Sharing photos, videos, vintage images I've discovered, and -- occasionally -- commentary and thoughts from retired life and travels.

health

Bear Lake

December 21, 2011

2011 09 12 064 panoThe Bear Lake area of Rocky Mountain National Park is one of the most popular parts of the park.  We’ve hiked several trails in the area, including the 0.6 mile trail around Bear Lake.

The Bear Lake Trail is an easy walk, listed as accessible – available to most people, including those with handicaps. However, the trail is not entirely flat and is more challenging than most accessible trails.  The lake is about 9500 feet above sea level.

Bear Lake is  at the end of Bear Lake Road, eleven miles from the Beaver Meadows Visitor Center.  With several other trails in the Bear Lake area, the parking lot fills early during the summer and weekends.  Bear Lake Route shuttle buses run from a large Park & Ride parking area across from Glacier Basin Campground, with stops at other trailheads along the route.

Blog posts from this visit to
Rocky  Mountain  National Park:

  • Bear Lake (this post)
  • Fall River Country (coming soon)
  • Trail Ridge High Country (coming soon)
  • Estes Park, Colorado (coming soon)
  • Trail to Nymph and Dream Lake (coming
    soon)
  • Moraine Country (coming soon)

Selected Information
Resources:

Rocky Mountain National Park
Estes Park
Grand Lake

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I tripped over a big rock!–and ended up seeing lots of stars!

September 24, 2011

2011 09 22 163

The .5 liter water bottle is provided for an idea of size of
the rock I overlooked.

On our first night at Arches National Park, I was so excited with a photo that I had taken that I went into to show Karen, then went back out to try to get more – and tripped over a big rock that was in plain view even though it was dark since we had the outside light on.

I’m a bit too old to go tumbling like that.  Fortunately, except for a gravel nick on the arm and a leg that was a little sore after hiking for the next couple of days, I wasn’t hurt.  I was a bit afraid for my camera as it hit the ground pretty hard, too. Fortunately, it’s pretty tough and came through unscathed, though the lens did gain a a few scratches.

So what was I taking pictures of that had me so excited that I didn’t watch where I was going?

Stars, of course.

Now, I’ve seen a lot pictures that others have taken of the night sky, but I’ve never been successful, not that I’ve tried in a long time.  The following photo is the best of the bunch that I took at Arches.  It was taken at 9:26 p.m.,  a couple of hours after sunset.

2011 09 22 160

There was little or light pollution to mask the stars.  It is a sight that many of us seldom, if ever, have the opportunity of seeing these days.

The area just above the hill that looks a little smoky or, perhaps, milky is our galaxy, the Milky Way.

The exposure time for the photo was about 60 seconds.  Towards the end of the exposure, I used a large flashlight to “paint” the hill with light so that it would show up in the image.  The hill is actually a huge rock, one of many in the campground area we were in.

Below: Part of our campsite, with  a Scrabble game set up, a portable speaker unit for IPOD, and my Kindle on the table.

2011 09 20 b 020

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Another genetically mutated illness?

June 22, 2011

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Scarlet fever is one of those illness that I thought modern medicine had virtually eradicated.

However, the truth is that scarlet fever, once a major cause of death, is still around, but is usually quite effectively treated with antibiotics.  Generally a childhood disease, scarlet fever is caused by toxins released by a bacteria called group A Streptococcus or “group A strep”, the same bacteria that causes strep throat.

Outbreak in Asia.

Over 400 cases of scarlet fever have been identified in Hong Kong in the last few weeks, with new cases being reported at about 25 a day.  Two deaths of young children have been attributed to the disease, a seven year old girl in May and a five year old boy in June.  Nearly all of the infections have been in children under the age of ten with most occurring in clusters in schools and child care centers.

Scarlet fever occurs every year in Hong Kong, but at much lower numbers.

A genetic mutation may be the cause of the outbreak. If so, it may be more difficult to control. Dr. Samson Wong Sai-yin, a University of Hong Kong assistant professor and medical microbiologist, told Hong Kong’s English daily, The Standard, “”It is the first time we have seen this kind of mutation in that particular type of Streptococcus.”

Besides Hong Kong, the disease is spreading through nearby regions of China and Macau.

Additional information:

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Our accident

December 26, 2010

“The coast ain’t clear, __-___”

image

This isn’t our car and it’s not even the same model year, but the front end of our car looks something like this.

If I had just a moment and could turn back the clock, that’s what I’d tell the person that waved the kid through.

It’s what I would tell the kid, too.

We had just seen “True Grit” at a new theater that just opened about an hour’s drive from home. On the way home, we decided to go ten miles out of the way to go out to eat.

When it happened, we were driving on a road that  is two lanes in each direction with a center turning lane.

We had just gone through a traffic light as it turned yellow. The next light had just turned green and the cars stopped there had started to move.  We were in the southbound lane next to the turning lane and there were fewer cars ahead of us than there were in the other southbound lane.

Just after we made it through the light that had turned yellow, a car that I hadn’t seen darted through a gap in the other lane of traffic.

They had been waved through by a driver in that lane.

“The coast ain’t clear, __-___s”

We were about three blocks from the restaurant we had decided to go to.

I hit the brakes and thought that we just might make it – but realized, just before impact, that we weren’t going to.

We hit hard, but not so hard that the air bags deployed.  The impact moved us a little sideways, so that the front, driver side tire was over the yellow line of the turning lane.

Shortly after the impact, the kid backed his car back into the drive of the convenience store, clearing one lane of traffic. The __-___ driver that had waved the kid through didn’t even stop to see if anyone was hurt.  The accident happened right in front of their vehicle, but they just drove off.

Our car wasn’t going any place under it’s own power.

“My chest hurts.”

Karen still had her seatbelt on.
_____________

Karen’s brother brought us home after she was released from the Emergency Room.

Karen is still hurting, but nothing is broken – according to the x-rays – and her heart is fine.  She got a shot for pain at the Emergency Room and got a prescription for the same medication – something that doesn’t cause nausea.

I’m fine – no pains that I can attribute to the accident. Tomorrow may be a different story.

The car is 6 years old with quite a lot of mileage on it.  It’s probably totaled. The cost of repair will probably be more than the value of the car.

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Max, the Bedbug Dog

October 28, 2009

Our son-in-law knows a lot about bedbugs.

When he travels, he always takes the headboard off the bed in his hotel room off the wall as that is a likely place to find them.

The company he works for now has a new tool to locate hard-to-find bed bugs — Max, the bedbug dog.

Our son-in-law does make an appearance — of sorts — in the video on the right.

The hand with the bedbug on it near the end of the clip?  That’s his hand.

The star of the clip is, of course, Max.

Got bedbugs?

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Wednesday Weigh-In, August 5th, 2009

August 5, 2009

Wednesday Weigh-In, Blog to fitEven though I don’t post my weigh-in here every Wednesday, I am keeping up with it and usually  post it on the Blog to Fit blog.

Since I’m back to work as a short-term supplemental instructor, I need to watch it so that I don’t fall into my old bad habits.

In the past, each time I worked with a license class, I would pack on more weight.  However, these days, I am doing a lot of things differently — besides making it to the gym on a regular basis.

Some of the BAD things that I don’t do anymore include:

…. stopping at convenience store on way to work and buying junk food
…. stopping at convenience store on way home and buying junk food
…. stopping at fast food places and buying LARGE CHOCOLATE SHAKES (not something I’d do regularly, just on impulse)
…. stopping at and buying anything at fast foot places
…. stopping and buying donuts (another irregular impulse)
…. eating out several times a month — we may go out to eat once or twice a month.
…. buying anything from the junk food vending machine across the hall from my office
…. buying anything from the junk food machine on the first floor when I’m working late in the simulator

Status:

Started November 1, 2008 at 285.6 lbs
Last week = 265.2 lbs.
This week = 261.0 lbs.
Difference = -4.2 lbs.
Initial goal: 210 lbs.; 51.0 lbs. to go!

day 63

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