Generation Clay
A fan site dedicated to Clay Aiken
Blog
A new project
| Posted at 04:01 PM on January 30, 2010 |
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Hi everyone,
It's so cold here!
-17 C today, and that means it's a swell day to stay inside.
I did go out for lunch with the family, but came home as soon as possible.
In this cold weather I hang out inside either doing housework (yuck), reading, or fooling around learning new things on my computer.
I learned something new on the computer in the last 48 hours, and suddenly today got an inspiration on how to combine my love of reading with my computer skills.
I am still pretty klutzy with this new skill, so bear with the mistakes, and if you have feedback, please leave it at YouTube, where I have posted the first installment of my new project...
The 1-minute booktalk!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycVJu2yMPiA
If you like it, please Subscribe to my 1-minute booktalk at YouTube.
I learned today that I must do everything 'higher!'
There's too much ceiling and not enough book. YouTube cut off the bottom ¼ of the picture.
I'll know better for the next one.
An Elf Yourself Christmas dance
| Posted at 05:41 PM on December 16, 2009 |
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Christmas is coming...
| Posted at 10:29 AM on December 16, 2009 |
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In all the rush to get ready for the holidays, let's stop and make time for those who need prayers and support.
Here is a member of the Claynation, Martigyrl, whom most of us have never met in person, but her name is familliar. In her blog, she tells us what she is coping with. I found that reading it put my life perspective.
I hope that you will read it too.
http://martigyrlsthoughts.blogspot.com/2009/12/christmas-is-almost-here-clay.html
To get yourself in the Christmas spirit, how about reliving some of our best-loved Christmas tour memories?
Suereu's YouTube montage is posted on Today's Photo page. : Four Years of Don't Save It All For Christmas Day. You can watch it there.
Here's a quick link to the montage on YouTube. You can share this link with your friends or save it there to your favourites.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXlFtjASynk
Many thanks to Suereu for putting it out there on YouTube so we can all enjoy it.
Yuku troubles and more
| Posted at 08:49 PM on December 08, 2009 |
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I lost my connection to Yuku last night after 10 p.m. I have reported this failure twice. There are others besides me who have lost their connection.Some of the Yuku issues are with the ISPs that we use.
Anyway, it's now 23 hours since Yuku went down for me, and It's really bugging me that I can't get on the CB.
Judy A. is the one member of GC who visits the two threads on the CB that I frequent, so Judy, if you are reading this, please pass this message along to the usual suspects.
It's clear that the mods and Yuku have been working on this all day, but there is still no joy. I don't expect any solution now before tomorrow.
In other news, probably everyone knows by now that Clay blogged tonight. I could not be prouder of him, "using his voice" to stand up and be counted for the children. This whole issue over where he voted is surely a tempest in a teapot, but will be sorted out shortly when he changes his voting address.
One year later...
| Posted at 08:44 PM on November 30, 2009 |
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Hello, Generation Clay!
I last posted in this blog on Decenber 14, 2008. Back then, I'd only been out of the hospital for a month.
I don't know where the year went, but I spent a lot of it trying to get healthy.
Tonight's topic is the Guestbook. It has reached the end of its lifespan.
I think I wrote you all about how I was using the old Guestbook application because I did not like the new one that Freewebs migrated to ...and that was some time ago. I knew that there would be no support for the old GB ---and tonight the crunch has come.
The GB is not even working for me tonight, and frankly it has been a pain for everyone, ever since the GB decided it was going to open only on Page 1, and never on the current page. How annoying was that?
Tonight it wants everyone to be a member, and to use the passwords to get in, in order to sign the GB.
But it won't even let ME in, even with using the passwords! Soooo, time to dump it. Please bear with me while I explore the options available. Might take a little bit of time.
Now, IF this blog is working correctly, you should be able to enter comments here.
And if you can't, then please communicate with each other by the good old-fashioned way of sending out an email!
I promise to keep you informed via the blog.
And Ialso promise to be back sooner than one year from now!
| Posted at 10:24 PM on December 14, 2008 |
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This is an edited version of the Christmas letter I am sending to family and friends.
Instead of emailing this to each of you, I am posting my letter here so that all can read it at leisure.
Early December finds me recuperating very quietly at home. I am starting to feel better now that I have been taken off the two meds that were making me too sick to function.
The cardiologist has been quite clear that it takes most patients 3 to 4 months before they approach anything like "normal" after having a bypass. It is after all, as invasive as a surgery can be. I had to miss the numerous family birthday parties of November,
but this week I have been able to get out a little bit.
I'll be glad when I can drive again, but that won't be for a few more weeks.
I am taking to heart (no pun intended) the motto that we were taught in cardio rehab, because for me, the motto is all too true:
"You have been given a second chance at life."
Just as I did last year, I've been doing most of my seasonal shopping online.
I thank all of you again for your cards and phone calls.
Your support has been wonderful. I can't do 'snail mail' cards this year, so this is my brief Christmas card/letter to you all.
And let's all make a special New Year's wish for a tour in 2009!
Lucky to be alive!
| Posted at 10:03 PM on November 14, 2008 |
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My bypass surgery was done at St. Mike's. One of the things I learned during this scary adventure was that there are only 3 hospitals in all of Toronto that do heart surgery. That seems to be because open-heart surgery is such a specialized surgery that it makes sense for there to be localized centres, staffed by top-notch surgeons. I was very lucky to get accepted for surgery at St Mike's which has a huge reputation as a top cardiac surgery centre in Canada, and I was so close to checking out permanently that my cardiologist got my case accepted and my surgery done within a week. While I was waiting, my vital signs were checked very frequently, including the middle of the night.
They wanted to keep the patient alive. They kept me very quiet.
As most of you know by now, I had a quintuple bypass, and the surgeon said to me that he would have done more but he "ran out of vein to use." The angiogram that was done while I was at TEGH is one scary document, as it shows the multiple artery blockages that caused me to be sooo sick. The cardiologist has written the extent of the blockages on the angiogram printout....100% twice, 90% twice, 70% 3 times. I was one sick woman!
I have been given a second chance at life, as they tell us in the rehab classes for cardio patients. I have been so lucky: When I was in the ER at TEGH, the duty cardiologist was my cardiologist whom I had seen just 4 days earlier (when he refused to let me drive my car home, after he looked at my EKG.) He came to see me in the ER within the hour, and admitted me to the hospital pronto and told me he was not letting me out of the system.
Another lucky stroke was that when I got to St Mike's (by ambulance, of course) I was told that instead of having the chief cardiac surgeon operate on me as had been planned, my case had been given to another surgeon, Dr. S. Verma. All the nurses raved about what a fab surgeon he is, and what a stellar man he is, and what an international reputation he has. Yes, he does! He's a renowned researcher in cardiac diseases and holds a chair in research; trains other surgeons; publishes many research papers; is a sought-after speaker; and also teaches at U of T. Does all this and still carries on a regular surgery schedule! I could not have been in better hands. He even has his own website, where there is a video of him doing exactly the surgery he did on me. I have not been able to look at it....maybe someday down the road I will have the strength.
He recognized my disease as soon as he got in there, because he is a world expert on this disease. Imagine my family's shock when he came out to see them after the surgery and told them I had a genetic disease and that every member of my immediate AND extended family needs to be tested a.s.a.p. for the marker for this disease. Imagine also my own shock at finding out at this late stage of my life that all my life I have had this genetic disease (which results in terrible atherosclerosis) and it was silently leading up to nearly killing me. I had never heard of this disease, and very ironically, by the time I got to the rehab centre, this disease made the papers and the late night TV news because of new research/new drug approach for all who have it. You can find the news by searching on "c-reactive protein."
Yes, I have been very lucky!
Thanks to all of you who have sent cards and get-well messages. Your thoughtfulness meant a lot to me--cheering me up on days when I was down.
Now all I have to do is get strong again, which will take some time.
Don't forget to check Lily's page for a very cute photo of her taken on her birthday
(Oct 30)
A Visit to Big Chute
| Posted at 10:31 PM on August 30, 2008 |
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Georgian Bay and Lake Huron are on the left side of this map.
Honey Harbour is marked by the red star. Big Chute is located just to the right of the red star on this map.
Toronto is on the Lake Ontario shore, at the bottom right. (90-100 minutes to the south.)
The Shield country begins roughly at Severn Bridge, and is marked by huge granite outcroppings everywhere. It covers more than a 1/3 of Canada.
Big Chute is a place that I had always wanted to see, as it is unique. For the first time ever I was only 20 minutes away from it by car. Just had to go see it!
Interestingly Big Chute is also the location of the very first hydro-electric power plant in Ontario. No wonder it is so historic.
Our visit took place at midday on a gorgeous, sunny August day, and we got lucky, as a couple of boats arrived for their trip just as we got there. We got to see the marine railway in use, as it took the two boats down to the lower level, and watched as the empty carriage was brought back up to the upper level. Then we packed up and took Lily to lunch.
There were so many photos that I could not put them in this blog, but you can look at the whole series (I hope you will find the photos interesting) at this URL.
http://gallery.me.com/ebream#100231
Here's a teaser from the series of photos I took. The two boats are getting settled in the railway carriage, preparing to be moved down the bluff.
Beautiful weather by the lake!
| Posted at 10:07 PM on May 10, 2006 |
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So we pick up the walk as Spike and I get further out on the point, where the big lake is out in front of us, while Ashbridge's Bay and some boating backwaters are on our right.
These are all clickables as they look better when you look at the large photo.
In this little backwater, there is a beaver living behind the rough stuff on the left side. Maybe an attempt at a dam? The main lake is just over the ridge, behind the trees.
At this spot I found a man with binoculars trained on the opposite shore
(seen in the first photo) and he was the one who told me he had finally seen the beaver.
Now we are gearing up for a week of rain!
Good news!
| Posted at 08:55 PM on April 30, 2006 |
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As some of you know, I am going to have a big birthday very soon.
Yes, it ends in zero. Yes, I have come to terms with it, lol.
In fact, I celebrate it!
And now I really have something to celebrate: my elder daughter, Anne, is going to make me a grandmother at last.
Wow! Who would believe this?
I had long since given up any hope of having a grandchild, since both my daughters are now over 40.
I've been sitting on this news for about 8 weeks, waiting for the end of Anne's first trimester. It sure was hard not to say anything. Anne's been really sick--24/7--and has lost 25 pounds in 2 months. (Luckily, at the start she was about 20 pounds over her optimum weight!)
But I hope that this month will see her "make the turn." I'm hoping to see her glowing with good health by summertime. One bonus (yay)-- she quit smoking on the day she found out she was pregnant.
This is an amazing turn of events, and this baby is already a thrill for the whole family: wanted and loved already. I'll keep you posted as to the progress.
The due date is in mid-November, a week before Anne's 44th birthday.
Wish us all luck!
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