Mar. 19th, 2010

fajrdrako: (Default)


Oh dear. Why do things happen at once? I promised a dear friend I'd help her buy her husband's gravestone at 11 on Monday - yes, of course it's important to her. And I just got a call for a job interview for a job I really want at 11 on Monday.

Must be the alignment of stars or something....

fajrdrako: (Default)


Those of you who know [livejournal.com profile] maaseru know that she is the friend I vaguely alluded to as being in the hospital. She had a knee replacement on Tuesday, from which she seemed to be recovering with remarkable speed, being up and alert almost immediately. There was talk that she might be going home today; or tomorrow; or a week from today, if they kept her for rehab.

When I phoned her this morning she was groggy and almost unable to talk. Something had changed. Well, in case of emergency, apply flowers. I got a small bouquet of irises, and went to the General Hospital.

I had wondered if she had reacted strangely to the painkillers, but no, according to the nurse her blood count had gone way down, so they were going to give her a blood transfusion. She woke up when I arrived, and we taked for a bit, and she fell asleep for a while while I read.

ExpandBefore the blood transfusion. )

ExpandDuring the blood transfusion. )

ExpandAfter the blood transfusion. )

After a while, they brought her some supper, which appeared to make her feel even better. I went down to the cafeteria and got what they called "wild fish", which looked like ordinary fish sticks, salad, and tomato-red pepper soup. I took it back to [livejournal.com profile] maaseru's room; no one seemed to mind.

I expected the wild fish to be dry and tasteless, as fish sticks often are, especially when they come from cafeterias. But no: it was moist and delicious. I was impressed. It was all the better from having had low expectations.

fajrdrako: ([Misc] - 01)


I took my camera with me today when I went for a walk with Lisa at lunchtime, so when I got all excited on seeing a budding tree by the Rideau Canal, I took a picture:

Expand1. Walking by the canal )

2. To get to the hospital, I had to walk for about twenty minutes to get to the bus stop at the corner of Main and Evelyn, then spend about ten minutes on the bus. I tried to make it to the bus stop in 15 minutes, and failed: it took about 17, and I saw the bus moving away in the distance as I got there. It wasn't a long wait till the next one, and I spent the time taking a photo of my irises and looking around.

ExpandFlowers on their way to maaseru in the hospital )

On leaving the hospital, I decided to see how long it would take me to walk home. According to Google Maps, it would take a little more than an hour. I thought it would take about an hour and a half - I have to cross the Pretoria Bridge and backtrack quite a bit. Still, worth a try.
It was just getting dark as I left the hospital at 7:30. There was a tiny crescent moon and it was a beautiful evening.

3. Not long after that, I saw two ducks, swimming in a large puddle by the side of the road. I stopped to take their picture, but as soon as they saw me, they stopped swimming and walked towards me with the hopeful look of ducks who think a human might feed them. I didn't; I just snapped their picture, and they tried to act nonchalant, nibbling at bits of leaves.

ExpandDucks in a puddle by Smyth Road )

4. Further along, I saw the first bit of snow I've seen in a long time. This is for all the people, unaccustomed to snow, who think snow is beautiful. It is, when it's falling freshly in December, all white and fluffy. By March or April it's lumpy, mostly black, ugly shapes with debris embedded. The debris in this case was pine needles, as it was under a small grove of trees. To give some perspective to it, this chunk of ice was about 5' across and maybe 20" high.

ExpandA last vestige of snow )

5. Then I came to the Smyth Road Bridge. It was almost dark then, just a glimmer of light in the sky backlighting the clouds, and reflections from the houses alongside the Rideau River reflecting in the water.

ExpandThe River )

6. Then I got to Main Street, where I paused for a photo, looking back southward towards the bridge. Let me explain, if you don't know Ottawa: there is nothing particularly "main" about our Main Street, which more or less connects the Pretoria Bridge (over the Canal) with the Smyth Road Bridge (over the River), but isn't downtown, isn't long or large or wide or anything.

ExpandMain Street, around 8 p.m. on a Friday in March )

I made the mistake of pausing to look at the books in a sidewalk display outside the Singing Pebbles Bookshop (in March!) and after that, my back started to hurt. It hurt less when I sort of pulled up my ribs - is that a posture problem?

I arrived home at 8:35 p.m., must sooner than I expected. Perhaps if I hadn't paused to look at those books, it would have been an hour, but if you think I can resist the sight of a book display, you don't know me very well.

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