Hail Storm, March 30, 2012

We had a short but powerful hail storm during a thunder and lightning storm that passed through Scappoose last Friday afternoon. The hail stones were about 3/4" in diameter.

.

Christmas Day, December 2010

We had another "story book" Christmas Day. We were joined by family: Chris, Amber, Isaac, and Abigail Korenthal; and friends: Steve, Christina, Alora, and Elijah Springer & Randy, Sarah, and Summer Fuhs. We had stockings for the kids and of course, there were presents for the kids and adults. Dinner was wonderful. What a blessing to be surrounded by my loving wife, family and friends. Probably the best part of the whole day was that we were gathered to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior first and foremost. The rest was just fluff, but fun fluff nonetheless. Of course, Isaac got train stuff and Abigail got a pink battery powered jeep, so now both kids can drive their own jeeps all over the neighborhood. And, I found a use for my old CA license plates, one is now on Isaac's blue jeep and the other is on Abigail's pink jeep.

FIRST SNOW OF THE YEAR, 11/21/10

We had a short snow fall on Sunday night November 21st and Monday morning the 22nd (see photos of the snow). On Tuesday, I went to the neighborhood mail box on SE 8th St, around the corner from SE Sturgeon. On the way back, I decided I didn't want to walk on the slippery snow on the sidewalk at the corner, so decided to walk in the street, because I could see some of the black top. Well, what I didn't know was that there was a thick coat of clear ice on the black top (black ice) and my right foot slipped, causing me to fall on my left shoulder and side. I was holding the mail under my left arm, with the arm tucked tight against my side. I REALLY REALLY REALLY hit the ground hard from my shoulder to my hip. My shoulder was sort of pushed forward a little and I could not move the arm. Fortunately, I didn't go down on my head, wrist, or elbow. I managed to get up, walk home and upstairs to the quilt room where DeeDee was sitting on the futon watching TV. I told her I hurt myself. Since I usually seem to manage to cut something or injure myself whenever I work outside, she assumed I was, once again, just coming to tell her about a minor injury I wanted major sympathy for. When I showed her that I could not move my arm, she saw how my shoulder was pushed forward, and that there was very visible swelling along the top of the left chest by my neck, she realized I was actually hurt.

We called Kaiser and they told us to come in right away to Urgent Care. They did a CT scan to see if there was any major bleeding in the neck/chest area due to the heavy swelling and blood work to see if there was any kidney damage since I landed on my side and part of the lower back. Fortunately there was no damage to arteries or veins and no kidney damage; all I had done was just fractured my left collar bone. The bone was not snapped into two pieces, but was just cracked. Since I am allergic to opioid drugs I could not take the morphine sulphate they wanted to prescribe for me, so my pain medicine had to consist of 800 mg Motrin tablets. I was given a thing to wear that wrapped around my chest and held my left arm immobile across my chest. Over all, for what happened and what could have happened, I came through the incident pretty well. And what a kaleidoscope of colors, red, blue, black, green, yellow, and chartreuse. Even though the ribs were not x-rayed, we suspect I cracked a couple ribs also, due to the way I landed with my arm against my left side.

Needless to say, I didn't have to do anything over Thanksgiving two days later. I was supposed to bake some pies for dessert, but was given dispensation by Amber who was cooking the majority of the meal.

I spent the next four weeks sleeping in a sitting position at night, because I could not lie flat at all. After a week I gave up wearing the brace thingee, as it was rubbing my chest, arm, and back raw, even through a T-shirt. Then, on my next visit to the fracture clinic, which was the day after I stopped wearing the brace, they gave me a cloth sling that hung from my neck with a loop at the end for my left wrist so I could support the arm as needed. They told me to let the arm move normally as much as possible to prevent my shoulder from freezing up and just use the sling if I started experiencing a lot of pain or needed support so I would not tense up the shoulder to "guard" the shoulder joint. So, I slowly and painfully healed.

In January I had a follow up visit at the fracture clinic. The PA told me the bone was healing nicely and it would be about a total of 3 to 4 from the date I broke it until it was completely healed. And, he was right. I was supposed to go back for a final appointment at the fracture clinic in late March (but only if I felt I needed to be seen again). The night before that March appointment it snowed pretty hard and in the morning we decided there was no way we were going to take a chance driving 35 miles to Kaiser in Clackamas, so we cancelled the appointment (no photos of that snow fall). I had just about full use of the arm and shoulder again, well as much as I had before I fell, so there was really no need to go. All in all, it did take between 3 and 4 months for the bone to heal. I will always have a two things from this: (1) a permanent calcified lump where the collar bone was cracked and (2) a memory of my first "official" broken bone. I do not count toes, fingers, and chipped knuckles broken playing baseball, football, or kicking a night stand, etc, as true broken bones. This was a real broken bone.

Tom is in MAJOR TROUBLE . . . . . .

OK, IT IS MAY 14, 2011 AND I AM IN MAJOR TROUBLE WITH OUR DAUGHTER AMBER BECAUSE I HAVE NOT DONE ANY BLOGGING SINCE LABOR DAY, 2010.

So I will now start catching up over the next week or so.

Labor Day 2010: Sept 6, 2010

We had a wonderful Labor Day. The weather predictions were for mostly cloudy with the possibility of showers - but it was almost cloudless all day, temperature in the low 70's, no sign of rain, and NO MOSQUITOS. Mitch and Jennifer Neilson brought up the idea of a block party and everyone on SE Sturgeon was for it, so we had a big neighborhood get together at our end of the street. Mitch rented a bounce house which went up around 2 PM at the dead end of the street in front of our house, and tables, food and two BBQ grills magically appeared shortly after.


The Korenthals - Amber, Chris, Isaac and Abigail - came over from Beaverton to join in the fun. Their friends John and Beth Opferman, with Johnny - 4 and Kayla - 2, were supposed to come with them. But, Beth's water broke in the very early AM so John and Beth decided to go to the hospital to have a baby instead of coming to Scappoose, but Johnny and Kayla came with the Korens. After the Korens arrived with the four kids, the kids had a "picnic" lunch on the kitchen floor, then went out front where all four kids took turns driving the jeep, riding bikes, trikes and scooters. Brandon Nielson, Isaac, and Johnny played trains on our garage floor with some of my old O-guage track and a couple of train cars (perfect cars for the kids: White Owl Cigars and Mogen David Wine).

By 3 PM the crowd had grown and our lawn and what little of the street was open between the curb and our side of the bounce house was full of chairs and people.

Attending were: from our side of Sturgeon St - DeeDee, Amber, Chris, Isaac, Abigail, Johnny, Kayla and me; Lindsey, Kevin, AJ and Shelby Mitcham; Michelle, Patrick, Kaitlin, Madison and Cassidy Smith; Denise, Jason, and Cameron Pisha; and Keri, Mike, Madalynn, Morgan, and Courtney Hall.

From the other side of Sturgeon St - Becky and Jason Lower; Nate, Eileen and Kaitlyn Kolb; Jennifer, Mitch, Brandon, and Matthew Nielson; and Donna, Greg, and Emily Hutson.

Representing the 8th St neighbors were Jennifer, Nick, Kaitlyn and Jonathan Wood.

And representing the Snowgoose St neighbors were Cheryl, Mike and Lauren Miller.

The food was unending and SOOOOO delicious. I think everyone over ate, I know I did - the most amazing part of the day was that with all the food consumed, that there were no "accidents" in the bounce house, other than occasional head bonking, etc, but nothing that had to be wiped up or cleaned up. A food delivery truck was in the neighborhood dropping off stuff at a couple of the houses. When he saw the group at our end of the street he drove down and handed out ice cream bars to anyone who wanted one (note: I said anyone who wanted one, not needed one - no one needed one), and in return we gave him a big plate of food to eat, so everyone was full and happy. It was a really fun day, with all the kids playing well together and only a few, "he pushed me", "it was my turn", etc, and just a few tears - but no blood, fights, or arguments. With the total number of parents around, everyone got a chance to visit and have fun without having to monitor their kids all the time. For the most part, the bounce house was constantly in use by the kids, although a couple of the BIG BOYS (Kevin and Mitch) figured out how to climb in and really bounced the kids around. A few moms got in also for a few minutes and even DeeDee got in with Abigail for a little while.

The party broke up as it got dark. After coming inside the four little ones had baths and got in to PJs and ready for the ride home to Beaverton. They spent a few minutes settling down by watching the Sprout Channel on the TV.

We are truly blessed with wonderful, caring, and giving neighbors. Dee Dee and I are so happy to be living in our dream house, surrounded by such great neighbors and friends, with family close enough to be here often.