Fine feathered friends

We have finally had a break from the snowing and blowing .. long enough to get outside and spend some quality time with my little chickadees!

For all the cynics, who want to pour cold water on Obama supporters

J. Crew Shares jumped after the first family donned the company's clothing at Inaugural events. The company's website also crashed for a while due to the volume of searches for coats similar to those worn by the adorable First Daughters.

Who says that President Obama can't turn this mess around?

How we celebrated the Inauguration

With Cupcakes of Triumph, of course!



Hail to the Chief!


Would you like a cupcake, Mr. President?

A SQUEEEE!!!!! for posterity

I'm watching The We Are One Obama Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial online.

Mr. Garth Brooks - the greatest artist America has ever seen, thankyouverymuch - is singing We Shall Be Free on the steps where my son and I stood four months ago.

This is the greatest country on earth, poised to enter its greatest moments.

Sends shivers up my spine!

(Shamelessly lifted from The Huffington Post.)

I love, love, love this picture of our President-Elect on the train from Baltimore to Washington.

Some may say that the whistle-stop trip is overly theatrical, and perhaps it is. I love it anyways. I love trains, I love the dramatic, and I love the promise that is represented by this trip.

After seeing this picture, I started playing around on youtube. I love, love, love, Will.I.Am's homage to Barack Obama's "Yes We Can" speech. And I love, love, LOVE! this a capella version of it. Please enjoy!



I believe in the promise of this new inauguration. I believe in the promise of this new administration. I believe in the promise of change. I believe we can all be better.

Yes.
We.
Can.

Now, here's a bailout that I can get behind!

The California Nurses' Association has long been an advocate for single-payer, guaranteed universal health care. I have always been a believer in this approach - not just because I'm a liberal Canadian nurse - but because it is the sane and humane way to treat people. Anything less is uncivilized.

Now, more than ever, we need a single-payer system. Not only would it improve the health of America's people, it would also help to resuscitate the economy.

From that press release comes the quote of the day: Establishing a national single-payer style healthcare reform system would provide a major stimulus for the U.S. economy by creating 2.6 million new jobs, and infusing $317 billion in new business and public revenues, with another $100 billion in wages into the U.S. economy, according to the findings of a groundbreaking study released today.

Socialized medicine was already deeply carved into the makeup of Canada's culture and identity when I started nursing school twenty years ago. I remember, with great clarity, the words of one of my professors: Health care is not simply a fundamental human right. It goes beyond that. The health of a country's population is its greatest natural resource, and should be funded and protected as such.

Last year, I took care of a gentleman with multiple fractures who had fallen down a flight of stairs. He was one of the millions of working, uninsured poor in this country. My heart broke to see him crying in fear and despair, unsure of how he could possibly pay for this hospitalization. I'll make payments every week until I die if necessary! he sobbed. Those words are etched into my heart. No-one in this, the greatest country on the planet, should ever have to utter those words. And someday, in the not-too-distant, civilized, sane future, no-one ever will.

The joys of being eleven

Eat. Sleep. Do schoolwork. Ride the Millenium Falcon down Thompson Park Hill.
Sounds like a pretty sweet gig to me!

Baby it's cold outside

I ventured outside long enough to catch a picture of the sunset this afternoon. No-one in this house needs to go anywhere for the time being, so we have hunkered down for the duration.

Earlier this week, I did battle with my first cold in years. With brandy, Buckley's, and bedrest in my arsenal, I emerged victorious.

I have come to view these periods of forced downtime as a necessary gift from Mother Nature. In the stillness of winter, we can finally hear our own thoughts.

And the travesty continues

In the blight on the American ideal of justice that is Gitmo, they're playing games. Again.

Less than one week before Omar Khadr's trial was finally set to begin - after six years in detention - the charges against him were secretly dropped and then refiled. And back he goes into limbo. Again.

January beauty

I love the way that ice develops in a body of moving water. Crystal by crystal, it is constantly changing .. the very antithesis of a frozen entity.



Prince Edward County, Ontario, January 2009

The cat's got my .. brain!

Chalk it up to too much sugar ..



.. or too much snow ..



But this morning, after indulging in a bit of shared bird-watching with my crazy cat Gandalf ..



.. during which the conversation goes something like this: Meow Meow Meow meow Meow meow meow ..

.. I walked into the kitchen, where the Mister was making the coffee, and meowed at him.

And it took me a full minute of quizzically staring at his quizzical stare to realize that I had failed to switch back to English after speaking feline.

It's official. I am a crazy cat lady.

This type of partying needs to go out of style

After the ball drops
Forty-two tons of garbage
Remain on Times Square

The same old, same old
Foolish, selfish "reverie"
Choking Mother Earth

Typical short-sightedness

In the twenty years (gasp!) that have passed since I entered Nursing school, many things have changed. I am constantly amazed by the advances that have been made in surgical techniques, particularly laparoscopy. Surgeries which once required large incisions, long recovery times, and the risk of permanent nerve damage to the surrounding area are now performed through tiny keyholes with incredible precision.

If you'll forgive the pun, this cutting-edge technology has been brought to a new level by the DaVinci Robotic Surgical system. Developed in France, it was approved by the FDA for use in the United States in 2000. Applications include heart valve replacement, hysterectomies, and prostatectomies. Here in the USA, it is common to see billboards advertising a hospital's ability to perform surgeries with this new technology. The DaVinci system is expensive, but in a competitive health care marketplace, the bean counters know that they must spend the big bucks if they want to bring in the big bucks.

North of the 49th parallel .. meh, not so much. The DaVinci system is available in five Canadian cities, but none of the provincial Ministries of Health will cough up the extra $3000 to $5000 that a robotic prostatectomy costs, as compared to the traditional surgery to remove a cancerous prostate. It is left to charitable foundations to pick up the tab.

Never mind that the robotic surgery cuts the length of the hospital stay from four days to one. Never mind the reduced risk of post-operative infections in the age of C-Diff and MRSA outbreaks. Never mind the reduced risk of incontinence and impotence, both of which add to the cost of post-operative care. Never mind that any of these sequella could easily cost the Canadian health care system much more than $5000.

Talk about cutting off the nose to spite the face!

My flight of fancy is already their reality

During the long dark downtime of night shift last Sunday, the Nurse's Aide and I were talking about technological advances which would improve the care that we deliver.

One idea that has been tickling and nagging in my perpetually sleep-deprived brain, is a better toilet. I have this notion that the hospital toilet of the future would measure output and scan for occult blood, C-Diff, and urinary tract infections. It would also have a built-in bidet and would sanitize itself immediately after use.

Unsurprisingly, the Japanese are already way ahead of the curve on this idea, with the latest incarnation of The Intelligence Toilet II. This model is designed for home use, and beams the information collected to your PC.

Now, if only they could release a Hello Kitty Intelligence Toilet ...

Charming non-sequitur of the day

Against my better judgment, I went to the Commissary on Fort Drum today. Normally, I try to avoid all retail establishments on the Saturday before Christmas, but I needed to take advantage of the lull between the blasts of Snow-Mageddon '08.

I don't use the Commissary very often. The small savings offered to the military community and its retirees are usually offset by the annoyance factor. Many things contribute to the annoyance factor, and chief amongst them are the young GI Joes who are full of piss and vinegar. One of their favourite tricks is to sit in their muscle cars and burst the eardrums of all persons over the age of 25 within a 2 mile radius.

The role of obnoxious GI Joe was played today by a dude in a yellow Mustang GT, parked right in front of the Commissary doors.

And his music of choice was .. Andrea Bocelli ?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?

I'm pretty sure that GI Joe still had most of his baby teeth when Con Te Partiro seemed to play on endless loop. I never tired of it then, and I certainly appreciated it today.

Thanks, obnoxious GI Joe, for making an old lady's day!

I'm sure there were no vampires in this town, either!

Brussels sprouts, oh brussels sprouts!
Magical, but not a fruit,
Makes Gorillas Toot!

Sorry, said the zoo.
Embarrassed, and unprepared
For a smell that strong.

Waste not, want not!

I was amused by this story of pungent ingenuity.

Arkeny, Iowa, is the home of Tone Brothers, Inc. I have a cupboard full of their spices.

Apparently, they had a surplus of garlic salt, which they donated to the town. It was otherwise destined for a landfill. Mixed with regular road salt, it did a fine job of melting snow and ice.

Also, there were no reports of vampire attacks in the town this week. Bonus!

Living the dream

The Mister told me
It was his dream to snowblow
In a Santa hat

Who am I to stand
Between the love of my life
And his lifelong dream?

So senseless and such a waste

A few hours ago, the church where I was baptized was filled with tears.

Hundreds of people had gathered to mourn for a family of four, who had roots in my hometown. They had succumbed to carbon monoxide poisoning when a pipe inside their natural gas fireplace became blocked with carbon. All four had been complaining of flu-like symptoms for a couple of weeks.

A simple CO detector would have revealed the cause of their symptoms and saved all of their lives. Apparently, they didn't have one in their home.

Friends, if you do not have a carbon monoxide detector in your home, why the hell not?

Go get one.

Right now.

To every thing there is a season

Thousands of snow geese
Fill the gray December skies
Just for a moment