BUSH DIARY SEPTEMBER 1995:
Labor Day weekend: Was noisy around the 12-plex. All sorts of heavy duty equipment working the back scraping etc. Keep the dirt level to cut down on places for mosquitoes to live. Thanks Guys!
Workshop: I will be attending a birth certificate workshop in a couple weeks. Tim will accompany me. Yay for us. We have a shopping list.
NPR: Discovered "Car Talk" hilarious.
Computer news: Area tells me that the computer will be shipped soon with tech to do the install. Hurry, hurry, hurry!!
Recap: A whale was taken, a 57 foot (57 tons measures one ton per foot) landed on the beach by the Okpeaha crew. A 49 foot whale was landed also. They like to make mikiaq. That is where whale meat and a pickled in blood. This creates a sweet and sour taste and is quite a delicacy.
Went out to Arctic Pizza for my birthday. Watched a small barge ferry between the big barge and the beach.
Home news: All the siblings made it home for a visit, except us. They all went to Jackpot. Mom and Dad were left sitting in the car at one point. That only took over 40 years to happen. Phil and Jody won an eleven hundred last minute jackpot. The others won small jackpots.
Dad was pooped when they got back and decided to see the VA. He has been diagnosed with CA of the prostate, very slow over 20 years. He was checked in and they are going to try strontium 90 this binds to the hot spots in his bones. Hemoglobin got bumped as well.
Other news: Nephew David got married to Amy George. They are both in the Navy. She is shipping out to Mississippi. He is based in San Diego. Hmmm.
My friend, Barb Whelan, is taking off for Greece by way of Copenhagen and the various small Greek islands. That girl can have fun in a room all by herself, so she will be immensely entertained.
Illness: Mom called. Dad is in ICU at the VA. His respirations were depressed because he was not absorbing the morphine. Um, I am pretty sure the respirations were depressed because of too MUCH morphine. Cut back the dose dummies. Mom will stay in Boise with Paul and Wanda for a few days.
9-11: Mom called to say that Dad was worse and to come home. I canceled the trip to Anchorage and books a fast trip to Boise for (hold your breath) 1700 bucks. Tim followed two days later as he had problems booking Bradford.
Mom and Carla picked me up at the airport. Mom said they had done a CAT scan and the cancer has metastasized to his brain and was diffuse. We drove straight to the VA. Dad was in surgical ward because medical was full. He looked awful in that bed, NB tube, on oxygen. Hand grasping the bed rail. I held his hand put my forehead there and wept and told him I loved him. He was awake but his eyes were not tracking.
The medical floor nurses were very kind to us. They moved a broken bed into the room so he wouldn't get another patient. There were all of us kids (seven), Mom, various other relatives and visitors. The nurses said that they hardly ever saw a family response such as ours.
Dad roused gradually and was able to converse and we even played a couple hands of pinochle. It looked like he would go into a temporary long term care situation so Carla, Jim and Ellen all went back home to, Seattle, Casper and Elizabeth respectively.
He was transferred to Hospice care at the VA and three days later he died 9-20-95. Everyone who had returned flew back as well as David who came from San Diego.
We had a mercifully brief funeral. One of the members of the VFW spoke briefly. We were all too grief stricken to even tell funny stories. Those would come much later. The ladies of the VFW hall gave a dinner and about 50 people went over there. It was a very long day.
Mom is doing well. She got a new eye prescription rather than undergo cataract surgery this soon. Later this fall after she has seen her doctors she may decide on surgery. My return was for the 26th and away we returned to Barrow.
There was one sort of amusement on the return flight. There were a couple of gentleman seated a couple rows in back of us. They both had deep voices and burbled away in something Nordic. I amused myself with their purpose. They deplaned in Anchorage with their rifle cases. Ah, of course.
Next day after getting home, Tim and I went out to Pepe's for breakfast and we were munching away when I heard a very familiar burble. It was the same two Nordic guys. Apparently here in Barrow for some game. Or maybe lookie loos.
Tim had a hard time getting a decent baked potato in Idaho. We ate dinner at GeriKen's one night. Tim got a baked potato that was raw in places. I myself got ice cold frozen halibut. Would like this cooked please. Ordered something else and got the halibut free. geee
Carla recommended a Kinky Freidman book, "Armadillos and Old Lace". The gumshoe was describing one of the characters. "She was a grizzled old thing and got around on one of those Jerry Jeff aluminum walkers. Her name was Marsupial or something". I laughed right out loud. So rude.
A sad month. Would rather not do that again. G'night folks.
Labor Day weekend: Was noisy around the 12-plex. All sorts of heavy duty equipment working the back scraping etc. Keep the dirt level to cut down on places for mosquitoes to live. Thanks Guys!
Workshop: I will be attending a birth certificate workshop in a couple weeks. Tim will accompany me. Yay for us. We have a shopping list.
NPR: Discovered "Car Talk" hilarious.
Computer news: Area tells me that the computer will be shipped soon with tech to do the install. Hurry, hurry, hurry!!
Recap: A whale was taken, a 57 foot (57 tons measures one ton per foot) landed on the beach by the Okpeaha crew. A 49 foot whale was landed also. They like to make mikiaq. That is where whale meat and a pickled in blood. This creates a sweet and sour taste and is quite a delicacy.
Went out to Arctic Pizza for my birthday. Watched a small barge ferry between the big barge and the beach.
Home news: All the siblings made it home for a visit, except us. They all went to Jackpot. Mom and Dad were left sitting in the car at one point. That only took over 40 years to happen. Phil and Jody won an eleven hundred last minute jackpot. The others won small jackpots.
Dad was pooped when they got back and decided to see the VA. He has been diagnosed with CA of the prostate, very slow over 20 years. He was checked in and they are going to try strontium 90 this binds to the hot spots in his bones. Hemoglobin got bumped as well.
Other news: Nephew David got married to Amy George. They are both in the Navy. She is shipping out to Mississippi. He is based in San Diego. Hmmm.
My friend, Barb Whelan, is taking off for Greece by way of Copenhagen and the various small Greek islands. That girl can have fun in a room all by herself, so she will be immensely entertained.
Illness: Mom called. Dad is in ICU at the VA. His respirations were depressed because he was not absorbing the morphine. Um, I am pretty sure the respirations were depressed because of too MUCH morphine. Cut back the dose dummies. Mom will stay in Boise with Paul and Wanda for a few days.
9-11: Mom called to say that Dad was worse and to come home. I canceled the trip to Anchorage and books a fast trip to Boise for (hold your breath) 1700 bucks. Tim followed two days later as he had problems booking Bradford.
Mom and Carla picked me up at the airport. Mom said they had done a CAT scan and the cancer has metastasized to his brain and was diffuse. We drove straight to the VA. Dad was in surgical ward because medical was full. He looked awful in that bed, NB tube, on oxygen. Hand grasping the bed rail. I held his hand put my forehead there and wept and told him I loved him. He was awake but his eyes were not tracking.
The medical floor nurses were very kind to us. They moved a broken bed into the room so he wouldn't get another patient. There were all of us kids (seven), Mom, various other relatives and visitors. The nurses said that they hardly ever saw a family response such as ours.
Dad roused gradually and was able to converse and we even played a couple hands of pinochle. It looked like he would go into a temporary long term care situation so Carla, Jim and Ellen all went back home to, Seattle, Casper and Elizabeth respectively.
He was transferred to Hospice care at the VA and three days later he died 9-20-95. Everyone who had returned flew back as well as David who came from San Diego.
We had a mercifully brief funeral. One of the members of the VFW spoke briefly. We were all too grief stricken to even tell funny stories. Those would come much later. The ladies of the VFW hall gave a dinner and about 50 people went over there. It was a very long day.
Mom is doing well. She got a new eye prescription rather than undergo cataract surgery this soon. Later this fall after she has seen her doctors she may decide on surgery. My return was for the 26th and away we returned to Barrow.
There was one sort of amusement on the return flight. There were a couple of gentleman seated a couple rows in back of us. They both had deep voices and burbled away in something Nordic. I amused myself with their purpose. They deplaned in Anchorage with their rifle cases. Ah, of course.
Next day after getting home, Tim and I went out to Pepe's for breakfast and we were munching away when I heard a very familiar burble. It was the same two Nordic guys. Apparently here in Barrow for some game. Or maybe lookie loos.
Tim had a hard time getting a decent baked potato in Idaho. We ate dinner at GeriKen's one night. Tim got a baked potato that was raw in places. I myself got ice cold frozen halibut. Would like this cooked please. Ordered something else and got the halibut free. geee
Carla recommended a Kinky Freidman book, "Armadillos and Old Lace". The gumshoe was describing one of the characters. "She was a grizzled old thing and got around on one of those Jerry Jeff aluminum walkers. Her name was Marsupial or something". I laughed right out loud. So rude.
A sad month. Would rather not do that again. G'night folks.
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