DAMN IT!

Right after exercising on Wednesday evening there was a stab of pain in my left knee I whenever I straightened my leg. On Thursday I was steppin easy but here it is Friday and the knee still hurts. *growl* Must call UC Med Center to bitch and moan. Meanwhile I am not skipping Curves tonight - I've gone 3 times a week like clockwork since November and I'm not about to stop now; knee or no knee. Will just have to continue stepping lightly.

*deep dark thoughts*

Over the Weekend

Mixed bag over the weekend. Saturday was the annual Free Museum Day for all Sacto and I spent the afternoon at the State Indian Museum. The museum can’t hold more than 66 people at a time so the excess had to wait outside in line. I worked the queue, entertaining people on the line with an Indian game of skill; catching several rings (salmon or deer vertebra)on the end of a stick (deer shin bone). The museum normally closes at 4PM on Free day but this year it stayed open until 5:00, but I left around 4:30, heading for Napa to visit with Barbara and Hans & Irmgard Albertson.

My buddy Barbara’s parents seemed well enough last Christmas when I spent what must be my 25th Christmas with the Albertsons – yes! It is hard to believe but that’s how long I’ve known them and have enjoyed their generous hospitality.

I first visited the Albertsons when I was 25 years old, when they lived in Cotati a cute little town north of San Francisco, not too far from the coast. In recent years Barb’s parents gave up their 10 acres of Cotati - which required a good deal of work to keep up - and they purchased a home in the Napa wine country. I’ve enjoyed the past four or five Christmases in Napa with Hans, Irmgard, Barbara and Phil, Suzi and Bob O.

It was a couple of years ago that it dawned on me I was older than Hans & Irmgard were when I first met them. I decided I could allow myself to call them by their first names. My parent’s training that all adults should be addressed as Dr. & Mrs. was a difficult habit to break (Hans is a retired veterinarian).

Last Christmas, 2006, Hans and Irmgard had round the clock nursing care in their house. Barbara brought 2 of her new cats with her on the visit. Hans had fun playing with his furry grandchildren. Irmgard was cheerful, but was only a shadow of her former self; the hale & hardy haus frau that I have loved over the years. The holidays went quickly the New Year was barely started when Irmgard’s health plummeted so drastically that Hospice was called in.

So I visited with the Albertsons last weekend. I was shocked when I saw Irmgard; it was more difficult seeing her so frail than I could have imagined it would be. I think it is not only the shock of seeing how ill she is, but additionally, seeing her brings back strong memories of my own mother.

My mother’s illness in 1992 took her quickly. I couldn’t (ok, I still can’t) look at pictures of her because it is too upsetting. Seeing Irmgard was upsetting as it was, but additionally, although she bares no similarity to my Mother – I am reminded none-the-less of my Mother.

So the weekend was riff with emotion. On the bright side it was comforting to visit Irmgard and find some of the former Irmgard in the frail body the bedridden lady now occupies. And Hans is very sweet, like a big old teddy bear. We enjoyed ourselves. I played animal podcasts and Der Tagesschau newscast for him on my video iPod. Reminded me that my father would have had a ball with an iPod if they’d been around when he was younger. That goes for my friend Joann’s father too. Both Joann's and my father enjoyed short wave radio and broadcasts and I know they’d have dived right into the Internet world – too bad it was too late for them to enjoy.

So the weekend was bitter sweet and I know there’ll be many more like it coming up as I visit with the family in Napa. Barbara and I have already decided that when we get old we’re all going to take one last trip to Alaska and at the end of it that last long walk through boreal forest and join the Snow Walkers.

EEeeeewwwwwww!

On the night of my Monday Smew adventure I was climbing out the shower when it occurred to me the sore muscle I’d been annoyed by all weekend might have turned into a lovely blue/black mark and that I might be entertained by looking at it. I’ve been a bit accident prone of late and I recently fell over backwards at the Curves gym, pulling a huge exerciser machine on top of me – you know it’s rude to laugh like that.

Anyway, when I peered over my back, into the bathroom mirrors for a look-see there was no black & blue mark, but there was a red patch, about the size of a lemon and dead center of it, there was, sucking merrily away, a tick.

I will pause here while you squeal out a suitable ‘Ewwwwww!’
Now, this attached tick was not the first I’ve ever picked up. I used to tramp around in forests/woods/over hill/over dale in my 20s and though I picked up many a tick, for years I thought their palates didn’t fully appreciate ‘Claire-on-the-hoof’ because I was never bitten. Typically I’d come home after a nice romp in the woods and I’d feel something crawling around on ‘the girls’ (if you catch my drift) and there I would find a live, unattached, crawling deer tick. I used to take great pleasure in attempting to squash the little buggers, which takes a lot more energy that you would imagine. I would always end my tick adventure by flushing them down the loo.Texas Lone Star Tick, complete with
star on its back


I was only tick bit one time before, while enjoying the Texas Coast in beautiful Aransas – home of the Whooping Cranes. That time I was in my motel room taking a morning shower and when toweling off I felt what I thought was a thorn in my back. Later that morning a very kind woman Park Ranger and her very curious girl-aide climbed into a broom closet with me and removed that tick. They told me it was a genuine ‘Texas Lone Star Tick’. I kept that tick in a little baggie for the longest time – a unique souvenir.

At work on Tuesday morning, no rangers being at hand, I opted for a backpacking office mate to do the honors plucking my iddy bitty friend out of my back with tweezers.
Ok, get it over with… ‘EWWWWWWW!’

That brings me to this morning when my chagrined MD, Dr. Melnikow, called me toDeer Tickfind out why she had been handed a lab report, identifying a tick that had my name on it, i.e., what the heck was I up to this time?

I gave her the story (including the Texas one - that woman is patience). After a short consultation I nixed getting a shot since the odds of my getting Lyme Disease are small. However I was told to stay alert for the possible though unlikely developement of ‘erythema migrans', the characteristic Lyme Disease rash.

Here is what erythema migrans looks like.

OK – all together now…. ‘EWWWWWWW!’