Last evening, about 10pm our satellite internet connection went out so I went to see if snow on the dish was the cause (it was). While I was on the deck I heard scrabbling behind me and saw a northern flying squirrel eating sunflower seeds under the bird feeder. These are small nocturnal squirrels that are rarely seen. We often hear them as they glide in from the trees to land with a thump on the balcony or roof of our house en route to the feeder. They clamber down the chain that holds the feeder so that they can settle in for a hearty meal. They apparently love the taste of sunflower seeds.
Anyway, this little guy was on the deck and could care less that I was almost stepping on him. After I got the snow swept off the dish I ran in and grabbed my camera. he was still scabbling in the snow for whole seeds that the birds didn’t get. I had lots of time to snap a dozen or so pictures and the flash didn’t bother him one bit. I was able to get the camera within 40cm or so of him. 
I have never been that close to a flying squirrel before. It was a neat experience. I wanted to touch him but knew enough not too. Wild creatures don’t like to be touched and react badly if they are. There are two things to remember, they are incredibly fast to react and that reaction usually includes biting.
And then – while I was on my knees taking pictures I heard a small commotion behind me and assumed that another flying squirrel had arrived for supper. When I turned to look instead of a flying squirrel there was an apparently confused female redpoll trying to get fly through the patio door (which was closed ) towards the light. I have no idea what woke this dumb bird, perhaps the flash on the camera. It ended up perched on the door sill so I took a photo of it.
I’m not sure what was going on last night, it wasn’t a full moon but there you have it two very unusual sitings in one night. BTW I had to pick this little bird up (it sure squealed) and throw it up into the air so that it would fly away and not into the house when I opened the door.Who says nothing ver happens in the country.
We live in a rural part of the island and it is fairly common to have wildlife in the yard. Our visitors range from a variety of small birds who come routinely to our feeders to white tailed deer who love the taste of Val’s flowers and my vegetables. We’ve seen raccoons, foxes, a weasel and one warm summer night about 4 years ago a bobcat who had a taste for cat meat. Poor Mulder 
. Bad bobcat!
White tails survive northern Ontario winters because they have learned to expend the least amount of energy possible to acquire the most calories possible. That means that if they find a source of food, especially high energy food, they don’t go far. They regularly come right to the edge of our deck to vacuum up shells from the sunflower seeds that the birds love. Deer also have big brown eyes and when they can relax they look right in the windows at us. When Val sees them and I hear “oh they look so hungry” I know that I will shortly be going out to put some whole corn down in the driveway for them. Every winter I promise myself that I won’t do it but every winter it happens.This winter is proving to be no exception and late last week I heard those fateful words and Friday afternoon I dumped a pail of mixed corn and oats in the driveway. They were immediately discovered by a pair of blue jays who apparently love the taste of whole corn. Saturday – no deer, Sunday – no deer. Monday – same thing. Just those jays getting fatter by the minute! Yesterday about 9.30 am I looke dout the window intot he yard and this is what I saw:
15 wild turkeys came walking down the driveway and right in to that pile of corn. This not the first time we have seen them but it is the first time we have had them here in winter. They stayed for 15 or 20 minutes and then headed back down the driveway. But, before they got the road them seemed to settle down as if they were just going to rest there for a while. They are very wary animals and would rather walk or run than fly.Late in the afternoon they came back and were in the cedars in front of the house. They didn’t stay long this time but we are hoping that they come back again.
We got home from SSM yesterday and the flag on the mailbox was up meaning there was something there. I pulled into the driveway, jumped out to retrieve it and as I got back into the car noticed a white business envelope with the return address:
Ministry of The Attorney General
Provincial Court House, Queen St.
Sault Ste Marie
Now I’m curious! I know that I have not been charged with anything and that I have not witnessed anything that would require me to testify in court. Gee, I wonder. We got parked and after a couple of trips all the bags and parcels were inside. Now time to check the mail and sure enough, inside the envelope was a Summons To A Juror. For the very first time I have been selected for jury duty. For almost all of my working life I was a sworn Peace Officer and therefore not eligible for jury duty. I often wondered if that exemption ended with my retirement and now I guess I know. So on May 12th I have to present myself at the court house in SSM and stay/return until I am released from my duty. I was in courts many many times over my career both as a crown witness and later on as a prosecutor but never in a jury trial. This will be a whole new experience. I am both looking forward to it and at the same time dreading what I might have to listen to. There is also the small issue to twp paid for and non-refundable tickets to Vancouver on May 27th to meet Arlo’s new sibling. Sorry, CF but I can not bring myself to call her/him Hippo 
.
So, I have to wait until May12th and then I’ll tell you as much about the experience as I can.
Where to start? Every year for the last 8 or so I have had an appointment with an ophthalmologist, named appropriately, Dr. Sharp. He checks my eyes for any signs of damage caused by the type 2 diabetes I live with. That damage is referred to as Diabetic Retinopathy . Checking for diabetic retinopathy consists of dilating the pupil and then shining a very bight into the eye so that the doctor can study the back of your eyeball looking for damage to the retina. Having a doctor look at the inside of your eyeball is much the same as having a doctor study the inside of your ear . You know what is going on but you have no idea what the doctor is is seeing. Three years ago I started going to an optometrist to have my eyes checked to see if I needed new glasses. In his examining room is an LCD monitor Last year he showed me digital images of the inside of eyeballs as he talked to me about retinopathy and other diseases and conditions of the eye. I was fascinated. This year when I went he said that he was going to take a digital image of the inside of each of my eyes so that he could have a very good look at what is going on and also as a record against which future checks can be compared. When I asked he readily agreed to email me copies of the photos so without further ado meet the inside of my right eyeball. – 
A brief geography lesson. The light coloured circle on the right side is the optic nerve and the dark lines emanating from it are veins and arteries. The really important thing about this photo is that this is the inside of MY eye. i actually got see what the optometrist got to see and when he explained what he did not see, any evidence of retinopathy I was thrilled. A large percentage of type 2 diabetics who are 15 years post diagnosis commonly show symptoms of the disease. I am no poster child for diabetes management but I do try and it seems that the trying is paying off. Two weeks after I saw the optometrist I had my annual appointment with Dr. Sharp. To my surprise and great pleasure , at the end of the appointment he announced that there was no need for me to come for an annual examination until such time as there is a change in the health of my eyes. He said to continue going to the optometrist every year that that if he noted any change he would refer me back to Dr. Sharp. Wow!
We returned home after a month away recently. The fellow who kept our yard open while we were gone did a good job but using a truck with a blade he was limited as to where he could put all the snow we have received this winter and it is a lot. This is easily the snowiest winter since 1997. It took me & my snowblower 4 solid days to get things cleaned up. By the end my right forearm was quite sore. Muscle strain I thought, coupled with some “you’re not as young as you used to be” and a little “you’ve been sitting on your ass a lot lately”. Problem explained, carry on and quit whining. So I gave it a bit of a rest, tried mousing with my left hand and it seemed to be getting better. Until Thursday.
Thursday afternoon I had an appointment with my doctor, a regular thing and since it was a locum I didn’t know I did not say anything about the sore arm. We got home while it was still light so I decided to spend a few minutes chipping ice that had accumulated on the back porch. It was cold and the ice was generally not in any mood to be chipped so my efforts were not yielding great results. I decided to quit, sweep off the little bit of ice that had come free and leave the rest for another day. As i swept the broom back and forth (not too vigorously) something in my right forearm went snap, no noise but I was instantly in pretty severe pain. I spent quite a miserable evening. I had a light supper, some ibuprofen, some acetaminophen and tried to find a position to hold my arm in that let me feel comfortable. We debated going to the hospital to get it checked but after some discussion decided to wait until morning and see how it felt. After a night that passed more comfortably then I had expected It was still very sore Friday morning so I called the clinic and yes there was an opening- come right away. So off we went, Val driving with barely 1 cup of coffee in her system. Well it was a medical emergency. Arrived and was taken in almost immediately. Same doctor comes in and I started to explain the problem. He begins to manipulate my arm and press here and there asking the expected question,Does this hurt? Does this hurt?” Then he started running his thumb along the length of my forearm asking, “Does it hurt here? “Is this where it hurts?” He then mumbled something about a subdural whatchamacallit of the anterior thingamajig. Then the really surprising question, “How do feel about an acupuncture treatment?” “Fine” says I and the next thing you know I had 6 or 7 little needles sticking out of my left leg from the knee to the ankle. Each time he would press with his thumb asking, ” Can you feel this?” Then in would go this really fine needle. It didn’t hurt going in, in fact I barely felt it but then he would give it a little twist until I felt something akin to a very slight electrical shock which invariably made me jump. Every time he inserted a needle he would return to questioning me about how the arm felt and where is the pain now and I would try to give him specifics. By the end of 15 minutes or so I had needles in my left leg , one just above my right ankle, one in my skull and another right beside the nail on my right index finger, that one hurt going in. While this was going on he was talking to himself about the spleen and the large intestine and other organs. He explained that acupuncture is all about balancing the forces within the body and some of the history and lexicon of acupuncture.
All in all it was an interesting experience and my arm did feel better when he was finished. After withdrawing all of the needles he prescribed a course of anti-inflammatory medication and told me to rest the arm for a few days. It is now Sunday morning and the arm is still sore but it is getting better.
ps I did tell him I was going to blog this.
