It's the first day of summer and the allergy...hay fever season just got started.  It's late because we had a pretty cool wet spring.  Now it's damp and hot and POOF!   All the flowers and weeds release their spores into the air.  Swollen eyes, itchy skin, rashes, wet nose, sneezing....time for the anti-histamines. 

 

Yesterday, I went to see the doctor about my "irritated nerve" caused by what started out as a hamstring pull.  He had scheduled me for an MRI but no appointment has been set.  Seems when your medical system get buried in bureaucracy, everything needs to be determined by committee....including scheduling for things like MRIs.  I have decided that I will no longer contribute to the hospital that calls multiple times a year for donations for new equipment.   I must have contributed to 6 MRI machines at my local hospital over the years and the waitlist has not been reduced one bit.   Seems hospitals have all this equipment and nobody to run them....or this committee gets together every now and then and goes through all the requests for MRI scans and decides how long they should make the waitlist.   My doctor told me the waitlist is at least 3 months unless something life threatening is happening.   Sounds to me the 3 month waitlist is politically motivated and not the true operational waitlist.  

 

One of my very best friends sent me a note a few days ago informing me that her mother had passed on after a length fight with cancer.  It was not her mother's first fight with cancer and has suffered much over the years.  So passing on, she is in a better place.  She is with Jesus now and those of us who believe will one day see her again.   Linda's mom was a kind gentle person, yet a tenacious fighter to stand up for what was right.   Linda is a lot like that.  We don't see each other much anymore as we've grown older and spend most of our time looking after our own families.   But she remains one of my best friends who is always on my mind.  

 

This brings me back to cancer.  Linda is in remission, my sister passed on due to cancer, both my in-laws, my god-parent(godmother?), numerous friends.  There are over a thousand forms of cancer and only a few are considered curable.  Those of you who read this who might have some money to donate to various charities every year, I encourage you to consider donating to cancer research.  Every one of us have been affected by cancer at one time or another.   

 

Thanks for reading.

 

 

Okay...so it's been more than a month.  There's lots to report on.

 

Still fresh on my mind...2 weeks in Florida.  I've never been to Florida before.   So way back in September of last year, I booked plane tickets using my frequent flyer points for 10 days in Florida.  Turns out flights from Vancouver to Florida are pretty rare so I could only book a 14 day trip.  We chose end of May because it would be Shelby's 10th birthday while we're there and the students would still be in school so line-ups at Disney World should be short.  Not knowing any better, we bought 10 day park-hopper passes leaving us 2 travel days, 1 breather R&R day and one day to go to Kennedy Space Center. 

 

Stupid me, I pulled a muscle attached to my hamstring about 3 weeks before the trip so had to visit the Physio to get myself in walking condition before going.  Doctor says it would take about 12 weeks to heal.  Well, it's now been about 9 weeks and counting....more on that later.

 

Going to Florida was uneventful.  I am impressed as United Airlines, in past experience has NEVER been on time with anything.  But they were near perfect as far as flight schedule this time around.  Picking up our rental car was different.  We just had to pick a car, get in and drive away.  I felt like I was stealing the car, but it seems that's they way it works in Orlando.   It's a really odd feeling.  And the directions to our condo was perfect.  We didn't get lost...but were routed via all the toll roads.  Temperature for our whole stay was in the upper 90's F. 

 

Disney has a lot of walking.  So if you have a pulled hamstring, it's going to get alot of excercise.  Favorite ride at the Magic Kingdom, Big Thunder Railroad.   At Epcot, the favorite ride was the GM test track.  It was also Shelby's favorite.  The fireworks at Epcot were the best too.  My favorite attraction was the Aquarium but Belinda and Alice liked Soarin, the same ride is in Disney's California Adventure....the Japan pavilion had a really neat candy maker who made animal sculptures out of candy.   MGM had Shelby's all time favorite Disney ride, Star Tours, but we liked the Aerosmith Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror too.  Finally, Animal Kingdom had the raft ride.  We got soaked.  A warning regarding Animal Kingdom....you walk a lot.  There are no air conditioned places at Animal Kingdom.  I figured 7 days should have been enough at Disney World.  10 days is actually quite exhausting. 

 

Kennedy Space Center was really interesting.  I enjoyed it thoroughly.  If you've never been there before, just buy a basic pass when you get there.  If you pre-order tickets, they try to sell you the upgraded all-encompassing passes.  But there really isn't enough time in a day to use the upgrade option so unless you're going for a second day, save 20 bucks.  There was a shuttle on the launch pad but it wasn't scheduled to go up until the beginning of July.

 

Things I learned about Florida.   1. The Alligators are hungry this time of year.  2. It is the beginning of the hurricane season.  The thunderstorms last about 1/2 hour and if there is one at night, the frogs all hop onto the road during a thunder shower...kind of like watching one of the plagues of Egypt.  3. Summer vacation for the students start at the end of May.  Prepare for long line-ups.  4. Disney's security measures really suck.  Technology run amuck.    5. Gaydays happen on the first weekend of June.  It changes the atmosphere at Disney immensely.  To be politically correct, I won't comment any further here.

 

I've travelled to many airports including some third world countries and decided Toronto has the most inefficient airport I've ever encountered.   Needless to say, we missed our connector flight home.  Interesting that the airlines have adapted by scheduling passengers with the understanding that there would be other connections missed so flying stranded passengers stand-by on flights that were already booked full was a matter of due process.

 

After returning home, Shelby had her level F Math exam (Kumon), RCM exam for piano, and a recital to play in.  I'm very proud of her because she did all of it without any problems.  She even went back and caught up on the tests she had at school for the two weeks she missed. 

 

I missed the Arlington drive for Westcoast Fieros of BC but put the Fiero in this year's All Pontiac Show n Shine.  

 

Of a bit of concern right now is that while in Florida, a part of my left foot has lost some feeling.  The muscle pull I started out with that affected my hamstring appears to now be a back injury that has irritated some nerves.  Otherwise, the pain is still there but my leg is now functioning almost normally now.

 

Til next time....