Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow!!!!

It’s very rare for me to complain about the cold.  Having survived -60 in Fairbanks, it has to get really cold here in Ohio….but today….

For the past two weeks the only local news we’ve heard on TV is about this approaching storm and today, it arrives.  So, let’s see what happens.

Tonight (Saturday, 1/24) the snow is supposed to start falling and accumulate to maybe 8-10 inches by Monday morning.  If that happens, that is a very significant amount of snow for the Ohio Valley. 

We have prepared.  This past summer we purchased a Honda generator for the house.  Granted, the last time we needed a generator was in 2008 when Hurricane Ike roared through the Ohio Valley.  We lost power for 4 days and that was a royal pain.  We have a friend who brought his portable generator over every other day to keep our refrigerator cold.  No need for one since then.

But last night Pete went out and checked the battery on the used generator we bought from his brother, and that battery was dead.  So this AM we went out and purchased a new one.  The generator is now ready to go.

We bought a few groceries, but our house is pretty well stocked, so I’m not worried about the food situation. 

We have 2 neighbors with the equipment needed to clear the driveway, not that we’ll be able to go anywhere, but that’s nice to know.

So now we just sit and wait.  I’ve got two good books handy, so I’m good that way.  Tablet and phone are fully charged, so I’m good there. 

My last task for the day is to go out and feed the birds.  With that done, I’ll be all set to sit back and watch it snow. 

Don’t ya just love winter!!!!!

IN A HEARTBEAT

Had a pleasant, little Sunday morning surprise this morning.  Phone rang around 12 Noon and it was my friend Karen calling from Phoenix, AZ.

I’ve written about Karen and her husband Jack before.  Originally met them when I lived in Fairbanks.  Jack passed a few years ago and Karen and I have stayed in touch via a couple of phone calls each year, primarily by her calling me.  I need to get better about staying in touch.

We spent 50 minutes on the phone and after we hung up I spent a few minutes, just thinking about times long gone, by 50+ years.  So many memories.  

Memories of times I spent at their bush camp on the Tozitna River.  It’s those memories that not many folks get to have.  Being in the bush, totally removed from any civilization, a time before cell phones, the internet, all that stuff.  It was the best of my times in Alaska. 

There was the time we were walking a trail after dark and came across a headless rabbit.  That was a little freaky.  Fishing for our dinner.  Flying in from Fairbanks and landing on a gravel bar.  Bringing my Dad out for a visit and watching him just thrive in that environment.  Remembering when their son Robin was born in their 12x12 cabin on their kitchen table. 

Karen still has that land and it is now in the ownership of their son, and she’s watching their granddaughter roofing new buildings out there, along with many other activities that most 18-year-old girls don’t have as they head off to college. 

I’m pretty sure I’ll never travel that far north again, but if the opportunity should happen to come along, I’ll be there in a heartbeat!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

2026 came in rather quietly for us.  As usual we planned an early dinner out.  Pete wanted to go out to a high-end restaurant, but I just couldn’t pay $80 for a piece of meat!!!  Especially when I rarely eat steak, etc.  Weird, I know, for a kid who grew up in a meat market, but I guess I just saw too much of the behind the scenes when I was 10 years old.  Anyway, we went to one of our favorite bar restaurants.  We got drinks and dinner for way less than that $80 hunk of red meat!!!

Made it home in time to turn on the Miami/OSU Cotton Bowl game.  We watched about half of the first quarter but had to give up.  Don’t know who it was calling the game…. but he was absolutely terrible!!!  I mean the worst ever!!  So bad that we couldn’t continue watching a game we both wanted to watch.

So, then I turned to playing my favorite game on my tablet and Pete was watching “American Pickers”.  Now, you have to understand, typically we are in bed by 9 PM.  Pete watches TV while I read my current book.  Usually, lights are out by 10 PM.  Last night I was determined to stay up to watch the Ball drop on Time Square.  That would typically be very tough for me to do, given my usual schedule, but I had had a couple of Rum & Cokes.  Being particularly sensitive to the caffeine in Coke, I knew I would stay awake.  Pete made it until about 9:30, and then headed for the bedroom.  Our usual New Year’s Eve tradition is, I stay up, a few minutes before midnight I wake him up, hand him a glass of champagne and when the ball drops, we kiss, drink our champagne and then he goes right back to sleep. 

Well, this year, for the first time ever, about 11:50, he comes out of the bedroom, gets his glass of champagne, and sits down beside me.  FIRST TIME EVER!!!

It was still 2:30 or so before I got to sleep due to all the Coke.  But this morning when I woke up, the first thought on my mind was, “It’s only 22 years until I turn 100 years old!”  Where the hell did that thought come from????

UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES

This week I have to write about a book I’m just about to finish.  It’s titled Under a White Sky by Elizabeth Kolbert.  Kolbert won a Pulitzer Prize for her book, The Sixth Extinction which I read a few years ago.

It was a very interesting book.  I learned that over the last half-billion years, there have been five mass extinctions, when the diversity of life on earth suddenly and dramatically contracted. Scientists around the world are currently monitoring the sixth extinction, predicted to be the most devastating extinction event since the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs.

Now reading Under a White Sky I’m learning about what steps are being taken (or more specifically, being explored) to turn around climate change.   The question is, can we change nature in order to save it?

I first heard of ‘geoengineering’ at a 2019 Nobel Conference held at Gustavus Adolphus College in Minnesota.  The Conference that year was titled ‘Climate Changed’.  There were 7 lectures over the course of 2 days and David Keith, who presented “How Might Solar Geoengineering Fit Into Sound Climate Policy?” was the sixth speaker.  He really got my attention.  Geoengineering manages solar radiation by deflecting some of it away from earth. 

I can’t go into a lot of detail as some of the information is way over my head, but reading Kolbert’s book educated me a little further.  I learned that there are research activities taking place all over the world that are looking into multiple ways of reducing CO2 from our atmosphere.  The scary part is there are multiple thoughts on what can be injected (seeded) into the atmosphere to ‘capture’ the CO2.  Everything from crushed diamonds to silver iodide, and several other possibilities….all of which make me squirm a little.  You just have to wonder about ‘unintended consequences’.

As an example, in April 1815 a volcano erupted on the island of Tambora, an Indonesian island, which turned summer into winter throughout Europe.  The eruption caused significant global cooling to the point of crop failure and starvation of large numbers of people.  This happened due to the volcanic dust that entered the atmosphere and blocked the sun.

While this was not ‘an unintended consequence’, no one had a hand in launching or controlling the outcome of a volcanic eruption, the same cannot be said for geoengineering.

Certainly, climate change is a very significant global problem, and no one seems to have yet an answer on how to address the issue, I sure hope that those scientists who are moving forward toward any kind of action, have a firm grip on ‘unintended consequences.’

Or things could get a whole lot worse!

(One little side note:  When I checked the book out of the library a staff person told me I had just saved the book!?  It had not been checked out in over 2 years….now because of my borrowing it, it just gained another 2 year shelf life.  Sure hope someone else finds it over the next 2 years.)

AM I 'PIGPEN'?

I’m beginning to wonder…am I closely related to “Pigpen”, the Peanuts character who had a perpetual cloud over his head?  Let me explain.

A few weeks ago, a series of events have happened, that makes me wonder and look above, is there a cloud over my head that I can’t see?

It started with the dishwasher.  Let me say, that all the appliances in our kitchen are relatively new, as in, since the start of the pandemic.  The first incident with the dishwasher is that midway through a wash cycle it would throw an error code and shut down.  The code was ‘H2O’.  Luckily for our house, Peter is an excellent fixit guy.  He does his research on YouTube.  He did his research and while it took a little while, he figured out to try a different wash cycle, and that seemed to fix the problem. 

He did have to pull the dishwasher out and mess with the water line.  The next day I found a small puddle on the kitchen floor, but it took a second for Pete to retighten the water hose and all is well.

Then, a few days later just after we went to bed, Pete heard a clicking sound that was not part of our environment.  It took a minute to locate the sound, but it was coming from our gas stove.  We have a propane gas stove and the clicking was the little device in the burner that ignites the gas to become a flame.  The burner was not on, so there was no gas to ignite.  We pulled the stove out, and unplugged it.

The next morning, we plugged it back in, and for the moment at least, there is no more clicking.

Then on Thanksgiving Day I sat down at my new laptop computer (delivered from Amazon on October 9) and a bright blue screen appeared informing me that the computer had a serious problem and needed an immediate repair.  Nothing I did would allow me to open the computer. 

So, I took it to a repair shop and a few days later they informed me that the hard drive was corrupted and IF they could fix it, I would lose all my content.  Luckily, I still have my old computer and now, as I wait for a credit from Amazon for the purchase amount, I can still login on the old computer. 

Not sure what else is on the horizon, but I’m keeping my head low and trying to out run the cloud.  Hopefully the extreme cold weather will chase that cloud away!!!

DUMBER AND DUMBER

I guess, the older you get the more likely that from time to time, you are going to have to turn to medical care.  Oh, geeze, how I dread that prospect. 

I’ve already shared how much I hate emergency rooms.  That came about during the 6 years that my brother spent his final years living with us.  During those years Jim went to the Emergency Room 3-4 times per year.  At first it was a relatively new experience for me, so I approached the times with an open, accepting attitude.

About the 3^rd year my attitude started to shift.  After many experiences of sitting in the waiting room/exam room 5-6, 7 and sometimes 8 hours with literally nothing happening I had lost all my patience.  On our final visit to the ER, the doctor screamed at us “This is not an emergency!”  Maybe not for him, but it was for Jim.  I asked the doc how long this would be, he said probably 5 hours.  I looked at him and said, “Call me when he’s ready to be picked up.”  and left.  They admitted Jim for a week-long stay. 

Let’s move ahead to current time.  On Saturday evening, October 11, I was really, really sick.  I couldn’t stop throwing up!  I couldn’t stop shivering.  I was completely and totally miserable.  Sickness continued through Sunday, calmed down a bit by Monday.  Had a doc appointment on Tuesday.  She thought I might have Hep A, as I was very jaundiced.  Blood tests said “NO”.  Ultrasound showed that my gallbladder was filled with gall stones.  Evidently the sickness was brought on by my body passing a gall stone. 

I made the decision immediately that the gallbladder had to go.  Was not going to go through that again.  The surgeon was out of town for a week.  Saw him when he returned, scheduled surgery and waited it out.

Now here’s where the story really begins.  The surgeon informed us that it would be a 5 hour, out-patient procedure and answered all of mine and Pete’s questions.  Surgery took place on Nov. 13.  Surgery went well, recovery….not so much. 

Turns out that my body really did not like the anesthetic.  The major issue was that my oxygen absorption rate was very low.  Doc did not want to release me.  So, after spending all day in the Recovery Room, I was finally moved into a hospital room about 7 PM, Thursday night. 

I felt fine.  Just wanted a good night’s sleep and to go home the next day.  DID NOT HAPPEN.  I’m not sure what was going on at the Nurses Station that night, but several times throughout the night there was yelling, screaming, laughing….it sounded like a serious party was going on.  I couldn’t believe it.  A ward full of sick people, in the middle of the night, and there was absolutely no way to sleep.

The next day I asked about my usual medications.  My requests were ignored.  I asked at least 4 times during the day.  I knew my daily medications were listed in my file, my comments were essentially ignored.  I knew what would happen if I didn’t get them.

I didn’t get released on Friday, as my body was still trying to smother me.  But that night, things got a little more exciting.  After dinner my heart started racing.  No big surprise, that happens when you don’t get your Metoprolol.  Night nurse was a wack job.  She freaked and a stat EKG was ordered.  I told them that if I could have my meds, all would be well. 

Finally, about 3 AM an intravenous dose arrived.  Immediately, my heart calmed down. 

Just to be clear, I am writing the highlights of my hospital stay…..there was so much more, but I can’t spend the day here at the computer. 

Let me just say, I was not impressed with my care at the hospital.  I wrote a scathing review when the hospital survey arrived at my laptop. 

And this makes me sad.  Sad, because I know it could and should be better.  My Mom was a nurse and spent her entire life caring for others.  She was an outstanding professional in her field.  I know how patients should be cared for….what I experienced was nowhere near even the low bar. 

And guess what….now it’s gonna get worse, since the federal government has decided that nursing is not a profession!!!  Geeze, it just gets dumber and dumber!!!!

50 Years Ago

These days I tend to spend a bit of time scrolling through Facebook videos.  Most of them I pass by very quickly, occasionally I watch one to the end, at times I learn something new, and quite often the video brings up an old memory.  That happened today.

Most of us probably don’t remember 50 years ago, on November 10, 1975, the sinking of the S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald.  The event didn’t get much news coverage, even though it was a significant event for the 29 men who lost their lives during a fierce storm on Lake Superior. 

A year later Gordon Lightfoot released his hit song, “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.”  With this week being the 50^th anniversary of the event a bunch of reels are showing up on Facebook, and instantly my memory of Gordon Lightfoot came back full force.

I’m sitting, cross-legged on the basketball court at the University of Alaska’s Fairbanks campus gym.  I’m surrounded by about 20 other people my age, watching with awe, Gordon Lightfoot, strumming his guitar and singing song, after song.

It was an impromptu, small gathering, free concert.  I don’t remember how I and a couple of friends learned of the event, but somehow, we ended up there.  The story I remember was Lightfoot was flying from Japan to the US and he had a couple of hours layover in Fairbanks.  I guess he was bored and needed something to do.

The concert lasted about 45 minutes.  It was up close and very personal.  He was like a good friend enjoying playing for his buddies.  The group was passing around ‘joints’ and bottles of wine.  It was a very relaxed concert.

This event took place before the sinking of the Fitzgerald, so we didn’t hear that song, but after that evening I was forever a Lightfoot fan.  I remember hearing of his passing on May 1, 2023 and thinking, “Thanks for the memories.”

And the one song of his that I always go to is "The Sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald."