Well, I received some sad news last night.   My friend Linda, who went through a bout of Ovarian Cancer and the operation and chemotherapy as a result told me that the cancer has returned.   Also, my wife is going in for a colonoscophy to check for cancer this week also.   Both of my wife's parents passed on due to cancer in that region.  My wife is supposed to be tested every year.  So far, the tests have come up negative.  For every one of us, our days are numbered.  We do not know how many days we do have, but we can live our lives to the fullest so when our time is up, we leave with no regrets and hopefully, impacted our world in some positive way.   Linda has been a best friend of mine for a long time.  She has impacted my life.  I will be praying for her and doing anything I can support her and her family in whatever she needs. 

 

Sorry for the gloomy update.  Thanks for reading.

 

 

Wow...it's October and I haven't been writing anything on this site for awhile.  Well, when you're pretty immobile, there really isn't a lot happening so "nothing to write home about".  I'm happy to say, I finally got off the crutches today.  Oh, I did bring them along to work, but left them in the car.   I have not taken a T3 for 24 hours now.   Nor have I taken a Naproxen.   I did take a couple of Ibuprophens though.  Otherwise, except for some minor throbbing just above the knee, I'm fine.  I am walking around with a bit of a limp, though.

 

I might have a slow leak on one of my tires.   I find I need to add air once every 3 or 4 weeks to one of my front wheels.  This morning when I got out of my car, I noted that the front wheel looked a bit low again.   The flat tire indicator on the car didn't come on yet but I guess I should fill it a bit before heading home later.

 

Autumn here has finally arived.  The trees haven't changed color much yet, but it has been raining the last two days.  Here, we get very little snow but it will probably rain until .... oh May 2007 with maybe a couple of days of sunshine inbetween. 

 

Speaking of rain, the damper weather has caused that MINI-Trunk to warp further.  I took some pictures and let Martin know.  Though the I am still using it, it doesn't quite have the good looks it once did.  Martin said he might send me another one in MDF instead that should address the issue.  However, I don't think it is necessary.  I really think he should start looking at what changes he needs to make for the 2007 MINI coming out.  In fact there are other cars in the same situation.  The Nissan Versa and other hatchbacks come to come to mind.

 

My wife's birthday is coming up.  The cassette deck in our Buick has been non-functional for quite awhile now and so I said I would get a new stereo for the Buick for her present.  I haven't been in the market for car decks in decades.   I kind of wanted to get a AM/FM/CD/Cassette with AUX.  Do you think anybody knows where to get one?  No!  So I'll just settle for the radio with MP3 and CDs and an AUX jack.  We can plug a walkman in if she wants to listen to cassettes.   Nobody can tell me what's good and what's not at what price anymore.  Car stereos have become commodities.  Anyways, I think the Sony units are sale this week so I'll probably get one of those.  At least Sony sees fit to put the AUX jack on the front.   I understand the MINI's factory unit is made by Alpine.  You still have to buy a connector to get the AUX function and the connector is plugged in the back.  Panasonic and Pioneer decks need to be plugged in at the back also.   Oh well.

 

I've also started looking around for Christmas presents.  Budget is tight as we're thinking of taking a trip to attend a wedding.  Actually, we have 3 weddings that involve flying off somewhere to attend in 2007.   Hence we're out of money all the time.  My RRSP is taking a beating because we're blowing all our savings on trips to attend weddings and funerals.   But this paragraph is about Christmas.   Anybody notice the "hot item to get" is pricing itself out of the budget of most people?   Are iPods the item again this year.  I kinda like new iPod nano (hint hint).  There's also been a bit of a resurgence (boy toys) of interest in slot cars.   They're sure a lot more expensive than when I had a set 40 years ago.   In fact, I gave my original power supply from my set away to some collector last week.  Funny, the power supply was the only thing I kept from it.  I'm kicking my self now because the set would have been worth a bit to a collector.   Anyways, more on that later.

 

 

Oh look!  It stopped raining!  I think I'll go for a drive now.

 

Until next time.