Smoke

Koi pond from Vancouver from my friend.  Cool and relaxing.  The air quality today was up to 10 (worst possible) with smoke hanging in the air.  We just had a thunderstorm and that’s cooled things down quite a bit, and it’s slightly easier to breathe too.  Last week is catching up to me so I’m glad I don’t have many things planned for this week.  The building is due to have a power outage on Thursday so we’ll have to see how that works — no power means no wifi, no elevator, no landline, no cooking, no fridge, stove, so it will be a very quiet day with loads of restrictions.  Jerry is still in hyper-affectionate mode, and continues to seek out cuddles and pets along with throwing some toys at me.  I’m going to sneak a few of the heavier ones away just to save my toes!  Don was struggling to breathe for a while, so we’re inside instead of going out on the balcony because of the smoke.  He sneaked off to his computer room and I (as usual) stayed out of it, because I know that I’ll get some surprise… 

The surprise was that he ordered Chinese for dinner; I had some broth from the soup, and struggled a bit to finish it.  It’s very annoying… I ordered sushi for lunch, maki rolls of 5 pieces and I was able to eat 3 pieces (the others are in the fridge for tomorrow) in neither case am I happy with the quantity that I consumed.  Making it more difficult is that absolutely nothing had any flavour at all.  The best I can say for the soup is that it was hot…   I think that being tired adds to this, since I’m struggling to stay awake today and most of yesterday.  Having a small dog who wants to play at 3am adds to tiredness!

I’ve been selected to participate in a review process for cancer research grant applications.  I’m very excited about this, and it’s one of those things where I feel that I’m learning new things and can perhaps help people.  This round is for new/early career researchers who are doing work on improving cancer treatments.  Once again, I’m amazed at the work that is being done at various universities to help cancer patients have better outcomes.  Obviously I can’t talk about the specific applications or anything to do with the process, but I can say that it’s such an awesome learning experience and it’s stretching my mind loads.  I’m again thinking, “Oh, I wish I were back at university,” with all these things to learn.  I had to do a short online course on the science of cancer, which led to a slew of other learning videos which go so far as to explain the protein interactions in cells… it’s practically a whole course on microbiology and biochemistry broken into 20-minute videos.  I’m absorbed in those videos, some of which I’ve watched more than once to be sure I grasped all the points — biochemistry was not one of my university courses and I’m learning so much about genes and how they function.  I’ve had to temporarily pause watching them so I can focus on the applications so I’m not scrambling at the last minute to try and finish writing up my reports!  (Been there, done that, have a wardrobe full of those t-shirts!)

Huh.  I’m in the middle of my “2 hours after eating” to take my pills and I’m hungry!  I’ll wait, take my pills and eat an hour later… that’s a shorter pause than eating now and restarting my 2-hour timer for the meds.  I’ve got a few items that I can eat pretty quickly but which are not too heavy (the wontons in the soup, the rest of my sushi, grilled cheese, chips and salsa…) Jerry has stolen Don’s blanket and is settled in for a nap until I get up to go to bed (or the kitchen; he doesn’t complain about either.)  He’s ignored my requests for him to not play in the night, so he’s in danger of being evicted if he insists on it tonight!  Anyway, off to do my nightly rituals, so Good night!