Taken a few weeks ago, Rufus thinks about gnawing on the wooden ball that he has broken in half. He would pick it up & throw it as far as his short little neck would allow. What fun!

   Today was my monthly book discussion group where we discussed a thoroughly unpleasant book with a cowardly & unsympathetic narrator called "The Kite Runner". One of the few good things about it was the vivid setting of recent war torn Afghanistan, a country most people know very little about, and so helped us understand it a little better.

   Before the meeting began, the librarian who leads it told us she had some sad news, which I guessed at before she even began. One of our members, Cathy, had died last week from lung cancer. It was already quite advanced when accidentally discovered a couple months ago. She never smoked, ate sensibly & was active, so I'm not sure what caused it. In any case, she will be greatly missed.

   Though a member for only about 4 years, Cathy added a lot to the group. She was intelligent & outgoing, immediately treating anyone as a friend. She was confident & humorous, full of entertaining stories. She had lived various places & travelled all over, often being reminded of journeys while reading one of our assignments. Whereas I read to experience places I'll never be able to go, she did the opposite; the books bringing a pleasant memory of a long ago trip. She often told us about large family parties & though her husband was a very different sort of person, one who liked repairing clocks, she always spoke of him with respect & affection. A political liberal, she threw a fund raiser for a local candidate last year. I imagine she livened up any gathering she attended. She was truly a person who lived life to the fullest & I admired her for that.

    Cathy seemed to take everyone on their individual merits & appreciated their unique qualities. She once told me I ought to be a stand-up comedian because I made everyone laugh so much during meetings. She often teased me about my liking for Ralph Fiennes. She, herself, lusted after Gregory Peck. She was well read & well travelled and truly looked at life as an adventure. She added so much to the meetings that I'm sure it will always leave a gap. The world is a bit less vibrant with her passing.

   My mother went to the vascular doctor on Friday and recieved some good news. Since the abdominal anuerysm is less than 4 cm, they won't need to do surgery at this time. Yay! With her emphysema & heart problems, surgery would be dangerous, so this is a big relief. She is to have it measured again in 6 months to see if it's enlarged & if it's not growing, then the next scan can be after a year. In the meantime, she may be taking beta blocker pills, which is supposed to slow or stop these things from growing. Her primary doctor will let her know about them.

   The doctor also said she would be able to safely do the physical therapy for her back & sciatica, which had been postponed with the discovery of the anuerysm. With all this good news, my mom has been in a better mood & is feeling more hopeful. My sister & I are of course, quite pleased by all of it.

   If the heat wave is getting to you, here's something to cool you off-- a snowy painting I did a few months ago. It's called "Winter's Night", which was my mother's suggestion. At first I was going to do it in scratchboard, but the expanse of snow seemed better suited to an acrylic painting. The idea was so strong that I put aside other projects to work on this one. That's a snowshoe hare, which turns white in winter & is brown in summer.

    It's been a busy week for me, spending a lot of time at the doctor's office & hospital. Even though I went to the doctor nearly 3 weeks ago for this cough, it's still not gone away. Monday, I called hoping to get a prescription for cough medicine, but got an appointment for Tuesday afternoon instead. That led to x-rays & a blood test & a pulmonary test for yesterday(Wed.).

The pulmonary test is to see how your lungs are processing air. One breathes at various speeds & depth into a tube, which measures different functions. Though it isn't painful, it made me a bit panicky, since one's nose is clipped shut & all breathing is done through the tube, which is rather narrow. At one point it seems like the tube is closed & I felt like I couldn't get enough air. That sensation only lasted a few seconds, but my panic made it feel longer. The entire test only takes about 20 minutes & showed  no signs of asthma or bronchitis, which has cleared up. Apparently the coughing is from another source, possibly a sinus problem or allergies.

   The technican was extremely nice, patient & informative. She's been doing this for 40 years & when I asked, told me about the changes in technology over that time. Originally, the machine consisted of 2 barrels & a graph which had to be deciphered using trigonomertry formulas. Now the computer does all of that.

   While the test wasn't too unpleasant, I hope I don't have to take it again any time soon. I was greatly relieved that I haven't got asthma. The doctor gave me some different antibiotics, so perhaps that will chase the cough away and I can get back to bicycling & enjoying the rest of the summer. 

              Cute Overload

This is a new website that was brought to my attention. It's full of adorable animal photos; not only kittens & puppies, but bunnies, hamsters, ducklings, piglets & all sorts of cuddly creatures. The content is added to everyday, & though it takes awhile to download on dial-up, it's definitely worth it.