Caught in a STING!

Yesterday, 25 October 2007, was not the best of days, although it did have some better moments (mainly the sirloin steak breakfast burrito at Jack in the Box).

I haven’t mentioned or dwelt on my health problems in this blog feeling only a few of you who read this—make that family members—are particularly interested in real-time updates.

One such factor has to do with the arthritis in my knees and the resulting loss of cartilage in the joints. Both knees are now rated as bone-on-bone and can be incredibly painful at times. For the past 4 years we have been nursing them along with regular (every 4 months) injections of cortisone. Following those injections I get about one month of considerable relief, the next month not so much and by the middle of the third month I am more than ready for another injection.

Yesterday was injection day and I really looked forward to it. We have to travel to Sacramento to a knee specialist there. He aspirated 135cc of fluid (combined from both knees) and injected each of them with the steroid laced with a heavy dose of Lidocaine.

Generally the Lidocaine brings about immediate pain relief but he had manipulated my knees so much that they were really agitated. We did some shopping at a few stores prior to returning home.

My knee pain continued throughout the remainder of the day and, shortly before bedtime, I decided to go soak in the hot tub. It felt great! I got out on the dark deck and grabbed my towel off the deck rail where I had previously left it to dry. I began toweling off, my head, face, chest, and then tossed the towel over my head and began to rub it back and forth across my back. Suddenly there was a very sharp pain. It felt like a piece of glass had been stuck in my back. I rushed indoors and asked Judy if something was on my back but she could see nothing. I had dropped my towel on the floor and as I looked down I saw a large black creature moving slowly on it. I looked closer and realized it was a very large (ginormous, world record size) Bumble Bee. I grabbed my shoe and proceeded to send it off to wherever Bees go when they’re done here. I'm no do-gooder about bugs and I don't regret my action. He deserved what he got--a quid pro quo.

The judicious application of some Benedryl ointment took most of the pain out of the sting and we were off to bed.

This morning my knees feel much better than they have for about a month or two so it should be a much better day than yesterday was. Provided, of course, that I don’t get caught in another sting.

The City of Grass Valley, California, is not BURNING!

Judy and I thank those of you who have telephoned us after hearing of the “Grass Valley Fire” on television. We truly appreciate your concern but, as we’ve told you, the fire being reported on television and radio and newspapers is in Southern California, near the resort community of Lake Arrowhead. The Grass Valley being mentioned in those news reports is a small residential neighborhood that carries that name. It is some 600 miles south of the City of Grass Valley, where we live.

Living in a community not dissimilar from that southern Grass Valley and having experienced wildfires close to our home we understand the panic and pain to which our neighbors are being subjected. It is a truly horrible experience. They and we have chosen to live in mountainous-forested areas because of the sheer beauty of the surroundings. When wildfire visits your neighborhood however it takes all you have in material things as well as the natural beauty around you. It’s nothing short of devastating and we grieve for those who have lost so much in the past few days. You can rebuild your home, you can buy new stuff, but you can’t replace the mature forest around you which may have taken hundreds of years to grow.

We’ve been home since the first week of September and have experienced an early Fall. We’ve had rain about once each week and are now ahead of the average season total for this time of the year. Temperatures, until the past several days, have been well below average and our usage of the propane gas in our tank proves it. The furnace has run on most of those days since our return.

I recently read an article written by a forestry professor at some New England University in which he claimed that “global warming” is ruining the Fall colors in New England. He said that there has been a pronounced decrease in the reds and oranges and yellows because of the delay in the onset of cold temperatures in the past few years. If that’s so it’s sad because few places have had a better Fall color display than in New England.

Our early Fall here in Northern California, on the other hand, has colors here in the Sierra Nevada foothills and mountains looking better and brighter than I can remember them being. Even the Black Oaks are getting in the game this year. They have usually had their leaves turn brown on the stem and then fall to the ground. This year, however, as you can see from the photos I’ve included in this posting, they are glorious and brilliant. In the second photo you can see the oaks on the mountainside beyond the valley behind our home.

The view looking east from our back deck

Monterey Bay Aquarium, Monterey, CA, October 2007

On October 16th, we left Grass Valley in a drizzling rain headed for Monterey, CA. Kevin and Dodie and the boys were about 45 minutes behind us pulling their trailer behind their pickup truck. By the time we reached Lodi, where we stopped for fuel and lunch, Kev caught up to us.

In Auburn, it started raining steadily with big drops and continued that way, on and off, all of the way to Monterey. It was even raining in the RV park in the County Fairgrounds while we set up our rigs.

We had come all of this way to re-visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It was the first of its kind and set the bar for all of the aquariums to follow. Some today, like the new facility in Atlanta, GA are reportedly, even better but it’s still undeniably the finest on the West Coast.

The kids enjoyed the “touch-it tanks”

in which they could handle sea cucumbers and starfish and the larger tanks where they could pet a shark or sting ray. Here Kevin helps Andrew get up close and personal with some creature in the trough.

In the tank below there was a beautiful school of anchovies.


One of the reasons Kevin was so anxious to come here was the fact that they had another Great White Shark in one of the display tanks. It is the fourth Great White they’ve had here at the aquarium, and it’s the only place in the world to successfully keep one alive. The previous three have all been returned to the wild ocean when they became big enough to become a threat to the other fish in the tank. The current animal is just a baby about 4’ long and 7 months old. He’s certainly easy to differentiate from all of the other fish and sharks in the tank when he swims by the viewing windows. Unfortunately, flash photography was forbidden so we couldn’t get any usable pictures of it to share with you.
We were able to see the sea otters at their feeding and training time. We have seen performing sea lions and porpoise before but to actually see the otters perform particular activities on command was really surprising. Andrew and Judy really enjoyed watching the show through the under water window.

The most unusual and spectacular displays are of the various jellyfish. There are so many species on display and each seems to be more interesting or unusual than the last. They seem to move so effortlessly through the water just pulsing along at their own pace—and many of them are so colorful.
On Thursday, Kev and family returned to the Aquarium while Judy and I took the opportunity to go do some shopping in the interesting and unusual shops on Cannery Row. We met later in the day at the Monterey Maritime Museum before heading down to the beach for the kids to play a while. Thursday night we went to a lovely Japanese restaurant near Fisherman’s Wharf for dinner and to celebrate Kevin’s birthday which is really tomorrow.

We’ll return to Grass Valley tomorrow, Oct 19th, 2007.