It's Johnny Jay!

A Nice Little Chat

2008-06-18T21:39:00.001-04:00

Our 3 month old granddaughter, Irelynn, was visiting us for the day, and we had quite a nice little conversation. Trinity was also over, to help with her baby sister.

Arizona Road Trip

2008-03-06T18:37:00.009-05:00

A sampling of our road trip to Arizona and back.
Beware, there are over 270 pics.
Sit back and enjoy the show.

We hit the road on Family Day, February 18/08 and arrived back home on March 4/08. During that time we traveled a total of 7421 Kilometers. We left the snow behind in Kansas, or so we thought. We were treated to a snow storm as we crossed the state line into Arizona. At an elevation of 7000 feet, Flagstaff knows all about snow.

Entertainment on Gerrard St.

2007-08-22T17:25:00.001-04:00

I'm still at Toronto's Ronald MacDonald House and all is going well with Austin. It's an interesting location here on Gerrard Street. The other day we had a parade pass by and we watched it from our 4th floor vantage point. Austin was sitting in the window sill watching the show, and a few parade participants saw him sitting there, and actually waved to him. He was pretty impressed.

Today they blocked off the street in front of us. There were a lot of trucks and trailers and people milling around, including police. I didn't know what was going on at first, but low and behold, it turns out they were shooting a scene for a movie. Word has it that Mike Myers is one of the stars, although I didn't see him. It was fun to watch the action. Some stunt work was involved, as someone ran across the street and got hit by a car. In this case, the stunt guy got up and walked away, only to repeat the same scenario many times. Maybe I'll actually see it in a movie someday. I did manage to catch one of the takes with my camera in movie mode.

Back in T.O. again...

2007-08-14T00:15:00.000-04:00

Well, I'm back in Toronto again, staying at Ronald MacDonald House with Lindsay and Austin. Austin has finally completed his chemotherapy treatments, and is in full recovery mode now. He has been discharged from SickKids Hospital, and only goes in for clinic visits every other day or so. His blood counts are closely monitored to track his recovery process. Things appear to be going very well. We spend our time playing games with Austin, or waiting for hours at the clinic visits, for tests and results. I've really lucked out with the weather here in Toronto. Once again, the temperatures are comfortable and the sky is blue, for the most part. Not sure how long I'll be here this time 'round. It all depends on when Austin is able to actually leave here and go back home to Longlac. We hope that can happen by the end of August. I guess it'll be up to the doctor's judgement, and the timing of follow-up visits that will be called for. Meanwhile, the big city is home for now.

Friday the 13th....

2007-07-14T01:14:00.000-04:00

- The beginning of Round 4 -

As usual, Lindsay and I spent the day at Toronto's SickKids Hospital, to be with Austin. Today his 4th round of chemotherapy began, a cycle which lasts about a month. It's a very complex and aggressive protocol, and it's not fun to watch how this brutal chemical attack affects Austin's weakened body. By the end of the day, things appear to be going as well as can be expected. Unlike many others undergoing this treatment, Austin has not ended up in the intensive care unit. That's considered excellent progress. At least Friday the 13th went quite well for him, all things considered.
For myself, I'm staying at the Ronald McDonald House, a couple of blocks from the hospital. If nothing else, I'm getting my share of exercise, walking all around town. I must say, the weather has been very pleasant in Toronto, with nice blue skies and fluffy white clouds, similar to what you normally might expect in Thunder Bay at this time of year. We'll see what the weekend brings.

Back in Toronto

2007-07-13T11:17:00.000-04:00

Well here I am, back in Toronto for a couple of weeks, visiting Lindsay and Austin, as Austin goes into his 4th round of chemotherapy at SickKids hospital. My Air Canada flight was eventful in the sense that everything went as scheduled. Don't see that too often, from my experience.
Getting off the plane onto the tarmac at Pearson airport, I was hit with a wall of hot, yucky air. The temperature was 30+c and I was surrounded by a reddish haze. I guess one can adjust to the oxygen deprivation.

Anyway, Austin is feeling his best right now, recovering from round 3 chemo. Today he goes into his 4th and final round, and then it's into long term recovery.
Here he's busy evaluating some new Yu-Gi-Oh cards.

New patio set...

2007-06-13T13:36:00.000-04:00

Leslie is now officially retired, and the first thing she did was to purchase a new patio table and chair set, using monetary gifts from family. Our old stuff was showing it's age, and had been somewhat damaged by a freaky gust of wind. That umbrella makes an effective sail. I must say, we've certainly had ideal weather to enjoy the comforts of outdoor living.

Back home...

2007-06-07T13:22:00.000-04:00

After spending Tuesday morning at SickKids, with Austin, for a round of tests, I packed up my bags and caught the bus for Pearson Airport. After an uneventful flight from Toronto via Westjet (as opposed to the Air Canada Jazz nightmare experience a week earlier) to Thunder Bay, I'm back home for a while. Finally some fresh air again! How people in the GTA can tolerate that smoggy air is beyond me.

Thunder Bay still hadn't had much rain, but we finally got a good sprinkling today, with some thunder and lightning to go with it. That's a bit more like it!

This may seem like a little thing, but with the drought continuing in our area, the wet pavement you see here is a rare and refreshing sight.

Visitors

2007-06-04T12:45:00.000-04:00

Sunday was a sleep-in day for Lindsay and I, at Ronald McDonald House. Dick and Harriet drove in from Hamilton and arrived around 10:30am. We began their visit with a walk to a nearby breakfast buffet, and really had our fill. Then we gave them a tour of our digs at RMH. Eaton's Centre was our next stop, as Lindsay needed to pick up a few things. We spent a little time in the Sony Store to check out their selection of HDTVs. I must say that their Bravia line is most impressive and the prices are coming down to the point of consideration. After that we made our way to the hospital to visit Austin. He's doing quite well, and actually got up for a little walk before we arrived, but he wasn't up to getting up again to see his visitors. Lindsay stayed with Austin at this point, while I went down to Tim Hortons with Dick and Harriet for refreshments and a nice long chat. All in all it was a nice diversion from the daily routine around here.

Hot one today!

2007-06-01T00:18:00.000-04:00

We're wrapping up the month of May with a heat wave and the smog to go with it, here in Toronto. You sure don't need to go outside here, to get a breath of fresh air.
We had a fun day with Austin, playing boxing, baseball and tennis on his new Wii gamer. He's beginning to pick up steam, as his recovery from this 2nd round of chemo progresses.

Lindsay and I spent the evening in a luxury suite at a BlueJays game, compliments of Megan Thomas, wife of Frank Thomas. If you know baseball, that name will be familiar to you. He hit a home run today, to help beat the Chicago WhiteSox. We enjoyed (soft) drinks, pizza, fruit and snacks during the game. It was a nice diversion from our daily routine. We even got our exercise by walking to and from the Rogers Centre, over 5 kms. total. The weather was still warm after the game, with a sticky temperature of 23c.

Good start to the week....

2007-05-30T00:16:00.000-04:00

The weather in Toronto has been great to start off the week. Nice blue skies with fluffy white clouds and daytime temperatures in the low 20s. Something you would normally expect in Thunder Bay. Today's visit with Austin saw him receive platelets in the morning and a blood transfusion in the afternoon. This is necessary when his blood counts drop below certain levels. There didn't seem to be any significant bad effects from these procedures, and things should start picking up during this recovery phase.
Since Austin doesn't really get up to look out the window, I took a picture of the view for him to see.
Meanwhile, we've been treated to a couple of excellent suppers here at Ronald MacDonald House both yesterday and today. As a matter of fact, this evening the Lady Jays and BlueJays employees provided the eats. After that, Lindsay and I took another long walk around town, as it was a perfect evening for it. Oh yea, we also temporarily moved into another room here at RMH, so they can do their annual painting and sprucing up. Never a dull moment around here. We even caught the season finale of "House".

Weekend in Toronto

2007-05-28T00:46:00.000-04:00

Well, I finished my first weekend in Toronto, this time round, and all is going well. I joined Lindsay in our daily visits with Austin. He continues to feel quite well during this post transplant recovery stage, and is scheduled for another dose of chemo on Monday. This should trigger his immune system to kick in and hopefully give him a break from isolation in due time. He's really enjoying his online computer games, and it really helps him pass the time. Nurses can come and go, as they do their tests and fine tune all of his IV lines, but he just keeps playing his game. Talk about being focused!
Meanwhile, Lindsay and I spent part of Saturday walking the streets of downtown Toronto, just to see what there is to see. Sunday morning we went for an awesome buffet breakfast, and wrapped up the day with delicious personal sized pizzas made while you wait at Panago......birrrp!

Off to Toronto

2007-05-25T00:40:00.000-04:00

Wednesday evening I flew to Toronto to visit with Austin and Lindsay, during Austin's stay at SickKids Hospital. Following successful surgery on Christmas Day, 2006 to remove a malignant brain tumor, Austin has been undergoing radiation and chemotherapy treatments. He is currently making his way through round 2 of a scheduled 4 rounds of chemo.
During my first day, I spent about 6 hours with them in an isolation room, as Austin recovers from his second stem cell transplant. This procedure leaves him with a compromised immune system, so special precautions are taken to diminish the chance of acquiring an infection. It's necessary to go through a special decontamination process before entering this room. Lindsay was able to arrange hi-speed Internet service in the room, and you can see her busy taking care of business with the laptop. Meanwhile, Austin is playing a video game with his handheld, and I'm working on a very difficult Sudoku puzzle. Thought I'd snap a couple of pictures with my Sony Clie PDA.

Party Time!

2007-05-12T22:41:00.000-04:00

What do you need to make Leslie's retirement official? A party, of course! The festivities occurred yesterday, and numerous witnesses were in attendance. Here's the hard evidence.

Leslie retires....let's eat!

More to come.....

Record High!

2007-05-09T15:40:00.000-04:00

Wow, it's like summer just dropped from the sky. Yesterday, Thunder Bay was the hottest place in Canada, with a temperature of 29.5c under a blistering sun. Although we haven't fired up the AC yet, we still ended up going inside to cool off. Not something we normally expect in early May.

Today is another summer day, and our granddaughter Trinity dropped by with her mom and dad. Now that Trinity lives within walking distance from us, this is pretty well a daily occurrence. As you can see, she came all dressed up in summer attire. It's a real treat to have these little visits.

Another retirement in the family!

2007-05-04T14:49:00.000-04:00

Retirement is hard work!

Well, Leslie's last official day of employment was Monday, April 30, 2007. Can you imagine?
As you can see, she's already right into it. After sleeping in until 7:30 each morning, Leslie can't wait to get outside and do her yard/gardening thing.
Oh what fun it is!

Austin starts chemo today

2007-04-20T12:22:00.000-04:00

Just got word that Austin begins his first chemo treatment this afternoon. This is a scary time for all of us. Checkout Austin's Blog for the most recent updates.

Opened the trailer

2007-04-19T20:58:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, we had another visit from our granddaughter. It was such a beautiful sunny day, we decided to open up the camper trailer. Trinity always enjoys playing in the trailer, and had a great time with some new ponys.

Austin begins next phase

2007-04-16T18:51:00.000-04:00

Today Austin was scheduled to begin his first round of chemotherapy treatments at Sick Kids, but a sudden fever has put everything on hold for at least 48 hours. It's uncertain what is happening, but an infection related to his recently installed central venous line is a possible suspect. Tests have been done to determine exactly what the problem is.

Pictured here, Austin is visiting the Starlite room, which is booked at certain times just for kids in the Bone Marrow Transplant/Isolation Unit, to eliminate exposure to other sick children. It was a chance for him to get out of his hospital room for a bit. He's putting on a brave face, but it's definitely no fun being in his situation.

For more details and regular updates, please go to Austin's Blog.

Trinity's Birthday

2007-04-15T21:52:00.000-04:00

It was Trinity's 3rd birthday yesterday, and she spent a fun day with Mom and Dad. Today they all came to our house for a bit of a party. No problem blowing out those little candles.

Yummy, good cupcake complete with those colourful worms. And look at my new wardrobe. It sure pays to have a birthday now and then. Can't wait for my next one.

Solar Forces

2007-04-14T17:22:00.000-04:00

Here you are witnessing the destruction of a snow sculpture masterpiece, as the forces of nature attack.

And after all that hard work, eh!

Oh well, there's always next year.

Welcome Home Rich

2007-04-13T12:39:00.000-04:00

After 7 weeks of tree planting and other assorted adventures in British Columbia, Richard arrived back home this morning. It's Trinity's birthday tomorrow, so he wanted to be here for the occasion.

It was a long overnight flight from Vancouver to Toronto, and then on to Thunder Bay. He was pretty tired, and was looking forward to crashing out as soon as he got home. He also attended that first Stanley Cup playoff game between Vancouver and Dallas. That's the one that went 7 periods before the Canucks finally won it. Needless to say, he got out of there a lot later than expected. At least he didn't have to get up for work in the morning.

And of course we're tracking the state of Austin's Easter weekend backyard creations, as he goes in for further treatment preparations at Sick Kids, today.

Backyard Update

2007-04-12T14:41:00.000-04:00

Well, Austin and Lindsay left Thunder Bay Tuesday evening, to begin the next phase of treatments for Austin, at Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto. They arrived safely, and Austin is now undergoing a daily series of preliminary tests, before being admitted this coming weekend.

Pictured here are the remnants of Austin's backyard construction project on Easter Sunday and Monday. As you can see, the sun is doing it's best to destroy all that hard work. We'll just keep an eye on things as they develop.

Easter Weekend Review

2007-04-11T12:45:00.000-04:00

The Easter weekend was quite a whirlwind around here this year. Especially if you don't have as much wind to whirl as you used to. Anyway, it was a fun time, so I thought I'd share a few pictures of our activities.

Lindsay and Austin, along with their friend Scott were with us for the long weekend, and the fun began with an intense game of "Sorry" Friday evening. I have my doubts that most, if not all of those apologies, were truly genuine.

- Austin in action -

Saturday featured an afternoon of bowling.
Here you see some of the championship players.

As noted in a previous post, our backyard was a hub of activity on Easter Sunday. It was a gorgeous afternoon with the sun beaming down on the fresh fallen snow. Here you see the construction crew building a protective barrier in preparation for the snow ball battles to follow.

Austin's cousin Trinity, also came over for a visit.
Can you guess who's number ONE?

And another peek at who came for dinner at the Tymura's on Easter Sunday

Easter Weekend

2007-04-09T14:09:00.000-04:00

Easter Sunday, April 8/07
We went to Easter Service in the morning. The afternoon was spent in the backyard, since it was a gorgeous sunny afternoon. The snow was nice and sticky.

Ammunition was being collected, forts were being built, and snowballs were flying. We used up almost all the snow we had.

Later that afternoon we made our way out to the Tymura's for an awesome Easter Dinner. Although quite a few family members were in far-away places this weekend, the tradition continues, and no one left hungry.

A little birthday celebration was also in order. Not bad for 87 years, eh!

Busy day

2007-04-05T00:09:00.000-04:00

April 4/07
Well, we got up to wind gusts of 70 km per hour, this morning, and quite a dump of the white stuff. As you can see it makes for a fine exercise opportunity.
Oh yea, and we have telephone service again. A dedicated phone company fixer-upper ended up replacing our line from the pole across the street to our house, in blizzard conditions. Also, I no longer need to depend on my neighbour's wireless internet to get online.

Our grandaughter, Trinity, came for her weekly afternoon visit. She usually brings along some of her favourite things from home.

Here you can see her on the couch with her pal, Molly

It really happened!

2007-04-03T23:50:00.000-04:00

Yes it's true. The weatherman got it right this time. Thunder Bay is getting more snow now than it has all winter. It's sort of like the winter is just beginning. Actually it's kind of nice! Still no telephone though. The benefit being, no phone calls all day. Makes it kind of quiet around here.

This is the view outside of our front window this afternoon.

No Internet

2007-04-03T14:27:00.000-04:00

Well wouldn't you know it, just when I was going to file my income tax online today, our internet is down. So is the telephone line, for that matter. We're also supposed to get a big snowstorm in Thunder Bay today, but we've heard that promise before. Precipitation of any kind seems to be a thing of the past around here. Anyway, we'll just sit here and wait for the big storm to hit. If it happens, I'll be sure to take some pictures. Stay tuned.

P.S. this message courtesy of one of my neighbour's wireless access.

Family Photo

2007-04-02T11:42:00.000-04:00

This picture shot December 16, 2006

My Backyard continued....

2007-04-02T01:35:00.000-04:00

- SKYFIRE -

I did a little digging through the archives and found

another backyard shot from a November '99 sunset.

My first post....

2007-04-01T14:57:00.000-04:00

It's a rainy Sunday afternoon in Thunder Bay, and April Fools day. We haven't seen a lot of rainy days around here for quite some time, so it's a perfect time to fool around on the computer. Thought I'd start a blog, so here I am. This is my first post, and I'm looking over all the possiblities Blogger has to offer. Looks pretty neat. Stay tuned......

Our backyard in November 1999, but no snow this year.

Mark&Sarah

Here's a little video of my nephew's wedding in Halifax
September 3, 2006