Amo,Amas,A marmot...Yours sincerely wasting away.Saturday 11December 2004

Vancouver Island Marmot....I first became aware of the plight of this endangered animal in 2001.Marmots are the largest members of the squirrel family and can grow as big as your average housecat.The V.I marmot has chocolate brown fur with contrasting white patches.They live in small colonies underground and hibernate in their burrows 7 months of the year from September to May.Since being listed as 'endangered' in 1980 their numbers have fallen dramatically due to a number of factors including clearcut felling,increased predators such as wolves and weather fluctuations.Currently there are approximately 30-35 V.I marmots in the wild and the captive population in four breeding centres stands at around 93.For more info check out the Marmot Recovery Foundation website at www.marmots.org where you can find out much more including how to adopt your own marmot and buy a stuffed marmot soft toy among other things.My own stuffed marmot Bob has his own frequent flier card and has racked up mileage points to England,Italy and more recently Prague.He`s also toured round Japan rating Kyoto as his favorite place mainly due to the food..Bob being vegetarian liked the variety of greens served there.
Yours Sincerely Wasting Away
Still getting about on crutches..incidentally its a great way to build up your upper body particulary your arms and lose weight at the same time...cant remember having such a flat taut stomach for a long time,maybe due to the lack of junk food and effort it takes to get to and from work..dont know if its my ribs sticking out or the emergence of a six-pack ...I got a second cast last Friday and have to return to the hospital again this Friday to see how things are healing.The second cast was necessary as the first had become somewhat loose due to the fact my leg has shrunk..that became apparent when the first cast was removed revealing a swollen bruised ankle and heel area and according to the doctor in his broken English `the ugliest toes he had ever seen` .The second cast is obviously tighter and has put more pressure on the heel in an effort to manipulate the heel bones back into their correct position.I just hope it doesnt come to surgery as its already cost me literally an arm and a leg.I would love to get rid of the cast and crutches prior to Christmas .
One good by-product of this whole sorry affair is the amount of Japanese Ive had to learn..the words for first second and fifth floor i now know and can pronounce like a local(of course Im buggered if the lift stops on the third or fourth floor!!).Ive also figured out that the Japanese word for xray is `rentagin` the surname of the inventor one Wilhelm Rentagin of the 1890s if my googling is accurate.The Japanese for plaster cast is `gyps` a shortened form of the word gypsum or plaster in English..logical enough..now if I could just get my head round kanji Id be set....