The Seated View

The weather was nice on Tuesday, warm and sunny, but fresh. I'd worked my derrière off for six days in a row and decided it was time to go zen out. So off I went to Sugar Beach. Once I got there, I discovered that the day that was fresh by my building was pretty windy when you got close to the lake. The water was downright choppy, even in the secluded area where another freighter loaded with sugar was docked.   I love this time of year by the lake. The heat of summer has dissipated, everyone has going back to work and school and there are very few people hanging out at the water in the middle of the day in the middle of the week. The beach is largely empty, the Muskoka chairs unoccupied under the pink umbrellas and somehow, this image triggers mood and imagination in a way that doesn't happen in the summer.   Even around lunchtime, the sun is so low in the sky that the water turns into nothing but sparkles. The size and shape and intensity of the spar...

   My last post for HealthCentral's Pain Awareness Month is about two new apps for people with chronic pain and arthritis. Very cool! "One of the most frustrating aspects of living with RA and chronic pain is the unpredictable nature of these conditions. Keeping track of your symptoms, activities, triggers and treatment can help you identify patterns. Knowing what makes your symptoms worse or better is important when you live with a chronic condition. I often recommend to our users that they keep a symptom diary to identify patterns between activity and symptoms, but the traditional paper and pen approach can be a bit of a hassle. Recently, two apps have been released that aim to help you easily track what's going on in your body as it happens throughout the day." You can read more about The Arthritis Foundation's Track+React and WebMD's Pain Coach here .   

     

    When I lived with my parents, dinner was one of my favourite times of the day. Not because my mother is an excellent cook - although there is that - but because dinner was the time where we all sat down together, ate and talked. And it was the talking especially that made this time of day extra special. Because sooner or later a debate would start. My parents taught both my sister and I the debate game and to this day, it remains one of our favorite sports. We can enter into a spirited debate about pretty much anything and frequently do, much to the amusement - and occasional frustration - of other people in the room. Someone will say something and before you know it, we're locked in a lively game of Pass the Word. Because this isn't just about exchanging opinions, it is also about passing the metaphorical talking stick back and forth so quickly that it becomes a bit of a blur. We jump into the conversation when someone else is talking because we learned - a...

    This week, I wrote another post for HealthCentral's theme of living with pain for Pain Awareness Month. Since it is also National Recovery Month, I combined the two topics: "You have the right to effective pain management. In fact, two years ago, the International Pain Summit in Montréal declared that it is a human right for all people to have access to pain management. In reality, many do not. The Myths of Addiction and Pain Management There is a myth in our society that taking painkillers means you're a bit of a wuss. We all understand that certain illnesses such as cancer can cause a great deal of pain and there is a great deal of support for terminal cancer patients getting the meds they need to deal with that. But non-cancer pain doesn't get the same kind of respect. In her recent post about opioid treatment for cancer and non-cancer pain , Karen Lee Richards speculates that this may be related to concerns about the risk of addiction. Concerns...

    Sugar Beach got its name not because the sand is as fine as sugar (although it might be), but because it's right next to the Redpath Sugar Refinery . Living this close to a sugar refinery means that if the wind is right, my neighbourhood smells like molasses. It means often seeing really big ships docked right there, loading off raw sugar from the Caribbean so that Redpath to do its thing. And it means often hearing the deep honk of a ship's horn coming through my window in the late afternoon as a ship prepares to leave. It makes me feel like I'm living close to the sea and you know how much I like that. Despite having seen an awful lot of ships and heard an awful lot of horns, I have yet to see one actually arriving or departing. That changed last week when I hid down on the beach restoring my sanity. I'd been sitting with my eyes closed, absorbing the rays of the sun like a lizard when something made me look up and out over the lake. And that's when I saw...

    I've never met a plum I didn't like, but the yellow are my favorites. They remind me of a Danish plum sort called reinekloder. They have the same contrast of a very tart skin and a sweet flesh - wait, that sounded a bit cannibalistic - albeit a bit more watery than the Danish variety. These little globes of sunshine are only available for about a month every summer. I miss them in the depths of winter and start looking forward to them before the height of summer. I feel about these yellow plums the way I feel about Ontario strawberries, but the strawberries now last from June well into September. I had a bag of four yellow plums in my fridge for while and was spacing them out, wanting to extend this part of summer for as long as I could. It's been almost a month since the season for yellow plums ended and earlier this week, I realized I need to be careful about how much slowly I eat them or they might go bad. By this morning, there were two left. Now the...

     There are times when this stress hits you so hard that you have made a conscious decision to build a wall against it. The stress can be a physical flare, unmanageable pain or the life crap that has a habit of happening without your consent. For me right now, it is the life crap. There is a lot of it and I feel drained and angry. I have ideas for posts, but the thought of writing them is almost nauseating. I’ve forced myself to sit in front of my computer with a blank document and Dragon on and nothing has come, except the overwhelming need to walk away. From the computer, from everything I do, from my life, if only for a little while. More than anything, I want two months off. To rest, to write, to centre myself and to not think about the Shoulds. And although I did buy my lottery tickets today, the chances of that happening are about the same as a rasher of bacon on the hoof flying past my fifth floor window. So. The wall. Or perhaps it is not so mu...

     

    September is Pain Awareness Month in the US and HealthCentral writers are covering topics related to living with pain. This week, my contribution is about my go-to tricks to cope: "Last week, I cried in the shower again. It's been a long time since the pain was so bad that my only response upon waking was to cry. Between Humira beating down my RA and having learned well the intricate balance of the right blend of painkillers, my pain is usually pretty manageable. Sometimes high, sometimes less so, but rarely blinding anymore. But here we were again, the pain and I, dancing that old familiar dance. It took a few days before I came out on the other side of it, feeling bruised and fragile, but better. And when I did, I realized that I had automatically clicked into a well-established routine of coping with a high spike of pain. This routine has five essential components" You can read the rest of the post here .    

    I was going to take a break from writing about accessibility and barriers to same. There was enough of an inaccessibility flurry before my birthday, what with Winners and Metro , the LCBO and Buskerfest and to be honest, I'm tired. Tired of not being able to use stores and spaces the same way my able-bodied brethren can. Tired of having to fight for the right to pay for my purchases. So tired of coming up against not being welcome in so many places. It wears you down. So I decided that my birthday was going to be a turning point. I was going to take a break from this particular for a while and focus on the positive. And then this thing happened. Get comfy. I am about to rant. A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about revisiting the scenes of the inaccessibility crimes in two locations, Winners and Metro. I wrote about how Metro was having some problems related to barrier-free policies that would support their barrier-free design. More specifically, that the ...

    Three months ago, we went to see Cavalia's Odysseo and it was blissful . I claimed to be full, didn't need to go back again, but The Boy knew better. He'd occasionally drop a hint and finally, I knew, too. I couldn't let these beautiful horses leave without seeing them again. So we did. It kicked off the Birthday Weekend celebrations and as before, the level of bliss was out of this world. It's possible I was vibrating with excitement as with waited to go into the stables. because of course we were going to the stables. While we waited, four of the performers came out to chat and meet. The big difference this time was that the horses faced us and were willing to be touched. Notice the beauty on the right - I've named him Mr. Nuzzly (because I didn't catch his real name) and he'll return in a bit. Very friendly horse. I didn't name this one, but he had the softest nose I know this because I got to touch it Off we...

    For the last 30 years, I've battled against the prevailing North American belief that Copenhagen is the capital of Holland and that coming from Denmark makes me Dutch. However, thanks to Marianna , I will today claim some kinship with that other small Northern European nation. Because today is what the Dutch would call my Sarah Birthday . It boggles my mind that I can claim that many trips around the sun, but the idea of it representing the gaining of wisdom makes it something to be happy about. This weekend we celebrated with a lovely party and more photos will be forthcoming. Later in the week. Today, I plan to do nothing. Maybe Nothing. But I'll leave you with a photo of me and the singing telegram organized by my family and friends. Nothing at all like the Miss Piggy they'd expected, but that just made it even more fun.     

    This might be my last rant about Buskerfest . Despite it having become an annual tradition to which I know you’re all looking forward with bated breath (no?), it may be time to close the series ( 2005 , 2007 , 2009 , 2010 , 2011 ). Not because Buskerfest has magically become a paragon of accessibility – were it only so. No, it’s because I'm starting to think that it might be healthier to ignore the blasted thing. Not accessibility itself – I’ll continue to advocate for it – but accessibility in the context of Buskerfest. I believe the adage about not being able to control what happens applies. The adage that continues that you can control how you react to things. And after today, I will react by focusing on something that doesn't aggravate me quite so much. So, for the last time I present: the annual rant about accessibility issues at Buskerfest. On the plus side, Buskerfest has an accessibility plan and a stated commitment that they are "working to ensure that...

    The universe is continuing the theme… There's a bit of a celebration going on this weekend and although I normally don't partake of alcohol (it gives me headaches), I decided to go in search of a particular product. I first learned of Woody's pink grapefruit cooler when it was handed out free on the street (yes, really). It's delicious, refreshing, and because I don't normally partake of alcohol, I was tipsy within three sips. My four-pack is going to last me years. So… I went to the local LCBO, which is a brand-new store just opened. Once inside, you can tell that they might still be cleaning up after the construction or are not quite finished, but there is stock and employees and that was all I needed. This brand-new store is on the ground floor of an old building and was completely gutted and renovated prior to opening. You’d figure it out what with the relatively new Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act and the even newer custom...

    Writers across many HealthCentral sites are doing posts related to the theme of back-to-school. We're interpreting it widely, discussing not just going back to school, but also educting kids about various medical conditions. My contribution was to write about bullying of kids with chronic illnesses froma personal point of view: "I flew across the schoolyard, adrenaline blocking out the pain in my ankles. Behind me I could hear the pack of five or six girls chasing me. As I ran, harder than I'd ever run before, I could feel them getting closer and closer. The bike racks were in view and to be safe, I just needed to get there, grab my bike and ride home. And then it happened. One of the girls lunged and sank her teeth into my right shoulder. I don't remember what happened next or how I got home. My next memory is of sitting on my bed, shaking." You can read the rest of the post here .       

    Weirdly coincidentally, the universe has conspired to push me in the direction of a follow-up. If you've been reading for a while, you may remember my experiences with some interesting accessibility issues at Winners about a year ago and the grocery store Metro in late fall 2010 (as well as the very satisfactory resolution of both). Shall we check and then see how things are going? Let's start with Winners. After I wrote a very irritated post about their lack of accessibility, I had a lovely and very productive chat with Charmaine at the company who told me about their commitment to accessibility and the customer service regulations of the Accessibility forOntarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) which came into effect in January 2012. Their efforts included a consultation with people with disabilities, more space between racks and detachable pin pads at all cash registers being planned for early 2012. Given my experience related to not being able to pay ...