Our World

Faithful hands all!

So it’s two weeks since Bell’s Palsy hit and I am grateful to say that it appears my episode has been mild in comparison to others.

I have regained some control of the afflicted left eye, it’s only to perhaps 40% of normal but it is significant.

The eye has ceased watering and now that the eyelid can be closed I have less need for drops.

The left side mouth droop has also lessened but some numbness/paralysis remains on the left side of the face.

New downside? I must have been grinding my teeth in my sleep and began chawing on my numbed cheeks. Hurts yes.

Eating and drinking are much less ugly however so there’s that.

Xavier refused to pose for today’s pic. He is disappointed at having discovered the very mortal wizard who controls the Red Dot.

Thanks and I hope these updates will benefit someone you know who encounters Bell’s.

Your kindness and concern have stood me well.

Aye Aye that face hangs a jib!

Welcome to the 3 am rinse the eye and lubricant application hour.

I made THAT CAT take this pic as payback for the bite before feeding him this AM and he responded with his usual enthusiasm. He wants to shred the bath curtain.

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Avast me Hearties!

Behold the damage done my visage by the scurvy palsy!

Thursday Xavier decided I needed a scar to complete the Pirate look.

So he nipped me under the eye, bled like heck and I felt it even though it is on the paralyzed left side.

Not a great pic I’ll grant but it was taken Friday after the blood loss had been stemmed and the polysporin dollops had worked their magic, you can see the poly glisten if you look closely. That’s the little biter sucking up. As part of our daily routine I am forced to snuggle up to him and praise his fine character while he curls up in his hammock if I don’t want my couch ripped to shreds. I guess I didn’t praise him enough Thursday.

I get small hints of “reconnection” once in awhile, I can close the eyelid slowly now but not squeeze it shut. The face is still drooping of course and yes I need a shave. The eye is runny and needs regular lubrication. Unfortunately even with the lubricant and eye patch it still gets irritated and disrupts my sleep. Xavier has never seen me sleep any later than 8 am so I am surprised he is leaving me to rest until 9. We will survive!

Thank you all for your concern!

So … I went to the hospital yesterday.

On Tuesday the left side of my face decided to go numb and began drooping while the left eye was turned into a very irritated red runny mess.

I decided to ignore it thinking that would make it go away. Come Wednesday morning things had deteriorated enough to merit greater concern. So I phoned my niece who politely advised I was a fool for not calling 911 fearing the symptoms indicated a stroke.

And so I did. And here I am at home.

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Howdy Ya’ All

My building will be without power from 9AM until 2PM today, maybe a bit less, but no worries I have scheduled posts to get us through that shutdown.

I installed a WordPress update yesterday which seems to be causing the Category listing to default to “uncategorized” in some but not all posts, though it may be it affects only posts that include WTF? as a category label. Once it has defaulted it can’t be changed with an edit. At any rate it will likely be fixed in the next update.

If you see any other weirdness happening let me know in the comments.

Thank you for your help.

PS. If you have any news sites or favourite blogs you think I should use as sources let me know in the comments.

Thanks, BCF

Man the Hunter is the name of 1968 book which highlighted the central role of hunting in human evolution. Although ‘Man’ here refers to ‘mankind’ rather than ‘males’, the title embodies the common assumption that hunting is a largely male activity. Indeed, the authors, Richard Lee and Irven DeVore, argued that the sexual division of labour in hunter-gatherer societies is such that men specialise in hunting and women specialise in gathering.

And this makes sense. We know men are both faster and stronger than women – attributes that would obviously give them an advantage in clubbing seals, arrowing wildebeests and spearing woolly mammoths.

The human ingenuity that helped expand the human race could well work to destroy it.

The probability that the human race will be drastically reduced in magnitude has risen meaningfully in modern times.

As an economic historian, I have always been fascinated by big changes occurring over time. The ultimate change, over the longest possible passage of time, relates to the creation and destruction of galaxies, planets, and related celestial debris. Confining ourselves to Earth, it relates to the creation and destruction of various forms of life over time.

My washer went on the fritz. The seal gave way and I ended up with a small pond in the laundry room.

We paid roughly $1600.00 bucks for the washer dryer combo maybe 10 or 12 years ago.

So I went appliance shopping yesterday. It was eye opening.

An LG combo was on sale so before taxes it was only a couple of hundred bucks more than the old set.

We had repairs done on both the old washer and the dryer to the tune of $400.00 each over the years. So it made sense to go with a new combo especially given the manufacturer changed the stackable mounting system and the dimensions of newer models so I can’t stack my old dryer on a new washer. Pity as it still works.

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I should say nothing lasts very long anymore. Liberals used to disdain the concept of ‘planned obsolescence,’ yet they say not a word about the increasing short lives of appliances and other items. Their own policies, supposedly designed to reduce carbon emissions and conserve energy and water, are part of the problem.

Those of you who are old enough to have had appliances from Whirlpool, Maytag, et al. in the distant past and have recently purchased new ones will know of what I speak.

A big thanks to everyone for their patience.

The blog migration while mostly peaceful was somewhat breaky and brittle.

The image optimizer decided to fritz but after some code supplied by product support it is operating again albeit with certain features in limbo.

BCF is old, old and swole up with over 200K posts and 100K images.

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Hi Everyone!

I am off to PQ to attend my niece’s daughter’s wedding. I am looking forward to the scheduled 11 pm Poutine snack at the reception.

I should be back Sunday evening, after a small post wedding family get together. Xavier will be all alone and will probably change the locks.

Please be aware that the Blog may be down for 4 to 6 hours if our host decides to make the move to the new server.

Sarcasticat will be looking after things while I am gone, please thank him for his fine efforts.

Thank you all!

BCF

And we’re back …

As I write these words, June 10 was not too long ago, but being before the European, British, and French elections, in some ways it feels like an eternity ago. June 10 is White Rose Day, the day on which, in 1688, the de jure King James III and VIII of England, Scotland, and Ireland was born. It precipitated the overthrow of his father in the so-called Glorious Revolution, the ongoing subjection of the British Monarchy to the political factions dominating Parliament, and the Jacobite uprisings so dear to song and story. In commemoration of the day, this writer had lunch with several other like-minded folk.

The power came back on when things were looking their most bleak at approx 3:30PM.

Our emergency generator was not guaranteed a fuel refill as silly things like hospitals may have needed it more than your stalwart blogger.

That would mean no elevators or water.

But so far so good touch wood.

Please thank Sarcasticat for rising to the occasion and filling in.

Thank you all.

BCF

The opening get-together in the annual summer summiteering season was titled G7 Italia, after the location at a posh resort on the Adriatic coast. It should rightly have been Dead Men Walking.

Rarely if ever have so many unpopular, discredited, likely-to-be replaced national “leaders” gathered on a stage to be opped for a photo that would be out of date almost the moment they landed back in the countries that desperately want to be rid of them.