HOME ALONE---SORTA

Inklings is in a town about 175 miles North of here taking care of one of her nieces that is in a hospital there. That leaves me and the CAT in the house. The cat spends the majority of her time yowling and looking for Inklings. Last night she was looking all over the house for her and finally came over and looked in my lap---yowled and went over to the place Inklings usually sits and yowled some more.

The garden has gone nuts---well not nuts---but it is producing a lot of veggies right now. I picked 15 beautiful tomatoes yesterday and gave some of them away. I have been pigging out on them but can't keep up. I gave all of the cucumbers away and will pick the beans today. I don't think there will be too many beans but there for sure will be some.

I went to a retirement party yesterday for a woman I worked with for over 19 years of my career. She is one of the people that I have always been amazed with the amount of work she could do in a short time. I was talking about it with one of my other co-workers yesterday and we agreed she worked easy---she was just able to get an awfully lot of work done and nobody really noticed it...THEY'LL NOTICE IT NOW...I ASSURE YOU. She will be missed a bunch---mostly because the people employed there don't have a clue what she does---or how to do it. I know what she does and how to do it because on another Forest I was responsible for most of her duties. I hated doing that part of the job. There was a woman from the Regional Office at the party and she told me she is terrified with the added workload of teaching someone else how to do all those things.

HOPE SHE HAS AS GOOD OF RETIREMENT AS I AM HAVING.

GONE AGAIN

I just got back from a fire about a hundred miles North of where we live. It was pretty small, only 886 acres but it was a good little fire to be on. They had trainees in every position on the fire so it was good to see the kids stepping up and taking on more responsibilities. There have been a lot of skills go out of the fire world the last three years. I was happy to get to go and really happy to see the young ones growing up.

ANOTHER FIRE RUN

Got a call Thursday night while we were at the rodeo and got asked to go to a fire near where we live. I told the dispatcher I really wanted to watch the bull riding at the rodeo before I went anywhere. (There is a bull rider from here that I am friends with his dad and grandpa and I wanted to watch him ride again. He bucked off in less than 2 seconds. I was really bummed out---I had hoped for days he would win it.) The dispatcher told me to go ahead and watch them as they had enough help over at the fire site to get through until morning but to come to the dispatch center after the rodeo and help organize deliveries and supplies for the next morning.

I went down and ran through the orders they had placed and what they had on site and figured we would be good for the next day. I got home at midnight and didn't sleep much because of the adrenaline rush I get every time I get called out. I got up at 5:00, picked up the breakfasts for the fire at 6:00 and went over for the duration.

When I got near the fire camp I could see the fire burning close to the main highway but there were a bunch of engines there so I figured they would hold it and went on to fire camp. Shortly after I arrived they came in for breakfast and said they had caught that side of the fire and after breakfast were going back to secure the entire side. The fire was at 380 acres when I got there and it finished up at 410 acres so the crews did a great job.

While I was there I ran into two people I had worked with on a northern district and it was really good to see them. Both were with hand crews on the fire.

I spent three very long days in the fire camp making sure the crews had everything they needed to fight the fire effectively and finally made it home. I always get home from these incidents worn out but I sure do love getting the call and the chance to go on them.

DR. VISIT

Went to the doctor today for a check-up. Had my blood tested for cholesterol and it is now down to 124. The medicine has given me several problems so he told me to go off the medication for two weeks and see if it is really the meds that are causing the problem. If it is he gave me some samples for the next month to try---if it isn't he wants me to get the prescription renewed for the one that I think is causing the problems because it has cut my cholesterol exactly in half.

Got checked for the chronic bronchitis I have from smoking for so many years. Progress has been made there again but he isn't going to take the inhalers away. He wants to cut the dose in half again like we did last time and see what that does to how I feel.

I'm thinking that by the time I have been quit for five years I will be in about the same boat with breathing that the rest of the world that is my age is in. That will be remarkable because I have had some serious breathing episodes but they are mostly gone now.

TODAYS DR.VISIT MADE ME FEEL LOTS BETTER ABOUT MY HEALTH.

HEALTHY???

It is somewhat frustrating to me to be going through all of the tests to determine my health. I have never had much wrong with me and it is really frustrating to be sent to the lab every six months for blood tests to determine the next round of treatments.

This all started when my Doctor found that my blood cholesterol was at 191. He prescribed a drug to help reduce it and ordered blood tests in six months. This blood test had my cholesterol at 214 so he changed the drug to another one to reduce it. Along with that he ordered blood tests in three months to see what was happening. It was interesting to note that at this blood test part of my blood was higher and part was lower so he gave me another drug and ordered tests in six months.

I took the blood test today and am seeing the Doctor tomorrow. I am going to tell him I am not taking the drug any more. It makes my muscles ache, makes me dizzy at times and makes it so I can cause a cramp anywhere in my body by simply holding the muscle tight for a few seconds. The warning for this drug has all of these symptoms so I'm not taking it anymore. IN FACT I MAY NOT TAKE ANY MORE DRUGS FOR CHOLESTEROL---I THINK THAT IS PART OF A DOCTOR SIMPLY PRACTICING MEDICINE.