Thursday, April 27, 2017

goodbye for now, John ...


   I just received a phone call a few minutes ago - the son of a good friend called to tell me of his dad's passing ...

   John turned 90 last September, and was a very good friend of mine for the last few years ...

   I met John while I camped every summer up in the Feather River Canyon ... John and his wife, Nancy, lived in the tiny (pop. 6, if you got technical) little settlement of Twain ... 

   John was retired from the railroad, and afterwards worked a few more years with a small company that was contracted to run some of the local campgrounds in the Plumas National Forest ...

   I liked John the moment I met him ... for one thing, he was old, and 'old' earns high esteem from me ... 
   
   as Richard Pryor once said, " you don't get to be old, bein' no fool - cemeteries are full of young, dumb people ! "   

   Sybil absolutely idolized John, for John was her adventure companion, the owner of the 'buggy' that led her to adventures up on the mountain ...   

 
Sybil and John return !

 
   Sybil would rush out my front door every morning as soon as the sun started to rise, and lie down with her eyes and ears trained on John's house - his house couldn't be seen from where we camped, about 1/2 mile away, and obscured by heavy forest, but somehow, she would know when he walked out to his shed to get his quad out ...

   she would just go nuts, jumping and flipping around, until me and John would finally stop our yakkin', and then the two of them would take off for an hour or so up the mountain ... John loved Sybil almost as much as I did, and the feeling was mutual ...

   I hope to see you again John, and I ain't far behind ya !

                 God Bless You, my friend,  

                               
John Sherck   1927 - 2017

Thursday, April 6, 2017

more rain ...

  
   Kalifornia, for the most part, is on a 7-year rain cycle ... at least, that's what I was told when I moved here in December of '82, and it pretty well has followed that pattern ever since ... for the 6 years between rains, the state (at least, where I lived) can be almost desert-like ...

   about the only thing I miss about Illinois, is the green lawns and forests in the late summers, when everything here is brown and dead ... (but not missed enough to move back, uh-uh !) ...

don't worry 'bout me, I'm plenty warm !


   it's obvious Sybil loves the cold winters there, the humid summers, maybe not so much ... I often wonder how she's dealing with all that flat land, if she's still hunting for a mountain to run up !

   this winter is one of our 'every 7 years' wet, rainy ones ... as the national news showed, the Oroville Dam spillway a few miles away, was a major mess, and luckily didn't get even worse ...

   it's raining again today with several more rainy days forecast for our near future ... plus, the 'Big Melt' of our accumulated mountain snowpack hasn't really begun yet, so there could possibly be more excitement coming our way ...

route 70, near Tobin, Jan. 2017


   my beloved Feather River Canyon road still has round-the-clock work crews cutting back at the mountainsides, necessary to ease future slides ... this 'cutting back' has been ongoing since I moved here in the mid-'80s, but we still have the occasional slide ...

outside Twain, my chosen 'sentimental home'


   nonetheless, the 50-miles or so drive up thru this canyon, is one of the prettiest you can find, and is definitely a 'must-do' for motorcycle riders ... convertibles were built with roads like this in mind, I suspect ...

   Easter is coming up soon, my favorite holiday, and we're looking forward to it ... 

   

Monday, April 3, 2017

Lara Bussey DO rears her head again !

   well, it didn't take long for my laziness to take over - been awhile since I've posted ...

   I had a trip planned to Illinois for the first week of April, that had to be cancelled ... not my doing, I was prepared and anxious to go, probably in the van, or by AMTRAK if I got weaker ...

   I was taking my Dr.'s advice to 'take advantage of whatever energy I have left', but, my trip was cancelled because family determined the weather was going to be cold out there, and I would be 'uncomfortable' ...

   so, I'm uncomfortable here, instead ... and the clock's still ticking ...

   ******************************

   I had a CT-scan of my abdomen last week, and a complete bone scan a couple days later ... the abdomen doesn't look too good, but I won't know until I see the Dr. this coming Friday ...

   unfortunately, we just discovered the SAME Radiologist, or whatever, (Lara S. Bussey DO) that failed to see the large and OBVIOUS cancer tumor & eroded femur on my hip at the Feather River Hospital Emergency Ward when all this started, also read the new bone scan from last week ...

   remember her, she's the one that diagnosed my cancer tumor/femur damage as a 'hip sprain' ... I was told she is a 'floater', that works out of several Radiology Labs, etc. in the area ... they must really be desperate for help !

   needless to say, we are in the process of getting someone else, that's QUALIFIED AND WITH GOOD VISION to take a good look at the new bone scans ... 

   I will NEVER accept any diagnosis determined by Lara Bussey, DO, I can tell you that for damned sure !

   I sure miss my Sybil ...


 
my 2nd-best friend (after Jesus, of course)