When I said that I don't get Twitter, I meant this:



First time I see a video actually saying out loud what I had been thinking about it all this time.

We can finally say that Athéna is almost completely healed. Her cornea didn't "re-ulcerize" once we started the cortisone, which is the last step to get rid of the oedema on her eye. It could have re-opened if it wasn't properly healed, but luckily for us, it isn't the case. In fact, the vet is happy with how well she heals.

She'll keep a certain whitish layer on her eye, as the damage at her cornea was pretty extensive. Call it eye scar, if you will. But, she regained >90% of her sight. It is almost not perceptible anyway. Better that than any scenarios that could have occurred if complications happened (or worse: omission to provide proper care), including heavier surgeries and ultimately perhaps loosing her eye.

She is back to normal and she has a much better mood too. Now, to make her loose all the weight she gained from being lethargic while in heavy pain all those weeks... Yeah, she doesn't like her quite strict diet. C'est la vie! :-)

Limited offer!

Who wants a pack of Chez Geek 1 + 2 + 3, along with a pack of Chez Greek? For free!

First come, first serve! Must go!

Been silent lately, but it is not that not much happened. On the contraire!


I dunno. Just like so many people, it just feels like no one come here anymore. Feels like talking to myself. Maybe I am wrong. It is just darn quiet now. Blame Facebook and Twitter?

I also have a conflicting feeling that takes more place now. It just feels that lots of people use LJ in lieu of picking the phone and taking news about you. I am not saying I don't do it too, but it does procure a fake sense of connection with friends. I believe it should remain what it is good for, which is a place to speak your mind, to express yourself, to let your mind wander, to share what's on your heart and mind. And not a replacement for real fleshy contacts, person-to-person soul bonds.

Regarding the Twittosphere, you won't find me there. I find this shallow web-based invention to be the cancer of the internet and I don't feel the need to contribute to it. I find that Facebook at least has a purpose, if not two. But even then, I have friends who left the Fessebook boat for the reason evoked about a fake sense of friendship and touch with them.

I am having LuLu over for a second time!!! She is adorable! <3!

Here's a scene from my lap (way underneath the pile of animals) from tonight. :,-) Italian Greyhounds are great with cats, I read. I do believe that. :-)

News about potential dog


We got news from the rescue. You see, the lady taking of it also has a pregnant Italian Greyhound who is expected to go into labour right about tomorrow. We want to have a puppy as a first one since we live in the city and already have a cat. Having a rescue makes it hard to obtain a rather young one (we asked for < 1 year). Our current plan is to visit those puppies and reserve ours. Then, at the age of 10-12 weeks, we come and pick her up.

However, we haven't ruled out rescuing one. We plan on doing so for the second (and last) dog. I can't wait!!

News about the cat!

She got her stitch removed. For some silly reasons, I thought it'd be rather over after that. Silly me. I mean, once the stitch got removed, I didn't think that it could have stuck together and that the vet may need to gas her a little to make it unstick. And more obviously, I forgot that removing the stitch would lead to bleeding and swelling of her nictitating membrane and eyelid. Duh! She looked like a boxer who got a good punch on the eye!


I used to always see that vet and I never really got in touch with the reality of other vets before: they all charge for follow-ups. Not mine! He 1- cleaned Athéna's eye, 2- removed the stitch, 3- used anesthetic gas to unstick it all, 4- examined her eye, all that free of charge. I left the hospital paying a big zero (amount confirmed by the secretary before I left). That is one of the reasons why I love this vet. Very sensible.

I must admit that I have been a bit surprised on the spot for several reasons. One, I have a weakness for eye problems, as they make me squirm. Two, I saw my own cat drugged with a bloody eye and I have no emotional distance at all with her. Three, I wasn't thinking about what could happen after the surgery. See, while the membrane is closed, there is a formation of blood vessels that grow on the eye to provide all the necessary substances to rebuild the cornea. Once the nictitating membrane was open, I could see her uneven, freacky, bloody eye. I didn't understand on the spot why the vet said that it looks good, because it looked far from it from my point of view, but did not get it. Underneath it all is the eye and its cornea. This whole layer, albeit freakish, is a sign that it is healing underneath and will go when we start the cortisone treatment, which should be a week after the stitch removal (yeah, the tissues must heal after the removal of the thread!). I can see a third of her eye slick and shiny, as it used to be and then I understood.

Plus, a few days after the removal of the stitch, she started to be her complete full self, a first since the begining of this whole story. That is very heart-warming. :-)

This afternoon, up North on the island, a mad apocalyptic hail storm started early afternoon. I have never seen anything like this, much less so in the middle of July. "What the...?" I would say while looking at it completely flabbergasted. It lasted about 5 minutes, but during that time, I couldn't see across the street! Pellets the size of cherry pits, millions and millions of them!

Not only it rains all the time, but it now hails like mad. Are we having a shitty Summer or what?

Some animal development lately!

Cat


We are going to the vet tomorrow night to remove the stitch that holds her nictitating membrane. Only then we'll know if she is healed or is about to be healed or shows complications. The only way I can judge her progress at the moment is by her behavior.

Two days post surgery, she started to ask for my attention again, instead of hiding in a box. A few days after, she climbed her scratch post for the first time in a month and gave a real good scratch to make up for the lost time, while purring like a 18-wheeler truck. I would say that the last week is the toughest. She is tired of the collar, of the stitch, of not getting to groom herself, of not being able to scratch her face or getting petted on her cheeks, of us annoying her with drugs all the time. 1 day now... :-)

Doggie!

On my birthday, I went for dinner with friends and Mr Coombs and during the meal, I shared my interest in adopting an Italian Greyhound with our friends. As we are exiting the restaurant, our friends point at us "Isn't it an Italian Greyhound over there?". Holy cow, it was!! I hesitated a second (didn't want to look like a freak coming out of nowhere, running after a scared dog to pet her), but they are so rare, so I went for it. I started chatting with the owner and it went on for a good while, so I gave my email address. The dog is LuLu and she is from a shelter in Ontario. I didn't know there was a shelter for sight hounds! Cool!


She even offered us to borrow her dog for a little séjour at our place, if we want. Wow! So days went on, exchanged correspondence, trying to set a date to walk in the park despite the horrible weather. Last Sunday, we saw LuLu and her owner again and we took the opportunity to keep her with us for 2 days at our place. Her owner is just simply put wonderful and generous to have done that.

So it allowed Dave and I to get to know more about the breed and also... to fall in love with it. :,-D We are waiting to hear from the shelter. We are willing to drive to the deep end of Ontario (it is near Detroit) to get our next family addition. We are so grateful to have crossed path with LuLu's owner as she is an awesome person in our lives.

Now, we are even thinking about getting a second one... for later perhaps.

So I was aggravated after a week of fighting for obtaining the proper care for Athéna for her corneal ulcer (calls back and forth) that I opted for more options. I knew she needed surgery, but couldn't wait another 3 weeks for it to be performed. So, I called her old vet, who is rather far, but very knowledgeable and equipped to inquire if he does that kind of surgery. He does and how!

We got an appointment with 2h of notice and 30 min after we entered the clinic, her surgery was done, ready to go home. I like when the vet knows what needs to be done and then say that he can do it right away. Now, that is efficient! Laser surgery on the fly!

The vet knew right away what it was and what needed doing. He has seen it before and is very confident she'll get better. We opted for the whole package: laser to remove non-adherent cornea with punctures to stimulate adherence of the new cornea cells + closing of the nictitating membrane with a stitch to favor healing (hence the plastic piece on her eyebrow). We have 95% chances everything will be fine in 2 weeks when she gets her stitch removed.

She just got home and still dopey from the anaesthetic gas, but all is well now; she can heal. Now, that is a *great* birthday gift! I feel much much much more relieved and relaxed now.

I think that the vet deserves a mention, since I always had great reliable service from him. It is Dr Michel Cosimano from Hôpital Vétérinaire de l'Est.

Something I wanted to do in a long time: catch a fat and juicy fly and have fun with it.

Aaahhh... feels great! :-)

More photos to come!

As I suspected and feared, Athéna is not going better.

Last Friday, the vet couldn't agree more that she is not healing as her ulcer got very big and she started to have heavy brown eye discharge. The problem with her ulcer is that the cornea regrows, so she is seems to be going better, but then those cells aren't properly attached or don't properly adhere, so the new growth front gets scraped off. All the progress she makes is blasted away within a week. You can even see the chunks of tissues washing away.


In cases of non-healing ulcers, the surgery becomes an alternative to solve the problem. This is where more madness starts. The person performing such act is an ophthalmologist, as the vet doesn't want to touch such region (can't blame him...). After many phone calls, it would appear that there is only *1* ophthalmologist in the whole province of Québec (and I tried the vet school) and all she could give me is an appointment in *3 weeks*. In the meantime, Athéna is in pain and it's been already 2.5 weeks. Yup, the waiting is impossibly long and I haven't mentioned the fees yet! For a regular appointment, it is 100$ for 40 min (not including drugs, extra tests, surgery, etc!) and it'll be 160$ if I can make it to the very select and prestigious state of "emergency case". Whoa!

I had to have numerous phone calls back and forth with my vet and also with the ophthalmo and still, I don't know when I can have Athéna checked to finally solve her problem. They don't seem to have this sense of urgency at this specialist... The ophthalmo made me secure the July appointment, at which point I allowed myself to be openly sarcastic when the secretary asked if that time suits me by replying that anyway I won't go to this appointment, since my vet *will* contact them for a privileged appointment. God sakes.

So, after a day of struggling, fighting to get her to be seen asap, I still haven't made any progress. *sigh*

UPDATE: At least, the vet called (and will call again) to check if the ophthalmo called. But the ophthalmo didn't call... :-(

"Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life." - Confucius

Thanks to the person who shared it with me today. You know who you are. :-D

A very inspirational piece of a site I just looked at:

Perhaps it's just the euphoria of feeling better after feeling ill. But maybe all these struggles to try to meditate, to try to get myself into a space, this simpler 'space through which stuff passes', are bearing some real fruit. If so, here are the things that I've been doing differently, that might be worth making more time for:

1. Deliberately doing less, just enjoying the passage of time, guilt free, lazily.
2. Long walks in the forest, in the rain, and in the moonlight.
3. Listening to favorite, well-crafted music.
4. Watching sunrises and sunsets, with a cup of tea.
5. Surrounding myself with lovely smells -- scented candles, flowers, spices.
6. Looking at flames -- candles and fireplaces.
7. Smiling and laughing -- at funny cartoons, poignant stories, playful kittens.
8. Eating simple whole foods -- berries, nuts, fruits, raw vegetables.
9. Dancing by myself.
10. Looking at things from unusual perspectives -- up close, in shadow, looking up.

These attentive, solitary, sensory pursuits slow my breathing, my heart rate, and silence the machine in my head. Perhaps this is my meditation.

After I've spent some time doing them, I seem to be more centered, more ready for social activities, more competent at them. I enjoy them more. I'm more present.

I'm more Me.

How to Save the World

Canada week is over. And I decided to give myself a little vacation, since I need a rest post-trip and I haven't done it so far. I just pause it and I'll resume from where I left off. If I wasn't going on any trip during the entire duration of the project, i.e. 52 weeks, it would have been another story. :-)

So no new theme this week. I'll announce it when I am rested! :-)

So Canada week took place as I saw a show from a band that couldn't embody Canada more, in my opinion. The Tragically Hip! If you're not from here, you may think of Celine Dion or Bryan Adams, but you'd be very wrong.

I generated a shitty iPhone photo, but I was willing to sacrifice the quality in order to favour the appropriateness!

I never cared much for their music and barely knew any, but God, they put one hell of an awesome show! The singer is just simply wonderful on stage!

Canada

The Tragically Hip, God save the Queen, CANADA . Ce billet a cou, Canadian Bear, 20.

Originally uploaded by diluvienne

In the meantime, I shipped my mark II to Canon Mississauga. It did cost me an arm to insure it to its proper value so it better be good service dammit *&&%?&$$#%&*. They received it today and gave a 15-20 business days before it gets back to me. I want to see a 'no charge' for all the things I asked service for. We'll see how that goes.

Last night, I was at The Tragically Hip show, at the Métropolis.

Really, I never cared much for their music, but I went as dcoombs's date. To me, this band was the band with the sweaty singer (he would start the concert dry, but end it soaked like he took a shower!), as I had seen on TV 18 years ago in circumstances I am still advising against telling my mom about. (!)

But I got to see more than I came for. Honestly, they put one hell of an awesome show. Whoa! The singer sweats a lot, yes, but he makes an act of it too! He sweats charisma!

Sadly, tonight's show is complete.

I just realized that my birthday is approaching! And I already know what I want, but I need advice...

I do own a cheap 'Made in China' macro rail, which does it for the breezy Sunday macro photographer, but has become limited for me. See, with the heavy camera + heavy MP-E lens + heavy macro flash with the 2 heads + remote control, it had just become barely usable. Plus, I can't take portrait macro shots, since the rail just slides down completely to obey to gravity.

So, I need to know which rail would be the Ultimate macro rail. What model of what brand is The macro rail. I want locking in place that means it and real smooth, precise sliding back and forth, right and left. A real good bonus would be to be able to go up and down as well, but I don't dare to dream about it. :-) Money isn't an issue, I want a rail that I won't want to replace anytime soon.

Does anyone have a good model to suggest?

I had more difficulty finding the motivation this week and I totally know why. I should have thought of this.

When I come back from a trip, I need a little photo vacation. I typically have 1500+ photos to go through from a 10 days adventure and perhaps letting the camera cool down for a week or two is necessary. But then again, I never had Project52 to disrupt that rest before and I also never know about trips more than one month in advance. Ah well... It'll come back, I know it. :-)

So this week's theme is all about Athéna since she is my only readily available pet (for now!). :-)

Pets
Rosy, Smile, At work, I keep an eye on you, Guarding the neighbourhood from indoors.
Originally uploaded by diluvienne

Week 16 is here already! And the theme is...

O Canada

Let your Canadian patriotic fiber express itself out loud.

Or something. :-)

(I swear to God, the picture title is a perfect awesome coincidence!)

Camera saga continues!

Well, well... It'll be more complicated than I hoped/expected. Turns out that since April 1st (and it is not a joke), the Montreal Canon Customer Care Center has closed. They are redirecting all the clients to the Mississauga one. (Now, I could so bitch about how serious this company is to not have any customer care center in the whole province of Quebec or about the fact they are going for just one for the whole country, and also on how it'll impact on the rapidity of the service. But I won't. Perhaps for another entry when I'll have walked that path. :-) )


I wonder. It is because of the recession? Because they were incompetent? Because they were giving bad service? Because they didn't have enough demand? And now, Mississauga. I already know who to write to when I'll need to express my indignation! :-D

On the more serious side, I hate this news. It just means that I'll have to pack my camera myself (more trouble), and have it shipped, at *my* cost. I filled the repair request on their Online Repair System, and despite the fact that a computer told me that it would cost $0.00, I cannot shake off my head the fact that the system says that only based on the warranty check. It doesn't read the description of the problems. I listed 3 of them and I am waiting for an invoice from them as soon as a human takes some time to process the reason of my camera's presence. I cannot believe I won't receive an invoice from them and that they'll clean it for free without having me having to shout.

Stay tuned!

Tomorrow, I shall drop my camera at Canon, again. Again?!?, you might say. *sigh* Yes, again. I noticed a dead pixel in my LCD before the trip, but wanted to have my camera for it (fast as they are...), so I opted to wait until I am back.


In addition to this problem, I found a good amount of dust in my viewfinder which also lead to dust on the sensor that neither the camera's cleaning or my manual cleaning can get rid of. I know it'll be yet another debate with them in terms of what's covered, me not paying for what should be working and asking them to do their job in a reasonable amount of time. I surely hope it won't get to that. I still have the director's phone number for the Montreal Customer Care center and I am not afraid to use it! To follow. *sigh*

So, on a semi-related note, I kept pondering whether or not I should sell my 30D. Keeping 2 DSLRs seemed rather luxurious to me, but I doubt that it is worth much nowadays, especially since there have been 2 generations since mine. It has just reached its 3rd year, so really, perhaps, it'll be worth more in my hands.

Especially if I keep having to drop my mark II at Canon's every now and so often... *sigh*