Week 311 Update

I got up at 5:04 a.m. and the scale registered 203.5 pounds, which was the very same weight as last week. It was not a stellar week for my eating and only just tolerable for my exercise, and that nearly all came on the front end of the week.

It was definitely an eventful week. Dotti and started out in Spokane at our dear friends' house, and moved through a fun day with those friends as we splurged on a night out at a fancy hotel. We followed that up with an interesting drive home were we got to see Stonehenge, and then had a few brushes with the medical profession. I had a routine physical, for a follow up on my back problem, and then Dotti "hit the jackpot" when she fell and broke three bones in her wrist, and bruised her knee quite badly as well. It will be some time before we c an put that one into the past; because Dotti is scheduled to get a cast put on her wrist today, and it will be on for at least 4 weeks.

One of the challenges I have faced this week has been the television. I normally don't watch much TV, and it has been since the 1980s that I have watched any primetime entertainment show. However, we were at the bookstore the other day and we found a collection of 50 old science fiction movies that are mostly from the late 1940s through the 1950s. This is one of my greatest weaknesses: old sci-fi movies. Mostly they are corny, and they are all too often laughable in their scientific ideas, but they are fun, and I especially like seeing once again the way the USA was when I was born and being raised. The cars, buildings, and people, and the way they are dressed, all seem so natural to me. And many of the movies were shot less than 60 miles from where I was living at the time that they were made. So, I see the same palm trees, and the same climate and buildings that were right around my home as a child.

Anyway, I have already watched many of the movies, and that creates an eating challenge for me. TV has always been associated with eating. (For years it was also associated with smoking, but fortunately, it has been almost 9 years since I last smoked a cigarette.) I have a great fall back for these times in popcorn. It will often jump me up on the scale temporarily, but that is water related because of the sodium content. But that jump in weight always comes right back down. So, since popcorn is filling, and fairly low in points, I rely on it often to help me through the TV eating urges. I also use water, and sometimes hard candy to help me stay within my points while not going nuts wanting something to eat.

Here's how the week went for me.

I woke up on Saturday at 3:30 a.m. My neck was killing me, and giving me a terrible headache. Since I had to do my journey update anyway, and we had some big plans for the day, I went to work. I stepped up on the scale and read the same thing I saw this morning: 203.5 pounds. That was down 2.5 pounds from the previous week and I had done pretty good on points all that past week.

After I finished up my write up, the rest of the house was stirring awake and soon Dotti, Tammy, Jim, and I were heading down to the Davenport Hotel in downtown Spokane. I am fairly certain that this is the fanciest, most expensive hotel that Dotti and I have ever stayed at. Jim and Tammy were born and raised in Spokane, and they had always wanted to stay at this hotel, and so we made it a special event together for the 4 of us. By the time that Dotti and Tammy had made the reservations for us, there were not two good rooms next to each other. So, since it was Jim and Tammy's dream to stay there we took the lower room on the 10th floor and let them have the higher one on the 12th floor, where we had been told the view would be better. (Alas, the best laid plans do go awry, and the view from above was not as good as we had hoped.)





The hotel was incredible, and we were greeted at the door by a statue of Mr. Davenport sitting on the bench. This might seem like a difficult task, since Louis M. Davenport was born in 1868, and died the year I was born in 1951, but this is a very special place.

With a rich man like this, you can imagine that he has to fight of the ladies, and soon Dotti and Tammy were cozying up to him, but he was used to that sort of thing and just ignored them. ☺

The Davenport Hotel opened its doors in 1914, and it has had many distinguished visitors over the years. With its beautiful and historically significant decorations this building was, in 1975—about the time I was heading over to Diego Garcia for a long year away from Dotti—declared to be a historical site, and it is therefore protected, so that future generations can enjoy it as well.

As we were walking through the various areas of the hotel, gawking and taking pictures, I spotted this mirror, and came up with an idea as to how we could get all 4 of us into one picture at the same time. (Okay, you can ask a passing stranger to snap a picture, like we did at the restaurant later, but this is more challenging. ☺)

From the second floor, and looking down, you can see the same spot where we were standing for the previous picture, just to the right of the perpetually burning fireplace. The entire room is art, from the ornate lampposts, the walls, the furniture, and even, no, especially the ceiling. For over 90 years people have come to be impressed by this lovely hotel, and even though many years have come and gone since it first opened its doors, the Davenport Hotel really does have a very similar plush feel, like the one that ms Westerdam had on our cruise together.

Once again looking down from the second floor and in the same general direction (the fireplace is visible still), the entire lobby area is visible from this vantage point. The water fountain in the middle of the room hardly seems to stand out at all from the rest of the color and decoration.

The head magistrate of Venice during the Renaissance was called the Doge. This room is named Hall of the Doges. To look at the painted ceiling and the carved walls and beautiful chandeliers, it seems fitting that royalty should be entertained here.

The ornate ceiling curves down to meet the decretive false balcony. When you compare the modern glass, plastic and steel rooms of today, they seem very lame in comparison with this classic room. The Hall of Doges actually predate the official opening of the hotel, because it was part of the Davenport Restaurant, that had been expanding since 1890. The Hall of Doges opened in 1904, and later was incorporated into the Davenport Hotel once it officially opened in 1914.

Is this a ball, welcoming some royal visitor to the fair town of Spokane? Not at all: it is the school prom of 1908. It creates a striking contrast when you compare the ladies and gentlemen shown in this picture, with a picture of the attendees of the average school prom today.

Dotti spotted something interesting up on the wall and is making sure that we don't miss it. What was it? I missed it. ☺

This is the entire hotel staff of 1917. I find it fascinating to look at the way things were in the not too distant past. My maternal grandfather was 17 and my maternal grandmother 15 when this picture was taken.

This is a view of the lobby from the mezzanine at the other end. Instead of seeing a fireplace on the opposite wall, there is Starbucks coffee counter. (I don't think that was there in 1914. ☺) This lobby was created to embrace southern Europe, with a Spanish patio design, but with a modification that is especially nice in the wet Pacific Northwest: a skylight instead of open air ceiling.

Tammy is smiling brightly, and Dotti is looking over her shoulder at me, as we head back down to the first floor again.

Is it 1914 or 2007? The plastic bottle of water is a dead giveaway for sure. But the chairs and table would feel right at home when this hotel first opened.

It was getting close to dinnertime and so we all decided to walk down to a restaurant to eat. We walked from our hotel down to the Spokane River and to Anthony's Seafood Restaurant. The fish on the sign over the name gives the whole story.

The restaurant's big claim to fame is the view you have of the river and falls. I took this picture the next morning but on the far right, you can see where the restaurant is located directly on the banks of the river.

When we arrived, Tammy asked if there were any tables along the windows over the river. They said it would be just a few minutes. So, we all sat down for our wait. We took some pictures and then a gentleman came along and offered to take a picture of all of us at once. Thank you Sir!

Jim snapped this picture of my lovely Dotti and I, and you can see the water off to the right out of the window.

Right after asking if we wanted dessert, the waiter offered to take our picture. So, here we are again all together, but this time with the beautiful Spokane Falls in the background.

This is the scene out of the window we were sitting next to during dinner. It's an incredible view!

After dinner we walked around a bit. I asked Jim if he would like to ride the gondola, since he had said that the last time he had ridden it was during the Spokane World's Fair in 1974. (Of the four of us, I think that I am the only one who has never been to a World's Fair. Dotti attended the New York World's Fair in 1964, and Jim and Tammy were living in Spokane during the Spokane World's Fair. I was stationed on Treasure Island, the site of the 1939 World's Fair, and Dotti and visited the site of the 1962 World's Fair 14 years later on the day we were married, not to mention in 2001 during the first DWLZ conference. We have walked around the area that held the 1974 Spokane World's Fair, but I have missed the big do in each case. Who knows, maybe one day. ☺ )

Jim said he would be happy to ride the gondola out over the water and so we headed over for what was a second helping of gondola for Dotti and I in just a few days.

It soon became clear that it wasn't going to become clear for our trip. It was raining and the windows were streaked, but we still had a lot of fun. Through the streaks and running drops of water, the course of the gondolas is pretty easy to trace, all the way from this turn around point all the way across the river and up the hill. Once you clear the hill, there is just a short run down to the starting/ending point.

Here the Spokane Falls is being upstaged by Dotti's radiant smile. It was nice that we could put the small window panes down out of the way, which gave us a free view of the falls. Unfortunately, it also allowed the raindrops to come in and inspect us directly as well, and they get so pushy sometimes.

The red circled sign was wasted here; you don't have to tell Jim not to smoke, because he hasn't lit up in years. He was like me, and die-hard smoker, who figured to die with a cigarette in his mouth. But I am happy to say that all four of us former smokers are doing very well at being smoke-free!

The mist from the falls is rising up as high as we are in our car. There is a tremendous amount of force being released as the water loses its positional energy and converts it to acceleration. The entire river falls, crashes, flies to pieces, and shoots off in every direction.

Tammy has had some trying times of late, and it really does my heart good to see her smiling. She is a good woman, who has a lot of responsibility upon her shoulders. It is hard for her to get some relaxation time in, and so when she relaxes and smiles, in addition to the fact that she has a beautiful smile, it is a happy sight for all of us knowing that she is taking, and enjoying, a well earned rest.

After our gondola ride, we walked around a bit more and then we headed back to the hotel. We all were looking forward to enjoying the amenities of the rooms and having a relaxing time before calling it a day.

Dotti and watched the lights of the city come alive as the sun sunk into darkness. We heard the street sounds as people left bars and visited with others they passed by. The cars drove by and a nearby train track had many trains pass by along their way into and out of town.

In the morning I woke up about 6:00 a.m. and my neck felt great! The mattress was a "pillow top" and that led me to believe that perhaps a softer setting on my bed at home might be what I needed. (I later tested this theory, and it appeared to be correct!) I had eaten 48.0 points the day before, and so I felt happy to be 203.5 once more on the scale.

We had room service bring us breakfast and they called us to tell us that they were going to be a few minutes late delivering it. I had been waiting from 6:00 a.m. for breakfast and this was not good news for me. (Jim and Tammy had it worse; their breakfast didn't come at all!) When breakfast did arrive, it was good. They wheeled it in on a fairly large table and so Dotti and I could sit and eat at the table as if we were in our dining room at home. Twelve points later I was finished, and Dotti was ready for a little more shuteye. So, while she took a nap, I headed out to Riverfront Park in order to take some pictures.

When I stepped out into the hall, it was about 8:40, and this is what I saw. The morning paper had been delivered (I had already checked it out earlier while I was waiting for breakfast), and the hallway was free of people. While I did see some people on my walk, generally the streets and paths were deserted.

Riverfront Park, which opened in 1978, has signs posted at various places around it with a map such as this one on it. During my walk that morning I crisscrossed all over the park area, hitting most of the bridges shown here.

The road that I came in on is not shown on this map, but I entered the area of the map at the bottom left coming in where the large orange circle, representing the carousel is shown. The fountain is there and a bridge that I crossed over. I wandered to the Pavilion, where the IMAX Theater is located and little carnival. I crossed a bridge to the far side of the river and made my way up to the Diversion Dam. I think made my way back, stopping at the old Railroad tower, near the bridge and just across the water from the Carousel . I visited the island to the left and top, where a bit of rocky land juts out up steam, and is called Inspiration Point. Two bridges connect to the other end of that island and I walked across them both. I finally crossed over the large bridge to the left and walked past the Lower Falls on the far side of the Spokane River, and got up underneath the last bridge on the left to view the falls. From there I walked back to the bridge just above the Lower Falls and made my way back to the hotel.

Altogether my walk went from about 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., because Dotti wanted to be awakened at 11:00 o'clock, in time to get packed and out the door by the 12 noon checkout time. I just made it. I also had the "Memory Full" indicator go on for my camera as I took the picture of the Davenport Hotel on my return. (I had another memory stick in case I needed it, but having filled up 4 GB already, I thought that was enough. ☺

The first time I remember seeing this fountain was at the end of a Bloomsday 12K race. I was hot and tired and the water was a very welcome sight. The cool mist took away the heat from my body and I really enjoyed the visit. While the cool morning, and light rain that I was walking through didn't leave me in need of cooling at the moment, I still enjoyed seeing the fountain again. (Also, on Thursday of last week Dotti, LeRoy, and I passed by this same fountain during our walk.)

It is creatively done, with water jets in the ground and in the ring above . Water can come streaming out of the ground, as you see here, or it can pour from the upper ring. When both are flowing the water mixes from the bottom and the top out in the middle, forming something that seems more than the sum of its parts. Flowing water has a tranquilizing effect, and I have always been fond of fountains.

The old railroad Clock Tower is a great landmark for this area of town. Dotti and I were first introduced to it during the 4th of July (1999? 2000?) festivities we shared with Jim and Tammy, walking along these very paths waiting for the fireworks to start. The tower was built in 1902 along with the train station that used to be attached to it. The station was torn down in 1974 to make room for the World's Fair—which is when the umbrella for the Pavilion on the left was also built. However, they left the tower standing and retained the grand old hand-wound clock inside of it. Every week they have to crank up that old clock, but it is worth it to hear the musical chimes playing, marking the passing of time.

This little guy was eyeing me suspiciously, but he was not too quick to run. The little creatures of the park are spoiled by people tossing them food. So, they have lost some of their natural fear of man. I found that if I approached them they would finally break and run, but not before I could get fairly close. (When I came across the little animals, I wished I had my telephoto lens with me, so I could have gotten some real close ups.)

They hired a graphic artist to create a logo for the park and as you can see it included the clock tower and the Pavilion umbrella in it. I was standing under that umbrella when I took this picture. As you can see from the pavement, this "umbrella" or canopy is not water proof. In fact it is purely decorative, and is made up of strings of cable, held up by a metal tower, and provides no real cover at all.

Looking up at the umbrella into the clouds and rain, shows that it reaches quite a ways up. While everything was gray that morning, it wasn't dreary at all for me. I was enjoying the walk a great deal, and the park was beautiful, even in the mist.

This is a "busy" picture. First off, you can see that they did provide a roof beneath the umbrella, so the carnival rides, and those who ride them, would remain dry. We are looking at the backside of the rides and so the names of the rides are not visible. As you look farther out, there is a wall, that describes the edge of a skating rink. During the winter, when it is too cold for carnival rides, they put up an ice skating rink for everyone to enjoy. Even farther back you can see the entrance to the IMAX theater. This theater will be showing up in some more pictures later on in my walk.

I have walked all the way to Diversion Dam now, which is as far upriver as I was going to go on this morning. Jim and Tammy told us that as the season progresses, and things start to dry out, they normally close the gates on this dam and limit the flow over the falls. So, during the summer the waterfalls slow way down. But at this moment, the water is coming out with a vengeance from beneath the open gates, and churning into froth. There would be more of that in its future very shortly as it makes its way over the falls.

Now we have moved downriver past the Pavilion, to the bridge leading to Canada Island, the island with Inspiration point on it. In fact the rock jutting into the water on the right is that well named point. How do I know that it is well named? There were a couple of folks out there on the point who were very clearly inspired. They were hugging and kissing the entire time while I was walking by. I tried not to intrude on their inspiration as I took my pictures. ☺ There were also a couple of geese on the boulder straight ahead, who apparently had found their own Inspiration Point.

The people of Spokane celebrated their Christian heritage when they dedicated Inspiration Point in 1974. The rock wall and the vegetation on the point are quite attractive and it does make a wonderful place to view the river, etc. ☺ Unfortunately for me, my inspiration was asleep back in our room, and so I couldn't be properly inspired. Still, I enjoyed the visit.

Like the bow of a ship, Inspiration Point splits the Spokane River. You can just see the couple behind the shrubbery all the way out on the point. Notice the well maintained sidewalk, rock wall, and vegetation.

By walking out to the end of the point, I pulled even with the geese on their rock. They were studying me as I was looking at them, but they were in no hurry to leave. Several minutes later, when I finally left this area for good, they were still enjoying their perch.

Slipping to the other side of the inspired and therefore preoccupied two, I took this picture looking to the right. The Pavilion, the Clock Tower and the IMAX Theater all were visible, as the Spokane River rushed on by to get to that "E-Ticket Ride" just downriver from here.

Finally bidding a silent adieu to the lady and gentlemen of the point, continued to move downriver. The bridge immediately before us I had crossed over with my camera on the previous Thursday. In fact most of the rest of the way down the river I had shot on that day. But there was more to see that I had not covered the previous outing.

I am nearly to that first bridge of the last picture. I turned around and looked back up the Canada Island path that runs along the side of the river. While on occasion I ran into a bit of litter here and there, generally the park was immaculate. The grass was cut, the light fixtures maintained, and everything looked beautiful. For the sake of the pictures, it was unfortunate that it was overcast, but for myself, I loved the weather and enjoyed the walk tremendously.

I was still standing on Canada Island but now at its opposite end from Inspiration Point. As we had seen on Thursday, there are two foot bridges running from this island and this point. This one is leading to the southern bank of the Spokane River, where the IMAX and all its friends live.

This bridge is a suspension bridge, built on the same lines as is the majestic Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. But this bridge has a few novelties. First off, it uses a single tower, instead of the double tower of its big brother of The Bay. Secondly, the suspension cables run only between the tops of the towers. They do not run all the way to the ground. Continuing with the differences, the two support cables come to a common point on each end of their run, and that creates problem. In order to provide support, they must be separated from each other to run parallel paths along the outside of either side of the span. So, they put braces in between the cables to push them apart as they leave the tower.

That leaves the problem of anchoring the tower, so it will not topple over from the weight of the span. There are two similar bridges from this island and so there are four towers total. Three of the towers are anchored just like the one closest to us in this picture: two cables running from the tower top down to concrete anchor blocks in the ground. (For this one, they had to go hunting for a good anchor point to the right. The cable has to run right past ground level here and goes quite a ways before it anchors down near the water. ) The one oddball was the tower at the other end of this bridge. It only has one support cable, and that cable runs straight back (so it is not visible in this picture) past the building and into the hill behind.

Bridges are some of the most ingenious inventions that man has come up with. All the way back to the Romans whose arches allowed spans that would have been impossible without them, and right up to today with our myriad of spanning solutions, bridges have been a true mark of civilization and technological progress. Every time I see a bridge, if I have a moment to spend I love to analyze how it holds its load up. Even when the basic idea is clear, as it is with these bridges, things like these anchors and the bracing between the support cables are fun solutions to the problems that the engineers faced during the design phase.

I moved out onto the bridge for this photo. The finger of rock that is sticking up will one day be washed away. It is constructed of basalt, laid down long ago, when this area was incredibly volcanically active, and the entire area was covered with lava from local eruptions. There have fortunately been no local eruptions for a long time, even by geological time scales, but the previous ones left a lot of untidy debris behind when they left. Basalt cools into fragmentary sections that are held together poorly. Water is brutally destructive to basalt, as is demonstrated by the Dry Falls in central Washington, where water eroded the falls wall 15 miles in fairly short order. This piece of rock will lose a bit of itself year after year, until it is gone. In the winter, water is especially destructive, because it will work its way into crevices, and porous areas of the rock, and then it will expand when it freezes. CRACK! And another weakness appears in the basalt structure. However, until that happens, maybe centuries from now, this protrusion into the water stream will catch the eye of everyone who crosses this bridge. For today it is strong, and it pushes the water aside, standing its ground.

I next wanted to angle back over to the Clock Tower, so I could see it from its base. On the way, I spotted another small furry animal. ☺ What I did was to walk towards the squirrel, with camera aimed at him and clicking each step of the way. He sat still for quite a while but finally had enough of me and took off.

As I drew close to the Clock Tower I came across a few more critters. "Chicks and ducks and geese better scurry; when I take you out in the surrey..." I have the geese and the ducks, but I am fresh out of chicks at the moment. However, I am a little short on surreys too, so we'll leave Oklahoma songs behind for the moment and get back to walking. ☺

The Riverfront Park is a very beautiful part of downtown Spokane. The carousel across the water is early twentieth century construction, though the building housing it is much newer. Our hotel is not visible but it is in this general direction. I walked past Macy's on the way in, and the fountain I first encountered is just visible on the right. But the water steals the show. Even with the gray skies, the reflective pool is just gorgeous.

Standing beside the Clock Tower and looking north towards the Pavilion shows a pretty little path cutting through the grass, and an almost transparent umbrella covering the carnival below. The Ferris wheel is unmoving, and the place looks deserted, patiently waiting for its people to come out and play.

This is the plaque that is mounted on the base of the Clock Tower, which gives a bit of its history.

A couple of ducks enjoying the water that sits by the Clock Tower.

I thought that this bridge looked interesting the way that it cut across the water.

Also across the water, and beyond the foreground sculpture, I saw this playground. The park bench located beside the wagon gives scale to the items. The wagon towers high into the air and the blocks are huge. The child who left these toys would have be humongous!

Another bird beside the water. It walked like a pigeon, and had other similar characteristics, so it may be that is what it is. But its white color was a little confusing. (Albino?)

Back to the fountain again, and this time the water was coming from the top as well as out of the ground.

Look at him go. Another squirrel let me get close before taking off for safer ground.

I am standing on the Post Street Bridge. Off in the distance is my final goal for my walk this morning: the Monroe Street Bridge. The Lower Falls are just ahead, and it is throwing water high into the air. The gondolas are not running yet, but some of the cars are fixed in place over the water. The end point turnaround is located just behind the support leg of the bridge at mid picture. I would be working my way down the right (north) bank of the river to reach the bridge.

Zooming in a bit shows the triple arches of the Monroe Street Bridge, and the sharp line created by the disappearing water over the falls. The gondolas are huddled together as if for warmth and the churning water is reaching up to wave.

Now that we have moved to the north bank, the three unequal arches of the Monroe Street Bridge are apparent. The gondolas are nearly lost in the mist shooting up from the falls.

Here I am looking out from the viewing platform beneath the Monroe Street Bridge. The Post Street Bridge is just behind the falls.

From here the gondolas no longer appear to be huddled, and the mist looks like something rising up from a caldron.

I returned to the path, and followed it to its end, where a chain link fence blocked any further advance. Looking back from here I could see the viewing platform I was taking pictures from before, and the falls. The concrete of the bridge above me seemed to form a chamber in a cathedral.

Looking out once more from the end of the path, we can see the path I took in on the left, and the path beside the light post leads to the viewing platform. Although it was wet and gray, the flowers remind us that it is spring!

I have now come out from the Monroe Street Bridge, looped back over the Post Street Bridge, and am on the southern bank of the Spokane River. Looking beneath the Monroe Street Bridge we can see the turnaround point for the gondola ride.

I was running out of time (it was 10:44 a.m.) and my memory stick was getting full in my camera. So, I headed back to the hotel. The streets were still fairly empty and it didn’t take long to get back "home." The Davenport Hotel was waiting for me when I arrived, just 5 minutes later.

Dotti was still sleeping when a got back upstairs and so I woke her up so we could pack. We didn't have that much stuff with us, and so it didn't take long. Soon we were back with Jim and Tammy, and after a short visit, it was time to get back into the car and drive to their house.

We said our goodbyes and got on the road in the early afternoon. It has been a nice visit, as it always is with them.

I had eaten breakfast (12.0 points) in the morning, and then grabbed some leftovers from off the table for lunch. (A roll - 7.0 points; some fruit - 2 points; and some coffee & creamer - 2.0 points.) I was up to 19 points already before we left the hotel. On the road we stopped at Taco Bell, and that burned another 15 points, bringing me to 38.0 points for meals. Unfortunately, on the road I also ate another 25.0 points of snacks and by the time the day was over I was up to 63.0 points. That was just a bit high. ☺ (The fact that the scale dropped the next morning didn't mean anything, because I normally see a jump up a couple of days after an out of bounds excursion like this. What I needed was a nice low day to make up for the high one. )

On our way back home, Dotti and I took a different route along the second half of the trip. Instead of crossing over the Columbia River into Oregon, we took SR-14, and remained in Washington. The road is two lane highway for a lot of the way, but traffic wasn't bad. And we got to see some new scenery as we passed through the Columbia River Gorge.

One of the real highlights for me was visiting the American Stonehenge! The original Stonehenge site was in use 11,000 years ago, and the circular bank was constructed 1,000 years before Abraham lived! The huge stones were placed 2100 years before Christ's time. So, when I heard that an American had built a full scale model of Stonehenge here in this country, I immediately had a strong desire to see it. When I found that the American Stonehenge was in Washington State, I knew it was just a matter of time before I did see it.

We had passed it, and even accidently took pictures of it from across the Columbia River before we knew it existed. But it was from too far away to really see what it was. However, this time we were on the right side of the river, and when I saw the sign to Stonehenge, I pulled in to see if we could visit it.

The gift shop was closed, but the site was still open for visitors to walk through on their own. The creator of this Stonehenge did it for erroneous reasons. He thought that the original Stonehenge was used for human sacrifice, which it wasn't. And so, he built this Stonehenge as a monument to the soldiers in World War I who had been "sacrificed to the god of war." There are names of American soldiers from the local area who did die in that war, on plaques mounted throughout the monument, and a memorial wall stands a short distance away.

I had a very odd feeling walking through this monument. It was like walking back in time and I wondered how many of my ancestors might have visited the original Stonehenge thousands of years ago. Walking from point to point inside the structure the stones would align in ways to grant or deny a view to the outside world through the openings in the wall. I really enjoyed visiting this site.

Continuing on our way on SR 14 we came to a lovely little rest area. It commanded a very nice view of the Columbia River Gorge, and even had a little "Inspiration Point" type of path down to the edge of the gorge, and this time I remembered to bring my inspiration with me! ☺

Monday was a settle in day, as we tried to get our feet back under us after being gone.

Tuesday I had a routine follow up physical for my back, and I was notified that it was time for my regular physical as well. So, I had some blood drawn and will be having a my annual physical soon.

While I was in with the doctor, Dotti was working out in the waiting area, having brought her "office" with her. ☺

Wednesday night, Dotti was having one of her bouts with non-sleeping. She decided to do some reorganizing work in the garage. When I got tired and needed to go to bed, I asked her if she would stop working in the garage until the next morning because I worried about her hurting herself and my not knowing about it until morning. I could just picture her there on the garage floor unconscious or bleeding and me being sound asleep in the other room. She said that she would be careful and she would stay off the ladder.

A while later I was pulled out my sleep by a very unhappy Dotti who had indeed fallen, after tripping over a large plastic bag on the garage floor. She had whacked her right knee and right wrist as tried to catch herself on the way down. She had tried to "shake it off" and to continue to work, but her wrist hurt too badly to do that. So, she finally came to bed.

Thursday morning she was still in pain. She was debating whether or not to just ignore it or to go in and have it looked at. There was pain and swelling in both her wrist and her knee. We decided that if there is any doubt, let's let them look it over. We tried to reach our doctor but he had taken the day off, and even his normal backup doctor was not in. I called up the Urgent Care we normally use and they said a doctor would be in by 9:15, and we could just bring her in around that time.

After being out in the waiting room for over 2 hours, I was beggining to worry a bit. Towards the end of that time, I noticed that from my seat, I could see into the x-ray viewing room by looking into a mirror they had hung on the wall. I saw an x-ray of a hand go up. ("I wonder if that is Dotti's?" I thought to myself.) And then below it, I could see part of an x-ray for a knee. It had to be Dotti's!

It wasn't long after that when we had the diagnosis: only a bruised right knee (Good news! After her knee surgery on her left leg, we were holding our breath on that one.), but (Bad news!) one of the bones in her wrist was broken. The swelling prevented them from putting the cast on immediately, so they put on a brace and wrapped it up.

The first thing Dotti did after showing me the splint, and telling me that the wrist was broken, was to hold out her hands and wiggle the fingers on the damaged hand and said, "See, I can still type." I thought she was overly optimistic on that assessment. But then again, when Dotti is determined to do something, I never bet against her. ☺

We had a bit of troubling news when we found out that the Urgent Care Clinic wanted Dotti to have a Computerized Axial Tomography (CT) scan done on Friday, so they could determine how bad the injury was. (Naturally, if they didn't know how bad it was, all the hobgobblins of "what ifs" start flying around.)

Once I got her home, I could see early on that Dotti was not going to be a good patient, because she was limping around and picking things up, etc., and clearly in no mood for sitting around waiting to get better. I felt that it was fortunate that they were putting a cast on, or else she would be trying do far more with that hand than she should.

Dotti also developed an ambidextrous side herself that she didn't know she had. It started that first visit to Urgent Care, where she signed the paperwork with her left hand. It isn't too pretty yet, but it is working, and it is improving.

At first, to look at her, you would have thought that her knee was perhaps the worst of the two injuries. It was swollen, and the first day she kept ice on it, as per the doctor's orders. She limped badly that first day or two, but I couldn't keep her from doing more walking around than was probably good for her. (Those who know Dotti know that she is a free spirit who refuses to be held down.) Thursday night I left her alone for a few minutes when I had something I had to do in my study. When I came back, she had been cleaning up the kitchen. I told her that I would take care of that, but she would have none of that.

Fortunately, the knee has improved drastically! She is hardly limping at all now, and most of the swelling has gone down. That is very good news indeed!

When the CT scan results came back the wrist was a bit worse than we first had heard. There were three bones that were broken, not just one. AND they wanted Dotti to see an orthopedic specialist next week. This concerned us, mainly because we were ignorant on what was going on.

The last time Dotti had a cast on, was in 1974 when she was 17, and still young and foolish. It was just a few months before I met her—I was lucky to catch her when she was still young and foolish, or else she might have never given me a second look—and she went skiing up on Mt. Hood with a group of friends from church. She fell and broke her leg, just after getting off the lift, and while she was trying to get positioned to start her run down the steep hill. It may have actually been a good thing it happened the way that it did! While she was a great ice skater, it was her first time skiing, and she had only tried the bunny slope a couple of times before taking the chairlift to the top to ski down the big hill! She is not afraid to try anything once, and in this case it could have been far worse than just a broken leg if she had gotten any momentum up on that hill.

This morning I took Dotti in to have her wrist casted and fortunately the doctor was there who made the call on arranging her specialist appointment. The doctor said that Dotti had chip fractures on three of her carpal bones. (I believe he said the bones that were broken were the Pisiform, Lunate, and Scaphoid.) He said in the many decades of his practice, this was the first time he saw all three of those bones broken at once. He complimented Dotti on doing a "good job of it."

We were happy to be able to ask the doctor about the reason for the orthopedic appointment, since that had concerned us. The doctor said that it was just a double check because of the odd nature of the breaks. He said that as far as he could tell everything is in place as it should be, and nothing probably will need to be done further to make everything heal properly. However, they have better tools at the clinic, and specialists who might find something that needs to be followed up on. (It sounds like he is just covering all the bases to make sure something doesn't sneak by him. That is a good thing!)

We feel much better right now than before we went in to see the doctor, because there is not some big unknown hanging over the wrist injury. (The doctor felt fairly strongly that there would be no need for surgery, and that made Dotti very happy.)

Lastly, the doctor said that anything that the cast would physically allow her to do, in the way of typing, will be okay for her to do. That put a smile on her face. Of course we don't know how easy it will be for her to type with the cast on, once she feels up to trying it, but my guess is that we won't keep her off the computer for long.

When we got home, and before she went back to bed for a nap, I took these pictures of her and her new cast.

You can tell that she looks tired, but I think things will start to look up more now. She is limping a lot less than she was, so the knee is getting better!

5 years, 352 days on my journey; a lifetime to follow.

-Al-
6 '3" 239.5/203.5/197.5±2.5/BMI:25.44/WK- 311

Starting weight: 239.5       Target Weight Range: 195 lbs to 200 lbs