News and Views

We’re in camp for the second night, but I have to say that so far this is not the wilderness experience I was expecting.

Yesterday we did eat lunch on the trail, but in the evening we came to a small community that welcomed backpackers, so we ate dinner at a deli, and camped in someone’s back yard. Breakfast the next morning at the deli, then hiked a few miles when we caught up with Kleenex who was talking with a woman in a house next to the trail. We ended up stacking firewood for an hour in exchange for lunch and a shower. A good deal either way.

An hour later we came to Hanover, NH, and walked around town. Tonight we’re finally camped in the woods, cooking our own food.

This morning I noticed that my boots were splitting apart at a seam, so I had to buy new ones in Hanover. Overpriced, of course. It’s a bad idea to start hiking a long distance in new shoes, but I have no choice.

Tired, sore feet but so far I don’t feel like I’m slowing Dale down too much. He’s being very patient, of course.

No, not Beirut, Lebanon New Hampshire. I spent the night in a hotel, and in about a half hour the shuttle will come pick me up and take me to 20 miles or so to where Dale is, just over the border in Vermont.
Here’s the little ten-passenger plane I came in from Boston.

Early tomorrow morning I catch a flight to Lebonon, New Hampshire (via Boston), where I will get a ride to meet Dale on the trail. I plan to hike with him for just a week. I’m sure I will be struggling to keep up!

The weather forecast shows clearing on Friday and little chance of rain through next week. I hope they are right.

NASA and JPL successfully landed the Curiosity vehicle on Mars this evening. What an amazing landing! It started with a heat shield slowing it down in the atmosphere, then progressed to a parachute, and finished with a soft rocket landing with the rover suspended from a cable. See the video for a neat animation of the full process. When I first saw the animation I thought, “No way will they pull this off!” It looked too complex with too many things that could go wrong.

The landing was not visible, but on NASA TV I watched the control room at JPL in Pasadena as they monitored the descent. The room exploded into cheers, hugs and tears as it was confirmed that it was safely down. A couple of low resolution pictures came through before the relay satellite moved out of range.

It’s not quite as impressive as the moon landings, but it is an amazing technological feat, as are the capabilities of the vehicle itself, a complex chemistry and geology lab on wheels. It’s about the size of a Chevy Volt.

I’m looking forward to seeing some high resolution images, probably as early as tomorrow morning.

More info here.

I’ve had my Volt for 4 months now and have driven 4000 miles. So I’m doing just 1000 miles/month.

I have burned 22 gallons of gas, most of it on the trip up north to see the eclipse in mid-May. I have not added gas since then and still have about a half tank left.

I love the car — so much fun to drive, and so cheap to drive. Expensive to buy compared to a Civic or Chevy Cruz, but since it drives more like a BMW I think the price is in the right range.

Mom asked about Apollo, so here’s a brief update.

He continues to improve from his pancreatitis, and almost seems like his old self. He is eager to take walks, but tires easily. His appetite is back with a vengeance, though he has to eat an extremely low-fat diet for the rest of his life. We have him on some prescription-only dog food. It costs more than Costco dog food, but is much cheaper than a hospital stay.

We have tapered down the pain pills so he is just taking one occasionally, when he seems to be in pain. Not often anymore. And the other pills (appetite stimulant, antibiotic, anti-nausea, stomach-soother) have all run their course. It’s just anti-acid and phenobarbital (to prevent seizures) now.

Notice the shaved ankles (wrists?) where they inserted IVs. They had to use all four during the week he was sick.

On Friday he has to go back for blood analysis and an ultrasound to make sure his pancreas is continuing to improve.

When the evening news comes on and the first half of the program discusses the shooting in Colorado, I find myself fast forwarding through it. I don’t want to know any more about it. A crazy person shot and killed 15 people, wounded 50 more. OK. That’s all I want to know. Let’s talk about something else.

I think that partly I don’t want to give any recognition to the person, which may have been his motive. I don’t want to know his name, or where he lived, or why he did it. Let him remain anonymous.

I don’t want to talk about it, and yet here I am talking about it (or talking about not talking about it…). But it keeps getting thrust in my face, every time I look at the news or Face the Press, or even Jay Leno, and I keep turning away.

Enough said. Let’s move on. I know all I want or need to know.

Apollo came home from the hospital this morning, after a 6-day stay. He is much better; lively, curious and hungry.

He has to go on a ultra-low fat diet for the rest of his life to help prevent a recurrence, and for the next few days he will be on 5-6 medications (pain, appetite stimulant, antiemetic, antibiotic and a couple others.

He looks a little funny — his abdomen was shaved for the ultrasound, and each of his 4 “wrists” is shaved where they had IVs inserted.

It’s good to have him home.

Apollo is recovering from his pancreatitis, though slowly.

Today he ate the first food he has had in 6 days, some boiled chicken. He actually trotted a little when we took him for a walk and seems much more like his old self. However, he is still on intravenous pain medication and other drugs.

He will spend another night in the hospital (which will make 4 so far), then if he is able to keep food down and continues to improve, we may get to bring him home tomorrow evening.

Once he is home he will have to go on a special low-fat diet to prevent a recurrence of the pancreatitis. Once they have had it, they are much more likely to get it again. One time is enough both for his system and my wallet.

Apollo is very sick.

This past week he has seemed to be slowing down, less energetic, but on Saturday morning I woke up to find that he had thrown up on the kitchen floor, and was extremely lethargic. We took him to the vet, who thought it might have been due to an antibiotic he was taking for a foot infection, so we switched antibiotics and took him back home.

Today he seemed even worse. He couldn’t keep even a swallow of water down for more than a few minutes, and could barely stand. So this evening we took him in to a 24-hour emergency pet hospital. His temperature was 105 (normal is about 102). They did x-rays and blood analysis. The x-rays showed that his stomach was distended and filled with fluid, but his intestines looked normal. The x-rays didn’t show anything else clearly, but the symptoms are consistent with some kind of blockage, preventing food from exiting the stomach. Maybe he swallowed something that is blocking the passage from the stomach to the small intestine.

They kept him overnight and in the morning they will do an ultrasound, which will often show blockages better than x-rays. If they find something, it may mean (hopefully) an endoscopic procedure to remove the blocking item, or worst case surgery.

If they don’t find anything, then it’s a puzzle why he is so sick.