Working…

I was woken up early this morning and told that I had to go out right now!  No delays! And we headed out into a wintry scene.  It snowed last night, and a good part of today, so the trees were capped by fluffy snow, and on the ground it was up to my ankles.  Imagine my dismay to find that!  Jerry loved the snow and ran around in it, trying to pull me behind him on slippery surfaces.  I’m just going to put a small plug for my mukluks here — warm, soft and with nicely grippy soles to help me keep stable. Jerry romped around, barked at everything, and came home with his paws covered in snow.  Happy puppy, who then slept for a large part of the day.  Don wasn’t feeling great, complaining about a headache and an unsettled stomach.  Personally, I could sleep for a few days if allowed.  I went to bed very early last night, but I woke up during the night and couldn’t go back to sleep.  This morning I felt like I had sandpaper behind my eyes, and my legs felt like jello, so sleep was a much desired quantity.

It was Jerry’s birthday yesterday, and he got a new duck which he’s happily throwing around and shaking regularly.  This morning, he crawled under the bed and hid, until I dragged it past the edge of the bed.  His little nose emerged for him to try to grab it…then he came out and ran around the bed a few times. He’s happily shaking it by my feet now, poking me with his nose a few times to make me play with him.  

He was ignored for a large part of today.  I had an 8-hour long Zoom meeting (I do that too!) for the grant application review process in which I participated for the second time this year.  Last year we spent 2 days to review the applications, but this year they’ve refined the process a bit so it’s just a single day.  There was a lot more to do before the meeting, and I spent a lot of time reviewing the applications and doing the training that’s now a part of the whole process.  Sadly, I was so tired and sleepy that I missed a lot of the discussion on 3 applications because I just couldn’t keep my eyes open!!  Thankfully those weren’t the ones that I had reviewed, so I wasn’t paying attention to the discussion.  That only became a problem when I scored the wrong document… but that got fixed.  I really enjoy doing these, even though the full day meetings are exhausting (and I obviously can’t stay awake long enough for them!!) But it’s great to see how cancer research is progressing, and to see what ideas are being proposed.  I learnt a couple of very troubling things today.  The first is that 2 in 5 people will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime, of which 1 in 4 will die from it.  The other, more troubling one, was that approximately 44% of women experience domestic violence and women are more than 3 times more likely than men to be victimized.  These are Canadian statistics, but the problem is global.  I’ll leave those depressing numbers here with their related links for the curious to explore.

OK, I’m drifting off to sleep again, so I’ll be heading in to get some sleep, most likely accompanied by a small black  dog who has decided that it’s his job to keep a firm eye on me.  He insists on sleeping on my tummy, so I need to get comfortable before he jumps in, otherwise I’m stuck.  Good night!