The life of a Phoebe is really not that bad.... with all these spots to sleep what more could you ask for...


Life might be hazardous if it were not for walls to keep your head from dropping off the table...

or a soft cushion to support you...



and then of course you just need to have a perspective from on high...

and once you learn how to navigate a ladder.... the possibilities are endless!!

Okay ... for those of you who do not like reality shots.... turn away... if on the other hand you don't mind ... here are the ankle shots from start to now.... or at least after surgery.


There is not supposed to be all the little bits and pieces in the longer bones!






So with a little hardware .... stainless steel is really a good strong component.... the long screw joining the two bones together must come out before the ankle will function properly.



Here is the handy work.... notice the nice margins and spaces between the bones.... well aligned ... Now!!


So to protect the repair a nice fiber glass wrap worked well. If only I could have had a few of the "wraps" to keep in the workshop.... imagine the possibilities for water activated fibre glass cloth!!!


Of course the graduation to an air cast took place yesterday,,,, with an extra fee... one gets to keep this piece of technology!!


And now for the real thing.... wrapped up for a few weeks brought its own surprises....


And now we prepare for the next phase....

So Phoebe has not been featured here for a while ... so I though a few shots would be in order.... you can see that she is growing and now has a few times through the day that she just blazes back and forth through the living room... kitchen... basement .... bedroom... everywhere.... then she crashes and snuggles up for a snooze!

She has establish several spots throughout the house that are her stop spots! My office chair downstairs seems to hold a warm and comfy attraction for her...

Of course it wouldn't be fair not to have a couple shots of the new fibreglass cast .... bright ... light and blue!! I suppose we should have picked the Carolina blue.... but the we weren't thinking about it at the time!!

So when the wheels stop the walker begins... and it is the primary mode of movement for a while....

Of course for the north .... and for a little rougher terrain we have the nice soft wheels and a rather bright red tractor seat with wheels for transport and support!

Well sometimes things just don't work the way you expect them to... right now all the office chairs in the house are being used as transporters to and from other chairs and sitting spots!




Now this morning, March 17, St Patrick's Day.... and also Betty-Jean's birthday ... I was wondering what I should be getting for a birthday present.... over the past week I have been wondering .... thinking about things and then really not being able to make a decision.



This morning Betty-Jean handed the Lee Valley catalogue to me and suggested that this little garden cart could be a good thing for the house up north.... since rolling plastic wheels down the wooden floors would no doubt leave marks.... the wheels on this little machine would roll without difficulty and then become useful once this one-legged routine is completed.

So .... without delay I made it to LV and picked up a new set of wheels for her birthday.... worst comes to worst.... I'll have a new red seat for the tractor!

Okay... so what does this have to do with anything??? Well, many of you will note that there has not been much posting done over the past month. Many of you will know also that my father has been in hospital and has been through a significant surgery .... and has come through it very well!

While he was recovering from that.... and I was in the north with him... my wife decided that a slip on the ice would provide an interesting way to add to the story line for the Smith soap opera.

The last time we checked... three broken bones in an ankle pretty much covered the bases.... and does not leave anything for weight bearing...

SOOOoooo, that means I am now nursing another patient in the Shwa!!

So far both patients are coming along nicely... don't know which one will win the "congeniality" award!!

More news to follow and probably an update on Phoebe would be good... the little lady is making herself known around the house and can now balance her way across the foot of the brass bed.... amazing balance!

A Time for Everything
There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens:
a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and
a time to refrain, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.
It would appear that we have entered another season for Dad... He is about to begin some significant medical treatment over the next few weeks ....


Like the picture of the leaves, there is a bright spot... and that is good, but it will be a rough for a while.

Well one never knows from one week to the next where one might be... in my case I had an excursion south that began at 4:30am last Monday morning.....

It started with snow capped peaks... then brown dry valleys ....

Then ended with the city of San Diego,Ca ... from there a short ride in the car lead us to the Pacific Terrace Hotel ...

... after a short wait for a room ... since we arrived shortly after we left (3 hour time change) ... we were greeted with rooms that had a view! Well some had more of a view than others... and Terry (a colleague from GM in Michigan) had a room on the second floor that had a rather nice view!

Terry wanted a picture to send home.... just in case his wife did not believe we were roughing it out here!!

The hotel from the outside.... ours is the smaller building with just three floors and most rooms having at least the opportunity to see the ocean.... although in my particular room there was a need to stand up and look out the window to see over the garden! Guess that might be why they said I had a garden view room!!!

Now just down the beach a short distance was a long wooden pier... and on the pier were little cottages that you could rent... it was a motel really... with a rather respectable nightly rate... in the neighbourhood of 250 per night.... off season!! From under the pier one could see the beams, bolts and other structural components that began to flex when the tide came in and especially the surf began to pound.

With each wave a little shudder went through the pier .... obviously the wooden structure has been there a while.... and serves as a testament for the tensile strength of home grown wood products.

The waves on the last day in San Diego were much larger and the surfers were flocking to the coast to ride. On Thursday afternoon my cousin Rossie came to visit from Topanga, Ca and while we were out on the pier watching the waves we saw a dolphin join the line of surfers and actually ride one of the waves! We could see the creature rise to the crest and then ride the curl of the wave.... it was an awesome sight!! And it was over in a flash ..... so no pictures were captured! Shortly after that a lone sea lion made an appearance off the end of the pier.

With the wave pounding in it was easy to simply spend time listening to and watching the ocean in its relentless attack on the shoreline!

As you can see .... the wave hitting the pier are quite substantial!! It would have been fun to play in them however... time and the fact that no wet suit was packed .... slowed my enthusiasm for actually getting into the ocean!

Of course the trip was not all pleasure ... we were up and on the bus headed to Tijuana, Mx Tuesday and Wednesday by 7 am. Our driver did a great job of keeping the coach moving and preventing a few accidents during our travels.

With very little rain ... it is possible to carve property out of the hills... you will notice a fence line right on the edge of the hill.... for some reason (lack of rain) this works in the area.... heaven help them if they start to get more than 3-6 inches of rain a year!!

Crossing the border was another story.... 60 million people cross this border each year!! That would be 225 thousand people each and every day!!! The line ups supported the statement! With enough gates to make Sarnia and Sault Ste. Marie look like little border crossings the line up to get into the gates seemed endless. Morning, noon, or night the line is waiting to cross into the US. Of course going the other way is much easier .... but don't let the ease fool you.... they are still watching!

When you have family in the area it is always great to work in a visit! It has been a while since I have had a chance to sit and chat with my cousin Rossie! She has lived and worked in California for 18 years and loves California. With many changes happening in her life we were fortunate to be able to spend a good bit of time together catching up on life from each other's perspective.

On our second night in San Diego we were treated to a dinner cruise around the bay. We went past the naval base, saw the ships in port and were just returning to the docks when a fireworks display began on the fantail of the retire aircraft carrier Midway. Now my fireworks shots are not as good as Heidi's .... but then I was on a moving boat !!!

As I was leaving San Diego on Friday I was able to see the city and the coast. The air was pretty clear ... and you will note the low number of navy ships at the docks in the city. Apparently we just missed the nuclear power carrier Ronald Regan. It was in town for up fitting and left the Saturday before we arrived.

The final picture in the set was captured on the return trip as the sun was setting and I was loosing some of the 3 hours gained on our journey west!! The band of sun right on the horizon was spectacular... and although the picture does not capture the sound of the jet engine.... it does give some indication of the colours and intensity !!

Well it was back to reality on Saturday with mini blizzards for the day and change in temperature from 63F degrees warm to -13C cold today!!

Well with a little time at home.... and at least a little progress made with my cold.... I finally got to the point of logging onto the home computer!

Of course things are more complicated now because Phoebe wants to be a part of everything! Which is not a bad thing... and can be fun ... when she is trying to catch the cursor going across the screen... but then comes the walk over the keyboard.... just about the time you are ready to send a message or name a file!

But what can you do when she looks up with those cat-like eyes .... and steps on three more keys!

Short post but it takes longer on dial-up!!

So does this guy look cool or what? Living on a busy road in the country can be exciting.... living on a quiet road is even better!! Especially when your neighbour shows up at your door and as you answer the door you look out on the pond to see Mr Brush Wolf --- poking around in the footprints you made yesterday while walking around your backyard!! With two of the best behaved big dogs being hustled in the door to keep from spooking the visitor we were able to grab the binoculars and take a few minutes to enjoy the creature before he disappeared deeper into the back yard!

This does confirm our suspcisions that something other than rabbits and partridge live on our property. We have also seen some paw prints that make this fellows three by four finger tracks look rather small.
Unfortunately, my camera would not zoom in enough ... but the likeness displayed represents quite well the image of our visitor in broad daylight.

Red wolves are intermediate in size between gray wolves and coyotes. Typical red wolves weigh 45 to 65 pounds (20.4 to 29.5 kg). Total length ranges from about 4.4 to 5.4 feet (1.3 to 1.6 m) (Paradiso and Nowak 1972).

Well that's all for now.... this was our nature lesson for today!!

Hope we can capture some of these moments for Sam, Ben and the rest of the family!!