Saturday, November 5, 2011

CHANGING, TIME & A FULL MOON


Unlike a lot of people I don’t get all annoyed about shifting to and from daylight savings time.  Yes, it means a week of messed up sleep habits, but I welcome making good use of extra sunlight in the summer and squeezing every drop of light out of the sun in the winter. 

When the time change arrived this fall—way too late—it brought to mind another change, more personal.  I spent last March 15 in surgery for several hours. I remember coming out of anesthesia in the O.R. and hearing my surgeon dictating his notes:   “No sign of cancer.”  I recall little else of what he said but that outstanding sentence remained in my mind.

My hospital stay lasted for several days.  Most of it I try to forget.  Some of it, thanks to morphine, I can’t remember.  But I do recollect one very early morning when even the pain meds wouldn’t help me sleep.  The window in my room faced to the west and I could almost see the full moon setting through the blinds.  I unraveled myself from the sheets and call button, pulled off a monitor and hauled my body and my i.v. on a pole to the window.  

I opened the curtains and watched that big fat moon ease itself down into some soft pink clouds on the horizon.  The town below was slowly set in motion. 

A nurse came in to find out why the monitor was off.  She stayed by me for a moment to enjoy the view before hustling me back to my crib. 

The surgeon, his team and the other hospital people did their job well. Except for some small scars I’m almost better than before.

Experiences like that make you think.  They help you realize what you’ve had, what you might have lost and what you’ve taken for granted.  I only wish every search for cancer had the same result.

Friday, November 4, 2011

THE STATE OF IDAHO--Busting the Myth

Children are taught in school that the United States has fifty states.  It’s an accepted fact.  However, with a little research the conclusion may be that Idaho is a baseless myth.

Not counting me do YOU know anyone from Idaho?  According to the 2010 census there are 1,567,582 people in Idaho.  If there are so many Idahoers where are they?  Idaho is supposed to be TWICE the size of Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut and Massachusetts combined.  Isn’t it strange that a place claiming to be so big has so few people?

What about Idaho Potatoes?  Almost any supermarket in the United States has sacks of potatoes with the Idaho label.  People think they were “grown” in Idaho.  This is probably just the name of that variety potato like Bing Cherries, Jonathan Apples or Iceberg Lettuce.  

If you look at the United States on a satellite photo can you figure out where Idaho is supposed to be?   It’s impossible to locate the borders of this state without the help of an overlay of a map.  Even people who forecast weather pretty much ignore Idaho.  They will tell us about storms all around the region but seldom mention this bogus state.

Try to find an airline that flies into Idaho.  Delivery service and the U.S. Mail have addresses in Idaho but have you ever received anything from Idaho?

If you ask most people the location of Idaho they guess somewhere near Iowa or Ohio.  Even though I claim to be from Idaho I’M not even sure where it is. Ask me about the dimensions of the place; or to name more than one or two towns or rivers and I get kind of foggy about the facts.  

If I drive for a day to the east I’m supposed to be in Wyoming

All that is there are miles of dirt, brush, eighteen wheeler trucks 

and an occasional antelope.  
If I travel one or two days to the west 

I’ll see pretty much the same things until I go through some mountains
 to what is called the “Oregon Coast.” 
If I go southwest into “Nevada” it’s even worse plus there are no antelope.  

If I travel either north or south on Interstate Fifteen 
I’ll see more open range with only a scattering of cattle 
and a few pockets of civilization for hours and hours.

 So what is Idaho?  Nothing.  People have been brainwashed by the map-making community to believe Idaho exists.  All the so called “evidence” of the reality of Idaho is a mixture of falsifications, lies and exaggerations.  So if I seem a little confused about what is going on and where I am, most of the time just remember I’m living in my own private Idaho.

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

RANDOM PHOTOS

Just random photos I found in my files while looking for something else...

Awesome sunrise I saw while on a morning walk

Backlit leaves on a sunny afternoon

Basket of peppers at a wonderful Farmers Market

Seagull in the blue, blue water of Bellingham Bay

Sparrows wishing they had flown south with all the other birds

Spider cursing me for walking through her web. 
 I swear if I'd seen it I would have gone out of my way to miss both web
AND spider.