Stoicism is alive and well.

It's been a hectic day or two at chateau "Wits End" with your scribe having to play the dutiful and supportive half of the family. Lots of TLC have been administered as required. After some needed surgery the little general has now returned home, but obviously she is still in some discomfort. So I have been fluffing cushions, keeping the stove burning bright and assisting whenever required in and out of bed, in and out of her favourite chair and up and down the stairs for a visit to the bathroom.

I have to admit the occasional twinges of pain have been born with some stoicism on her part and for the most with silent fortitude. However, her body language has displayed her discomfiture from time to time. Now we will all have to relax for a few days and let the healing process continue on a pace. Meals have been prepared and we are now getting round to making a visit for the first of our post operative checkup's. I'm hoping that the snow that is due to arrive today will not cause us to abandon the appointment.

The medical advice has been to take it easy for the first three or four days and then to return to some light exercise after that. Building up over the following ten days with a few leisurely walks to get her back to her usual level of activity. Her stitches are apparently of the internal self dissolving type. A look at the scar shows that the surgeon has done a very good job. I noticed this morning that her appetite had started to return and so I prepared a couple of rounds of buttered toast which is her favourite breakfast treat. We just have to get used to the idea that there will be no puppies around to continue the Fox Terrier dynasty.

The patient is doing as well as could be expected.

Long Range Weather Report.

Punxutawney Phil proclaimed there would be "six more weeks of winter" to a crowd of thousands gathered in the Pennsylvania town. "As I look at the crowd on Gobbler's Knob, many shadows do I see, six more weeks of winter it must be," Mike Johnston, vice-president of the Groundhog Club Inner Circle, announced for Phil. German tradition holds that if the hibernating animal sees its shadow in Pennsylvania on Feb 2 – the Christian holiday of Candlemas – winter will last another six weeks. The Inner Circle of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club annually announces Phil's forecast at dawn on Gobbler's Knob, about 65 miles northeast of Pittsburgh. Phil's announcement came before thousand of onlookers who huddled in freezing temperatures. The popularity of the event has spiralled since being the subject of a Hollywood film starring Bill Murray in 1993.


Connolly Humour.

A woman goes to the Doctor in Glasgae, worried about her husband’s temper and threatening manner. The Doc asks: "What's the problem, Janet? The woman says: "Weeell Doctor Cameron, I dinae know what to do. Every time ma hubbie comes home pished, he threatens to slap me aroon'." The Doctor says: "Aye, well... I have a real good cure for that. When your husband arrives home intoxicated, just take a wee glass of water and start swishing it in your mouth. Just swish and swish but don't swallow it until he goes to bed and is sound asleep."

Two weeks later she comes back to the doctor looking fresh and reborn. She says: "Doctor that was a effin brilliant! Evrae time ma hubbie came home pished, I swished with water. I swished an' swished, and he didnae touch me even once! Tell me Doc....wha's the secret? How's the water do that?" The Doctor says: "Janet hen, it's really Nae big secret. The water does bugger all…it's keeping your mouth shut that does the trick...."


Later.....