Busted?

As a condition of being "employed" as a volunteer sedan driver for Dial-A-Bus I had to agree to random drug and alcohol testing. Today when I was ready to end my shift the dispatcher said for me to go to the Occupational Medicine Lab for a random test. I knew I was in deep yogurt because I had taken a restroom break midway through my shift. I was required to go immediately to the Lab or else be declared "positive".

I signed in and took my little beaker into the bathroom. The nurse had me empty all of my pockets and put the contents into a locked locker (she kept the key). Well I couldn't produce the sample they requested. They took me into the waiting room and said I had to stay within sight of the receptionist. I called Janeil and told her I wouldn't be home for lunch and called the dispatcher to tell him it would be awhile before I returned the sedan.
Every half hour they brought me a glass of water to drink. If I didn't produce an acceptable quantity of sample within three hours I would be declared "positive". My whole life flashed before me with the fear I would lose my weekly volunteer driver assignment. After two hours I had read all of the three-year-old Good Housekeeping magazines in the rack, which incidently have little to do with housekeeping and lots to do with other female type topics.

With my three hour limit running out, even though I didn't feel the urge to urinate, I thought I'd better try again. To my great relief I was able to perform and it just kept coming. I was not allowed to flush the toilet which was full of blue cleaner. This was to insure that I hadn't diluted the sample. I handed the warmed up beaker to the nurse. She started filling out some paper work. "Have you eaten poppy seeds in the last 72 hours?" she asked. She had me sign a bunch of forms which I never read. Maybe I've donated my body to science for all I know.

The staff got a lot more friendly when they determined I wasn't trying to get away with something. If I was a druggy I think I know how to beat the system because I wasn't patted down before being left alone in the room.

After returning home I had to visit the bathroom several more times. Right now I can't look at a glass of water without feeling queezy.

Because I Have Been Given Much I Too Must Give

Today my Dial-a-Bus riders made me realize how much truth is in the statement, "I complained because I had no shoes until I met a man who had no feet."

The riders are either senior citizens without other transportation, or else people with disabilities. Here is today's list:

1) A 94-year-old woman recently widowed, was going to physical rehabilitation. She wanted to talk about whether suicide was acceptable. Her doctor is Steve Athay. (An elderly gentleman pulled me aside as I left the rehabilitation center wanting to know now much the rides cost. The answer is $1.50 because they are subsidized by ODOT.)

2) A 59-year-old man going to the Cancer Center for a follow-up visit on his recent radiation treatments.

3) A 21-year-old on his third day at his Cornerstone Work Center job. He is on a landscaping crew cutting laws. He is silent during the ride but always shakes my hand and thanks me for the ride as he leave the car.

4) A 7-year-old Down Syndrome girl named Anna and her mom. They had been to the library and stopped at Thriftway to buy a birthday cake for dad.

5) A mentally retarded 35-year-old on one of those motorized shopping carts at Winco Foods. He had recently switched apartments and was thrilled with how nice the other tenants were at the new place.

6) An autistic man who works every day for 4 hours as a janitor at a concrete company. He lives in the country with his recently widowed mom. He pointed out that he had just mowed their huge lawn. He has my schedule memorized and repeats it to me each time we meet.

7) A 50-year-old who had been to see the eye doctor. He, like all the others, thanked me for being a volunteer.

Today was unusual--nobody going to the beauty parlor or to the Senior Center for a free meal. Also none of my blind clients today.

John Day "Walk About"

Once a year my friend Jim Hay goes on a week long exploration of the forest back roads. This year it was to see the wild flowers in the high mountain meadows around John Day. I tagged along as the camera man. I was more interested in the trees than the flowers.

We took an extremely rutted road to an abandoned fire lookout tower.
On the way back down the mountain I was afraid the vehicle would high center so I encouraged Jim to cut across the hill. After studying the situation Jim said "No, we are going to do the right thing and stay on the road." We didn't high center and I was proud of him for obeying the rules of staying on the road.

I got sunburned on day one, so thereafter I wore a red bandana in foreign legion style. This worked great except for the tip of my long nose.The weather was great and the sky was magnificent at the mile high altitude. It was easy to get GPS fixes at that altitude with 5 or more satellites overhead. I love the bark patterns of the ponderosa pine which often has a reddish tinge.

Jim enjoyed fishing.

Surplus chests

Filipino-mahogany chest 23" wide 17" deep and 19" tall made from cabinet doors

Hardwood box 17" wide 13"deep and 13" high.  The top is a shade lighter than the sides

Beautiful 44" wide 12"deep and 24" high linen storage chest.  Formerly at the foot of mom's bed.  Ideal for storing sheets or pillows.  Would almost match Sheryl's bedroom furniture.

If any of you kids want one of these I'll deliver it. I'm now out of the business.

Drift Creek: beautiful spring day at the coast

The trail is 1.5 miles long.  Most of the trail is in the shade of the conifer trees. Amazing growth rings on this conifer, 2 to 3 rings per inch. The stump was in the middle of the trail.   My boot toe is sticking in the corner to give a size comparison.  

The suspension bridge is in the middle of nowhere and goes nowhere.  It is 100 feet above the river below.  The water fall is in the background.    

The trillium blossom is often found on the coast range forest floor under the trees.

This is a huge old stump which the loggers used as an anchor.  The notches are to wrap the steel cable around. The other end of the cable is attached to a tower (or spar tree).  The cable would be suspended in the air and logs hung from it as they were being moved to the trucks on the road.

My traveling companion, Jim, is looking out over the coastal landscape.  He almost always has a slight bulge under his shirt on his right side.  He claims it is necessary in bear country (and every where else except church). We've never seen a bear so it must work.  He claims hollow point bullets don't work well when shooting a bear because the hide is so tough.  As you can tell we don't talk about deep subjects when we are out enjoying nature.

AAA to the Rescue

Just 2 days ago I signed up for triple A roadside service.  We are going to Alaska on the Alaska/Canadian Highway in July-August 2009.  I thought having a dead battery, run out of gas, flat tire, and tow service might be nice.  

Well, Saturday we finished our shift at the Portland Temple and found that our hybrid had a dead battery.  There had been a buzz alarm when I left it earlier, but I ignored it.  It often does that and most of the time I can't figure out what it is trying to warn me about.  This time it was that I had left the headlights on.  Our Avalon has an automatic headlight turn off and I thought that the gadget-laden Camry had the same.  It doesn't!

Janeil got the owners manual out and we figured a jump start was needed.  We called AAA which happened to be just down the street.  They said the service vehicle would be there within 40 minutes.  They were there in about 10 minutes.  The driver hadn't ever jump started a hybrid so he looked for the battery under the hood. As shown in the attached picture, it is in the trunk. So he hooked up the jumper cables according to the owner's manual diagram.  He said it was a strange way to hook it up.  It worked and we were on our way.

Is there something to be learned from this experience?  Well yes, old dogs can be taught new tricks.

Michael's Craft Store Treasures

When the Grandkids visit they have been building creations from the Lego sets.  Now the possibilities have been expanded with projects that cost one dollar each.  My favorites are the model vehicles.  There are 15 different ones that include trains, planes, boats, trucks, dozers, buses  and cars.  The kids can customize the paint jobs with some tempura paints. 

Then there are 5 different doll house cabinets.  Brenda's girls painted theirs with flower accents.  

There are 16 different bird house  designs to be painted.   The church (school?) and the windmill are my favorites.  

There are 14 different kits that can be glued and painted.  In memory of our pioneer ancestors there is a Mormon Trail covered wagon (the oxen and family were sold separately).  The only Olsen girl died crossing the plains.  

There is also a tall sailing ship named the Emerald Isle in which both the Olsens and Fugals sailed across the Atlantic Ocean aboard.  Two of the three Olsen boys died and were buried at Sea. 

 The last set are 13 wooden 3-D puzzles.  This assortment includes a spider, a frog, a swan, 3 dinosaurs, a helicopter, a koala bear, a squirrel, a skeleton, an antique auto, a penguin pair, a seahorse pair,and  a dolphin (shown in photo).

It has been fun trying these out myself.  We will have a craft table at the 2009 Camp Alpine family reunion and the kids can take home whatever they build.