Month: September 2017
I just looked up the yellow jerk that stung me today. It wasn’t a bee, who is cute, pollinatey, makes yummola honey and is not a jerk. Rather, it was a yellow jacket. I noticed when I opened the recycling container that he was kinda bigger and pointier than a bee. When I opened the lid and said “You’re free, buddy!”, he came back and stung me like a jerk. A bee wouldn’t do that. Bees aren’t jerks. Yellow jackets are jerks. And they hurt. Ow.
Today’s symptoms: Ow. See above. Jerk.
Yesterday was the worst day I’ve had over the last three months of insomnia. I woke up so weak and the MS nerve pain was tres yuckola, so I ended up spending most of the day in bed. The weakness was so bad, I actually couldn’t hold myself up to work. How messed up is that? I was so thrilled that I slept last night! What a difference from yesterday to today. Paws crossed for another great night tonight!
At one point today, I decided to take out my recycling. I opened the containers bin and I noticed a very large bee buzzing about. I said “You’re free, buddy!” I dumped my recycling in then the bee came back around and stung me in the wrist. Are you serious???? What the heck did I do? I’ve had many bee stings in my adorable, short life, and they never affect me more than a mosquito bite. This actually felt like someone sliced open my wrist with a knife:
After the next two hours, the pain increased and my hand eventually went totally numb. It was a nice break from the pain it caused. Thirty minutes into it, the numbness died and the pain came back. Stupid jerk bee – I freed you and you do this to moi? Blarg!
Other than that, today was great! Although Boo wasn’t too happy! She had to go in the stirrups today for her annual medical. She was not thrilled when we got to the vet’s office. The nice thing was that one of the technicians brought out some friends for Boo to meet:
I explained to Boo that this is what she’s supposed to look like, if she wasn’t a freak Sphynx. She came in to examine closer:
One of them must care that they’re nose to nose with a freak. Nope. Couldn’t care less:
Yeah, that was interesting. The tech brought two more kittens out, and Boo’s reaction was the same. What a dork.
Today’s symptoms: Felt so good today compared to the last three, and many of the days over the last three months. I still cannot believe how much a lack of sleep affects me (or I guess anyone) physically and emotionally.
I still haven’t figured out what has been causing this rather severe insomnia for three months now. I’ll have one or two good nights then a bunch more in a row where I’m getting between one to four hours sleep (all broken up). Friday night was somewhat decent, but not great. We had a relaxing day planned for Saturday. Since our places were boxed in by road closures for the Grape and Wine Parade, we didn’t have an option of driving anywhere. We instead wandered down to City Hall and sat on the steps to watch the parade. I’m still trying to find out why E.L. Crossley Marching Band no longer performs in this parade, since it’s local. I was a drummer in the band and we always did Grape and Wine. Anyway, after watching, we did a short walk through the downtown area, accidentally stopping in at Smoke’s Poutinerie for some noms. We weren’t disappointed when we split a full turkey dinner poutine:
Holy Moses, smell the roses! It was SO good! We are certainly going to go back and get it again before it’s gone for the season.
I had a really good night Saturday and woke up feeling quite good Sunday. I had two aerobatic flights booked that morning. Both went great! The first was a pilot from Burlington and the second was his non-pilot friend from Mississauga. Good times had by all! I was hoping to feel well enough to spend a little extra time at the airport to wash Vyctor’s belly. Most planes get some degree of oil and exhaust on their bellies from normal flights, but much more so with aerobatics. Before (a tad blurry):
and after:
The wheel strut before:
and after:
I don’t know if he’s ever been so clean! It took me about two hours to wash Vyc’s belly five times. Very tiring but looks great! I asked the Flying Club manager if all the other planes were jealous when they pushed ultra-clean Vyctor back into the hangar. He said they all laughed at him and called him a sissy. 😦
For the afternoon, Mike and I just chilled with the kitties. Not surprising, Mya was chilling on top of her sister, Pinky:
Pinky eventually escaped said entrapment and ran to the bedroom for some solace. Mya gave her about five minutes:
Ugh. At least she was just next to her.
On a bad note, the insomnia has been brutal the last couple of nights. I got maybe three hours last night. I’m glad my neurologist appointment in Hamilton was in the morning, because as of this evening, I’m totally drained with a glorious headache from the lack of sleep. Paws crossed tonight will be one of those rare good nights!
Today’s symptoms: Blah. Drained. Yuck. Weak. Ugh. Headache. Blarg. Lots o’ nerve pain.
What an amazing couple of days. Mike and I made the arduous drive to the airport yesterday to see the Snowbirds perform. The drive usually takes less than 20 minutes but with the traffic backup heading into the airport, it was over 40. Worth it though. It was kinda nice to drive by all of the general parking folks and into the “We have our own cute planes here so we get to park next to the Flying Club!” We actually ended up watching the show in one of the best spots, right in front of the Flying Club hangar. Just before the show started, I went in to check on cute little Vyctor, who is undergoing some minor surgery on his alternator.
You can see his bottom cowling is off and sitting on the ground in the far left side of the pic. I am planning on doing a very thorough tummy cleaning before the weather gets too cold, so I at least cleaned the lower cowling while it was off (much easier than crawling under the plane!).
What a blast when the show started. Their precision is incredible:
Mind…..Blown….. The show was over 40 minutes and as usual with them, absolutely spectacular!
I kinda, sorta felt bad for the folks who paid $85 for the VIP seats, since we kinda, sorta got in for free. However, with what we’ve paid to the airport for pilot lessons, fuel and hangar rental, we earned the great view! The VIP area was actually quite nice since they got good parking, drinks, food and met the pilots and crew:
Sad to see them land:
Absolutely perfect experience….and then it kept going into the next day. I inadvertently took the Flying Club’s copy of Vyctor’s keys and brought them home with me yesterday. My mechanic needed them to finish up the repairs (as my magneto was sitting on the floor in front of the pilot’s seat). So, since I usually meet up with my little mother on Thursday’s, we first drove out to the airport before my bank appointment. The Snowbirds were set to take off and head to London just after 11:00. Jan has never been that close to them before so we stuck around for over an hour. I decided to take her over to get closer to the amazing planes, when the Crew Chief for number 1 started chatting with us. He was so nice, friendly and informative. We can’t say how much we appreciate him talking to us for about fifteen minutes. He asked me something I never thought I would have heard: “Do you want to get in?” Holy crud sticks! Certainly could never say no to that!
Again, my appreciation is epic:
After, we headed back to the Flying Club and waited for the departure. Jan and I both teared up with the sight, sound and Canadian pride of the situation! What an experience and all because I’m a dork and forgot to leave my spare key at the Flying Club. Needless to say, our trip to Wal-Mart afterwards wasn’t quite as grand, but still productive. I had to buy some new de-greaser to clean Vyctor’s belly. I was hoping to do it after my aerobatic flights Sunday morning but it’s supposed to be in the high 80’s. Ugh! I may have to wait a couple more weeks for some cooler weather (as most people with MS, I have a heat intolerance).
On a bright note, my aviation mechanic gave me a jingle this evening and said Vyc is all ready to rock. They had to replace his alternator brushes and bearing, after I continuously had a high voltage warning light the last flight I was on. My mechanic is great. Just look at the love and devotion he is showing to my little Aerobat:
So that was our awesome day. Jan had dinner with me tonight and we watched some TV. The kitties did some sun bathing out on the balcony. Pinky is only allowed out for about 10 minutes because her ham-like flesh (and lard) sunburns quickly:
Today’s symptoms: Felt really good for a change! I am SO happy to report that I had the best night sleep last night, since my insomnia started almost three months ago. I was so exhausted after the show, plus being out in the sun, that I came home and passed out in bed. I didn’t even have enough energy to shower or brush my teeth…..ewwwww.
What an awesome weekend. On Saturday, Mike and I went to the airport to change the weather seal on Vyctor’s doors. We started working on one in the hangar, and soon realized what a long job it was going to be. So, we removed both doors, took everything out of the plane and brought them back home:
Kinda weird to have airplane doors in my living room:
Good thing we brought them home because it took us over six hours to complete! Getting the old adhesive off was brutal!
On Sunday, Mike met up with his dad at the airport. I did some things around the apartment then headed to the Flying Club to put my doors back on. The Club manager let me know that the Snowbirds were heading in. They are doing an airshow on Wednesday so they came in on Sunday. We watched two of them land, with the remaining nine to come in a few hours later.
Lots of activity as the cadets were out gliding:
The Lancaster flew over:
And of course, the helicopters for the Niagara Falls tours:
Oh, and did I mention the Snowbirds? Tee hee. We went over and talked to some of the crew. I introduced myself to the Public Affairs Officer, Michele Tremblay. She was so nice and informative:
Pretty neat to be so close to the amazing aircraft:
After watching some of the activity, we headed back to Vyc and decided to test out the new weather stripping. We flew up overhead the field and did some aerobatics. It’s nice not having any of my hair being sucked out, where the old stripping was cracked and rotten. Afterwards, we chatted with some people at the airport and tried to decide if we should wait for the rest of the Snowbirds to come in. We both assumed we would regret not staying, so we did. What an awesome sight when they came back:
The sound was epic! Soon after they landed, a Dash 8 came in. I snagged this pic just as one of the Club’s training planes was taking off:
Pretty cool watching them taxiing in and lining up with absolute perfection:
As you can see, Mike was thrilled.
After checking everything out, we both realized how hungry we were so we decided to leave. First we dragged Vyc over to the hangar:
He looked stunning with his pitot static cover, dangling with it’s new little headset:
Since we both had our cars, we decided to meet at Zehrs at the Fairview Mall to grab some groceries and pick up dinner. I wanted to get something for my mother in Wal-Mart, so we headed down to the opposite end of the mall. It was just 5:00 so the mall was closing. They let us in through the interior doors, and closed them behind us. We got our loot and then had to walk outside back to the other end of the mall. We attempted to go through the doors near where we were parked, but they were locked. Just then, a cute, little old lady came up behind us and asked if the store was closed. I said that she would have to go around outside to the main front doors. I explained how to get there, then she said she didn’t have a car. She had just taken the bus to the mall. I said I would drive her around to the front. She said she left her wallet in Zehrs yesterday so she just wanted to retrieve it. I asked how she was going to get back home after and she said she would take the bus. Well, the bus stop was on the back side of the mall, and there’s no way she could have walked that far. Mike and I went in with her and she got her wallet. I then asked Mike to pick up the groceries because I was going to drive her home. When we walked out to my car, I opened her door and said “Your chariot awaits, madame!” She was so cute, in the car she pulled her wallet out and said she was giving me gas money. I told her not to be so silly and put her wallet away. She was so insistent and dropped $3 into my cup holder. She kept saying how much she appreciated the ride and that I should just take her little token of appreciation. I said “Yes mommy!” By the time I got her home, Mike texted and said he had almost everything, so I just drove home. What a perfect end to the day!
Today’s symptoms: Felt pretty good today after finally getting a couple good sleeps. I hope this is a sign of improvement in the ol’ sleep department.
Mike and I flew up to Elmhirst Resort, northeast of Toronto this weekend. It was our first time there. One of the things that attracted us to this location was the grass runway on the property. We headed out just after 9:30am and figured the flight would be less than an hour and a half. Half way there, we had the pleasure of flying by Toronto:
After about an hour into our flight, we came upon Rice Lake, which the resort is on:
Soon after, we were on final to land:
Once we parked Vyctor, a few other planes landed after us. We watched them come in and then wandered over to the reception building. It was too early to check into our cottage so we wandered around the resort for a couple hours. I must mention, before leaving for our trip, Mike said that if we get there and someone recognizes me (happens a fair bit when we’re at other airports for fly-ins and noms) that he was going to leave. I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to run into anyone up there. Well, lo and behold, we had just sat down to have some lunch when someone came into the restaurant and said “Hi Lizzy!” The look on Mike’s face was priceless. A couple guys came in soon after, and one said “I read your article in the COPA magazine!” Bwahahaha! Poor Mike.
After lunch, we walked back to the plane with with the guys we just met up with, chatted a bit more then watched them take off:
Then we unloaded the plane and brought our loot over to our cottage. It was so nice with a great view of the float plane dock:
The next day, we had a guided canoe trip booked after brekkie. Our tour guide Debbie was awesome. She told us so much about the area and resort. She also didn’t seem to mind too much when this happened:
We relaxed for a bit back at the cottage then we went for a horseback riding excursion. This was Mike’s first time on a horsie. I had ridden before when I was a kid then took lessons for a year back in high school. They gave Mike a nice, calm horse and they gave me Mike. Yes, my horse’s name was Mike.
We had an awesome ride through some wooded areas and around some fields, with two women from Germany (on vacation here) and the tour guide. Here are some videos I live posted to my Facebook page. You may need to unmute in the bottom right corner:
We had the best time!
It should be no shock to you that this happened:
Tee hee! Man, that unicorn head was the best purchase ever.
I’m not one on taking selfies, but had to make an exception:
On the way back to the cottage, we checked out the chickens:
We headed back home Tuesday. We made a pit stop at Lindsay Airport to fuel up and pick up some of their amazing butter tarts. Mike had another joyous reaction when we were coming in to land and the airport manager came on the radio and said “Is that you, Lizzy?” Tee hee! The trip was one of the best I’ve ever been on. We are certainly going to be back to Elmhirst next year!
Today’s symptoms: Not surprising, I’m really feeling the effects of doing so much over the last few days. Very weak and drained today. I don’t think the poor night of sleep helped at all. This insomnia has been going on for way too long!
Great news! I finally got some sleep. Night after night of only getting two to three hours of sleep, I had three good nights in a row. Man, I can’t even begin to say how much better I feel. I’ve always known that when I got multiple nights with very little sleep, I get tired (obviously), more fatigued, bad headache and often a bad mood. I never realized that whole body weakness is also caused by this. I basically felt like I had a bad infection – that type of weakness. Paws crossed the good nights continue, especially since Mike and I have a little vacation planned in the next couple weeks.
The kitties have been so supportive of my worse symptoms over the last few weeks. Just look at this concern:
That pic of Pinky is a little more flattering than the previous one I took of her:
And Boo’s wasn’t much better:
She was helping us complete our puzzle. While we were doing so, we both commented on how windy it was this afternoon. Mike grabbed his phone to pull up the aviation weather app and as he did, I said “it’s (blowing) 27 and gusting 36!” It was a total guess. Mike couldn’t believe it when he looked at his app and I was dead on. He said I probably just looked at my phone recently and saw it. I pulled out my app and it showed the last time I viewed it was yesterday morning. Creepy!
I had to do something this weekend that most women seem to love doing – I had to buy new shoes. I hate buying shoes. HATE IT!!! My last pair were clearly very poorly designed, despite being Clarks. I was hoping they would last me at least three years. Nope:
Ugh. Mike and I were going to Wal-Mart at the Fairview Mall and we stopped at the Brand Name Shoe store on the way. The second pair I tried on were perfect. Yeah! They look like the last pair but seem to be a little bit better constructed….I hope:
Unfortunately I bought another pair a few months ago (Franco Sarto) but they are SO uncomfortable. Sucks I wasted over $130.
You may have seen in previous blogs the picture of my pitot static tube cover. I always get a little nervous that someone is going to swipe it.
I decided to put a bolt through his little head, put on some washers and nuts so I could tie on some string to secure it to the plane a little better. Obviously if someone still wants it, they can put the work into untying it, but hopefully this will be a deterrent.
Not too nice looking so I decided to get creative and turn the bolt and nuts into a headset:
Tee hee. I love being weird!
My pilot friend recently sent me a picture of a hairless guinea pig and said I should get one. I told her I’ve had one before. I miss little Spartacus! (Sparty for short):
Him and Mya got along so well. Mya gets along with everyone though. Look at her snuggled with Pinky:
I’m glad I’ve always had luck with my different pets getting along:
Had a great weekend although I didn’t go flying. I didn’t want to push things after how crappy I’ve been feeling from the insomnia. I did have to go for an MRI this morning (my fourteenth!) Since today was a holiday, no one was there to print off my images CD, so I’ll have to run over tomorrow and pick it up. I always have a lookie-see and compare it to my previous. My neurologist asked for a copy of the CD as well. At least I can hit the 15 minute max parking and not have to pay another $6.
Today’s symptoms: Felt quite good! The weakness is certainly gone, but I’ve still got a bad headache. That I can deal with – the weakness, extra fatigue and everything else that goes with prolonged lack of sleep is another story.
Lizzy McFly 