taking a breather [photo by gail on the web]
Gumpa’s been slaving away again today in the yard, and it’s looking pretty spiffy. I’ve put one coat of varnish on the dining room chairs (will do the rest next week), and the inside of the house is looking somewhat more respectable. [...]

Gumpa and Hugh crash on the floor for an afternoon snooze.

Hugh’s taken a real shine to Dad. When Dad’s sitting on the couch, he tries to climb on his lap. When Dad’s in the dining room, Hugh’s there, too. Awww…

David’s 10th and last radiation treatment to his spine was this morning, and Dr. B says he’ll monitor David weekly hereafter. The schedule for this week is for two MRIs tomorrow — brain and pelvis — at Mercy Hospital and chemotherapy at the clinic on Thursday.

Hopefully David’s nausea and fatigue will subside tomorrow now that this round of radiation to his lower back is finished.

Dad is sore from a full day of landscaping, and I’m a little stiff from varnishing furniture.

What a sad lot we are in the House of Fielding. Time for some rest!

When Melissa and Michael were toddlers, they couldn’t say “Grandpa”, they could only manage “Gumpa”, and the name stuck.
My father is closing in on 70 — but before you say anything like “No way, Jose!”, let me tell you first that he is not above a little vanity-induced hair colouring… shhhhhh….
“C’mon, Dad, it’s not [...]

I am happy to announce that after nearly three months of being grounded, AviatorDave took to the air once again!
Dave’s Logbook: Like Riding a Bike Unless You Fall Off
Hopefully this trend will continue, and David will feel well enough to fly without the need for a co-pilot. The state of his health changes from hour [...]

Two of my favourite writers recently lamented — as older-generation internet users tend to do — on the decrepit state of literacy on the world wide web.

If you’ve never read any of Socar’s journal, mouse-click over there right now, before you read anything else. If her post titled “The Other Side of the Internet” doesn’t win you over (although I wouldn’t recommend reading it at work), I’ll start lamenting about my own readership. The thought did occur to me to ask her to write my vows, but that would not only be in alarmingly poor taste (gauche, even), but just a bad idea all ’round. I’m a little stuck on the vow-writing, while David is starting to wonder if I really know why I’m marrying him.

As seen on the front of a church in New York City.
I slept in today. I really needed it. Saturdays are good days for us, as I’ve mentioned before, because it’s a break from radiation. David’s suffering from chronic fatigue because of his therapies, while I’m feeling fatigued from domestic activity and wedding preparations. [...]

Friendly Donkeys[photo by Cat Faery]
Courtesy of Cat Faery’s photostream:
“These donkeys live on the outskirts of our town. When we go to visit them, they come running as soon as we get out of the car. They’re so friendly!”
Shari lives in Southern California and doesn’t think her photos are ‘that [...]

Water colour and ink on vellumJerusalem or Istanbul, dated 1793-94 (Hebrew calendar 5554)Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto
A Jewish marriage requires a written contract stating the obligations of the husband toward his wife. It also gives the amount of money due to the wife in the event of a divorce.
This contract states the conditions in the [...]

Some flowers for Mona (David’s mom) at CMC. She was admitted on Tuesday for stroke-like symptoms, but they had to run tests on her to know for sure. The diagnosis turned out to be TIA (transient ischemic attack), or commonly referred to as a mini-stroke.

She was released today (Thursday), and is back home with her cat Penny and playing online Scrabble again… as addicted as ever! Go Mom!

We saw this on the side of a truck at the gas station yesterday and I had David take the picture as I drove by.

Click on the pic to enlarge — there are also lots of comments.

What we didn’t know until afterwards was that it’s part of a jokey ad campaign that Budget is showing on the sides of their moving trucks.