horoscope forecast for Thursday, March 30, 2006

Capricorn (December 22-January 19:

"A family member presents an old challenge. Don't react in the same old way and you will find new peace. Be the poster child for kindness and resilience. You deserve the respect you'll get."

...right out of yesterday's "The Olympian"" our local Knight Ridder owned newspaper.

Normally I don't read them. "The wife" does. She reads them in the newspaper at work. She brought this one home.

That was my horoscope for yesterday. In light of what's going on around here how uncanny is that? "The Wife's" and bi-polar brother in law's were just as "on the mark" as mine was regarding what's happening!

They're chillingly accurate!

Maybe there is something to be said about that stuff.

Maybe...

if anything can go wrong...

...it will go wrong!

Sound familiar? MURPHY'S LAW??!!

Bi-polar brother in law is not doing well. Not well at all. He's in jail. He has no job. He has no transportation. He has a pretty rugged criminal history. And because of that now no one will listen to him or believe him (on the legal end).

He's half Finnish and half Irish... not that that's a bad thing in and of itself... but, he's a MURPHY!

So is "The wife".

Their mother, my mother in law (God bless her soul)... a MURPHY!

So, when bi-polar brother in law called yesterday from the county jail I don't know why I expected better news. You see, I had spent a good portion of the day waiting at his parole officer's office lobby to take possession of bi-polar brother in law's pickup truck keys that he left with her when he was arrested. In the lobby... ignored for over an hour and a half... no returned phone calls... no keys...

No keys to the truck from hell that bi-polar brother in law's wife stole from the parking lot after he was arrested.

Get the picture so far?
NOT lucky. Not lucky at all! Well, I guess it's Murphy type luck... Murphy's law! Simple as that.

So why would I expect anything with a shine on it? A glimmer of hope? Why?

...when he called from the jail.

The phone rang. I answered. The recorded voice on the other end explained to me that the call was being placed from a correctional facility.

I chatted with the recording a bit. I always do that with recordings... argue with them. Interrupt them. Talk rude to them. You know, generally try to trip them up.

I guess one could say that I'm not "recording friendly".

Anyway, I go through the "hoops" of the recording like the good little dog I am and eventually get to bi-polar brother in law... keeping in mind that anything we say is being recorded.

"Hey" I grunt to him.

"Hey" he grunts back.

"What's up?" I had to start somewhere.

"Nothing. Did anyone get my keys?"

"Nope. That place is a friggin' zoo. There's no one there that will talk to me. Do you go through that every time you go to see your parole officer?" He got me going on this now. I was venting.

"Did you have to wait?" I heard the chuckle!

"Wait? Hell, I never got to see anyone!" I was getting animated... loud.

He laughed... bi-polar brother in law laughed! Not a quick, one laugh type of laugh but a long, rolling, fun, happy laugh.

"Why's that funny?" I wasn't laughing.

"'Cuz you're the cop and I'm the bad guy. You got a little taste of my world... the past 30 years of my life."

He had a point.

Every time he gets around "The Wife" and I he takes us a bit further into his little corner of this world.

...by association if no other way.

So then he tells me the news.

It seems he had to go to the doctor. His feet were numb. He filed a "kite" and the corrections folks took him downtown to a doctor that sees inmates. The doc looked him over, did the blood pressure thing, checked his pulse, peeled off his shoes and socks, checked his feet... his toes. Poked them.

"No pulse" Doc told him.

"What?" Bi-polar brother in law asked.

"You have no pulse in your feet and you have gangrene between your toes." Matter of fact, no bedside manner doc said.

"What?" Bi-polar brother in law asked.

"How long have you been smoking?" Doc again.

"40 years" Bi-polar brother in law answered.

"It caught up with you. You're going to lose both of your feet. Your right foot is already dead." He told bi-polar brother in law as he slid his stethascope further up his leg.

"I don't get any pulse on you from mid thigh down. You'll most likely lose both legs."

As bi-polar brother in law was recounting his doctor's visit I was listening in awe. I couldn't believe this crass doctor giving him the news this way.

"Who was the doctor?" I asked him.

Bi-polar brother in law gave me his name.

"Well, before anyone does any cutting you're going to get a second and third opinion. And that's after they try saving what you still have!" I was a bit pissed now.

"Yah. I know. But I'm scared." ...Hell, I'd be too!

I couldn't blame him.

His luck sucked horribly!

He asked me what he was going to do with no legs. He told me he didn't want to live if that happened.

He was definitely in need of a change of luck... good luck... from somewhere, somehow.

He brought most of his life ordeals on himself... his challenges with the police, etc. He knows that and he admits it. He always did admit it but a helluva lot of his "criminal behavior" can be directly attributed to his bi-polar and manic depressive disorders.

"Bill. We'll do what we can. You just keep it together. I'll put together a little shop in the garage and you can have my tools. You can make things. We'll make it work. You make things and I'll take them to the farmers market."

"Yah... Yah. I can do that I guess." He was still uncertain but was talking again.

"Yes, you can. You will. What we have to do is get you out of there. They'll get to the truth. Once they do you'll be released and we'll make things work." I was trying to sound convincing, strong, positive.

But, how do you do that?

How?

I hate luck!

catchin' up...

...is a bit annoying!

It's amazing how some minds move through life. It's a complicated, organized mess.

Normal folks seem to plug along at a somewhat determined pace... other folks trip along at somewhat sedated paces and yet others fly along at those supersonic paces.

Either way, minds move... they think... they wonder... and eventually (if not influenced) they get to the same "general" point.

Life is what "we" make it.

Well. It seems my "bi-polar brother in law" went and got himself into a pretty tight jam.

You remember when I said his "Ex" was "taking him back"? Well she did. All the while I told "bi-polar brother in law" to keep away from "her"... his ex-wife who really is still married to him.

He didn't really heed my advice... which is always an option... and went "back to her".
Which was really NOT the thing to do. She was on the hunt for some "man-blood"!

It was a huge REACH!!!

He had no business going back to her but as he said today... "I had nowhere else to go"... a slap in our faces. He told us this on the phone as he talked to us from jail... after he was arrested for a Domestic Violence and Malicious Mischief charge.

She lit him up. She knew what she was doing. She set him up so damned fine that I don't think he's gonna get out of it. He'll probably spend the rest of his life behind bars. All because he defied her... the woman who hates men... the "she-dog" of Sunwood Lakes. She burned him bad!

I don't like him... bi-polar brother in law. He's not my "friend" by any means but he is "family" and he definitely doesn't deserve what he's about to get.

Now it's time to even things out...

...in a legal sort of way.

Hang on!

I have never...

...been hospitalized overnight in my life!!! Never!!!

Well, save when I was born. I guess that's the only time the hospital... ANY hospital ever kept my butt overnight.

I just don't trust them. I mean, I've been shot at and broke my shoulders (that's a long and humorous story), broke my fingers and toes (another funny one someday), had pneumonia so many times I forgot, had exotic flues, had food poisoning, was bitten by a pretty rugged friggin' spider (it's in the blog... the Hobo spider)... made my flesh fall off and ulcerated my leg like there's no tomorrow, was in a car wreck that killed two other guys and caused the faulty driver of the other car to lose both of his legs, knocked myself out with a tire iron and got a concussion (another story... FUNNY AS HELL!)... a whole buncha crap! My body's a mess but it's my body! That's the trade off for work hard, play hard!

I accept that.

Yesterday I went to my local health provider clinic thingy and asked if they'd take a peek at my swollen knuckles... the arthritic knuckles... those knuckles that hurt but have some annoying "growths" around them.

I went in there and of course they weighed me. Not bad... could have been a bit better but I was okay with it. Then they did the blood pressure thing... THREE times!

What the hell does blood pressure have to do with lumps around my knuckles???

Anyways, the nurse wasn't happy. She was gonna snitch me off to the doctor. She told me I needed to get "moderated" and suggested I call "the wife" (who has no idea what happened) to let her know I was going to be "admitted" to "the hospital" across the street.

MY ASS!!!


As she sauntered off she told me the physician's assistant would be taking care of my knuckles. She also told me she was going to return to do the blood pressure thingy again on me after the PA was done. She said if it hadn't fallen then she was going to bring the doc in... my doc... Mr. Bedside Manner challenged doc... (I guess that's why I stay with him... he tells it like it is) and was going to recommend a "stay" in the hospital.

She left.

Physician's Assistant arrived... looked at my knuckles... ganglion cysts caused by the joints irritable states... no problem... draw off the "fluids"... done. Simple as that. A bit of a pain though but done.

I asked PA... "am I free to go?"

Prisoner?... no!

"Sure" he said. "They're going to come back though... the cysts"

"Okay. Thanks. I'll check back in when they do" and I make a beeline for the door!

When I got home the nurse called. I beat "the wife" home...

"Mr. H. You left before I could get back to you with Doctor B about your 'condition'."

"Oh. 'Condition'? What would that be?"

She went off on a thousand different things. I needed to be hospitalized, I needed this, I needed that, CRAP!

All I know is I'm doing fine now.

And I'm not going to be hospitalized overnight until I'm ready to check out.

That's appropriate... hospitalized when you check in to this world... hospitalized when you check out.

The knuckles "filled back up" an hour after I got home.

touche!

here today...

...gone tomorrow!

This pic's from my car window outside of Ellensburg, WA of a snow squall... the last blue sky I'll be seeing for awhile.

I've been gone from the blog 5 days? FIVE DAYS???!!!

I didn't know.

I had to go to Colville... the far northeast corner of this state. Not the most out of here corner but the far northeast corner that has well... some semblance of a population base. Beyond Colville... farther northeast is Ione and places like that.

I travelled to Spokane where I've taken a motel room for a couple of nights. Not that Colville doesn't have any motels... they do... two. It's just that as I get a bit older I like to have my "toys" with me... laptop, wireless internet access, etc. That way "the wife" and I can keep in touch and, well... never mind.

I'm driving to Spokane on Interstate 90... Heading roughly towards DG! God help me!

You see, DG's in that "state to the right of us"... Idaho. Towards the right of this picture. Kinda "uphill" from here (even though the picture suggests downhill).

Anyways, this I-90 freeway goes quite aways but all I need to know is that I travel 400 plus miles to Spokane, Washington and hang a left on Highway 395 then travel 68 miles north until I run into a mountain... that's Colville. Well, not really. Colville's kinda at the base of the mountain so if you run into the mountain then you actually drove through Colville... and probably damaged your car. I chose to do the 'round trip to Colville from Spokane each day rather than stay in Colville. Nothing against Colville... I just did it that way. Personal. Nothing more. Okay!

So, when I got up this morning at the motel in Spokane I noticed there was a light dusting of snow... about 3 inches on the company truck. Spokane's weather is a bit different than Ellensburg's and oh-so-much different than Olympia's (We be on the "west side"... the "milder" side).

As I headed north on highway 395 things seemed to get a bit more... intense... I guess that's the word. Patches of snow, ice and slush mixed with bare and wet 60 miles per hour pavement. That can always make for a sucking seat cushion type of ride. Those types of rides where you truly don't need a seat belt because your butt is securely fastened by suction to the seat cushion of the drivers seat... stains and all. I've actually seen people who've had to wait for days until the suction is released and they can get out of their car... usually after really, really, really close calls. Trust me!

I had a couple this morning. Very few this afternoon... it "warmed up" to the high 30's and the snow on the road melted a bit.

Now I know DG's thinking "You baby! You whiner!" because I'm complaining about the weather and the road conditions but that's really not the problem. I'm trying to get 68 miles north from my location to a meeting. The speed limit is 60. I leave the motel at 07:30 a.m. to allow for the two lane, 68 mile commute for a 09:00 a.m. meeting. 12 miles north of Spokane the traffic is doing 45 miles per hour on a 2 lane road. You do the math... I'm gonna be late.

Worse yet, from the looks of things that picture shows the better road conditions and that dude in front of me still did 45 miles per hour! 35 degrees, wet road, 45 mph!

As I get closer to Colville the weather takes a turn. Things get a tad bit icier, roads get a bit funner... like amusement rides at some shopping mall carnival... and this isn't really a bad, snowy day. It's one of those days where you just can't seem to decide how you're going to drive because the weather is so damned different from one hill to the next.

All that I know is I've been driving for over an hour and still haven't reached Colville... 68 miles north of Spokane. I'm still 21 miles south! On a two lane Highway... cars doing 45 miles per hour (in kilometers that's still slow Ed and Sue!)... already late for a meeting.

A meeting to discuss wildland fires.

To discuss the puzzles surrounding how they started in 2005 in this very, very fire rich portion of the state. A meeting in late winter to discuss fires from April through October of 2005.

I do it every year. I go out and recap with each of our state's 6 regions the wildland fires they had to suppress the year prior... and discuss how we're going to train for those we're preparing for in the years to come. At least on the cause and origin part of things. How'd they start and where'd they start...

...my puzzles.

Now, all I want to do is go home...

That'll happen tomorrow... after I make another trip to Colville and back... back... 482 miles back to home! Home and "The Wife".

Yah... I'm whining now.