Long Time, No Words.

What a difference a few months can make in the complacent little world of a blogger. Death of a beloved family member, injury, illness....sometimes the earth seems to shift on its axis, shaking up all that we know to be true and right.

We lost our Jasmine on January 8, 2006. To say that we were, and remain devastated is a gross understatement. She was a Shih Tzu among Shih Tzus, our Rottweiler in a Shihthead's body. She was magical and she was adored, and our hearts have been rendered by her death.

I sustained a nasty injury to my knee a week before Christmas, and thanks to a health care system that is neither healthful nor caring, I have yet to see the surgeon. I need to see him before I can become number 11 989 on the provincial orthopedic surgery wait list. I fully understand why those with the financial ability to do so become queue jumpers and go to private clinics. Would that I could.I have been wearing a very expensive, very uncomfortable brace for months. I call it my bionic leg, it is the reason I am still mobile.

The stress of our loss, the injury, illnesses being suffered by the two people who mean most to me, job stress, anxiety, sleeplessness, depression and a total lack of motivation have kept me from the keyboard, but I see the shrink next Friday, Christine and I are going on our first real vacation ever, and there is far too much crap going on in the world to remain silent any longer.

Stephen and the Harpies won the federal election, after a fashion. The country has gone from Mr. Dithers to Ned Flanders. We're doom diddly doomed girls and boys.

I'm baaaaaaaaaack. Duck!