Stinkola Weather

The airport was closed last week for the annual car testing on our wonderful runways.  Kinda sucked, since Thursday and Friday were great weather-wise.  Fortunately, I was able to go out for a flight before it was closed:

I took up someone who purchased (auction) one of the fights I donated to charity.  We of course flew over Niagara Falls.  There were a couple planes in the circuit that didn’t know the strict rules, such as having to be at an altitude of at least 3500 feet.  The one plane called and said he was at 3000 feet, and another one flew directly over us at 3700 feet.  he was high enough, but not flying in the right direction of the circuit:

Dorks.

Anyway, it was a nice flight before the weather started to turn poopy.  The Bridgestone tire thingie didn’t fair too well in the wind:

I was able to head back to the airport while the runways were closed.  I made a batch of fudge for the St. Catharines Flying Club and the tower folks.  They also requested Mya come back for another visit:

She was so cute and chatty the whole time.  Every time someone stood up, she would steal their chair.

Kinda neat to watch the cars racing around the runways.  At least it gave the tower folks something to look at for the week, since there were no planes a’flying:

While dropping off the fudge at the Flying Club, I was shown this adorable, recently caught mouse:

I really wanted to take him home….

Mind you, there is enough cuteness at my home.  I woke up to ninja Pinky this morning:

Then there was little Boo with her mouth slightly open:

Had an amusing incident happen at work on Friday.  I was sitting at my desk with my headphones on, listening to the tunes through my iPhone.  I normally have the ringer turned off at work, but figured it would be ok to have it on since the sound would go through the headphones.  My phone started ringing, so I just let it go through to voicemail, after about 7 rings.  A guy a couple seats down from my asked someone walking by if I was in my pod.  I asked what was up and he said he heard my phone ringing.  I said “You can hear it vibrating on the table from there?”  A couple people laughed and said it was ringing very loud.  One girl started imitating the ring.  Obviously, the ringer doesn’t go through the headphones!  Someone else came up to me an hour later and said he was dancing in his pod, thinking no one was around to see him.  He then noticed his Team Leader watching him from across the aisle.  He felt a tad silly.  Mind you, not as silly as I did.

Hoping the weather forecasters are wrong and the week turns out better than this:

At least Saturday looks decent, for now.

Today’s symptoms: Felt pretty good today.  Last week was really bad fatigue-wise.  Things started to improve by Friday.  Still experiencing quite a bit of bone-crushing pain in my limbs.  It can feel free to stop any time now!

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 10/28/2012 6:49 PM

Aerobatics Are Back!

Had another not-so-great week.  Lots of fatigue and pain.  It’s getting just a tad annoying!  I was only able to stay at work until around 1:00 on Friday, then home to spend the rest of the day in bed.  At least Boo and her siblings kept me company:

 

Today was quite a bit better.  I was even able to go for a flight in the early afternoon.  The weather wasn’t the best though.  I was supposed to take someone up this afternoon but we had to cancel.  It kinda looked like this:

Not a good day for a scenic flight.  I did have a passenger though.  A little ladybug was wedged down by the windshield on my dash – I figured she was dead.  She was all bleached from the sun.  However, a few minutes into my flight, she started walking toward me:

Kinda creepy.  Hope she enjoyed the flight!

On a very bright note, I put enough time on my two new cylinders and was given the all-clear by my mechanic to do aerobatics today.  What a blast!  I couldn’t stay up quite as long as I wanted to as the weather got too yucky.  I checked Vyctor’s belly after I landed – how many people get raindrops on the bottom of their plane?

The rain today caused a pretty nice rainbow.  I snapped a pic as it just started:

Back home, the kitties were in their favourite spots.  For Boo and Mya, that’s snuggled up together on the couch:

It still amazes me that they were the worst of enemies when they first met.  It was so bad, I thought there was no way they would ever get along.

I have a couple flights booked for tomorrow.  Not sure if I’ll have the energy for both – we’ll see.

Today’s symptoms: Felt much better than I did the previous week, but still crashed pretty bad after my flight.  Still dealing with more MS pain than usual….or maybe this is my new usual…

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 10/20/2012 7:14 PM

 

Oops – Blogless Week

It’s been a rather crazy week and I didn’t get a chance to do a blog until now.  On Tuesday, I had my new floor put down.  Jan arrived around 7:30 and the floor guys were there at 8:00.  There was a little mix-up with the scheduling, so they had to come and do the floor on a day I was a tad busy.  At 10:00, I had to be in Welland to give a presentation (the same one I did a couple months ago at the Sexsmith Airport).  That left Jan to watch the cats at the apartment.  I felt bad they were stuck in the spare bedroom while they did the floor out in the living room and kitchen:

At least my presentation went well – probably a little more excitement than Jan was experiencing.  I think there were around 45 people there.  The hall at the Legion was quite large.  I’m glad they got the mic hooked up for me:

And yes, more folks showed up….

Back home, the kitties were settling down, realizing that scampering around wasn’t going to get them out of the room.  I was surprised to see Mya, Pinky and Boo all snuggled up in the new cat bed I bought them.  Sorry Abby, no room for you!

Eventually Boo got booted out and only Mya and Pinky were left:

I had to leave again to go have my Tysabri infusion at 1:00.

They finished the floor after 7:30pm.  Jan and I were starving!  We ordered delivery through Swiss Chalet.  Man, food is amazing when you’re famished.

The next day, I got most of my furniture and items back into the apartment from the balcony:

I’ll take some pics of the new floor for my next blog.

Anyway, I felt pretty lousy throughout the rest of the week.  Friday, I had one of the worst pain days I’ve had in years.  It was unreal.  I had constant, bone crushing pain over my whole body, then I would get waves of even more intense pain.  Sometimes they were so bad, it caused me to gag!  So glad I feel much better today.  Pain is still worse than normal, but much more tolerable.

Since the weather was decent in the morning, I decided to go for a flight.  Snapped lots of pics.  This is the main street in Niagara-On-The-Lake.

There was lots of activity at Fort George.  They were doing the Battle of Queenston Heights re-enactment (200 year anniversary):

Here’s everyone at Queenston Heights (Brock Monument):

Passed a helicopter which was heading over to the Niagara Falls scenic circuit:

Lots of traffic on the Queenston-Lewiston Bridge:

The Fall colours are making their way out.  This is just downstream from Niagara Falls:

The power plant on the American side:

I headed down toward Fort Erie, then flew along the Lake Erie shoreline.

Windmill just West of Port Colborne:

And I always love flying over this old lighthouse off of the shore:

Then north up through Pelham.  Here is a shot of the huge mural at my old high school, E.L. Crossley:

It was a great flight.  I think I’ve put in five and a half hours of “normal” flying to break in my two new cylinders.  Only four and a half to go before I can do aerobatics again!

Back home, I still had a little energy so I did sixty-five minutes on my exercise bike.  I haven’t done any exercises in almost a month, so I really need to get crack-a-lackin again.

Tomorrow, I plan on heading down to Fonthill to visit Jan.  We have some shopping to do at the mall, then over to Zehrs for the week’s noms.

Today’s symptoms: A little more pain than normal, but it was constant without the waves of pain I experienced yesterday.  Quite tired now but I guess it was a rather long week plus I did lots today. 

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 10/13/2012 7:47 PM

Training In Toronto

I’ve been in Toronto since Monday evening. I’m on an Occupational Health and Safety course until Thursday. So far it’s going quite well. As usual, I start to get quite pooped early in the afternoon.  I let the instructors know about my MS so they don’t think I’m yawning because I’m bored. 

 

Here is the view from my hotel room (Holiday Inn Express):

 

 

You can see the CN Tower lit up purple just behind the tall building, second from the left. We are fairly close to it at the training office.

 

 

Looked a tad different with the low cloudage and fog today.

 

 

For the past two days, I’ve feasted on yogurt parfaits for lunch.

 

 

For dinner for the last two nights, my co-worker from St. Catharines and I have just gone to Metro for dinner noms.  Both nights I’ve bought a massive salad.  I was so excited when I noticed the digital, colour-changing grocery dividers.  I tried to snap pics of the two different colours, but it was hard while it was moving:

 

Speaking of said co-worker, he drew a picture of Vyctor from my contact card:

Cute, eh?

My mother has been visiting her wonderful grandkids.   I miss them so much. Miss little Vyctor too.  I’m still breaking in his two new cylinders so I can’t do any aerobatics till I’ve flown ten “normal” hours. I’ve already put in a little over three.   It will be over four if I’m able (weather permitting) to fly over the golf course where a bunch of folks at work are playing that afternoon.

 

Today’s symptoms: I felt decent during the morning, but once the afternoon hit, I crashed badly – severe fatigue and weakness.  Good thing I warned the instructors about this, because I looked how I felt.  I could hardly hold myself up.  I’ll be going to bed early tonight.  Not sure what I’ll do if I feel like this tomorrow.

 

Posted by Lizzy McFly at 10/6/2012 7:53 PM

Happy Thanksgiving

For some reason, my previous blog from about three days ago, didn’t go out to my blog subscribers.  I kinda hope that isn’t repeated with this one.I survived my training for work in Toronto.  Actually, the course was very good.  I thought it would be somewhat boring, but it wasn’t.  On the last morning, my co-worker and I dropped off our baggage in my car then headed back up for breakfast.  As the previous two morning, I had a raisin bran and Froot Loops mix.  Check out the size of this massive mutant raisin I discovered (then devoured):

The morning went by fairly quick, then for lunch, we headed back to Druxy’s which is in the building.  I was getting a little bored of yogurt for lunch, so I “splurged” on a nice roast turkey sandwich:

That was the most dilliest pickle I’ve ever had and could only manage to eat half.

During the afternoon break, I went out to the kitchen area to use my phone.  I noticed a rather odd scene.  Next to the vending machine, there was a fairly large puddle of water and sitting partially in it was a power bar.  Ok, so I’m on a Health and Safety course, during which they taught us how to look out for, report and correct unsafe conditions.  Was this a test?  I went back into the classroom and asked the instructors if I would get brownie points for observing the little hazardous situation they set up for us.  They looked at me a tad confused, so it was obvious it wasn’t a test.  Still, I think brownie points were in order.  I lead them out to the kitchen to show them the problem.  (I outlined the water in red):

They immediately informed the proper folks to get the situation fixed and to check the leaking vending machine.  I was tempted to give the queen wave as I walked back into the classroom, but was able to refrain.

The class finished on Thursday around 3:15.  My co-worker and I headed back to the hotel to pick up Lola Corolla soon after.  We were glad to be leaving at that time so to miss the maddening rush out of Toronto.  Unfortunately, it didn’t quite work that way.  Within a matter of metres from the hotel, we got into a massive traffic jam.  We had three or four lights to go through, but each one went through about ten cycles or more before we made it past the intersection.  It took us forty minutes to go 0.4km!  Needless to say, by the time we made it to the highway, we were right in the midst of rush hour traffic.  It took about two and a half hours to get back to St. Catharines.  Not fun!  However, once home it was totally worth it as all my kitties met me at the door.  Within an hour of being home, Mya showed me her new favourite resting place on the heater:

She’s so friggen cute.

At least I had some cute company while in Toronto.  I brought Donkey with me:

I don’t think his original owner even knows that Donkey is no longer in his possession.  I told him that if he doesn’t get his act together and start acting like a “father” that I would call FADS (Family and Donkey Services).  Dork.

Despite being in bed for the last couple of days with a cold, I hope to feel well enough to go for a flight in the morning.

Today’s symptoms: Congested and achy from this cold.  At least it isn’t any worse than yesterday, so I’m assuming I will feel much better tomorrow.  No MS symptoms to report other than some aches and pains in my forearms and hands.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!  Gobble, Gobble!