Storm Watching

There is something deep inside me that loves a storm.
Last night there was a thunderstorm that blew through here late in the evening. Lots of cloud-to-cloud fireworks, with an occasional groind strike. Lots of nice flash and bang. Thunder cells rolled through one after the other.
I have always loved storms. My first recollection of an outstanding storm was the Columbus Day wind storm in Seattle. Sustained winds of sixty miles an hour with gusts up to eighty or so. I stood on the porch of our house on 21st ave and watched trees fall, power lines go down. Scary but somehow very enervating.
When I was stationed on Okinawa a Typhoon came though that was particularly nasty. When it was rolling up typhoon alley, they ordered all the B52s off island to protect them. When it passed by, they called them back. About the same time they got on the ground, the storm did a buttonhook and came back and hit with a vengance. Several planes were damaged. I heard that the head Airforce commander lost a stat over that misjudgement. I spent the night out in the storm.
I tied myseld to a pole out in the barracks parking lot so I couls feel the power of the storm. I was almost creamed by a garbage can. It was flying across the parking lot and I had to lift my legs to avoid having them smashed. It was such an awesome experience.
 The next storm that came through, we were called in for emergency duty in the hospital at Camp Kue. Our barracks was in Sukiran, about five miles away. We were loaded in a duece-and-a-half with the canvas removed and driven through the teeth of the storm. Our barracks was halfway up the side of a hill, and when we gor down to the bottom of the hill, the water was so deep you could not see the street. We had to look for fence and sign posts aling the side of the road and aim halfway in between. On ass kicking ride. Once we god there we had sandbag and mop duty.
When I was a single dad, living in my first home in West Seattle, there was a day long thunder storm. It was a warm cloudy windy summer day. In the evening, we were running low on milk, so Nathan and I walked up to the store to buy some. On the way back, a dog who had apparently been driven a little nuts my the storm came running bown the street growling and barking. Scared us pretty bad. With my left hand I pushed Nathan behind me to protect him. I stepped forward and with my right hand pointed at the dog and yelled 'stop" at the top of my lungs. At the exact momment I pointed and yelled there was a bolt of lightning that struck real close. It turned everything white for a second and the bang was deafening. The dog skidded to a stop right in front of us. His eyes got very big, and he turned tail and ran the other way as fast as he could go, yipping all the way.
I looked at Nathan and he looked at me, and we broke up laughing. I told Nathan "I think he thought he tried to bite god." We laughed all the way home.
SO when there is a storm you are likely to find me out in the middle of it feeling the power of nature. It is simultaneously invigorating and makes me feel insignificant.

Exhastipated

Exhausted + Constipated = Exhaustipated.
Definition: Too tired to give a shit.
Today is my 6th birthday, but I am too tired to celebrate. Mrs A came down with a nasty toothache a couple of weeks ago. Of course when she did, her regular dentist was on Vacation, and wouldn't be back for  better than a week. She got in touch with her dental assistant who came in to take an x-ray to see if anything showed up on the film. Nothing looked terribly bad, but they gave her a prescription for an antibiotic and an appointment when the dentist came back fro vacation.
Two days pass, and she is in terrible pain. I give up and call around until I find a dentist that will see her on an emergency basis. He really couldn't see anything on the z-ray, but sent us to another dentist to take a full panoramic film. Then back to the first guy. He gets a look and decides to send her to a third dentist for a root canal. That dentist convinces her to get a root canal and try to save the tooth. By then It s four days later and she is in terrible pain. They  did the root canal, put her on pain killers and more antibiotics. They didn't do the root canal. just opened up the tooth and squirted in antiseptic and antibiotics.
She doesn't get any better, so we make an emergency stop back with the Root canal lady, She is disturbed bu the fact that Mrs A is no better. She sends us to see an oral surgeon.
He is concerned that she does not seem to be responding to the antibiotics, and they decide to take out the tooth. It has now been two weeks.
The doctor tells us to keep a close eye on her, because at this point she is one step away from a visit to the emergency room.
Meanwhile she is miserable, and a terrible patient. Over the next couple of days, she is either awake and on pain, or takes her pain killers and antibiotics, and sleeping. I have pretty much stayed awake to keep an eye on her. We have actually talked about going to the emergency room a couple of times, but wait to talk to the dentist.
Today she seems to have turned the corner.  The hives and rash has gone down. The pain seems to be lessening. SO that is my birthday present, her turning the corner towards regaining her health.
Other than that I have not had what could in any way had what I would consider an outstanding day, but I am too tired to really care.
I had planned a visit to Neah Bay to visit the Makah Museum, and Caper Flattery, but Mrs A was just not up to it, nor to be truthful, was I. As soon as she is better ans we have a nice day, I plan on making the trip. Back about a couple of hundred years ago there was a landslide at Lake Ozette, which completely covered a pre-contact Makah village. The material excavated has been conserved and put on display in a museum at the tribal headquarters in Neah Bay.

Been too long

 So When I brought up my blog, I saw tht my last post was April 25th. Talk about a slacker!
Now that I am retired I find lots of  thigs to do otherr than write here.
Lots.
Solitaire.
Candy Crush.
Facebook.
You know, IMPRTANT stuff.
I do a lot of work outside though. Lately, we felled and cut up, split and stacked six small alder trees around the house. They were leaning over the house, and besides depositid stuff on the roof and patio, they cut off a lot of light.
I have not yet finished grinding up the leaves and branches with the chipper. It is more work grinding up the limbs than it is doing the rest of it.
One thing that has gone extremely well is the berry picking. For the uninitiated, that means trailing wild blackberries. Not the invasive Himalyan Blackberry that adorns every vacant lot. Those are mediocre. The trailig wild blacberries are much more scarce. Since we didn't get ere until the end of June last year, I only got in on the end of the season, and was hard pressed to get enough to make a batch of jam.
This year I went out erly, when the vines were in bloom and walked the area to spot areas that showed blooms. Then I kept an eye out for the first berries to ripen. By the middle of June I had my first gallon of berries, whch I immediately turned into jam..
There is nothing like some toast with butter and wild blackberry jam.M y very favorite. I went out picking every other day for the month od June and half of July. By now the season peak has passed, and I have another couple of gallons of berries in the freezer.
My mom's 90th birthday is in November, and I figure I will bring her a batch of jam for her birthday. She will appreciate the work that went into the picking and processing of the berries. It's not loke you can go to the store and buy some sugar free wild blackberry freezer jam.
Things have been a little hectic around here lately. Mrs A developed an infected tooth. Her regular dentist was, of course, on vacation, but the dental assistant came in to take a set of pictures of the tooth, gave her a prescription for an antibiotic and set up an appoontment for the next week. This was a week a go Monday, with the appointment the next week. By thursday she was in major pain, so I called around and fund a dentist willing to take her in on an emergency. He looked at it, and sent her to another dentist to take a panaoramic picture. He didn't like what he saw, so he sent her to another dentist for a root canal. Mrs A wanted to get the tooth pulled, but they opened up the tooth and squirted in some antibiotic and told her to come back on Monday. On Monday, they did a root canal, gave her some antibiotics and pain pills. It just got worse.
We went back in on Wednesday because she was in such pain. We were sent to yet another dentist, an oral surgeon.
He pulled the tooth. More antobiotics and pain killers.
She has been miserable for about two weeks now, but I think she has turned the corner. The oral surgeon was real concerned aout how she didn't seem to be responding to the antibiotics, told her that the next step would be a trip to the hospital if she doesn't get better.
Never a dull moment.