Has it really been since September...?

2020 was kind of a bad memory for most people, and I am surprised that I had dropped all updating of this blog since mid-September. It is now mid-March, so I guess I should update everyone on what is going on!

Essentially, not much of consequence has been happening since last year, but that is a good thing! I am still alive (not a given, unfortunately) and time has seemed to have slipped by very quickly. The last thing I had posted about was the airshow that the family went to at the end of August and the restarting of my fully online term for teaching. Since then, teaching has been continuing online (but now 8 courses this term!), and we have already bought tickets for the drive-in airshow in London for late August 2021. Here are some of the other things that have been happening around our place. 

Wendy bought a food processor in the late fall and has been making things in the kitchen! She has made chili sauce (her main reason for getting the machine), falafel, pickles, soup, etc. and has enjoyed the new hobby.

Wendy and I took the fall break week to go away to an AirBnB cottage in Thomasburg (near Tweed, north of Belleville). It was time to get away, do some hiking in the beautiful fall colours, go horseback riding, and especially to visit Wendy's favourite cheese factory (Maple Dale Cheese)... several times. Great view, nice and quiet, and a good way to get away while still in a pandemic. 

Adam moved back home from North Bay after his final classes ended at Canadore College. Kind of anticlimactic, as he simply got his diploma in the mail. We now have lots of extra 'stuff' to store around the house, but this did allow us to "upgrade" to some better electronics and better kitchen things... Wendy got her braces off the same day that Adam moved home.

My health continued to improve and stabilize and all my scans said the same thing - the cancer is no longer detectable! I signed a consent for a surgery to improve my vocal cord functions, but that has been delayed by COVID. Maybe early spring? Here is my 2020 health summary in pictures.

Wendy's best friend had an unexpected urgent surgery, so Wendy flew down to her place to help out while she was unable to walk and care for herself. Yes, Wendy can cook (and drive)! 

Wendy having Chick-Fil-A!

While she was away, we continued to upgrade things in the kitchen and got a new refrigerator (she had helped choose it before she left). We got one with an ice and water dispenser.

Wendy was away for about 2 months and arrived back in Canada to self isolate for 14 days - ending around the 24th of December. In the meantime, Eric had a potential exposure to COVID during a medical appointment that had him go into isolation for a full 21 days (he is special!). Sadly, the isolation essentially didn't change his normal daily activities of going to the basement to teach online, eating now and again, and sleeping.  He was able to get out of the house the day before Wendy was ready to come home. Consequently, Christmas was done in a very minimalistic style this year. 

The new year dawned and we used the most commonly used phrase of the year and told 2020 that "you're muted!!!" - then simply went to bed a few moments later. 

Starting the fresh new year, one which I had never intended to see, was not as exciting as it sounds. It was same old, same old... all over again. Since there seemed to be no companies hiring Aviation Mechanical Engineers, Adam got a full time job at a company in Dundas that calibrates equipment - only a 4 minute commute! Parker has continued to work full time for Purple Bricks from home (on the phone all day) and he decided he needed to sell his car. He got a good price for it and saved a ton of money on insurance. He really doesn't need a car at the moment. 

Bye, bye, Mini!

We did have a birthday party for Maddy, as she turned 10 in February. We even bought an ice cream cake so she could have a small piece.

Maddy turns 10!

In early March, we also bought a new bed (old one was starting to be very uncomfortable). We eventually got some shorter legs for the base/platform (long story) and it is now 3 inches lower. Maddy and Wendy appreciate the ease of getting into the bed.

We also captured the boys to take a family photo on Maddy's birthday. 

Family photo 2021

Hopefully 2021 will get a little more exciting and we will be able to do things outside of the house more. We have had some serious snow in the last month, but also have had some serious heat - this week it was 19C a couple of days. Winter isn't done quite yet, but the signs of spring are starting to appear.

Today marks exactly 365 days since I last stepped foot into my office. Hope it isn't another 365 before I get back to normal! 

The world has changed...

OK, now on to the small and large changes that have happened over the last few weeks.

As you all likely have experienced, the world is not what it used to be - since COVID-19 took hold. The first real change for me was that in-person classes at the university were cancelled on Friday the 13th. I had planned to stay home on the Friday (no classes that day), but I am kind of annoyed that I didn't get to fully enjoy the realization that I had taught my last class (potentially forever). One other annoyance was the fact that Wendy and I were planning to go on a trip once classes ended. This was to be just the two of us, potentially to Ireland, mostly to relax and see somewhere we have never been. We want to travel before I can't travel any more. Well, it appears the whole world has stopped travelling for now.

Thanks world, I am most definitely NOT impressed.

One small change for me is that I bought some new glasses. My old ones had a scratch that irritated me. Normally, it takes me weeks to narrow down the choices before I select the right ones. This time it was different. Wendy and I went to a place in Ancaster (Hanley's) and it took us barely a few minutes to find the right ones! No comparison shopping needed. These glasses fit all my requirements except the price, but since these are likely my last pair, why not splurge a little? Other than having a wider area of prescription in the middle to see through (don't have to turn my head as much to see clearly), I think they are cool because the arms are mounted sideways. All I can see when they are on and I look to the side is a very narrow strip of titanium instead of a wide arm. Much less distracting. Another cool feature is that the frame around the lenses is actually semi-transparent. Odd, but fun in a strange way.

Picked these glasses up on Friday the 13th

I also went to the grocery store one last time as the beginnings of hoarding started around here. Couldn't find toilet paper or hand sanitizer (the hoarding items of choice), but I did find these interesting cereals.

Wendy decided to do some more cooking (unusual in itself, as many of you know). She has been getting more into making food when I am not so interesting in cooking. That seems to have been happening a lot lately, although this was partly due to the difficulties that I have had with swallowing as a result of the radiation I had in February. My appetite and desire to cook has improved slowly over the past month.

The COVID-19 restrictions really hit home, and so did the whole family. Adam returned from North Bay for his reading week, Parker's in-person classes ended, Wendy started working from home, and Sally's experiments slowed down then stopped and she started working at home. Our evenings have included watching the news (there is only one story on, all day long!), playing Canasta, etc.

I have had some time to clean up my stained glass area and I re-engaged with the big project I have been working on (dragging my feet on...) for several years. I want to get this one done while I have the energy to do it. It is a custom-created northern Ontario scene (64" wide, but likely will be split into two panels).

We also taught Sally how to play Mahjong! It was actually quite fun to play and a little easier than Canasta.

As for my work, I have now become a virtual professor. In the past two weeks I have quickly learned how to use Microsoft Teams, Cisco WebEx, Google Hangouts, and Zoom. I spend quite a bit of my time staring into a webcam. It isn't the same as sitting in a room with my students, but it is all we can do right now. Since I am at quite a high risk of getting COVID-19 (I have a few pre-existing health conditions), I am sticking at home as much as I can.

One exception to staying indoors is for Wendy and I to take Maddy for a walk. I suspect that what is really happening is that Wendy is taking her husband for a walk. Increased restrictions have even closed the local playground and the nearby rail trail. Can't even go hiking as the nice weather starts to become more frequent.

Wendy had to cancel the monthly cleaning crew that comes to the house, and she moved her piano lessons to a web meeting. Here she is with her piano teacher - on her iPad, which is hanging off the cardboard box on the chair where the teacher usually sits, weighted down by old anatomy books. Hey, it works!

Yesterday (March 27th), our crocuses bloomed and made it unmistakable that spring is now here. Too bad we can't fully enjoy it.

Another thing that happened yesterday was that I received the report and images from the MRI that I had on Tuesday this week. Aside from the risk of going out in public and going to a hospital during a pandemic, the scan was worth it. As an aside, there was lots of parking at the hospital and it was almost deserted inside once I got through the screening at the door.

The MRI report suggests that there has been no major changes since the last time I had imaging done. I seem to have healed well from the radiation damage to the top of my lungs, but the images show that I still have radiation-induced inflammation (likely) around my esophagus, which would explain why I continue to have difficulty swallowing. I will have a CT scan in mid April to check again, but it is clear that we have made considerable progress in regards to the tumour in my neck. Just for fun, I have included one image from the MRI series (I have access online). I chose this image mostly because I thought looked relatively easy to interpret (nose to the left, you may be able to figure out what most of the structures are). You may be able to see that there is no massive tumour taking over my neck. I call that progress. (Wendy says she likes my cerebellum...)

For those interested in the details, this is a sagittal T2-weighted image.

Aside from the few minor changes mentioned above, things are pretty much normal around here. 😉