I'm at a hotel in Sudbury, my destination for the day. A few things:
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Thomasin is enjoying exploring the hotel room, I also let her out on the car while I was taking bathroom breaks and she loved exploring there, too. She's only left my apartment once since I adopted her, so today is a very big day
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There is a pagent going on in the hotel for adult women. I didn't know those were a thing. It's pretty cool. I chatted with someone I assumed was a judge but who was actually a really enthusiastic participant
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A lot of the tv stations I can receive are American. I will never, ever get used to drug ads. But they're a price I'll pay for The Fifth Element, which is easily the best thing I've ever seen in a hotel
From the comments
Kate Lux: Yeah, there are "Mrs ___" pageants (25-40, I think) and I think ones for seniors too.
James Petrosky: Kate Lux the world can be a strange and beautiful place. It does explain the women my age in prom dresses I saw when I arrived, though.
James Petrosky: Even in a strange place like Sudbury, you don't have weddings on a Thursday. Which was the only reason I could think of
Last Thursday, the 3rd, I met with my oncologist to plan when I'd restart treatment. My blood counts have never been particularly useful (even though I have advanced disease, they've never been above the cutoff point where we'd start to worry about them), but they're still lower than when I started treatment a year ago. The CT scan showed no new tumors in the scan area (I think head and legs are outside, and we know the pelvic area isn't imagable), including in lungs, liver, and bones. The existing appendix tumor remains, but is still around the size it was. It's difficult to image the diffuse tumor on the fatty layer that protects the abdominal organs, so there are still unknowns, but we've decided to delay our decision for a few months. This means they in late September and early October, I'll be doing the same round of tests again to see if I need treatment then. This is fantastic news for my incision, which will get the time to heal properly for sure now.
Over the weekend my partner and I traveled to Elliot Lake to attend a family reunion/baby shower in Espanola. Nearly everyone was there, including the enormous and adorable baby, and it was a fantastic time. I didn't realize how much more recovery I had to do, though, I've never been so tired from sitting in the shade all day.
This need for further recovery was repeated Sunday, when my partner and one or my brothers had a tourist day in and around Elliot Lake, and Monday at Science North. Eight months of treatment that saps your strength, followed by a surgery that steals your endurance, and two months of lying around trying not to harm an incision take nearly everything out of you. At least I have two more months to recover.
Traveling North on Highway 400/69, north of Parry Sound, where the good outcrops are.
Bear friend at the North West Trading Company in Espanola, Ontario
Bear friend likes the same things that poodles like
Additional bear friend, at the Trading Post on Serpent River First Nation
Deer also like what poodles like, tourist centre at Elliot Lake turnoff
Baby deer
My first giant roadside statue. By far the largest, in terms of magnification, I'll ever see. Elliot Lake's Atom Statue, on Highway 108 in Elliot Lake
A miner, next to the atom statue
The view from the lookout point in Elliot Lake
The wiring on this old tower is suspect, but probably fine
My brother and I, not entirely sure what we're doing in the art though
Inside the Science North dinosaur exhibition, Sudbury, Ontario
I forgot what sort of skull this is 😮
Triceratops so big
I loved the lighting almost as much as the dinosaurs
Carnotaurus's face so flat
T-Rex is perfection
Science North is built into the bedrock of the Southern Province of the Canadian shield (2.5 billion years old) and shows evidence of the impact that created the Sudbury basin. These shatter cones are visible as far away as Espanola, Ontario
Porcupine in the tree ❤️
Another view of the bedrock
Beluga whale Skeleton. Beluga whales are surprisingly small
I really liked this porcupine, and the beaver was resting in its lodge for most of my visit
I don't have a lot of heroes, but Chris Hadfield is about as close as it gets
Fin whales, however, are huge (this Skeleton covers three stories of the building)
Moose cosplay would be exhausting
I just really like rocks, okay?
My brother's new cat, Ollie
From the comments
James Petrosky: Anyways, this trip crossed The Atom, three trading posts and Science North off my todo list (which is a physical list on real paper in an actual notebook now (it has a dog in a doughnut on the cover). Meeting the baby was the purpose of the trip, but some light multitasking is good
I did not hold the baby because I was exhausted by the time I arrived and he likes to kick, which would have been bad for my incision. I hope I'll be able to rectify this soon
James Petrosky: I forgot to include the best dinosaur 😮
