Red Faced

My recent fall (actually, more like tipping) with my bike led to a certain amount of embarrassment, which the Wookie and I discussed the other night. In 3 years I can't recall the Wookie ever being embarrassed about anything, the man is so even-keeled, but he mentioned the fall the two of us took on our 3rd or 4th date. Of course, because it was mortifying (for me), it bears repeating here.

A local non-profit organization shows movies on the wall of a very large building on the city waterfront in the summertime on Friday nights. People bring lawn chairs, blankets, munchies etc., make a donation and watch a movie. Kind of like a Drive-in but more a walk in. My station is usually a sponsor of one of the movies and I was going to be the "presenter" this particular night. It was the Blues Brothers (I love that movie) and invited the Wookie to come with me. I had another event to attend the next day so we weren't going to stay for the whole movie, but the organizers gave us front row seats to use anyway.

At the appointed time I got up front and welcomed everyone to the show. I pulled on a fedora and shades and did my little shtick, getting a few people up front to sing the Rawhide theme for prizes and then sat down next to the Wookie. The few chairs provided by the organizer were plastic lawn chairs that resembled Adirondack chairs. About 45 minutes into the movie I shifted in my seat and the next thing I know, with a loud crack both the Wookie and I are on our backs looking at the stars instead of the movie, our feet in the air. I don't know how, but both chairs broke at the same time.

I didn't move for a few seconds, trying to comprehend what just happened,when suddenly there were a dozen faces hovering over mine, people asking if we're ok. I started to giggle as did the Wookie and then most everyone else. People helped us up, we all picked up the debris from the broken chairs, and then sat off to the side for a few minutes. We had to leave anyway, so I found the organizer, thanked him for his hospitality, apologized for breaking the chairs, and we left.

Thank the gods, it was dark, because with my embarrassment I'm sure my face could probably have been used as a search light.

S.

Bug Update

Time for a little bug update...first, a picture of the mounted luna moths with a great self portrait reflected in the glass.

Next, the mounted cecropia I found in June with a clear wing moth to the left, an unidentified gray moth at the top, and the white one is actually a species of tiger moth. Sadly, it's quite small and when it went to sleep its wings were folded. I'm hoping to get another to put on its back with its wings spread so the underside will be visible and you'll be able to see why it's called a tiger moth.

Today, the Wookie and I did a 24 k ride on the St. Margaret's Bay Trail. We went as far as the Ingramport River. It's a beautiful trail that we hadn't been on for a year due to the many rocky areas. Since last year its been resurfaced so it was a much better ride. I'm pleased to say I didn't forget to unclip my feet once! Yay! We also saw lots of bugs, a snake , and a shrew or a mouse making a mad dash to cross the trail. It got a third of the way across and dashed back into the bushes as we were almost on top of it. I picked up a very tired bumble bee off the trail so it wouldn't be run over and after a few seconds she decided to fly off, seemingly recovered. We also found a very common caterpillar, though I'd never photographed one before or identified it. I'm pleased to say it's a Tussock moth caterpillar. There are several hundred species of them in the world so I'm not sure which one this is. It may be the Rusty Tussock moth.
(By the way, that's our old logo for the station I work at. We're still classic hits, kind of, and the dot is gone...it's back to being a "point". And our new tag line is "We play anything.")

The other interesting caterpillar we came across was a species of wooly bear, but one I'd never seen before. It had the most gorgeous sable coloured hair with very light blue spots on its body segments. I suspect it's a species of tiger moth (as most wooly bears appear to be) but I'm not sure which one.

I have about 5-8 more moths to mount and hopefully will get to them in the next week or so.

On the butt front, so to speak, I have a huge bruise and two other smaller ones on my butt and hip. No pictures, sorry, and my right lower leg looks like it had a run in with several coffee tables. Thankfully nothing was broken and I had no pain riding today.

Back to work tomorrow after several days off and I can guarantee it's going to be busy. Hope the place didn't fall apart while I was out exploring...

S.

As Easy as Falling Off a Bike

Clip art licensed from the Clip Art Gallery on DiscoverySchool.com

Tuesday and Wednesday involved loads and loads of laundry, including the seldom done drapes, curtains, bedspread, etc...vacuuming, sweeping, and steam cleaning the tiled floors (yeah, I got one of those nifty "as seen on TV" doohickeys). About the only thing I didn't touch was windows. I even had a friend over for lunch on one of those days.

So with all the chores out of the way, I had two days to do "me stuff". Like ride my bike. And fall off my bike.

I have several wonderful bruises now to show my ineptitude as a user of new clip in pedals. For two years I have heard people extoll the virtues of these pedals. There are cleats on your bike shoes that lock onto or into these pedals. They make pedalling much more efficient as you can actually pull up on the pedal as well as push down, and that also works out a few other muscles while you're riding. I had a chance to try them out on a stationary bike a couple of weeks ago and was quite impressed. The main fear I (and apparently everyone else) had, was getting out of the pedals when coming to a stop. I have watched the Wookie a couple of times almost tip over when he forgot to unclip at a stop. But I was assured that it was easy to come undone. I even tried to undo myself a few times and realized that it is really easy to unclip. So I bought new bike shoes and the pedals, and had them installed on Wednesday.

The problem is not the unclipping. It is remembering to unclip that is the problem.

Thursday I got on my bike at the start of a local trail at a fairly early hour, so as to avoid any undue embarrassment if I did fall. After 3 kilometres as I was approaching the end of the trail, and quite proud of myself for not having to stop on the two hills or when I approached a group of army folks on a march, I thought it was a good time to stop and take a drink of water. There was a woman ahead of me and as I came closer to her and slowed down, she turned around and said hello. I was almost at a complete stop and said "Hi" while applying the brakes fully. Apparently, I can't speak, apply brakes and unclip at the same time. The left foot was unclipped but I was leaning to the right...

And ended up lying on my right side, with the bike on top of me. the woman ran around to the right side of me and attempted to help me up, but my right foot was still clipped on to the pedal. I told her to let me get untangled from the bike first and then I could get up. She stood back and I managed to get out from underneath the bike. All of this happened in full view of anyone and everyone who was driving by the entrance to the trail, including an older couple who were approaching the trail for their daily constitutional. They stopped to ask if I was hurt and I slapped my butt and said I was lucky to have padding to protect me. As they carried on their walk, the woman who had attempted to help me asked if I was injured at all. To which I replied, "Only my pride" and we both laughed hysterically.

I told the woman I had deliberately chosen that hour and that trail so as to avoid any witnesses to my inexperience with the new pedals. The best laid plans....

My butt hurts.

On the Cranky Baby side of things, my friend Ed is on his way to a convention in Vegas. I spoke with him yesterday and he asked to take CB with him. I just got word from CB's mom that she can go. So by the end of next week I'll have some new pics of Cranky Baby's road trip to the "strip". What happens in Vegas will definitely not stay in Vegas. This time, anyway.

S.

Jumping Spider

We had a long weekend in Canada. It started raining on Thursday last week and hasn't stopped yet. Well, actually, the sun came out yesterday morning for about 5 minutes and again in the late afternoon for a short time, but in between we had thunder and lightening and all manner of signs of the apocalypse.

I have just finished a 7 day stretch of work and am looking forward to this week off. Of course I have a billion things to get done that I haven't been able to do because of time and tiredness. And I want to get back on the bike as it's been over a week since the bike tour and I'm starting to get antsy.

Speaking of ants....After supper last night the Wookie and I sat outside for an hour during one of the breaks in the weather. We were accompanied by a few little ants and would have to brush them off from time to time. There were also a few aphids, not really doing anything at all, and a whole slew of flying beetles and moths around the patio.

At one point we discovered a little jumping spider on the table between the two chairs we were occupying. So we followed its progress from one end to the other as it jumped from slat to slat. These are tiny spiders no bigger than a centimetre (or less than half an inch) and this one was no bigger than a quarter of an inch long. The Wookie tried to capture an ant to feed it but was unsuccessful. I, on the other hand, put an aphid in front of it. Success! It was quite amusing, really, to watch this little spider stalk the even littler aphid, then quickly jump on it and devour it. Sounds pretty sadistic, I know, but actually aphids are simply put on this earth to annoy rose gardeners and feed other insects and spiders.

I tried another tactic with the spider as well. I got an aphid to crawl on my fingernail and then I offered it to the spider. Again, success. It quickly jumped on my fingernail, grabbed the aphid and jumped off again. Of course, the Wookie and I were laughing like idiots about this whole series of events. We were both quite amazed and amused. Turns out the spider was probably famished as jumping spiders normally hide away when it rains (I mentioned the DAYS of rain we've had) and come out when it's sunny or during the day.

I hand fed a jumping spider! I know I have probably lost a few of you because of the "ick" factor of spiders. And some of you who stayed with me are still going "ick". I'm not a big fan of spiders. I certainly appreciate what they do but generally speaking the bigger and hairier they are, the less I want to look at them. I like to look at the littler ones, like the jumping spiders or the crab spiders.

It really wasn't an extraordinary feat of bravery to hand feed this tiny one. But it sure was fun! I'll continue to do it knowing that I can. And I got a blog post out of it.

S.

Simple, eh? Part 2

I started to respond to a couple of comments on my last post but it got too long. So, instead, another post:

Contrary to what we heard in the 60s, space is not the final frontier; our brains are the final frontier. We just don't know enough about those 3 pounds of tissue yet.

The term white matter derives from the apparent colour of myelin, different from gray matter in that gray matter has no myelin. Gray matter is the thinking part of our brain, fondly referred to by Hercule Poirot in all those Agatha Christie who-dun-its. The reason everyone's MS is so different is because the white matter in our brains is wired slightly differently for everyone. While there are general centres pretty much the same for everyone, the connections to and from those centres are different. White matter is the connective wiring between those centres and the rest of the brain. As we grow and are exposed to different environmental factors (nutrition, illness, and experiences) that wiring becomes slightly different for everyone. And MS is generally a disease of the white matter.

There is a line of thought that MS may be a couple of different diseases, but the general consensus is that it is a disease of degrees. Just as some people with pneumonia have different degrees of symptoms and responses to medication, so it is with MS. It is the degrees of difference that makes it all that much harder to figure out the puzzle. And that also makes it harder for the non-MS public to understand.

I have said before, the best thing we can do for our MS is to provide the optimal environment for our brains through exercise, nutrition, and mental stimulation. For some of us, that involves physiotherapy, yoga , biking, walks, sudoku, painting, playing a musical instrument, or vitamin supplements.

Our previous health may have an impact on our MS, there's no doubt. There is also no doubt that our physical world impacts our mental world and that in turn affects our physical world. One of those vicious circle things. And remember, too, that everyone's perception is slightly different. What I consider a nuisance, another might find debilitating. What I consider painful, another may find only a minor ache. That's why my MS is different from yours.

MS is a disease that causes a complex reaction in the CNS. But I feel that it is a simple disease. MS is, in simple terms, destruction of myelin. It is the subsequent result of that destruction that makes MS seem more complex. Figure out what destroys the myelin, and you have figured out what causes MS. Then you can figure out how to stop the destruction. Simple, eh?


S.

Simple, eh?

One person I met at the MS Bike Tour is from Lunenburg, a UNESCO World Site, and home to the Bluenose, which graces most Canadian dimes. This guy's name is Larry and he has MS. He also has the largest bike tour team, I suspect in the world, but at least in Atlantic Canada. Larry is somewhat like myself in that he NEEDS to know what causes MS. He spends a lot of time researching MS and has drawn a few conclusions about the cause, but nothing that can be substantiated at this point in time.

Larry has a specific idea about the cause of MS, and while it may have a bit of merit for some people it doesn't hold for all people with MS. And therein lies the biggest problem for solving this puzzle.

When a plane is flying, there are a number of people responsible for keep it in the air. Pilots, ground crews, maintenance crews, air traffic controllers, meteorologists, and flight attendants to name just a few. If one person fails at their job, there are a handful of other folks or machines there to catch the mistake - usually. (For a truly seat-gripping story, check out the Gimli Glider. It is a perfect example of back-up systems and back-up people all failing at their jobs.)

Just like flying planes, our bodies have back-up systems and compensatory ones to keep us working. The human body is an amazing organism. Our brains are the most complex part of our bodies. We have back up systems, to compensate for when things go wrong, or we have ways of adapting to a physical change, and we also have healing mechanisms. If we go blind, other senses become heightened, not because of some instantaneous change in our sensory abilities but because of the increased use of them. As Lisa would tell you, practice makes perfect - or at least makes it a little better. So lack of eyesight is compensated for by improved hearing. Similarly, if you lose the ability to feel (say with your fingers, as happened to me) you become more visually vigilant in assessing your surroundings in order to avoid dangers or accidents.

The very fact that people recover from debilitating events like stroke is proof that the human brain has compensatory abilities. A stroke is the death of brain cells and we know that once something dies that's the end of the road. Yet, people recover abilities that should have been lost forever. That's because the brain cells have the ability to make new connections and go around the dead parts.

So we have backup systems and compensatory ones. Plus we have our own "ground crews" in our brain trying to repair damage. How amazing is that?

If we lack the appropriate amount of calcium in our diet, the body takes it from our bones and teeth. Once a month and during pregnancy, many women "crave" certain nutrients and will ingest copious amounts of whatever it is they are craving (my ex used to come home with a bag of salt and vinegar potato chips once a month and just say "Eat these" because my behaviour -PMS- indicated my body's salt reserve was low). Our bodies tell us when there is something amiss, whether it's a nutrient imbalance or damage to our skin or our hair falling out in fistfulls. Sometimes it's fairly easy to fix what ever's wrong. (Rickets is almost unheard of in the developing world because of the addition of Vitamin D to milk. Simple solution.) But in the case of MS it's not easy to fix.

MS involves the most complex system in the human body, the Central Nervous System. A "perfect storm" of events is what leads to MS: genetics and environment (at least that's how we understand it right now). We can't just add a single nutrient or chemical to our diets to prevent this disease. We also can't just take one away because all nutrients and chemicals in our bodies have multiple roles, similar to back-up or compensatory roles. So what's a researcher to do?

As in the investigation of the Gimli Glider, a number of systems have to be examined. Our immune system has to be looked at, as it affects the CNS. The CNS has to be examined as it affects the immune system. The lymphatic system has to be examined as it affects the immune system. Our digestive system must be examined as that is how we get the nutrients needed for the other systems. You get the idea.

Because of the apparent complexity of MS, the solution should also be complex. Notice I say apparent. Looks can be deceiving or as Shakepeare was fond of pointing out, "Things are not always as they appear ". I believe that once we have examined the role of all the systems in MS, it will be an elegant, simple cause leading to an equally elegant, simple solution. I believe that Larry is on the right track, looking for one specific cause. And it doesn't hurt to have more people looking into this, each with their own idea.

S.

Odds and Sods

So here I am...been on the busy side this week and it's not over yet. Work is go go go as it's the height of vacation season and we're a little short staffed so am working all weekend. My reward is next Tuesday to Friday off. Yay! I am planning a number of things while on a mini vacation that I know I will not accomplish. I've been trying to get laundry done but the gods are conspiring against me. I have a brand new floor steam cleaner that I'm anxious to try out and the dust bunnies are threatening to take over if I don't do something about them soon. As well I have a few more insects to mount and display. And I still have to get to my thank you notes.

On a bright note, I received a very generous donation from my employer for my efforts with the Bike Tour. I was surprised and pleased of course. They offer donations in kind to various charities that mostly involve air time for the non profit sector so an actual substantial monetary contribution was very welcome. I suspect the COO was the one responsible and I've always loved Dave anyway, but that just makes me love him even more.

This happens to be the 60th anniversay of the MS Society in Canada and they are kicking off a new campaign very soon, End MS. A big media launch is expected in September and as I am usually the "go-to" person for media, at least for the Atlantic Division of the MS Society, they've asked me to be the End MS spokesperson for Halifax.

On the bug front, a co-worker asked me to identify a bug he came across this week and I was happy to oblige. He brought it in for me the next day and as it is a great specimen it will make it to the wall of fame in my apartment (and to the blog in the very near future).

The heat and humidity this past week has been almost unbearable (at least for me). I've been coming home from work and then crashing for a 1-2 hour nap before supper, which then makes me kind of cranky and unable to put two sentences together. And because of my workload this week, recovery from last weekend's bike tour, and the heat, I've been unable to ride my bike. But next week I'll be able to get out for rides early in the morning...yay!

Went to see Mongol the other night at the theatre. Haven't been able to get to a movie in ages but actually planned for this one as I knew the Wookie really waned to see it, and so did I. It's about the early life of Ghengis Khan and the visuals were stunning. We so very rarely get to see the countryside of Eurasia and it really is gorgeous scenery. I didn't find it particulary violent. The only thing about the movie that bothered me was the use of breeds of horses that weren't around in 1200 AD. If you don't know too much about horses it won't bother you. There was history, action, and a love story all wrapped around and I recommend it.

Next week I'll have time to blog a little more. I am researching a couple of things to blog about so will have time to get my thoughts together. See you soon!

S.