Flying home from Arizona, I had a layover in Denver which is kinda in the wrong direction. Due to weather in Medford they ended up cancelling my flight and rescheduled me for the next night. I have family in Denver so I called my uncle to pick me up and spent the next day with my aunt until it was time to go back to the airport.
As expected, little by the little the flight developed delays much like the day before, due to a storm in my new layover city- San Francisco. San Francisco always has delays. It wasn't long however, before we boarded the plane and were clear for take-off.
I've never really been afraid of flying. I get a little tense during landing. I expect turbulence, but when those little tiny wheels hit the runway, you can really feel how fast the plane is going and even worse, you can feel the pilot's attempt to slow the plane down. At that moment I feel like the plane is on the verge of losing control and cartwheeling down the runway in a firey blaze of death. It has never caused me to cry out loud and profess to all the other passengers how afraid I am. I believe in keeping a calm demeanor, even when fear grips me hard. I press my fingertips together in my lap, close my eyes and exhale. When the plane finally slows down, I open them and breathe again.
I'm ok with a fair amount of turbulence. I understand the dynamics of how the air works and how we get uplifts and downdrafts in addition to the side to side tossing. A very small regional jet flying from San Francisco to Medford during the winter can get tossed quite a bit. I'm not entirely sure how much is normal, but I get that it's supposed to be a bumpy ride.
About ten minutes from landing, the plane hit some nasty turbulence. And I mean nasty. It wasn't full of passengers as it was a late night flight into a small airport. Two rows ahead of me was a pilot getting flown to Medford either to go home or get set up for the flight out the next day. I couldn't see the flight attendants because it was too dark, but this pilot had left his reading light on.
A young lady a few rows back cried out "Oh my god! What's going on?!"
I was busy trying to breathe and none of the other passengers were making anything more than a gasping sound every time the plane lurched in one direction or the other. The strangeness of the moment almost made me laugh out loud, but then the plane dropped about ten feet and the urge to laugh disappeared. The lady across the aisle from me gripped the arm rest but maintained a hold on her magazine. There was no one next to me. Behind me was a 19 year old girl who had been telling her life story to the woman sitting next to her. They were now silent.
I looked at the pilot sitting in the cabin and he had his ankle crossed over his knee which told me he was still fairly relaxed. I decided I would watch him as a cue for when it was appropriate to panic or accept that death was immenent.
As the plane continued to be tossed about like a beach ball at a football game, the girl a few rows back continued to cry out all sorts of things and I felt the panic in me jump a few decibels. That in turn, made me angry. If I was going to plummet to my death in this tiny airplane, I certainly did not want to listen to her panic the whole way down. I just about yelled at her, but realized my yelling would increase the tension in the plane and it certainly didn't need that.
We bumped about for another minute or so and then jumped so hard that it knocked the magazine out of the lady's hands sitting across from me. "Oh! Woah!" as she also began to lose her composure. At that point the pilot sitting in the cabin sat up and looked out the window. Here we go. This is it. I wanted to explain to the girl who was continuing her panicked tirade that turbulence is normal and it's only like bumps on a poorly maintained road, but I was beginning to be fairly convinced that this was no longer normal and that we were all going to die. I continued to take deep breaths as silently as I could.
The plane dropped maybe 50 feet and most of the passengers started making frightened noises at that point. Short of my deep breathing exercises going on, I believe I was fairly quiet. I thought it was ironic that I had made it to within a few minutes of my destination and now I might possibly die.
The turbulence let up a little and the passengers became silent. I looked out the window at the twinkling lights of Medford and thought at least it's beautiful. I kept thinking about how when I die I don't want to be cognisent of it happening and I certainly don't want it to take as long as it would to die in a plane crash. Too much scary stuff happening that you get to be aware of. Front row seats to your own death I suppose. It's just not how I want to go.
I watched the lights of Medford get closer and then we hit another pocket of turbulence. The panicky girl started right back up again. "What's going on?! We're not on the ground yet? What's happening?!"
Lady! You're on a damn plane! You are either experiencing severe turbulence or we are all about to die! Either way, you are not helping the situation!
I glanced at the pilot who was now sitting a little more rigid and kept my thoughts to my self. Deep breath.
A few minutes later the runway appeared underneath us, the wheels hit with a thud and I felt the brakes struggle to slow the plane down. I let out another breath and could hear all the passengers do the same. I watched the pilot in front of me as we listened to the conversations of the other passengers.
"Oh my god, that was the scariest moment I've ever had on a plane."
"My heart just dropped!"
The young girl and woman behind me let out a nervous laugh and sigh. "I'm Mary." "Mary? Oh, it was nice to meet you! I was so scared, I'm sorry." "No, I was scared too." Their continued nervous laughter made me think that for those last ten minutes, those strangers were holding hands. I felt that laugh well up in me again but only smiled.
As we disembarked, the two pilots that had flown the plane we there to greet us at the front of the plane. One was a lady I had seen earlier in San Francisco and she glanced up at me as she put her jacket on. Her facial expression said she was expecting some sort of comment about the flight, but we were on the ground and I was walking out under my own accord so I just said "Thank you, have a good night".
When I stepped out of the airport towards the parking lot, I was hit by a big gust of wind. That explains it, I thought and that little laugh bubbled up again and as I let it out, I was surprised to feel it turn into choked back tears.
As I drove home, I replayed the incident in my head over and over. I thought the girl's panicked reaction to be somewhat disgraceful, but I also couldn't quite decide how bad the situation had been. Was it just normal turbulence, or were we momentarily in danger? I guess I was upset by how easily the girl's panicked cries had caused me to panic a bit more as I had felt fairly calm until she continued her tirade. I feel it's the responsibility of everyone on the plane in a moment like that to try to remain calm so as to help others remain calm as well. If we all crash, we only have each other and I would rather be on a plane full of brave people than panicked ones.
But on the other hand, on a plane with maybe 40 passengers, she was the only one who displayed her panic, so I think it should surprise me more that the others did not.
On the drive home, the wind tossed my jeep back and forth across the highway and I decided that I was probably not in much danger on that flight. It was just a small plane in a big sea of turbulence.
When I went out to the woodshed for more wood I saw that a portion of my fence had been blown over by the wind. All night as I tried to sleep, the wind howled and shook the house. Gusts of over 50 miles per hour. Winds high in the air are usually quite a bit more significant than winds on the ground, so I can only imagine what those winds were like in the air during that flight.
No, on second thought, I can do more than imagine. I was there. They were brutal.
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Wednesday, November 21, 2012
Sitting at the airport...
I'm in Medford, Oregon sitting at the airport. I got here early, expecting a big Thanksgiving crowd and arrived to find my flight delayed by 1 hour and 45 minutes. That left me 3 hours before my flight took off. Looking at my layover in San Francisco, it's possible that I might still make my connecting flight.
There's a news camera set up outside the security check-point and it makes me laugh. Every year, all the news stations cover the crowds at the airports. Every year it's the same: there are crowds at the airports. Hmmm.... big news. Look, it's a crowd at the airport! Fast forward a year or so: look, it's a crowd at the airport! Our society is lame. The sun came up today. It'll probably come up tomorrow as well, whether or not I'm here. I wonder what a news station would be like if it only covered news that made any difference. News at 7 pops up and the news caster says there's no new news today, here's a free movie in our place, see you tomorrow. Interesting concept. We might all adopt a more laid back lifestyle.
So after spending a weekend up in the Bend, OR area visiting my friend, Gwen, I've got some new ideas about dealing with the projects around my house.
First of all, the trim in the old half of the house is a finished wood. Believing it had some sort of historical significance, I didn't want to paint over it, but it needed to be refurbished. Refurbishing old trim is a "dirty bear" (haha, inside joke, sorry). So I put it off. I stare at it every day and it irks me. Not only that, but all the trim in the new half of the house is white, so it doesn't flow so well. The house needs flow.
A week or so ago, I was in the work shop in the back yard and found an unfinished corner block for the trim. It is certainly not 100 years old. More like 5. Which leads to the conclusion that the trim in the house is not 100 years old. Since it has no historical value and looks old and weathered, it will now be painted white, without any sort of guilt on my part, and the house will look refreshed. Yay!
My toilet conundrum. I probably mentioned it in a post early on in my house move. In the guest bathroom, the toilet is not the right size for the space so someone cut a hole the size of the tank in the wall behind it and it is now embedded about a inch into the wall. And of course it isn't done neatly, it looks like crap. So I decided I would have to buy a new toilet, get rid of the old one, patch the wall, texture and paint the patch, and then I can go ahead with painting the bathroom.
Gwen has a toilet that sits too far from her wall. We got the great idea that I would go home and measure the toilet and if it fit hers, we would switch.
I measured it, and it is not a standard measure...well the bolt to the wall is not. The toilet is standard, some one installed the drain in the wrong spot, by about an inch. Stumped again.
I sat down to watch DIY network for awhile. It allowed me to clear my mind a bit. Sometimes when you have a tough problem to solve, walking away and forgetting about it sometimes helps.
It did. My mind wandered around the toilet issue while watching whatever his name is crash some lady's backyard.
I have three bathrooms.... three toilets... the toilet in the master bath sits too far from the wall...
I jumped up off the couch, grabbed my tape measure and ran to the master bath. Bolt is 12 inches from the wall....the back of the tank lid sits 2 inches from the wall...12 minus 2 = a 10 inch toilet. Bolt to wall in guest bathroom... 11 inches. Ha! Bolt to back of tank on guest bathroom toilet- 12 inches... so if I switch the two toilets, they should both fit in their new homes! I grabbed a few different size crescent wrenches, turned off the water supply to the toilet...and then decided I should probably google how to do this. I watched a Home Depot video and figured out I needed two new wax rings, but other than that, it's a very simple thing to do. Yay!! I'm saving that for after Thanksgiving.
Gotta go see the gate agent about my connecting flight.
Oh, and by the way...I've been looking at wood floors, and am excited to find out that handscraped laminate flooring is a fraction of the price and looks and feels the same! I ordered some samples.
There's a news camera set up outside the security check-point and it makes me laugh. Every year, all the news stations cover the crowds at the airports. Every year it's the same: there are crowds at the airports. Hmmm.... big news. Look, it's a crowd at the airport! Fast forward a year or so: look, it's a crowd at the airport! Our society is lame. The sun came up today. It'll probably come up tomorrow as well, whether or not I'm here. I wonder what a news station would be like if it only covered news that made any difference. News at 7 pops up and the news caster says there's no new news today, here's a free movie in our place, see you tomorrow. Interesting concept. We might all adopt a more laid back lifestyle.
So after spending a weekend up in the Bend, OR area visiting my friend, Gwen, I've got some new ideas about dealing with the projects around my house.
First of all, the trim in the old half of the house is a finished wood. Believing it had some sort of historical significance, I didn't want to paint over it, but it needed to be refurbished. Refurbishing old trim is a "dirty bear" (haha, inside joke, sorry). So I put it off. I stare at it every day and it irks me. Not only that, but all the trim in the new half of the house is white, so it doesn't flow so well. The house needs flow.
A week or so ago, I was in the work shop in the back yard and found an unfinished corner block for the trim. It is certainly not 100 years old. More like 5. Which leads to the conclusion that the trim in the house is not 100 years old. Since it has no historical value and looks old and weathered, it will now be painted white, without any sort of guilt on my part, and the house will look refreshed. Yay!
My toilet conundrum. I probably mentioned it in a post early on in my house move. In the guest bathroom, the toilet is not the right size for the space so someone cut a hole the size of the tank in the wall behind it and it is now embedded about a inch into the wall. And of course it isn't done neatly, it looks like crap. So I decided I would have to buy a new toilet, get rid of the old one, patch the wall, texture and paint the patch, and then I can go ahead with painting the bathroom.
Gwen has a toilet that sits too far from her wall. We got the great idea that I would go home and measure the toilet and if it fit hers, we would switch.
I measured it, and it is not a standard measure...well the bolt to the wall is not. The toilet is standard, some one installed the drain in the wrong spot, by about an inch. Stumped again.
I sat down to watch DIY network for awhile. It allowed me to clear my mind a bit. Sometimes when you have a tough problem to solve, walking away and forgetting about it sometimes helps.
It did. My mind wandered around the toilet issue while watching whatever his name is crash some lady's backyard.
I have three bathrooms.... three toilets... the toilet in the master bath sits too far from the wall...
I jumped up off the couch, grabbed my tape measure and ran to the master bath. Bolt is 12 inches from the wall....the back of the tank lid sits 2 inches from the wall...12 minus 2 = a 10 inch toilet. Bolt to wall in guest bathroom... 11 inches. Ha! Bolt to back of tank on guest bathroom toilet- 12 inches... so if I switch the two toilets, they should both fit in their new homes! I grabbed a few different size crescent wrenches, turned off the water supply to the toilet...and then decided I should probably google how to do this. I watched a Home Depot video and figured out I needed two new wax rings, but other than that, it's a very simple thing to do. Yay!! I'm saving that for after Thanksgiving.
Gotta go see the gate agent about my connecting flight.
Oh, and by the way...I've been looking at wood floors, and am excited to find out that handscraped laminate flooring is a fraction of the price and looks and feels the same! I ordered some samples.
Thursday, November 8, 2012
'Tis the season for ugly runs
I don't know if you all noticed, but the winter storm named Brutus is upon us up here in the north. Somebody talked me into running a marathon in January... in San Diego of course, where it's awesome weather all year round. Although I should be thankful it'll be over at the end of January, when the weather is really getting bad.
Today the weather was calling for rain and snow, and a mixture of both. Looking at the weather it looked like the morning would be cold but dry and then worsen as the day went on. Usually I wait for it to warm up before my run, but I figured I would get my 6 miler in before Brutus reared his ugly head.
I got to work and one of my coworkers was going to run 8 miles, but said he was running around 2pm because it was going to be nicer then. We watched the "hourly" prediction on the weather like a hawk. It kinda seemed he was right, but it didn't look that bad out. I should follow my intuition. I let him talk me into running later. Around 11am I decided to go ahead and eat my pot-roast and be fine to run by 1 or 2. Around noon, my coworker started getting ready for his run, deciding he better get it over with before it got bad. I didn't think my stomach could handle it, so I thought about waiting.
From the window he shouted "Oh man! Maybe I'll wait, it's really coming down!"
I looked out the window at the cold rain. It looked miserable. Damnit. I knew I should've run this morning. Argh!
We looked at the hourly weather again. It didn't look very promising. I hemmed and hawed about it for awhile while he put on his shoes. "Do you want to be a better marathoner?" he asked as I stared into my gym bag.
Ugh. Ok, fine. I grabbed my shoes and changed, came out of the bathroom and he was gone. Must be hiding somewhere. I put on my rain coat and my ear warmer headband and walked out into the rain. It was 40 degrees tops. Probably lower. Snow was predicted down to 3,000ft and I was starting out at 2700 and running uphill.
As I ran up the mountain hill, I could see a clearing in the clouds and had hope that I would soon be free of this freezing rain pelting me in the face. Soon enough it stopped and I relaxed a little. Until about 2.5 miles into it when I got hit in the face with sharp icy rain. I yelled out loud at the rain (still no sign of my coworker). Just before my turn around spot, I came across a lone horse in the road. I slowed to a walk so as not to spook it. Below the road on a steep slope was a cow. And below the cow were two very unhappy looking individuals. It's round-up season around here and everyone is rounding up their free-range cows. I wasn't far from the corrals where I was to turn around, but I figured if I kept going I would spook the cow, and boy would those people be pissed. I wished them well and turned around to head back.
And boy did I get a killer pot-roast-side-cramp. Argh! I wanted to run faster to get back but the sharp pain in my side had me barely shuffling back up the hill. I finally made it back to the station and walked a little to cool down. I got one of those weird "how did I get here" feelings and wondered where on earth the last 6 miles went. Funny how that happens sometimes. Must be a coping technique.
This is just the start of many agonizing winter runs. I've run in worse though, and I'm sure I'll run in worse before I finish this next marathon.
Today the weather was calling for rain and snow, and a mixture of both. Looking at the weather it looked like the morning would be cold but dry and then worsen as the day went on. Usually I wait for it to warm up before my run, but I figured I would get my 6 miler in before Brutus reared his ugly head.
I got to work and one of my coworkers was going to run 8 miles, but said he was running around 2pm because it was going to be nicer then. We watched the "hourly" prediction on the weather like a hawk. It kinda seemed he was right, but it didn't look that bad out. I should follow my intuition. I let him talk me into running later. Around 11am I decided to go ahead and eat my pot-roast and be fine to run by 1 or 2. Around noon, my coworker started getting ready for his run, deciding he better get it over with before it got bad. I didn't think my stomach could handle it, so I thought about waiting.
From the window he shouted "Oh man! Maybe I'll wait, it's really coming down!"
I looked out the window at the cold rain. It looked miserable. Damnit. I knew I should've run this morning. Argh!
We looked at the hourly weather again. It didn't look very promising. I hemmed and hawed about it for awhile while he put on his shoes. "Do you want to be a better marathoner?" he asked as I stared into my gym bag.
Ugh. Ok, fine. I grabbed my shoes and changed, came out of the bathroom and he was gone. Must be hiding somewhere. I put on my rain coat and my ear warmer headband and walked out into the rain. It was 40 degrees tops. Probably lower. Snow was predicted down to 3,000ft and I was starting out at 2700 and running uphill.
As I ran up the mountain hill, I could see a clearing in the clouds and had hope that I would soon be free of this freezing rain pelting me in the face. Soon enough it stopped and I relaxed a little. Until about 2.5 miles into it when I got hit in the face with sharp icy rain. I yelled out loud at the rain (still no sign of my coworker). Just before my turn around spot, I came across a lone horse in the road. I slowed to a walk so as not to spook it. Below the road on a steep slope was a cow. And below the cow were two very unhappy looking individuals. It's round-up season around here and everyone is rounding up their free-range cows. I wasn't far from the corrals where I was to turn around, but I figured if I kept going I would spook the cow, and boy would those people be pissed. I wished them well and turned around to head back.
And boy did I get a killer pot-roast-side-cramp. Argh! I wanted to run faster to get back but the sharp pain in my side had me barely shuffling back up the hill. I finally made it back to the station and walked a little to cool down. I got one of those weird "how did I get here" feelings and wondered where on earth the last 6 miles went. Funny how that happens sometimes. Must be a coping technique.
This is just the start of many agonizing winter runs. I've run in worse though, and I'm sure I'll run in worse before I finish this next marathon.
Tuesday, November 6, 2012
Mrphf
I'm watching the election coverage and it's like watching a really close football game where they keep taking time outs. I should really just turn it off and check the results tomorrow. There's nothing I can do about who wins and watching only draws out the suspense. I voted a week ago. Due to my gypsy nature, I never know where I'll be on election day and I cannot commit to just one polling place. So I'm a permanent vote-by-mail person. It's very convenient.
Anyway, so a couple things I thought you guys would get a kick out of. Number one- I think I want my room to be silver. Grey/silver. I think for now I'll just change my linens to the blue ones and see how I like the brown with a little more color in the room. I hope I don't change the exterior color as much as I have changed my bedroom color. Like how about never? I took yesterday off work to receive my new phone from FedEx who will not deliver a phone without a signature. And Verizon refused to believe that my work address was a real address. So I stayed home. I put a second coat of paint on wall number two (we're talking exterior now) and a first coat on wall number 3. If I remember correctly, there are 10 walls. Some are larger than others.
I also pulled a very large awning frame off the back wall. Apparently some one thought it would be a great idea to put up an awning over the windows of a sun room. I've been putting off taking it down because it's very large, and I assumed (correctly) very heavy. Not something that I could just pull off on my own. Well yesterday I had enough. It was coming down. I'm a little off topic here, but anyway. I am proud that I thought to tie one corner of the frame on to a strong beam that leads to the carport, with 3 different bungee cords. Yes, I am a genious, thank you. I figured there were a few things that could happen. It was most likely going to come crashing to the ground, which was scary being that I had to be up on a ladder to lift one side out of the brackets and hopefully lower it to the ground without killing myself. The second possibility was that when it came crashing down it would nail two large windows and completely shatter them. So one of the bungee cords was in a position to pull it in the opposite direction of the windows. The other two simply would hold one corner up.
I'm not entirely sure what happened, but I got in place on a ladder on the far side and lifted the frame out of the brackets. Somehow it ended up crashing completely to the ground. Apparently I was smart enough to let go of the thing. There was a large thick tile on the ground that was completely shattered, the other end hung from the bungees and the windows were all in tact. I was too, at the time.
So the far end still hung from the beam that I had secured it to, and now I had to somehow lower it down without killing myself. I unhooked the one with the lateral support first. I'm not sure if that was the one that did it or not, being as I just carried on afterward, but somehow in the first two bungees, I removed a large piece of skin from my pinkie knuckle. Officially an avulsion. Meaning not quite an amputation of a large piece of skin, just mostly off. Of course the pinkie is a small digit, so relative to the rest of the body it wasn't much. Relative to my pinkie...well the knuckle is now a thick flap of skin. I ignored it briefly while removing the rest of the bungees, and managed to lower the frame to the ground.
Looking at my knuckle, it was pretty bloody, ready to start dripping on the ground. Not a scrape people, an actual avulsion of the knuckle. I have no idea what all you could see under there because I went into the house, rinsed it out, replaced the flap of skin, put antibacterial ointment on top and then taped it up. As I went about painting, I could see the blood seeping through.
And you know what? I never lifted the flap to see. Last night I cleaned it off again and wrapped it up. Today I changed the band aid and it's really hard to tell. I'm wondering if being so quick on replacing the skin might allow it to heal back together? I'm not sure. I guess time will tell. It didn't get scrubbed real well which worries me a little, but we'll see.
Anyway, back to my amusing house issues.
I got a wood pellet insert for my fireplace. For those who don't know what that is, let's start with the insert part of it. Fireplaces are pretty, but very inefficient on heat. Up here, that matters. So you can get an insert for the fireplace that will heat your house much more efficiently. Wood pellets are very small pellets (think hamster food) of highly compressed saw dust. This pellet stove adds little pellets to a bowl inside the stove depending on how you set it. If you put it on low, it will add pellets more slowly than if you put it on high. It's amazing how much heat these little pellets put out, and they leave very little ash behind. The cool thing is, I bought a remote thermostat with it, so I can set the room at 70 degrees and it will turn off and on depending on the temperature. I just broke the remote by the way, so I've been operating it manually. On Thursday, the fireplace guy will be here to hopefully fix the remote.
So the problem is this. Actually I have a coule theories, so here we go. I have an alarm clock that is a synthetic sunrise. I set the sunrise for the length of time I want. I like 15 minutes. So 15 minutes before it's time to get up, this alram clock starts getting brighter. It's got a big bulb thing on it. It starts very dim and gets brighter and brighter until it's time to get up. Then it ends with an annoying beep like most alarms. Optional, but I like the back up. I wake up to light. One of the reasons why I can't really sleep in and I get sleepy when it gets dark. I've had this alarm clock for maybe 6 years. So I've definately trained myself to wake up with changes in light.
I was really excited to get a stove insert for my fireplace, so that I can enjoy the warm glow of the fire while falling asleep. Plus the heat. You can't beat a warm house in the middle of winter.
Warm glow = light. Flickering light to be exact. And now I can't sleep.
The first night I had it on, I instinctively rolled over to turn off the alarm before it went into beeping mode. It was around midnight. That continued throughout the night. After that I turned it down to 68 degrees so it turned on less. Then I tried loading the wood stove in the dining room to the point that it was too warm for the pellet stove to kick on. That was even better.
Then I broke the remote. So I put it on low and it burned all night...and now I'm not sleeping. I'll have you know I've been sleeping fairly well for the past 5 months, until recently. Maybe a metabolism thing. Could I have been sleeping better while eating more fatty foods in the southeast? It's possible.
So to sum it up, I painted my room again and I don't think it's the right color and I finally got my wood pellet insert that I've been saving for for a year and it's keeping me from sleeping. Bah! So I've got the wood stove going so I can turn off the pellet stove when I got to bed. Geezo.
Anyway, so a couple things I thought you guys would get a kick out of. Number one- I think I want my room to be silver. Grey/silver. I think for now I'll just change my linens to the blue ones and see how I like the brown with a little more color in the room. I hope I don't change the exterior color as much as I have changed my bedroom color. Like how about never? I took yesterday off work to receive my new phone from FedEx who will not deliver a phone without a signature. And Verizon refused to believe that my work address was a real address. So I stayed home. I put a second coat of paint on wall number two (we're talking exterior now) and a first coat on wall number 3. If I remember correctly, there are 10 walls. Some are larger than others.
I also pulled a very large awning frame off the back wall. Apparently some one thought it would be a great idea to put up an awning over the windows of a sun room. I've been putting off taking it down because it's very large, and I assumed (correctly) very heavy. Not something that I could just pull off on my own. Well yesterday I had enough. It was coming down. I'm a little off topic here, but anyway. I am proud that I thought to tie one corner of the frame on to a strong beam that leads to the carport, with 3 different bungee cords. Yes, I am a genious, thank you. I figured there were a few things that could happen. It was most likely going to come crashing to the ground, which was scary being that I had to be up on a ladder to lift one side out of the brackets and hopefully lower it to the ground without killing myself. The second possibility was that when it came crashing down it would nail two large windows and completely shatter them. So one of the bungee cords was in a position to pull it in the opposite direction of the windows. The other two simply would hold one corner up.
I'm not entirely sure what happened, but I got in place on a ladder on the far side and lifted the frame out of the brackets. Somehow it ended up crashing completely to the ground. Apparently I was smart enough to let go of the thing. There was a large thick tile on the ground that was completely shattered, the other end hung from the bungees and the windows were all in tact. I was too, at the time.
So the far end still hung from the beam that I had secured it to, and now I had to somehow lower it down without killing myself. I unhooked the one with the lateral support first. I'm not sure if that was the one that did it or not, being as I just carried on afterward, but somehow in the first two bungees, I removed a large piece of skin from my pinkie knuckle. Officially an avulsion. Meaning not quite an amputation of a large piece of skin, just mostly off. Of course the pinkie is a small digit, so relative to the rest of the body it wasn't much. Relative to my pinkie...well the knuckle is now a thick flap of skin. I ignored it briefly while removing the rest of the bungees, and managed to lower the frame to the ground.
Looking at my knuckle, it was pretty bloody, ready to start dripping on the ground. Not a scrape people, an actual avulsion of the knuckle. I have no idea what all you could see under there because I went into the house, rinsed it out, replaced the flap of skin, put antibacterial ointment on top and then taped it up. As I went about painting, I could see the blood seeping through.
And you know what? I never lifted the flap to see. Last night I cleaned it off again and wrapped it up. Today I changed the band aid and it's really hard to tell. I'm wondering if being so quick on replacing the skin might allow it to heal back together? I'm not sure. I guess time will tell. It didn't get scrubbed real well which worries me a little, but we'll see.
Anyway, back to my amusing house issues.
I got a wood pellet insert for my fireplace. For those who don't know what that is, let's start with the insert part of it. Fireplaces are pretty, but very inefficient on heat. Up here, that matters. So you can get an insert for the fireplace that will heat your house much more efficiently. Wood pellets are very small pellets (think hamster food) of highly compressed saw dust. This pellet stove adds little pellets to a bowl inside the stove depending on how you set it. If you put it on low, it will add pellets more slowly than if you put it on high. It's amazing how much heat these little pellets put out, and they leave very little ash behind. The cool thing is, I bought a remote thermostat with it, so I can set the room at 70 degrees and it will turn off and on depending on the temperature. I just broke the remote by the way, so I've been operating it manually. On Thursday, the fireplace guy will be here to hopefully fix the remote.
So the problem is this. Actually I have a coule theories, so here we go. I have an alarm clock that is a synthetic sunrise. I set the sunrise for the length of time I want. I like 15 minutes. So 15 minutes before it's time to get up, this alram clock starts getting brighter. It's got a big bulb thing on it. It starts very dim and gets brighter and brighter until it's time to get up. Then it ends with an annoying beep like most alarms. Optional, but I like the back up. I wake up to light. One of the reasons why I can't really sleep in and I get sleepy when it gets dark. I've had this alarm clock for maybe 6 years. So I've definately trained myself to wake up with changes in light.
I was really excited to get a stove insert for my fireplace, so that I can enjoy the warm glow of the fire while falling asleep. Plus the heat. You can't beat a warm house in the middle of winter.
Warm glow = light. Flickering light to be exact. And now I can't sleep.
The first night I had it on, I instinctively rolled over to turn off the alarm before it went into beeping mode. It was around midnight. That continued throughout the night. After that I turned it down to 68 degrees so it turned on less. Then I tried loading the wood stove in the dining room to the point that it was too warm for the pellet stove to kick on. That was even better.
Then I broke the remote. So I put it on low and it burned all night...and now I'm not sleeping. I'll have you know I've been sleeping fairly well for the past 5 months, until recently. Maybe a metabolism thing. Could I have been sleeping better while eating more fatty foods in the southeast? It's possible.
So to sum it up, I painted my room again and I don't think it's the right color and I finally got my wood pellet insert that I've been saving for for a year and it's keeping me from sleeping. Bah! So I've got the wood stove going so I can turn off the pellet stove when I got to bed. Geezo.
Sunday, November 4, 2012
To the Salon Lady
I let you leave my hair curly, because it seemed to make you happy:
the way you scrunched and ruffled and smiled at me in the mirror
and said "You're lucky to have curls."
I paused at the door after giving you my sympathies
and gave you one last smile
because I knew the moment the door closed behind me
the silence of the room would envelop you
and you would be forced to absorb the grief that the morning had brought you:
the loss of your own father.
I didn't tell you about mine because you were holding yourself together so well
and I didn't want to have to explain all that comes next,
but I could feel it in the air-
all the formalities come first, the arrangements, plans, condolences, too many flowers,
cards that say all the sappy things that people don't know how to say themselves.
People will come by and offer help
and food
and ask if there's anything else they can do; there probably won't be.
And then it will stop.
Because sympathy has an expiration date,
and grief does not.
And you'll again be sitting in your shop
staring out the window and watching the world go by
and something or someone will remind you of him
but you'll brush the tears away to answer the phone and greet another customer
and smile like you don't still hurt.
Days, months and years will go by.
You'll move on with your life
but always with a blanket of grief draped over your shoulders
that no one else can see.
the way you scrunched and ruffled and smiled at me in the mirror
and said "You're lucky to have curls."
I paused at the door after giving you my sympathies
and gave you one last smile
because I knew the moment the door closed behind me
the silence of the room would envelop you
and you would be forced to absorb the grief that the morning had brought you:
the loss of your own father.
I didn't tell you about mine because you were holding yourself together so well
and I didn't want to have to explain all that comes next,
but I could feel it in the air-
all the formalities come first, the arrangements, plans, condolences, too many flowers,
cards that say all the sappy things that people don't know how to say themselves.
People will come by and offer help
and food
and ask if there's anything else they can do; there probably won't be.
And then it will stop.
Because sympathy has an expiration date,
and grief does not.
And you'll again be sitting in your shop
staring out the window and watching the world go by
and something or someone will remind you of him
but you'll brush the tears away to answer the phone and greet another customer
and smile like you don't still hurt.
Days, months and years will go by.
You'll move on with your life
but always with a blanket of grief draped over your shoulders
that no one else can see.
Friday, November 2, 2012
I've been summoned
After what seemed like the longest week EVER, I pulled into my driveway and was already reciting in my head the many reasons why this very moment...the moment of me unlocking my back door and placing my stuff on the kitchen floor... was absolutely fantastic. It's Friday evening, tomorrow is Saturday morning, I have no workouts tomorrow (rest day!), it's Friday night....tomorrow is Saturday as opposed to Monday, and so on. Anyway, good deal. As a matter of fact, as I closed the door behind me, I actually said out loud "Best Day Ever!". While not exactly the best day ever, the moment of the day was the best day ever. Anyway, Friday is great, we all know that. Friday after all obligations are done and gone is even better. Magnifique.
I put my things down and walked out front to check the mail. The mail lady does not usually bring me anything exciting, sometimes she brings me bills which I'm not fond of, other times she brings me all sorts of gifts that I forgot I ordered because it took so long to get here. Today she brought me an ad from Overstock.com, a water bill and a Jury Summons.
Ugh. Jury Summons suck. I have some mixed feelings about Jury Duty, mostly "Jury Duty Sucks" sort of feelings, but then logic sets in. This country would have no justice system if everyday people like me refused to do jury duty. I would hope if one day I was arrested for robbing a bank, a jury of my peers would gladly step up and vote me not guilty and allow me to go about the rest of my life in relative peace. It's too bad I'm not a cop. Cops rarely have to do jury duty. Unfortunately I don't think that flies for firefighters. Firefighters are more fair. If it were the summer that would be different, but it's been raining up here, so I don't think they'll buy me stating that my job needs me right now. They really don't.
You know what sucks the most about jury duty? I did not plan for this. It is not on my calendar. If people need me to be somewhere, they need to request my time a couple months in advanced. You do not say to me on Friday, "Be here at 9am on Wednesday" and expect me to have my schedule clear. Seriously people? How long have you had this trial scheduled? Yes, of course I have Wednesday free. I mean, I don't actually, I have to work, but work can do without me for a day. I'm more concerned with the fact that on Friday I will be driving up to Oregon to see my friend and will not be back until Monday evening and if the Superior Court of Siskiyou County thinks they're going to change that, they've got another thing coming.
I am also not cancelling my Thanksgiving plans to accomodate their schedule. I will be out of town for an entire week, not the two days that they'll adjourn court, but several days after that. No, I am not coming home early to do my civic duty and throw some jerk in jail.
And the first week in December I will be in Chico, CA to recertify my wilderness EMT certificate. Not canceling that either.
But yes, I do know that it is my civic duty to perform jury duty, and everyone is busy and has other things going on in their lives just like me. But in all honesty I really do not have the time for this. I put my family and friends on the back burner all summer long so that I'm available to go fight fires. I expect to be able to use my time in the winter to spend time with other people and not have to commit my time and energy elsewhere. Is that too much to ask?
And as it turns out, I now have at least two strips of poison oak on my left arm. It's showing up right now. From pile burning yesterday. I took a digger into the side of the hill which I'm sure didn't help, and then ate it again today going back and checking the piles. Face first into the rocks and poison oak. Twice in two days. I suppose that calls for a shower. Maybe. Right now though, I'm enjoying a glass of Batch 88 Starboard Dessert Wine from Quady. And scratching my arm. Poison oak sucks. Almost as much as jury duty. Yeah, I'd actually rather have a bad case of poison oak than go to jury duty.
Hmm...after reading this over, it's Wednesday the 14th, almost two weeks from now. Still, I do not have that time free, it has already been claimed by some ones who are more important. Maybe if I'm really loud and obnoxious they'll send me home.
I put my things down and walked out front to check the mail. The mail lady does not usually bring me anything exciting, sometimes she brings me bills which I'm not fond of, other times she brings me all sorts of gifts that I forgot I ordered because it took so long to get here. Today she brought me an ad from Overstock.com, a water bill and a Jury Summons.
Ugh. Jury Summons suck. I have some mixed feelings about Jury Duty, mostly "Jury Duty Sucks" sort of feelings, but then logic sets in. This country would have no justice system if everyday people like me refused to do jury duty. I would hope if one day I was arrested for robbing a bank, a jury of my peers would gladly step up and vote me not guilty and allow me to go about the rest of my life in relative peace. It's too bad I'm not a cop. Cops rarely have to do jury duty. Unfortunately I don't think that flies for firefighters. Firefighters are more fair. If it were the summer that would be different, but it's been raining up here, so I don't think they'll buy me stating that my job needs me right now. They really don't.
You know what sucks the most about jury duty? I did not plan for this. It is not on my calendar. If people need me to be somewhere, they need to request my time a couple months in advanced. You do not say to me on Friday, "Be here at 9am on Wednesday" and expect me to have my schedule clear. Seriously people? How long have you had this trial scheduled? Yes, of course I have Wednesday free. I mean, I don't actually, I have to work, but work can do without me for a day. I'm more concerned with the fact that on Friday I will be driving up to Oregon to see my friend and will not be back until Monday evening and if the Superior Court of Siskiyou County thinks they're going to change that, they've got another thing coming.
I am also not cancelling my Thanksgiving plans to accomodate their schedule. I will be out of town for an entire week, not the two days that they'll adjourn court, but several days after that. No, I am not coming home early to do my civic duty and throw some jerk in jail.
And the first week in December I will be in Chico, CA to recertify my wilderness EMT certificate. Not canceling that either.
But yes, I do know that it is my civic duty to perform jury duty, and everyone is busy and has other things going on in their lives just like me. But in all honesty I really do not have the time for this. I put my family and friends on the back burner all summer long so that I'm available to go fight fires. I expect to be able to use my time in the winter to spend time with other people and not have to commit my time and energy elsewhere. Is that too much to ask?
And as it turns out, I now have at least two strips of poison oak on my left arm. It's showing up right now. From pile burning yesterday. I took a digger into the side of the hill which I'm sure didn't help, and then ate it again today going back and checking the piles. Face first into the rocks and poison oak. Twice in two days. I suppose that calls for a shower. Maybe. Right now though, I'm enjoying a glass of Batch 88 Starboard Dessert Wine from Quady. And scratching my arm. Poison oak sucks. Almost as much as jury duty. Yeah, I'd actually rather have a bad case of poison oak than go to jury duty.
Hmm...after reading this over, it's Wednesday the 14th, almost two weeks from now. Still, I do not have that time free, it has already been claimed by some ones who are more important. Maybe if I'm really loud and obnoxious they'll send me home.
Thursday, November 1, 2012
Finally getting the hang of this
Last year around this time, it started to rain. I drive the Klamath "River Road" to and from work everyday, and it's notoriously a very unforgiving road... for several reasons. It's very windy (winding?- like squiggly), there's always deer in the road, large logging trucks hauling butt to make as many trips as they can and a very good chance that if you go off the road, you're taking a large drop into a fast moving and very cold river. It's also very steep and rocky above the road so every time it rains, there are rocks in the road. Sometimes it becomes a very large slide and closes the road, most of the time it's just a few rocks in the road large enough to put a hole in your tire. And the road is too curvy to get a glimpse of the rocks before it's too late.
The year before last year I left the gym and was driving to work when I came up on a CalTrans vehicle- something like a plow except more for rocks. He pulled over for me and let me pass since he was going to have to drive fairly slow. I continued on and came up on a pile of rocks, too fast to stop and on a curve so I couldn't get out of my lane to go around them. I went over them at about 40 miles per hour. Not long after, my steering started to feel funny until it was getting hard to steer. I pulled over and discovered a flat tire. Ugh. The rock remover guy drove past me several minutes later. The guys at work laughed.
This year, driving to work to meet up for a fire, I drove over a rock and the air let out of my tire so slowly that I made it work and let it sit there flat for a couple weeks before coming back from the fire and having to fix it.
This morning I was driving to work after leaving the gym, and due to the rain, had left myself plenty of time to get to work. Up ahead I saw flashing yellow lights....it was the rock remover guy! By the way, I think it's the same set up that removes dead deer from the road, we've had a lot of those this week. I slowed down and stayed well behind so as not to encourage him to pull over and let me by. He drove in front of me at about 30mph (speed limit is 55) for about 10 miles before going off in another direction, scraping rocks out of the way for me. It was very nice of him, and I didn't have to change a tire.
I'm starting to get this. If I recall correctly, I have had 3 flat tires in the 3 years I have lived here, all caused by rocks on the river road.
The year before last year I left the gym and was driving to work when I came up on a CalTrans vehicle- something like a plow except more for rocks. He pulled over for me and let me pass since he was going to have to drive fairly slow. I continued on and came up on a pile of rocks, too fast to stop and on a curve so I couldn't get out of my lane to go around them. I went over them at about 40 miles per hour. Not long after, my steering started to feel funny until it was getting hard to steer. I pulled over and discovered a flat tire. Ugh. The rock remover guy drove past me several minutes later. The guys at work laughed.
This year, driving to work to meet up for a fire, I drove over a rock and the air let out of my tire so slowly that I made it work and let it sit there flat for a couple weeks before coming back from the fire and having to fix it.
This morning I was driving to work after leaving the gym, and due to the rain, had left myself plenty of time to get to work. Up ahead I saw flashing yellow lights....it was the rock remover guy! By the way, I think it's the same set up that removes dead deer from the road, we've had a lot of those this week. I slowed down and stayed well behind so as not to encourage him to pull over and let me by. He drove in front of me at about 30mph (speed limit is 55) for about 10 miles before going off in another direction, scraping rocks out of the way for me. It was very nice of him, and I didn't have to change a tire.
I'm starting to get this. If I recall correctly, I have had 3 flat tires in the 3 years I have lived here, all caused by rocks on the river road.
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