Dick MacKenzie
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A whopping good day

10/25/2015

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Now, this is more like it.
When we arrived at camp yesterday afternoon, less than an hour after cruising into our driveway at home, the chickadees met our boat at the dock, sat on the branches of the tree beside my ATV, and chirp-murmurred as we loaded the trailer to drive up to the cabin.
They followed up the short path and sat on their feeding platform only inches away from the sunflower seeds I poured out. Hard to tell who's happier - them or me.
And, here's last night's sunset. Pretty cloudy, but pleasant, as the storm that brought a bit of snow overnight approached. I sat beside a bonfire on the palace deck and watched the night arrive, contented as a kitten with a catnip mouse.
Only a few hours earlier I had witnessed the sunrise through the window of a hospital waiting room 250 miles away. Several of us who had arrived in the dark, sat in the tiny room with our pupils dilated, waiting to be called. As we lounged quietly, in our own little dazes, the sun peeked in the window, and slowly intensified. It was a good sunrise, bright as a firecracker, and aimed directly at my face. For a few minutes I tried everything I could think of to minimize the discomfort of a bright light shining into dilated eyes, even through closed eyelids.
Eventually I crossed the room and sat in a chair beside a nice woman who broke the silence by saying she wondered how long I'd take to move, as she (and a couple others, as it turns out) noticed my obvious discomfort.
My reply was that staring into a bright light with dilated pupils must be like feeding viagra to a eunuch.
For the next few minutes a stranger in the hall might have mistaken our little group for a family reunion. The good cheer and gallows humor rang in a pretty cool new day for a bunch of us who would all rather have been somewhere else.
Matter of fact, we were having such a nice time, despite the hazy vision and growling bellies, that someone had to nudge me and tell me the doctor was at the door calling my name.
Once in the hall, on the way to his office, Dr. Dookeran smiled big, introduced himself, and shook my hand. "Sounds like you guys were having quite a party in there," he smiled.
And that was the beginning of a whopping good day.

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Rearview mirror

10/24/2015

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Here's a picture of Winnipeg in the rearview mirror (Mary is driving ).
My best case hope has been exceeded and we will be home in five hours, and probably at camp in time to get a sunset picture from the palace.
I had a vitreous hemorrhage a little more than a week ago. I had a light show like a '60s hippy vision in my left eye followed by severely impaired sight - like a hairball stuffed into my pupil.
When it didn't improve after a week I went to hospital emergency in Sioux Lookout and from there was sent to a doctor in Dryden and from there to Winnipeg.
It sounded like I might need immediate surgery. But I don't. The gel in my eyeball is coming loose (not an uncommon thing to happen). In this case the process ruptured a blood vessel and caused bleeding in the eye. I guess a torn or detached retina is the main concern, so we'll have to monitor that, but otherwise all is well, except for the nuisance of peeking around and through that hairball for a few weeks as this condition heals.
Oh, yeah The doctor says no bungee jumping...
Thank you all for your concern and good wishes. I really appreciate your caring.
P.S. Spent last night in a Winnipeg motel with Mary. Know what we did for excitement?
Heh heh... we ordered a pizza and watched a Blue Jays baseball game. I fell asleep in the sixth inning.

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Losing my jelly

10/24/2015

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I'm losing my jelly.
Should be at camp feeding the chickadees this fine Saturday morning, but instead am sitting in the waiting room at Misericordia Hospital in Winnipeg.
I have noted the instructions on the wall plaque and gave Mary my Timex and the 12 dollars I had in my pocket.
Hoping for a quick in and out here. With good luck we can be back on the road within a couple hours and back in Sioux Lookout before sundown.
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New awakening

10/11/2015

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This morning was so gorgeous that I sat in my robe at the lakeside bar for more than two hours, drinking coffee and breathing in the new awakening from daybreak until the sun had risen and climbed overhead.
Five feet to my right a dozen or more chickadees flew in and out from their own lakeside bar, feeding on sunflower seeds. The only sound in the quiet morning besides their whirring wings and tiny chirps beside me was an occasional goose honking across the water and the soft dog snores of Rosie and Boomer dreaming at my feet.
It was a most peaceful and pleasant way to start a day. So nice that even a chickadee posed with me for a quick picture before resuming his breakfast at the bar.

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7 0'clock

10/11/2015

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Good morning, friends!
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"Ollie, Ollie Enfrey"

10/10/2015

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I thought, this afternoon, of that old boyhood shout out at the end of a dusky evening game of hide and go seek in 1950s Vermont.
In those days I could stand, invisible, behind a twig or a tall - growing milkweed and at just the right moment dash like a frightened gazelle to slap my hand on home base, safely arriving a split second before the goalkeeper.
For years I wondered why we shouted "Ollie, Ollie Enfrey" when it was time to give up and let the successful hiders come in.
Along the way, after I became too fat to hide behind a weed and too burdened to glide gracefully like a gazelle, I came to understand that we were kids learning the lingo of a carnival barker or a ballpark popcorn vendor. We were hollering out a variation of "all in free." I haven't thought of those days and the magic moments for a long time.
While admiring some beautiful colors and leaves in back of the palace I grabbed my camera to capture the glory. And there was Rosie, a pretty girthy girl herself, camouflaged as a birch tree, peering through the flaming foliage, hoping to hear "OLLIE, OLLIE ENFREY."
Once she knew she was outed it was a race of the fatsoes to get home free.
I'm not saying who got back first, but even if Rosie beat me, I have some wonderful memories, whipped cream on pumpkin pie, from that silly little afternoon moment.

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Pink socks?

10/9/2015

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I am missing a gold fleck.
As a younger man, friends pointed out a tiny yellow thread in my tie and a fleck of gold color in one of my socks to illustrate "the well dressed gentleman."
The whole concept escaped me.
I would have identified more with mustard stains and pig shit on my shoes.
Color co-ordination has never been a strong point. But tonight, gazing out from the palace, I admired the flowers and colors still shouting out glories to the autumn dusk.
Colors are vibrant These are flowers still prancing on the deck in mid -October. I think I need some red and pink in my socks, and a better appreciation of nice colors.
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When the cat's away

10/7/2015

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Heh, heh... When the cat's away, the mice will play. Wednesday night dinner.
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sunset

10/3/2015

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Got the sunset tonight. It's always beautiful, even when it's not spectacular.
Hey, wait... that's like most of us.
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Dreams

10/3/2015

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Dreams can come true...
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SIOUX LOOKOUT WEATHER
P.O. Box 1464
Sioux Lookout, Ontario  P8T 1B9
807-738-BOAT (2628)
dick@dickmackenzie.com
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