Through The Mist Darkly

As I sit around trying to heal, an old friend decided to pay me a visit.  My gout which has been rather quiet lately has flared up in the left foot.

Gout, or metabolic arthritis, is a congenital disorder that causes a buildup of uric acid in the blood.  The acid creates little crystals that act like knives in the joints.  Excruciating pain. 

The good news is that the surgery seems to be healing up nicely.  I have no pain and can sleep comfortably.  Lots of liquid plus anti-inflammatory tablets on the menu now to get rid of the pain in my foot and I should be good to go soon.

We were treated to a total eclipse of the moon this morning.  Unfortunately, I’m still not feeling up to to climbing the local ski hill to catch totality before moonset.  This is the best shot I could get from the backyard.

re-cu-per-ate Pronunciation[ri-koo-puh-reyt, -kyoo-] 

to recover from sickness or exhaustion; regain health or strength.

I think this word requires another definition:

to completely lose one’s mind by being confined in a situation that causes time to crawl.

Over a week since my surgery and I’m going to go mental.  I was a bad boy on Friday and pushed my self further than I should have.  Consequently, I’ve spent the last 2 days lying in a recliner and watching TV.  Guess what? – there’s nothing on!!

The incision is not closing up as fast as I’d hoped and I think we’re still dealing with a little bit of the infection.  It’s off to the family doctor this afternoon for confirmation.  For me to sit still would constitute cruel and unusual punishment.  “Resting” for 16 hours a day followed by bad sleep for the remaining 8 is not my idea of fun.

On the other hand, an appendectomy is a hell of a diet plan.  11 pounds and counting!

Thanks to Dictionary.Com for the official definition.

Telstar Logistics: China Airlines Repaints Its Toasted 737, Translates “Chutzpah” into Chinese 

A day after a China Airlines 737 burst into flames at Okinawa airport, officials dispatched a crew to paint over the airline’s name and logo.

Before and after:

With their horrible safety record, the corporate images guys and gals probably thought that the sight of the burned hulk proudly showing the company colors might put a little dent in sales.

At this moment, we should be whale watching on a boat off the shore of Cape Breton Island.  Instead, I’m sitting in the basement grimacing in pain and writing this post.  What went wrong?

Friday night, we went out to meet friends and have a few drinks to celebrate the start of our vacation.  Picked up some take out food and went back home so we could be ready to do all the packing on Saturday in preparation for the flight to Halifax on Sunday.  Instead, I came down feeling all upset tummy and pain in my lower abdomen.  Set off for the emergency ward at 5:30am Saturday.  Spent all day being shunted around for test after test while I started to feel worse and worse.  Around 11pm the diagnosis came out – acute appendicitis.   The little bugger was about to pop so it was straight off to surgery.

Woke up in recovery a few hours later with two nurses yelling at me to breathe.  Breathe, I didn’t even know what planet I was on.  They tortured me for an hour more before I was trundled off to the post-recovery ward.  I was there until this morning when they finally sprung me free.

The surgeon told me that the entire wasted piece of flesh was filled with gangrene and could have popped at any time so I guess it’s a good thing that I went in when I did.  I still have a bad infection and they’ve loaded me up with antibiotics that follow the IV they were pumping into me.  The only thing I don’t get to bring home (besides the scummy appendix) is the morphine I got on demand.  That’s one hell of a drug boys and girls and I don’t think the Tylenol is going to get me through the next few days quite as well.

But, what the hell.  I’m walking (sort of).  I’m eating (like a bird).  Hats off to the surgeons, staff and especially the nurses at the William Osler Health Center in Brampton.  It may sound a little melodramatic but, based on how badly I was infected, you saved my life.

Only one week of work left before we start our vacation.  Can’t wait!

Just to make things sweeter, I have to spend part of this weekend performing a system upgrade that’s keeping me locked up in the basement looking at a green screen.  This morning I got out for a while and took a walk through the farmers’ market in downtown Brampton.

Fresh fruit, flowers and vegetables abound.  These sunflowers were for sale by one of the vendors.

Arrived back late last night after our short trip to Naugatuck Connecticut.  Not a bad trip at all.

Yesterday, the meetings broke up early and we still had about 6 hours to kill before the flight.  Took a ride down to Mystic to visit the seaport museum.  I’d heard of the place before and saw this as a perfect opportunity.  The weather was fine and the car’s GPS unit got us there and back without incident.  Took a few pictures with the small camera that I still need to download and clean up before I post them over at Flickr but here’s a teaser. I’ve now uploaded to Flickr, just click the picture to see the rest.

Pictured here is the Charles W. Morgan berthed on the Mystic river.  It’s the last surviving wooden whaler.  More to come.

A gorgeous Saturday in August was a perfect time to head up to the Edenvale Aerodrome near Stayner Ontario for the annual “Gathering of the Classics”.

Some old and not so old aircraft were flying in and out.  The sound of a mid 30′s reciprocating engine is a thing of beauty.  Tiger Moths, Stearmans and Piper Cubs were in attendance and I went a little wild with 2 cameras.

The entire set of pictures are available at Flickr.

Where???  Naugatuck Connecticut is a sleepy little burg about an hour from the capital of Hartford.  It just happens that the US head office of the division I work for is located there.  We fly out early Tuesday morning and come back late Thursday night.

Naugatuck was first settled in the early 1700′s.  Charles Goodyear discovered the process of the vulcanization of rubber in 1839.  If the “Nauga” sounds vaguely familiar, it’s because Naugahyde was once made there.

Today, it’s the home of the Peter Paul division of Hershey Foods.  Peter Paul makes Almond Joy and Mounds candy bars.  Other than that,  not much in the way of a claim to fame.  Rubber production dwindled out in the 1980′s and Naugatuck today is more of bedroom community for New Haven and Fairfield County.

The trip will include my first flights in and out of Hartford’s Bradley International Airport since early this decade.  Air Canada Jazz handles the route with their old Dash 8 -100 series and it will be a treat to fly the airplane again as I’m looking at doing some work on the original cockpit mock-up that we have at the museum.

If you go to page 2 of the sports section of the Toronto Star today, you’ll see an article about 2 of my co-workers who are going to get married during a Toronto Maple Leafs hockey game this fall.  There’s a picture accompanying the story.  It’s MY picture!  The Star couldn’t get a photographer up to get a shot in time for the deadline so Lisa asked me to grab a few for her to send.

That’s the good news.  The bad news is that the bastards didn’t give me credit.  How am I supposed to start a new career if I don’t get at least a nod for my efforts. (just kidding boss)  They also spelled Lisa’s last name wrong but have corrected that in the online version which you can read here.  Unfortunately, they didn’t post my picture on the website. Hats off to The Star, they corrected their spelling error, posted my picture and gave me credit.  See the entire article here.