Happy 2015

A Year In Review

2014 has been a good year for me; action packed, zig zaggy and plenty of adventure.  If I had a gratefullness indicator the needle would be way over to the full.  In January my pulse raced as I drove down the road and saw my very first snowy owl.  That owl sighting was SO exciting.  In February I went to a very cold bird festival near Duluth where I saw northern hawk owls and beautiful pine grossbeaks and one nervous boreal chickadee.  I didn't get to see a great gray owl but that is acceptable because now I have a reason to return to the Sax Zim Bog.  Also in February I took a class on making yogurt and cheese and I have been making those products ever since.  In March I celebrated my car when the odometer turned 200,000 miles.  In April I enjoyed the beginning of spring and making maple syrup.  In May I heard my first whippoorwill and ate my first morel mushroom that had been found in the woods.  I saw a white faced ibis and I went to a master naturalist convention that was tons of fun.  In June I took a week off of work to study prairies and potholes which was challenging and inspiring.  I also started getting produce from a CSA (consumer supported agriculture) and began to enjoy week after week of fresh organic produce.  My eating habits changed for the better in June.  In July I enjoyed camping with family and accidentally scaring everyone in my group with my dream of an owl trying to carry me out of my tent.  Plus I was able to witness my nephew play the lead role in a play and I was blown away by his talent.  In August I had a couple great trips on the motorcycle including one around Lake Minnetonka and one to see a wood stork.  Plus I got to be Smokey the Bear at the fair which is the ultimate ego booster for me.  In September Offspring #2 mostly finished the deck.  And we went on an organized bike ride from Saint Paul to Stillwater where I was very proud that I was able to keep up.  In October I spent a weekend near Urbank where I was able to indulge in nostalgia while cleaning the house where my Grandparent lived and track a deer.  In November I was blown away by the effort put into the turkey coloring contest pages.  We enjoyed  a great holiday dinner.  December was extremely busy with a week at Sanibel Island where the birds and scenery were great but the closer relationships with family was even greater. After that I was ready for a new hip that will improve my quality of life to a huge degree.  I read lots of great books and saw many good movies.  I have nothing to complain about the year 2014.  Absolutely nothing.  Enough looking back.  Let us all look ahead to what 2015 will bring.  I think it's gonna be great!

Hospital Staff-Abdi

Abdi was my nurse on my last day at the hospital. We started off together shortly after 7 in the morning when I asked him to get me my clothes for the day. I feel awkward asking a man to get my clothes but Abdi was my only option at the moment. I had bought some flannel lounge pants to wear after surgery.  I asked him to grab my blue and green pants, my blue sweater, any color underwear except pink, and my bra.  He looks in the drawer and says he can't find what I am saying.  I look and see he has the blue green plaid pants in his hand.  I tell him he has them in his hand.  He asks, "You call this blue and green plaid?"  The pants are navy blue and green plaid.  I say yes.  He says he is color blind.  Next he says he can't find the blue sweater.  Again he has it in his hand.  I say it's in your hand.  He says this is a blue top not a blue sweater.  Next he says he found my pink underwear.  I laugh and say, "I wanted any color but pink and those are purple but hand them over."  We both laughed and Abdi's laugh is a girlish giggle that I love to hear and I try to make him do it all day. He has a wife and daughters and is no good with choosing their clothes either.  Abdi is smart though. He knows his medications and he is a good problem solver.  He explains things thoroughly and he treats me with the dignity of realizing I want to know the details.  His explanations aren't quotes from a textbook or a drug handbook.  He uses his own words and I can tell he has thought all these things through. He tries to solve problems creatively and some of his ideas are so terrible we both laugh together. During the day he gets assigned a patient on another floor who is in isolation with the flu.  I don't get to see him much.  Abdi was there when I needed him though and when I finally was able to urinate on my own, he was as happy as I was.  I would think having a young man like Abdi as my nurse would have been awkward but it wasn't.  He was kind and respectful and a skilled nurse.  I was lucky to have him.  Receiving such good service inspires me to offer good service when I get back to my job.  Not that I don't already offer good service but I will try a little harder because now I know how good it feels to get it.

Hospital Staff-Susan Marie

I had a lot in common with my nursing assistant after my surgery.  We both had three names of five letters each. And our first two names matched exactly while the first letter of our last name also matched.  What she had and what I hope to match is an ability to be in the moment and enjoy every last morsel that floated her way.  Susan Marie loved her job.  She loved taking care of me.  She helped me take a shower.  Being modest to the extreme, this was anxiety producing for me.  Her cheerful chatter and strategic placing of the shower curtain made the shower relaxing and enjoyable.  How did she manage to do that?  She is cheerful and has a charming personality.  I think the answer lies in that Susan Marie loved her job and that made all the difference.  I was lucky that Susan Marie was mine if only for a couple of days.

Hospital Staff - Janet

I met many people being in the hospital for four days.  One person who made an impact on me was Janet. Janet worked the night shift and she was a registered nurse.  Short, solid and hardworking I guessed within five minutes of talking to her that she grew up on a farm.  She did grow up on a farm in northern Iowa.  I know this because I told her when I worked night shifts at a nursing home 40 years ago I felt jealous to see people sound asleep.   She said she doesn't feel that but once, when leaving a Christmas gathering and driving down the country roads, she would see farm houses lit up and looking so cozy and inviting that she wished she lived at each one.  Janet was kind and no nonsense yet playful.  She would say, "Let me adjust George here so he can do his job correctly."  George was my name for the leg massager on my right leg.  Janet was great because she made me feel cared for and important and secure.  The first night I had trouble because every time I went to sleep my oxygen level would go too low. An alarm would sound and I would wake up and start breathing better.  This cycle kept repeating itself.  When Janet gave me an oxygen cannula that went away so I could sleep.  After that, as soon as I got really good into sleep, the alarm would go off again.  My heart rate was too low.  I saw pulses of 48, 47, and 46.  Anything below 50 would cause that alarm to sound.  So here I am, basically immobile. These low heart rates were scary.  How low would they go?  How am I supposed to make my heart rate go up when I can't get up and exercise, can't move my legs because they are strapped to a triangle shaped pillow between my legs, can't do much at all.  I started moving my arms. My left arm has to be kept straight because of my IV. I wanted to sleep but instead I punch the air up, to the side, and out to the front.  I wave my arms like windshield wipers back and forth.  I do this for a while, drift off to sleep, and am awakened again by the alarm.  This was not a good cycle so I pressed my call button and told them about the problem.  I can't remember what happened after that but I think Janet took care of the problem.  Janet was a great nurse and I was lucky to have her manage the side effects my body was struggling with. Thanks Janet for your quiet confidence, hard working demeanor and your talent as a registered nurse.

Odd To The Bone

I am back!  I have a new hip and it is working fine.  Surgery took longer than expected because I had undiagnosed hip dysplasia.   My socket was turned out farther to the right than normal.  So I was accustomed to rotating my hip to the right much farther than most people.  My new hip socket was put in the normal position and it will take some getting used to because I can feel the difference especially when I sit on a hard surface.  My first step on my new hip was momentous to me.  I asked the nurse who was helping me get out of bed and stand

to do a drum roll please.  She didn't so I did one mentally in my head.  I suppose she wanted to keep her hands free in case I tumbled over.  I didn't tumble over.  I walked 200 feet and wanted to go further but she told me to stop.  Walking felt so good after being immobilized for so long.  I had leg compression  leggings on. Actually those were put on before surgery.  The left one was put on before surgery but not the right.  So before surgery I enjoyed my legging so much I named him Johnny for short, Johnny Depp for long.  Both Johnny and George (George Clooney) massaged my legs day and night, day and night.  Each leg had 3 strips.  The lower strip would inflate followed by the middle and topped off by the third.  After 90 seconds the other leg would inflate.  Johnny and George worked tirelessly all night long massaging my legs and that helped but it still felt good to walk.  My walk felt good for my legs, my back, my shoulders and my arms. My walk felt good physically but also psychologically. You can see in the second photo a picture of me walking on my stainless steel, titanium and high density plastic hip.  Offspring #2 fancied it up to cover certain post operative complications.  The blue shoulder pack is the controls for Johnny and George.  I can't remember the last time I felt that good after a walk.

Hip Hip Hooray!

There comes a time when enough is enough.  Little things bother me and I tough it out. My hip hurt.  I'm not the kind of person who pays very much attention to my body.  So I keep trucking along.  I did notice more and more pain in my right hip.  In February I thought I had a serious problem but didn't want to go to the doc because I was afraid I would be told I needed a new hip.  So I put up with it.  Sometimes my hip would lock and the pain would be excruciating.  At night the hip would throb and keep me awake.  After living with that I decided in October that if the doc said I needed a new hip, that would be good news; a solution to a problem.  So I went in and the doc said, "A hip replacement is in your future."  Tomorrow is the big day.  Over the past few weeks I've been thinking things like,"This will be the last (bike ride, kayak ride, swim, walk to the copier, session on the Stairmaster) with this worn out hip. This will be the last blog entry with this hip too.  I am so ready for this solution. Hip Hip Hooray!  

Christmas Bird Count

Today we went on the Christmas bird count in the south east section of the pie near the Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge.  We had a great moving driving around and looking at bird feeders in the area.  On this day, and no other, I get very judgmental about people who have empty bird feeders.  And the first thing I did when I got home was to fill up my bird feeders!  On our 43 mile journey we saw 5 trumpeter swans, 3 mallards, 3 turkeys, 3 bald eagles, 2 rock pigeons, 1 mourning dove, 2 red bellied woodpeckers, 1 downy woodpecker, 2 pileated woodpeckers, 38 (yes, 38!) blue jays, 25 crows, 9 black capped chickadees, 3 white breasted nuthatches, 6 cedar waxwings, and 4 juncos.  We met a nice couple from Oak Grove and had a good time talking, looking for birds, and enjoying the pleasant weather together.  This couple mentioned at a party the night before that they were going on a Christmas Bird count and someone said, "Oh, I don't think I could do that.  I have no idea what a Christmas bird looks like."  Hilarious.

The Stranger

I read three books at the beach.  The first one was The Stranger by Albert Camus.  I chose it because it was small and compact and seemed literary.  The novel was published in France in 1946 and translated into English.  The writing style is short and bleak sentences that reminded me of Hemingway.  The story is about a fellow named Meursault.  He finds out that his mother died. He goes to her funeral but seems emotionally detached.  Later he has fun with some friends, commits a crime, goes to jail, is found guilty and waits his punishment.  Meursault doesn't seem to be upset by anything that goes on in his life.  He will not, however, say anything but exactly what he means, even if it could help his case in court.  He seems to lack compassion, empathy, and normal human reactions but he is steadfast in his honesty.  The story is very strange but it went by quickly and was actually quite fascinating.

Week At The Beach (Not Birds)

We got out of our car on the Ding Darling Wildlife Drive because a man and a woman were standing there looking down at something.  We thought it was a bird.  And the couple admitted they got out of the car to look at a bird but instead found a couple of horse shoe crabs mating.  Look away, this is private.

We saw an ALLIGATOR! That was exciting.  This gator was watching a pair of pied billed grebes frolicking in the water.

And at a stream down from a power plant we saw manatees frolicking in the water.  One Momma Manatee (Momatee?) had a baby on her back.  When she came up for a sip of air, the baby came up on her back.  The males can weigh 1000 pounds and the females can weigh 3000 pounds.  Manatees like water warmer than 68 degrees and the power plant discharges warm water.  So the manatees hang out there just like the Minnesotans hang around the fire in the fireplace.

Funny story. Tonight I treated myself to a pedicure. I stopped at a neighborhood place and paid for a woman who spoke English and Vietnamese to take care of me.  She scrubbed the bottoms of my feet and asked, "Why so soft?  Why you feet like a baby butt?"  I laughed.  I said I had walked for a week on a sandy beach and had them naturally pumiced.  She had the other nail technician admire my tootsies too.  It was hilarious.  I was happy that any part of this old body is comparable to any part of a baby's body.  And guess what color nail polish I chose?  Can you guess?  Yep!  That's right.  I chose a popsicle orange.  Any time in the next few weeks if I feel sorry for myself I can look down at my feet and be of good cheer.

A Week At The Beach IV

I almost forgot the black skimmer we saw on the beach in front of our condo.  This is a rare bird in America because the lower bill is longer than the upper bill.  The skimmer flies with the lower bill in the water. When it feels a fish touch the lower bill it snaps the upper bill down.  Talk about fast food!  We were thrilled to see the skimmer skimming by.  And when the skimmer went back and forth in front of us five consecutive times we knew we were being treated to a special show.  Maybe the skimmer kept coming by until it was sure I got a good shot of it with the camera.  I'm so glad we chose to go on a final walk on the beach instead of staying inside the condo talking or packing.

While on Sanibel some of us chose to rent bicycles.  Our bikes were the one speed, coaster brake variety that I grew up on.  I loved biking. For the first two days I kept grabbing for imaginary hand brakes but I got used to it by the third day.  Sanibel has only four inches of elevation so biking was incredibly easy and a ton of fun.  The entire island is bike friendly.  We had smooth bike paths to use.  Automobiles yielded to us.  Stores and restaurants had bike racks available.  My bike had a basket but no bell.  I probably would have used the bell too much so maybe it was better I didn't have one.  If I passed anyone I did say, "On your left.  Three more coming behind me."  We biked to the grocery store.  We biked to the marina.  We biked to the light house.  We biked through the nature paths.  I was able to see things that I would have missed without the bike.  The paths through the nature preserves were part hard sand, part shell, part grass, and in a few spots, part mud.  My arthritis makes it hard for me to walk nature paths but I can bike them just fine.  My entire vacation was enhanced with the renting of my bright yellow boss bicycle.  I even, for just a few seconds, rode with no hands!  Lots of people bike on Sanibel.  I saw people riding bikes who I swear were in their eighth decade of life.  I hope I can still balance a bike when I'm 80.

A Week At The Beach Part III (For The Birds)

The birds down here let me get close enough to get good photos with my inexpensive camera.  Here are 3 white ibis searching for food in the surf.

Here is a pair of willets. The one on the right has some food in it's beak.

Like I said, you can get really close to these birds down here.

Here is a photo of a brown pelican foot.  Note the pretty pattern in the feathers.

This cattle egret poses for my camera displaying it's beautiful s curved neck.

A great blue heron (right) and blue heron (left) in the same picture!  I took this shot from the front seat of a double kayak while my brother-in-law did all the work paddling.

This anhinga spread his shiny black wings in the sun to dry.

This is my best shot.  A yellow crowned night heron stood so still I got close enough to capture the glint in it's eye.

A Week At The Beach Part II

A week at the beach was made wonderful by the company I kept.  When I can lay down in bed at the end of a long day outside, in the fresh Florida air, and listen to the same voices talking that I heard when I was 8 years old, well, it just gives me a warm feeling inside; sort of like a campfire in the chest cavity type of feeling. When five people can go out to a restaurant and order five entrees and three desserts and pass those desserts around the table so that I get a spoonful of pistachio ice cream followed by a bite of coconut cream cake followed by a bite of tiramisu, well that is a good evening.  When five people agree, after living together for 7 days, they want to do it again, that is the very definition of a great vacation.  A vacation is partly about the time and the place and the experiences and the service but it is also about the company you keep.  Good times. Good times.

A Week At The Beach

I spent a week of my time on Sanibel Island in southwest Florida.  We enjoyed a condo on the sea, the deep blue sea.  Here is a photo from our window.  The beauty of the sea is incredible and relaxing and stimulating and mesmerizing.  I could watch the waves roll in for hours much like watching a campfire.

There is so much life in the sea.  The water covers most of it but once in a wonderful while, the life shows itself in joyful ways.

Wading in the surf wearing my quick-dry skirt is a favorite activity of mine.  The sand and the shells pumice my tootsies like an expensive pedicure.

This is a photo of a manatee taken from a distance.  Since the sea is cooling down to 68 degrees and this is the lowest temperatures a manatee can tolerate, they migrate up an offshoot of the Calahousahatchee River where the discharge from the light and power plant warm the water a few degrees warmer.

Since Sanibel Island has an east west orientation, it collects the shells more than other islands.  There are so many shells that you can't possibly walk without stepping on them.  People get up early in the morning to collect the best shells.  The action of bending over and picking up shells is so frequent it has been named "The Sanibel Stoop."

Not only shells but sea pork washes up on shore.  Sea pork is a collection of organisms called tunicates.  Walking on the beach always brings surprises.  So when I go to the sea, I soak in all the experience and treasure it because I know I don't get there very often.

Temporary

We announce a temporary interruption to this blog to enjoy a trip where it is SO EASY to forget that this is the month of December.  Wish you were here.

Life Is A Journey

I've heard it said that life is a journey and I guess that is true.  Every day I get up, get dressed, and start down the road, plodding along.  When I was young I was on the road behind my older sister, my aunt, my cousins.  They were older and they made sure I knew it. Then a  new sister came along and I was AHEAD of her but still behind many, many people such as kids who went to school.  Then I went to school and I was ahead of the preschoolers. School has a structure that keeps you in tune to your rank on the journey.  First graders had all the savoir faire over us kindergarteners.  Eighth graders were the ultimate at my elementary school.  Then I went to junior high, my first public school as a 9th grader and boom, I was immediately at the top of that food chain.  After that was high school and I was at the bottom again until after 4 years of plodding down the road I was on top again.  College freshman are at the bottom again but I still had that structure to go by.  Once I graduated from college, the ranking became less definite.  I got a job.  Some people worked there longer than me so they were ahead.  Those friends who got married and had children were ahead of me.  When I got married and had kids, I don't think I really comprehended how far ahead that put me.  I remember the first time I called the school to tell them my first grader would be absent because he was sick.  When I hung up the phone I was amazed that they accepted me doing that.  I was adult enough to call in a school absence?  When did that happen?  Somehow I thought I would be questioned on my authority to say, "He's too sick to come to school."  How does the school secretary know I am worthy based only on what she hears on the phone?  One day I was up at my father's cabin  on Block Lake reading the newspaper.  I was 35 years old and I read an article about middle age.  To my utter horror, I realized that 35 is half of 70!  If 35 is half of 70 that means I am middle aged!  How did that happen? When did that happen?  Sitting on the red painted Windsor chair, my elbows resting on the flowered oil cloth tablecloth, I held my head in my hands and mourned the loss of  my youth. The age of 35 was the fulcrum of my journey.  Being ahead of others wasn't my goal anymore.  I adopted a new goal of having others ahead of me.  Now my kids are grown and living their adult lives and I keep plodding down the road.  I look at many of my friends and notice, and I don't mean this in a bad way, my friends are old!  Their age surprises me.  I don't know why I should be so surprised.  I look in the mirror every day and see the changes on my face, the gray hair, the wrinkles, the saggy neck.  Gravity is taking a toll.  My skin just isn't as able to fight gravity like it used to.  No one tells me I look young for my age.  I know I'm old but I didn't think my friends would get old when I wasn't looking.  I notice that there are fewer and fewer people on the road ahead of me.  When my grandparents died, a whole row of people moved off the road ahead of me putting me closer to the front of the pack.  Then a parent died.  Yikes, that puts me in THE NEXT row.  And those sisters and brothers who seemed SO FAR behind me when I was a child aren't so far behind me now because they have kids who are all grown up and own houses and have jobs.  Last week I talked to a woman I've known for 25 years. She is in her 90's now. She complained that she has no friends because they all died.  Earlier this week she died too.  Last week she was bubbly and laughing and full of life.  Her death puts me closer to the front of the pack.  I'm not in any hurry to get to the end of the road.  When I was young a woman's life expectancy was 72 so I have more than a decade left to go if I'm average.  I think my hours of exercising every week back further.  Every step up on the stair master is a step backward on the journey of life, right?  Exercise is supposed to be the fountain of youth?  I sure hope so because I will be majorly teed of if that is not true. 

Wunderbar

Last night I went to my first ever German themed holiday party.  It was wunderbar!  I brought Zweibelkuchen (onion tart).  We had sauerkraut and potatoes and warm potato salad and rye bread and cheese and lots of other goodies.  The carnivores had brats.  But everyone had sauerkraut balls which were delicious deep fried balls of sauerkraut in a ritz cracker breading.  Yummy.  The food was great but the conversations are what made this a great party.  This group of master naturalists are great talkers. Over the course of the evening we talked about cutting up moles and mice for raptors and how moles make your hands smell worse, owls, the Clean Water Act, farming practices, genetically modified organisms, neonicatoids, pesticides, wheat rust, overpopulation, BT modified corn, electrical engineering, medical devices, the accident in 1967 on the aircraft carrier USS Forestal and was John McCain responsible, John McCain, the Keating Five, Vietnamese prisoner of war camps,  Japanese prisoner of war camps, the new movie coming out "Unbroken," Crex Meadows, the Harriet Alexander Nature Center, playing the accordion, the Saint Paul Waltz, the water levels of White Bear Lake, what Wisconsin thinks of the effect Minnesota has on the St. Croix River, snakes, the short days of winter, seasonal changes, seasonal affective disorder, the Glockenspiel restaurant, making spatzel, making sauerkraut, children, grandchildren, and topics to study in 2015.  What a great evening!

Salem Falls

I read another Jodi Picoult book.  I can't help myself.  If I see  a Jodi Picoult book that I haven't read yet, I pick it up. This one is Salem Falls. I know her books are predictable in that there is always a court room drama but they're also predictable in that I know I will be entertained for the entire novel.  And this book was no exception.  In this story Jack McBride is the victim of a witch hunt.  You gotta figure that with a title like Salem Falls that some references to witches had to be made.  Jack is falsely accused of rape.  Lots of drama and good character development.  This was a great story.

Eden Springs

I picked up this little book, Eden Springs by Laura Kasischke at the library.  I had no idea what I was getting into.  I read it in a single hour of cardio at the gym and was enthralled.  Turns out the story is based on truth which is often stranger than fiction.  In a small town in Michigan, on the shore of a great lake, a group of religious followers of a guy named Benjamin Purnell, settled.  They grew fruits like peaches and plums, followed Benjamin's idea of religion called "House of David", and built a community in the early 1900's.  Part of the community was a baseball team, also a mansion, a resort, an amusement park complete with rides, and boat rides.  Members of the community wore white.  And Benjamin, as the leader, got to have sex with all the girls in the group.  The book has pictures of the community and it's members set near Benton Harbor, Michigan.  Once Benjamin's shenigans were uncovered by the other people in Michigan the group was run out of town.  The buildings remain there and there is a House of David museum in the town.  And someday if I am driving east out of Chicago, I just might make a detour to Benton Harbor and check out the House of David museum.