My newly painted kitchen!

After living in our house for almost exactly 2 years, we finally got around to painting the kitchen! Last year we did the guest room. Many of you probably remember the lovely Blue's Clues themed guest room. That room had to be done first, this year it was the kitchen's turn. I spent hours on the Lowe's website picking out colors. They have a really cool feature on their website. They have about 30 different kitchens, you pick the one that looks the most like yours, and you paint the walls online with the colors they offer. I have always wanted a yellow kitchen, then I decided I wanted one of the walls to be a different color of yellow, and I wanted the trim white. I spent more time working with the blue painter's tape, than I did actually painting. But, it's done and I am very happy with the outcome. Here are some pictures:

This was the first day. Cam and I spent that entire day cleaning and spackling and sanding the walls. Trisha helped of course.

A lovely example of my taping work. I think in this picture I've got the primer on the walls and the trim painted.

Here is the really yellow wall. It is my favorite wall.

This picture is a bit blurry, but this is a wall with the lighter yellow color.

The really yellow wall with my kitchen stuff moved back in.

The rest of the really yellow wall, you can see my new kitchen clock in this one. I love that clock!

An overview of the whole wall. You can probably tell this wall is my favorite. There are the jars of pickles I made yesterday!

A better picture of a wall with the other yellow color on it. For some reason, I just can't get a good picture of the other yellow color. I tried all sorts of features on my camera, and just couldn't get a good shot. But, you get the idea.

So, that's the new kitchen! It was a lot of work, but worth it. It is amazing what a difference a couple of coats of paint can make! I really want to do the living room and entrance way next, but I think it will be awhile before we can do that. Cam needs to be done with the St. George job, so we can knock it out in a few days. Cam was here for the wall prep day and primer day for the kitchen, then he had to go to St. George. So, I had to do the rest, and it took me forever!

Most women probably fantasize about having 7 firemen in their bedroom at 5:15am....

....but not this woman!

I've been feeling bad that it's been about 3 months since my last posting. A few weeks ago I had the idea of doing weekly postings while Cam is working in St. George. I don't know why, I guess mostly just to document happenings while he is gone. It also came to me that I might find myself in interesting and/or humorous situations while he is gone, because I have never in my life just lived alone. And with him being gone all week, I am pretty much living alone. Cam is one of those people who knows exactly what to do when situations arise, like the swamp cooler not working, pilot lights going out, dishwasher floods, etc. Me? I'm pretty much a spaz at that stuff. I'm usually there handing him tools while he is fixing these things, but I don't really pay attention. Ever since we heard that Cam was going to be working in St. George, I've been worrying that some catastrophe is going to happen at the house. It's funny, I'm not worried about break-ins or anything like that. Our dog, Tosh, is huge and an excellent protector, and I have my 22 pretty much ready to go, I wouldn't hesitate to use it, and I'm a dang good shot. So, nothing has happened in the last 3 weeks because Cam has only been in St. George one day each week, and then there was yesterday......

This is our cat Eddie. I'm including a picture of him because the story starts with him. Eddie is a very large male cat, and the only cat I have that will mark territory. He doesn't always do it, but sometimes if I leave an article of clothing against a certain wall in the bedroom, he will spray it. Monday night, I left a t-shirt and a kitchen towel on the floor by that wall. Sorry, let me back up a bit. The story actually begins about half an hour before Eddie's action. At about 4:30 yesterday morning I woke up to one of the cats jumping around the room. It was Trisha, there was a moth or some other flying bug in the room and she was chasing it. Chasing bugs is one of Trisha's favorite things to do. It's annoying, but I'm used to it and can sleep through it. So I fell back asleep. At 5am I wake up to this buzzing noise. Before I opened my eyes I thought "Trisha must have caught her bug", it sounded like a loud fly buzzing or something. Then I realized that was way too loud for a bug and I opened my eyes. I see Eddie running from his "spray wall" towards the bed. There is an outlet on that wall and blue sparks are coming out of the outlet and a loud buzzing sound is coming from it. Eddie's spray had gone directly into the outlet.

I immediately fly out of bed and stood there looking at the sparks trying to decide what to do. The first thing I thought was "throw some water on it", then I remembered hearing never try to put out an electrical fire with water, because it is usually liquid that starts them in the first place! Then I remembered we had a fire extinguisher in the hall closet. By this time smoke is coming out of the outlet too. I run back in the bedroom with the fire extinguisher. I've never used one before. I kept pushing down on what was obviously the lever that releases the white stuff, but nothing was happening. The lever wouldn't even push down. I think "it's broken!" My worry is turning into panick. Then I decided there must be something you have to do in order to make it work. I start looking at the extinguisher and notice a hand grenade looking key going through the lever. I pull out the key and push down on the lever and it worked! I spray the outlet, and it seems to have worked. The sparks and smoke stop. I was a little relieved, but I kept feeling the wall around the outlet to see if I feel any heat in the wall. I don't feel any heat, then I hear a loud pop and suddenly sparks just start shooting out of the outlet. More than before! I couldn't believe it. Then it hit me, maybe you're not supposed to use a fire extinguisher on electrical fires. I grab the extinguisher and frantically look for directions. I notice 3 pictures on it, one of a garbage can with flames coming out, one of flames and a gasoline can, and one of flames and an electrical cord. What does this mean? I look to see if there is one of those lines going through the picture, you know, the red circle with the line meaning "don't" or whatever. I don't see the line, so I figure it's telling me it's okay to use, so I start spraying again. That white stuff goes everywhere! And it doesn't help that the ceiling fan was on and circulating the stuff all over the room. This time the sparks stop, but smoke keeps coming out of the outlet. I'm picturing the fire going up the wire and catching the insulation on fire. I'm convinced that any second now I'm going to see that wall just burst into flames. During all this I noticed that my two male cats had run out of the room, but my two girls are probably under the bed. So while I'm spraying extinguisher stuff, I'm also stomping my foot to get them out from under the bed. Stomping my foot works for some reason, and I see both girls run out of the room. I know my cats, and know all 4 of them ran to the basement, which means they are pretty much as far from where the fire will start as they can be.

The sparks had stopped, but lots of smoke was still coming out of the outlet. I spent a few seconds deciding whether or not to call 911. I keep hoping the smoke will stop, but it doesn't. I've never had to call 911 to get myself out of a jam. I've called it a couple of times when I've witnessed a car accident, and once or twice when I worked the front desk of a hotel. One time I remember it was because a housekeeper walked in on someone od'ing from heroine. Anyway, I decide I probably should call 911. At that point only about 5 minutes had passed, and I realized I was only wearing a shirt. I decide that if this is going to turn into something major I better put some pants on. I went to grab the pajama pants I bought for Cam for Christmas one year. He doesn't wear them, and I've kind of adopted them. Then I thought better of it, because what if there is a huge fire and neighbors and news people show up, I don't want to be in pajama pants. So I put on a pair of jeans, and call 911. The dispatcher goes through all the preliminary stuff like my address and name, then she asks what the emergency is. I told her my cat pee'd into an electrical outlet and sparks and smoke have been shooting out the outlet. I told her I've sprayed it twice with an extinguisher, but smoke is still coming out. Then suddenly, sparks come shooting out again. This time they are shooting out about 3 feet. It's as if one of those TNT fireworks is in my outlet. I kind of yelped, she could hear the noise and asked if that was the sparks she was hearing. I told her it was, and she told me to get out of the house.

I grab Tosh and go ouside. The dispatcher tells me the fire trucks will be there any time. Then she tells me kind of hesitantly, "I have to send notes to the firemen. This was started by urine?" I said "yes, my cat sprayed the wall and it went in the outlet." Right then, I could hear the sirens in the distance. It's about 5:10am and I'm praying they will turn off the sirens when they get in the neighborhood. I didn't want a crowd. And I especially didn't want our neighbor across the street, Luis, to come out. Luis and his wife Adrianna have become pretty good friends of ours. Problem is, they don't speak much English. We can get by okay talking to eachother, and they have a 9 year old daughter, Julia, that speaks both English and Spanish, so she works as translator a lot. Luis knows that Cam is out of town, and Cam asked him to kind of keep an eye on the house. I keep wondering "how in the world am I going to explain this to Luis?" I picture myself saying the word "gato", then lifting my leg up (I mean that is the universal symbol for an animal peeing right?), and then I got stuck on how to describe "outlet" and "sparks" through hand gestures. ( I'm not kidding either, those exact thoughts really went through my head) I just hoped that if Luis came out, Julia would come out with him to translate. Just then the firetruck turns the corner, no sirens, but lots of lights. Then one comes through the neighborhood the other way, so I've got two of them in front of my house. While I was figuring out how to explain to Luis what happened, I was also thinking of my cats. I figured if there was a fire, some of the firemen can rescue the cats. I mean, that's part of their job, right? It's crazy how in situations like that, your brain can think of a bunch of different things at the same time in a linear way.

The firemen jump out of the truck and 3 of them follow me inside. I took them to the bedroom. Thankfully there is no fire, and the smoke had stopped. They have their axes with them, and I'm sure any second now they are going to start hacking through the wall. I didn't care, Cam could fix it. Instead, they pull out these gadgets with a laser and they start pointing the lasers on the wall and ceiling. The lasers are reading the temperature. They spend a few minutes doing that, meanwhile 4 more firemen have joined us. One of them goes back outside and tells the other firetruck they can leave, and then he comes back. They assure me there is no fire in the wall. They tell me the outlet is a bit hot still, but not hot enough to start a fire. I apologized to them and told them I hope I hadn't wasted their time. They assured me I did the right thing. They also told me it was a good thing we had an extinguisher, or it could have resulted in a house fire. They said some huge percentage of house fires are electrical, I don't remember the number, but it was pretty high.

By the time the firemen and I entered the house, the white extinguisher stuff had pretty much spread through the entire house. It just orbits in the air, it was all down the hall and into the living room and kitchen. When they determined there wasn't going to be a fire they said they would help me air out the house. I really just wanted them to leave, because I was still afraid Luis was going to come over. I told them it wasn't necessary, I could just turn on the swamp cooler and air it out. But they insisted on staying. So they went around the house opening windows and then they brought in these big gasoline powered fans and started airing out the house. The front door was propped open, the whole house was wide open. And for those that know me well, you know that I'm a freak about keeping my cats inside. I have very strict rules about closing doors behind you and not opening windows unless there is a very secure screen, etc. So, I was picturing my cats, especially Pedro, taking the opportunity to run outside. But, I was still feeling like I had wasted their time, and some of them looked like they had obviously just woken up to come to my house, that I didn't have the heart to ask them to close the door. I was really hoping my cats were so freaked out that they just stayed hidden in the basement. The firemen spent about 10 minutes airing out the house, they made sure I was okay, then they left. It was about 5:45 when they left. I looked across the street, Luis' house was still totally dark. I had adverted that whole awkward situation. And thankfully, no other neighbors had gathered in front of my house. So, either all my neighbors were still asleep, or they just don't care.

As soon as they left, I closed most of the windows and turned the swamp cooler on vent. My priority right then was to make sure all the cats were still in the house. I went into the kitchen and opened up a can of wet cat food, a noise that is sure to get their attention. As soon as I opened the can, my girls, Pedro and Trisha came running up the stairs. I was so relieved. They were the one's I was most worried about. My boys, Eddie and Onan are so skittish, I knew for sure they wouldn't have gone outside. But the girls, I wasn't so sure. Onan eventually came upstairs, but Eddie didn't. I didn't really care at that time, I was pretty angry with him. I got him and Onan when I divorced my first husband, and it crossed my mind while all this was going on that maybe I should track down my first husband and tell him to take Eddie back. I would never do that, but it did cross my mind.

So I fed the cats, and the whole time I'm just shaking. The whole morning so far just seemed so surreal. There is nothing worse than waking up and panick is your first emotion. In a mere 15 minutes time, I had woken up to sparks coming out of an outlet, using a fire extinguisher twice, worrying my house is going to burn down, calling 911, how to explain this to my Mexian neighbor, and two firetrucks in front of my house. Most mornings, my main dilemma is whether to warm up the coffee leftover from the day before, or make a new pot. I called my work and told them I wasn't going to make it that day. I didn't bother telling them why, I didn't think they would believe me. I had called Cam just before the firetrucks arrived, he didn't answer, I called him again after the firemen left, he didn't answer again. I didn't leave messages, because I didn't want to freak him out. I was still worried, so I went in the bedroom and laid at the foot of the bed, so I could be as close to the outlet as possible, and fell asleep. I woke up around 7:30 and called Cam again. This time he answered. I asked him if he didn't notice I had called him twice already. He said he did. He was asleep the first time I called and in the shower the second time. By the time he saw the missed calls he thought I was at work, so he didn't call me back. He was all nonchalant, he thought I was just calling him to say "hi". I explained what had happened, and he felt so bad he hadn't called me back. He could not believe what had happened. He immediately stepped up and said he was going to call the electricians his company works with and get them over to the house, etc. He kept apologizing for not returning my calls. I could tell he felt pretty helpless being out of town, but he was going to do what he could.

Cam made his calls and at about 10:00 our friend Andy came over. He's not an electrician, but does have some experience. Andy noticed it was strange that the whole incident didn't trip the breaker. So he and I, through turning off several breakers, found the right one, and turned it off. Andy removed the outlet and put in a new one. Then a few hours later, our electrician friend, Lanny, came over and double checked everything. He said our breaker box is really old, in fact they don't even make those type of breakers anymore. That is probably why the breaker didn't trip. So he is going to switch out the entire box this weekend.

So, that's the story. I was pretty jumpy all day yesterday. Every little noise made me jump. I think I came down with temporary OCD, because all day, every couple of minutes, I felt the walls around the outlet for heat. But, I did learn a couple of lessons. Put those child protector outlet things in all the empty outlets (thanks for the suggestion Cat, I bought some today), and make sure you have fire extinguishers in your house! If you don't have one, go get one. I not only successfully prevented a house fire, but I also prevented myself getting on the local news. One of my life goals, and I'm totally serious about this, is to not be on the news! I mean, if I save someone's life or something like that fine, but I never want to be the person on the news that viewers can kind of laugh at and/or feel sorry for. If my house had burned down, what would have been the headline? "house burns down because cat pees in outlet?" I will not be that person! Oh yeah, that reminds me. In the afternoon, Eddie finally showed up. The poor guy is singed on his belly, so he must have gotten shocked by the sparks when he sprayed. When I saw that, I remembered hearing a loud meow before I heard the buzzing sound. I did a little post about this on Facebook yesterday, at first everyone was quite concerned, then the comments got funny. My brother-in-law Rob had the best headline, "there was a house fire in Kearns today. The investigating fireman on the scene determined the cause of the fire to be a cat urinating on a wall outlet. The only injury reported is to the suspected cat…." And my brother, Matt, just found the whole story too funny that you can't come up with jokes, it's too funny the way it is.

One last comment. My bedroom was covered in fire extinguisher stuff. And that stuff really stinks! Especially combined with the smell of burning cat urine.

Here is a picture of the fire extinguisher, the t-shirt that got pee'd on and Andy taking out the outlet. If you look closely at Andy's foot, you can see the hand grenade key from the extinguisher.

Here is a picture of the outlet. So many sparks came out of it that they melted the plastic around the holes.

The motorcycle accident of 2007

Warning! This is a very long blog!

It will be 2 years this April that Cam got in his motorcycle accident. Cam and I started talking about it a couple of nights ago and decided the story needs to be written down. It’s not enough that he got in a motorcycle accident and pretty much broke the entire left side of his body from his collar bone to his waist, it’s everything that happened after the accident! We were laughing pretty hard the other night, and I imagine down the road, some of the details will start fading, so I have to write this down.

It was Easter weekend 2007, and a bunch of us went camping at Jeff and Missy’s property. They own 5 acres out in the middle of nowhere. The property is a few exits past Wendover. Once you get off the freeway, you go about 25 miles on a dirt road, look for the abandoned AirStream RV and that is the property. We love going there. No one is around you for miles. It is a great place to ride dirt bikes and 4-wheelers, and just relax and read, play cards etc. We go every Easter weekend to kick off the camping season.

So, it was Easter Sunday afternoon. Most of the other couples left that morning, because they had to work Monday. Cam, Jeff, Missy, their son’s Nick and Mike, and our friend’s 19 year old son, Matt, and I stayed because we were all lucky enough to have Monday off. We decided it would be fun if we all jumped on some form of ATV and go on a leisurely ride. There were just enough machines for all of us. Missy and I were on 4-wheelers, Jeff, Nick, Mike and Matt all had their own dirt bikes. Cam used a dirt bike that our friend Anthony’s brother had built out of used motorcycle parts. Not the nicest bike in the world, but it would do.

Missy and I packed some waters and snacks and we took off. It was just a mellow ride. We stuck to dirt roads and avoided the mountains that were to the West. After about 45 minutes we came to a place where over the years, some of the older kids have built some jumps and so we stopped there. Cam did not have a helmet (I know! Shame on us!), so he mostly just watched everyone. There is one spot that has a pretty small jump, it’s actually more of a bump, and then a few yards ahead of that is a much bigger jump. Cam decided to go over the little jump. I was just sitting on my 4-wheeler watching everyone and I watched Cam go over the little jump. Suddenly his motorcycle just took off! Cam hit the big jump at full speed and went flying! He landed face down and the back end of the dirt bike landed on him, the back tire still spinning and giving Cam a pretty nasty tire burn on his back.

We all went running to Cam. Jeff threw the bike off him and turned Cam over onto his back, Cam just flopped over like a rag doll. Cam was out cold, there was blood smeared across his face, and blood was coming out of his ear. I thought I was going to throw up. Missy grabbed me and told me that she and I needed to take the 4-wheelers back to camp and get their truck so we could come back and get Cam. Jeff assured me that Cam was alive, he was just unconscious. Jeff has done some emergency training, so I felt okay leaving him with Cam. So Missy and I rode the ATV’s back to camp. I was in a total daze. When you see your husband, or anyone you love for that matter, unconscious with blood coming out of their ear, it is incredibly disturbing to say the least.

Missy and I made it back to camp after what seemed like the longest ride ever! Missy grabbed the keys to their truck and we headed back. I was still in a total daze. I didn’t cry, I couldn’t really talk, I was just mostly shaking and I felt really hot, like I was burning on the inside. So at this point you are probably wondering why we didn’t call 911. We didn’t because the property is so far out there, there is no cellular service. You have to go about 15 miles down the dirt road to get service.

Missy and I finally made it back to the scene. Cam was standing up! I don’t think I can put in words the relief I felt. Jeff had tried to clean up some of the blood around Cam’s ear. Ends up his sunglasses cut him just above his ear and it was blood from that cut that was going into his ear, then running back out. Cam could hardly move. He was in shock, I looked in his eyes, his pupils looked normal, but his eyes were just glazed over. And to answer why the motorcycle took off over the jump like that? Turns out the throttle stuck and the dirt bike hit what’s called a “power band” which I guess is like turbo kicking in. Cam couldn’t control it and didn’t have enough time to react.

We helped Cam into the truck as carefully as we could and drove him to camp. Poor guy, the slightest bump made him moan. For those who may be reading this and don’t know Cam, he is a pretty tough guy. He’s been a construction worker for about 20 years. He is the type of guy who can put a drill bit through his leg, wrap some duct tape around it, and work the rest of the day. (Yes, that has happened) I could tell he was in some serious pain. We got back to camp and helped him into our camper. I got out the first aid kit and tried to clean up his face. He was filthy! He had blood and dirt all over his face. And it’s not regular dirt out there. It’s like baby powder, and Cam was covered in it! He let me clean him up a little, but then he made me stop. He couldn’t sit for very long, he just wanted to get out of the camper and go outside. Missy had left us and took the truck back to the crash site, so they could put the dirt bike in the back and bring it back to camp. They were all just getting to camp when Cam and I were getting out of the camper.

Cam was still in shock, and was pretty incoherent. He kept wanting to sit down, but we made him stand up and stay awake while we made the game plan. Clearly I had to get him to an emergency room. Wendover is about an hour and half away, and we discussed whether or not they had an emergency room. We had only been to the casinos there. None of us had ever bothered checking out the rest of the town. We decided there had to be an Instacare there at least. We didn’t think there was a full hospital, but there had to be something. Women have babies, and people get in accidents and have heart attacks etc, there had to be some sort of an emergency room. We couldn’t take our truck. We have one of those campers that fit in the bed of the truck and goes up and over the top. The jacks were down it would be way too much trouble and time to get our truck ready to go. Matt offered us his truck.

We got Cam into Matt’s truck and he and I headed for Wendover. Cam was more awake by this time. He kept asking what happened. To this day he doesn’t remember the accident or the hour or so we spent at camp after. His first memory is he and I in Matt’s truck. I made Cam talk to me so he could stay awake. Finally when I knew we had cell service I handed him my phone and suggested he call someone. I needed Cam to stay awake and keep talking, so I thought calling someone was a good idea. So Cam calls our friend Andy, or what I thought was Andy. I heard him ask if Andy was there, so I figured his wife Brenna had answered the phone. It sounded like Andy wasn’t there, so I thought Cam was just talking to Brenna. He just made small talk, didn’t say anything about the accident. He talked for about 5 minutes then hung up and said “your sister Amy says hi”. He called Amy! Andy is the first person listed on Cam’s phone, but he’s second on mine, because Amy is first! I had no idea what Amy must of thought of that call. She and Cam get along fine, but it’s not like they call each other to chat. I called Amy a couple of days later to explain that she got the concussion call. She and I had a good laugh about it.

We finally made it to Wendover. There is a convenience store right off the exit. I figured the person working there could direct me to the emergency room. I told Cam to stay in the truck, I’d be right back. I ran into the store, there was an employee and 2 customers; one was an older lady like in her 70’s and the other a guy about my age. I asked the employee if there was an emergency room. The old lady asked me what happened, I told her my husband was in a motorcycle accident and I need to get him checked out. They asked if he was okay, I said yes, but he may have a couple of broken bones and probably a concussion. Just then, the door opens and in comes Cam. The old lady let out a little scream. You have to picture this. Cam is 6’2”, weighs 230 pounds, and keeps his head completely shaved bald. He was covered in dirt and still had dried blood all over his face. He seriously looked like Frankenstein’s monster. He was even walking like the monster. I assured everyone he was okay, and again asked where the emergency room is. I was told they don’t have one! They suggested we go to the fire station because there are paramedics there. That was good enough for me!

The fire station is right on the main road, we found it very easily. I pulled up, jumped out of the truck and ran to the door. It was locked. I knocked and knocked and looked in windows. There was not a soul there. I ran around to the back, no one. I was so disappointed I didn’t know what to do. I just wanted someone to help my husband! The sun was starting to go down. I went back to the truck and Cam and I discussed what to do next. He was clear headed by then, he was just in a lot of pain. We had 2 options. We go all the way to Salt Lake and get him to a hospital, or we go back to camp and leave in the morning. We were in Matt’s truck. We were all so sure there was an emergency room in Wendover, that we hadn’t even discussed the plan if there wasn’t. We couldn’t call them and let them know what was going on. I told Cam I could take him to Salt Lake, get him taken care of, take him home, and then drive back to the camp site. Even if it was 5am, I didn’t care. I let Cam make the call. He wanted to just go back to camp and leave in the morning.

It was dark by the time we made it back to camp. Jeff had made a nice fire and Missy was working on dinner. We told them what happened in Wendover. Cam sat by the fire for about an hour, ate some dinner and wanted to go to bed. There was no way he was going to be able to climb up into the bed we usually sleep in. Luckily the kitchen table area turns into a second bed, so I made that up for him. I asked him to try and stay awake as long as he can. I put in a Lord of the Rings movie for him, and watched about the first hour of it with him. He fell asleep about 10 minutes into the movie.

I went back to the fire where everyone else was. I wanted to make sure Mike, who was about 10 at the time was okay. He witnessed the whole thing. Cam’s always been a part of his life and I imagine it would be pretty traumatic to see something like that so young. He was doing okay. He was just really worried about his Uncle Cam. Jeff, Missy, Matt and I stayed up by the fire until about 1am talking. I checked on Cam about every 10 minutes. I finally went to lie down, but didn’t really sleep. I was just so worried and freaked out and every time Cam moved in his sleep he would wake up in pain. I probably got about an hour and a half of sleep in 20 minute intervals.

As soon as the slightest bit of daylight appeared, I got up and put my shoes on. Cam was awake too. I started up the truck and turned the heater on and helped Cam in. It was up to me to get the truck and camper ready to go. I got 3 of the jacks up with some struggle, but the 4th one would not budge. I tried and tried and it wouldn’t budge. Then suddenly this strength came to me that I’ve never felt before. I’ve heard that adrenaline can do some strange things like it gives people super human strength and they can lift cars off of people etc. That is exactly what happened to me. I got the jack up! Then I realized I hadn’t drained the water from our cooler. We have a huge cooler and it still had some ice, a lot of water and food, drinks etc. It usually takes 2 guys to lift it out of our camper. I didn’t have time to drain the water which would only lighten it by a few pounds anyway. Somehow I was able to just pick it up and slide it into the camper. I thought I was going to faint afterward. Jeff still wonders why I didn’t wake him up to help me, I didn’t even think about it that morning. I just wanted to go.

Cam and I hit the road. I actually felt really good knowing my husband was going to be at a hospital in a couple of hours. Cam was still in so much pain and the pain was starting to really wear on him. He was miserable. We couldn’t get to Salt Lake fast enough. We got near Wendover and I checked the gas. We had just over a half a tank. I told Cam we should stop for gas. He said we’d be fine. We’ve done the trip before on one tank. Besides, we got down there on less than half a tank, so we’ll be okay. About 45 minutes out of Wendover I happened to look at the gas gage and it was on less than a quarter of a tank! I couldn’t believe it! We were going to run out of gas! If you’ve done the drive, then you know how screwed we were. I wanted to kick myself for not going with my gut and filling up in Wendover.

Sure enough, we ran out of gas. The truck finally ran out right at the exit sign for The Delles. There is a Sinclair station there. I could see it! It was exactly a mile away. It really sucked that we ran out of gas, but it could have been worse. At least I could actually see a gas station! I told Cam I was going to walk to the station, get some gas and come back. He insisted on coming with me! I told him that was ridiculous! But he insisted. So we started walking. About a quarter mile into the walk a guy pulled over in a very small truck. He asked if we needed help. We asked if he could take us to that Sinclair so we could get some gas. So we squeezed into his little truck cab. For some reason, Cam didn’t want this guy to know he was so injured, so this guy had no idea Cam’s condition. We get to the Sinclair, I borrow a gas can from the store and fill it up. There is a frontage road that runs parallel with the freeway, and the guy said he’d just drive down that until we got to the truck. All we had to do was climb the lovely rusty barbed wire fence between the road and the freeway! He didn’t realize Cam was very injured, and for some, I can only guess not wanting to show any kind of weakness reason, Cam didn’t want him to know. Cam said that was a great idea. The guy did us a big favor and showed an act of kindness by picking us up anyway. So, he drove us down the frontage road and dropped us off where our truck was parked. I helped Cam over the fence the best I possibly could, but it almost killed him to climb over it. He hardly said a word the rest of the way home. The pain was just too much.

We had to stop at home before we went to the hospital. We had our dog, Tosh, with us and had to drop him off. I had to check my insurance papers and make sure we went to a hospital that even accepted our insurance. We were home long enough to drop off Tosh, check on the cats, check insurance information and get Cam out of his jeans and into a pair of shorts. We were there about 15 minutes. I didn’t bother changing I didn’t care what I looked like. (I’ll be sorry for that later I think) Luckily, a hospital just a couple of miles away accepted our insurance. We hopped in my truck, with no camper on it thank God, and went to the hospital.

I got us checked in and luckily there wasn’t much of a wait. We were given a hospital bed in the middle of the hallway, and a nurse took some scissors and cut off Cam’s hoodie and shirt he was wearing and put a hospital gown on him. Then another nurse gave him an IV with Morphine in it. The Morphine barely did a thing. After about an hour, a doctor finally checked on him. And what an ASS this doctor was. When he found out that Cam’s accident happened the day before, he treated us like we were some druggies that waited to come down or something before going to the hospital. He basically accused us of that. It was useless to try to explain why it had taken us so long to get him to a hospital. He didn’t want to hear any of it. I realize we looked like crap. I hadn’t showered in 3 days, we were both dirty, and well, we were people who had been camping for 3 days! But that is no excuse for treating us the way he did. He was angry that he couldn’t put stitches in the cut above Cam’s ear because too much time had passed. In his words, “If you would have gotten him here yesterday like you should have, I could have done stitches. Now all I can do is liquid stitches, and there will be a terrible scar!” (Well Dr. ASS, there is hardly a scar at all!) They discovered a little fluid in Cam’s lung and he was angry about that too. He told me Cam’s lung could have collapsed while we were waiting to get to the hospital. That kind of freaked me out. The doctor actually warmed up to me fairly quickly, and ended up being okay with me. But he treated Cam like some druggie and treated me with the “what are you doing with this type of guy” attitude. That really pissed me off. I can barely get Cam to take an Ibuprofen when he is in pain, and here this doctor is treating him like he is there for the Morphine.

We were at the hospital for about 3 ½ hours. Towards the end, the doctor was nicer to both of us. I think after he saw the x-rays and saw that Cam broke his collar bone, 4 ribs and compressed 3 vertebrae in his back, he realized Cam wasn’t faking anything. They had also taken some blood, which I’m sure they did a toxicology test on. And maybe he saw that results showed that there wasn’t any kind of drug in Cam’s system, legal or illegal. I would love to see the look of surprise and/or humility on the doctor’s face when he saw those results! He wrote a prescription for some Percocet, put a sling on Cam and sent us on our way.

They had cut off the shirts Cam was wearing, so I had to take him home wearing the hospital gown and his shorts. The hospital is on a pretty busy road and I was helping Cam to my truck. I started laughing at how funny we must look. I’m helping this big, bald guy in a hospital gown through the parking lot. It probably looked like I was trying to help some mental patient break out. We both started laughing. The Morphine had finally kicked in and Cam was feeling pretty good. The pharmacy was on the way home, so I dropped it off, took Cam home, then went back and picked up his prescription.

Cam took a shower while I was gone, and was still wearing just a towel when I got home. He didn’t know what to wear. Cam’s a construction worker, he wears t-shirts and long sleeved t-shirts. There was no way he was going to try to get one of those on. (Cam does own some other, nice things to wear for special occasions, but they are all over the head things like sweaters). I suddenly remembered that I had bought him an obnoxious Hawaiian shirt to wear to a golf tournament we had played in the year before. It was button up! I found it and he put it on.

While we were at the hospital I had asked the doctor what Cam should do about sitting and sleep. He couldn’t sit for very long and he couldn’t lie down for very long. The doctor recommended a Lazy-Boy. Well, we didn’t have one of those! I remembered Jeff and Missy had one in their basement that they weren’t using. I called Missy; they were home from the camping trip and were going to come to our house anyway to check on Cam. I asked if we could borrow their Lazy-Boy, of course we could! So they brought that over and we set it up in the living room. As soon as Cam got in the chair, he fell asleep. What a relief! It had been about 36 hours since his accident, and he was finally able to sleep. He looked so cute too. I had purposely bought him a really obnoxious Hawaiian shirt it had pineapples and Ukulele’s on it. Jeff, Missy and I couldn’t help but giggle. I was really so happy my husband was alive, I couldn't stop smiling.

I was worried about the fluid in the lung, so I took Cam to a doctor a couple days later for a follow up. He checked Cam out, and everything was fine. I had brought the Percocet prescription with us, and the doctor couldn’t believe that the hospital doctor had prescribed such a low dosage! Cam was complaining that the pills weren’t doing much. I know nothing about prescription drugs, so I didn’t realize it was a low dosage. He said considering the injuries Cam had, he should have been prescribed 3 times the strength. (Thanks Dr. ASS!) He wrote a new prescription and that worked much better. Cam’s sister’s came to visit the day after we got home and brought a bunch of their dad’s button up shirts for Cam to wear. I took the week off work, (thank you FMLA.) And Cam actually went back to work the next Monday. He couldn’t do much, but he went.

Cam finished the second prescription of pain killers and hasn’t had any since. For a long time certain things still hurt him like sneezing and tying his shoes. But for the most part, he is as good as ever! The funniest thing is a few weeks ago he slipped and fell on some ice at work and he heard a loud crunch! He says he got up and he felt better than he has since the accident! Seems like that fall popped some things in place that should have been popped in place a long time ago!

Sorry if this was the longest most boring blog ever, but I had to do it.

2008 In Memoriam

Cam and I watched a TV show tonight which reminded me that someone whom I had the upmost respect for died this year. And I got to thinking, "I should do a blog remembering the people who died in 2008 that kind of meant something to me." So, here it is. Quite a few people died that I liked, but I narrowed it down to the top 7. Why 7? I don't know, it seems everyone else I just kind of had the same reaction of "Eh, that's too bad". But these seven are the ones that really hit me. And I am listing them from didn't hit me that hard, to hit me the hardest. Here we go:


Paul Newman: I remember watching Cool Hand Luke, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting with my Dad when I was quite young. I love his crazy blue eyes and the fact that he was married to Joanne Woodward for like 60 years. What a great, rare, Hollywood romance! The Verdict is also one of my favorite movies he's been in. I am also a huge fan of some of his salad dressings and marinades. "I can eat fifty eggs".

Heath Ledger: I first saw him in The Patriot and thought he was really good. Then I saw A Knight's Tale, and thought the movie was lame, but he was pretty good. Then I saw The Brother's Grimm and absolutely loved him and Matt Damon. Then I saw Brokeback Mountain and was totally blown away. I think his portrayal of Ennis in Brokeback was some of the best acting I've ever seen. Then I saw Dark Knight, and was even more blown away. I don't know what else to say. I want to compare his death to James Dean or something, but I think Heath was a better actor. Maybe the comparison is because they both died so young. I'll just end it by saying I think Heath could have had one of those really long Hollywood careers like Newman.
Harvey Korman: What can I say? I grew up with Harvey Korman. I am lucky enough to have grown up with The Carol Burnett Show and got to see first hand the genious of Harvey Korman. Thank you Mom and Dad for being fans of that show and letting your kids watch it too. I will never forget him and Tim Conway making each other laugh on that show. Watching the Carol Burnett Show are some of my favorite childhood memories, and Harvey Korman is such a huge part of that time.

Richard Wright: The original keyboard player of Pink Floyd. Dark Side of the Moon would not exist without him. I remember being like 11 or 12 and seeing his name on my brother Dave's albums, and really hoping he was like a cousin of ours or something. Roger Waters has described him as the backbone of Pink Floyd, so thank you Richard Wright. Pink Floyd wouldn't be who they are without you, and I wouldn't be who I am without Pink Floyd.

George Carlin: Genious. Absolute genious. George Carlin is the funniest standup comedian I've ever heard. In fact, I dislike most standup comedy because it just doesn't compare to Carlin. Over the years I've collected old Carlin LP's. When Cam and I were driving to Vegas once, Cam bought a couple Carlin casettes at that truckstop in Beaver to listen to. I love George Carlin! His comedy is timeless, the stuff he did in the 70's is just as funny now as it ever was. The stuff he did up until he died was as good as it ever was! He is the most serious, funniest man that ever lived!

David Foster Wallace: This is still a hard one for me. I did an entire post on this blog about his death. I think I titled it "Infinite Loss". I am so thankful I was introduced to his writing, because it really changed the way I read. I owe a lot to him and am so thankful he became a part of my life. I will always miss you DFW. You have a place in my heart along with John Lennon, and anyone who knows me knows what that means.

Tim Russert: Yes, out of everyone who died last year, this is the one I miss the most. It was a toss up between him and David Foster Wallace, but I realized Tim Russert is the one I'm the most upset about. I have watched his show "Meet The Press" every Sunday morning for the last 12 years or so. I like to keep up on current events and Tim Russert's Meet the Press has always been the most fair and balanced news/interview shows there is. He actually lets his guest's speak unlike Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly or Sean Hannity who will actually turn off the microphone when their guest is saying something they disagree with. He was a true journalist who treated everyone the same no matter what side they were on.

I found out Tim Russert died while I was driving home from work. I was listening to NPR and they did a whole segment on him, and his sudden death. I cried the whole way home. Sunday mornings were not going to be the same without him. It was a few months before the election, and I relied so much on his show on having the best information on the candidates. Cam and our friend Andy were at our house when I got home that day. They could both tell I had been crying and they asked what was wrong. I told them "Tim Russert died!" They could both sympothise with me; Andy watched the show most Sunday's himself, and Cam knew I woke up extra early on Sunday's to watch Russert's show.

It was nice that my Tom Brokaw took over Tim Russert's place until the end of the year. For those of you that don't know, I LOVE Tom Brokaw! He is the person that if you were to ask me "what living celebrity would you have dinner with?", my answer would be Tom Brokaw.

And the TV show that reminded me of all this was Jon Stewart's Daily Show. He had David Gregory, the new host of "Meet the Press" as his first guest of 2009. I'm not sure what to think of Mr. Gregory. I hope he has the integrity that Tim Russert had. I doubt it, no one has that kind of integrity.