Picton, Ontario

Second of a Series --

Sunday morning brought an end to the rain/sleet/wind and it was a quick trip from Whitby to Picton.

The town has a population of 4000 and sits on the Bay of Quinte.

I was surprised to see an A&P grocery store. My mother shopped at an A&P but they went out of business in the States many years ago.

Chili seemed like a good idea for supper so in to the store I went. It's surprising how many ingredients you need to buy for a chili and cornbread supper if you are starting with a totally bare cupboard. $50.00 Canadian dollars later, I had all the supplies I needed.

We continued south toward Lake Ontario and Camp Ability. Lots of empty countryside. The Camp sits near the road, with no neighbors in site.

Our room took me back to the day I moved into a dormitory at Ohio University. And, just like at OU, way more stuff than space. At least there's a window so we'll have fresh air.

I got busy with the chili while Terry unpacked. I know how to make this stuff blindfolded. Onions, ground round, then in go the tomatoes and kidney beans. Time for the chili powder. To start, I put in half of what I usually use, no knowing Terry's tastes. Stir, taste. OWWWW!!!! It's like I put in cayenne pepper instead of chili powder. Apparently Canadian chili powder is vastly different from what I'm use at home. I added some beef bouillon and another can of tomatoes, put it on to simmer, and crossed my fingers. By I got the cornbread baked and we sat down to eat, the chili had mellowed a tad and was edible. Whew.

It is definitely a community kitchen. At one point there were five of us in there putting dinners together. I imagine breakfast will be a zoo. I plan to stick with yogurt and granola bars and cold cereal.

We've met six other families, so far. There are three adults and six children scheduled for this three week program. I'll introduce them to you as the week goes on.

Terry walked me around the place. You can see the HBOT (hyperbaric oxygen treatment) chamber in the pictures. This therapy is used to try to stimulate under active areas of the brain. Participants are seated in the chamber which is pressurized to 1.5 times the standard atmospheric pressure. Each individual wears a vinyl hood that supplies pure oxygen. The pressure in the chamber allows the bloodstream to carry much higher levels of oxygen throughout the body. And, according to Pennsylvania School of Medicine study, the 40 hour HBOT course of treatment increases by eight-fold the number of stem cells circulating in the body.

The toughest part of this program is the conductive education that is intended to make permanent the improvements realized through the HBOT treatments. I'll save the explanation of that program for tomorrow.

One of the families here (parents and daughter) traveled from Australia -- a trip that took more than 30 hours -- arriving today in the early A.M. hours. The daughter was unable to eat during that entire time. As of 7:00 this evening, she still couldn't keep anything down and the parents were so concerned they called Canada's 911. I'm on call to drive to the local hospital to pick them up if there is no taxi service available. Another adventure!

Today's pictures are posted on Picasa in the album entitled "Ability Camp." Go to http://picasaweb.google.com/unionmaid/

If you read this far, thanks for joining me! And I look forward to sharing tomorrow's events, whatever they may be.