She will be missed

She was ojnly 22 months old.

We had to put Ophelia down today due to an injury to her right hind leg. We are not sure how it happened, but it was clear that it was an injury from which she would not recover. She had bisected the superficial deep digital flexor tendon as well as the deep digital flexor tendon and incised the skin through to the periostium. After discussion with the vet, Nancy, and the barn owners it became clear that she was not likely to recover from this injury. In short, it would likely be a long hard road and she would not ever be able to be ridden or worked in any way. With this in mind we made the decision to have her put down. It was a hard decision, but it was the right decision. In the end, being a horse owner means that you often have to make the very hard decisions and do what is right by the horse.

Ophelia was a lovely horse and she has taught us all so very much over her very short life. She was the first, and I dare say the only, foal that we had from Olivia. She was the product of a breeding of Olivia and Bergamon. She had lovely movement and loved to jump, going out of her way to jump things even if they could have been walked across. She taught me to be a better person, and taught me how to put my energy and emotions in check in order to better serve the hose at hand. As horses go she was a very special horse, always full of energy and full of herself. She was a horse with a very big personality and that personality touched everyone who worked with her. She was an extraverted horse and that made her very tough in some respects. She was a constant challenge and tested the boundaries at every turn. If she was thinking something you knew it immediately since there was no filter between what she was thinking and what she was doing.

She will be missed more than words can express. Born January 16th 2005, died November 26th 2008.
Ophelia Viedo
Ophelia Photos

Oh, the weather outside is frightful......

The furnace is so delightful..

and since we really can’t go,

best take photos of the very big snow.

(sung to the tune of "Let it snow")

Day: Snow at times heavy and blowing snow ending near noon then cloudy with 60 percent chance of flurries or rain showers. Snowfall amount 10 to 20 cm. Wind northeast 40 km/h gusting to 60 becoming north 60 gusting to 90 early this morning then northwest 30 gusting to 50 this afternoon. High plus 3.
Night: Flurries. Amount 2 to 4 cm. Local blowing snow. Wind northwest 30 km/h gusting to 50 increasing to 50 gusting to 80 this evening. Low minus 6.

It was interesting to listen to the subtle change in the nomenclature used by the weather forecasters in describing the upcoming (now present) storm. As you recall (see prior post) the weather office had mentioned flurries in the forecast that resulted in a snowfall of roughly 5 cm. In the description of this storm, they substituted the word snow in place of flurries. It no longer read a 60% chance of flurries overnight. It now read snow overnight. That makes me wonder…If we got 5 cm when the forecast said flurries, how much would fall when they say ‘snow’.

The snow is definitely blowing, but I can still see the house across the street, as well as the plow that comes down the street. What I can no longer see is the individual wood stacked in the pile out in front of the house. Likewise, when the dogs go outdoors, I can no longer see Isobel (our Cavalier King Charles Spaniel) when she hits the drift coming back inside.

Since we have no place to go, we will sit and enjoy the snow. This naturally brings up the question of what do you do with your time on ‘snow days’. In order to understand the answer there are a few things that are worth remembering about how we spend our days in general. First and foremost is that we do not have access to broadcast television. That’s right, we do not have “TV” in our house. That is not to say that we do not have a television, after all, we love to watch movies and Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings is especially good on the big screen. What we lack is a connection to the broadcast television world. We do not own cable (it does not come down our road anyway), we did not purchase a Direct Way dish, and we do not have rabbit ears (that would be external television antennas to the under 30 crowd). Now I realize that the thought of being without television is an anathema to some, but it suits us well, and it frees up our time to do other things that we enjoy. Needless to say, we listen to more radio than I would wager many folks do, and we certainly read. As well, since we cannot find the kind of bread we really like we make it ourselves (roughly two loaves a week). Nancy spends many of her days at the stables so there is not a lot of time on those days for around the house sort of stuff, and that tends to get put off until the weather prevents us from going outside. As for me, since I am new to the Canadian health care system, I have a significant amount of reading to plow through as I get accustom to the different recommendations from the Canadian Preventative Task Force. So, all in all our days are far too full to be spent watching television.

As for today, the most important activity is to capture some video of the storm as well as some photos for all our friends in warm places so you can have a little bit of Canada in your lives.

The snow blows hard here

Tonight
Periods of snow and local blowing snow ending this evening then cloudy with 60 percent chance of flurries. Amount 5 to 10 cm. Wind north 40 km/h gusting to 60 except gusting to 80 along the coast early this evening. Wind becoming northwest 30 gusting to 50 this evening. Low zero.

Tomorrow
Day: Cloudy with 60 percent chance of flurries. Wind northwest 30 km/h gusting to 50. High plus 1.
Night: Cloudy with 40 percent chance of flurries. Wind west 20 km/h. Low minus 4.


Well, they mean every bit of that forecast. The snow was blowing hard from the northwest making travel from the southeast a pretty tough slog. Nancy had a sudden re-introduction to the driving skill set that she developed while in Utah. The highway from Summerside in the southeast to O’Leary in the northwest was a bit of a nasty run tonight. There were several accidents along the road and the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) warned islanders to stay off the road tonight because it was treacherous. Mind you that is Canadian Highway Patrol telling the Canadians to stay home.

Well, the problem for Nancy is much like that of the pilot. You do not have to take off, but you have to land, and so she had to get back home once she started down the road (since the road is essentially deserted). She traveled cautiously and what normally takes 45 minutes took 1.5 hours as she headed home. It is amazing how quickly the driving in snow thing returns to you, and how quickly you remember that you dislike blowing snow, and that is the biggest problem we have had today. The blowing snow is being fueled by the 40 km/h winds and it making some beautiful drifts in the yard around the house. It also makes vision difficult when you are driving into it, and memory of the road becomes your most important asset. In fact, the snow was blowing hard enough that I drove past our house and had to double back to find the driveway.

So, we officially have our first real storm. It is an interesting time, the wind is howling around the edges of the house, and the snow drifts are mounting in the front yard. Pictures will follow soon. If you want to have a look at the roads in the area, follow these links to see the Elmsdale road camera which is 10 minutes from the house.

In Flander's Fields the poppies grow.......

Ironically, the begning of November is the first time that you can get studs put on your tires here on Prince Edward Island. As fate would have it, November 2nd saw the first snow for the island. The snow itself was more of the sleet variety with a few choice flakes thrown in for good measure. It was not the glorious dry fluffy snows that we saw at Dugway Proving Ground in Utah, and it did not come as heavy as the October snow we had in Denver in 1995 where 6 inches fell in 4 hours onto trees that still possessed an abundance of green leaves. However, it was the first snowfall we have seen since April of 2008 when a freak snowstorm hit Texas and covered our farm with just about as much snow as we have received overnight. The neat things about this snow, compared to all others, is that we know it will be the first of many, and that soon, all that we survey will be covered, and snow will reign for the season.

The last week in Canada has been very interesting on a number of fronts. First, the election coverage of the coming US election has been a hot topic in the Canadian news. The Canadian press, much like the press in the US, is very enamored with Mr Obama. In fact, today when Nancy and I were driving home from O’Leary we were listening to a CBC interview of three reports from various places (Canada, Germany, England) discussing their views about who would win, and what it would mean. I have found the coverage of the election to be fairly interesting, as have been the questions from my patients. The press seem to take it as a foregone conclusion that Mr Obama will win the election handily, as the polls predict. My patients all ask me the same question, will he win? I have to answer that I do not know who will win, since the polls may very well be wrong. I remind them that it was not all that long ago that the United States was integrated, and that many people who are alive, and of voting age, still harbor very strong emotions surrounding race, integration, and the election of a black man. In fact, to put things in perspective, Nancy was in high school in Ft Worth when the school was integrated via forced busing. She remembers very clearly the effect that this had on the kids in the school from both races. I know that people who harbor these feelings will tell a pollster one thing, yet believe very differently, and I do not know how big that difference will be until the votes are counted. Either way, this election will say something about the United States, and on Wednesday we will all find out.

Nancy got her Prince Edward Island driver’s license this week. I can hear the collective yawn from all of you, but this marks a very significant point in her life. You see she has been driving since the age of 15, and has had a Texas license for all those years. The license changed only once (outside of the obvious photo and address changes), it earned a leading zero when Texas increased the numbers for all licenses. For all of our travels across the United States, she has held a Texas license with the same number on it for all those years. This number has been one of those things you remember and recite when needed to complete all sorts of forms, checks, and such. Well, this week she had to surrender her license when she received her new Prince Edward Island driving license. It was a big moment for her, taking her by surprise, and signaling that the change was real, and the move permanent. Neither of us posses a Texas driver’s license, and the only tie to the US remains our passport, in all other respects for legal purposes we are Canadian. It is a strange not unwelcome feeling.

Finally and most importantly, it is the week leading up to Remembrance Day (Armistice Day in some countries and Veteran’s Day in others). It has been interesting to see how another country remembers and honors their veterans and as such a very interesting memorial to those who have died in combat during WWI will play across Canada this week (http://www.1914-1918.ca/). Something that may not be very well known, it was not to me, was that those soldiers who died during WWI were not brought home. The soldiers’ remains were left in Europe in the theater of battle and buried in place. Take a moment and remember those who have come before that made all that you cherish possible. To those who have served and still serve, I cannot thank you enough for all you have done.

Dick Scheese MGSgt USMC Retired
Kent Brewer MSG USSOCOM HG
Jason Staub MSG currently in Iraq
“Chuck” Rush MAJ currently in Iraq
Michael Dean MAJ US Army Reserve still serving
Jim Talley SGT
Raul Gonzales, MD, MAJ still serving
Billy Ligon , MD, MAJ
Robert A Henry , DO, CPT USNR still serving
John Manning, MD, LTC
Blair Valentine, MD rank unknown
Ed Fasolina, MD, LCDR
Tim Pfanner, MD, COL US Army Reserve
Michael Kirkpatrick, MD, LCDR
Doug McNeese, COL US Army Retired
Jessie Lewis, SPC
John Hancock SSGT US Army Retired
Darrell Johns, MSG US Army Retired
Charles Grimes, USN Rank unkown
Chip Lewis, US Army Vietnam, Rank unkown
Louis Ortiz, RN, CPT
Mathew Connely, SPC

Don Parker, MD, MAJ

Gene Hooker, CPL US Army (deceased) Nancy's Father
And so many more, lest we forget.