Post Winter Post

 I know winter isn't over yet, but in the frosty mornings and the dark evenings, I still feel the faint hint that spring is on her way.  I've been cold and dark physically too, avoiding, for years, the fact that my aches and pains are bigger than just the simple aging process I have been blaming it on.  Then a couple things happened that pried my blinders off.

 My good friend is ten years older than me, and has been taking care of aging parents, so as I struggled to get up from my seat, she automatically offered me a hand up. I realized, she doesn't limp and moan like I do, even when I'm trying to insist I'm fine.

Then I was loving Black Panther, for its gorgeousness, at the local theater, when people began discussing the release of A wrinkle In Time, and my first thought was that "I have to live to see this movie!" and I wasn't being at all ironic. Somehow my brain had accepted that I am dying.

 So I made the dreaded Dr. appointment, and things are scary, but not as scary as dying.  My blood pressure on a normal day reads about 168/102.  My ANA blood test was positive which could mean Lupus or Lyme disease or be a false positive and I won't know until I follow trough at the Rheumatologist, I have to drive 127 miles to see, and wait until April 26th.  But all the symptoms point to some type of Rheumatoid arthritis. Things like the pain of pressure in my wrists from turning a steering wheel or spreading peanut butter on toast.  Things like loss of the ability to get out of the bathtub or to put on my own shoes.  Simple things are impossible on some days and cutting my toenails might mean I nerd to sleep for 12 hours to recover from the exertion.

 but life doesn't suck.  I had a good day driving through beautiful trees to go with my husband and daughter on a shopping/dentist trip, and I didn't feel too horrible by the end of it.  Now it is pouring hail on my house and Im loving the snuggled in feeling by the fireplace.

 there will be better days.  Spring is in the air.

Smoke Gets In Your Eyes, but the Firefighters get in the Smoke

Entering the small town of Hiouchi

I started out early in July with a summer cold, a minor sinus infection and a bit of a cough, but just as it started to clear up, the Northwest started to burn.  There has been smoke everywhere I go, from Wyoming to Nevada, to Oregon and California. My lungs and ears and chest hurt from reacting to the smoke.  It has been weeks since I could smell, taste or hear vey well.  But my vision is rewarded by the soft misty light that makes everything have a rose colored glow.

Hwy 199 

 This is backward from any other time I remember being so sick.  Instead of being unable to breath at night, clogging up like concrete as soon as I lay down. This keeps me indoors and out of the smoke and I breath just fine if I stay in bed.  It is strange to wake up each morning feeling healthy, and lie there, telling myself not to move because as soon as I get up, I will start hacking and coughing and my ears and throat will close.

the entrance to Ashland Oregon

Marc Anthony Hotel in Ashland and smoke beyond

 I have been getting out because, well, life keeps making demands, but I carry an inhaler and flo-nase and cough drops and tissue.  I'm really feeling guilty whining about the burning eyes when five fire fighters have died and people have lost homes and so much more than my discomfort has cost me.

smoke enhanced sunset

 S

 I just want to say, I know there are people in a city of tents and port-a-potties, who go into the smoke and heat every day, not quite sure they will come out again.  Thank You Fire-fighters. And may the rains come soon

the smoke makes a lovely light

my eyes burn but the pictures are like opal skies

Del Norte County gets ready for Summer

 I have been feeling less wordy than usual, but getting outdoors with my students and family has allowed me to remember the beauty we live surrounded by. So instead of ignoring this blog any longer, I will just share some of the beauty from the OR/CA border Coast and call it my newest post.

 We have 4 more days of school and then my life should be more my own again and hopefully I will be able to remember something worth writing about. Until next time then, enjoy the Beautiful June.

Running for Tuna & Harbor Repair

Back in March of 2011, I had two boys at home, in High School, when school was cancelled due to the earthquake and the knowledge that once again, a tsunami was heading toward Crescent City.

That Tsunami hit Japan a lot more harshly than it hit Crescent City, CA but it was no friend to the fishing fleet and the commercial harbor here.

That morning my oldest son, woke me to tell me, "Mom. the schools are closed today because we will probably get a tsunami.  I'm going fishing."

and his brother,

one year younger, decided it was a day to be spent sleeping.

They have never made the same choices, but I love them both so much that becoming a Mom, twice in 12 months, was like a tsunami to the heart, that wiped out everything I had once considered important and rebuilt in its place a whole new world.

Now my fisherman son has done two season's fishing on a commercial boat, one tuna and one crab season, and as the next tuna season has just gotten up and running, he is happy to be back on the Barbara Marie again

But the Crescent City Harbor is one gigantic construction zone at this point, replacing the docks and dredging, and repairing and trying to become able to withstand the next Tsunami, and there always will be a next tsunami here.

This blog has previous posts about tsunamis in Crescent City

http://echo-echosvoice.blogspot.com/2013/03/two-years-after-tsunami-in-crescent-city.html

http://echo-echosvoice.blogspot.com/2013/02/one-year-after-tsunami-we-shared-with.html

http://echo-echosvoice.blogspot.com/2011/10/crescent-city-still-dredging-out.html

http://echo-echosvoice.blogspot.com/2011/03/tsunamis-do-more-than-wave-at-crescent.html