Fires, Cancer, Plan #2

Citrus Heights, CA – Sister’s House

There are SO MANY pictures of the fires in Napa, Santa Rosa, and down in LA…but this one is the most dramatic.  This is the Coffey Park neighborhood in Santa Rosa, with the top picture from Google Earth, and the bottom picture taken after the fire went blazing through on Sunday/Monday.  (click on it and it gets bigger)  The fires came so quick, with such fury…listening to the stories of people telling how they got out in the nick of time…how neighbors woke them up and they had 2 minutes to grab things…and then there is the story about Sara and Charles Rippey.  Charles was 100, Sara 98…they met in Elementary School 90 years ago.  They did not get out of their house, and though they slept in separate rooms, Charles tried to get to Sara’s room before the fire consumed their house and them.  Their son was content that they at least died together, he knew they would have liked that, though probably not from smoke and fire.

Much of Northern California is under a fire watch or extreme fire watch…including the Yosemite area.  This has changed our plans completely…though we are not yet sure what plan #2 is going to be yet, but I do have some ideas.  We are in no hurry…would sure like to have some rain come and soak the state again, but there is none in the foreseeable future, though the winter is suppose to have normal precipitation from what I have read. As we come up with plan #2, we will let you know.

Above is a picture of mom (right) visiting with Marcia and my Aunt Florence (dad’s brother’s wife.)  Well, mom was diagnosed with Lymphoma back in 1998 (give or take a year).  Two doctors told her that some day, it would be back.  Here we are about 20 years later…and it was time for extensive tests again.  I took her last week for blood tests, doctor’s appointment, and then a CT Scan.  The GOOD news came on Monday…the CT Scan shows no abnormities, and the blood tests are fine outside of her high sugar readings due to her diabetes.  (Perhaps I should put her on Skruffy’s diet!)  Now with that behind us…time to formulate plan 2….

The Good, the Bad and the Beautiful

As a family growing up we did not go to the movies that often.  I remember some of them…Bambi (yep, cried during that one), It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, The Hallelujah Trail, The Trouble with Angels to name a few…and then there was the time that Dad took Roger, Sandy and I to see The Good, the Bad and the Ugly at the Drive-in theater in West Sacramento I believe...perhaps all the way to Davis.  (of course, all the drive-in theaters are pretty much gone now…and younger readers might need this link to see what I am talking about.)  I like that old movie, and I like most of Clint's other movies too.  Anyway, today's blog post is more like The Good, the Bad and the Beautiful.


The Good

Today I got the oil changed on the RV…when I say “got”, I mean that I did it this time.  It had been many years since I changed the oil on a vehicle…I think the last one was my 1996 Ford F-250 Powerstroke Turbo Diesel…did that once, made a huge mess because finding a oil pan which can hold 12+ quarts of oil is hard to find and filling two 7 quart pans is messy.  Anyway, “I got err done” today, was fairly easy except that raising the front end of the motorhome made it difficult to get out all the oil out.  Oh well, nice to know I can do it and I have all the materials I need to get the job done.  Another good thing here is Sacramento is that they will pick up your old oil on “Recycle Garbage Day”, which happened to be today, and I got it out there before they picked up.  Last time I had to run the old oil by Walmart…and I think it sat in the back of my truck for a few weeks.


The Bad

Mom had a biopsy last week…word came down yesterday that she has breast cancer and it looks like they will be operating on her in 3-5 weeks from now.  Of the breast cancers one could have, this is the best type.  At 85 years old, she does not want Chemo or Radiation, and who could blame her.  Twenty or so years ago she had Stage II, Low Grade Lymphoma, which you can read about HERE when she cut my hair for her 82nd birthday.  They told her back then that she would have a recurrence within 5-7 years…which did not happen.  Going through Chemo 20 years ago was hard enough…which is one reason she is not doing it again.

We are a family who believes in prayer…prayer to heal, if it be God’s will…prayer for strength and comfort for Mom, for Dad and all of our family.  She meets with the surgeon in two weeks and we will know more about her treatment after that.  Marcia and I are still headed north along the coast on Monday, but we may cut our trip short if hey operate sooner than we think they will.  Of course Mom would like us to stay with our schedule…but we will be here for the surgery.


The Beautiful 

Yesterday a lot of clouds came over from the outer arms of former Hurricane Dolores which is off the coast of Southern California.  It created a pretty picture at sunset, that’s for sure.

Did you see that up there in the middle?

A nice end to the day…that’s for sure.  

We leave Monday the 27th, and we will hit the road hard the first day, perhaps all 500 miles to Coos Bay.   After that, we will slow it down.  I'm excited to get out of this heat and over to the coast where it is going to be cool.