Here are today's reports from Gregg walking along Pensacola Beach. Brown colored foamy surf now dominates...
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Infection or Allergy?
Just because I had to open my big fat mouth to proclaim how well my daughter was progressing a bump got thrown in her road. Although I thought she was getting infections, according to the verdict of her surgeon, she's not. She's highly allergic to the adhesive they placed on her legs to hold down the steri-strips and bandages.
Out of the blue last night the area surrounding her wounds took on a nasty red, blistery look. I whipped out my "ghost thermometer" (everyone has one of those, don't they?) and measured the heat to be 10 degrees hotter near the wounds than the rest of her body, although she herself was not running a fever.
I whipped out my digital camera (I promised her I would not post pictures of the area) and first thing this morning sent them to C'Ville along with a begging request to supply some antibiotics. After going back and forth with the team it was decided they would not issue any and recommended I give her Benadryl. Instead I am left with the task of trying to remove this mysterious adhesive that I can't even see. The worst part is they want me to remove the actual steri-strips. They weren't supposed to come off for another five days.
The girl is in panic mode and won't let me near them. The surgeon insists there are stitches inside her and we won't screw up the wounds, "even if it bleeds some more." I scoured the Roanoke valley for some sort of adhesive remover that won't hurt her wound but have been unable to find anything. Instead I have to go with alcohol wipes, gentle tugs and heavy prayer. All the materials are laid out just waiting for daddy to come home to do this.
Nothing ever goes easy, does it?
Out of the blue last night the area surrounding her wounds took on a nasty red, blistery look. I whipped out my "ghost thermometer" (everyone has one of those, don't they?) and measured the heat to be 10 degrees hotter near the wounds than the rest of her body, although she herself was not running a fever.
I whipped out my digital camera (I promised her I would not post pictures of the area) and first thing this morning sent them to C'Ville along with a begging request to supply some antibiotics. After going back and forth with the team it was decided they would not issue any and recommended I give her Benadryl. Instead I am left with the task of trying to remove this mysterious adhesive that I can't even see. The worst part is they want me to remove the actual steri-strips. They weren't supposed to come off for another five days.
The girl is in panic mode and won't let me near them. The surgeon insists there are stitches inside her and we won't screw up the wounds, "even if it bleeds some more." I scoured the Roanoke valley for some sort of adhesive remover that won't hurt her wound but have been unable to find anything. Instead I have to go with alcohol wipes, gentle tugs and heavy prayer. All the materials are laid out just waiting for daddy to come home to do this.
Nothing ever goes easy, does it?
Pensacola Beach Cover Up
Here are some new YouTube videos from Gregg walking along Pensacola Beach. I agree with him, don't believe Florida's governor, those beaches are not safe!!!
Monday, June 28, 2010
Timing is Everything
As my daughter waited to be wheeled into the operating room at UVA all the lights started to flicker and the humming of the machines went silent. I knew it couldn't be good. After a couple of seconds most of the equipment came back on but not everything. I looked outside the door by the nurses station and saw them frantically running around. I asked, "What's going on?" The answer...the hospital had lost all power. Oh shit, this couldn't be happening.
We had been there since 11:00am. It was now 5:00pm. My daughter's scheduled surgery kept getting pushed back. She was practically passing out from hunger as were we. None of us had eaten since 8:00pm the night before. I was frantic worrying that her surgery would be cancelled, or worse they'd be underway and then they'd go dark. One of the doctors assured me that wouldn't happen, the operating room ran on a back-up generator and they were proceeding shortly. That was good since she had already been slipped the "happy juice."
Just moments before her surgeon showed me some pictures from her cat scan. In the past I've seen xrays of her bones but the cat scan gave me a whole other perspective. It's an amazing piece of equipment that shows 3-D images complete with tendons, muscles and blood. When I looked at the small portion of her legs that pictures were taken of I was taken aback. I couldn't believe what I was looking at. You've all seen photos of what a "normal" bone looks like. These were not "normal" looking at all. It reminded me of an old tree trunk with gnarly knobs and twisted branches shooting out of it. The surgeon showed me the five tumors they were most concerned with.
Two of them were spike like with pointed edges. Those were the ones that her tendons were getting caught on. Way back in January she couldn't walk for two days because she couldn't straighten her leg out. Now I understood why. There was another huge one almost behind her knee, round but knobby. That was the one that gave her trouble sitting as it would hit the chair. It's gotta be tough to be unable to stand or sit sometimes. There were many, many others but they couldn't go. Her bones would be too weakened or she could suffer nerve damage. As it was the one near her knee was tricky since it was so close to the knee. There was a possibility she would have to be in leg braces. We wouldn't know until after the operation.
After hurry up and waiting all day a new urgency seemed to be happening. The team assembled, we said our goodbyes and off she went. My husband and I went off to get something to eat. We found out no elevators were working and heard people banging on the doors. My worst nightmare would be getting stuck in an elevator. We were only on the second floor so the stairs weren't a problem. We headed to the cafeteria and found they had closed it due to no power. There are plenty of restaurants in Charlottesville so off we went.
When we stepped outside we were shocked to see the state of the city. Last time we were outside was hours ago and it was a hot, sunny day. Now the sky was black, lightning was flashing and it looked like a major storm had come through.
All the construction barriers were being re-set up. Panels of something were on the floor. Tree branches were strewn everywhere. I asked an attendant what had happened and he looked at me like I was crazy. "There was a tornado!" Really????
As we walked down the block sirens blew in the distance, firetrucks were racing, cop cars tried to get through the traffic that was at a standstill. I was in disbelief. We just wanted to get something in our stomach and head back as soon as possible. We ran into two college girls who asked if the hospital had power. I told them no and asked them where the nearest restaurant was. They told us that none of them had power, the city was dark, but to keep walking the way we were and we might find one that was still serving.
We stumbled into the first one we saw. It was a bar-type and crowded. The hostess said we could only drink. They weren't serving food anymore. I told her we hadn't eaten since the night before and if they had anything at all we would really appreciate it. She said we could order a hummus plate at the bar. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The bar was black. So was the bartenders attitude. He was practically in panic mode. Didn't these people ever have a black-out before? He was saying how it was like "the Apocalypse" telephone poles were littering the neighborhood, whole trees had been uprooted, yada yada yada. Ok buddy, it's over, you can breathe now. Pour yourself a drink or something. Ooooh, tree branches were knocked down. Let's paralyze the city.
That hummus plate was the worst hummus I have ever eaten, even starving. It came with one carrot stick sliced, one celery stick sliced, 1/3 of a cucumber, and one piece of pita bread cut into 6 triangles. The bartender couldn't add up the bill without his cash register. "It's too dark, I can't see." I whipped out my flashlight. Yes, something told me to take a mini flashlight with me before heading to C'Ville. He wouldn't take it. "My cash register's not working." I could see he was having problems adding up three items, so told him to use his calculator in his cell phone. He was so relieved! Two drinks and the appetizer came to $27.00. We were just price gouged!
We went back to the hospital and were promptly thrown out of the family waiting room. My daughter was the last one getting surgery and they didn't want to keep the room open any longer since it was pretty dark anyway. They told us to wait in the lobby. Luckily I had given the staff my cellphone number so hoped they would contact me directly.
As we were sitting in the lobby I told my husband something smells weird. A little boy next to me pointed to an area and said, "Mommy there's smoke in there." His mother who had been dangling his couple of month old sister upside down for about ten minutes, flipped her rightside up and went to look. "Yeah, there is." She then sat right back down and turned her kid upside down again. My husband and I immediately got up to look. Sure enough there was something going on in there. We promptly went over to the information desk and pointed it out to them. First I took some pictures.
Phone calls were placed and maintenance or security or whatever it was came right over. Apparently it wasn't smoke but steam. Oh, did I mention the central air conditioning no longer was functioning so it was like a sauna in the hospital? Steam was rising from cracks in the floor as well. I began to think we were in Hades. They put a rope across the door to keep the people out of the steam room. We didn't like the smell so decided we would wait outside in the courtyard.
About two hours after she went in the surgeon called me to tell me they were done. "Everything went well, we took out five, minimal bleeding. She's still not up yet. They'll call you when she awakes." Thank God! Now all I had to worry about was her waking up, which is always my biggest fear. What if she doesn't? What if she does but loses some of her mental facilities? I've read horror stories. I always tell her to strike up a good relationship with the anaesthesiologist, as they're the most important member of the team.
It was still another hour before we got the call that she was awake. By then I was practically beside myself. It had never taken that long before. They told me she had been awake a while but they had to recover her in the operating room because of the power problem. We weren't allowed in the operating room so she had to be by herself. The patients were lining up -- there was no way to move them from the OR to recovery to their rooms. I still find it hard to believe that there aren't provisions to have more than one elevator that could fit a bed, work even when there's no power! Actually my husband overheard one of the workers saying they couldn't find the master key to get the elevators up and running on the emergency power grid. No one even knew what it looked like, or where it might be. Sheesh!
After what felt like forever we got the call to say she'd been moved into a holding area and we could go up to see her. She looked great. She was wide awake and cracking jokes. I knew she was fine when she complained that she couldn't get service on her cellphone to text her friends.
Since there were long lines of patients lining the halls waiting to be moved to rooms we were told she probably wouldn't be heading to the pediatric floor which was seven, but we would get a room for her at the short stay unit on this floor when one opened up.
It was 12:30am before she was finally moved into a crappy "short stay" room. Our phones then got service and we saw there was a message waiting from the hospitality hotel my husband was supposed to stay at. Since the only way you could get in was with an electric lock they said he had to be there by 9:00pm or he would be locked out. The locks were not functioning and staff would be gone by 9. Oh well, guess he was staying with me.
Last time I slept in a reclining chair by her bedside. This time I "slept" in a hard plastic chair with no arms. My husband tried to get sleep on the floor. There is a big difference between the nurses and PCA staff who work on the pediatric and the short stay floor. The nurses were okay but nowhere as helpful as the pediatric ones are. They said they never have kids on this floor and I saw many of the rooms were filled with seniors. All I know is that had I not been sitting next to my daughter watching, her health would have been compromised from one of the PCA's.
Early in the morning I had asked her to refill my daughter's cup with ice chips and fresh water. She went over to the sink and poured out the water. The straw slipped out and landed in the sink. The PCA picked up the straw, put it back in the glass, filled it with water from the sink and then went to hand it to my daughter. "Stop!" I yelled. She looked at me. "Are you kidding me? That straw just landed in the sink and you're going to give it to my daughter????" She apologized and threw it out.
A short time later I told her my daughter was able to use the portable bathroom. She put on gloves, dumped out the urine, wiped the seat and then went over to my daughter's table that had her breakfast on it. With the same gloves still on her hands she moved my daughters food and drink closer to her. "Stop!" She looked at me. "Are you freaking kidding me? You just cleaned the toilet, you're still wearing those gloves and now you touched my daughter's food!" She asked if I wanted to have it wiped down with a disinfectant cloth? "No, I want you to fucking throw it out now! Don't you have any protocols? What's the hospital trying to same money on gloves? I don't fucking believe this." I left the room because I was going to smack her.
When I got back my husband said I had shaken her all up. Oh boo hoo. She's one of the reasons people get sick while they stay in the hospital. No wonder there's so many infections especially with old people. If I hadn't been there who knows what my daughter would have picked up. The PCA came in and apologized profusely saying she never does things like that, it's been crazy with no power and all. I would buy that but she just came on in the morning!!!
The final straw came as she tried to make small talk with my daughter, "So what type of sports do you do?" "Uh, none," as she removed the IV port from my daughter's hand. She pulled it out and blood shot everywhere. That never happened before. It freaked the girl out. She apologized, again, and wiped the top of her hand and table and then went to leave. "Where do you think you're going?" She looked at me. "Turn my daughter's hand over." She did. It was filled with blood. "Now clean it." She apologized again. We needed to get the hell out of there and soon.
As I was heading to the desk, the doctors came down the hall and I forgot all about reporting the asshole PCA. One of them showed me pictures on his I-phone of the tumors they had taken. Holy crap. Two were the size of breakfast sausages with points and one the size of a golf ball. Her surgeon told me that she was "this close" to being cancelled. Another five minutes and that would have been it. The operating room was going to be closed all day because of the high humidity in it and the inability to sterilize the equipment. What a freaking nightmare that would have been. I couldn't imagine having to repeat the endless day, nor could she. Who knows when she would have been rescheduled since her doctor only operates on Thursdays and I had booked this back in the winter!
They were all very happy with the surgery and said she only had to wear a brace on the leg that had the tumor near her knee. After three weeks she wouldn't have to wear it any more either. Her doctor was surprised that she had gotten out of bed and took a couple of steps already. He said, "Unfortunately you're a pro at this by now." Yes, yes she is and so is her surgeon and his team. They released her and probably much to the relief of the PCA, we could get out of there quick enough.
Back at home I took off the dressings last night and the wounds look great (fingers crossed they stay that way.) She's already hobbling around on crutches and we're hopeful she'll have a speedy recovery. I can't thank Dr. Romness enough for the wonderful work he and his marvelous team does with these children. I do, however, hope it's the last time we ever need to witness his surgical skills!
I realized that timing was everything for this procedure. Had she had gone into the operating room when she was originally scheduled it would have been early enough for us to be sent home. Chances are we would have gotten stuck in that tornado where it did the most damage on US29 and I64. Had she gone into the operating room five minutes later she would have missed the window of opportunity. Had I not been uncomfortable and wide awake in my daughter's room, or taken the time to slip out to go to the bathroom, my daughter's health could have been compromised by an incompetent PCA. Someone was looking out for us, and I pray they continue to watch over her over the next couple of weeks.
I gotta say for all she's been through, my daughter is one tough cookie. I bet she can't wait to get that straightening iron and eyeliner out again...
We had been there since 11:00am. It was now 5:00pm. My daughter's scheduled surgery kept getting pushed back. She was practically passing out from hunger as were we. None of us had eaten since 8:00pm the night before. I was frantic worrying that her surgery would be cancelled, or worse they'd be underway and then they'd go dark. One of the doctors assured me that wouldn't happen, the operating room ran on a back-up generator and they were proceeding shortly. That was good since she had already been slipped the "happy juice."
Just moments before her surgeon showed me some pictures from her cat scan. In the past I've seen xrays of her bones but the cat scan gave me a whole other perspective. It's an amazing piece of equipment that shows 3-D images complete with tendons, muscles and blood. When I looked at the small portion of her legs that pictures were taken of I was taken aback. I couldn't believe what I was looking at. You've all seen photos of what a "normal" bone looks like. These were not "normal" looking at all. It reminded me of an old tree trunk with gnarly knobs and twisted branches shooting out of it. The surgeon showed me the five tumors they were most concerned with.
Two of them were spike like with pointed edges. Those were the ones that her tendons were getting caught on. Way back in January she couldn't walk for two days because she couldn't straighten her leg out. Now I understood why. There was another huge one almost behind her knee, round but knobby. That was the one that gave her trouble sitting as it would hit the chair. It's gotta be tough to be unable to stand or sit sometimes. There were many, many others but they couldn't go. Her bones would be too weakened or she could suffer nerve damage. As it was the one near her knee was tricky since it was so close to the knee. There was a possibility she would have to be in leg braces. We wouldn't know until after the operation.
After hurry up and waiting all day a new urgency seemed to be happening. The team assembled, we said our goodbyes and off she went. My husband and I went off to get something to eat. We found out no elevators were working and heard people banging on the doors. My worst nightmare would be getting stuck in an elevator. We were only on the second floor so the stairs weren't a problem. We headed to the cafeteria and found they had closed it due to no power. There are plenty of restaurants in Charlottesville so off we went.
When we stepped outside we were shocked to see the state of the city. Last time we were outside was hours ago and it was a hot, sunny day. Now the sky was black, lightning was flashing and it looked like a major storm had come through.
All the construction barriers were being re-set up. Panels of something were on the floor. Tree branches were strewn everywhere. I asked an attendant what had happened and he looked at me like I was crazy. "There was a tornado!" Really????
As we walked down the block sirens blew in the distance, firetrucks were racing, cop cars tried to get through the traffic that was at a standstill. I was in disbelief. We just wanted to get something in our stomach and head back as soon as possible. We ran into two college girls who asked if the hospital had power. I told them no and asked them where the nearest restaurant was. They told us that none of them had power, the city was dark, but to keep walking the way we were and we might find one that was still serving.
We stumbled into the first one we saw. It was a bar-type and crowded. The hostess said we could only drink. They weren't serving food anymore. I told her we hadn't eaten since the night before and if they had anything at all we would really appreciate it. She said we could order a hummus plate at the bar. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. The bar was black. So was the bartenders attitude. He was practically in panic mode. Didn't these people ever have a black-out before? He was saying how it was like "the Apocalypse" telephone poles were littering the neighborhood, whole trees had been uprooted, yada yada yada. Ok buddy, it's over, you can breathe now. Pour yourself a drink or something. Ooooh, tree branches were knocked down. Let's paralyze the city.
That hummus plate was the worst hummus I have ever eaten, even starving. It came with one carrot stick sliced, one celery stick sliced, 1/3 of a cucumber, and one piece of pita bread cut into 6 triangles. The bartender couldn't add up the bill without his cash register. "It's too dark, I can't see." I whipped out my flashlight. Yes, something told me to take a mini flashlight with me before heading to C'Ville. He wouldn't take it. "My cash register's not working." I could see he was having problems adding up three items, so told him to use his calculator in his cell phone. He was so relieved! Two drinks and the appetizer came to $27.00. We were just price gouged!
We went back to the hospital and were promptly thrown out of the family waiting room. My daughter was the last one getting surgery and they didn't want to keep the room open any longer since it was pretty dark anyway. They told us to wait in the lobby. Luckily I had given the staff my cellphone number so hoped they would contact me directly.
As we were sitting in the lobby I told my husband something smells weird. A little boy next to me pointed to an area and said, "Mommy there's smoke in there." His mother who had been dangling his couple of month old sister upside down for about ten minutes, flipped her rightside up and went to look. "Yeah, there is." She then sat right back down and turned her kid upside down again. My husband and I immediately got up to look. Sure enough there was something going on in there. We promptly went over to the information desk and pointed it out to them. First I took some pictures.
Phone calls were placed and maintenance or security or whatever it was came right over. Apparently it wasn't smoke but steam. Oh, did I mention the central air conditioning no longer was functioning so it was like a sauna in the hospital? Steam was rising from cracks in the floor as well. I began to think we were in Hades. They put a rope across the door to keep the people out of the steam room. We didn't like the smell so decided we would wait outside in the courtyard.
About two hours after she went in the surgeon called me to tell me they were done. "Everything went well, we took out five, minimal bleeding. She's still not up yet. They'll call you when she awakes." Thank God! Now all I had to worry about was her waking up, which is always my biggest fear. What if she doesn't? What if she does but loses some of her mental facilities? I've read horror stories. I always tell her to strike up a good relationship with the anaesthesiologist, as they're the most important member of the team.
It was still another hour before we got the call that she was awake. By then I was practically beside myself. It had never taken that long before. They told me she had been awake a while but they had to recover her in the operating room because of the power problem. We weren't allowed in the operating room so she had to be by herself. The patients were lining up -- there was no way to move them from the OR to recovery to their rooms. I still find it hard to believe that there aren't provisions to have more than one elevator that could fit a bed, work even when there's no power! Actually my husband overheard one of the workers saying they couldn't find the master key to get the elevators up and running on the emergency power grid. No one even knew what it looked like, or where it might be. Sheesh!
After what felt like forever we got the call to say she'd been moved into a holding area and we could go up to see her. She looked great. She was wide awake and cracking jokes. I knew she was fine when she complained that she couldn't get service on her cellphone to text her friends.
Since there were long lines of patients lining the halls waiting to be moved to rooms we were told she probably wouldn't be heading to the pediatric floor which was seven, but we would get a room for her at the short stay unit on this floor when one opened up.
It was 12:30am before she was finally moved into a crappy "short stay" room. Our phones then got service and we saw there was a message waiting from the hospitality hotel my husband was supposed to stay at. Since the only way you could get in was with an electric lock they said he had to be there by 9:00pm or he would be locked out. The locks were not functioning and staff would be gone by 9. Oh well, guess he was staying with me.
Last time I slept in a reclining chair by her bedside. This time I "slept" in a hard plastic chair with no arms. My husband tried to get sleep on the floor. There is a big difference between the nurses and PCA staff who work on the pediatric and the short stay floor. The nurses were okay but nowhere as helpful as the pediatric ones are. They said they never have kids on this floor and I saw many of the rooms were filled with seniors. All I know is that had I not been sitting next to my daughter watching, her health would have been compromised from one of the PCA's.
Early in the morning I had asked her to refill my daughter's cup with ice chips and fresh water. She went over to the sink and poured out the water. The straw slipped out and landed in the sink. The PCA picked up the straw, put it back in the glass, filled it with water from the sink and then went to hand it to my daughter. "Stop!" I yelled. She looked at me. "Are you kidding me? That straw just landed in the sink and you're going to give it to my daughter????" She apologized and threw it out.
A short time later I told her my daughter was able to use the portable bathroom. She put on gloves, dumped out the urine, wiped the seat and then went over to my daughter's table that had her breakfast on it. With the same gloves still on her hands she moved my daughters food and drink closer to her. "Stop!" She looked at me. "Are you freaking kidding me? You just cleaned the toilet, you're still wearing those gloves and now you touched my daughter's food!" She asked if I wanted to have it wiped down with a disinfectant cloth? "No, I want you to fucking throw it out now! Don't you have any protocols? What's the hospital trying to same money on gloves? I don't fucking believe this." I left the room because I was going to smack her.
When I got back my husband said I had shaken her all up. Oh boo hoo. She's one of the reasons people get sick while they stay in the hospital. No wonder there's so many infections especially with old people. If I hadn't been there who knows what my daughter would have picked up. The PCA came in and apologized profusely saying she never does things like that, it's been crazy with no power and all. I would buy that but she just came on in the morning!!!
The final straw came as she tried to make small talk with my daughter, "So what type of sports do you do?" "Uh, none," as she removed the IV port from my daughter's hand. She pulled it out and blood shot everywhere. That never happened before. It freaked the girl out. She apologized, again, and wiped the top of her hand and table and then went to leave. "Where do you think you're going?" She looked at me. "Turn my daughter's hand over." She did. It was filled with blood. "Now clean it." She apologized again. We needed to get the hell out of there and soon.
As I was heading to the desk, the doctors came down the hall and I forgot all about reporting the asshole PCA. One of them showed me pictures on his I-phone of the tumors they had taken. Holy crap. Two were the size of breakfast sausages with points and one the size of a golf ball. Her surgeon told me that she was "this close" to being cancelled. Another five minutes and that would have been it. The operating room was going to be closed all day because of the high humidity in it and the inability to sterilize the equipment. What a freaking nightmare that would have been. I couldn't imagine having to repeat the endless day, nor could she. Who knows when she would have been rescheduled since her doctor only operates on Thursdays and I had booked this back in the winter!
They were all very happy with the surgery and said she only had to wear a brace on the leg that had the tumor near her knee. After three weeks she wouldn't have to wear it any more either. Her doctor was surprised that she had gotten out of bed and took a couple of steps already. He said, "Unfortunately you're a pro at this by now." Yes, yes she is and so is her surgeon and his team. They released her and probably much to the relief of the PCA, we could get out of there quick enough.
Back at home I took off the dressings last night and the wounds look great (fingers crossed they stay that way.) She's already hobbling around on crutches and we're hopeful she'll have a speedy recovery. I can't thank Dr. Romness enough for the wonderful work he and his marvelous team does with these children. I do, however, hope it's the last time we ever need to witness his surgical skills!
I realized that timing was everything for this procedure. Had she had gone into the operating room when she was originally scheduled it would have been early enough for us to be sent home. Chances are we would have gotten stuck in that tornado where it did the most damage on US29 and I64. Had she gone into the operating room five minutes later she would have missed the window of opportunity. Had I not been uncomfortable and wide awake in my daughter's room, or taken the time to slip out to go to the bathroom, my daughter's health could have been compromised by an incompetent PCA. Someone was looking out for us, and I pray they continue to watch over her over the next couple of weeks.
I gotta say for all she's been through, my daughter is one tough cookie. I bet she can't wait to get that straightening iron and eyeliner out again...
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Reports from Pensacola Beach
I am so sickened by what's happening to the panhandle beaches. I am so sickened by the lack of media covering this. I am so sickened by the pathetic failings we're witnessing from BP and our feckless government's "unresponse." I am so sickened by the lack of workers cleaning this mess on the beaches. I am so sickened that 67 days in the oil is still gushing out with no end in sight.
I am so glad this fellow is posting Youtube videos to keep us apprised of what's going on. If you read the local paper you would think there wasn't any oil spill. I plan to post Gregg's Youtube videos whenever I can.
June 26, 2020 - "Pensacola Oil Tar Everywhere"
June 26, 2010 - "Pensacola Beach Toxic Tidal Pool"
June 26, 2010 - "Pensacola Beach Daily Report"
I am so glad this fellow is posting Youtube videos to keep us apprised of what's going on. If you read the local paper you would think there wasn't any oil spill. I plan to post Gregg's Youtube videos whenever I can.
June 26, 2020 - "Pensacola Oil Tar Everywhere"
June 26, 2010 - "Pensacola Beach Toxic Tidal Pool"
June 26, 2010 - "Pensacola Beach Daily Report"
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Girl at the Beach
I'm so happy my daughter enjoyed herself at the beach. The rest of her summer is pretty much going to suck...
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Ocean Isle Beach II
I wish I could say we had a wonderful night's sleep, but I can't. My husband and I aren't used to such expensive high-top mattresses that slope down the sides. The girl loved hers. I bet she did as she had the entire bed to herself. My husband said he felt like he was going to roll off the edge and get wedged between the wall and mattress so he slept "oddly." A quick trip to the jacuzzi worked out his back and he didn't complain any more, although it did become a running joke that we needed a step ladder to climb into bed.
The boy called in the morning and said he still hadn't heard from the Duke about the air conditioning. The nineties were finally starting to get to him, along with his long work hours and his friends schedules not lining up with his. Was that snippiness I detected coming through the phone? I held back saying, "You should hace come with us!" I made my husband call the Duke who informed him he had in fact fixed the air conditioner but forgot to tell the boy to switch on the thermostat. As soon as he got home from work the boy called to say it was working. Yay! I was finally able to relax...
It was much more challenging walking along the beach every morning, on a slant through broken shells, than it is by the Roanoke River greenway. Yet, I prefer sloshing through the surf...
I didn't see any ducks like I do along the Roanoke River but there were quite a few birds wading in the surf...
I even watched this one dive in and capture a fish...
Who knew flowers could grow in the sand?
Love also grows in the sand...We saw two weddings on one day.
One day we headed into Myrtle Beach. My daughter suggested we bring back a hermit crab as a souvenir for my son. When I asked him if he wanted one he said, "Yeah, just what I need, something else to take care of! If you wanna bring me back something how about some fireworks?" My husband was all for that so off we went across the border.
We decided to go to Broadway on the Beach to do some shopping (disappointed in that) and have dinner there as well. We attempted the Hard Rock Cafe, but it was an hour long wait and after looking over the menu we figured it would suck like Planet Hollywood did last time. Luckily the girl didn't care whether we stayed or not, "There's no way I'm waiting over an hour in this heat for macaroni and cheese. This place looks like a tourist trap. I expected more."
All the other restaurants had massive waits too except for a few located when you first walk in. The problem was they wouldn't let my daughter in because she was under 21. It was only 6:00pm and those places were empty. I really wanted to go to the Irish joint that advertised shepherd's pie too. We finally stumbled on one as we were leaving, and I can't remember the name of it, but it was pretty much a bar that had some really good happy hour appetizers. They didn't have a problem with her being under 21. In fact there were quite a few kids in there as well. When I remarked to her as I took this picture, "Ah, your first bar," she replied, "Uh no, I sat at the bar at 419 West when Becca's dad played there." "Ok then, your first sleazy bar."
As soon as we were done eating we wanted to leave Myrtle Beach and get back to our beach -- our nice, quiet, peaceful, and thankfully boring beach. It was night already and the pier was lit up...
I loved looking at the pier because depending when and where you gazed at it from, it always took on a different look...
Goodbye Ocean Isle Beach...thank you for providing me with the solitude I needed. I pray the oil doesn't wash up on your shores and destroy you and your wildlife as it has so many other beautiful places...
The boy called in the morning and said he still hadn't heard from the Duke about the air conditioning. The nineties were finally starting to get to him, along with his long work hours and his friends schedules not lining up with his. Was that snippiness I detected coming through the phone? I held back saying, "You should hace come with us!" I made my husband call the Duke who informed him he had in fact fixed the air conditioner but forgot to tell the boy to switch on the thermostat. As soon as he got home from work the boy called to say it was working. Yay! I was finally able to relax...
It was much more challenging walking along the beach every morning, on a slant through broken shells, than it is by the Roanoke River greenway. Yet, I prefer sloshing through the surf...
I didn't see any ducks like I do along the Roanoke River but there were quite a few birds wading in the surf...
I even watched this one dive in and capture a fish...
Who knew flowers could grow in the sand?
Love also grows in the sand...We saw two weddings on one day.
One day we headed into Myrtle Beach. My daughter suggested we bring back a hermit crab as a souvenir for my son. When I asked him if he wanted one he said, "Yeah, just what I need, something else to take care of! If you wanna bring me back something how about some fireworks?" My husband was all for that so off we went across the border.
We decided to go to Broadway on the Beach to do some shopping (disappointed in that) and have dinner there as well. We attempted the Hard Rock Cafe, but it was an hour long wait and after looking over the menu we figured it would suck like Planet Hollywood did last time. Luckily the girl didn't care whether we stayed or not, "There's no way I'm waiting over an hour in this heat for macaroni and cheese. This place looks like a tourist trap. I expected more."
All the other restaurants had massive waits too except for a few located when you first walk in. The problem was they wouldn't let my daughter in because she was under 21. It was only 6:00pm and those places were empty. I really wanted to go to the Irish joint that advertised shepherd's pie too. We finally stumbled on one as we were leaving, and I can't remember the name of it, but it was pretty much a bar that had some really good happy hour appetizers. They didn't have a problem with her being under 21. In fact there were quite a few kids in there as well. When I remarked to her as I took this picture, "Ah, your first bar," she replied, "Uh no, I sat at the bar at 419 West when Becca's dad played there." "Ok then, your first sleazy bar."
As soon as we were done eating we wanted to leave Myrtle Beach and get back to our beach -- our nice, quiet, peaceful, and thankfully boring beach. It was night already and the pier was lit up...
I loved looking at the pier because depending when and where you gazed at it from, it always took on a different look...
Goodbye Ocean Isle Beach...thank you for providing me with the solitude I needed. I pray the oil doesn't wash up on your shores and destroy you and your wildlife as it has so many other beautiful places...
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Ocean Isle Beach I
If there's a more boring and annoying road than heading south to the beaches from Roanoke on 220 I haven't encountered it yet. If you get stuck behind a moron on one of the many two lane stretches you're pretty much screwed. Such was the case on that one stretch you have to cross heading into Greensboro. It seemed to take forever so when we saw an Italian restaurant we stopped hoping the traffic would free up some. What a great treat Elizabeth's or Francesco's, depending upon whether one read the sign in the parking lot or the one on the canopy, turned out to be. We had a brick oven pizza which was the closest thing to New York Pizza than I've ever had, anywhere. It was a great deal too, $7.99 for a large and I mean a regular large 16" pie. Highly recommend it and wish they delivered to Roanoke!
The rest of the trip seemed to take forever and I could only imagine how much worse it could have been if I had listened to Mapquest's 31 step directions. I promptly threw those out when I couldn't even find half the roads mentioned on my North Carolina map. By the time we got to Ocean Isle Beach we felt like we were driving for days, much worse than when we drive to NYC. I felt doubly bad for my husband the driver who had already put in four hours earlier trying to fix the air conditioner.
If you ever want to get away to a beach where there is nothing to do but relax, then Ocean Isle is the place for you. It's close enough to Myrtle, about a half hour away, if you want the "excitement" but seeing as it was "senior week" there we decided unless we got really bored we would stay on the Isle. Of course at one point we would have to cross the border to South Carolina because 4th of July is coming up, but shhhhhh don't tell anyone.
We stayed at the Ocean Isle Inn, a small place located directly on the beach. Like I said before the only way to go is to get an oceanfront balcony...pay the extra $20. The sound view is nice...
but the windows don't open and there's no balcony. The front desk people are very nice there and the woman told me we had the best room in the house. All the rooms are the same so I guess "best" meant we had the farthest room on the top floor at the very corner away from everything. That was fine until maybe the fifteenth time we had to endure the trek from the car to the elevator to the room to the beach to the ice machine to anywhere. We began referring to it as "The Green Mile." The only thing missing was the prisoner's arms clawing at us as we passed each door. Truthfully I actually preferred being so far away because one of my pet peeves is being too close to the elevator and hearing the doors open all night, or the ice machine and hearing it bang all night. No worries there.
The hotel has an outdoor and indoor pool with a jacuzzi. There's no food or bar on site, a negative, that is easily overcome if you come supplied with a case of wine and because there are refrigerators and microwaves in each room. They do offer a limited continental breakfast, and I will never eat another cheap bagel or waffle again. Just having that option saves a lot of money though, as does the microwave and fridge. If there was an entrepreneur who wanted to make money I would suggest they get a hot dog/knish cart for the beach. They would make a gold mine. We found a really nice supermarket, Lowes, that had some great foods we brought back to the room for lunches. Who wants to hang out at the beach in the morning then get dressed and go out somewhere for lunch? It took us two days to realize that it would be better to just go up to the room, order in from Dominos or eat leftovers, then head back down to bake some more.
When we got settled in we called the boy and he said the Duke had been by and would be back the next day. He said it was really hot but he'd be okay since he was working again. He had hoped to go out with his friends that night but they got called into their jobs so he was going to be alone. Did I detect a little longing for us? He said, no, he was fine and not to worry. He would call us the next day. I felt a little better talking to him but still uptight that the air conditioning hadn't been fixed. I asked the boy what he had for dinner, "Ramen." I hoped that wouldn't be the week's menu.
Once my husband poured me a glass of wine and we sat on the balcony listening to the sound of the surf and gulls my anxiety began to shed a bit.
The ocean is just such a magical place to me. I had grown up around beaches in New York so have always had a special love for beaches and sunsets, especially Brooklyn ones, which are the most spectacular you could ever see. This isn't one of them...
Before we got too comfortable we headed out to an Italian restaurant that we really liked last time, Cinelli's. As soon as we entered I suspected it had changed ownership. The ambiance was gone, it was now beach-like, Ragu-sauced psuedo-Italian "cuisine." The food was poor and the service worse. I hate when I order appetizers before even ordering dinner, hoping the waitress will be smart enough to bring that out first, yet she brings the meal right afterwards when we just had a bite of the appetizer and then asks if we're finished. It's not like the place was even crowded and they had to shuffle us out. That should have been a clue too. I had ordered a split of champagne and the waitress actually asked me if I wanted to keep the bottle. For what? To hit you on the side of the head with? Honey, I've drank Dom and Cristal and didn't keep those bottles so why would I want to keep some crappy brut split? The scary part was the waitress was serious! I asked the girl when the place was sold and she told me it was three years ago. We had been there four years ago. Pegged that one. She also said the original owner was now running a different restaurant, not Italian, which we decided we would give a shot the next day.
Until then, the waves were calling and all I wanted was to decompress so we headed back to the balcony.
The rest of the trip seemed to take forever and I could only imagine how much worse it could have been if I had listened to Mapquest's 31 step directions. I promptly threw those out when I couldn't even find half the roads mentioned on my North Carolina map. By the time we got to Ocean Isle Beach we felt like we were driving for days, much worse than when we drive to NYC. I felt doubly bad for my husband the driver who had already put in four hours earlier trying to fix the air conditioner.
If you ever want to get away to a beach where there is nothing to do but relax, then Ocean Isle is the place for you. It's close enough to Myrtle, about a half hour away, if you want the "excitement" but seeing as it was "senior week" there we decided unless we got really bored we would stay on the Isle. Of course at one point we would have to cross the border to South Carolina because 4th of July is coming up, but shhhhhh don't tell anyone.
We stayed at the Ocean Isle Inn, a small place located directly on the beach. Like I said before the only way to go is to get an oceanfront balcony...pay the extra $20. The sound view is nice...
but the windows don't open and there's no balcony. The front desk people are very nice there and the woman told me we had the best room in the house. All the rooms are the same so I guess "best" meant we had the farthest room on the top floor at the very corner away from everything. That was fine until maybe the fifteenth time we had to endure the trek from the car to the elevator to the room to the beach to the ice machine to anywhere. We began referring to it as "The Green Mile." The only thing missing was the prisoner's arms clawing at us as we passed each door. Truthfully I actually preferred being so far away because one of my pet peeves is being too close to the elevator and hearing the doors open all night, or the ice machine and hearing it bang all night. No worries there.
The hotel has an outdoor and indoor pool with a jacuzzi. There's no food or bar on site, a negative, that is easily overcome if you come supplied with a case of wine and because there are refrigerators and microwaves in each room. They do offer a limited continental breakfast, and I will never eat another cheap bagel or waffle again. Just having that option saves a lot of money though, as does the microwave and fridge. If there was an entrepreneur who wanted to make money I would suggest they get a hot dog/knish cart for the beach. They would make a gold mine. We found a really nice supermarket, Lowes, that had some great foods we brought back to the room for lunches. Who wants to hang out at the beach in the morning then get dressed and go out somewhere for lunch? It took us two days to realize that it would be better to just go up to the room, order in from Dominos or eat leftovers, then head back down to bake some more.
When we got settled in we called the boy and he said the Duke had been by and would be back the next day. He said it was really hot but he'd be okay since he was working again. He had hoped to go out with his friends that night but they got called into their jobs so he was going to be alone. Did I detect a little longing for us? He said, no, he was fine and not to worry. He would call us the next day. I felt a little better talking to him but still uptight that the air conditioning hadn't been fixed. I asked the boy what he had for dinner, "Ramen." I hoped that wouldn't be the week's menu.
Once my husband poured me a glass of wine and we sat on the balcony listening to the sound of the surf and gulls my anxiety began to shed a bit.
The ocean is just such a magical place to me. I had grown up around beaches in New York so have always had a special love for beaches and sunsets, especially Brooklyn ones, which are the most spectacular you could ever see. This isn't one of them...
Before we got too comfortable we headed out to an Italian restaurant that we really liked last time, Cinelli's. As soon as we entered I suspected it had changed ownership. The ambiance was gone, it was now beach-like, Ragu-sauced psuedo-Italian "cuisine." The food was poor and the service worse. I hate when I order appetizers before even ordering dinner, hoping the waitress will be smart enough to bring that out first, yet she brings the meal right afterwards when we just had a bite of the appetizer and then asks if we're finished. It's not like the place was even crowded and they had to shuffle us out. That should have been a clue too. I had ordered a split of champagne and the waitress actually asked me if I wanted to keep the bottle. For what? To hit you on the side of the head with? Honey, I've drank Dom and Cristal and didn't keep those bottles so why would I want to keep some crappy brut split? The scary part was the waitress was serious! I asked the girl when the place was sold and she told me it was three years ago. We had been there four years ago. Pegged that one. She also said the original owner was now running a different restaurant, not Italian, which we decided we would give a shot the next day.
Until then, the waves were calling and all I wanted was to decompress so we headed back to the balcony.
Monday, June 21, 2010
Before the Vacation
This would be our first real vacation without the boy. New York doesn't count since he hasn't come with us the last couple of times. "I hate New York...It's too hot...I feel like I'm living in the dark ages in that house...There's nothing to do there!" Way back in March when I was planning our trip to Ocean Isle Beach the boy begged me not to make him come. "I hate the beach...I hate the sun...There's nothing to do there!" I informed him that the only way he would be allowed to stay home was if he got a job. As you all know, he met my challenge. The last time he was left alone he had proclaimed it was "the best week ever!" Of course then he wasn't working. Neither were any of his friends.
The first wrench that was thrown into his plans happened the night before we were to leave. The central air conditioning pooped out. After I got home from buying last minute important things like clean white socks for my husband I noticed the house was hot even though air was blowing from the ceiling vents. I then realized the outside blower was not on. Oh shit, this couldn't be good. I immediately went into panic mode. It was already in the 90's and scheduled to be that hot all week. I couldn't have the boy and dog without air. Naturally it was after ten so there weren't any service people answering our calls. Luckily my husband had someone he knew, the Duke, who had fixed it last year so he told me not to worry he would call him early in the morning. I worried all night, and sweated profusely as well.
First thing in the morning my husband called the Duke only to have his call go directly to voice mail. Since my husband is a mechanic he thought it sounded like the motor burnt out and set out to try and replace it himself. He knows nothing about air conditioning units but I still put my trust in him. He knew I would not leave without having this problem resolved so I'm sure he saw no other alternative. I kept bitching about the timing of the problem until I realized it happened at a good time. What if we had left the day before as originally planned, until I put the kibosh on that because the boy was graduating on Saturday and I wanted to spend Sunday with him. What if it happened when we weren't home? The boy wouldn't have even realized the outside unit wasn't functioning and maybe a fire could have occurred. The outside unit was red hot when my husband checked on it. So after I thought about it, although inconvenient, I realized it was a blessing it happened when it did.
As the clock ticked away with no callback, I GTS'ed (googled that shit as my kids would say) so my husband found a place to get a motor and brought the other one with him. Google Maps was inaccurate, surprise surprise, so it took him another half hour to find out exactly where it was located. Luckily they had the motor in stock. Unluckily, the screws were too long so my husband had to saw them down to make it fit. Putting it all back together was more difficult for him than the intricate engines he normally does because he had no freaking idea what the hell he was doing. Amazingly he got it all together with the help of saws, steel wool, determination and my prayers. He fired it up and it promptly kicked off the circuit breaker. Failure. Oh shit, now what?
Just then his phone rang and it was the Duke! He was apprised of the situation, but since he had a regular day job and lived in Windy Gap now and didn't have any of his tools with him he couldn't come over that day but promised he would coordinate with the boy to come over and fix it. Luckily the boy didn't have to go until 5 the next day and the Duke got off at 3 so there was a small window of opportunity. He assured us it wasn't going to be a problem as did the boy. "Just go, don't worry, I can handle this." I felt terrible, not only because it was so freaking hot but now the boy had yet another responsibility to add to his already long list. "It's not too late you can still come with us," I begged him. "No, I have to go to work and would rather stay in the sweltering house than lie on a hot beach anyway." "Give the boy a break. He can handle this," my husband said.
This was not the way I had pictured the start of a much needed relaxing vacation. With her surgery looming ever closer the girl needed to get away. I could not disappoint her. I prayed for help and put my faith there would be a silver lining, so with much trepidation and anxiety, we headed south.
The first wrench that was thrown into his plans happened the night before we were to leave. The central air conditioning pooped out. After I got home from buying last minute important things like clean white socks for my husband I noticed the house was hot even though air was blowing from the ceiling vents. I then realized the outside blower was not on. Oh shit, this couldn't be good. I immediately went into panic mode. It was already in the 90's and scheduled to be that hot all week. I couldn't have the boy and dog without air. Naturally it was after ten so there weren't any service people answering our calls. Luckily my husband had someone he knew, the Duke, who had fixed it last year so he told me not to worry he would call him early in the morning. I worried all night, and sweated profusely as well.
First thing in the morning my husband called the Duke only to have his call go directly to voice mail. Since my husband is a mechanic he thought it sounded like the motor burnt out and set out to try and replace it himself. He knows nothing about air conditioning units but I still put my trust in him. He knew I would not leave without having this problem resolved so I'm sure he saw no other alternative. I kept bitching about the timing of the problem until I realized it happened at a good time. What if we had left the day before as originally planned, until I put the kibosh on that because the boy was graduating on Saturday and I wanted to spend Sunday with him. What if it happened when we weren't home? The boy wouldn't have even realized the outside unit wasn't functioning and maybe a fire could have occurred. The outside unit was red hot when my husband checked on it. So after I thought about it, although inconvenient, I realized it was a blessing it happened when it did.
As the clock ticked away with no callback, I GTS'ed (googled that shit as my kids would say) so my husband found a place to get a motor and brought the other one with him. Google Maps was inaccurate, surprise surprise, so it took him another half hour to find out exactly where it was located. Luckily they had the motor in stock. Unluckily, the screws were too long so my husband had to saw them down to make it fit. Putting it all back together was more difficult for him than the intricate engines he normally does because he had no freaking idea what the hell he was doing. Amazingly he got it all together with the help of saws, steel wool, determination and my prayers. He fired it up and it promptly kicked off the circuit breaker. Failure. Oh shit, now what?
Just then his phone rang and it was the Duke! He was apprised of the situation, but since he had a regular day job and lived in Windy Gap now and didn't have any of his tools with him he couldn't come over that day but promised he would coordinate with the boy to come over and fix it. Luckily the boy didn't have to go until 5 the next day and the Duke got off at 3 so there was a small window of opportunity. He assured us it wasn't going to be a problem as did the boy. "Just go, don't worry, I can handle this." I felt terrible, not only because it was so freaking hot but now the boy had yet another responsibility to add to his already long list. "It's not too late you can still come with us," I begged him. "No, I have to go to work and would rather stay in the sweltering house than lie on a hot beach anyway." "Give the boy a break. He can handle this," my husband said.
This was not the way I had pictured the start of a much needed relaxing vacation. With her surgery looming ever closer the girl needed to get away. I could not disappoint her. I prayed for help and put my faith there would be a silver lining, so with much trepidation and anxiety, we headed south.
Saturday, June 19, 2010
Oceanfront Balcony
No, I haven't disappeared permanently, just been taking in the views from my oceanfront balcony on Ocean Isle Beach...
Front...
Right...
Left...
If you stay at the beach, any beach, oceanfront balconies are the only way to go...
Front...
Right...
Left...
If you stay at the beach, any beach, oceanfront balconies are the only way to go...
Saturday, June 12, 2010
Congrats To My Son!
Congrats to the graduate who strived for mediocrity, yet surpassed it to achieve great success. The world is waiting for you!
Oil leak you say? Hmmm, yes, let me think about that...
By Jove, I think I've got it!
Let me just get through this and I can get down to real life...
I'm ready for my photo op...
Here's to our future generation...if they're half the man my son is I will gladly put my hope into them! One down...one to go! Woo Hoo!
Oil leak you say? Hmmm, yes, let me think about that...
By Jove, I think I've got it!
Let me just get through this and I can get down to real life...
I'm ready for my photo op...
Here's to our future generation...if they're half the man my son is I will gladly put my hope into them! One down...one to go! Woo Hoo!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)