The Median Sib

Recently I flew with PawPaw to Georgia and back. As I looked down from 6,000 feet in the air, there was one thing that made an indelible impression on me - how hazy everything look from the air. From the ground, the day looked crystal clear, but from up above, the haze of pollution kept us from seeing the ground clearly.

I was reminded of that experience when I saw that The National Association of Evangelicals has cited Genesis 2:15 (”The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.”) as its basis for circulating among its leaders the draft of a policy statement that would encourage lawmakers to pass legislation creating mandatory controls for carbon emissions.

It sure makes sense to me. There’s only one earth, and if we destroy it, we destroy ourselves.

Last week I read a news story that illustrates one of my fears - having surgery and being aware of what’s going on, feeling the pain, but being unable to communicate that to the doctors. It’s called anesthesia awareness. I’ve always thought that maybe the patient still feels the pain and is aware of what’s going on, but that the anesthesia makes the patient forget it.

I’ve had surgery once, and after the anesthesia was started and they asked me to count backwards from 100, I only got to 97. I wasn’t aware of anything else until I was in the recovery room. Once I had two wisdom teeth removed and the doctor “sedated” me — same effect for me - I was out of it until after it was over. I figure I’d be a great candidate for drug addiction because I remember the feeling of being sedated. Despite the tooth extraction. I woke up in happy land.

Back to the point of this post. The story I read was about Carol Weihrer, who awakened during surgery in 1998, but because the paralyzing portion of the “anesthesia cocktail” made her unable to move or indicate that she was aware and that she was feeling pain, she was trapped - aware but unable to communicate the situation to the doctors. She described what was going on - the pain, the music, the sensations, the surgeon’s words. It’s scary to think about. Apparently it happens more often than you’d think. There are machines that can monitor a patient’s brain activity and that should help to eliminate some of those horrifying experiences. If I ever have surgery again, it is definitely something I’ll ask the doctor beforehand.

“The shepherd drives the wolf from the sheep’s throat, for which the sheep thanks the shepherd as his liberator, while the wolf denounces him for the same act as the destroyer of liberty.”
~Abraham Lincoln

Question: Who are the wolves in the Iraq war?

My Mother’s surgery went well this morning, and she is in the hospital until tomorrow afternoon. Although the tumor was wrapped around her facial nerves, the doctor felt that he was able to successfully “peel” it off the nerves. So hopefully the facial nerves won’t be affected. I don’t know a lot more than that.

According to a news story Mindy McCready, whose boyfriend almost killed her last year, is seeing him again and is now pregnant by him. In the story she describes the terrifying feeling of not being able to breathe when the boyfriend, William McKnight, was beating her and choking her earlier this year. He also has not shown any remorse for the attack. McCready says, “He doesn’t think that he’s done very much wrong.” It is incredibly sad that a beautiful and talented woman such as McCready thinks so little of herself that she would allow an abuser to remain a part of her life. It’s time to kick the scum to the curb.

There was a news story today about some children and adults who were attacked by three pit bulls on a rampage in Cary, Illinois. I am waiting for the follow-up news story tomorrow or the next day in which the owner will almost certainly describe how wonderful the pit bulls were and how they had always been so gentle up until the attack. Then he will declare that he is simply shocked by their behavior.

It reminds me of Aesop’s fable of the Scorpion and the Ladybug: A Scorpion befriended a Ladybug who became a loyal companion to him. A time came when she struggled to cross a challenging and dangerous river, and so the Scorpion offered to take her to the other side on his back. He had come to care for her and promised he would never harm her. But, safely across the river, he allowed his tail to dip upon her with its venomous sting. As she lay in greatest pain, she said, “… but, you promised… why?” He shrugged and said, sadly, “Because it is my Nature.”
Regardless of our wishes, or even our intent, it is to our Nature alone that we will be faithful.
There is no good reason for owning a pit bull. Despite training and love and tender care, their nature is to be aggressive to the point of being vicious. All too often there is a news account of yet another child maimed or killed by one. The owners usually act like they’re surprised because their pet had been gentle and nonaggressive up to that point. People who own them are lying to themselves about the danger.

Here’s a quote to brighten up your Sunday:

“Love doesn’t make the world go ’round. Love is what makes the ride worthwhile.” ~Franklin P. Jones

This was the sunset Saturday night. Beautiful, huh? 

This is me enjoying my morning cup of coffee Sunday morning. 

Notice the really cool blue percolator on the fire grate.

That’s my lovely tent in the photo. 

PawPaw took this picture Sunday afternoon as we were leaving. It’s the Ocoee River. 

They had just opened the dam - supposedly for the last time until after winter - and there were hundreds of kayakers in the water. 

This is PawPaw this morning — sucking in his gut (his words, not mine) for the photo. 

The scenery was incredible. 

PawPaw and I drove northeast of Chattanooga yesterday and camped on top of a mountain above the Ocoee River. Most of the camping areas were closed for the winter, but the overflow camping area was open — and there was only one other family camping there. It was dark by the time we got there, and we were concerned that we might have waited too late to get our camp set up. We didn’t have time to scope out the area before it was too dark to see. It was remote - and we had to shine the car headlights at the campsite to get things settled. However, we were quite a team in getting everything set up. PawPaw started the fire and helped me set up the tent. By the time the fire was burning well, we were ready to cook our dinner. It turned out to be a wonderful camping trip! During the night there was some ferocious wind — so much so that PawPaw already had in mind where we would go if it got any worse (a ditch a short distance from our tent). Although the wind blew strongly off and on throughout the night, there was only a little while that it seemed so intense. It rained for about five minutes, and then we woke to a beautiful sunrise. The only significant problem was that the tent held in the heat so well that it was too warm inside. We’ve decided that the next pretty weekend with COLD weather, we’ll make another camping trip. 

We saw the most spectacular fall foliage I can remember seeing in years. It was simply breathtaking. I took some photos of the scenery and of our campsite. The photos are above. 

This morning we went on a bike ride along the Ocoee River. Not a long bike ride — just about 2 1/2 miles. It was beautiful.

I’ve seen “The TTLB Blogosphere Ecosystem Rankings By Links” in other blogs, and so I figured I’d see how THE MEDIAN SIB fared. I entered my site information and found that I am an “Insignificant Microbe.” Here are the rankings, from highest number of links to the lowest. You can see where my microbic little blog landed in the hierarchy:

Out of the blogs in the system, mine is ranked #41,860. I think this is part of the reason WHY people blog - competition. Already I’m feeling the stirrings of “I’ve got to get THE MEDIAN SIB further up that list!” I must talk myself down from such silliness. After all, why do I have a blog? Is my purpose to get other bloggers to link to my blog, or am I doing this to have a good time and to write? The answer is . . . well, now that I’ve been labelled an insignificant microbe, I want to rise . . . rise to . . . maybe to the level of Flippery Fish. “Flippery Fish” reminds me of the Maurice Sendak book, Chicken Soup With Rice (note: Other teachers may understand the connection - or maybe it’s too obscure for anyone but me.) For now, this insignificant microbe is headed out to go camping.

Chicken Soup with Rice: A Book of Months

My weekend plans have changed somewhat. Instead of camping alone, I’m going camping tomorrow night with PawPaw. That means I can be a little more adventurous since I won’t be by myself. Instead of staying in a nearby state park, we’re going to leave in the morning and travel further away - might even go off the trail to camp. But maybe not. I like having a bathhouse nearby with the all-important flush toilet. I can enjoy all the other aspects of roughing it — but I want a bathroom that consists of more than a shovel and a bush or tree for privacy. I should also add that I like my air mattress, too — and it would be hard to backpack with all the little conveniences I have taken with me the last two weekends that I went camping - i.e. cooler, air mattress and pump, firewood, to name a few. We’ll see how it goes. I’ll take pictures and report back on Sunday.