My flight home from Portland, via Houston, was rain delay a couple of hours so I arrived at 1:00 am instead of 11:00. After collecting baggage and driving home it was after 2:00 before I was back in the apartment.
Later on Sunday, deciding to trim my beard I grabbed the trimmer and commenced “trimming.” There seemed to be an unusual amount of hair being cut off. In fact there was a LOT of hair being trimmed. Seems that when the trimmer was knocked on the floor the week before my trip the depth setting was reset to “2” from its normal “6” or “7”.
It’ll grow back.
On Monday after getting home from work Nekko wasn’t herself. On Sunday it appeared that she was limping a little, and she seemed a bit subdued. After some deliberation I took her to the animal hospital. She is diabetic. Her condition is moderately severe due to ketone buildup and she will need to be hospitalized until at least Thursday before she stabilizes. At $4-600 per day cost to me.
Once she’s stable and I can bring her home I’ll have to learn how to inject her with insulin twice a day for the rest of her life. I’ll also become a frequent visitor to the vet as they will need to be involved in her treatment on an ongoing basis.
This is a cat who dislikes being held and hates being picked up.
Today I learned that she also has a heart condition that causes the muscle to thicken, reducing it’s effectiveness. So it works harder, thus making it thicker again. This can be controlled with medication, but that means getting my cat to swallow a pill once a day for the rest of her life.
I figure the car is going to explode tomorrow.
My cat Nekko is in the animal hospital tonight. Upon coming home from my week’s vacation in Oregon she wasn’t her old self. She was limping a little in her hindquarters, and seemed very still. Normally when I sit at my desk she comes and sits on the floor beside me and reaches up with her paw to touch my arm. she’ll do this until I reach down and rub her ears. She wasn’t doing that. I wrote it off as being a result of having me gone for a week.
Today when I got home from work her odd behavior continued. She would go lay beside her water dish and not drink. Normally she is a prodigious drinker, lapping away nosily for several minutes. She just seemed muted and unhappy. At the suggestion of a friend I called a vet who makes house calls and managed to get an appointment for tomorrow at 5:00.
After making that appointment, however, my concern continued to grow. Nekko just wasn’t being her usual self at all. She didn’t seem to be in distress, but she wasn’t well either. Eventually I called the 24-hour animal hospital and spoke to a technician there. Deciding that sooner was better than later I took Nekko to the hospital.
The initial report showed that she was a little dehydrated, and her temperature was down slightly. The doctor examined her and discovered that Nekko was constipated. As soon as she said that it all clicked into place for me. Between my being gone for eight days and a stranger emptying the litter, Nekko had become stressed and stopped going to the bathroom as a result.
They are keeping her overnight to put her on an IV to re-hydrate her, and to help her pass the blockage in her bowel. They are also going to do some blood work and get a urine sample. They are supposed to call me later yet this evening with the results from those tests.
I am hopeful at the moment that this is just a case of constipation and that, once that passes, her malaise will pass too. Still it is going to be a long night here without her.
My vacation is coming to an end. The past eight days have been good ones overall, not without some frustration and let down, but good nonetheless.
Planes and Automobiles Flying isn’t nearly has fun as it used to be. The security measures in place to make us all feel better are time consuming and aggravating. Hopefully they are effective. Not being able to take water on the plane is the one that gets me the most. I dehydrate in the pressurized cabin air, and not having a quart or two of water to drink makes that worse.
On the way out my connecting gates were as far away from each other as was physically possible in the airport. Even with the tram it took me a good twenty minutes to make the intra-airport journey from gate to gate.
Driving along the Oregon coast on Highway 101 wasn’t too bad. During the week there wasn’t much traffic. Yesterday coming back to Portland was the worst for traffic, and even that wasn’t terrible.
Oregon Coast, Rogue River, and Redwoods The Oregon coast is one of the most beautiful I’ve ever had the privilege of seeing. It is rugged and untamed. The state owns most of the shoreline and prevents development. Miles and miles of unspoiled beauty are the result.
The Rogue River trip was fun - touristy in a good way. I was slightly disappointed that the longer trip wasn’t an option (the river level is down), but I enjoyed the 32 miles of river I did get to see. This day was also the most poignant as I was by myself.
The Redwood grove we visited in northern California was amazing. I could have spend days in the woods there. There is an ancient feeling amongst the huge trees, a stillness and calm that is very inviting.
Being With My Dad It has been many, many years since I last traveled with my father. The two previous trips I took with him were successful in that we both enjoyed ourselves. This trip was also very enjoyable for both of us. If anything he’s mellower than he used to be, and I’m more assertive about meeting my needs. We had several good conversations about life and our situations. I think we have a better understanding of who the other is as a result. I consider myself very fortunate to be able to spend a week with my father.
Being Gone Every trip I take away from home comes with it’s own hidden cost. You are, after all, outside of your usual comfort zone. This trip was no exception. I had a fantastic trip, saw some beautiful scenery, and enjoyed myself. But my heart and thoughts kept returning to Kansas. The first chapters of the rest of my life are being written there and I am anxious to return to the story.
I’ve had a Flickr account for some time now, and occasionally upload a picture or three there. Thanks to the generosity of a very special someone ( ;) ) I now have a pro account and can upload 2GB a month.
This means that nearly all of the pictures I took this past week in Oregon and northern California are available for viewing online.
Enjoy.
The spread of services offered in motels must follow a pattern, it only makes sense that once one motel offered free color television, that all the others had to as well in order to compete. Overnight it seems that every motel (and hotel) started pointing the ends of the toilet paper roll.
The spread of WiFi or Internet connectivity is following a similar pattern. Business travelers who want to stay connected are most likely driving the WiFi spread, consequently you always find it along the Interstate highway corridors. However, venture off the beaten path and connectivity becomes scarcer. Both of the motels I’ve been in this past week “offer” WiFi, but getting it the comfort of your room is not guaranteed.
In Gold Beach I could only get connected in the motel lobby, and then sporadically. I think the motel got the base equipment, set it up once, added the “WiFi” letters to their signboard and called it done. Largely WiFi in name only. Tonight, in Bandon, at least they don’t claim to offer WiFi in the rooms. They are quite upfront about saying there is dial-up in the rooms and WiFi in the lobby. I guess when there is an ocean across the road most people aren’t going to quibble about Internet access.
However, I am a nerd, and as such I’ll explode without semi-frequent Internet transfusions. Access to my email has been the primary need for me this week; and while I have been able to accomplish that in the two lobbies, I have learned more about motel operations through background conversations than I really ever wanted to know.
This week I am on vacation in Oregon with my father. He is attending a photography seminar and I am along to just have fun. The coastline here is rugged and beautiful. The defining feature is outcroppings of rock known as “haystacks.” And when miles of rugged, unspoiled coastline start to wain, it is only an hour’s drive to the nearest Redwood grove in northern California.
Spending time with my father has been good. We haven’t traveled together for perhaps fifteen years, maybe more. Our time together has been relaxed and easy going. After years of not always seeing eye-to-eye we are getting along better , and it feels good to share this time with him.
Earlier this week I discovered the Airport Wireless Internet Access Guide, which lists the availability of WiFi at all the major US airports. As luck would have it I am getting ready to fly this weekend and next for my vacation, so the list is timely.
Of course, only the two starting point airports offer free WiFi; both Kansas City International and Portland International are free. The two layover airports, Minneapolis and Houston, both charge for access; $6.95 and $9.95 respectively.
Obviously this is a conspiracy.
Sigh.
Those Who Hunt The Night is one of the best vampire stories I’ve read. It would make a fantastic movie, perhaps with Antonio Banderas in the lead role as Don Simon Ysidro and Kevin Spacey as Asher.
Rating: Excellent on all accounts
I’m getting ready to take a week’s vacation with my father in Oregon, and I am finding myself somewhat down. Normally in the days before a trip I’d be up and excited, but this trip is different on many levels and for many reasons.
Except for a brief three-day jaunt last January, this will be the first trip I’ve had without Michele. Since we were unable to take trips the last couple years of her life, largely due to circumstances beyond our control, I am discovering some quilt at taking a trip now. I keep telling myself that I deserve some time off, but that doesn’t completely ease my guilt.
This will be the first trip I’ve taken with my father in a number of years. He and I have take a couple of vacations together before, always with good results. My relationship with my father has undergone some major shifts in the intervening years. We have found ourselves at odds more than a few times, but we have also found new connections, most recently through shared loss. Like me, he is venturing back out into the real world following the loss of his wife.
Recently my life has taken a wonderful turn for the better. Without going into the details, I find myself in a quandary. Going to Oregon is a good thing, and I am grateful for the opportunity, but it means being separated from someone very special and important to me. If absence makes the heart grow fonder, anticipation of absence makes it grow pensive and anxious.
So the feelings I’m having tonight looking ahead to my trip are mixed: a combination of happy and sad, grateful and guilty, pleased and pensive. I think the balance is on the side of good; moreover I think it is perhaps more evolved to recognize the full spectrum of emotions around an event and not just the ones we want to feel.
After a three week hiatus to allow a pulled groin muscle to heal I returned to the gym today. I don’t think the original pull was really all that bad, but I managed to aggravate it on several occasions by continuing my kendo workouts. As kendo is primarily a right-leg forward activity any movement primarily involves the adductor muscles in the left leg. I sat out for a couple of practices and made heavy use of Aleve for a week or so to get over the worst of it.
This morning I was slow and cautious, especially on the leg machines, and had no pain or soreness during the workout. I’ll keep close tabs on it throughout the day to see if it becomes sore. Since I am on vacation next week I am thinking that a couple mild workouts this week to ease back into the routine, followed by some time off, will insure that I don’t make this a chronic injury.