Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Lind Days



Like many towns, Lind, WA holds a festival every year.  Lind Days is pure Americana.  A small farming community (75 miles west of Colfax for you Palouse fans), their summer festival features a parade, craft exhibits, a community picnic and races at the fairgrounds.  The food at the picnic is home made. A boy was selling slices of his mom's apple pie for $3.00...and it was good.

The fairground activities are truck races, followed by a Combine Demolition Derby.  The trucks are the types found on a working farm and their races feature a lot of "interaction" between them.  In the last race a young woman was in the pole position and her husband was driving the truck to her right.  At the start she hesitated a beat giving him half a length and at the first turn she steered right rather than left driving him right off the track.  He managed to get back into the race and she took him out again but this time he wound up on the cement divider and was done.

Combines are large grain harvesting devices.  The Palouse WA is a major wheat producing area so combines are prevalent. Six combines enter together and proceed to demolish one another 'till 2 are left.    The disabled are towed back to the pits where their crews somehow put them back together and in an hour or so they do battle yet again. I followed one combine back to the pits, met the "boss" and watched his crew work.  Quite remarkable really.  One person cuts damaged steel out of the assembly while another judges what a replacement part needs to look like and cuts a brace to match.  Three arc welders install the replacement steel.  Meanwhile engine mechanics make repairs, adjustments and improvements to the engine & drive train.  In my opinion the NASCAR crews have nothing on these guys.

These images are from an iPhone and also from a Sigma DP3M.


































Wednesday, January 2, 2013

"I think I'm in trouble!"

Wednesday, December 26, Monument Valley UT at O Dark:thirty and I'm on my usual pre-dawn walkabout.  Explore a bit, have some breakfast, greet the dawn, make some decisions about the day.  Our usual routine is that I bring a cup of hot coffee back to the room and attempt to entice the lovely Miss Paulette into getting up and joining me on a day's adventures.  She usually tells me to go away and leave her alone for a few more hours.

Today she's already up and dressed, "I think I'm in trouble" she said and my heart froze.  A handful of days earlier she had some dental work done on 2 upper teeth.  One was extensive and evidently resulted in an infection.  She had been rubbing the side of her face the day before and said it felt a "little funny."  The side of her face is swollen and there's a really frightening dark line running from her jaw to a large dark lump just under her eye.  It appears to be growing as I watch it.

The Big-Rez has it's beauties and charms but immediate emergency medical care is not one of them.  No air service available...I decided to drive to Flagstaff.  It's a bit farther than either Moab, UT or Page, AZ but it's a much larger town.  The Audi engineers have built the S-4 to be a much better car than I am a driver and at a MPH or 2 under recklessness we made the trip in 2 hours.

They triaged her immediately and took her directly to the back.  2 doctors, an RN and an EMP, massive infusions of antibiotics, steroids and other fluids, tests, scans, procedures, more tests...on and on it was a very long day.  We weren't ever left alone, someone was always there asking questions, medical and personal, sharing bits about their lives with us...it was comforting for Paulette and for me.  I was terrified.  A good night and an emergency dentist the following morning and they declared us "OK to continue your trip."

I am so...Incredibly  grateful.

I have an "online-friend" who lives in Australia.  He quite recently had the overwhelming tragedy of losing his beloved wife quite suddenly while she was visiting relatives in Finland.  Somehow he managed to do the things he needed to do, and still copes on a day to day basis.  I thought about him often this day.  Whether you care for this or not, Chris, your strength helped me.  Thank you for not giving up.

I also need to say I am convinced that our health care system is by far the best in the world.  When people are in trouble, the very best health care is here.  I can see that changes are inevitable.  I also believe that these changes are for misguided political reasons alone and can only hope the changes don't ruin everything.

Below are several images before and during.  The last 2 are when they told us we could leave and when we did.  I especially like the next to last image.  Most of the swelling has gone and Paulette was just tickled she was "better."