Visit Wednesday June 22nd.

Friends of Ed;

          I was running around town doing errands today so I didn't get to visit father until about 19:00.  In compensation I brought along an old friend - his Tenor Saxophone.  I'd been looking around the house for a few days to see if I could find a sax with all the parts and I finally found the Tenor in a room where I didn't expect it.  I had been wondering for a couple of weeks if father could handle a little blowing on his horn and he seemed agreeable to trying so today we gave it a whirl.  It was wonderful to see how confidently he assembled the horn and got it adjusted to his liking.  His short term memory may be poor but his long term memory is working fine! The horn had not been played in 6 months so the reed was dry and the instrument seemed to be quite reluctant to "sound", but after a minute or so it started to speak.  He played for about 20 minutes - nothing serious, just scales, exercises, and little snippets of tunes such as in the video below.  He said it felt really good and "familiar" to have the horn in his hands.  I must say that I was more than a little impressed.  I had not expected results from a "first try" to be anywhere near this good!  Father did say that he had to keep taking breaths in "all the wrong places" and that he was frequently on the verge of coughing but overall I think he was also very pleased with is first saxophone playing in over 6 months!

          Vince

Visit and Outing Tuesday June 21.

Friends of Ed;

          I had a really nice visit and outing with father today. After dinner we sat on his patio for a bit and then went out for a stroll with the wheelchair. The weather conditions were just perfect for an outing. Warm but not hot and not too sunny. We went along the same walking path behind Hillcrest High School where we went on June 10th and father remembered seeing the foxes on that outing - so there are certainly things that impress him enough to be remembered! We didn’t see the foxes this time, but lots of joggers, walkers, and cyclists gave us friendly greetings. We walked along the path as far as Pleasant Park Rd.  On the way back to Alta Vista Manor I detoured down the path that leads to Portage Avenue.  At this point father decided that he wanted to walk a bit so he did about 100 metres while pushing the wheelchair as a walker. We then followed Dauphin Road to Tweed. Unfortunately none of the neighbors were out, but we did take a little tour around the outside of father's house. It was a bit tricky getting the wheelchair into the back yard but I managed it by pulling the wheelchair backwards through the bumpy spots beside the back door of the house so father could give the garden in the back yard a close inspection.  We then wheeled back to the Manor by the route I usually take when I walk there. (Tweed to Hamlet to Dauphin to Botsford and then along the walking path to AVM)  Father said he thoroughly enjoyed the outing.  So do I!

          Vince

Outing June 19th.

Friends of Ed;

          Father, Davina Pearl, and I had a wonderful outing today.  The weather was gorgeous so we packed father's wheelchair and portable oxygen into the car and drove to Vincent Massey Park.  There we spent several hours exploring the pathways along the Rideau River all the way from the RA Centre to Hog's Back Falls.  At the Falls the concession stand was open so we had some ice cream and then posed for some photos with the Falls in the background.

          Father did do a bit of walking on this outing, but only for a few metres.  After going back to the car we returned to Alta Vista Manor where we kept father company for the second seating at dinner.  All in all it was a wonderful outing which father REALLY enjoyed!

          Vince

Visit and Lunch June 17th.

Friends of Ed;

          Today is the first anniversary of the passing of Bill Paris, father's neighbor on Tweed Avenue for 37 years. In commemoration of this day Joan (Bill's wife), Hubert van Wettum, and I had arranged to have a little lunch party with father at Alta Vista Manor. We had a nice table in the private area of the dining room. Joan brought a photo of Bill to put at the head of the table. We spent almost 2 hours having lunch and chatting. Joan, Hubert, Hubert’s children (3 teens) and two of their friends from the UK (Anne and Denis Thompson) just got back from a trip through the Rocky Mountains by train and then on to Alaska by cruise ship so we heard all about that. Not having seen father for a few weeks they were very impressed at how he has perked up since they last saw him!

          Vince

Visit Wednesday June 15th

Friends of Ed;

          I visited father over the lunch period again today to see how the new routine was shaking down.  The support workers showed up at father's room as planned and helped him get down to lunch for the first sitting so everything seemed to work out OK.  He is at the same table (#6) for lunch as he is at dinner so his lunch dining companions are familiar to him.

          Vince

Visit and Outing Tuesday June 14th.

Friends of Ed;

          I visited father over lunch today to make sure that having him take lunch in the dining room worked out OK.  It is well that I did because the kitchen got the message and didn’t bring him lunch in his room, but the support staff didn’t get the message so they didn’t come to take him down to the dining room. Oh well… I took him down to the dining room with him using the walker and he had a nice lunch. I checked in with the nurses about the situation and they have informed the support staff so things should go more smoothly tomorrow.  After lunch the physiotherapist came in and she took father for another little walk down to the lounge and back.

          Because it was a beautiful day I decided to take father for a wheelchair outing and did the same walk father, Davina, and I did last Friday except that we went all the way to Kilborn Ave. (I confirmed that the path does indeed go all the way to Walkley Rd). On the way back father asked to do some more walking (using the wheelchair as a walker) and he walked something in the order of 200 meters! I was astounded… he just kept going and going! When we got back to AVM I made sure he lay down and had a nap before having to walk down to the dining room for dinner. I hope he didn’t overdo things… His capabilities and interests seem to be expanding rapidly over the past month!   I went down to the physiotherapist's office to let her know what father had done and she was pretty impressed too!

          Vince

Visit Monday June 13th

Friends of Ed;

          I had my usual afternoon and over dinner visit with father today.  There was nothing remarkable about it and it seemed to me that he was coping well with having dinner in the dining room each day and it had settled into a routine.  I judged that it was perhaps time for him to also have lunch in the dining room.  I contacted Monique Robinson and she agreed to put the necessary changes in place.  I'll plan to visit over lunch tomorrow so I can see how things go.

          Vince

Visit Sunday June 12th.

Friends of Ed;

          As I do every day I went over to visit father for a few hours.  Today I kept him company at dinner and over the last few weeks having dinner in the dining room has become an established routine, with him walking to and from the dining room under his own steam!  Hooray!  I am starting to think that I should talk to the Manor about having father take his lunch in the dining room starting sometime next week.

          I see from the sign in sheet at the front desk that Anne and Dennis Thompson, friends of father's next door neighbors Bill and Joan Paris on Tweed Avenue, were in to visit father today.  They have been visiting from the UK and just returned to Ottawa from a two week trip (with Joan Paris and Hubert van Wettum) through the Rocky Mountains by train and then on to Alaska by cruise ship.

          Vince

Visit Friday June 10th.

Friends of Ed;

          I visited father late in the afternoon today and while I was there Maciek Mentlak and his daughter Norah visited.  They are one of Father's neighbours on Tweed Avenue.  Father then had dinner in the dining room and shortly after he finished Davina Pearl arrived for a visit.

          We visited with father for a while and since it was such a nice evening decided to take him out for a stroll in his wheelchair.  I know of some walking paths that go through the green spaces nearby so we headed over to one of them that starts at the intersection of Roger Guindon Ave. and Smyth Rd.  The path extends from there to Walkley road, a distance of about 2.5 Km.  The first hundred metres of the path winds through some trees and we had just started when Davina spotted a family of three foxes.  From their sizes we thought them to be a male, female and a kit, about half grown. We stayed in one spot and watched them for about 10 minutes.  It was one of those magic moment that you will remember for a lifetime.

          Eventually the foxes went off into the woods and we carried on along the path. After crossing over Pleasant Park Rd. we entered the area of the City of Ottawa allotment gardens.  At this point father decided  he wanted to do a bit of walking on his own so he got out of the wheelchair and walked on the grass through the gardens for about 50 metres.  We then turned around and made our way back towards Alta Vista Manor.  Some time ago Joan Paris had quoted the opening stanza of AA Milne's poem "Teddy Bear" (see below) to Davina and this had intrigued her to the point of looking up the whole poem and printing out a copy. We had brought it along so we concluded the trip with her pushing the wheelchair and me reading the poem.  All in all we have a very nice evening and certainly got enough exercise to prevent us from becoming "tubby" like Winnie the Pooh!

Teddy Bear  (A.A. Milne)

A bear, however hard he tries,
Grows tubby without exercise.
Our Teddy Bear is short and fat,
Which is not to be wondered at;
He gets what exercise he can
By falling off the ottoman,
But generally seems to lack
The energy to clamber back.

You can see the entire poem at this link:
http://www.poetryconnection.net/poets/A.A._Milne/14277


          Vince

Visit Thursday June 9th.

Friends of Ed;

          I visited father today, as I do most days, over the dinner hour and he seems to have nicely settled into the routine of having dinner in the dining room every day.  I think I'll see if I can expand meals in the dining room to include both lunch and dinner starting next week. 

          For those of you interested in the video of the Centralaires concert of May 29th, I have dropped off the files with a friend and he is going to put them on a DVD.  Copies should be available in my father's room sometime in the next week or so.

          As many of you know my mother and father were always avid gardeners.  I grew up with the concept that gardens were good things to do, though in recent years I have mostly done the chicken side of the "farming" business.  Since I was in Ottawa at the appropriate time I thought it would be nice to plant the vegetable garden at father's house this year just as he used to do and hopefully he will enjoy coming over to see it once it gets going.  If I'm really lucky there will even be some vegetables to eat when I am back in Ottawa in September.  Today I marked out part of the back yard, hauled out the tiller, convinced it to start, and tilled up about a 4 metre square plot in the back yard.  Hopefully the garden gods will smile on my efforts!

          Vince

Hospital Visit Tuesday June 7th

Friends of Ed;

         Father had his appointment with the hematologist today at 09:30.  I again followed the plan of taking father over to the hospital in the wheelchair as the weather was good. They were quite efficient at the hospital so we did not have excessive waiting times. The hematologists report was very good. Father’s ferritin levels were well within range even though his last phlebotomy was about a year ago. The doctor says he should be good for another year before any follow up is required. He did listen for fathers breathing sounds through a stethoscope and then sent us for a chest x-ray. It isn’t fully clear to me at this time whether the doctor was reacting to father’s new “normal” breathing sounds or whether there was something specific that was concerning him. The trip back was as smooth as the trip to the hospital and we arrived at Alta Vista Manor  about 11:15 – just in time for lunch. Overall I was very pleased with how things went.

     Vince

Saxophone Quartet Concert June 6th.

Friends of Ed;

          The "Two plus Two" saxophone quartet visited Alta Vista Manor this evening and gave a wonderful concert.  It was well attended by about 30 of the residents and it was obvious that they appreciated the music. 

The "Two Plus Two" Quartet.  Ben Greenberg, Alex Dopplinger, Gord Price, Tina Leach

          After the concert father visited with the quartet members for quite some time.  Davina Pearl also came by for the end of the concert and visited with father afterwards.

          Vince

Outing Wednesday June 1st.

Friends of Ed;

          Father has an appointment with his Hematologist on June 7th and in preparation for this he needed to have some blood work done. I decided that since the General Hospital is only about a 15 minute walk from Alta Vista Manor I would try wheeling him over to the hospital in his wheelchair rather than taking him over in the car. This then save all the hassle of parking the car at the hospital, which could actually take more time than the walk for Alta Vista Manor! The walk to and from the hospital went well with no complications other than trying to pick the smoothest route over all the little bumps on the sidewalk and it being a bit windy. The people at the hospital were reasonably efficient and the whole trip took a bit less than 2 hours.

          I then went back to the house for a couple of hours because the drain of the kitchen sink had been draining slowly and leaking so it needed some plumbing attention.  Fortunately I was able to get the needed parts at the local Home Hardware and solve the problem.

          Recently father has started having all of his dinners in the dining room  and I wanted to make sure this process was happening properly so I returned to Alta Vista Manor about 17:15. The staff had properly taken father down for dinner (using his walker – not the wheelchair!) and he was having his soup when I arrived. They had seated him at a table with 3 other ladies and they were having a fine conversation. Pepper steak was the main entrée and father ate a good portion of it. Part way through dinner Judy Manning arrived for a visit bringing another rhubarb pie. Since father had just eaten dinner we didn’t consume any of the pie  at that time but out it in the fridge in father’s room for future reference. I was checking his mailbox when father decided he should go back to his room and he did it more or less independently without help from the staff - though Judy may have helped him a bit.

          All in all it was a pretty successful day!

          Vince

Centralaires Concert Sunday May 29th.

Friends of Ed;

          We had a pretty amazing day today!  The Centralaires big band, of which father is a long time member, performed a concert at the Aviation Museum.  Father had expressed interest in going to the concert so I worked out a plan to get him there and Davina offered to help.   We picked up father at about 1 o'clock and drove down to the aviation museum.  There was a very high turnout for the concert and the parking lot was completely full!  We got father into the wheelchair by the main entrance and Davina took him in while I parked the car.  Father REALLY enjoyed the concert!  The guest of honor was Howard Cable ,who is a composer, arranger, and band leader very prominent in the Canadian music business.  Father worked with him in Toronto in the 50s and 60s.  One example of his work would be the first Hockey Night In Canada theme music. Much of the music the Centralaires performed was composed by Howard and he even conducted some of it personally.  After the concert Father had a great time chatting with Howard and many of his other friends.

          When we returned to Alta Vista Manor we had dinner with father in the dining room and then visited with him for a while in his room.




Howard Cable conducting the Centralaires



Father giving standing ovation at end of the Air Force March Past


          Vince

Outing Wednesday May 25th.

Friends of Ed;

          I am planning to take father to the Centralaires concert at the Aviation museum this coming Sunday and I thought it wise to do a trial run to find out what the problems might be. Today was a beautiful day so I drove over to Alta Vista Manor with the idea of doing an outing. The on street parking was full so I had to use the parking lot. This meant that I approached the Manor from the side opposite father’s room. He was sitting out on the patio and he noticed me coming in and waved which quite surprised me – he was obviously being very alert! After getting a few things squared away I got father into the wheelchair with the portable oxygen and wheeled him out to the car after signing him out at the front desk. He was able to get into the car quite easily.

          We then drove down to Beechwood Cemetery and he transferred from the car back to the wheelchair.  I wheeled him along the stone pathways which was quite easy and then over the grass to mother’s marker. The wheelchair doesn’t roll over the grass nearly as well as the pathway but it wasn’t too bad. We stayed there for quite a while chatting and remembering things. I then wheeled him back to the stone path and along to one of the big round intersections where I parked the chair as father wanted to try walking a bit. This he did very well for about 100 metres. I carried the oxygen tank slung over my shoulder and walked at his side, but he didn’t need any help at all. It was great to see! When we got back to the wheelchair I took him on a gentle 45 minute walk around the pathways. It was a glorious day… Bright and sunny, a nice temperature, gentle winds, the birds chirping, the trees rustling in the breeze...

          We then drove back to Elmvale acres, taking the Beechwood / Vanier Parkway / Alta Vista route for variety. I drove slowly down Tweed Ave so father could look at his house, but we didn’t have time to go in. We got back to AVM about 16:45, so there were quite a few people waiting to go into the first dinner seating. I took father over to the piano and he did some playing – which garnered a bit of applause. I think he really could do better though if he put his mind to it – he doesn’t like that piano. Stiff action and some of the keys are sticking. At 17:00 we went in to dinner and table 5 had a couple of ladies at it today so father got into some good conversations with them.

          All in all we spent almost 4 hours out of his room and the oxygen tank still said about half full so perhaps the oxygen duration may not be as much of a problem as I thought. I wonder whether the chart I consulted is wrong, or is perhaps for a smaller tank. Maybe the flow rate is actually lower than marked on the dial or maybe the gauge is wrong? More testing is required, I guess.

          Vince