Once again, I have been derelict in keeping this blog up to date. Mostly, this is about Janie’s progress after having broken her ankle. The good news is that there is a lot of progress! In my last report, she had been able to transition from a splint to a boot. Not only was it more comfortable-at least marginally-but it allowed her pressure sore to be cared for by her visiting nurse. As that began to happen, the sore began to heal much more quickly and became less of a concern. The nurse and I each change the dressing once a week. It has gone from the size of a 50-cent piece to smaller than a pencil eraser. 

After switching over to the boot, Janie had another appointment with the doctor a few weeks later, and the x-rays showed much improvement in the bone healing too. At an earlier appointment, we had been told that it might be 12-16 weeks before she could put weight on the leg. This time, she was told she could put weight on in another week, around September 15. She was instructed to start standing, using the boot as long as she could tolerate the pain. As it turned out, she did not have any pain in the ankle although understandably, her legs are quite weak. Since the last appointment, with the help of her physical and occupational therapists, she has been able to practice standing to build up her strength. She has also been able to pivot in order to transfer to her wheelchair. Although we are not at the point where we will transfer her with just my help, that is a big step toward mobility. She has an appointment next week and she’s hoping that she can lose the boot and go back to her shoes. Keep your fingers crossed!

I have managed to keep pretty busy over this time, although I have managed to get some time to “play” radio. The last time I reported on “collecting countries” I had 44 countries. Now I’m up to 58 including Cook Islands, the Azores, Finland, Cayman Islands, Northern Ireland and China.

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Time for an update. On July 16, we were proud to help Leslie celebrate earning her master’s degree and watching her walk in her graduation ceremony at Safeco field.

After the early morning ceremony, we had a small party for her at our clubhouse. It was a long day, especially for Janie—sitting in a wheelchair for that long is pretty tiring. Many of you were aware of Leslie’s pursuit of both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees, and we are very proud of her accomplishments. Jess was also a major support to her behind the scenes.

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Unfortunately, on the evening of the graduation, Janie’s knee buckled on her, and she wound up collapsing on her ankle. We called the fire department to assist getting her onto the couch, and we thought it was at least a bad sprain. By morning, we began to realize it was more than a sprain. Since she can’t stand on one leg alone, we called the fire department again, and she went by ambulance to the ER. There an ankle fracture was confirmed, and the orthopedic specialist informed her that she would have to be non-weight bearing for at least 6-8 weeks. We’ve since learned that it would likely be even longer. She could not go home because she cannot stand on the other leg alone.

Janie was in the hospital nearly a week while we made arrangements for home health caregivers, and equipment that would allow us to move her around at home. As soon as we knew that her leg was fractured, we knew that the recommendation would be for her to go to a rehab center, and we knew that we would do anything to avoid that choice. She has been in 3 different rehab centers with previous fractures and the experience has not been good in any of them. In some cases, the staff tried to move her in ways that were specifically contrary to her post surgery instructions and could have caused further damage. Add to those experiences the risk of Covid, Norovirus, etc., and we were pretty set against another trip to “Shady Pines,” in spite of medical advice. I have already been doing caregiving duties since Janie became unable to walk. It’s not the same level of caregiving as someone who cares for a loved one with dementia. Janie is well able to help out with her mind and her web browsing abilities. Still, we didn’t really know what to expect in adding the mobility limitations to the mix. We arranged for a Hoyer lift—not a fun way to travel (she says it reminds her of medieval instruments of torture)—and arranged for “Visiting Angels” to assist me part time. 

We already had house cleaners who come once a week, dog walkers for some of the walks and we shop online. We are doubly fortunate that Leslie lives close by. She cooks for us at least twice a week and helps out with lots of other things. As it turned out two weeks was enough for the extra caregivers. By then, we had routines down, I had enough practice driving the lift and we had Home Health checking in on Janie. We were ready to go it alone, and it has worked pretty well. We are talking to our cleaners about coming a little extra, just to take the load off.

Janie was to go see the surgeon’s Physician’s Assistant after a couple of weeks to check her progress. That was another “adventure.” We arranged for a cabulance—a specialized vehicle that you can roll a wheelchair into. The trip to the doctor was OK, but the trip home was traumatic. During the ride, Janie started slipping down in her wheelchair, so that when we arrived home, we couldn’t safely get her out of the cabulance without the risk of her falling completely out of the chair. Once again, the fire department to the rescue! They helped us reposition her so that she could be moved safely. After that trip, we made modifications to ensure that it didn’t happen again.

At the appointment, the x-rays looked good. The bones were healing, but Janie had developed a pressure sore on her heel from the splint. This became more of a concern than the fracture, and we wound up making 3 more follow-up visits (3 more cabulance round trips) to various clinics. At first, it looked like the wound was getting worse, but at the last visit, it was improving, and they were able to switch her from a splint to a boot which can be removed to care for the wound properly. That’s where we are now. No more doctor visits are scheduled for the time being. The visiting nurse will be bringing a special wound care person and then the nurse and I will be doing wound care.  Janie and I are both very satisfied with our decision to bring her home.

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For those of my friends who are not Ham radio operators, I’m beginning with a short explanation about the parts of the hobby that I’m involved with. The amateur radio hobby has a huge number of possibilities. Some hams are involved primarily in emergency communications. Some like to get on the radio to just chat with others involved in the hobby. Others are contesters—they participate in contests to complete as many contacts as possible within a specified time. “DX chasers” are interested in collecting contacts with distant or difficult to reach operators. Others are adventurers who travel great, and sometimes treacherous distances to set up temporary stations and allow the dx chasers to make a contact with a rare location. Some hams don’t care much about being on the radio but like to build or design radio gear.

For me, I am involved in emergency preparedness activities. Although I was a ham in high school, I let my license lapse and it was emergency preparedness that got me back into it 50 years later. I do like to chat on the radio, but I find that I don’t have a lot of time to do it. (By the way, hams who chat on the radio—like most other hobbyists—talk about the hobby, not the issues of the day.) I also like to “chase dx.” With the right gear, I have made contacts all over the world. However, while most non-hams think of the radio hobby as involving voice communications, much of it is digital communication, similar to texting. You may think that is boring but think of it as similar to coin or stamp collecting, or beanie babies for that matter. One of the advantages of this type of operating is that it can be done in short sessions, which fits my situation well. Voice communications can take quite a bit of time to search for others, figure out if they can hear you, and possibly butt into an existing conversation.

I enjoy being able to get a rare location that I’ve never contacted before and adding it to my list of scores, in the same way a stamp collector might be excited about finding a stamp from a country they’ve never had. I may run into the other room and tell Janie “I’ve just made contact with Lithuania!” She is excited for me, although she doesn’t really understand the excitement of not having a conversation. Leslie also listens to my reports, since we see each other every day.

Now, you too can share my excitement! Now that you understand what I’m doing, I can report my more exciting contacts, and you can congratulate me on getting my latest stamp, coin or beanie baby! (You don’t really need to respond.) To date I have made contacts in all 50 states, most Canadian provinces, and 44 countries on continents except Antarctica. In my most recent session, I made contacts with Australia, New Zealand, Japan Brazil, Ecuador and Hungary.

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My last haircut was in December 2019. I usually only get a haircut every 2 or 3 months, so when Covid hit, I hadn’t gotten another one yet. First, everything was shut down, but as businesses were allowed to reopen, I decided that a haircut was not an essential activity. Besides, I thought it would be fun to grow my hair long enough to have a pony tail. Having grown of age in the late 60’s and 70’s, I thought it would be cool, but jobs and other life events discouraged me. Even though my hair was long, I never got that far.

So, I haven’t had a haircut in 16 months. I thought it would be fun, but by the end, it was just irritating. Still, I decided to wait until I had been fully vaccinated, and that is now complete. So here are two “before” pictures and one “after” picture. What a load off my mind!

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A couple of weeks ago, the electronics and electrical devices in our house began to fail. We already had a couple of lights that were blinking. Our dishwasher failed for the umpteenth time and a couple of days later all of the light bulbs in our kitchen track light system failed at the same time. Around the same time I accidentally knocked over one of my computer’s and damaged the hard drive. Yesterday I moved too quickly with my ham radio headphones and pulled them off my head making it so one side no longer works. A keyboard and mouse on another computer stopped working. Then another light bulb burned out in the kitchen. And, a light in our laundry area stopped working. Yesterday after I replaced a bulb in our bathroom light fixture the entire fixture fell off the wall, and the glass shattered. (It turns out that the fixture was screwed only into the drywall with no anchors, and it’s a miracle that it didn’t fall during the last 11 years!)

I wonder what caused all these failures within the span of less than a month? There were reasonable explanations for most of them, including my clumsiness. The lights that burned out in the kitchen were all installed at the same time, so maybe it makes sense that they all burned out at the same time, but it seems odd to me. The battery died on the wireless switch in the laundry area, but it was a couple of years old.

While I hated replacing a 5-year old dishwasher (not cheap either), I was glad to be rid of it. Thankfully, we bought the extended warranty, because it had been repaired at least 7 or 8 times in the time we had it. We had to go several weeks without a dishwasher, but Janie came up with a good use for a dead dishwasher-it makes a good drying rack when you are hand-washing the dishes. Today, our new dishwasher was installed. Hooray! Let’s hope it does better than the last one! You can bet we got the extended warranty though!

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As I said earlier, I would write more about Leslie’s dog, Angus. She really lucked out! He is a great addition to our extended family! Although she did her best due diligence, he came sight unseen from a shelter and foster home in the LA area. She knew he got along with the other dogs in the shelter, but it was essential that he and our dog, Finnegan get along.

Angus arrived a couple of weeks ago, having just been neutered and after a car trip from LA. Although he was rightly traumatized, he took to Leslie right away. He likes to be close–very close–to her!

He was listed as a chihuahua or chihuahua mix, but we think he might be part Italian greyhound. He has very long legs for his body and reminds us in many ways of my late greyhound, Callie.

As for Finnegan, they got along from the beginning!

Finnegan does pester Angus to play a lot, but Angus is patient, and the more they are together the more normal their relationship gets.

Also, Finnegan, Angus, Leslie and I walk together 4 times a day. Since Leslie is with us a lot, Angus has warmed to us as well and is comfortable taking a nap with us. At the beginning, he had some separation anxiety if Leslie would leave, but he quickly got over it and he has spent plenty of time with us dog sitting.

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This short post is just to let our friends know that we are doing OK during this time of Shelter in Place. Not all of our friends use Facebook, and we don’t post there often anyway. Because of Janie’s physical limitations, we are not galavanting around much anyway, so Shelter in Place has not affected us that much. The major impact is the shutting down of those places that we used to visit, such as meetings, restaurants and the doctors, and our contact with our granddaughters. However, we’ve adapted as many others have to the use of video conferencing. In some cases it has actually increased my participation in activities because I can participate from home without leaving Janie.

Leslie has been affected more than Janie and I–her part time job shut down and she has spent more time helping us. She does the vast majority of our shopping so that we can minimize our exposure to other people. Leslie has also added a new member to our family, Angus the dog! More on Angus in a later post. This one is getting too long.

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It has been a long time since I posted to this blog! The reason is writers’ block. I started a rather involved description of what I had been up to in the last couple of years, and I still can’t figure out how to finish it. I will get back to it eventually for those of you who may be interested in my past activities. I have a backlog of other activities to report on, but for now, I am going to try to post a series of more frequent, shorter posts.

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This post is mainly for my older friends. Younger people don’t have to worry about it yet. The point is to let you know that you should not assume that any unusual vision problems are the most dire possibility.

During the last month, I have experienced a kind of blurriness in my vision. The best way I can describe it is like when you look into a light. After the initial blind spot fades, you’re left with a residual spot in your vision for a few minutes. It was also like I had a smudge in the middle of both lenses of my glasses. I spent about a month worrying that it might be the beginning of macular degeneration, retinal detachment or cateracts. It is a result of aging eyes, but the condition is not that serious.

It turns out that I have a condition known as Vitreomacular Traction Syndrome. After visaiting my regular optometrist, I had to see a retina specialist to confirm it.

Your eye is filled with a substance called vitreous gel, surrounded by the vitreous cortex. In younger eyes, the cortex is attached to the retina, but as we age, the vitreous gel contracts and the cortex begins to separate from the retina. This is normal and does not affect our vision significantly. In cases such as mine, the cortex may be stubborn about separating and it can pull on the retina at the macula, causing the distortion in vision.

Although more serious complications can occur, the first thing to do is wait and see whether the separation process completes on its own. I will go back in a month for another exam, and meanwhile, I may have put up with the distortion. If it doesn’t resolve on its own, the doctor told me that there are several ways this condition can be treated, including the possibility of surgery, but for now, I just wait.

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This post is 2 years late. As I’ve mentioned before, my updates have not been very regular for quite some time. Mom would have been 100 years old this year.

My mom was one of my best friends. She was special to many people and very close to all her sons and daughters-in-law, but besides that, we had a lot of common interests. Details of her interesting life are described in the reprint of her obituary below, but in particular, she and I shared a common interest in computers, ballooning, classical music and opera, and theater. She used to like to recall the story of our trip to an out-of-town balloon rally that was 8 hours away. We talked to much about computers that we were hoarse by the time we got there. My son, Jason was also with us. He was about 10, and he was also fascinated by computers (and he was very bright). At one point during the trip he piped up “Will you two give me a chance to talk?!” That was also the trip that we forgot to watch the gas gauge and ran out of gas. We wound up hitchhiking together into a nearby town to get enough gas to get to a gas station!

Mom was also one of my most loyal balloon crew members. She was the one who got my family into the sport when my Aunt Luana took it up and Mom began crewing for her. At times (in her 80’s) when she felt she couldn’t contribute much, she was still there at 5 AM and she did always find a task that she could do.

Her purchase of the first personal computer in the family made it possible for me to learn about them. She and I used to attend computer user group meetings together, and even when she needed me to help her with a problem that was beyond her, she always tried to solve it herself before calling me. Then she would stand or sit looking over my shoulder to see what I was doing.

For those of you who have not read it, or did not know her personally, here is her obituary:

Claire Donovan was born in Boston, MA to Joseph and Lillian Cronin Donovan. After completing business school, the Chief Clerk in the Boston FBI office, a family friend, urged her to apply and she joined the FBI steno pool in 1941. On Valentine’s Day 1943 she met newly-arrived Special Agent Lester Gallaher when he asked her to prepare the onerous transfer expense report. Although she declined, (“No, I don’t do expense reports”), they were married later that year. Following a transfer to the New York Field Office they travelled in 1945 to Palouse, WA where she met Les’ parents and extended family for the first time. This included a memorable visit with Les’ great-grandmother who had travelled west on the Oregon Trail as an infant. When asked by Les’ father Oliver when they might expect a grandchild, she answered, “In about nine months”, and Edward was born the following March. Richard, Robert, and Gerald arrived in succession, all born in August or September. Dad always said, “We never could get past that first cold snap of the winter.” After two cross-country road trips to Palouse, Les received a transfer to Seattle in 1957 and they set out on a one-way trip west.

Between New York and Seattle, Claire raised four boys, who in turn raised several hamsters, four dogs, numerous cats, tropical fish, nineteen rats, a rabbit, a pet crow, garter snakes, and lampreys; a cantankerous monkey had a relatively short stay. In addition to the many Cub Scout, Boy Scout, sports, and theater activities, the boys enjoyed considerable freedom while growing up (within the limits of an FBI-agent father and Irish Catholic mother).

Retirement years were active and varied. Claire and Les travelled extensively, including two months on a freighter trip to Asia, a trip through the Panama Canal, several Elderhostel trips to Europe, and an extended genealogy expedition throughout the US. Both were active in FBI alumni associations until Les’ death in 1985. Claire was a co-founder and officer of the Pacific Northwest Chapter of the Society of FBI Alumni and remained active for many years.

Claire was a computer pioneer, obtaining an Atari computer and taking a BASIC programming class in 1980 at 60. When close friend and relative Luana Sever began hot-air ballooning at 61, 59 year-old Claire became her first crew member. Son Rich later became a pilot and Claire served as crew chief until she was 87, organizing the rest of the crew, driving the chase vehicle, and staying in contact via CB radio.

Her extended family includes sons Ed, Rich, Bob and Jerry; wives and partners Janet, Janie, Linda, and Cynthia; grandchildren Deborah, Gary, Leslie, Jess, Jesse, Noel, Ian, and Amelia; great-grandchildren Zachary, Emma, Sarah, Alonzo, and Dominic; great-great grandson Blake; and nineteen nieces and nephews. She felt the loss of siblings Joseph Donovan, MD, Eleanor Donovan Barrett, Marion Donovan Barrett, and Robert Donovan, grandson Jason, and daughter-in-law Susan.

Claire was soft-spoken and congenial with everyone she met, with a beautiful smile. She had an easy and intuitive sense of who she was, knowing where her boundaries began and where they ended. She was so nice when she said “No” to family, friends (or salespeople) that it sometimes took several iterations for the answer to soak in. She was a confidential listener to friends and family, offering help when she could but never intruding or solving other people’s problems for them (e.g. FBI expense reports). Everyone believed they were the ‘favorite’ son, daughter-in-law, or grandchild, despite suspecting that everyone else felt the same way. We strive with limited success follow her seemingly effortless example.

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Yes! It’s true, we just got a new puppy! I had a hard time believing it when Janie suggested that we get a dog. I’ve always been a big dog person, but a big dog is not practical in our condo. So we started looking at small breeds and settled on the Havanese. We know several people who have them and they are smart and cute!

My next idea was that we get a rescue dog. I thought we could avoid housebreaking and take a dog out of a shelter. We soon realized that the only adult Havanese available are special needs dogs. As much as I would love to provide for a dog like that, it is just not practical with Janie’s challenges. So we settled on a puppy.

Before we even decided on a specific dog, Janie and Sarah came up with the name, Finnegan. That’s a boy’s name, but I have always had female dogs, so I was hoping for a female. Strike 3 for me! Here is a picture of the dog we found on the web:

How could we resist?! He had a sister, but she was not as cute. We actually went to Tacoma to meet the dogs and the boy took to Janie right away. The girl was a more nervous dog. So no big dog, no rescue and no female.

We had to wait several weeks until Finnegan was old enough to come home with us, but he has arrived and I couldn’t be happier! He is smart and mellow and funny. Leslie picked him up on the way home from work and brought him home Friday. Emma and Sarah came over to stay for the weekend, and everyone has been getting to know him.

A picture is worth a thousand words, so here they are:

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Another year, another broken bone!  This is number 8 in 6 years. Each time Janie has been laid up, she has lost a little bit of her mobility. I thought it was just because she couldn’t be active, but it turns out she has another problem called Ataxia. Basically this is a neurological condition that affects coordination and balance. It probably explains many of the falls she’s had over the years, but it was only recently diagnosed. We still don’t know the cause and we don’t know the prognosis. In the past 6 months, her ability to walk has diminished considerably.  She also sprained her knee a couple of months ago, and has not been able to get around by herself at all since then.

Once she had the diagnosis, she decided to restart physical therapy. Previous PT had been specific to rehab the various fractures that she’d had, but this phyiscal therapy is more generalized to address the coordination as well as recovery from the knee sprain and strengthening from the years of inactivity. She was improving, too! She was beginning to do some walking with a walker and working toward less dependence on the wheelchair, although she didn’t go very far. 

Unfortunately, while using the walker at home, she lost her balance and fell. We had allowed a lapse in safety precautions, so that the wheelchair and the walker were between me and her. (I should have been behind her.) When she fell backwards, she caught herself with her wrist and actually bent the titanium plate that was there from her first surgery in 2012.

The good news, if there is any, is that the plate probably prevented a more serious fracture like the one she had in 2016. She had surgery on June 15 and she is doing well, although still in some pain. She is determined to restart physical therapy and will probably do so next week.

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It is ironic that my last post was about backing up multiple ways. Since I made that post, my network hard drive failed for good, I had previously discovered that a program that was supposed to inform me when a backup job failed wasn’t notifying me that it was unable to connect with the network drive, and CrashPlan announced that they were getting out of the consumer backup business. That perfect storm means that I have to completely reestablish a new backup plan.

I could continue with CrashPlan on a small business subscription, but it would be much more expensive for all our computers. There are services similar to CrashPlan, but they don’t necessarily do everything CrashPlan did. There are also other programs than my rather outdated stand-alone program that has stopped sending me emails.

After researching the problem, I decided that the best solution for me was a new network drive and Acronis True Image 2018, which also allows for backing up to the cloud. This will enable me to back  up all of our computers on the network and send copies to the cloud. So far, the program is sending me confirmation emails, too. At the moment, I am using a trial version, but I’m pretty sure I will pay the $120 per year cost for all the computers.

One of the problems with setting up a new backup scheme is that the process of doing a full backup can be very time consuming. Once everything is set up to operate automatically, it won’t be a problem, but it can take nearly a month to back up a big hard drive when you are sending it to the cloud. Also, some of our computers are getting old and are slow, so that adds to the time. Multiply that by 4 computers, and it is a pain. At least I will have network backups of all the computers while the cloud backup is going on, and CrashPlan will work for a couple more months so I have the data I have previously backed up.

I could be doing something more fun with my time, like building tiny computers or woodworking, but this is a necessary precaution.

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Janie’s latest visit to the orthopedist was today, and the results were very encouraging! Two weeks ago, the doctor did not feel that she had healed enough to start physical therapy. This time, as he showed us the x-rays he pointed out quite a bit of new bone growth since the last time.

The doctor now wants her to stop using her sling most of the time and let her arm move more freely. He also gave instructions to start “mild” physical therapy.

Janie has also needed less pain medication in the last week, and has made good progress in getting around by herself. (Her multiple fractures over the last few years have impacted her balance and stamina so that even though she broke her shoulder this time, her mobility was also affected.) She had previous experience doing tasks one-handed, and now she has started doing things for herself again.

We have been planning to take Emma, Sarah and Leslie to Universal Studios this summer and the trip is coming up in a couple of weeks. We were a little concerned about whether Janie could handle it, even with accommodations, but now we are much more confident that we can have a good trip.

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As I reported a few weeks ago, Janie broke her shoulder. It has now been 4 weeks since the injury and she is making progress. The reason I called it “mixed progress” is that on the one hand we have gotten in the groove for giving her the help she needs and she is steadily able to do more and more for herself, but on the other hand, this type of fracture is painful during healing. Janie’s sister Katie has come over twice from Selah to stay with us for several days at a time, and Leslie has also been here several times. We both appreciate their help immensely. Besides sharing the care responsibilities, it gave me a couple opportunities to do something fun away from the house (don’t tell Janie). We have been eating pretty well. Although we’ve had offers of food, it was easier to plan our own meals, with Janie finding recipes on the web and me cooking them. A couple of days ago, Leslie, Emma and Sarah joined us for a delicious slow cooker pork loin and another day we had a kind of ceviche-shrimp cocktail hybrid.

As I mentioned before, they don’t put a cast or splint on her kind of fracture—just a sling. Her arm can move and it hurts when she does. She’s also been through several sets of x-rays, which require her to get in awkward positions, and an excruciating ultrasound exam checking for blood clots. It’s clear that she is getting better though. At the beginning, she couldn’t stand for her arm to be touched. Now she can be touched and she can move it around, although it is still painful.

I am proud of how Janie has kept working on making progress in getting around and doing things for herself—she has kept a positive attitude and is also very conscious of how this whole process affects me. We’ll keep on working on the healing. Meanwhile, if you don’t hear much from us, it’s because that’s pretty much what’s going on in our lives right now.

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Well, I think I jinxed her. Just last month I was commenting that Janie had gone a whole year with no broken bones. One month later–you guessed it–she fell and broke her shoulder. Actually, the doctor said people don’t break their shoulders, they break the upper arm near the shoulder or they break one of several other bones that make up the shoulder. In Janie’s case, she broke the humerus–the arm bone–just below the ball joint. Needless to say, this is a discouraging development and a setback to regaining the activities she’d like to be able to do.  This is number 7 in 5 years.

The good news, if there is any, is that she has seen the orthopedic doctor and he recommended against surgery. He said that when the bone is in a reasonably good position, the results of surgery have not improved the results. So she will avoid having a wound to heal, anesthesia, etc. In fact, she is only using a sling. They can’t splint or cast the break. Healing will take a while and she is in pain, but she is in reasonably good spirits under the circumstances.

We are still getting organized to accommodate her needs and limitations. We are incredibly thankful that Leslie was with us over the weekend when the break happened. Emma and Sarah were also with us, and helped out as well. Since Leslie had to return to work, I called Janie’s sister, Katie, who dropped what she was doing to come over and stay for a few days. Jess even offered to come up from San Francisco, but I think we will be OK once we get back in the swing of managing the injury.

Meanwhile, we will appreciate all your good thoughts!

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I haven’t posted to this blog for a while, because I’ve been busy with nothing new and exciting. But for the last few nights, I’ve been watching the International Space Station (ISS) fly overhead and it is exciting to watch! Last night was the best of all–not only did I see the ISS, but I could see a supply ship following it. With the clear skies, the view was spectacular!

My interest in watching the ISS came from a ham radio friend (LW, K7LWA) who has been posting sighting information on a blog recently. He has gotten a bunch of us who hang out on the air interested in watching for it.

I got to share the experience with my sister-in-law, Katie, who was visiting for the night. We went out to the condo parking lot and watched the first pass shortly after 10 PM, and we spotted the Dragon Supply Ship following the ISS. That was an unexpected bonus. I had read in the paper in the morning about the launch of the supply ship, but I wasn’t expecting to see it. As the bright ISS passed overhead, we noticed a dimmer light following behind. At first we thought it was a star, and then realized it was moving, so we thought it was a plane. Finally, I recalled the launch of the supply ship and realized that’s probably what it was. While we were watching a carload of neighbors happened to pull into the parking lot, so I pointed it out to them, much to their amazement and delight.

After the sighting, I came back in and got back on the radio, which was buzzing with excitement and speculation about seeing the trailing satellite. We all concluded that it was the Dragon. With another pass to occur near midnight, several of us planned to stay up to see if the follower was closer than on the previous pass. Katie and I went out to look again, but unfortunately, this pass was lower in the sky and the ISS disappeared into the earth’s shadow partway into the pass, before we could try to spot the Dragon.

There is another pass tonight, which should be quite visible at around 11:01 PM, Seattle time. This pass is lower in the sky than the first pass last night, but it sill should be very bright. An even better pass occurs on Tuesday might at 10:09 PM, nearly straight overhead.

By tonight’s pass, the Dragon will have already docked, so it won’t be visible. However, I read that in order to dock the Dragon, they have to undock a previous supply ship, so I suppose it’s possible that it will be visible. I’ll be watching for it!

For more information, here is a web link to the schedule. Heavens Above.  If you click on the date on any line, you can see a sky map showing the path of the ISS, and where it will disappear. Tomorrow night will be well worth viewing the ISS. It will be the brightest it’s been since May 27, and since it will pass almost directly overhead, it will be visible for a longer time.

If you are in an area other than Seattle, you can click on “Seattle” in the box in the upper right corner of the page and change the location.

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More progress! Since Janie’s last couple of broken bones, she has not driven. In fact, we loaned her car to Leslie for many months because we thought it was a waste of a good car (and lease mileage we’d paid for) to have the car sit unused.

We’ve had the car back for a month, but Janie felt she be for comfortable driving after a couple of practice sessions. The weather has been so crappy during days when we had time to drive that we just got around to it. We went over to a large church parking lot, and it didn’t take her long to get the feel of being behind the wheel again. After about 1/2 hour, she drove to Katie’s house nearby to show Emma and Sarah her progress, and then she drove us home. Good job, Janie!

Of course, I reminded her that parking lots are the most dangerous places to drive!

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It’s been a while since I posted to this blog—it’s been a busy season! It seems like I’ve been working more lately and then came the holidays and several trips, so I haven’t had much time to write. Now things are calming down, I have some updates.

I’ve taken six short trips recently, photo trips to Fir Island and to Long Beach with my friend Roger, to at a vacation home on the beach in Mason County after Thanksgiving, to Leavenworth for the tree lighting, to Canada—Madeira Park—about 60 miles and a ferry ride north of Vancouver, BC and recently to Bellingham for a photo exhibition and a Radio and Electricity Museum. In between those trips, I was working a couple of days a week and getting ready for Christmas. I also made a couple of trips to the workshop in there somewhere. I also took a 2-Saturday course to get my ham radio license, and passed the test. (I am now K7RCH.) I’ll post about my activities in a series of shorter posts.

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A great weekend leading up to Halloween! We started with picking up Emma and Sarah from their early school release. Leslie joined us after work, and we went pumpkin hunting and the local fruit stand. We decided to wait until Saturday morning for the artistic work. The girls are old enough now to pick out their own designs and carve their own pumpkins. I didn’t get a pumpkin but instead served as advisor, helping with some of the more difficult parts like muscling the top out and fetching supplies.

Here are the girls working intently on their pumpkins.

Meanwhile in the kitchen, Janie is harvesting the seeds for roasting, Sweet and Spicy and Salt and Pepper varieties.

And here are the final results.

During the past couple of weeks, we arranged with niece Jennifer DeSanto to get together with their family for a pre-Halloween get-together. Katie had asked me quite a while ago to make a giant Jenga game for her family, so I wanted to finally get it done before our get-together.

Everyone seemed to enjoy the game a lot and they were able reach the sky with the tower!

We had a great evening!

The girls went home after the party, but Leslie stayed overnight again and went to walk the greyhounds with me in the morning.

They set a record with 15 walkers this morning!

(If you are thinking about getting a dog, talk to me about greyhounds.)

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Last week, my aunt Marjorie passed away. Some of my earliest memories are from visiting the farm in Palouse on our trips out west from New York. Margorie had 4 girls close in ages to my brothers and I so we always had a great time. Richard and Marjorie moved to a different property after we were grown, but it was still a great place to visit. The new place is where we used to take the balloon, launching from the back yard and flying over the beautiful Palouse wheat fields. Marjorie and Richard were so hospitable!

For a full description of Marjorie’s life, here is her obituary.

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Janie made another visit to the hand doctor today, and he was really pleased with her progress. He was surprised at how well and how quickly her bones had healed, particularly the scaphoid bone, which often has difficulty healing. He was also very pleased with her motion and flexibility which is a direct result of her diligence in exercising her hand from the beginninng. The doctor told her she “gradulated” today and does not need to come back to see him any more. He also said she did not need any supplement physical therapy–just return to her normal activities. Way to go Janie! I am really proud of you! 

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I’ve been busy this week so I didn’t have time to report on Janie’s progress, but she went to the hand doctor last week and the leg doctor this week. Both were very happy with the progress of her healing. He still wants her to wear it outside for another few weeks, the hand doctor told her to stop wearing her wrist splint in the house, and she can take it off to drive starting next week. He thought it was unlikely that she would need to go through physical therapy since she had done such a good job exercising her wrist on her own.

The leg doctor told her he’d like to see her again “in two or three years” to see how things were going, but she is healing fine.

Good job, Janie!

(Since she doesn’t need to wear the splint, Janie has been able to do much more around the house, including cooking. It helps free up my time, as well as making her feel less dependent.)

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Today, Janie went back to the wrist surgeon for x-rays and follow up, and he was very encouraged! He said that her bones were healing much faster than he expected, including the scaphoid bone, which can be difficult to heal. In addition, her ability to move her hand, close her fist etc. was well ahead of what he expected. He attributed it to her diligence in exercising the hand and fingers. Although she will continue to wear the splint for another month, the doctor told her to leave it off most of the time. She will wear it when moving around where she could fall, but she can do light activities and keep it off while sitting. I am very proud of her diligence and compliance to help speed up the healing.  Jess and I are having out for a week-long road trip beginning Sunday, and this makes me much more confident that Janie can get along without my being here.

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• Last week, Janie saw the doctor again and her cast was removed. Instead, she got this sexy new custom fit splint. She had a choice of black or beige for the splint, so she decided to go with black and get the bright pink Velcro. She can take the splint off to shower or to put lotion on her arm and can even just take a break from it if she is not moving around. It’s also much lighter then the cast. 

The best news was that the doctor was extremely  pleased with the progress of her healing and said that her compliance with his instructions probably contributed by not stressing the bones. She has begun some physical therapy for her hand, and she has a little more use of her hand than she did with the cast. I see her able to do more every day.

Janie also went to another doctor this week, who started her on medication to strengthen her bones and hopefully reduce the risk of breaks in the future.

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I’ve been meaning to post an update on Janie for a while. She is doing well–bones appear to be healing OK. She got a new cast a couple of weeks ago. This one is a hard cast once the post-surgery swelling reduced. The hard cast had to be replaced once because swelling continued to go down. In a couple more weeks, she may get a removeable cast, which will allow her some relief from the cast and allow her to wash without having to cover up her arm. She continues to figure out ways to manage with her limitations, She especially wants to help me around the house so that everything is not on me. She’s been able to help a little with cooking, putting away dishes, putting on laundry and folding clothes.

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This IS the reassembled chair, not the “Before” picture.

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Janie’s hand surgery went well today. The doctor was very pleased. I had been a little confused about the extent of the fractures because it seemed as though at one point when he first saw her, he said she had 8 fractures, and at another point he seemed to say that she had 4. It turns out that she had about 10 fractures in 4 places. He said everything moved back into place nicely and is held together with a plate, screws and wires.

The “Before” x-ray is not very clear, but you can clearly see that the top of the large arm bone is shifted over by about 40%. There are several fractures in the top piece. The other fractures are more difficult to see.

The “After”  x-ray shows all the screws and the plate installed to keep everything in place.

Janie came out of the anesthesia nicely. Of course she was in pain and has meds for the pain, so she’ll be pretty wiped out for the next few days. Gradually, she can switch to less powerful meds and begin doing more. The pain should be considerably reduced now that the bones are stabillized. She will be in a cast for up to 3 months. The main concern is the scaphoid bone–a small bone in her hand (uppper right in the “After” x-ray). It broke into 3 pieces that are now held together with a screw. The doctor said this is one of the most difficult bones to heal, and that’s why she’ll have to be in the cast for so long. However, after about 2 weeks, she will be switched to a smaller cast that allows her more movement in the elbow, and after about 6 weeks, she’ll get a cast that can be removed temporarily for showering, etc. She won’t be able to do too much physical therapy until the cast comes off, so she’ll still have some rehabilitation to go after the first 3 months.

Thank you all for the expressions of support we’ve gotten, both in blog comments and on Facebook. We are very thankful that she didn’t do more serious damage, and that the surgery went well.

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On Friday, May 19, Janie fell again and broke her wrist. We were taking a granddaughter for ice cream at Dairy Queen and she fell in the parking lot. We didn’t even make it in for the ice cream!

It’s frustrating for both of us! She has been improving since she was non-weight bearing for 3 months after she broke her leg in September. It has taken a long time to regain her strength and stamina, but she has been working on it. I think she was still a little unsteady, having switched from a walker back to a cane, and just hit an uneven spot on a walkway. She lost her balance and fell backwards. When she falls, she breaks. The good news is that she did not break any lower extremities and she broke her left wrist (she’s right-handed).

Two of the doctors she saw described the break in layman’s terms as “You really did a number on your wrist!” She broke it in 4 places, including a small bone in the hand that apparently can be hard to heal without surgery. Even with that, she will be in a cast for up to 3 months. (She may get a removable cast part way into that time.)

Jess will be here visiting for the next week, so I expect that he’ll help make the hardest period easier. Of course, Leslie is a great help, too. She already came up last Friday to help out. We appreciate your good thoughts and prayers if you are so inclined, and we’ll keep you posted on her progress.

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Well! I am on a trip to Washington D.C. with 32 pretty well-behaved 8th graders, and I thought I would have time to post pictures every day, but our tour guide is a tyrant!

We arrived Monday afternoon after a cross-country flight and got on a bus for a 2-hour bus trip to Williamsburg. We had a short dinner break along the way and then in Williamsburg we attended a great African-American music presentation. We finally got to our hotel about 10 pm. Even though it was only 7 pm Seattle time, it had been a long day! The next morning, we got up at 5:45. ate breakfast and were on the bus by 7:15. This time, we went until about 9:30 pm. Mind you, almost the entire day was walking. Today we started out at the same time and ended about the same time, after walking a total of about 13 miles as measured by one of the parents’ Fitbit. So no,  I have not had time to go through all the photos, but I  will give you this one of Emma and two friends at the Jamestown fort.

Emma and friends in Jamestown armor

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Another step forward, although technically, it is not a step. Janie has been cleared to drive whenever she felt comfortable with it, but she wanted to be able to get to the car by herself and be independent enough to not have to worry about getting a walker in and out of the car. She is there now and we took our first drive with her at the wheel.

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It’s been quite a while since I posted an update on Janie’s progress, and she has been steadily improving. About a month ago, she began outpatient physical therapy, even though she was dealing with very painful Achilles tendonitis. Nevertheless, she pushed on. She has increased her stamina and her ability to do things like work in the kitchen, and we’ve gone out to restaurants and a play. The milestones haven’t been quite as dramatic as some of the earlier ones–until now. Yesterday at physical therapy I witnessed a big step, figuratively and literally. Today, she went “Beast Mode” again, and I get to share it with you.

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A quick project in the shop. I hope it is inviting to one of the local hummingbirds. I think I can reach a tree near my deck with a pole or broom.

In response to a question from Chuck Michener, here is another photo showing the size.  That’s a package of tissue for scale. I can’t show you the inside because the top is screwed on with square-drive screws and I don’t have the right screwdriver at home. This birdhouse is made from a 4×4 with the corners cut off, and hollowed out with a Forstner bit, so except for the top, it is one solid block.

I had to come up with a birdhouse installation tool to get the birdhouse in the tree.

And it worked!

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It’s been a long time since I’ve posted to this blog–I seriously overestimated the amount of time I would have to work on photo editing and posting. But Janie is doing much better. At a recent visit with her surgeon, she learned that he was really pleased with her healing progress, and in fact said that her bones were fully healed. Now, she just needs to continue gaining strength and stamina. The rehab is long and at times painful, but she continues to work hard to make steady progress. I’m really impressed with her determination. Her immediate goal has been to get to the point that she can do most things for herself, and she is almost there.

She still needs a walker for now, but she can now do most of the activities she previously needed help with.  That is beginning to free me up, so that I have been able to take a couple of breaks from home, without worrying about how she is getting along and catch up on the blog.

In catching up, I decided to separate my post into separate topics, so I am posting this one which will show up first, but the rest of them are in reverse order, so you can start with The Drone and scroll up.

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I haven’t posted much lately because I haven’t had anything much of interest to post.  I have been continuing to work on building a work bench, and as it is with many projects, the last 10 percent of the detail work takes a loonnng time!

It seems as though I’ve been working on this bench forever. I made some wooden jaws for the vise, and I had to remove the vise to install them, then reinstall it. Then I drilled 15 “dog holes” in the top and two more on the vise jaw. (Drilling that many holes in 1-1/2″ thick maple is time-consuming and eats up drill bits!) The dog holes accept bench dogs–the pegs you can see in the picture–that are used to clamp wood to the bench top for working. I still need to put some finish into the holes to protect the top from absorbing moisture.

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While walking the beach at Harstine Island last week, I saw many sand dollars. I have never seen so many unbroken! The ones I have found in the past have always been broken, and I have heard (but I can’t confirm) that they are eaten by starfish. We happen to have a starfish crisis right now–they are dying off in huge numbers. I wondered if that is why there are so many intact shells on the beach.

Usually, sand dollars are white, but I came across some purple ones. While examining this one more closely, it appeared to be moving–almost like it was breathing–and I realized it must be alive. I don’t think I have ever seen this before, especially not the hypnotiic motion. (Forgive me for the quality of video. I have not practiced much doing video with my DSLR.)

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Another of the Greatest Generation has left us. My Uncle George served during World War II in the South Pacific. Although I wasn’t as close to him as some of my Western-Washington relatives, hewas one of the most pleasant people I have ever known, and he will be missed.  Here is a link to a  very well-written memorial: George Gallaher.

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I have written about making bread before (6/20/14 and 1/10/15), but the recipies I was using made several loaves at a time. I wanted to try scaling the recipe to make just one loaf, either because I wouldn’t be using it soon enough, or because I want to try a specialty loaf. I made the basic recipe, and it worked out fine. If you want to try it and don’t have a big 6-quart container, a large mixing bowl will work.  Here are the proportions;

1 c. (8 oz.) Water
2 c. (10.6 oz.) Flour
3 gr. Yeast
8 gr. Salt

You might want to cut back on the water by about an ounce-I thought my dough came out a little on the loose side, so the loaf spread out more than I would have liked. You could also use a small bread pan, especially if you don’t have a pizza stone.

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