Elevator Encounters

It can be fun to talk to people in elevators. It is my opinion that we as a society are too isolated from one another. Especially in the big cities (like Seattle) people don't talk to strangers at all. We are lacking a certain connectedness people used to have with one another. Of course it's not that way everywhere. People in smaller towns and some other states can be quite friendly on the street or any place they meet up with a stranger.

In order to do my part to change this just a little bit, I like to talk to people in elevators. If I get in an elevator and there is one other female in there, 90 percent of the time I make a point to talk to her. Sometimes I chat about the weather, sometimes I'll compliment her on her bag or cute outfit, or generally talk about something going on in the world or just in the building that day. People almost always react in a very positive manner. They are happy that someone took a moment to say something kind, and sometimes they take the conversation even further.

About a week ago I was riding up in the elevator and got stopped when a tall and striking woman got on. She had a fabulous long cardigan sweater on with beautiful ruffling all the way down the front. Very dramatic. I started up a conversation with her about it. It was a really fun chat and she seemed really happy to get the compliment. When she stepped out on her arrival floor she told me "you made my day!" And of course I was happy with that little moment of connection as well.

On Friday I got on the elevator in the middle of the afternoon to go down and get something to eat. It was late and I hadn't gotten lunch yet. The elevator stopped to let someone on. This time it was a male. Judging by his attire (suit and briefcase) and the fact he was coming from a law firm floor I suspected him to be an attorney. He no sooner got on the elevator than he said to me "You SMELL good!" ?!!

I was totally surprised. And at first I didn't know what to say in response. So I stammered "are you sure that it's me?!" He replied "well something smells good!" Then after a moment he added "it smells like candy. Something smells like candy!" While he was making these exclamations someone else got on the elevator. I tried to think what he could be talking about while doing my own inhale/smell test. Sure enough, something smelled good. But shoot, I've been smelling that all day. Wait ... that means it probably IS me! It was then that I remembered.

When I arrived at the office that morning I decided to use a room spray in my office. I have a collection of 4 sprays. I thought it would be festive to use the Christmas scent, but in my sleep-deprived state I had grabbed the gardenia one. I sprayed it up in the air, but of course the scent landed on me. When I realized it was the room scent that had been following me around all day, I explained what had happened to the guy in the elevator. He just kept exclaiming "Smells good!" and "Smells like candy." Too funny!!

Regardless of the scent, it was a really fun bit of human contact and this time someone else made MY day. I think I laughed to myself all the way down the street.

Of course I don't talk to people who have their eyes and thumbs glued to a Blackberry or other mobile device. I usually think "I sure hope that's a very important email you're reading because you don't know what else you might be missing out on." I feel a little sorry for them.

When was the last time you spoke to someone in an elevator? Or if you don't ride elevators, how about a store clerk? Or any stranger you meet in a day?

Storm Devastation

As I described in my previous post we were fortunate to come away unscathed by the devastating series of storms that hit southwest Washington on Monday. Tens of thousands of people, especially in Kitsap, Lewis, Grays Harbor and Mason counties were not so lucky. With the storms came widespread flooding, power outages and 6 deaths.

The Centralia area in Lewis County was one of the hardest areas. Floods engulfed one-third of the town of Centralia and completely shut down an 11 mile stretch of I-5 for more than 3 days. I understand the water was 10 feet deep along 3 miles of the freeway. The Seattle PI quoted a volunteer who was helping to get supplies to people who need them as saying "I've lived here 26 years, and I've never run a jet boat down I-5 before. It's pretty unbelievable."

My sister Jozi, who lives in Centralia was fortunate to have her home spared. My cousin Rhonda was not so lucky. It took several days before any of the family members heard from Rhonda. When I started writing this post a few days ago I was going to call it "Where's Rhonda?" because she seemed to be missing. Fortunately she is found and she and her husband are safe, staying with friends. But they sustained major damage to their home which they recently finished renovating.

Word has it that they didn't have much time to leave. Someone pounded on their door in the middle of the night to let them know they needed to evacuate immediately. By the time they got dressed the water was flowing into their house. The waters eventually reached their windows so you can imagine how much damage was sustained. Since the waters receded they have been taking things that can be salvaged to Rhonda's mother's home in Elma to dry out. I hope they can make their home habitable once again, but I know it will take much hard work and lots of money for the repairs. I can only imagine they are heartbroken over this.

Jozi lives near the Skookumchuck River which did not rise as high as the Chehalis which is near Rhonda's home. Still, it's nerve-wracking waiting to find out if your home will be safe. Jozi lost a day and a half of work because of the freeway shutdown and not wanting to get stuck in Olympia if her route became completely impassable. She described a couple days of constant helicopter noise. You see, helicopters came from near and far (even from California) to help in the rescue effort. Over 300 people were rescued by helicopter from their homes.

Flood waters also caused road closures on the Kitsap Peninsula. Bremerton got a record 12+ inches of rain.

These storms were not only full of rain but high winds as well. Hurricane force winds hit on the coast causing over 50,000 customers to lose power - about 30,000 of them in Grays Harbor County. My cousin Karen lives in that area and she had to evacuate her apartment. Not because of flooding, but because the wind took the roof off the apartment building! The coastal area was completely isolated from road access because of flooding and had to endure days without power. Two days ago there were still 16,000 without power. Since the storm the weather has turned cold. What a miserable situation.

Lewis and Grays Harbor Counties were recently declared federal disaster areas. I'm planning to donate some money for the relief efforts. If you find yourself in a position to do the same and would like to help, King5 has a page here with a great list of ways you can help.

Trip to Oly on Monday

Our trip to Olympia on Monday was a bit of an adventure as that was the day the local storm was in full force. Driving down we experienced lots of rain and wind. The experience involved a bit of white knuckle driving as we made our way down I-5 through low spots full of standing water, rooster tails that surprised us by covering the windshield beyond visibility, and winds that pushed the car to and fro. We were thankful that the new Honda has new tires on it so we didn't have to worry about hydroplaning as much as we would have with the Saturn. On the other hand, it has a higher profile than the Saturn so we felt buffeted by the winds a bit more.

We made it to Olympia safely though, and were happy to discover that Mom's power had returned the evening before. We picked her up from Sue's house and took her off to her doctor appointments. By the time we left at the end of the day the storm was subsiding and fortunately Mom's power was still on. We left her at her home secure in the knowledge that she would be safe and plenty warm.

Mom's appointments went fine. Yesterday she went back to the eyelid surgeon for a follow-up and he said everything looks great. If you look closely at this photo you will see that she has a bit of a shiner under her right eye. That's from the surgery, I promise. No one popped her. :)

Some Crazy Weather

We are having a few days of crazy weather here in Western Washington. Yesterday it snowed. Not a lot, but it was accompanied by stronger than normal winds so the snow seemed to come down fast and furious. I couldn't grab the camera fast enough to catch it at its peak. But below is a 15 second scene of the snow falling outside the office window.

Today it has been raining a lot and tomorrow another storm is expected with heavy rains and high winds. The wind was with us some today too, and my mother's power went out. We are thankful for my friend Sue who took Mom home to spend the night with her. Mom has two doctor appointments tomorrow so we will pick her up in the morning. Hopefully the power will be back by then and will stay on.

The wild weather should make for an interesting drive to Olympia. We will probably get to see how our new car fares in fowl weather.

Mom and Diega Doing Well

Mom had her lower right eyelid surgery on Tuesday. It went really well (the procedure took only about 15 minutes). This is a picture of her in the recovery bed and she got to go home shortly after this photo was taken. The nurses thought she looked pretty cute with her white eye patch. They told her the white eye patch means she's a GOOD pirate!

Once the patch was removed the area looks great - just like she has a black eye. Her surgeon did a good job at tightening up the lower lid so she should no longer have a problem with constant eye infections.

Diega is doing well too. She got to go home from the hospital on Thursday. She's in a fair amount of pain yet but getting a little better each day. She's gradually adding more solid foods each day - today she had crackers in her soup and some applesauce.

We're all glad that everybody is on the mend. Thanks to everyone who sent their prayers and well wishes our way.

Visiting Diega

On Friday Walter and I took a drive up to Port Townsend to see my sister Diega. Her latest surgery had not solved her problems as quickly as hoped so she's still in the hospital. Diega seemed very happy to see us and we had a nice visit. You can see her here chatting on the phone with our sister Jozi.

Diega has been in the hospital two weeks now and she was getting pretty frustrated. But I'm happy to report that "things began moving" for the better a couple days ago and she is finally making significant progress toward recovery. Today she was thrilled to get that nasogastric tube out. She's looking forward to first a liquid diet and then being able to eat some solid food. Yay!! Keep on getting better, Diega. We're all rooting for you.

Tomorrow my mother gets a little surgery on her lower eyelid which will hopefully prevent further eye infections. I'll be with her in Olympia for a couple of days.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.

Serenity

I just had to share this beautiful picture that to me embodies the word "serenity." Kimber took this photo on a recent weekend trip to Moclips, Washington on the coast. It's hard to believe that she took this photo with her camera phone.

This photo brings back lots of fond memories from my childhood when I spent a week each summer at the ocean. I love it when the sand is rippled and dimply like this from the tide level being about even with the top of the sand. To me it's an invitation to go barefoot. Somehow I doubt Kimber did that in late October though.

When I first got this picture in my email I glanced at it only briefly (it was a busy day). And on first glance I thought this was a beach littered with pilings. I thought those were posts out there in the water. But upon closer inspection I realize those are people. And not just any people ... they are clam diggers! You can click the photo to see it a little larger. Kimber happened to be at Moclips on the opening weekend of razor clam digging season.

I remember clam digging season from when I was little. It meant getting up verry early to go to the beach and the adults finding a zillion different ways to cook with the razor clams they dug. I loved razor clams. I think my favorite was when Grandma would fry up ground clams in a batter like fritters. Yumm! But I digress...

I think the reason I thought those were posts instead of people is that I think of the ocean (at least the Washington coast) as much more deserted than this. But clam digging explains why so many people were out there.

Kimber thought this photo would make me smile. It did. And I hope it will do the same for you.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYBODY!

New Wheels

Walter and I are the proud owners of a new (to us) 2001 Honda Civic sedan. We bought it from my friend and coworker Angie who recently moved to Atlanta. Lucky for us Angie decided not to take her car with her when she moved cross-country. We were not actively looking for another car but the timing was good. Our Saturn (a 1996) is getting older and I can see more expensive repair bills in its future. That's something we would like to avoid if possible so it seems this would be a good time to move on.

We've been emailing and calling Angie and her cousin (who was keeping the car for her here locally) for weeks working out all the logistics of transferring the car to us. Friday night with our friend Kimber's help we brought our new car home.

The Honda was exactly what we would have been looking for in a replacement: practical, reliable, fuel efficient, and manual transmission. And it didn't hurt that a few nice extras came with the package:

• an alarm system with a push button to lock and unlock the doors from the outside
• a CD player instead of a cassette player;
• power windows and power locks (no more rolling down the window manually or reaching across to unlock a door for Walter);
• a power sunroof! I'm sure we'll figure out how it works before summer;
  
• it is CUTE. Or as Kimber described it "a sportier look" (that wasn't difficult to accomplish since the old car was a station wagon); and
  
• it's pretty zippy and fun to drive.

Here are a couple pictures of our new baby.

Diega in the Hospital

My sister Diega has been having a hard time of it lately. She had an emergency appendectomy almost two weeks ago. She was in the hospital for a couple days then they sent her home. Her recovery did not proceed as it should have. She was sick, having trouble with her bowels, and her abdomen looked like she was about 8 months into a pregnancy.

Last Tuesday she went back to the doctor for a follow-up. They sent her to Emergency and she was admitted into the hospital right away. Turns out there were complications from her appendectomy. For the last week she has had to endure a nasogastric tube siphoning off the bad stuff from her stomach and endless x-rays and CT scans. Finally today they decided they must do another surgery to correct the situation.

Her surgery went well and they think she will be all fixed up. It seems unlikely she will get to go home by Thanksgiving but hopefully she will start recovering in earnest now and can look forward to feeling much better soon.

Windstorm Monday in Olympia

I've been slow to post any updates lately. Seems like life is always hectic. Monday was our regular day to go to Olympia and help Mom. She had a doctor appointment that day. What was unusual is that there was also quite a windstorm which struck with particular ferocity in Thurston County where she lives. When we got there we were greeted by limbs strewn about her yard and driveway.

Here are some of the trees next to Mom's driveway that caused all the debris.

Mom's power was out. That didn't stop us from taking her to her doctor's appointment though ... where the power was also out! Fortunately for us they were still open for business but the doctor didn't have access to the chart notes on his computer. Also the lab was closed because they couldn't see well enough to take blood.

When we got back from doctor appointments the power was back on. Yay! Mom's neighbor buddy Tyler came over to check on her.


How's she doing? Well as you can see she needs to eat more. But other than that she's doing okay. On Monday we meet with the folks from the Meals on Wheels program. I hope that will work well and help her to gain some weight.

Facing My Fears

I have a phobia about anyone getting near my eyes to put in eye drops or touching them or puffing air for a pressure exam. That includes putting eye drops in myself.

About a week ago I developed some eye pain and discomfort that I think is related to dryness. I know I need to go to the eye doctor to get checked, but I've been putting it off. A few days ago I started putting in artificial tears to lubricate my eyes. That's really hard for me to do but I hope that with practice I will get better at it.

The process currently involves lying down with my eye closed, squeezing the drop near the opening of my eye and then blinking until the drop goes into the eye. Even at that it's really hard to get myself to squeeze the bottle because of my fear. It takes a few minutes. Yes, I'm a weenie.

When I was young I had the same fear of needles that most kids have when they get shots. But when it became necessary for me beginning as a young teen to go through years of allergy shots, the shots quickly became routine and no longer produced anxiety.

I'm hoping that I can overcome my fear of eye drops the way I overcame my fear of needles - with patience and repetition. My dream is that someday I can 1) put in my own eye drops with my eye open and sitting or standing up and 2) go to the eye doctor's office without extreme anxiety and without a doctor asking me if I had a trauma as a child. Wish me luck.

What fears do you need to face?

Mom Hardly Eating

My mother has recovered from her illness but she continues to lose weight. She was last weighed at 85 pounds (38.5 kilos). Compared to most people she eats like a bird. This is a woman who earlier this year weighed 125 pounds. She was on the pain killers which caused nausea for so long she forgot how to eat like a normal person and her taste buds are all messed up.

We are trying lots of things to try to help her eat more. She told me the other day that she is not ready to give up yet because she has her girls (us daughters). She's really trying to eat more but so far is not very successful.

She goes back to the doctor tomorrow. I hope something works soon. She is so thin now she is constantly tired and spends much of her time in bed. I'm very worried about her.

Bunch of Updates

Wow, a lot has happened since I last posted. Most of it is family medical stuff so I will try to catch you up in this one post.

Walter's Eye Surgery
Walter is doing well after his surgery. Everything went fine and we're just waiting to see how the eyesight will settle. Right now it's in some ways a little better than before the surgery (but not as good as a few weeks ago) and in other ways it's not so good. It takes a while to heal so we will be patient and wait to see what happens. The good news is that Walter's eye pressure came down to a very reasonable number and hopefully it will stay down for a long time. Many times after a surgery like this there are small adjustments to be made including which eyedrops to take, but we'll get that all sorted out.

Mom's Kyphoplasty
My mom's surgery went very well. And the best thing is it greatly reduced her pain. We are very thankful for that. Unfortunately she wasn't able to eat for weeks before the surgery due to pain and pain meds. When they weighed her in pre-op we found out she was down to 93 pounds. Gaining weight is going to be a high priority for her.

Now Mom's Sick
Two days after Mom's surgery she came down with a horrible diarrhea problem and has been sick for 3 days. She's been to the emergency room twice and was given IV fluids. The doctors think it's some kind of gastroenteritis. She has an appointment with her main doctor tomorrow so we'll find out what he has to say. In the meantime the problem seems to be slowing down. Hopefully it's about over.

It's frustrating because the first thing they say for diarrhea is to stop eating solid foods. She's not going to gain any weight that way. Poor Mom, she's getting pretty frustrated and discouraged with her health issues. We hope something will turn around for her very soon.

And Then There's Diega
At 5:00 this afternoon I got a call from my sister Diega. She was headed into emergency surgery for appendicitis. Diega has been having abdominal pain for a few days. She went to the doctor today and they found out it was her appendix. I'm told they will do the procedure laparoscopically and she should be able to go home tomorrow.


Amongst all the bad news there are some blessings to count. For example I'm really glad that Mom's back is feeling better and that she didn't get this gastroenteritis thing while she was still having intense back pain. And of course there's my own health to be thankful for...