Well it snowed a lot. It was below freezing many days we were there. Ice storms and snow.
Sue had us doing a puzzle for her.
Anything to keep us distracted from what was really happening with Dad. Although he was doing pretty good considering all he had been though.
It was a good trip but glad to get home.
Brother John and his girls, Laurie and Kelly did make it down for a visit.
The ‘paddle out’ for Randy is today. We are in a winter storm warning.. with rain snow and freezing temps. I hope everyone makes it over the hill safely. A lot of the Aikido family and Randy’s surf family will be there.
Russel has been sick with a chest cold for over a week now. Today is his birthday and he still feels punky. But he is going to the paddle-out.
I have been making all the travel arrangements and contingency plans for being able to get out of here and to Arcata to catch a flight on Tuesday 16. Flying into Salt Lake City then Detroit.
We will be at Dad’s Dec 16-Dec 28. I am hoping my nieces show up at some point and my brother. Dad is eating better now and we just hope for improvement in energy and well being.
To all who may come here:
Hold those you love close. Enjoy each minute as your last.
Happy Solstice !! (early )
You can pretty much read this post and get what Michigan was.
I am always glad to see family and especially fun to see Dad and Sue.
This year got to meet great-niece Lauren who is just a delightful engaging young woman. I hope we can get to know each other through emails.
I did get to see niece, Laurie (17) and she is a beautiful as ever. I am so glad brother John brought her down from Alpena to visit while I was there.
Also had dinner and a visit with Lauren’s grandparents, Scott and Donna. Now how this works is my sister (who died at 31 in 1985) had a son with Scott, this is Jamey, and Lauren is his daughter. Scott and I were in school together, he is the only person from my graduation class of 1970 that I still have contact with. It was really good to visit with them awhile. Time is always too short.
My old friend Darlene also came to visit. I am so glad she did. We go back to the 70’s as well. She has been my friend longer than any other. Her life is good, she is a grandmother now and totally into that sweetness.
The thing I am not speaking too much of is Dad’s cancers, both melanoma (neck and shoulder area) which he has had roughly 4 operations on.
And now squamous cell carcinoma in his throat/base of tongue. They have decided to do a 5 days/7 weeks of radiation on that.. the doctors say he should be able to beat it. I don’t know. He was much more active than I had thought he would be. But he doesn’t feel good at all, he is just doing what he can do till he can’t do it any more.
We did the usual 4th of July picnic out on the lake (these are from a few years ago..but it’s the same thing) with a lot of aunts and uncles and cousins. Good to catch up with them, it all seems so surreal at times though. Our life here is so very different than any ones back there.
I had a total body break down at the end of the toxic Michigan stay.
Part was bad bed and pillow which caused an old injury to arm/shoulder to reappear. I couldn’t even raise my arm to dress, brush hair, eat (right arm). This started the last week we were there.
Not good. And the hives had started too. I try to eat as clean as food as possible, but …. any way for what ever reason my hands were swelling up. Then motel night 1.. got a severe sinus drip and intense whole body swelling.. took a antihistamine and knocked my self out for a few hours only. Got up at 4am.. flight at 6am.. worst airport food any where (Detroit).. got to Denver.. no time to get decent food there either. I did pack some stuff, but wasn’t good enough.
Got into Sacramento… smoke… fires..100 plus degrees… running on adrenalin by now. Russel just muscling me through to our car… the 4 runner battery was dead. Russel jumped started it and we went to Woodland and bought a battery. Ate some not so good pancakes and eggs and he wanted to keep going.. it was only 11 am here. So we drove on too Clear Lake (2+ hours) where I had booked a room (Best Western) in case we couldn’t drive all the way.
Good thing, I was about to lose it bad. Nice motel there .. and friendly staff. But I needed to eat, but felt total nausea, got R to get a baked potato from the motel eatery. What happened next was the total break down. Hives, rapid heart beat, head ache, dizzy, so much more… I told Russel to find out where an emergency room was cause I didn’t know if I would make it. I passed out at this point.
Good bed and we had our pillows, I woke up feeling better than I had in a few days. It doesn’t sound like much when writing this down, but I don’t ever remember having my system that stressed by something I still don’t know why.
It took several days before I was normal… other things I won’t mention here were happening too.
The sun came up like a red rubber ball in the Sacramento valley.
And went down as a red orange ball here in the hills. For some reason my camera wasn’t capturing the redness of the sun??
The garden is mostly in. The poppys are popping.. the sage is blooming and the wild lilac. We have had a dry spring with mild temps until the last several days of HIGH HEAT (100’s). Watching the clover yard dry up. The deer coming around less as there is less to eat. Haven’t seen the bambies yet, although we had a pregnant doe here for weeks.
Russel’s Aikido teacher from the bay area is here this weekend for a retreat. The potluck was last night and good food was had by all.
He is wrapping up the schools classes. In 3 weeks he will go to Aikido summer camp in the south bay for a week. I hope to have a lot of energy and maybe some money to do some interior work on this house.
The Michigan trip is booked for June 25 -July 11. Dad does have even more cancer. The melanoma keeps spreading, there are spots on his lungs which nothing can be done about, and a lump in his neck that is some kind of squamous, but not skin cancer kind. There is at least one more surgery ahead, if he chooses to do it. Probably just before we get there.
I have started to speak it out loud, that he may die soon… or not .. as he is a tough old guy (86) going on 60. But I need to prepare myself. This one will be hard to let go of.
My friends T and Ter from Florida are actually saying they may come visit this way this summer. I am so hoping that they do. I need them too. I need to see T… just feels like it must happen.
Not a lot of photos to brag about. Haven’t been using my camera much. Got this one in april through the hazy kitchen window:
I have been working a lot.
And Bruce Cockburn, www.cockburnproject.net is out on a short tour which is being recorded and filmed for a new LIVE-Solo CD and DVD. Wish he was doing some shows on the west coast for this, but he’s not.
There is also a lot going on locally. Too much to really go into here, but here is a link to a local blog who keeps everyone informed at least to what is going on with code enforcement, diesel concerns, 2nd district elections and Reggae wars, to name a few. I use it only as a means to being alerted and seeing what some (few) people are thinking about these issues. I do not generally agree with a lot that is posted over there as opinion.
Spring is here the daffodils and tulips are blooming as are the peach trees. Life should be sweet, and in many ways it is, but I am stressed in so many ways.
First off, Dad isn’t done with the cancer it is back and another surgery is planned for April 23. This time the surgeons are taking ALL the muscle left in his left shoulder.. why I am not sure seeings how the lumps of melanoma are in his neck ..but I am not there to ask all the questions. And they will do what ever the doc says is the best thing to do. Dad is afraid the cancer will spread to his brain, or eyes or ears..and I understand that. But after this surgery, he will have no use or movement with his left arm.
I did book flights back to Michigan last month. We will be gone end of June through early July. I would like to go back now.. or when he has surgery, but they ‘can handle it’ and I am sure would prefer I am not there.
I am on a hormonal roller coaster just now. But hope to end that all soon. I may stop the estrogen as well, but have to see how bad the hot flashes get again.
I have been working, a local woman who I have written about before, Estelle Fennell is running for Humboldt County 2nd district supervisor. I have made her a website.
And I am working on a new version of Russel’s Aikido for Kids website.. this one will go live in a couple of weeks.
I did manage to see Prezident Brown a few weeks ago at the Mateel Community Center. It was a good show and I danced in a new dress! (Yes finally finding the rayon batik dresses I like really did lift my spirit a bit!!).
That’s pretty much it. All the usual spring projects and clean up and dump runs, and getting the garden ready, and figuring out what projects, if any are going to get done this summer. Our summer here won’t really start until middle of July! Yikes its so hot by then nothing much can get done. I hope Russel feels good enough and has enough energy to actually get some stuff done before school is out.. other wise, it mostly won’t I fear.
Visited family in Michigan June 28-July 12. Spent a fair amount of time before leaving getting ready to go .. you know how it is .. I always want what I want and want to be comfortable. Any way I booked the flight in March, some time in May Dad called and told be he had a melanoma on his shoulder and had it removed. We thought/ hoped that would be the end of it. Well it isn’t.
Also at that time he was told he had type 2 diabetes. They decided to try and control that one with diet.
Here’s my Dad and his wife Sue:
The doctors went back in and took out more of the melanoma spot and the sentinel lymph nodes. The whole time we were there we were waiting on another appointment with a head/neck oncologist who is going to take out the rest of the lymphs in his neck and shoulders. This surgery is slated for August 8.
On top of that, they had him do a stess test on a treadmill (this is a guy who until this past year walked 5 miles a day and played 18 holes of golf regularly). He actually passed the treadmill part but the results came back that he had damage to his heart sometime a few months back.. a heart attack that he didn’t know he had.
How in the world can he go from being active healthy and strong to this???
Any way the stress of all the unknowing is paying its toll. I feel I should be there but he doesn’t feel it necessary now. Sue just retired, and its good she is there for him. Plus most of his brothers and sisters and their families are close by so he has support.
More on this trip soon.
More on the rest of life soon.
The weather has been great.. a bit too hot a few days and then just right. Garden is evolving, put – off chores and projects are getting done.
Went to a healing circle for Carolyn last Sunday. It was an awesome empowering and powerful circle of women. I am so glad to have been invited.
KMUD has a new website, built with Joomla. I was talking with Simon, the station tech manager about all things web and actually felt some excitment in that area again. Perhaps I will get more into it as time allows this summer.
Tickets are purchased for a trip to Michigan to visit Dad and Sue and see the family. I am really hoping the Kelly and Laurie (my nieces) make the trip down from Alpena to visit. Going end of June till July 10 or so. Going to be hot, we were there the same time last trip.
Seems like my life is mostly the same, when I look back through archives, it’s mostly the same old same old, perhaps with just a few new things here and there. I am looking forward (again) to seeing Bruce Cockburn at Solfest in August.
Usually I would be looking forward to Reggae, but this is the year of Reggae hell. Too many long stories about why, if you really want to know, read from the beginning (meaning scroll down and start reading up) here and from links there to the other blogs. It’s such a fucking mess. I really really don’t plan on going. It hurts my heart the way this is. Reggae is what brought me to Humboldt to begin with, and I am a 21 year vet of Reggae on the River.
I also started a myspace space, I had so many people who wanted to communicate that way. I find it a bit cumbersome to use, I can hand code the page I want faster than I can use the ‘myspace’ method, but I am learning 🙂
I haven’t tied it to my sites or this blog yet. I really want to redo all my sites (been saying that for years now!) before I do that. Time will tell. I want to be able to blog again and have and control comments, with out the spam. If I get a different blogging tool, and transfer this site, maybe I will tie it all together.
Health wise I am good enough, the tendonitis in my right elbow is back hard, started a few months ago when I was moving tubs of stuff around. And my back and left hip are painful most of the time, but I have also weaned myself almost off the advils, down from 2400mg a day to maybe 800mg. Hope I can get those things under control.
So that is about it for this year. Many of our summer projects didn’t get completed, blame it on the heat (way too many days over 100 degrees) or on my recovering from the tonsillectomy and then bunion surgery, or just not enough time.
This past week Russel has been on school break with the kids, and for the first time since school started some stuff is getting done.
I am still unpacking, yesterday I opened a box that I hadn’t looked in for at least 17-18 years!! Old newspapers, letters from people whose faces I can’t even bring up! (yikes that is scary) and some art that now that I have a home I can finally maybe get framed and put up. Any way there is a lot of that sort of thing, books, crystals, rocks, shells, wonderful little things, but still no real room for them.
In early November, Russel and I went to a Bat Mitzvah for one of his Aikido students. I had never been to a (Southern Humboldt style) Jewish celebration before and it was just lovely! The songs and humor and loving friends gathering was really heart felt. I only knew a couple of people there and it just didn’t matter.
Did I say that around Thanksgiving I was so frustrated with this house not becoming ‘homey’ and pleasing to my eye, I looked into Feng Shui. Read a lot of books and got some good guidance. Although I also learned that to really use Feng Shui I must study a bit more than I want to, and that as with Astrology, there are many ways to look at it and divine it. So I took what I could use, and hope to one day dig into it a bit deeper….. when I have the time!!
I also connected finally with my neices again. Hope to learn a lot more about them in 2007.
As this year draws to a close I am thank full that we are healthy, have a wonderful home and land to support us, and are truly blessed with our lives.
As to 2007, we hope to finish all the projects we started last year, mainly the water system to electric pump, we need to paint the whole house, there is always a ton of work to do clearing the land (fire breaks) and we hope to do a better veggie garden this year. I got out the seed catalogs yesterday!
We also are planning a trip to Michigan to see my Dad and Sue, and the rest of the family. This is already stressing me out a bit. It will be sometime in August/early Sept. Have to wait to see if friends TR and Terry are coming out to visit and when, we also have to see if Reggae on the River is happening at all..what a mess that is ..I will post more about that later… and if it is happening, in what form and will Mateel Aikido do a booth? If they don’t that leaves a good block of time to do the Michigan trip, and is what I am hope for.
Ok, that’s it for now…to the few of you who come here…
Happy NEW Year!!