Medical Stuff

It's been an interesting past few days. The Crew was good preparation for the past few days, but I've had more "patient contact" in the past few days than all of what I've done as a First Responder on our various activities. And that patient is my own mother. Mom is nearing the end stages of MSA (Multiple System Atrophy), so at this point her movement is nearly totally compromised - including her speech. It's been difficult because of the patient. I've worn more nitrile gloves in 5 days than ever before. Most of the contact has been cleaning up, and trying to figure out what's going on with mom.

If she's healthy enough, there will be surgery tomorrow to repair a hernia that's been constricting her intestine. We'll see if she continues to respond to the antibiotics for the pneumonia.

Glad I could be here

Self Inflicted Damage

So, I got a call from a daughter that the car (on loan) had been the victim of a hit-and-run accident. The policeman that responded to the call couldn't quite figure out how the damage was caused. After looking closer at it, I determined that the cause was a parking lot block, that parking too close had caused the bumper cover to be snagged on the cement block, which pulled the bumper cover off when backing out.

This isn't the first damage that has been caused to this car by being too close to the road; most of the damage has been my fault - - - driving on snow-packed roads has ripped of 2/3 of the under car shields. In this case, the bumper cover was snapped back into place, and for the moment secured with a twist tie (and a promise to find a nut and bolt for later).

My Week At Girl's Camp

Our Girls' Camp was at a new facility that the Church is developing. I say is developing because the construction is about three weeks behind schedule. Even so, the facilities available exceed that which we have had in the past. Since the Father and Son Campout, a lot of work has been done: the main Stake Pavilion was largely built; the rest of the tent pads were built; an amphitheater was built; an archery range and and a canoeing facility was also setup; and the latrines, which had been empty open vaults in May (some even slept in them - the vaults were clean and level), were now completed cement structures - likely solid enough to withstand tornadoes or bears. It was amazing to see the change.

What was even more amazing was to see the changes that occurred during the week - and to be part of the changes (I have not worked so hard for a long time, and am still nursing a strained shoulder / kinked neck - most likely caused by sleeping in the car, instead of one of the tents. I was led to believe that there was electricity in the gathering areas of the campsites - such was not the case, although the Priesthood campsite will have electricity).

My week went as follows (skip the rest of the post, if you don't want the travel log). Also, the timing may be off a bit - the week was a bit of a blur, but I think that I got most of what I did included. I know Samara had an entirely different experience:

Monday: "Ward" pavilions had not been set up. It is intended that there will be permanent structures, but likely not this year. We set up screened canopies; the first one took the better part of an hour and a half. Others went up considerably faster as we first figured out, then followed, then improved upon the assembly instructions, although it was not until Wednesday we were able to finish them all up (The overseeing Stake President found two more pavilions that needed to be set up, if we could find the appropriate camp sites).

Tuesday: We almost finished setting up the Ward pavilions. I think there were 8 pavilions set up between Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning.
There was a general gathering after the girls arrived on Tuesday in the amphitheater. The benches are made from logs that have been cut down the middle, supported on 6" X 6" X 2' blocks, with a curve cut in them to seat the log. The bench I chose to sit on was not well assembled, which let to a comment to the overseeing Stake President, who gave me a 16" long drill bit, instructions on where to get a drill, where to find the rebar, and how to fix the assembly. We also were involved working on pavilions and misc camp related tasks.

I drove into the nearby "big town" to visit a Radio Shack and buy spare parts to hook up my CPAP machine. It made for peaceful sleep, although sleeping in the car is not the most comfortable sleep.

I spent a good deal of time on Tuesday afternoon "helping" to light campfires and encouraging the Young Women to burn any of the scrap wood they could find. I first taught a group second year girls how to build a fire, and helped them start one; then I described to a different group of second year girls the process of building a fire, while one of the second year girls from our ward started their fire with flint and steel and dryer lint that she'd brought from home. Fires were critical to the campers as they were cooking dinner on these fires. The second year campers cooked 50 baked potatoes in the coals of these first two fires, although the one that our ward's pyromaniac/pyrophiliac started was stoked enough to have coals to cook on, whereas the one that was left to the leaders to feed, was barely adequate to serve as a warming oven. I started the fire for the first year campers - their YCL's would release them from instruction to start a fire as their certification included only how to put out a fire (starting fires is a second year's class). There were coals, and as I had no matches, it was more a matter of reviving the previous fire and instructing them that if they wanted to eat, they needed to keep stoking the fire so that there would be coals. They did end up with enough that the tin foil dinners were mostly cooked. The fourth year girls only needed instructions on where to build their fire - there was a fire left over from before they arrived outside of their fire ring, with enough coals to survive a rainstorm and after not being fed all day, still being hot enough to burn anything put on the fire. They didn't want a fire started, as they were only cooking hot dogs (something wrong with that in my mind - I'd think the fourth year's should be doing some significant cooking, not hot dogs). The third year girls only needed to be told that if they wanted to eat, they needed to build a fire, so we observed their fire starting, while we set up their canopy.

Wednesday: First task was scouting out the course for the 5 mile hike. I drove the truck on our quest; ultimately we decided that the logistics of driving the girls to the trail head was too great, so the hike was changed to 2.5 miles out of camp down the county road, and then 2.5 miles back. Out was almost all up hill. Then work on the amphitheater started. I couldn't keep up with the pounding of the rebar into the benches, but fortunately John, who came up Wednesday morning, could. We fell into a rhythm of me drilling most of the holes, and him pounding. We finally took a break for lunch at 2 pm. The cooks were good to accommodate us. Then there was setting up one of the last two pavilions, then back to the amphitheater. We started the amphitheater on the premise that there were a few benches that were not attached to the support blocks; we found the opposite to be true. After dinner we finished the last canopy.

Wednesday was also Bishop's night, so I got to play games with the girls from our Ward, eat ice cream and peach cobble / peach dump cake; we also had the "singing trees", a camp tradition that Samara can blog about, if she chooses.

Thursday: I was hanging around the Stake pavilion while waiting for breakfast, I got to help put the last window in the kitchen, while eating. (The other windows and door had been installed by another crew the previous day). Then we went down to the archery range to replace the lock on the door; then over to the amphitheater to help put in the power pole and wire a temporary connection for the sound system (which was "borrowed" by the Stake President from the institute in a near by city). There were a few issues getting power to the amphitheater, which were finally determined to be a broken wire.

After lunch we went down to assemble the sound system. Ultimately we figured out what parts were needed to build a sound system. We had to set up a pre-amp for the mike, which had to be wireless, as there were no mike cables in the raided kit, but fortunately a hi-fi jack from the wireless receiver which could be plugged into the pre-amp. There was a single scrap cable with a mini-jack on one end and bare wires on the other which fit into the headphone jack of the CD Player. The bare wires were duct taped to a hi-fi cable (no hi-fi cable was harmed in the process), so that we could hook the CD Player up to the amplifier. There was plenty of cable to have the speakers spread out far enough to avoid feedback. All was well. We went up to have dinner and a bit of rest.

I headed down after dinner to hang a flag with the camp theme on the makeshift flag pole that we'd strung up in the amphitheater on Tuesday. (We also had made a makeshift flag pole in the Stake pavilion, which was used for the American flag, starting on Wednesday). I double checked the sound system, and the CD player wasn't working. Turns out the if the pre-amp for the mike was plugged in and on, the CD player wouldn't work. Once that was solved, I went back up to camp so that I could lead the ward into the campfire program. The lead in was a "Lehi's Dream / Nephi's Dream / Tree of Life" experience. Our ward was about 4th in line. I got the girls to the top of the amphitheater, when I was approached by someone with a bit of a problem - they'd tried to start the background music and the circuit breaker had popped... and did I know how to fix it? Yes - I passed off the girls and went running down the hill, reset the breaker, got back into the theater and started tthe music.

The Stake President spoke before the testimony meeting and the rest of the evening went off without a hitch. The testimony meeting was well represented by girls from our ward. Also, thanks to Steve for helping in breaking down the sound system after the event.

Friday: Break camp and go home. Not much to do, as we had no tents to take with us; they were all being used for the next week's girls. Mostly just pack and clean up and leave.

Pictures later.

I used to have a new car...

... and then my wife saw it (not that she hasn't seen a Smart Car before).

Could it be the in dash GPS Navigation System with AM/FM Radio, CD and DVD player, AUX jack and IPod jack that drove her to steal my car? (It will even play separate input feeds on the front and rear speakers, so that those in the front can listen to something different than those in the rear - - - oh, wait, there is no rear seat).

Or is it that it's just a cool, cool car?

Come on Baby, Light My Fire

Friday night was the annual Father / Son campout, expanded this year to include a service project. The Church has purchased a ranch about 5 miles across the state line for use as a Girls' Camp. So our service project was to spend the day prepping the camp. Roads had been cut, trees needed to be cleared, tent platforms needed to be set up, and a number of other projects. For the morning, I had the honor of manning one of the many fires - burning the squaw wood from the clearing of the roads, and stacking firewood for future use. This afternoon, I got to help build tent platforms. A good time was had by all.

Not my mother, but I liked this list....

25 REASONS I OWE MY MOTHER


1. My mother taught me TO APPRECIATE A JOB WELL DONE.
'If you're going to kill each other, do it outside. I just finished cleaning.'
2. My mother taught me RELIGION.
'You better pray that will come out of the carpet.'
3. My mother taught me about TIME TRAVEL.
'If you don't straighten up, I'm going to knock you into the middle of next week!'
4. My mother taught me LOGIC..
'Because I said so, that's why.'
5. My mother taught me MORE LOGIC.
'If you fall out of that swing and break your neck, you're not going to the store with me.'
6. My mother taught me FORESIGHT.
'Make sure you wear clean underwear, in case you're in an accident.'
7. My mother taught me IRONY.
'Keep crying, and I'll give you something to cry about.'
8. My mother taught me about the science of OSMOSIS.
'Shut your mouth and eat your supper.'
9. My mother taught me about CONTORTIONISM.
'Will you look at that dirt on the back of your neck!'
10. My mother taught me about STAMINA.
'You'll sit there until all that spinach is gone.'
11. My mother taught me about WEATHER.'This room of yours looks as if a tornado went through it.'
12. My mother taught me about HYPOCRISY.
'If I told you once, I've told you a million times. Don't exaggerate!'
13 My mother taught me the CIRCLE OF LIFE.
'I brought you into this world, and I can take you out. '
14.My mother taught me about BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION.'Stop acting like your father!'
15. My mother taught me about ENVY.'There are millions of less fortunate children in this world who don't have wonderful parents like you do.'
16. My mother taught me about ANTICIPATION.'Just wait until we get home.'
17. My mother taught me about RECEIVING.'You are going to get it when you get home!'
18. My mother taught me MEDICAL SCIENCE.
'If you don't stop crossing your eyes, they are going to freeze that way.'
19. My mother taught me ESP.'Put your sweater on; don't you think I know when you are cold?'
20. My mother taught me HUMOR.'When that lawn mower cuts off your toes, don't come running to me.'
21. My mother taught me HOW TO BECOME AN ADULT..
'If you don't eat your vegetables, you'll never grow up.'
22.My mother taught me GENETICS.'You're just like your father.'
23. My mother taught me about my ROOTS.
'Shut that door behind you. Do you think you were born in a barn?'
24. My mother taught me WISDOM.
'When you get to be my age, you'll understand.'
25. And my favorite:
My mother taught me about JUSTICE.
'One day you'll have kids, and I hope they turn out just like you.

Thanks

It's been a whirlwind couple of weeks: the wedding, the travel, the reception, wisdom teeth and all the follow up problems, the trip for the second reception (which was likewise wonderful).

We'd initially planned to celebrate Mother's Day in a week or two, when Susie was feeling better; but with her surgery for the abscess (following the dry socket following the initial wisdom teeth extraction) on the day of the first reception (advice on the side: have your wisdom teeth out when you're young), she wasn't feeling quite up to doing a lot with the reception other than attending. Traveling was out for Susie for the second reception. Instead, I flew with Samara to that, cancelled the side trip to the home office on the way home (because I was flying, not driving, and the home office was only "on the way" if I jumped out of the plane). We left on a 6 am flight on Saturday; returned on a 6 am flight from two time zones east of us on Sunday; made it to Church after a brief nap, and had no plans for Mother's Day (which we intended to delay, because I wasn't going to be around to help celebrate).

Enter an invitation to Sunday Dinner from a wonderful daughter-in-law's parents. We were only able to contribute leftover wedding cake; we REALLY appreciated someone looking out for us, when we hadn't had time to look out for ourselves. Our kitchen is still somewhat trashed... but we'll get it cleaned up sometime this week; the lawn is over a foot tall in places... but we'll get it mowed sometime this week; and the windshield wipers on the Festiva are still misbehaving... but we'll get that fixed before it rains on Wednesday. Life is getting back to "normal" - whatever that is.

What's really matters is that at a time when we needed it most, we had a chance to get away for a bit and enjoy a Mother's Day dinner with family.

Thanks!