You Are Officially Falling Apart

I didn't fully understand or appreciate the cascade effect until lately. Just before my Montana trip, docs from all walks of profession started coming up with new maladies for my perusal. It wasn't just one; it was a few.

"Because such-and-such happened, you've now got so-and-so, that complicates your original 'aches and pains.' I now see so many medical types that remembering their area of expertise and office locations escapes my recollection sometimes.

While in Montana, I get a phone call saying "we've taken the liberty to refer you to these two or three physicians. You need to call them to make appointments. This was the day after sitting on wooden bleachers for a Pow Wow. My hips, knees and lower back were stilling reacquiring feeling. I guess arthritis does that. If it wasn't for my walking stick, I would have undoubtedly been ambulating on my knees.

It seemed like old soldier's week when I got back. You've got too much swelling, take these pills; the reason for your swelling is because of your liver, not your heart; physical therapy in the pool twice a week should help the arthritis; by the way you've got a UTI, but there still aren't any more kidney stones - take this antibiotic.

It all comes down to abusing the old body for too long and now it's abusing me back. It's getting even for all those Paramedic and Firefighter tasks I urged it to do for thirty years. At least I got it out the other side alive, if not in one piece! What more does it want?

I can only hope that the body parts stabilize. Having something fall off in a local shopping establishment might look tacky. Now I must work on some editing before a finger falls off and I have to relearn how to use a keyboard.

Gary



What A Week!

I pulled into the driveway after a 13 hour jaunt back across 2 1/2 states last night from Browning, MT. Browning is in Eastern MT near the Rockies and Glacier National Park.

I spent 5 days sucking up as much information as I could and wasn't disappointed, so by Saturday night I decided that all things considered, it was time to pack up and head back Sunday before my body quit working completely. If you ever want to see a humungous Pow Wow, Browning is the place to go during the third week of July. Tribes from across the Country show up and you get an eye- and earful.

One thing I didn't plan during my scouting of the larger area was to have the transmission of my pride and joy 2007 Chevy Silverado become history. Fortunately, I was just coming into Cut Bank and they had a GM dealership there. It was Friday the 11th. A new tranny couldn't be shipped and installed until about the 23rd. I was stuck.

Wouldn't you know that a 2014 crewcab truck identical in color to mine was sitting in their lot? I wanted the awesome blue one sitting next to it, but it was only a 6 cylinder - this was an 8 like I had.

The Mayor of Cut Bank was my salesman, which originally gave me pause, but by the time he walked me through all the options, I realized he was honest. He could sell me the new truck for a hundred dollars less a month than what I was paying for my old one!

So, what could have been a disaster turned out to be a blessing. New truck, new warranty, new improved gadgets and I could complete my original goal of researching the Blackfeet Tribe. Next time I'll tell you about the $150 a night rooms at the area motels and why it's a blessing to have generous parents!

This next book will have a truckload of memories piled in its bed and I'm still alive to tell about them!

Gary

Dem Bones Dem Bones

I should know by now that whenever you have a significant trip planned, the bod says "Yeah? Well let's see what you can do when you try to get ready for it and your hips and knees don't work!" I've spent the past week trying to prove the old joints and bones wrong, but they're stubborn little odds and ends that don't give up easily.

When the bone doc mentioned the eventuality of having cortizone injections through the groin, I noticed that I broke into a moderate sweat. No wonder my days of tent camping came to an abrupt end. My body parts could see the writing on the outhouse wall! At least I have an official-sounding reason not to "rough it" any longer. I'd never be able to stand up again.

I also prefer to think of myself as stately when I use my walking stick instead of decrepid. The bones disagree, but what do they know? They're just bones. The only thing that gives away my condition is when I try to swing a leg up into the cab of my truck and may have to take a couple of tries at it. I fear that one of these days I'm going to haul off and accidentally knock the slats from under some unsuspecting little kid with a round-house karate kick.  That would be tough to explain, especially with me crumpled on the ground crying harder than the kid I just leveled.

Oh well, all I have to do is carefully finish my research on the road and get back home in the next couple of weeks. Then  everyone will be safe again with me playing hermit behind my computer screen and my backside planted firmly in a chair.

I might just have to use those contraptions called aeroplanes in the future. I hear they work pretty well for many types of expeditions. I'm not sure where they place the "handicap" sticker though - on me or on the pilot's rearview mirror.

Gary

Once In A While Hollywood Gets It Right

I came across a commentary last night on the TV show Longmire (Mondays, 10:00 pm on A&E). I have liked that show since it started a couple of seasons ago and now I better understand why.

Their technical advisor is an Umjibwe transplant to the Cheyenne Nation since he was a child. He has stayed true to the major tenants of the Cheyenne and Native American cultures in general without the usual shallow Hollywood depictions and shows the interactive ups and downs of cultural interplay with Whites. A great deal of attention has been spent ensuring that sacred and ritual boundaries are not crossed. Those are for tribal members only and not for TV.

They have quality male and female Native actors that carry major compelling roles and address everday issues (plus the usual drama associated with the law enforcement angle of the show with its own brand of Native/White tension). I have been impressed!

I encourage people to watch this show and get a better glimpse of life on the Native American side. It's not a cowboy and Indian type of thing at all. It's a refreshing look at entertainment through other eyes and the producer of this piece of work deserves accolades for its attention to detail, not to mention the author of the books the show was developed from.

Gary

Coming Up For Air

The major events of the summer are now about halfway through, i.e., Fathers Day, my Dad's 81st birthday, the folks' 63rd wedding anniversary, and of course a new book being picked up by my publisher. The clouds have parted and it's time for a breather, other than it has been raining the past few days around here!

Hang on. I forgot something. I'm heading to the Blackfeet Reservation in Browning, Montana to do some research for a new book, I'm going to visit my Son and Grandson for a couple of days, Middle Daughter is getting married in early August, Youngest Daughter is still trying to figure hers out, and there are family birthdays up the kazoo in August and September.

Just think what a dilemma I'd have if I wasn't retired! Where did my youthful energy go? I don't remember lending it out to anyone. I envy Lily the Terrorist. When I'm gone, she gets to lounge around the doggie spa and play with her friends without a care in the world except who will be giving her another treat.

I think my own personal time will arrive sometime around February, but I'll have to wear wool socks with my sandals and shorts by then. Such is life in the Pacific Northwest.

Gary

Humming Birds From The Valkyrie

It's not often that I feel threatened in my own back yard, but lately it's a little tenuous out there since I bought new humming bird food and a new feeder. Someone told me that the reason I was getting so few birds to show up was likely that the nectar had molded and the birds don't do molded.

Okay, so I ventured to my neighborhood box store and bought new stuff and a larger feeder. Sure enough, the flights started arriving by that afternoon and until dark. I was pleased!

All sorts of colors and activity flitted around the deck where I had hung the feeder. I could watch them from my recliner in the house, too. Great entertainment for those easily amused, like me.

Then someone must've put the word out for airstrikes against any creature coming close to said food source. The friendly little hummers became the Vinland Terrace airwing, complete with close quarters tactical fly-bys.

Lily the Terrorist and I were no match for the onslaught when she needed to go outside and do her duty. At first I thought we were being accosted by a swarm of large bees, but no, a hummer stopped just short of my nose as if to issue a warning to stay away from the feeder.

It has gotten to the point that I can see them swooping from the trees and hanging out on the grape arbor waiting for refueling. Lily and I have sped up our walk to her outhouse in anticipation of an incoming raid, much to Lily's chagrin.

I can only surmise why the local tribes did not set out food for these creatures in the old days. No one wanted to be impaled by a humming bird beak. It would be embarassing to explain their ear piercing with the supersonic bird wings attached to it.

Maybe the hummingbird feeder should have been given more thought!

Gary

Password Protected Stress

 

I was wondering why I was having such troubling remembering my passwords. All of the Gigabyte Gurus have preached the importance of good, strong passwords to prevent bad experiences for eons, so in an effort to do that, I had to develop a hardcopy list prominently displayed next to my screen to remember how the heck to get into my programs. My lightning swift reasoning figured out that this was counterproductive, not to mention a pain in the butt to maintain and update.

Still, I had trouble. I had to visually scan the list to locate the program I wanted to use and that took a little time. I finally counted the number of programs I had on the list with their gi-normous, complicated passwords that were often mis-typed and in need of starting over again. The first run-through was twenty six programs and sites...no wonder I was in a state of meltdown whenever I wanted to work on the computer.

I am adopting a new philosophy over this whole security issue. If someone hacks my system and I find out who it is, they will be shot on sight - no excuses accepted - but first I will force feed them with their own anti-virus software and see if it works first-hand.

It could get ugly!

Gary