Thursday (May the Fourth be with you) evening we headed into Lynnwood,
WA, for the annual Habitat Volunteer Dinner.
We are not sure why, but for some reason Dan made the invite list this
year? The event not only recognizes
“construction” volunteers like Dan, but those that work behind the scenes in
the office & Habitat stores.
Sunday, 07MAY, morning it was into Redmond Town Center for a
walkabout before heading to Marymoor Park for Cirque du Soleil’s LUZIA. As you see from the below internet link, the
last Cirque du Soleil production we saw was KURIOS (also at Marymoor). Kurios was great but Luzia was a step beyond
that. Why? Because in addition to the “standard” Cirque
cutting edge acts, they had water cascading from the ceiling onto the stage for
large portions of the show. You would
think this would cause a slippery/dangerous footing for the performers? But the water was completely & finely
controlled by computer; even to the point that the droplets formed clearly
defined images of plants, animals, etc, as they fell!
Early Monday morning, 08MAY, Dan headed to the University of
Washington Eastside Clinic seeking treatment for Dupuytren’s Contracture. Dupuyatren’s is a hereditary disease as
described below in a quote from Wikipedia.
Dan Sr had the disease in both hands & one foot for as long as Dan
can remember (and the disease eventually ended Dan Sr’s military career). Dan first noticed the symptoms over five
years ago & sought the opinion of an Orthopedic Surgeon. The surgeon jokingly said an operation was
needed (in twenty years – HaHa). The
symptoms did not worsen until early last year; then the disease progressed
rapidly to the point where Dan’s right ring finger & right pinkie were
permanently curled in & their use was extremely limited.
“Dupuytren's contracture is a flexion contracture of
the hand due to a palmar fibromatosis, in which the fingers bend towards the
palm and cannot be fully extended (straightened). It is an inherited
proliferative connective tissue disorder that involves the hand's palmar
fascia. It is named after Baron Guillaume Dupuytren, the surgeon who described
an operation to correct the affliction.
Dupuytren's contracture is treated with procedures to
help straighten the fingers, but this does not cure the underlying disease.
Contractures often return or involve other fingers.
According to one study, the ring finger is the finger
most commonly affected, followed by the middle and little fingers; the thumb
and index finger are only rarely affected. Dupuytren's contracture progresses
slowly and is often accompanied by some aching and itching. In patients with
this condition, the palmar fascia (palmar aponeurosis) thickens and shortens so
that the tendons connected to the fingers cannot move freely. The palmar fascia
becomes hyperplastic and contracts.
Rates increases after age 40; at this age, men are
affected more often than women. Beyond 80 the gender distribution is about
even. In the United Kingdom, about 20% of people over 65 have some form of the
disease.”
The doctor at the UW clinic decided that the best course of
action for Dan was treatment w/the drug Xiaflex. The treatment would consist of injection of
the drug into various areas of the palmar fascia. A week after the injections Dan would travel
to the UW’s Seattle clinic & the fibromatosis would be “broken”; followed
by return visits to the Seattle clinic for therapy. Dan agreed to the treatment, now we just wait
for the scheduling of the injections.
Early Monday morning, 15MAY, Corrie ran Dan into SeaTac Airport
for the daily Alaskan Air direct flight to New Orleans. As we said previously in this BLOG daughter
Rebecca & kids (Jaxson & Mason) will live with us while husband Raymond
works overseas. As detailed in our previous BLOG Corrie returned to Houma last
month to help while the grandkids were on spring break from
daycare/pre-school. Now Dan will
house/dog sit in Houma when Rebecca takes the kids to our place in Sultan, WA,
for Oma to babysit. Then Rebecca returns
to Houma for the loading of the Penske rental truck with their household
goods. Once the truck is loaded Dan will
start driving the truck to Washington, with Rebecca (& her dog Gracie)
following in their car. Rebecca & kids departed on the 17th & Rebecca returned
on 19th. The rest of the time in Houma
was packing & more packing, endless cleaning, spackling, touch-up paint,
vacuuming, minor repairs, etc; while dealing w/torrential down pours.
Monday, 22MAY, early Dan picked up the rental moving truck (same
model we rented 2012). Good thing he got
it early – movers show-up early. It was not the best packing job – Dan had to
give “recommendations” on repacking, otherwise many items would have been left
behind. Couple hours later Dan &
Rebecca finally hit the road (big difference in driving speed); & make it
to Texarkana, TX.
Tuesday early morning Dan gets on road before Rebecca (but
because she can drive faster she passes Dan twice in the morning). Around 2PM Dan’s Penske truck dies outside
Quanah, TX. After four hours on the side
of a TX highway & NO JOY (Rebecca already in Albuquerque); Dan gets a tow
to motel in Quanah – hopefully truck problem solved tomorrow?
Wednesday 7AM another tow
truck shows up w/replacement truck.
Around 8AM two packers show up - two packers take five hours to unload
broken truck & reload new truck MUCH, MUCH, better than five packers &
four hours back in Houma, LA, did. Dan then
drives to Albuquerque, NM, before calling it a day (by now Rebecca is in
northern Utah). Thursday, 25MAY, is a long,
hard drive from Albuquerque to Twin Falls, ID.
Friday Dan finishes drive to our house in Sultan; only to run into holiday
traffic outside Monroe, WA.
Saturday we all spend all day unloading the Penske truck. Thankfully Raymond is here visiting. Dan had planned on taking several days to
unload truck to store everything as “tightly” as possible & track where
everything was stored. But since
Rebecca, Raymond & kids will head to Canada tomorrow, we just unpack as
fast as possible! The last item was the
gun safe.
Everyone had a different idea on how to safely unload this six
hundred pound monster! Finally we place
a mattress on the floor of the truck behind the safe. Then we tipped the safe backwards, until it
fell over onto the mattress. Lastly we
attached a cargo strap around the safe to hopefully control it as we slid it
down the cargo ramp into the garage.
(note – cargo ramp supposedly rated at 900 pounds) The day was ended w/family campfire arranged by grandkids Jaxson & Mason.
Sunday, 28MAY, kids & grandkids head to Victoria, BC, via
Port Angeles, WA (although they had little or no ideas about ferry systems in
Washington or BC, everything turns out ok).
We had planned on a day of rest for us; but the AC craps-out on the hottest
Memorial Day weekend in decades. Monday
(Memorial Day) more heat w/o AC. Tuesday
25 degrees cooler than yesterday w/heavy rain showers (only in Seattle?). We also have our small propane tank refilled
for first time since house built (still half full). Wednesday, 31MAY, nice day; AC technician
shows up – bad capacitor, doesn’t have part – maybe Friday?
