Its been an interesting week. Not so much in the weather…at least not for us. Just a bit to our east and south the weather did provide its fair share of excitement. On Monday, a line of strong thunderstorms rolled through the west Ishpeming area, producing a micro burst that produced winds estimated at 100 mph. The area of damage was not large, but it was important. It happened right where one of the main transmission lines for electricity passes through. So the winds snapped off and/or knocked down many of the poles, which took out power to a very large area of Ishpeming, Negaunee and Marquette. Then, if that were not enough, just over 24 hours later, a snow storm hit and blanketed the region with up to 10″ of snow, further complicating the issues those poor folks without power had as well as the efforts by the crews to restore power to them.
We did not have even a rumble of thunder occur and just a few flurries. Nora and I had to travel to Marquette on Wednesday so that I could have some minor surgery to remove a couple of skin cancers. So we were able to see where the snows fell and how much fell the day before. Interestingly enough, the first signs of some snow in the trees and on the ground appeared in the banana belt between Chassell and Baraga. As we climbed into the higher terrain south of L’Anse, the snows got deeper and by the time we got to places like Michigamme, Champion and Humbolt Township just west of Ishpeming, there was a solid 7-9″ still on the ground. I had to grin when I saw some folks unloading snowmobiles from their trailers to get what might be the final ride of the season in. Much of that snow was gone by our return trip home, as temps were rising into the 50’s and the sun was out.
Both of my surgical sites were on my neck and both required stitches. I am not sure of the exact count, but both were somewhere a bit north of a dozen, but less than 20. All was going well until we got to Hancock and after sitting for two hours, I got out of the vehicle. That must have raised my blood pressure just enough so that the one in the vicinity of my jugular sprung a leak. The reason why I got out of the Nora’s vehicle was so that I could pick up and drive my truck home from having some work done. Anyway, at first the leak was not too bad, but by the time I got home, I needed to cover myself up and calmly break the news to Nora that I had sprung a leak. Upon opening up my jacket, the entire right hand side of my shirt was soaked in the red stuff. So Nora helped me get my coat and shirt off and then cleaned things up a bit. It was still coming out pretty good, so we headed to the emergency department. There they were able to address the issue by applying pressure for around 30 minutes and then properly wrapping it up, but at one point were worried that I was going to need emergency surgery to get things squared away.
I’ve been through a lot in my life and consider myself to be able to handle pain pretty good, but for some reason I could barely get any sleep Wednesday night and Thursday was pretty rough as well. On Thursday late morning, I was scheduled for a follow up with the surgeon that fixed me up Wednesday. He pulled the bandages off and replaced them. Plus he gave me some stuff to help manage the pain. It came to me that the reason why I was in so much discomfort was because of the way they had to bandage things up. They used gauze over the wound and then some kind of clear, sticky plastic stuff to hold the gauze on. They had pulled the plastic sticky material very tight to keep pressure on the wound, but it also was the source of all of the discomfort. To make matters worse, the two bandages worked against each other, so there was no way to relieve the pressure from both at the same time.
The only reason why I even go into all of this is to explain why I do not have a lot of material for this entry. As much as I was hoping for some more saddle time “in” the drone and some footage to share, I had Monday and Tuesday, then Wednesday was spent traveling and dealing with the leak. Thursday, Friday and Saturday were spent just trying to keep sane. I was able to take the bandages off this morning and things have improved a ton.
I was able to take a little walk in the woods with the pups on Tuesday. We still had a fair share of dirty snow in our woods to start the week. The daytime highs were getting above freezing and melting it off, but night time temps were dropping below freezing, so it was firm enough to walk across until the temps softened it up by mid-morning. To the pups and I took advantage of the firm snow and headed out into the woods to pay a visit to Old Granddad. The last time we had been out that way was back in December and on snow shoes, so it was good to see it had survived the winter and the bouts of strong winds we had this winter and spring so far. Big Piney and the Maple Twins were also in fine shape and looking ready to green up for the summer. There were a handful of trees that had come down since last autumn and some of them will make for some good firewood to help keep the pool warm this summer.
It was very nice to get back into the woods. The pups sure had a blast running around and playing chase. It is so great to see them still so healthy and getting around so good. When I think back to Burt and Baileys and what rough shape they were both in by this time in their lives, it makes me sad. Although they did have great lives and never complained, so I guess I should not be too sad!
We had some beautiful weather Thursday and Friday. Highs topped out in the 60’s and we had loads of sunshine. Nora and Grace took advantage of the beautiful weather to head to the beach Thursday evening. I wished I had gone, but felt it would be more enjoyable to just stay home and lay low than to try and keep my head/neck in a comfortable position while making the drive to the beach and then walking around. Anyway, they found another mother-lode of beach glass and Gracie even found this little critter. It had died and Gracie was initially thinking how she would like to bring it home with her, but thankfully Nora was able to convince her that it would be best if it remained on the beach, near the lake where it came from. So Gracie dug a little grave for it and even capped the site with a rock and the initials she gave it “The Crab”. I think Nora is thinking about using those very initials on my headstone! 🙂
Yesterday evening Nora boiled up some eggs and then we all commenced on decorating them. Not long after that, we all hit the hay and awoke to the bounty that the Easter Bunny had left overnight.
So that almost covers it for this one, but this past week, I did stumble upon a post-it that had some thing I wanted to share in the journal with you all, but somehow got buried under some other paperwork. It goes back a few weeks, when Gracie and I were looking at cars and trucks on the internet. We gravitated to the point where I googled the make and model of my first car to show her it. To which her response was: “But Dad…I didn’t they had cars when you were a kid”.
Good night from the Keweenaw..
–JD
