos.  I know where everything is even though it may not look like it to others.  I have a basket of goodies left over from my university days that I use mainly for my genealogy research.  These include things like micro cassettes for recording interviews and making verbal notes for myself, my PDA, corrector tape, floppy discs and my WordFinder™ 220.  I have had the WordFinder™ 220 for years and years, acquired shortly after starting my fourteen year academic career.  By today's standards this single use spell checker and thesaurus is a dinosaur but it still an excellent performer.  It even has a jumble feature for those puzzles where the letters in the word are scrambled.  Just type in the scrambled letters and it will suggest the word.  So there you have one of my relics from the past still in use today :)

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

November and March

As long as I can remember I have always disliked the months of November and March.  Both are weather transition months aka 61 days of icky weather.  The weather tends to be damp, dull, grey and lack luster.  There's mud, muck, sloppy walking and driving conditions, and fog.  Outdoor photo opportunities are few and far between.  There's no holidays to look forward to other than March break for school age children but no holidays in November.  There's Remembrance Day on November 11^th, as somber of a day as is the entire month.  There's St. Patrick's Day on March 17^th that even copious amounts of green beer can't make March seem cheerier.  The only thing going for either month is I tend to make a lot of homemade soups and stews served with fresh home baked breads.   

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

Wordless Wednesday - Lazing in the Sun

Lazing in the Sun

December 22, 2010

Garden Gnome

Injury Update

Sorry for today's delayed post but I had good reason.  I went to my doctor's to have my leg checked.  After a full 16 days on crutches, I was able to put pressure on my leg enough to slowly hobble around yesterday.  That has resulted in more bruising from the hematoma drainingThe good news is if I continue with what I'm doing (rest, icing, elevation, arnica cream, high dose Vitamin C) the healing should continue.   She measured the hematoma at 4 cm so will be keeping an eye on how it progresses.  I have see her in two weeks as she is off next week but have strict orders that if there are any negative changes before she sees me again to go to emerg.   The two main concerns is compartment syndrom and clotting at the back of my leg.  I am rather pleased with today's results so well I won't be dancing a jig or even going for a walk anytime soon, I'm off the crutches enabling me to putter about the house :)

Garden Gnome
©2006-2011

The Snow Drift

Snow Drift

March 6, 2011

Last Saturday afternoon the weather turned nasty with high winds, heavy blowing snow, freezing rain and very slippery road conditions.  The following day,  I noticed a rather interesting snow drift outside our family room window just off the lower patio.  The sun caught it in just the right light so I had to take advantage of this gorgeous photo opportunity.  I think it is quite pretty with the shadow play!

Garden Gnome
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