We're back in Arcata, tired as old dogs.
Holy shit the world is a freakin' mess. We've been political junkies all of our lives, but the prospect of a fellow citizenry "electrified" by Sarah Palin may have finally done us in. How could anyone in their right minds want to follow up these past eight years with this McCain/Palin ticket? We simply cannot comprehend. Perhaps we're too old or too tired, or maybe it's just that we love the constitution and its protections and can't understand what our country is without it. OMG, if we hear another word about god, we're going to have to do something reckless.
What has our country become? I swear, we don't recognize it.
When we were in the beach house on Wednesday the phone rang. I picked it up.
It was a recording. It said: This is the Santa Cruz Country Sheriff's office reporting that there was a mountain lion sighted at the Capitola Mall at 3:30 am. It was last seen heading toward the Soquel mountains. If you see this lion do not approach it, but call the sheriff's office.
Okay.
But wait, the call came in at 12:30 pm, a full nine hours after the sighting. How the heck are we supposed to see this creature if they gave it a nine hour head start?
Excellent reverse 9-1-1 call though. Our favorite of all time.
On the ride back to Arcata Thursday, Roger drove north between Santa Cruz to just over the Golden Gate Bridge. I took the wheel there driving through the golden rolling hills of the wine country, the gateway to the Redwood empire. Somewhere around Santa Rosa, I inadvertently cut off a driver in the passing lane who was completely in my blind spot in my rear view and side mirror. He honked his horn. I was appropriately sheepish. Then he decided he should pass me on the right and cut me off, not once, not twice but three times. Roger and I were shocked. His aggression was dangerous and scary. He was playing chicken at 70 mph.
I figured he'll probably vote the McCain/Palin ticket. If he had killed us, he could have posed triumphantly with his bounty.
We're glad to report that we made it back safely.
Somehow we still love our country despite its yahoo freakin' stupidity. We love pelicans the most. In fact, we think this year should be called the Year of the Pelican. We're certain if pelicans could vote, they'd all be Democrats.
We couldn't resist this story. You know how much we love bobcats. Enjoy.
We're back in Arcata, tired as old dogs.
Somehow we still love our country despite its yahoo freakin' stupidity. We love pelicans the most. In fact, we think this year should be called the Year of the Pelican. We're certain if pelicans could vote, they'd all be Democrats.
It was much easier to be our nomadic selves when all we had to do was pack a rucksack and go. Life was really like that in the late 60s and early 70s on the road, thumb out and a hopeful smile. The journey was part of the trip (or vice versa), does that make sense? Roger could climb into the back of a van, pot smoke wafted out the open van doors, and a crew of strangers about to become friends greeted him. I traversed the coast highway between LA and San Francisco a half a dozen times the first summer my family moved to California. Camping with fellow travelers on Garrapata Beach, getting my first taste of California's high tides and a wet sleeping bag. Of course that all ended for various reasons, but it sure was easier back then to just pick up and go.
We are resilient. Despite all the broken dreams, we still awaken every morning fully expecting that the world has finally come around and accorded to our vision of it. We really do, don't you?
We haven't written much about where we are living at the moment. A little house in a college town, and classes start Monday. The quiet summer has drawn to a close. The backyard fruit trees are full. Are there any better signs of the season?
In response to many of you who have asked what we are doing? Are we house hunting? Searching for land? Well, yes, but not here. We are moving back to Santa Cruz in September and plan to live out the rest of our life dream there. There are a million reasons why we are moving back, but the three top ones are these: we need to live much closer to our mothers; we need to live much closer to our friends; we need more sunlight for our old and aging bones.
I've been helping my mom through her medical odyssey. You have no idea how incredibly fucked up the medical/pharmaceutical world is these days. My mom ended up in the hospital last year with "pneumonia" but has never fully recovered. She's been on Prednisone since then, but whenever the dosage is reduced beyond a certain level, the pain of her persistent lung inflammation returns. She's been to see several SPECIALISTS, and has been put on other medications, but with no good results.
When we were down there for the family reunion, I did a google search on: pain management pleuritic condition. I found interesting information, but one pharmacy site in particular had a lot to say about NSAIDs, and an incredible table that listed several medications that were known to cause pleural effusion (fluid). I checked the list and found one of the drugs my mom had been prescribed in early 2007: Simvastatin.
So, I pursued the Simvastatin lead and googled: Simvastatin pleurisy; Simvastatin lupus; Simvastatin Rheumatoid arthritis. (The SPECIALISTS my mom had seen thought her symptoms seemed lupus and Rheumatoid arthritis-like.) The search yielded results that absolutely shocked us. There have been several medical articles since the mid-1990s that discussed something called Simvastatin-induced lupus-like syndrome. WHAT? OMG. My mother has been suffering for a year as a result of a prescription, and her doctors simply did not know. They hadn't read the finest of fine print and made the connection.
I do have to say on their behalf that when my mother brought them the printouts of the articles, they received them and responded with gratitude and affirmation. She has given up the Simvastatin and is now reducing the Prednisone and plans to be fully restored to good health. It's going to take a few months, but we are all hopeful.
