Reality Check

Good morning or is that good afternoon,
Doesn't really matter, I am just so proud of myself for making it back here so soon.

So reality is setting in, sigh, the wolf officially signed his contract to go back to Kandahar. He seems to think that his deployment will be easier on me this time... heh... nope... news flash....
Wolf leaves in 5 weeks, the water works have already started, but never in front of him. OH good lord, never in front of him... and they always hit at the weirdest times....

I was on my way to work yesterday morning and going through timmies at 5:30 a.m. (which that time on a sunday morning is depressing enough) and I order my extra large black double cupped and suddenly ..... out of nowhere, the tears started and I thought... ok... he will be home in the spring...but I had a hell of a time trying to get them to stop.

Today..... I am in Loblaws picking up a few of my favorite comfort foods... and I reach for a jar of olives and suddenly... the tap is turned on...I pulled my sunglasses down.... sniffled and fought until I got back to the car... and thought, now how ridiculous is this, I still have 5 weeks.

I went into a computer store to price shop for a laptop for the Wolf for christmas. I was fine and then the salesman says, "Are you alright?"... "Ah, ya.... umm... why", I reply with a look of bewilderment. Thinking, like, is there a booger hanging off the end of my nose or something.
He looks at me as if I have 3 heads and 6 eyeballs and says," Your crying". One long tear going down the side of my face. I asked how long the sale was on for and I might be back..... ok... now I can't even tell if I am crying anymore.

I get home and think maybe if I think of happy things, I can control this silly reaction. I start researching things to do for New Years after all, the wolf leaves 5 days later.... and wouldn't you know it... uh huh... water works.

So then I think, maybe writing about it, will get this ridiculousness out of my system. Well nope, sitting here writing this, I am watery. Maybe this is my subconcious way of letting go... preparing myself for when he is gone...I don't know, but I certainly do miss him already.

Maybe food will help!
Ciao for now.

The mercy of family

ok.. 3 times in one week!!!! Can you tell I am bored... sigh....

Why is it that when one is feeling under the weather (or in my case hobbling around and feeling sorry for myself)... one needs the comfort of their childhood?

I remember being young and having the measles I think (maybe the chicken pox) anyway my mom had made a rump roast with roasted potatoes for dinner (our usual Sunday night dinner). I was not allowed out of my room, can't remember why... I think it was something to do with the light or I might of been contagious... who knows... not like my siblings wouldn't have already been in contact with me.... or that they weren't the carrier of this dreaded illness that confined me to being alone in the dark.

Anyway, once the Wolf and I got home from the hospital.... I said, " I need my mommy dinner"... the Wolf being the intuitive creature that he is says... "uh huh, what kind of roast?"
My eyes widened in shock..."You should know by now"... instantly, out of the freezer appears a rump roast. Woo hoo.....I can smell it already....

I explain to the wolf that the roast is in.... and in about an hour to peel some potatoes and lay them gently around it.... I am going to lay down.....3 hours later, I awake to snoring.... and the smell of a roast that smells like it is dry...UGH!!!!!!!!!

I try to fly out of bed and hobble to the kitchen... sure enough... the roast was dry and no potatoes... well you can't have a roast without potatoes.... so .. there I am in my whimpering state peeling potatoes to the music of the Wolf's snores.... UGH!... visions of pillows over his face... socks down his throat... a clothes pin on his nose.....all the while peeling potatoes... I am surprised I didn't end up back in emerg with a lost finger. I am at the mercy of this !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

By this time Brat 1 and 2 enter, looking rather bewildered as to why I am steaming from the ears... forget the vegie steamer... just use the steam coming out of my ears for the vegies... I explain that I could use some help and get... "ya, ok"...and they go their room... huh? Guess they figured with me holding a knife, they were safer elsewhere.

An hour later, I am enjoying my feel better meal aloe to the Snores of the Wolf CD... uh huh... he is still snoring... UGH!

However, whether I was alone or with someone, my mom was there with me, with her rump roast and potatoes, givng me the comfort I needed and no one else could have provided.

Thanks mom.

Teaching Hospitals

Hey look at this... I made it back two days in a row.

Can you tell I am not at the arena?

I have absolutely no problem with teaching hospitals, in fact I promote it 110%. Afterall we do have a shortage of Doctors and it has only taken me 5 years to find a family doctor here.

Let me continue my adventure and then you will understand why I am a little squeamish about when student doctors should go into the real life practicing.

The Wolf picks me up at work and I hobble out to the car. Of course, the Wolf being the kind of guy he is, continuously asks questions. So many in fact, I feel like I am with a 3 year old and just want him to zip it up and let me suffer in peace.

We get to the hospital, through triage rather quickly and in a wheel chair to boot. Now I am truly at the Wolf's mercy. They call me rather quickly and I think ok... maybe this is more than just a little cut in need of some sutures. The Wolf wheels me back, zig zagging all the way, saying " hey look out I am going to run into this wall, watch your leg".... laughing his evil little laugh. We arrive at the "forget you are here" room. That is what I call it, afterall, they don't want you in the public waiting area to bleed everywhere.
Anyway, I climb out of the wheel chair and up onto the bed and the Wolf jumps into the wheel chair and starts doing wheelies everywhere. Ok... I am truly with 3 year old now, maybe I should have brought him some crayons and a colouring book to entertain him. Lord help me! He is driving me nuts!!!!!!!!!!!! I just want to suffer in peace.
After about 15 minutes I convince the Wolf to leave for a meeting we had set with our renovation contractor. Thank God! Peace.
Then this lovely young girl (and I mean young, maybe 21, brat 1 is older) and introduces herself as a med student. Ok... fine, I can deal with that, she is probably just gathering the info and then the doc will be in. We go through the events of the on ice derailment and she says ok... let me clean this up for you so we can get a better look. I am thinking GREAT, then the doc will be in. She cleans it all up, fabulistic. I take a look and say, "Oh look it is already clotting, its not so bad, maybe just a butterfly and let me be on my way"
This lovely young girl says" you may be right". Then leaves.
I am getting excited, woo hoo, I am going to get out of here real quick!
Then the Senior Resident walks in, takes a look, pokes around a bit, much to my discomfort. Looks at me, smirks and says " yep, that is really deep, you need a few stitches, 10 minutes and you should be out of here." UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
In waltzes the med student again, takes a look, gets all the supplies organized, I am thinking what a great kid, learning about the materials the docs need to do the job. She then calls the Junior Resident in and qearies, "How do I stitch this?" HUH!!!!.... Now the blood pressure just went off the charts. The Jr. Res. pokes and prods again much to my discomfort and explains how to stitch up my leg. Will someone shoot me now, please!
Jr. Res. leaves and there is just the two of us now... OMG.... help....panic has set in, I am at a childs mercy here.
The med student starts stitching me up, ok... freezing is a good thing. The attending walks in and takes a look and says..... "oh, dear, no, she will rip those out in about an hour, you need to do a matress stitch and a heavier silk. Take those stitches out and redo it"..... ok... am I the home economics project here?... I am not a hem on a skirt that can be easily altered. More freezing please and do you have any happy pills so I can sleep through this?
Then I hear " What is a matress stictch and how do I do it?"..... OK......OK.....OK .... why me?
The attending says" oh don't worry about it, just do it the way you are doing it, just take a bigger bite and flap it over." UGH!!!!! WOLF WHERE ARE YOU?
So, still at the mercy of the student, I lay there and pray this torture is over soon. I really need a drink, now.
She gets one stitch in and calls for the attending.... of course now I am thinking... what is wrong now. He takes a look and scowls... oh crap! oh crap! oh crap!... is running through my head.... he looks up and says, "well that is going to be one ugly scar" and walks away..... heh... like I was going to enter any beautiful leg contests soon.
She continues to stitch me up.
All done!!!!! Woo hoo!!!!!! Then they kick me while I am down. Can you roll up your sleeve, you need a tetanus.... now that is just cruel. I am already injured on the bottom half, now you want me to be sore on the top?.... UGH!!!!!!!!
By this time the Wolf had returned and was once again playing in the wheel chair, having a grand old time in his own little world.
The attending pokes his head in again and says, " stitches in for 14 days... bed rest and no skating for at least 7 days" OH CRAP!... he couldn't have said this earlier when the Wolf was away.
Two hours in the ER is not bad, no complaints except..... shouldn't med students practice on dummies or dolls or something before they get to the real patients?.... maybe they thought me the dummy.
LOL... oh well.....now you know why I am now a little squeamish in regards to teaching hospitals.
Ciao for now!

The Perils of Little Children and Ice Skates

Well Hello again.
I realize I have been a little lazy in regards to blogging however, I have been very busy at skating. 7 days a week and lots of little children on ice skates... sigh.... the glory of being a professional skating coach.

Yes, most people think that we are invincible and goddess like. As we are the ones that take their children off their hands for 30 - 45 minutes on a Saturday and Sunday morning so they can have their morning coffee in peace. Now for the first few weeks, these young 2,3,4 year olds will cry and fall.... alot, some are like bambi... legs everywhere. Now there is nothing wrong with falling as long as they don't wipe me out. I have had flailing arms in the nose, flailing feet in the knee, spit at, hit, even kicked in the groin by a child having a temper tantrum. All was well..... and in the end the little darlings learned to skate.

Now once these lovely little cherubs get the idea of skating, they become steadier and faster. However, stopping is usually a challenge, so sliding across the ice on their bums, using the boards or any object to stop or slow down is their course of action.

Heh, this past Sunday one wonderful little cherub that likes to use the later to stop, did just that. Used my assistant to stop, however, from behind the assistant had no hope. She was gone, feet out from behind..... on her back. As the assistant was going down... the feet came up in front and hit my shin. OUCH!!!!!

Once I picked up the train wreck laying on the ice.... assessed everyones damage, I realized my shin was really hurting, so I assessed my own damage. UGH!... blood everywhere!!!!!!!

So off the ice I go...get the first aid kit....clean up the blood, and make an assessment. I wrap up the cut and make a call to the Wolf to come and get me and take me to the ER (because my van was still in the shop and the Wolf has been chauffring me).

Of course the Wolf's reaction was "What happened?", then "Never mind, tell me later"

So off to the ER we go. woo hoo! (which is a story for another day)

A few stitches later and a third degree bruise, I am at the mercy of my family.... heh..

Well until next time, watch out for cherubs on ice skates or should I say on boots with carving knives.

Cold as Ice

Hey, look at this, I made it back twice in one week... yay me!

I am a professional figure skating coach.... have been since the dinosaurus roamed the earth.

Now back then, when the Rexasaurus' and I were skating on thin ice, we expected it to be cold, we were used to wearing 3 pairs of long underwear, snow pants, undershirt, turtle neck, fleece jacket and then a full winter jacket, mittens and toques. After all, that was way before Global Warming, when everyone had to walk 10 miles up hill to and from school in rain, snow, sleet and hail... (something like the motto of postal service).

Anyway, that is another topic for another day.

Back to my train of thought.....even to this day, I do expect the older ice arena's to be chillier than the new ones although, some like the old Maple Leaf Gardens etc... really were nice to skate and coach in. Here in Kingston we have several older arena's, all have quite the chill factor, however, the "M Centre" reminds of the old MLG. The "MC" is old, very old however, one of the best arena's around. I love it. The newer old arena's here are much... much colder....

Well... now, the city decided that it was time to build some new arena's, so they built the "K Rock" Centre (where our OHL team and main entertainment venue is housed), it is a resemblence of the MC and the MLG. Wonderful to work in, no 3 pairs of long underwear required. They also decided that they should build a multiplex... with 4 pads of ice... woo hooo! The long years of tussling over ice time between hockey and figure skating is over. Ya.. ok...(rolling the eyes)

Anyway, I am baffled as to why this beautiful 4 month old complex is so cold. There is no reason, afterall, the KRC was built at the same time and is not sitting at that temperature. However, I would gladly lace up my skates in any of the old arena's at 6:00 a.m. than the complex. I realize that the city now has 11 arena's that for the most part sit empty between 9 and 3 Monday to Friday, however, non use is not an excuse in this day and age.

This morning, we were in the complex and in less than an hour (please note- I am on the ice for 4/5 and 6 hours at a time with small 10 minute resurfacing breaks every once and a while) my toes had lost all feeling, my nose needed a bucket under it and my fingers were stiff from frost bite (even with my puppy dog fleece mittens on). It is only October, what is this building going to be like in January... OMG....

So I have come to the conclusion that, I will need to start spiking my morning timmies with baileys to live through this winter.

If anyone has any other suggestions, please forward them to me....
Signed
Cold as Ice

Thanksgiving

OK... so, I have made it back once again and once again I don't know what to write. I used to be very good at writing and ideas would flow freely from my brain. It was never hard to put words to paper for me, however, recently I have found that my thouhts and my brain are at complete odds with each other.

I always looked at Thanksgiving as a time to reflect on the past summer and to gorge myself on the bounty of my garden. The final day of rest prior to my long winter schedule. The completion of summer. The closing of the pool. The cleaning of the gardens.

Last year Wolf came home from Afghanistan for 2 weeks. It was a celebration of sorts. We did all our usual preparations prior to him returning, however, it was still joyous and we enjoyed doing it together.

This year was different. We found ourselves basking in the lovely temperatures that Southern Ontario was blessed with and not wanting to give into the thoughts of preparing for winter. I layed on the chaise lounge and read a book and Wolf went golfing. We allowed ourselves one more weekend of summer, one more weekend of comparing tans, knowing perfectly well that we would be doing all our winter preparations in the freezing cold.

Today is a rather dull nd dingy day that has made me realize that it is time to prepare for the blanket of winter. It is time to let the summer go, knowing that in a few short months we will be under a blanket of ice and snow. Knowing that it is the time for this part of the world to sleep. Knowing that Wolf will be returning to Afghanistan in a couple of months. Knowing that this could very well be the last weekend to do nothing together for many more months.

So on that bleak note, I guess I should get out of this office and into the yard for winter preparations.
Hopefully, my words will come easier next day that I return.

Hmm... I made it back to post another blog

Yaaaay ME!!!!!! I managed to make it back to do some more blogging..... This week has gone by so fast with so much going on. I really don't feel like I got much accomplished however, when I sit and look back, I actually did... woo hoo.....

I don't get many days to sleep in and yesterday was supposed to be one of them however, my sister Jen was taking her real estate appraisers exam and she needed to share her adventures or would it be misadventures... anyway.....

The wolf was up and out the door by 5:30, his usually time, and I had the whole bed to myself... well not really, Riley and Oscar seem to think our bed is their bed... anyway... one less body in the bed... and one less snore to listen too.... woo hoo....
There I am, peacefully in a deep coma like state on my sliver of bed ... all of a sudden the phone rings.... jolts me out of my wonderful slumber.
All I hear is "Hey its me".... ok... I only have one eye open, my ears are not even awake now who in the world is me?....my other eye opens and all I can manage is huh?..... then I hear.... I need a huge favour.... it is an emergency... ok... I am up!!!!!!!!!!!
My lovely sister in her panic forgot her confirmation number to write the test at home in Florida...... ok... and I live in Ontario... yay me!... and just what am I suppose to do?... By the time I jump a plane and get there the exam would be over.....
I think she thought I was crazy.... or I was thinking she was... anyway.... apparently, her confirmation was somewhere in her email ... so down the stairs I go..... no caffeine... 2 dogs wondering why their bowls are still empty, Riley being a Sheltie trying to herd me to his bowl and getting under foot.....right to the bottom of the stairs....
Computer on... Jen's phone gets a low battery beep... great!... cell phone battery dying. I go through her email... she couldn't remember who sent, when it was sent, just confirmation.... I have no idea how many things she belongs to, but it took a good 20 minutes to find the right one. I call her back, voice mail...great! .. leave message... call me, found your stuff . I feed dogs, make coffee, come back down stairs, this time a little more gracefully. Still didn't hear back from her, call her again..... leave all info on voice mail... and have not heard a thing since.
So anyway, Jen ... when you read this blog, I hope it all went well and that all your misadventures didn't carry out for the rest of the day!
Love ya, I am sure you are in the 20%

I really don't know what I am doing

Ok.. so this is all new to me.

I really don't know what I am doing.

However, here goes.

Blogging, who would of thought I would be a blogger. Is that what one would call a person who blogs?


However with the insistance of my sister, I will make time to try to be a good blogger. Heh, I kind of like that word. I wonder if I can add that to my curriculum vitae? Blogger, looking for blog work. Wonder if it will get me a better job? More questions. I am always full of questions. And not very good with answers. I am rather wishy-washy at times.

I guess I should really start with some history because, I really don't know what to write:

• My name is Catherine.... nick name Cat... therefore "Cats Meow" is the name of my blog
• My spouse is Chuck... nick name Wolf... therefore URL name "The cat and the wolf"
• I have two beautiful daughters, Aimee 22 and Leigh 19, that have given me many gray hairs over the years... nick name Brat 1 and 2
• I am a Crazy Cannuck who has spent her whole life in a cold, dank, dreary ice arena. To this day, I am still skating (well coaching figure skating and power skating). 30 years of coaching... good god, I have to be crazy. This is my full time job and takes up 7 days of every week. One does get tired, although, I did get two vacays last year!!!!!... woohoo.... I went to my sisters in Florida for 10 days last Christmas and I met up with the wolf in Tenerife in May.... but that is for another day.

My beautiful daughter Aimee turned 22 yesterday. We took her out for dinner, the waitress had to come back 3 times to see if I was ready to order (hence my wishy-washyness). Aim and Wolf were starting to get irritated with me. So, I ended up with something simple, chicken fajta's that I had to assemble myself!!!!!.... yes... thats right, I go out to dinner to make it at the table. The only thing I didn't have to do was cook the chicken and vegies and do the dishes. Heh, DISHES... dirty word in our house... but that is another day as well.

Needless to say, 4 take away boxes of left overs. The wolf and I need to remember to split an entre as we don't eat whole adult portions of anything. At least lunch was easy to prepare today.

When I started writing this blog a few minutes ago, I really didn't know what I was going to write about, however, I guess I do have things to say afterall.

It seems like it has come to that point in my day that I need to get ready to go to that dark and dreary arena and teach some children how to stand up on ice. sigh... this is fun... I think I am going to like blogging...
Ciao for now!!!