And just for the record, I did ride my motorcycle to work this morning… I dressed well for the cool +4 degrees with a fleece jacket under my insulated leather jacket and a decent scarf. The chaps make a huge difference cutting the wind, and so far I’ve not needed anything extra on my legs. The real challenge is proving to be the gloves. I changed out to a pair of winter leather gloves which have served me quite well for the past couple of years, but my fingertips got a bit tingly on the ride in this morning. Hmmmm… I may have to go to the motorcycle shop to see if they’ve got something a bit better for this application.

I figure that I’m good until Thanksgiving, if I can sort out the gloves.

I finally got wound up enough again to call my surgeon’s office to protest about the hearing doctor’s refusal to call me in to speak to me. Diane, assistant to Dr. Williams, listened politely, assured me that she understood my position, but warned me that I still probably wouldn’t get an appointment… its got a lot to do with the nature of delivering specialty medical services in Canada these days. But she did dutifully call them, and a) explain my position, and b) ask for the recommendation for hearing aids to be written out as a prescription. Unfortunately, it was a ‘no’ on both counts… with the specialist’s office assuring Diane that they use the place that did the testing a lot, and are quite comfortable with them, often using them to help with clinics, and are pretty sure that the pricing is fair.

I also asked Diane to speak to Dr. Williams about something called ‘salagen’, which is also known as pilocarpine. Apparently its used to stimulate the production of saliva in persons suffering from one or two of the incarnations of ‘dry mouth syndrome’. I’ll just have to wait to hear what the good doctor has to say about it…

I only felt the need for hearing assist once this week. I’m going to keep track for a month, and then decide what to do…

I’m still not gaining weight. I’m definitely going to have to ‘up’ the volume of calorie supplements as well as keep eating the amount that I have been. It was suggested on the weekend that, where I would normally have a glass of milk, I should substitute an Ensure (or a Boost). Not a bad strategy, but… well, just ‘but’. As part of the conversation that resulted in this little cheat, it was pointed out that there are research pointers out there that say that, eating disorders like anorexia or bulimia notwithstanding, putting on weight can be as challenging as trying to lose weight. Hell, I don’t remember having trouble gaining that fifty pounds I lost to the chemo, so why can’t I gain it back? Probably ’cause I originally gained it over a period of twenty years… and given my history when I was very much younger, maybe we should at least give it a year to put fifteen pounds back on before anybody panics.

My shoulder is loosening up nicely; I’m wondering if Tai Chi wouldn’t be another avenue to investigate? I used to do some… its probably time I went back to it.

I’m sure that everyone is getting tired of the propaganda surrounding the election, but let me just say, one more time: Anybody But Harper. Are you disciplined enough to look into strategic voting? Now having said that, I was told that the gentleman running for the Liberals in my riding spoke to the Rotary Club the other morning, and was absolutely dreadful… ill-prepared, somewhat ill-informed, bordering on incoherent and generally a bit of an embarrassment. To be fair, the person who brought this performance to my attention is almost as critical as I am, working with maybe a few more shades of grey in their pallette than I tend to, but not many more. Next election, maybe I’ll run! I couldn’t possibly do any worse than the current nominee is going to…