So it’s not a corneal ulcer. After more than an hour of waiting - time spent perusing my Vietnam travel book - I finally got in to see the eye specialist this morning. She took one look with her microscope and decided it wasn't an ulcer. She simply found and removed a foreign object from my eye.

So now, instead of needing steroids, she simply has me on some mild antibiotics to make sure the site doesn’t get infected while it heals.

Yay – I’m ulcer-free!

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My Eye

For the past two days I've felt like there's something in my right eye. But after long inspections in the mirror, I still couldn't find anything. But I knew that feeling.

Last time I had it, it was worse. It felt like I had a grain of sand in my eye. But it's the same feeling... just not quite as progressed. I had a corneal ulcer once before, and that's what I figure I have now. These things basically occur when you get a scratch on your eyeball and bacteria takes advantage of that weakness to set up house. So it gets progressively worse as the bacteria multiplies.

Of course I needed to be sure, so I called my optometrist today and, after a bus ride out to Orleans, the doc confirmed my diagnosis. On the plus side, he said it's not as bad as the one I had previously, and he booked me a Thursday morning appointment with a specialist who, he said, will likely prescribe an antibiotic/steroid that will get rid of it without too much hassle.

So no cause for alarm - just a bit of short-term discomfort, and hopefully I'll be right as rain in a few days.

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News release from the Climate Action Network Canada:
 
For Immediate Release
November 3, 2009
 (Barcelona, Spain): In the last round of United Nations climate change negotiations before the historic Copenhagen summit in December, Canada has been singled out as being the most destructive nation in the talks today by a network of over 400 international non-governmental organizations. Climate Action Network International has awarded Canada the first place Fossil of the Day award for blocking and stalling these critical negotiations.
 
In stark contrast to the grey suits that fill the halls of the UN conference centre, the Fossil of the Day awards are described as ‘the most fun you can have at the UN’. Announced amid colourful dismay and disappointment at the inaction of the winners, today’s awards were presented to:
 
1st Place: CANADA - a nation who regularly appears on the ‘Fossil Leaderboard’ - wins tonight’s first place Fossil for stating in this morning’s informal meeting on adaptation that they “would not envisage loss and damage [due to climate change impacts] being addressed as part of the objectives on adaptation”. They also failed to say where they think it should be addressed; instead raising the suspicion they would prefer it to fall off the table completely.
 
There will be substantial damage from unavoidable impacts of climate change, against which adaptation is not, or no longer, an option – such as sea-level rise, saltwater intrusion into groundwater aquifers or desertification. Millions of livelihoods in developing countries are threatened by such impacts. 
 
“A Copenhagen Agreement that does not recognize that such impacts exist and that does not include resolute provisions to address these impacts would mean that the world’s most vulnerable people, namely those for which adaptation funding is not available, would be left out of the agreement,” said Antonio Hill from Oxfam International.
 
2nd Place: a tie between the USA – historically the world’s largest emitting nation - and SAUDI ARABIA, the world’s largest oil exporter
 
The United States was awarded a Fossil Award because of recent statements by the delegation that they do not think that compliance matters. In the view of the Climate Action Network International, such statements by the US undermine a productive negotiating process, particularly in light of the US 'pledge and review' proposal. This proposal is to have a type of 'show and tell' for each nation’s actions, in lieu of binding commitments to collective global action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
 
Saudi Arabia received the fossil, for its expression of concern in the Shared Vision contact group that they "are being asked to pay more than their fair share" in a Copenhagen climate deal.
 
As the International Energy Agency analysis released in Bangkok shows, while OPEC oil revenues over the next 20 years under a 450 ppm mitigation scenario would be somewhat lower than they would under a business-as-usual scenario, they would still be about four times higher than they have been over the last twenty years.  Countries whose people are already suffering serious impacts from climate change may be excused for wondering who, in fact, is being asked to pay more than their fair share.

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WigParty09

Saturday night we held our 4th Annual wig party - on Halloween night! This was the first time the party was actually on Halloween proper, and that had some interesting effects - some positive, some negative:

• Positive: The commitment to full costumes was huge this year. This is supposed to be a wig party - which means you don't need anything more than the cheapest wig you can find at the dollar store - so it's always impressive when people go all out with their costumes. And this year, probably because it was Halloween, we had an inordinately high number of full costumes. The "Total ensemble" category was hotly contested.
• On the downside: With loads of other Halloween parties going on, and trick-or-treaters at the door, many people had other places to be. We invited more people than ever before, but many weren't able to make it. Even some who had hoped to come dropped out at the last minute. Which sucks, but we had an awesome time with the people who did make it! They make all the cleaning and prep work worthwhile!

Oh, and just in case you're wondering, Rocker is wearing a wig called "urban vampire" - whatever that is.

Click the image above or this link for more photos!

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Pompadour

I wore a wig to work today, to help get me into the spirit for tomorrow night's wig party. I wore Junkii's pompadour wig from last year (Well, I wasn't about to reveal this year's wig just yet, now was I?!)and got a few great laughs when I arrived in the office.

But after a couple of hours in the wig, I started to get a headache - partly from the spirit gum needed to hold down the sideburns, but mostly from the fact that my skull cap was too tight.

Now I'm kind of dreading having to wear a skull cap and wig tomorrow night. Backfire!

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Great Blue Heron

Over the past few days walking to work, I've spied this little fellow sitting on the banks of the drained canal.

She's all hunched up - and I can't blame her, the weather is getting cold - but it's a nice change from the usual seagulls, ducks and geese.

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Drained!

Much as I want to bury my head in the sand and ignore the signs, they're all about me. The changing leaves are one of the more obvious signs - but you don't mind that so much cuz it's pretty.

There's nothing pretty about the draining of the Rideau Canal though. They did that last week, exposing the rotting canal walls, encouraging swarms of Canada geese and other water fowl to hang about eating what's left of the fish, revealing scads of garbage and debris that people have tossed into the canal over the summer months (I can only assume for shits and giggles), and leading to the rise of a foul odour all along my walk to work.

Harbingers

And what's more, the drained canal means the NCC has a chance to place the chalets (restaurants, skate rental places, etc) on the canal bed. These ever-present harbingers of the dreaded Winterlude are a reminder that the tourists will soon flood the downtown core, bridges will be closed for no good reason, and parking in the Glebe will become even more of a nightmare.

When's summer?

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Why is it that I only sneeze when I'm about as far as possible form the nearest Kleenex? Like this morning, halfway through my walk to work, when I'm equidistant from the box of Kleenex in my office and the ones at home. I really must start carrying my own pack of facial tissue.

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The Kids from Fame

Okay, it's Tuesday at 11pm, and I have a serious case of earworm. And I have no idea where it came from.

I'm convinced that there's part of my brain - locked off from the rest - that just houses melodies and lyrics. And every so often I get a jailbreak of some piece of music that's been in there for about 25 years.

Case in point - tonight's earworm is a song called I Still Believe, and I remember it from an album my sister had when I was growing up - It featured music form the TV series Fame.

I haven't heard it since I was about 10. I don't even know if she still has the LP. And yet I found myself humming it earlier today. I knew the melody, but couldn't quite place the song. But my brain kept on working on it in the background and by the time I was walking home from work, I could actually remember the bulk of the lyrics. And now I've found the song on YouTube.

Actually, It's not a bad song at all. I wonder if the rest of the album still holds up - we used to listen to that thing non-stop. I see it's available on amazon marketplace for about $5.

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The Weigh In

Weight Watchers works! Those of you who follow Junkii's weekly updates on Facebook already know he's lost 13 lbs in 5 weeks of dieting. Well, I'm holding my own too. I'm down about 12 lbs as of this morning's weigh-in. It's hard to tell exactly because we don't have a digital scale, but that's a pretty close estimate.

My pants fit way better - in fact, they're starting to get a little too loose - and I can actually see my spare tire dwindling away. It's very encouraging.

And the best part is that we really don't suffer very much. True, we haven't yet found a way to indulge in poutine (no matter how many extra points we gain from working out) but we've managed to score a couple of (small) bags of chips  chips, we've had shawarma, and we've even found some great 1-point desserts. All in all it's been pretty painless (once you get used to the feeling of never being completely full).

On the other hand, I can't see doing this alone. Despite the encouraging results, I know damn well I wouldn't have lasted if Junkii wasn't there to help with counting points. So I recommend WW for everyone - but I think it is a great program if you have someone to support you along the way.

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