I take my camera with me on grocery runs, too. I blend right in with the tourists.
July 5th, 2006
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Front Street
July 5, 2006 by Gail
Category Photography | Tags: | 3 Comments
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Doing My Part For Cancer Research
July 5, 2006 by Gail
I mentioned last month that I wanted to do more for cancer research, in addition to the “Clear Skies” campaign for the Lung Cancer Alliance and other fundraising/awareness work for the Canadian Cancer Society. Today I did a tiny bit more.
I’m a big supporter of research in general, research also being a large component of my work history and academic experience.
Last week I completed an online survey for the University of Saskatchewan’s Department of Psychology — “Feeling and Meaning-Making in Grief”. Academic surveys are designed to be more in-depth, and in the process of answering the questions I had to re-examine my emotions in a different way, an uncomfortable exercise at times but ultimately beneficial.
Last week I also volunteered myself for two research studies, one as part of a control group for a bipolar study and the other for breast cancer research. I was eventually disqualified from the bipolar control group because I wasn’t from a Northern European ethnic group (“north of Rome” is the criterion), but I told the mental health researchers to keep me in mind for future studies. I was screened out of one breast cancer study (related to vitamin D and hormones) because of my age, but I qualified for the one I saw advertised at Toronto Western Hospital.
The study is titled “Optical transillumination spectroscopy: A potential indicator of breast tissue risk” and is sponsored by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR).
The ultimate goal of this study is to develop a safe and non-invasive technique that can be used more frequently and at a younger age to assess women’s risk for developing breast cancer. In this study, we are comparing older (aged 31-40) and younger (aged 18-21) women who have never been pregnant and also women aged 31-40 who have had children with women of the same age who have never been pregnant.
Category Haunted by Cancer, Linkage, Volunteering/Charity | Tags: | 11 Comments
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The Thunderstorm
July 5, 2006 by Gail
There’s a story David told me early on, before we’d actually met, about a turning point in his life. It was after a thunderstorm he experienced while flying to Ohio in 2001, a storm so intense he worried he might not make it through. David told the story to a few people, but I managed to find one instance where he’d written it down, in an e-mail, in June 2004.
I was flying from my home ‘port in the Poconos to Cincinnati, Ohio for a conference. I was going to receive an award I had been given, for education. Two other pilots were going to go with me, but they cancelled the morning of the trip. I decided to go anyway, even though it would mean flying alone in instrument weather, which is a heavier workload. I was flying a Civil Air Patrol Cessna 172, a little four-seat plane about the size and weight of a Volkswagen.
Across Pennsylvania as far as Pittsburgh was all grey clouds and light rain, I never once saw the ground after taking off. As I crossed into Ohio the clouds began to get darker, and the rain fell harder. The Cleveland center controller gave me some headings to steer to keep me out of the worst of the rain and lightning.
Fairly quickly the clouds went to a deep grey, and the rain even more intense. The windscreen was totally obsured by water, like being in a carwash, and the sound of the rain was like sizzling bacon – louder than the engine. The turbulence was so bad that the simple autopilot couldn’t keep me level, so I clicked it off and hand-flew the plane, trying to stay upright. I was thrown up and down hundreds of feet; the engine howled and sighed, as my airspeed went wildly up and down.
Category Aviation, David, David's Writing, Fave, Flying, Life Lessons | Tags: | 5 Comments
