Your Face? - - Evening Update Updated

Remember that beautifully done animation from the late 80's by Bill Plympton called "Your Face?"

Yeah.
Well...

Blake is coming home from camp a week early.
He's had some sort of accident.
He has 5 stitches beneath his nose and his face is pretty bashed up and swollen, from what I hear.
I don't really know for sure, since I only got the phone call from the camp yesterday, and Stu is up there right now, gathering his belongings to bring him back home now.

I don't know if I will be confronted with his normal, pretty boy face which is a bit scratched up or if it is still very bruised and swollen and I will be facing "My Son, The Elephant Man."

Apparently the hospital did not send him home with any pain meds, because neither parent was on hand, but it was the camp staff with the medical release that brought him in.
(Stupid Mt Hood Medical Center! That place has been nit-wit-haven since the early 80's)

Anyway, the camp called and asked me if they could give him a Vicoden and I said, "Good heavens yes!"

Poor kid.

My first thought was, "Dear God, thank you that he didn't lose an eye!"

In retrospect I suppose I can say, "What Teen-Boy's summer would be complete without a trip to the E.R. for some stitches?"

UPDATE:

Well the lad is home now.
The Results are in and they are not pretty:









He tells me that, after he got his stitches, they went to Shari's to get a milok shake. He said that the people who walked past his table would look at him with these really freaked out looks on their faces. He said that he finally just stood up and in a very loud voice, addressed the patrons by saying, "I am not an animal, I am a human being!"

And then there is always this.

That is my son:
He suffers major facial trauma, and within 24 hours what does he do?
He turns it into a Photo Shoot.
This is a great poster for some slasher movie.
I am proud of you son...sorta...now take your medicine!

He is begging me to take him back out to this location (remember the film "The Postman" with Kevin Costner? Yeah. They shot part of it here. Same location) so that he can shoot some more images with his face all beat up and a rifle clenched between his fists.
He begs me, that he must do it before his face heals too much.
Strangely...I understand that logic.
I will probably take him there and help him shoot both stills and video.
Am I a bad mother?

:o/

The Fire Yo-Yo

George Lake Fire at Sunset, Monday Aug 13, 2006

















Thursday Aug 17th 2006 The Column is Back!

So this morning, (10am) I am driving into town and the sky is bright blue and there is only a hint of smoke in the air.
Breathe deep.
Out, nestled among the Mt. Washington foothills is a low lying trail of smoke.
This looks good.
It looks like "our boys" are getting the upper hand on this recent fire.

Two hours later, I drive up the hill and look in my rear view mirror.
The column is back.
The winds must have picked up or shifted.

A fire fighter friend of ours says that the greater the column rising up into the atmosphere, then the hotter the fire burning at the base. (Bliss Girl or her dad can probably elaborate.) With the previous fire (Black Crater, a HUGE column arose one morning and the bull dozers 1/4 mile away had to back up even further because the paint on the bull dozers whas beginning to melt and peel, and even the garb of the firefighters was not going to hold up long in that kind of heat.

Well, so the column was back by midday.

UPDATED: Photos I took last night of the blaze

This would be the "NEW" blaze we have come to know as the George Lake Fire.
There is also another photo here.

Sunset as seen through the column rising from the George Lake Fire in the Mt Washington Wilderness of Oregon State.
At last check it has grown to 5000 acres, although we had intense winds yesterday so it may be larger now.
It is about 6 miles outside of town at this time.

Boy does MY face hurt!

Yes and please feel free to commence with the typical "Face Hurting" jokes.

Now that we have that out of our systems, man! We are all coughing, sneezing, wheezing around here, with a side order of the occasional bloody nose.
So the Lake George fire has now grown to about 2,000 acres.
Lessee, Blakc Crater was aout 9,000 acres by the time they got it under control.
Still the wind is blowing the smoke from Lake George stright into town today and it is nasty stuff.
Although they say that , as far as smoke inhalation / 2nd hand smoke notions are concerened, the Fire Fighter standard is this : "Wood SMoke is good Smoke." I guess as far as smoke inhalation goes. And even then, I see these guys comin' off thelines with bleary-red/black eyes. Wanting Saline and and Visine. So smoke in a fair quantity, even "Good Wood Smoke" still equates to being bad smoke.

ANyway, the winds are picking up and starting to blow more to the East so it may push the fire closer toward Balck Butte Ranch again - dang - here...read it for yourself.
Silly me!

Anyway, there it is.

For those who have been following along via the Nuggetnews.com, you can also get a nfty updated image from Google Earth showing the recent fire activity around here.

You can cruise over to the Western Edge of the United States

The nearest town is Sisters, Oregon.

The locations where the fires are buring nearby are:

-Mt Washington
-Black Crater Butte
-George Lake (this is the big fire going right now.)

Have fun googling.

(did I ever mention how much I hate Google?)

;O)

heheheheh

Life is like Wild fire

The fire at Black Crater began early on a Monday morn.

The wind was blowing away from us.

We took note of the fire, but it appeared small, and the smoke column looked alright, so we turned our heads back to our own lives and ways, and went about our business.

The winds blew.

The fire grew.

As long as the wind was blowing the other direction, it “looked” ok to us and that was all that mattered to us.

It was only when the wind changed, and began to blow in our direction, that we saw the conflagration it had truly become.

By that time, we were unable to take sufficient action on our own behalf.

Isn’t it funny that we approach every day life and relationships in a similar manner?

No matter what our background, or what faith, we all keep our eyes focused on ourselves, and what we “want” to deal with at the time.

We ignore and justify, until the wind finally blows our direction and we are shocked and amazed and “cry foul.”

Even though our lack of diligence is what brought about the final debacle.

We can say this about many things.

We can say this about private areas of our own personal lives.

We can say this about the political messes we blame on our governments.

We can say this about our neighbors.

We can say this about the state of our youth in this town.

We can say, “Oh sure we have good schools, so therefore we have good kids.”

Yeah, wait till the wind changes, to reveal what is truly smouldering underneath.

Another new Fire

It started at about 2pm today, details here.
I was at a baby shower and we had a few nice sprinkles from the clouds o'er head, and then some one saw a flash.
We all said, "no no, it was Carla's camera. Open the next gift."
Well, lo and behold, it was lightning in the distance.

So right now there is a pretty fair column.
When the fire smoke rises straight up in a great column, it means that the fire is burning hot at the base - not a good thing - and the smoke rises up and up until it gets caught in the air currents higher up and carried what-ever-direction is is going to go.

If the smoke is at ground level, fouling every ones eyesight and lungs, then it means the fire is not necessarily burning so hot and that is a good thing - unless you are a pair of lungs or eyeballs. Then it is somewhat annoying.
Many people in town are now suffereing from what the Fire Crews are : "Camp Crud." It is a virus that comes along behind immune systems which have been over taxed by smoke inhalation and close quarters among humans. Scout came down with it this morning. I hope she is well enough by Satruday so that she can go to the High Desert Highland Games on Saturday.
Gotta keep our priorities straight, after all.
:o)

So onward to the next fire.

Our church hosted a Community event on Monday night to thank all of the firefighters.
There was pie and ice cream and gifts and hearty thank yous for all fire fighters in attendance, served by community members.

It was a good night.

I have a feeling there will be many more before the season is through.

Hold Everything!!!

Weekend has been offically comandeered!
Where will I be this coming weekend?

Here!

Favorite Author

Stephen R Lawhead is my favorite author.
I just love his style.
Whether he is writing fantasy, Celtic Mythology, historical fiction or Sci-Fi.
He has this amazing ability to draw me into the story from the first paragraph.

I stumbled upon a book of his that I was previously unaware of...it was written back in the 80's entitled Dream Thief.

I thought I had read everything he had ever written and as I opened to the first page, that old spark of enjoyment was rekindled in me.

Dang! Dude writes well!!!

ANyway, I got sucked right in to Dream Thief and cannot wait for a free minute when I can pick it back up again.

Ah....the joys of reading "new" Lawhead works.

It is like peeling away ten years of my life.

I got a flat tire today after visiting the library - so what better thing to do while waiting, than to read my newly found treasure.

Anyway, it was a good day!
:o)

OLD Lawhead work:

Sci-Fi:
The Empyrion Saga-
Search for Fiera
Seige of Dome
Dream Thief

Fantasy:
The Dragon King Trilogy-
In The Hall of The Dragon King
Warlords of Nin
The Sword and The Flame

With each series his writing style evolved.

Celtic Lore:
The Pendragon Cycle-
Taliesin
Merlin
Arthur
Grail
Avalon

*****The Song of Albion-
The Paradise Wars
The Silver Hand
The Endless Knot

*****If you are going to start with any Lawhead, I would suggest you start with the Song of Albion series.


Historical Fiction:
Byzantium
Patrick
Celtic Crusades-
The Iron Lance
The Black Rood
The Mystic Rose


Childrens Lit:
Riverbank Stories-
The Tale of Jeremy Vole
The Tale of Anna Hedgehog
The Tale of Timothy Mallard


My own personal favorite reading list, in order?

The Song of Albion Series
The Pendragon Cycle
Grail
Avalon
Byzantium
Patrick
Celtice Crusades Trilogy

And then I would finish up with Early Lawhead:

The Empyrion Saga
Dream Thief
The Dragon King Trilogy
and the childrens stories.

have you given of yourself?

Now I will be the first to say, I am NOT a saint!
Imperfect Moron is my middle name,
Self centered and recalcitrant are my maiden names.
Even so...
I must exalt in the joys that come from saying to ones own self, "screw you, self!" and opting instead to choose to do somethign that benefits another human being.

What if?...
what if, instead of "looking out for #1" we all just put the needs of others before our own. This is not to say totally neglect our own needs either. I guess...as God would say in the bible, "do not look merely (merely being the operative word) to your own needs but also to the needs of others."
What if I looked out for your needs before my own, and what if you looked out for my needs before your own? Would that not be some sort of joyous reciprocal thing?
And what if you did such for your neighbor, who did it for me, and I did it for his neighbor, and you as well, knowing that you both were also concerned for my best...well...isn't that a humanly physical representaion of what God might want of us, in the name of His only son, the Messiah, Jesus Christ?

I think that the phrases:
"I deserve it," or "I deserve better" are counter to this concept and yet they are both are a part of contemporary American/Western Cultural thot.
The idea that "I cannot love another, unless I first love myslf" is so prevalent and yet, from God's perspective is utter crap.
He says "love others,"
He says "Deny Self."
When we diss our governments as being war-mongers and yet we will not reach out to our neighbor and count our own safety and needs as less, well then, we are selfish and sin centered and are vile, and have no ground to accuse our governments.

A man once said to me (and I like his perspective)
"I am 3rd."

He went on to elaborate:

-God is first.
-then the needs of every one else around me.
-finally afterwards, come my own needs. I do not deny them. They just come last.

I think this is a very good perspective and I think it is what is wrong with our modern Western Culture.

If you disagree, well fine.
It will not change my stance.
But every opinion is valuable.
:o)
hehehe

Black Crater is Contained.

Well after a full week, the Black Crater Fire is now officially fully contained.
YAY!
I saw the sky clear a bit yesterday and there was a large portion of the day that was smole free!
It was back this morning, but not as strong as it was the day before.
For now it appears that we can all breathe a collecive sigh of relief and take a moment to be thankful.

Wildland fire fighters come in all sizes and ages and from all walks of life.
There are retirees, there are immigrants from Mexico, and in some extreme cases there are low security prison inmates that come out on a seperate bus and with their onw officers.

No matter who they are, or where they have come from, they are alwasy held in high esteem in our town, for every year there is threat of forest fire. Every year the Highschool and Middle school campuses become a tent city, housing wildland firefighters.

We honour them, and respect them.
The moms and kids bake them cookies.
The kids draw picures and make thank you cards.
Families take their kids to the tent city when the buses roll in with firefighters straight from the lines, so that the children can hand each firefighter a popsicle when he or she gets off the bus.
Sometimes the lady with her portable massage chair shows up to give them a free 10 minute massage and many gladly skip a meal to line up and sit in her chair for 10 rare and glorious minutes.
Towns people bring boxers and visine and socks and toothbrushes and bandanas to the donation table for the fire fighters to recieve new gear.
Wildland fighters walk through town to visit the grocery store, and people honk and wave and applaud them in the grocery aisles.

We love firefighters.
Whether they be structural or wildland fighters.
We hold you all in the highest esteem.
And it is right.


And on a side note:

Blue Max asked the question:
"Sheesh Gal, whaddya do, leave the iron on before leaving for Spokane?"

Good heavens!
Iron?
Who "irons" any more!
No, it was all of those illegal fireworks we had left over from July 4th that we shot off at the big bonfire we had here the night before leaving for Spokane. After the fireworks we all went to bed. I wonder if anybody ever got round to throwing water on the fire?
Hmmmm,,, oh well.

;o)