The Sound of Silence

Ken left last Thurs. for an 8-week internship in Portland. That leaves me home by myself. Unlike some people, I hate being home alone. I get bored with no one to talk to, and I really dislike the sound of silence. One thing I've found to avoid the sound of silence is to play music often. Ken has a huge collection of cd's. Around the beginning of the year, give or take a month, I suggested to Ken that we should listen to all of our cd's - from A (ABBA) - Y (Yoakam). We agreed that if we had more than 1 cd of an artist, that we would only listen to one of them, so as to not bore or irritate the other, if said artist was not our favorite. We did pretty good for awhile, but Ken soon tired of this method - sometimes the artist/ cd we were on, just wasn't the style he was in the mood to listen to. I, however, found it very interesting to listen to groups that I had never heard before. With Ken being gone, I decided to start where we had left off - with the "H's". Some cds I have started, and couldn't finish; some I haven't even put in the cd player, based on the cd cover; and others I have completely enjoyed. He's been gone 6 days now, and I am currently on the "J's". Who knows where I'll be in 8 weeks, but at least it won't be silent.

When Ken left, he took our laptop, and left me with the desktop computer. The desktop computer is hit and miss (mostly miss) when connecting to the internet, which is very frustrating to someone like me - an internet junkie. I need my daily dose of e-mail, Facebook, and reading blogs. The day Ken left, I spent 45 min. just trying to get the Yahoo home page to load, without success. I was also without a cellphone that day, which combined with the lack of internet, left me feeling a bit pioneer-ish. I felt so isolated and silenced by the lack of technology. I finally found success by moving the computer onto the floor, in front of the sliding glass door, facing the wireless antenna outside. It's not pretty, but it works.

And then there is the lack of silence around my home. We live in a condo, otherwise known as a renovated apartment complex. Most of the time, it's not too bad, but occasionally there are occurrences that really get me irritated, ie. no bikes on our patio. We have a neighbor upstairs - Larry. Nice guy, lives by himself, doesn't make much noise, except for when one of his favorite classic rock songs is on the radio/ cd, and then he plays it so loudly, I don't need my radio on. Since this is a fairly random occurrence, I've never complained - at least not to him :) However, he also has friends that drop by to visit him, and their lack of silence drives me crazy. Apparently they are incredibly lazy, lack phones, and common courtesy. When they come to visit, they don't call or go up to his door and knock; no, they yell from the sidewalk, or even worse, from their car parked out front. Seriously? I've never seen such behavior before. I have yet to challenge their lack of silence, but I'm mentally preparing myself for an encounter in the future.

Photo Shoot

Yesterday Ken and I went to Phoenix to see our baby. 3-D ultrasounds are awesome. The baby is only 2 1/2 inches long, but it was amazing to see so much detail. What a relief to find out that the baby is growing and developing normally.

Limericks

My dad loves limericks. At one time, my dad worked as a Safety Hazard Analysist. He discovered a hazard at work, regarding a vacuum cleaner and made up this limerick to warn others of the hazard.

There was a technician named Bill

Who sucked up a flammable spill.

The static excited,

The vapor ignited,

and Bill is now in the hill.

My friends Kathryn and Mike used to leave "Deep Thoughts" on our message board at our house when they came to visit. So my dad made up a limerick about deep thoughts.

There was a man of deep thought.

The cells of his brain he wrought.

So deep did he think,

His brain did shrink,

So what he thought he forgot.

And my dad has passed on his love of limericks to me and my siblings. One year when most of us were home for Christmas, we came up with a new message for our parent's answering machine.

The Thornleys can't come to the phone.

Perhaps they're not at home.

They wish to receive,

The message you leave,

So start speaking right after the tone.

The other day I decided to try my hand at writing a limerick, and this is what I came up with.

There once was a town in A-Z,

Where living was quaint and easy.

Ken is almost through school,

Sharon has a job - and that's cool,

And now they're expecting a baby*.

*Editor's note - The baby is due Mar. 2

3 Men, a Lady and a Mountain

For months, I have been planning for, exercising for, and getting excited for hiking Mt. Humphries - the tallest peak in Arizona. On Saturday, Aug. 8, my husband, Ken, my brother, Paul, my friend, Amber and her husband, Andy all hiked Mt. Humphries without me. I have discovered that sometimes things don't work out like we planned and prepared for. I was super disappointed, but decided that if I couldn't do the hike, I'd at least make it easier for Amber and Andy to do so. So I ended up staying home and babysitting Kylee (their very cute almost 1-year old - sorry, I don't have a picture).

The start of the hike: 7:40am

2/3 the way up the mountain, at the "saddle" - between Agassiz & Mt. Humphries.

Starting up the "saddle" to get to the top.

One of the few pictures of Ken (since we was taking the pictures).

They made it - 4 hours to the top (Andy, Amber, Paul, and Ken).

Heading back down.

2 1/2 hours back to the trailhead. Four tired, but successful hikers can now cross off "Hike tallest peak in AZ" off their To-Do list.

P.S. Blogging about someone else's adventures isn't as exciting as blogging about your own, but sometimes that too has to be done :) Thanks Brenda for reminding me that I haven't posted anything lately.

The Answer to Last Week's Unknown

One of the good things about Ken's internships is that it isn't really Ken's responsibility to secure an internship.  NAU makes phone calls and sends e-mails to make the arrangements.  After finding out that Ken's internship in Portland wasn't going to happen, one of the assistants in the PT dept. started working to find Ken a new one.  She told him that there were lots of spots available in Phoenix, but that there also might be one at OHSU (Oregon Health & Sciences University) - it's a teaching hospital in downtown Portland, with a large variety of medical venues, including a Physical Therapy clinic.

Ken talked to someone at the clinic on Wednesday night, had a phone interview with them on Thursday, and found out on Friday that they were willing to take him for his first internship.    Brenda stated in her comment on the last post "This might be one of those situations that resolve themselves beautifully just in the nick of time." - and she was right.  OHSU is half the distance from Ken's Dad's house compared to the first clinic.  It's the type of clinic that sees more "interesting" cases, and he'll hopefully be exposed to better learning experiences.

The only down side to this internship is that Ken leaves a week later than he was going to.  This means that at the end of this rotation, Ken will finish on Friday in Portland, and have to be in Phoenix on Monday.   However, it sounds like they're pretty flexible, so maybe if he asks nicely, he'll get his last Friday off, so that he has at least 1 day at home to do laundry, kiss his wife, and re-pack for Phoenix.

Something to Blog About

The other day I was thinking, "I haven't posted anything for 2 weeks, but I don't have anything to blog about.".  Then yesterday, Ken was telling me about a phone conversation he had, and I thought - "good, now I have something to blog about."

In March, Ken got his 4 assignments for his PT internships:  Portland, Phoenix, Logan, and Flagstaff.  They were just what we wanted - even though it meant he'd have to be away from home for 8 weeks at a time - and we considered ourselves pretty lucky, because not everyone got exactly what they wanted.

Yesterday Ken made a phone call to his clinical instructor for his first rotation in Portland.  Just calling to touch base, find out what kind of stuff he should familiarize himself with, etc.   However, he found out that the Physical Therapist that was going to work with him, had to leave the country suddenly due to a family emergency.  (I thought maybe it was a green card issue (the guy is from Ireland), but it turns out the man's father was seriously ill.)  And today, Ken talked to the director of that clinic and found out that the director is too busy and too short-staffed to work with Ken.  He has sent e-mails and a phone call to the person in charge of arranging internships, but so far hasn't had any luck finding a spot for Ken.

So what does this mean for Ken?  It means that in 3 weeks Ken starts an internship . . . . somewhere.  He may be able to get another one in Portland, or not.  Maybe he'll end up in Phoenix, or southern OR, or California, or ????  And the worst part of the unknowing is - what do we do about housing with that short of notice if he ends up somewhere that we don't have family or friends?  Or maybe the worst part is that I already have my airplane ticket to come and visit Ken in Portland in Sept.  But I'm not going if he's not there, which means I lose money changing my airplane ticket to a different destination - bummer!

What MUST you have when camping?

Ken and I went camping for July 4th - and had a good time.  One of the things that we like to do is people watch.  We make up stories about the people camping around us - kind of like nosey neighbors, without looking too nosey.  As we noticed the people around us, we also started noticing the things that people bring with them when they camp.   Everyone obviously has things that they "need" when they go camping, and that's okay - we're not here to judge - just to comment.  We saw a lot of these around the camp - super convenient, but I gotta wonder how these people got it in and out of their mini-van.

One of our other neighbors had two of these (a generator, in case you can't tell from the picture).  And it made us wonder what kind of entertainment they were enjoying in their camper . . . big screen TV, video games . . . or maybe just electricity to make cooking easier.  I have no idea, since I've never camped with a generator, or a camper for that matter.  But I do know that the noise of the generator running all day and evening wasn't exactly peaceful.

Ken and I are fairly simple folk when camping.  We have our tent.

And I have to have one of these - doesn't have to be flushing (although that is preferrable) - and it helps to have the campsite near the outhouse.  

I almost always have to use one in the middle of the night, and I don't like treking too far.  Funny story here:  Ken has a head lamp that works perfectly for using the outhouse in the middle of the night (ya know - hands free, don't have to set the flashlight down).  Well, one night I'm in the outhouse, and suddenly something flies up around my head and keeps banging against my head.  I'm swatting at it, but it's not going away.  Then I realize - it's a moth - and is attracted to the light ON my head.  So, I quickly turn off the light, finish my business and hurry out the door - problem solved.

And last but not least - earplugs.  

Ken used his the first night, and slept soundly through the night.  Me, on the other hand, forgot I had mine, and listened to some neighbors laughing and telling stories until after midnight (apparently they forgot the common campground courtesy of quiet time after 10pm).  I REALLY wanted to remind them of this rule, but then realized I'd be breaking the "quiet" rule by yelling at them.  The next night I used my earplugs and also slept relatively soundly - even though the same neighbors were laughing it up until midnight again.

When we weren't at our campsite, we were on the lake (thanks to the Hyatts for letting us borrow their raft).  The weather was perfect, but the fish weren't biting.  Oh well, better luck next time.