Monthly Archives: April 2006

Every morning, much earlier than on this photo, our alarm clock sounds. It’s a fancy alarm clock, a present from a friend, and it has a chip inside on which you can record your own alarm sound. Think ring-tones but different.

I once made a recording and over time the dogs have been trained to wait for this sound to jump on in the bed (Poupoune), or start whining to be picked up (Pepe). Which is very convenient, if not that, once in a while, we press the wrong button on the back of the clock and inadvertently record a new sound over the old one. Usually this is just a click, not very loud, and hardly noticeable when you are fast asleep. Not very useful as an alarm sound, so then I have to record a new version of the sound. No problem. But Alison, morbid as she is, recently asked what she’d do if I suddenly died. “The dogs have to be retrained,” I said, but she suggested another solution. So here it is, for prosperity, our wake up sound, ready for re-recording onto the alarm clock…

This is not like planning to invade Quebec.

I went to see my doctor this morning. Because he was fully booked until May I couldn’t make a regular appointment but went into the walk-in clinic. I anticipated a long wait, but the waiting room was empty and I was the first and only one.
I actually had to wait shorter then when I have regular appointments!

He send me to a rheumatologist who’ll give me a cortisone injection and also to an orthopaedic surgeon who will decide if I need an operation to repair my partly torn tendon. But orthopaedic surgeons are busy folk so I’ve an appointment end of June. That’s not too bad actually as my doctor’s assistant told me the waiting would be around 4 months.

“Oh! Pepe,” I said, “what big ears you have!”
“The better to hear you with,” was the reply.
“But, Pepe, what big eyes you have!î
“The better to see you with.”
“Oh! but, Pepe, what a terrible small mouth you have!”
“Wrafff, wraff, wraff!,” he barked high pitched.

My shoulder troubles are still not gone. Actually they have got worse. According to the MRI I have torn a tendon, and my physiotherapist suspects I have a “frozen shoulder” as well. If that is really the case, and I have almost all symptoms, that means I’m heading for a long and slow recovery. According to several Internet sites a frozen shoulder takes between 4 to 12 months to heal. It especially hurts during the night and in the morning after tossing and turning in my sleep. Sometimes I even wake up swearing from the severe pain that I endure when I make certain movements. Fortunately when I’m in rest it just hurts a little. But I can write off my plans to start climbing this summer. And making furniture is also not possible at the moment, since I can’t lift anything heavier than 5 kilo.

I try to do my daily regime of exercises with a ball and various rubber bands, but it hurts like hell. And the thought of many more months like this is not very uplifting.

The spring is really here to stay. On our weekly walk there where only a few patches of snow left. The rest of the trail was muddy and there where also big puddles because all the molten snow. But Poupoune enjoyed every bit of it, running to fetch the ball. She can’t get enough of it.

The answer to life, the universe, and everything.