Archive for February, 2008

Sumthin’s out there

Friday, February 29th, 2008

   I was sitting here reading when Annie started howling and headed for the kitchen. She’s a great alarm system but I’m afraid there’s been too many sensors placed in the olfactory, hearing and imaginational departments.

   I can understand the higher olfactory senses, due to the length, but it’s not 10′ long. Every once in a while, she’ll jump down off her chair and run to the front door. There’s a spot there where there’s a draft, and she’ll jam her nose right into it. Sometimes her tail wags and she wants to go out, other times though, she gets as low to the ground as she can and hauls ass into the laundry room and cowers in the corner. If there was ever a reason not to go outside, it’s when she does that. I’ve walked around out side looking for tracks and have driven around without any results so it’s hard telling how far off this critter is, but she’s on it.

   Other times, her head will pick up with her ears perked forward and as often as not she’ll start howling and head for the dining room. She never runs to the door to fend off whatever evil is trying to get in. She protects her domain from the dining room and at times, the kitchen. I always get up right away and have a look, to make sure there isn’t anything going on but 99.9% of the time, there isn’t. I’ll call her up and pull the curtain aside, so she can have a look, but it never convinces her everything’s fine. She’ll snort at me like I’m some kind of blind, stupid fool and howl once more on her way back to her chair.

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Seasonal changes 02/25/08

Monday, February 25th, 2008

34º @ 1239R, humidity 83%, with a West wind of 8kts. Cold damp weather like those flatlanders live with every day. Kinda hazy and damp and I heard my first Cardinal sing about 20 minutes ago. Snow is 3′ on the level in town and 4 1/2′ in the hills. I talked with Doug a little while ago, and he bagged two porcupines this morning. He said that there were only 3 quills on one, and 4 on the other, anyone have any ideas why?

   There is a population of ice shanty’s sprouting out on Lake Charleviox this winter. In years past (I’ve been here full time since 1995) there would be 3 or 4 shanties near the swimming beach, but that would be it. Two or three winters ago, there were two more that would be placed about the midpoint from the swimming beach towards the pilings of Mill B. I do believe that’s where the city dumped the dredgings from cleaning out the bridge area about 10 years ago. Yesterday, I counted 12 shanties in that general area, and one over near the old Chemical plant and several more north of Elm Point. Yesterday there were another dozen people fishing amongst the shanties. Looked to be they were having a great time.

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Excellent news

Monday, February 25th, 2008

   I just heard that Jan’s off the resperator and is talking and laughing with her sisters. Just like the old days and God bless them all.

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Back in EJ

Monday, February 25th, 2008

   Mark and I got back around 1pm yesterday, under the same sunny sky’s that we’d left with. On the way to Grand Rapids, the roads were a sheet of ice until we got to Kalkaska. We were two thirds of the way up Niles hill on M66 when I inched around a jackkinifed pickup. There were two guys trying to lock in their hubs while standing up, and it wasn’t working out so good.  I borrowed Mark’s Leatherman and slid down the hill and gave it to the guy who got to me first. He had to get down to his hands and knees before he left the front of the truck where I’d landed. He got them both locked in and I took the snow bank back to the truck. I’d backed into that bank and I’ll bet that guy wished he had too. Two wheel drive, four wheel drive, ten wheel drive, it don’t matter when your on Niles hill and it’s a sheet of ice. He was pulling one of those covered snowmobile trailers and I wasn’t sure if he was going to make it or not. I stuck around long enough to see him make steerage and then I left.

   Monday or Tuesday, when we left Grand Rapids for Ann Arbor, it was snowing about an inch an hour and I had a couple flashbacks from the trip down. Luckily, it was lake effect and tapered off as we headed East. Matt told me Saturday that it continued snowing like that for another 16 hours.

   Jan continues to have problems with the removal of the resperator, and they’re going to continue trying again today. If it doesn’t work out, they plan on using another method that’ll be less traumatic. All of her vital statistics are looking good, so other than having a bad heart and a tube down her throat, she’s doing ok.

   Jon is going to stay with Butch again tonight, and he’ll be going back home tomorrow afternoon. Matt will go over this weekend and her sisters are taking turns keeping a watch. Jan’s mom told her kids to “stay close to your brothers and sisters, ’cause in the end, it’s all you have”. She was right, and that goes for every family.

   I’d like to thank Butch and Marge for all their hospitality, they made a good week out of a very bad one and I look forward to playing the host rather than the guest. Something else I’d like to mention here is the amount of sunshine those people get down there. Around here, little children run and shreek when the “evil ball” show’s it’s ugly head, but down there, it’s like it’s no big deal. I’ve heard since I got back that it was sunny here too for the last couple days, which is nice but it’s the last time we’ll see it again until April.

   There were a significant amount of deer track crossing I75 from Standish until I got off in Gaylord, and the Acer Rubrum are turning red north of Ann Arbor. I also heard a cardinal Sunday morning, as we were loading the truck, so we’re definetly on the good side of winter. Traffic was very light from the time I got on the expressway until I got off and we saw two police cars, both on the southbound side.

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Jan’s condition

Tuesday, February 19th, 2008

   Jan was flown from Grand Rapids to the UofM Hospital in Ann Arbor yesterday and after some more tests today, the doctors will decide it’s next course of action.

   On the ride over from Grand Rapids yesterday, Jon sat next to me calling all his aunts and uncle’s letting them know that he had assumed the watch. Jan’s sister Connie is an RN who knows which questions to ask, and who to ask them to. She also has the drive required to keep asking until she gets an answer, so that was the first person he called. He then passed the information to Matt and Katrina. Up until then, it was Matt who talked to Connie and then passed it onto Jon. Matt had been at it 24/7 since the onset of it all and the boys both knew it. Once the info had been passed, all my kids would have discussion and make a decision as a group.

   As a parent, we often wonder how our kids will behave when we’re no longer around to point or guide, and yesterday I found out. No matter how all this turns out, whether Jan gets to read this or not, we did good and we’re very proud.

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Sisters

Wednesday, February 13th, 2008

   I called the hospital this morning to see how Jan was doing, and was informed that her sisters were with her in her room and that I was not cleared to hear any information. I asked the nurse if she was still alive, and was told cheerfully that she was. That’s all the information I needed to hear.

   Through Jan’s life, her sisters usually treated Jan as a second class citizen, and if they didn’t need anything, they never called. When push comes to shove though, they’re there shoving everything out of their way. I feel better now than I have since the onset of all this and for whatever it’s worth, I appreciate it.

   Matthew did the right thing in getting her to a hospital, and a better thing in calling his aunts. The kids are coming in from Arkansas and Arizona to lend a hand and give support to their mom, but that’s no suprise. My kids call each other whether they need anything or not.

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21st Century house calls

Tuesday, February 5th, 2008

   Early in December I had my AICD replaced, as the older ones battery had worn out, and was replaced by the new and improved version. While I was still seeing the doctors at Northern Michigan Regional Hospital, I was seen at least 3 times per year and a few other years being seen 4 times. I was under the impression that the device had a somewhat limited memory and any longer than that, data may be lost.

   When I first began having it downloaded by the Veterans Administration, it was every 6 months and now I do a smaller version every Friday, and a full download, once per year. The new version can be downloaded with a modem supplied by the V.A., and operated by Guidant the maker of my device. Every Friday morning at 0700, the modem begins to flash and once I push the button with the blinking light, it prompts me through the rest of the procedure. This data is then sent to Latitude, where it’s gathered and sent on to the V.A. hospital once per month. Yesterday, I had it downloaded and everything matched up and I’m free until next February 3rd.

   Now, I don’t know if the hospital in Petoskey was just wringing more money out of a cold rock, or if the V.A. is taking monumental chances with it’s cardiac charges, but I’d put money on the former.

   I had the road to myself from Gaylord until Standish and didn’t take off the cruise control until I reached Flint. There was snow on the ground the entire trip though the levels dropped significantly the closer I got to Ann Arbor. It was drizzling when I got to Butch’s and later last night we had one hellava thunderboomer. Butch and Marge are living in a mobile home with a metal roof and that combined with rolling thunder had me dreaming of the opening of the steelhead season.

   This morning when I got up, I couldn’t see across the street and all the snow was gone. 45º at 0700 on the 5th of February just has something intrinsictly wrong with it. It wasn’t until 23’s exit off 75 was there any snow on the ground again. One section, about 6 miles wide had ice in the trees and a lot of skid marks across and through the snow banks. It looked to be a real nasty night on I75 and I’m happy I missed it.

   The world looks a whole lot better in white than it ever has in brown, but when it’s brown here again, the ’shrooms will be popping.

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