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It’s human nature, I suppose, to wait. Everyone I know has waited for something. The first flakes of snow for the season to fall. Enough snow covering the ground to play in. Christmas, New Years, a vacation time. Or perhaps something more “important”, like news of a promotion, or test results or a good friend to arrive from out of town. I know I have had my fair share of waiting too.

I wonder though, have we always been creatures of waiting? Or at one time, when life was a day to day, or hour to hour or even a minute to minute struggle- just to stay alive, did we not even consider the future? Did we live in the moment as we all know is said to be so healthy for one’s mental state these days? I believe we did, at one point, pay little attention to the 4th dimension. In fact, I believe that we as a species did it for so long, that our minds were shaped for that. The creature comforts of today’s lifestyle have allowed us to not concern ourselves or even pay much attention to the present moment and thus we think about the future.

Such is the thief of much of our happiness. We wait and worry, or wait and become unsatisfied by the wait. Yet, all around us, wonderful things are happening. Sometimes it takes a tragedy in our lives to become aware of the simple beauty of just being able to go about life freely. To walk down the sidewalk, breathe in the fresh outdoor air, hear the birds in the trees, or the wind rustling the leaves. I have found myself in those situations many a time. Staring out the window of a hospital room, watching cars drive down the road, people walking down the sidewalk. Most of them not paying any attention to the moment at hand, but rather thinking about the appointment they are going to, the work that awaits them when they get to their place of employment, what’s for dinner, will their child make the team? In those moments, I have wanted so to run out there, tubes and wires still attached to me, and let them know how fortunate they are, just to be outside.

Then I take stock of my own fortunes. I am able to get up and walk around, look out the window, even take a stroll down the hallway. Others are not as blessed. They are resigned to their beds for one reason or another. Perhaps they have more tubes sticking out of them, or more wires attached to them. Perhaps they may never be able to get up out of bed under their own free will again. Suddenly my feeling of misfortune turns to a feeling of gratitude. My situation is only temporary. In days or a week or two, I will once again be part of the population that is breathing the fresh air, feeling the sunshine on my face and letting the wind blow around what hair I have left on my head.

Why am I suddenly so philosophical? Well, the truth is, I have actually had these thoughts since I was 10 years old and battling cancer. So it is not new to me. Being stuck inside and not being able to frolic in the great outdoors is much harder to take as a ten year old than it is as a 54 year old. Although for me, it never gets easy. I have watched magnificent snow storms rage outside while confined to my hospital bed or room. I have seen incredible sunrises and sunsets over Lake Superior while interned. I have even seen a bald eagle soar on the winds from behind the glass of my hospital window.

I am getting ready for my next spell of time in the hospital. I do not yet know the exact date that it will take place, nor am I perfectly clear on how long I will be in for. I had my phone consultation with a physicians assistant last Tuesday and she gathered all of my info and has passed it along to the Dr that is the specialist in matters such as mine. So I am waiting to hear back from them. The P.A. said it would take around a week to ten days.

So here I “wait” to hear from them. I put that in quotes, because I really am not dwelling on it much at all. It will all happen in it’s own time and I have chosen to just live in the moment. Enjoy all I can about the present day. So far, so good. 

Based on the verbiage in the report sent to the Dr. and what the Dr. is a specialist at, it is looking very likely that I will be having my third open heart surgery while visiting the Mayo Clinic/St Mary’s. Not exactly the most fun type of surgery there is, but I have been down this road 2 previous times, so I know what to expect as far as recovery goes. I am hoping it will all happen sooner, rather than later, as I would love to be well on the road to being fully recovered by the time summer comes. There is a TON of stuff I want to do with Grace and Nora and I will have quite a bit of extra time to do it.

The reason for the extra time is that this Friday, April 16th, I will be retiring from all of my non-website work. I came to the conclusion that I just cannot go through another open heart surgery and get back to work while still in the hospital recovering from it. None of my customers have ever required me to return that quickly, but I know in the case of some of my work that I do for some businesses, they need a weather report every day. So just a few days off has me worrying that I am leaving them in the dark. I cannot ask them to give me a month off for this go around and my primary care doctor has been trying to get me to retire since my second open heart in 2011!

The retirement will also allow me to sleep in past 4am in the morning and I am 100% convinced that sleep, or lack of it, has a huge impact on my heart health. The retirement comes at least a few years earlier than I was planning on, but will not leave us in dire straights financially. Nora supports me 100% on this and of course Gracie is excited to finally have her dad to spend as much time with as we want.

It will be interesting to see how I feel about it. I know I will LOVE being able to sleep in longer and thus stay up later. I also know that I will love being able to completely relax on a vacation and not have to work while on it. I will also enjoy the extra time to be able to work on the shop and house. What I do wonder is will I miss the sense of accomplishment of my daily work load? I will still have the website to tend to? That has been my greatest source of joy from working for quite sometime, so I think I will be OK.

I am also looking forward to being able to spend more time on the website. There is a handful of things that need to be fixed and while I am not knowledgeable enough to fix most of them, I will have the time to work with someone that can.

For as long as I have been doing this website, I have always dreamt of doing it and woodworking. As soon I get past this little heart thing, I will be fully living the dream. Living in my dream spot, having an incredible wife and daughter and having my only work duties be the two things I love to do most. Nora is excited that I will have lots of free time to tend to the house duties, which I will gladly do. I do quite a bit already, but will be happy to let her be able to come home, have dinner ready, then relax and/or take a nice walk around the hood. She is also excited for me to no longer have the daily stresses of those other work duties.

It’s amazing how you can take your hands off the wheel and end up in a better place than you thought you were headed while driving. I truly am a very blessed person.

Good Night From the Keweenaw..
–JD

PS. Today’s feature picture is of the Laurium Glacier as of yesterday.

I thought I had better get out a journal soon, as there are things to share and I did not want them to go by the wayside.

First on the list is the latest on “How the Heart Beats”. Nora and I did travel to Wausau on Sunday and spent the night so that it would be easy to arrive at the hospital at 6:30 in the morning for my procedure. I did get in about 2 hours later than I was suppose to, but mainly due to the fact that my veins got really beat up from the chemotherapy I received as a child. So starting an IV can be a bit of a challenge, even to the most experienced medical professional. They did get one of the two going, so they wheeled me into the cath lab, gave me some silly juice and got the other going and then got the catheter inserted into my arm. 

The first thing they do is to get a good look at things and determine the best course of action. Unfortunately in my case that course of action was to pull the catheter out and call it a day. It was determined that the blockages were occurring in a manner that they did not feel comfortable going in and fixing. A bummer, but I also appreciate their recognition of the situation and not a need to be heroes. It was their opinion that to fix things, I would need to have another open heart surgery. Their thoracic surgical team reviewed things and also made the determination that they were not prepared to perform that surgery either.

So my case has now been referred to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester and I am just waiting to hear back from them to know the what and when of what’s next. I believe the three options range from as simple as them doing the stent work, to cracking me open and putting me on bypass for a third time, to the most extreme of getting a transplant. At this point, I am hoping for option one. Right now, with my current knowledge of things, my second choice would actually be number 3, as a “new” heart would make me feel like new again, even though it would be more risky than option number 2. So we shall see what Mayo says.

The weather was quite nice on both Sunday and Monday up here, although it was even nicer in Wausau where Nora and I were. Yesterday was significantly colder and windier, but the sun was out, which made it OK to be out, especially if you could get out of the wind.

It was decided that Nora, Grace and I would head to a friends beach so that the girls could do some beach combing.  They both really enjoy looking for the treasures that Lake Superior has decided to give up. Some of the more memorable have been pieces of china. It then makes us wonder where it came from. A cup or plate that somehow fell overboard, or perhaps from one of the ships that Lake Superior claimed in one of her many gales.

On the subject of gales, the Lake was in the midst of one when we were at the beach. We were on the leeward side of the peninsula, so the lake was quite calm along the shoreline, but looking out into the lake, whitecaps were forming and I could only imagine how things were out in the middle of the lake. While I did not get a clear picture, the sight of a lakes freighter heading for the shelter of Keweenaw Bay did send the message that it was rough! I brought up an app on my phone to see which ship it was and saw that it was the Ojibwa. Also showing up on the map, taking shelter in Bete Gris were three other ships and two more looked to be heading to take shelter on the east side of the peninsula, including the Paul Tregurtha, the “Queen of the Lakes”. 

I brought up the intended course for the Ojibwa and it showed that it was planning to head through the Portage Lake Waterway, so the girls and I scrambled into the vehicle to head the 1/2 mile or so to the south entry at White City to watch it come through. As we neared the entry, I fully expected to see it entering the waterway, but did not. Once we got to the breakers that protect the south entry, we saw the ship sitting off shore. It turns out that it had dropped anchor and was going to spend the night huddled off shore.

It did weigh anchor early in the morning, along with the others and resumed it’s journey to Thunder Bay from the Soo. It’s funny how we can see so many freighters each shipping season, yet get so excited every time we see one passing by. It would have been a huge thrill to watch it go through the waterway!

The strong winds of yesterday brought down cold air from the far northern reaches of Canada and that ended up touching off some snow showers in the early morning hours. I opened the door at 4:15 to head to work and was surprised to see a half inch or so of new snow had fallen! It was still snowing pretty good as I took the short walk to the shop and must have ended shortly after, as there was not much additional accumulation when I headed back to the house to take my breakfast break.

So I guess that about covers it for this one. I am not sure when I will write next, but will be sure to keep you all posted on the latest of “How the Heart Beats”!

Good Night From the Keweenaw..
-JD

Sending in this one early, as Grace has a skating show this afternoon and by the time we get back from that, it might be too late to write. Then the possibility that I may not even be in the office much on Monday exists (more on that in a tiny bit). So I figured I had better get this one out ASAP! The rush to write left me in a bit of a conundrum with regards to a title, thus the one I chose. 

I need to than all of you that sent in well wishes for my medical procedures. I did have the stress test on Friday, but have not gotten the results yet. I did see the cardiologist shortly after the test and he explained to me how things would go down from here. If the results of the stress test show no blockage, then the ablation will take place as scheduled this Wednesday the 24th. If the stress test shows a blockage, then they will do a heart catheterization on Tuesday, as sometimes the stress test can produce a false positive. If the heart catheterization shows no blockage or one that does not need to be addressed at this point, then the ablation will take place on Wednesday. If the heart cath reveals a stent is needed, then they will put the stent in at that time and my ablation will be delayed about a month, as my blood will need to be “thinned”  even more that it currently is and the ablation procedure would be too dangerous with the clotting ability so low. So we wait some more to know how things will play out.

It was a fairly uneventful week both weather wise and activity wise. The winter activities came to a screeching halt. Well, almost. I did see some posts on social media of folks that were still riding this week. Some locals and some from out of town. The latter really surprised me, as it really is taking a risk to travel here to ride based on the snow conditions. They also must be really hard-core snowmobilers and have some decent knowledge of where the snow will last better than other areas, as they did ride those areas. 

We have not lost all of our snow. The patches of bare ground have grown and the areas that do have snow only have around 5-6″. It’s hard telling how much longer that snow will last. The weekend was warm and now we look to cool back down and get rain. Typically rain will melt the snow fairly well, but it will be a cold rain, with temps in the upper 30’s to low 40’s. So the melting will be slower. There is also a wild card chance for a big snow event by next Sunday, but confidence is low on that idea. 

Even if all the snow is gone before the end of the month, we have a long brown April to go through before things start to turn green around here. If we don’t get a lot of rain, then things could still be fairly enjoyable in April, but if a fair amount of rain falls, then it becomes very clear why April is called the “mud month”. Either way, I will have things to keep me busy…especially if I can get the ablation and start to feel more energy.

On my way back from my appointments in Rhinelander, I stopped at the snowmobile race track in Eagle River to watch some of the snowcross racing they were doing there Friday and Saturday. I was given the VIP treatment and tour by a visitor to the site. He is the track Chaplin and pretty much goes by the nickname “Rev”! I got there about mid afternoon, so the crowds were not too bad, but by the time I was leaving, people were streaming in from all directions to take in the action. 

It may or may not have been desirable weather for the racers and their machines, but it was nearly ideal for the fans! Mid-50’s and clear blue skies made it very comfortable to be outside to watch the racers hop and bop their way around the track. The track does have suites that are enclosed and heated and have the capability to have drinks and some food in them, which would be ideal on a cold winters day/night, but on Friday the best seats were outside.

It really is amazing to watch these racers go around the track and hit the jumps off the mounds of snow created for the race. Here is a short video of the racers hitting the largest jump on the track. None of them hit it exceptionally hard in that video, but this picture illustrates how high up many of them would go when they decided to give-er before hitting the jump. 

I do have one final thing. I have ended the SnoScoop videos for this season. I mistakenly thought that when I closed my account with the folks that were hosting the videos, it would shut down the automatic payment process. Well, it doesn’t! So, if you are still subscribed to the videos, please go in and cancel your subscription. I do not know how to do that, as I did not have a subscription being the producer of the videos, but I know it can be done, as some already have canceled. I do have the capability to do it myself, but can only do it one at a time through a very slow process, so I would appreciate folks go in and cancel their own. At the end of the week, I will be going in and canceling the rest.

I think that just about covers it. It will be an interesting and hopefully positively eventful week for me and who knows, maybe when I write next week I will be talking about a major snowstorm hitting the Keweenaw!

Good Night from the Keweenaw..
–JD

We have now entered into the time of the year when things to talk about in the journal become harder and harder to come by. Not that I have been living the most adventurous life of late, but hopes are very high that will change in a little over a week with the fixing of my current heart issue.

There has been a new twist tossed into my heart issue. This past Tuesday I traveled to Wausau for a CT scan. They mapped my heart so that the surgeon has a good idea of how things look before he goes in there to do the ablation. The CT scan also revealed I have “High-grade stenosis of the proximal to mid left anterior descending coronary artery with poor contrast opacification of the mid to distal LAD.” Which my primary care Dr told me is a blockage of concern. So before I see my surgeon this Thursday afternoon, I am going to have a stress test done, chemically, to get a better look at the blockage(s). The CT scan was not done to look at those specifically, but I am glad that they found it! Last thing I want or need is a heart attack!

So depending on what the stress test reveals, we might have to delay the ablation or perhaps a heart catheterization can be done before the ablation on the 24th. Time will tell and hopefully the next time I write I will know!

Off the health update and onto what the journal is really for…It’s the time of the year when we are in between seasons. Winter is steadily heading for it’s finish line and what most consider spring weather is still about a month away. The upside to living where we live now is that spring does typically come sooner and the mud month is typically shorter. I did do a little look back to last year at this time and it appears as though we are around 2 weeks ahead of last year in the snow loss department. There is still snow on the ground in almost every spot in our yard, but some spots under the pines that are more sheltered have bare ground showing. There is also bare ground where I moved snow to make it easier for me to get to and from the shop and house. The driveways are also free from most of their snow and ice.

This past week the path between the house and shop as well as the driveways were pretty much solid ice. The reason being is that we had snow on them last week at this time, then got the heavy rain on Wednesday, which got absorbed by the snow and then were cold after that and froze it all up. So my walks to work at 4 am were quite a challenge. I found myself doing what I call the “hockey coach shuffle” to and from! So it is nice, at least for now to have no ice or snow to have to walk on.

I am sure that there will be more snows to have to walk through or on, but hopefully no ice. In my reviews of last springs journal entries, I was reminded at how topsy turvy the weather was. One day 55-60 and the next snow. We even got around 12″ of snow the middle of April and had 70 degree temps one day and some snow that night. So I am going to keep my emotions in check as the snow continues to melt and we get closer and closer to the warm season. Or at leas know that more snows are likely to come, perhaps even after I start cutting the grass. I know last spring I had cut the grass a couple of times while back in our old stomping grounds there was still over a foot of snow on the ground! 

So even though I have the physical stamina of an 85 year old right now, my mind and spirit are that of a 24 year old. So when I am not doing my work, or driving around somewhere, I have been putzing around the shop and office doing some straightening up and organizing. It does not require me to lift anything too heavy and I can do it at a slow and relaxed pace, but it keeps me active and happy. Plus, I am getting work done that really needs to be done to get both the office and shop where I want them to be. When the heart fixes are all done, then I can move onto the larger projects like the ceiling and floor in the office, the walls in the shop and getting the dust collection system and hand tools all in their spots. After that, get to building the furniture for the office and a couple of pieces for the house and then the upstairs apartment still needs drywall, paint and floors. Back 15 years ago, this would have been a 3-4 month project list. In present time, I will be not be disappointed if in a year I still have stuff to do.

Since moving to the Keweenaw almost 22 years ago, life for me has steadily gone from being a race to the finish to a gentle stroll, enjoying the view along the way, not even thinking about the finish line. It will find me.

Good Night from the Keweenaw..
–JD

This can be a confusing time of the year. A time when we are not in true winter anymore, but also not yet in true spring. Last week when I was writing, I mentioned how it was snowing pretty good. The perspective from my office chair does give me a view of the outdoors if I look over my right shoulder, but I cannot get an exact idea of how much snow has fallen without getting up and looking an an object that did not have snow on it before the current snow started falling. 

Typically that object will be the hood of my truck. I actually use that many times as my official “snow board” for measuring fresh snow. My truck is parked in an area that is fairly protected from the wind, so I do not get drifting to add to the snow or scouring to subtract that which as fallen. So when I finished last week’s entry, I headed to the service door of the shop to head over to the house and I was very much surprised at how much snow had fallen in just the two hours I was writing. On the truck sat a fresh 6″ of snow!

It was a dense snow to boot. Not super wet and heavy, but sticky enough to stick to everything and also dense enough to not be “poofed” away by a vehicle driving through it or blown around too much by the wind. All of the trees were beautifully flocked in the snow. That is one of my favorite things about a good snowfall, is how the trees all become frosted in a thick layer of snow. 

Mother nature must have been reading what I was typing in last week’s entry because the moment I stepped out of the shop and into the winter wonderland, the “bitter” part of the snow evaporated and all I had in my heart was how sweet and beautiful the snow was. I guess I may as well come to terms with the fact that I rarely ever think a good dumping of snow is a bad thing! 

I was really amazed that in the 2 hour I was writing, we got 6″! Forgive me as I show off my mathematical skills, but that is 3″ per hour. I believe at times it was snowing much harder than that because there were lulls in the snowfall within those two hours as well. Plus, it did not stop once those pictures were taken. It snowed for another 2-3 hours and we picked up another 3″ in that time. I was quite tempted to fire up the sled and take it for a spin on the roads around the neighborhood. The plow had not come and I figured it probably would not until the next day. However, with my poor heart struggling to just keep us afloat, I thought it best not to work it too hard trying to start the sled. My next sled will have electric start for sure!

It was decided to go out for dinner that evening and we chose the Dreamland because it is the closest to us and also because they have good food and a wonderful atmosphere. It was really cool to be driving down the roads in the fresh snow. The truck was almost like a boat going through water and the view out the side view mirrors reminded me of when I was a kid and would be on our boat and watch the water rush away from the boat as it parted it and then pushed it away from the hull. I had actually never seen that happen while driving, so I asked Nora if she would take a quick video of it. Here is that video.

We did have some warmer temps last week, but it did not turn out as warm as expected. Tuesday and Friday were the only days above freezing for highs and while the sun did some damage to the snow, we did not have anything resembling a meltdown. Thus the snow conditions were quite good this week and weekend. The week ahead sees temps to run above freezing for highs through Wednesday, with some rains also possible Wednesday, but the models are mixed as to how much rain will fall and then it looks like it will cool back down to the upper 20’s to around 32 for daytime highs beyond that and there could be some snows that immediately follow the rains and or come next weekend/the early part of next week. So while I cannot promise conditions will support snow play next weekend and beyond, there certainly is a chance.

Other than that, not a lot else going on up here. I am chomping at the bit to have my surgery done and get back to being able to be active. There is still so much to do in my office and in the shop and before I know it, the weather will be nice enough to be out taking bike rides, strolls on the beach and some walks with Nora, Grace and the dogs.

Good Night from the Keweenaw..
–JD