Memory Lane

Today I got a message on Facebook from my nephew Brandon. He was working on an oral report and asked about my Dad's house in Old Harbor and what had happened to it after the earthquake and tidal wave of 1964. Boy, that got me back into the past. Old pictures, old times, Old Harbor.

I was thankful to find that I had a picture of the house my Dad built in Old Harbor. When my youngest brother Mark was still alive my Mom normally lived at the same small house he was at. This house was built by our family for Mom after my Dad died. It ended up that Mark lived there and in 2010 he died there. (Boy does time fly!) After Mark died my husband Doug and I ended up being the ones that cleaned up the house and took care of Mark's animals. Since there would be no one living there after we moved Mom out into an assisted living facility Doug drained the pipes and winterized it. There it sits to this day. If I had the money I would pay the taxes on it and I would make it liveable again. Alcoholism is tough on material possessions!

We went through what little paperwork we could find that looked important then brought them home with us in case it was needed for Mom's future. We arranged with the neighbors to check the mailbox every so often and we stopped by there to pick it up, when needed.

As Doug was picking things up in the yard he found a garbage container filled with trash and in it was some photographs! This sort of stuff happens when someone is alcoholic. I am so glad that Doug checked this stuff and salvaged the pictures. They are precious to me, even this one picture of the house that Dad built. One thing that was not salvageable was the big bear hide that my brother owned from a hunting trip that he went on. It was wet after sitting in the drip of the eave for we don't even know how long. Sad to let things go that would have been a link to someone you loved. But when death is fresh on your heart it is hard to think of 'stuff.' So we left that behind but brought some of the old pictures home from the trash barrel.

Shortly after my brother died my Mom lost her mind. Maybe this is a protection? Personally, I believed she had suffered a stroke, but the doctor said there was no sign of any NEW strokes. He did tell me that it appeared that she had survived five strokes in her past and that she had recovered from them without medical care. Mom does not even remember Mark right now. She asks once in a while who the boy was that used to live at her house. " It was Mark, Mom." "Mark?" It is amazing to me how she forget someone that had such a big part of her every day.

I have a new laptop and my first ever web cam. :-) I was trying to figure out how to get my pictures from my phone to my laptop, and saw the webcam. So there you have it. A new way to take a picture of an old house.

Ha ha!

Winter BRRRRRRRRRR-irds!

How do they survive?

I watch at the window from my warm house and wonder how those little feet stay warm. God's creating ability goes further than I could even imagine ---in all ways!

I would have been ecstatic to have created even one of these such cute little birds, but I am positive I would never have forseen the trouble of trying to keep it alive when it got so cold!

Whoopin' It Up!

Pertussis has been making its rounds up here in Alaska. My brother Don and his wife are just getting over it but Edna, Don's wife is still battling with the very overwhelming whooping cough. My youngest brother Mark had it after attending a conference in Kodiak where he believes he was exposed to the bacterial infection.

Whooping Cough Cases Climb in Alaska. Medpage Today (From 2005) "The incidence of pertussis is four times higher in the state this year than in 2004, including a rise among adults, although improved diagnostic specificity may explain some of it."

Whooping cough made the news here in Alaska in 2006. It showed up in an eight week old baby girl from a Southwest village. I remember this is about the same time our little Raegan Mae was sick and Karla was concerned she may have the whooping cough. She was checked out to be okay. Tundra Medicine Dreams did a great write about this outbreak in our coastal village.

I thought that "the hundred day cough" was eradicated in the United States. Apparently not, since I've read several sites claiming an outbreak of this sickness in recent years, with each following year the disease is increasingly reported.

The illness, caused by a bacterial infection, is characterized by coughing spells lasting several seconds. The coughing fits are followed by a "whooping" sound as the person struggles to inhale and may cause vomiting or choking.

Whooping cough can last for weeks and lead to pneumonia and seizures. It is most dangerous in infants and young children. From (www.schsa.org) Stanislaus County Health Services Agency.

Whooping Cough No Cause For Alarm - Mount Mercy Times, A Student Publication (PDF file). "Most people are vaccinated against the disease as children, but the immunization usually wears off by adulthood. Adults and unvaccinated children can harbor the pertussis bacteria for up to three weeks before showing symptoms."

From April 3, 2007, Study Finds Parents Pass Whooping Cough to Babies, The New York Times. A collection of whooping cough information, including New Booster Vaccine Urged To Fight Whooping Cough.

Whooping cough is most contagious before the coughing begins. Visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for information about the pertussis vaccination and booster vaccination for adults.

After doing some study on this disease I disagree with whomever wrote the article "Whooping Cough No Cause For Alarm," because this cough is something no one should get! It sounds horrible and it begins as a common cold/sore throat then progresses to the violent cough. One is treated with antibiotics in an effort to get rid of it. See from this picture of the child how violent the cough can be even causing broken blood vessels under the eyes.

Hopefully Mom was not exposed to pertussis, I would hate for her to get so sick with coughing.

Please pray that this cough was not passed on to Mom and also pray for my brother Don's wife Edna. She is still struggling with this and is not well yet. Don and Edna have a Christian ministry with the Native peoples of Alaska and work with them via the Anchorage Native New Life Fellowship in Anchorage.

And remember, wash your hands and one should stay home if not well.

You've Made It To The Top!

A flyer in the mail prompted me to write this blog. It is a flyer mailed to Doug for condominiums for Alaska's active seniors! I guess that means we are getting up there in age, well at least HE is!

It's kind of funny to see him getting mail like this. He has not qualified for senior discounts at any restaurants yet but we know soon enough he will be on "top" of that too!

For some reason Blogger is not allowing me to copy and paste a URL into the Link spot in Edit. Sometimes computers sure test the patience to just about the limits, don't they?

Anyway, check out the new housing for Seniors coming to Anchorage Hillside soon. Legacy Pointe. Looks like a cool place to be.

They claim that Alaska is second only to Nevada as the fastest growing State for retiring seniors per capita in the Nation! Wow. We used to be the largest ice cream eating State per capita too. (I wonder if that is still the same.) The flyer also says that in the next 15 years the State's retired population is expected to triple and that is according to the University of Alaska Anchorage's Institute of Social ad Economic Research. I think that many of our old folks are "snow birds" --flying South for the winter.

This place will have a club house with a heated swimming pool, hot tub, sauna, gym, aerobic fitness center, indoor track, dance studio and a meeting room! Each building will have a coffee bar, meeting room, 24-hour emergency medical response, secured entry and parking, large common lobby, common sitting area, shuttle service to and from the Club House! Wow! That all sold me. I am ready to move there now!

The trip to Fairbanks was fun! Lots of sun and lots of time outdoors. I enjoyed it very much. The kids did really good at the races. I even got on Kris' quad and took a lap around the track! I now have taken a lap around the track and have a great appreciation for how much talent it takes to survive one race! Oh my, those kids are tough! I learned how to let go of the clutch and throttle the gas so that I could get going too! I killed it over and over before I finally got out on to the track. Doug also rode the quads and he did very good going around the track many more laps than I did.

I'm thanking the LORD for health today, for his and for mine and for kids that don't want us anywhere else but here with them!

2 Cents An Acre!

What a deal! An amount I can't even imagine even though it is not much today. One can even possibly win 1/7th of that amount playing a game I love to watch "Deal or No Deal"! Yet, that is the purchase price paid for what has become the United States of America's beautiful, rich in resources - State of Alaska!

Originally Alaska was an Aleut word meaning "mainland."

"This name, now applied to the whole of our new territory, is a corruption, very far removed from the original word . . . called by the natives Al-ak-shak or Al-ay-ek-sa. From Alayeksa the name became Alaksa, Alashka, Aliaska, and finally Alaska. We have, then Alaska for the territory, Aliaska for the peninsula." William Healy Dall, 1870.

My working sister Becca told me that she has the day off of work today because it is Seward's Day. A holiday that I forgot about - being the "lady of leisure" that I am! Government workers and possibly others across the State are observing this day, remembering the successful purchase price of Alaska from Russia by William Henry Seward.

Alaska was considered by the ill-informed to be a wasteland of ice, icebergs and glaciers and so the deal and Alaska was referred to as "Seward's Folly." Instead Alaska has become the glittering snowy jewel of the U.S.A. I've wondered before just who I would be today if this purchase never took place!

I smiled to see that I have something in common with William Seward, he was born on my birthday in 1801! I read that the night that President Lincoln was shot, Seward was also attacked by a Confederate Veteran named Lewis Payne. Payne went into Seward' room and attacked him with a knife. For some reason, Seward was wearing a neck brace and so the knife did not accomplish Payne's goal. I wonder what the story was for the neck brace?

The agreement to purchase Alaska from Russia was signed by Seward on March 30, 1867 and approved by the U.S. Senate on May 27, 1867. President Andrew Johnson signed the final treaty the following day and the transfer was made October 18, 1867 in Sitka. October 18 became "Alaska Day" the same year, 1867, when Alaska became a territory of the U.S and the United States flag was raised in Sitka for the first time.

Seward's Day is celebrated on the last Sunday in March, remembering the signing of the treaty which purchased Alaska from Russia. The Monday following, this holiday is officially observed. Happy Seward's Day!

Day 90 of my Sister Millie's deep sleep. Winter's almost over (((((Ahka))))).