Lots of travel this past week.
Started out Thursday morning (behind schedule) from Spokane, Washington, and made it to Idaho Falls by night. Wife and kids all along for the ride, heading out for various family gatherings in Utah and Idaho. So, it's now Wednesday of the following week, it's gone reasonably well. although the first 30 minutes of the trip started out rough.. (click the read more link for details)

We had given all the kids Dramamine (motion sickness meds) to keep them from getting sick about 15 minutes before heading out. Apparently that wsn't enough time. Not 15 minutes after leaving the house, and only 5 minutes from getting onto the freeway. our youngest "hurled" in the car!
Ewwwww.
So we pulled over. and started cleaning him and his pillow and the seats up (and some that he'd spewed onto his older brother). We pulled back onto the main road (Division), and just then I thought to look back, and realized I'd left Drake's pillow on the roof of the car, and watched it fly into the middle lane of the road. Argh!.
So Karina pulled off, and drove back up some side streets, pulled in a parking lot, while I dodged traffic going after the pillow, which miraculously only had a sligth tire mark on one corner.
Luckily, that was about the extent of our (mis) adventures that day.
Took some nice pics of the family (with me included - shocker!) by the falls in Idaho Falls, Idaho.
Friday evening, we arrived at the Homestead in the Heber/Midway area of Utah for the Meagher family reunion (my mother's mother's side).
Enjoyed being there Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
Meeting relatives i hadn't seen in many years.
Kids had a blast with the hot springs heated swimming pool the giant gold fish, geese, ducks, swans etc, and playground.
We then spent two nights in Salt Lake City, Utah.... more later, have to go....

We came across Deer Park, didn't find anything interesting there, so we headed east.
We found a small country road just east of Highway 2, I belive it was called canyon road or gorge road, something along those lines.
We followed it north in the Bronco until we came down to a bridge crossing what I think was the Little Spokane river.
We followed a rocky road until it dead ended, hopped out and went exploring.
William, Brennan, and Drake had a great time.
We saw horses, the remains of what looked to have once beena damn, with just a tower of it remaining, and much more.
Heading back after the hike (in the Bronco), we saw an outcropping of rock, and decided to try some rock climbing in the twilight hours.
The film from that day hasn't been developed yet, but I've some of the digital camera (very poor quality) pics handy, so here are some links to those:

• Brennan (6 years old) up a ways smiling, with Drake looking up from below (oh, yeah, we were ALL wearing head bandanas on this day btw ;-) )
  


• 8 years old William up higher, clinging nervously, telling me to "hurry and take the picture daddy", heh heh, with Brennan and Drake below
  


• Drake doing a great job (for a 4 year old) finally overcoming his fears and giving the climb a shot, way to go Drakey!
  


• I was egged on to climb to the top, so I did, with William taking the pics. Alas, they didn't really turn out, but I posted them anyway, what the heck. He accidentally didn't take the victory shot with me on the top arms raised skyward in melodramatic fashion. ;-) &nbps &nbpsAnd here's the other pic
  

Well, since I ws a professional photographer for anumber of years, and haven't been in touch with the photographers and apprentices I worked with over the years, I didn't ever feel ok paying some studio to take the usual "Family Photos", and they always seem to generic and all. But Karina finally talked me into it, so at long last, we have some halfway decent (for Sears anyway) family photos.

Check them out below, and click on the pics for the larger size view if you wish, they're rather large, about (warning, be sure to do don peril sensitive sunglasses before viewing the pics with me in them ;-P ).

Photo of whole family together (large version about 440KB)

Photo of the Boys

Photo of Karina and Hawke

While waiting for the new studded snow tires to get installed on the Crown Victoria tonight, I decided to treat the family to an outing at the Tomato Street restaurant.
The boys were well behaved, especially considering they'd been dragged around in the Bronco since being picked up from school (a total of 3 hours by the time we finally were done for the night).
During the meal, Brennan decided he wanted to try to reduce "The bubbles" from his soda pop by mixing water with soda pop. But he didn't pour the water from one cup into the other, oh no... He decided to drink from both cups at the same time, and declared a success when he said "it works! no bubbles!".

click the pic to see the larger version.

Brennan has of late been working to perfect his "fish lips" face, especially since her heard that my mother could do such a thing, he wanted his grandmother to see he could do it too!
Of course, the other boys had to join in on the fun, so here's pics of each of them giving it their best effort (click on the images to see full size version).



Brennan's fish lips





Brennan's fish lips too





William's crooked fish lips





William's crooked fish lips too





Drake's fish face, complete with "gills".

Gotta love those boys!

I let things get a big shaggy this fall:


So, it was time for a shave and a haircut (alas costs a lot more than two bits these days).


Wife was glad to have me cleaned up, but the kids HATE that I shaved.And every day have harassed me about the facial hair being gone. Lol! I just can't win! :) Anyway, it's bloody cold here, and so I'm missing the extra warmth from the beard and long hair. Ah well.

Yes, I should be doing (tons) of homework right now, but I wanted to try to hurry and catch up a little on the photo/stories postings as quick as possible (so they're going to be very pithy and less bloviated). ;-) So, let's start with Priest Lake photos. I've a lot more (higher quality/artistic) photos on film/slide that I haven't processed yet, but I'm uploading a few of the digital ones of the family right now.
(Click the small photos to see the full size photo)
First, the Bronco loaded up (with 5 mountain bikes on the back!):

Rear view


Side view


Wife and kids fishing on the dock


All three boys, mirror smooth lake in background. Early morning, the day we left.


William's first (caught) fish, in the net. He did a great job staying calm, and reeling it steadily in, even though this cut throat fought furiously! He was sooooo happy!


Here's his fish in his hands (ewww, slimy!). It measured 18" long, and 1.75 pounds! And it was tasty!


Drake (with Ducky) on the dock on mirror smooth lake.

There's lots to tell about the priest lake trip, but not enough time right now, maybe some day I'll come back and add more information. Onward to the next posting...

Brennan has joined a local YWCA (yes, W) basketball team led by an ex-Gonzaga basketball player who's taller than I am.
The coach, Paul, has a nice friendly style with the kids, which is great, rather than the competitive machoness others might do, which I feel would be inappropriate for such young kids. They should just have fun, and they are!
Brennan does the FUNNIEST 'Dance" when he's on defense, wiggling his bottom, and moving his feet constantly, the audience always cracks up, but he's having a blast and doing a great job on defense, though he needs more practice on offense (shooting), and I'm working on getting a hoop setup (thanks Tom for making that possible for the neighborhood) so that he can practice to his heart's content.
I took some "video" shots with a low end digital photo camera that has some short video clip capabilities. There are three clips. Each about 2-3 MegaBytes in size, so they'll take a little while to download to view. It's grainy, in low-res, and in .MOV format. Anyhow, here they are, if you can view them, you'll "The Boo" in action!
The Boo Defense Dance
The Boo on Defense 2
The Boo on Defense 3

My mother had a heart related incident Friday, and her heart was not beating for around 8-10 minutes.

My step-father and an employee at the hotel they were at, administered cpr / mouth-to-mouth, while they waited for the paramedics.
The medics arrived around 8-10 minutes after she collapsed out of the blue while getting ready for the evening.

She fell and struck her heard on the edge of the tub, but the doctors do not believe that caused anything serious.

However, her brain was deprived of oxygen for 8-10 minutes.

Click the READ MORE link for the rest of this article...

The medics had to "shock" (defibrilate) my mother 4 times to get her heart started again.

Later at the hospital her brain and heart were swelling severely, so they put her in a "cold" blanket, and induced a coma to allow her brain to heal.

They then waited for the 72 hours for the swelling in her brain to peak.

When I arrived Sunday with my uncle, her vitals were shaky, though somewhat more stable than the day before where it had been very touch and go.

According to my step-father, and the doctors following up, everyone did "Everything right", from the cpr, to the medics, to the hospital. So her prospects are promising.

Sunday she had the following average vitals:
Heart Rate (pulse): 140-150 bpm
Blood pressure varied wildly
Respiration varied from 9 to 15
She was running a slight fever
Blood sugar was very high (over 200's on Saturday, but coming down over time), was around 150-190 Sunday.
She was on mostly complete life support (respirator, etc.). She had briefly opened her eyes occasionally, and followed the doctor entering, but other than that she as unresponsive.

She was writhing when they lowered her coma inducing meds, highly agitated, so they increased the dosage to decrease her discomfort and agitation.

Monday she was doing MUCH better.
He vitals were more stable.
Her heart rate was more around 110-120+.
blood pressure still varying a little depending on how sedated she was.
She was still running a slight fever.
She opened her eyes in response to the doctor telling her to, but that was about the limit of her responsiveness.

Tuesday morning though, things took a turn the better.
She awoke around 10:30 am. Initially just my step-father was there. He was absolutely elated to see her finally awake and responsive.
She was able to follow the directives of the doctor, when told to lift her leg or arm, she complied.

She also responded to questions with a head nod or shake for affirmative/negative.
She's unable to speak because of the tubes for her breathing.

My uncle and I had just finished a late brunch, when my step-father called me to inform me of her awakening.
We quickly hurried across town to see her.
She was still awake, but starting to fade because they had increased again her medications to help with her discomfort and get he back to a more restful state.
But she was awake enough to look at each of us in turn, alternating smiles and tears.
We all teared up in joy, relief, and sympathy to the discomfort she is still in, but grateful to see her so aware. We held her hands, and she squeezed back with her right hand slightly. (Her left hand was covered with a splinting holding various tubes/wires into her wrists.
She looked at us in turn as we spoke encouraging words and open displays of affection.
She was starting to get groggy though, so after too short a time, we urged her to relax and get some sleep (the best medicine).
Her vitals were a strong and solid:
Pulse: 80s-90s.
Respiration: 14
Blood pressure: 120ish/80ish.
Oxygen: 98%

She was still running a very slight fever.
Later in the day the physical therapists began working with her to work her joints in her knees and elbows, etc.

We came by again in the evening, but they had fully sedated her.
But she was doing very well.
Her fever had finally broken.
Her blood sugar was down a better 140-150 range.
Her pulse was steady around 79.
Her blood pressure at 110/70.
Her respiration around 12.

She looked far less distressed and comfortable. The crease between her brows from the discomfort of all the tubes, was gone.
When I saw her last she was resting on her side in apparent comfort and peace.

The doctor has given the recommendation on the morrow to test her without the respirator assistance and see how she does breathing completley on her own. She's been on assist mode (rather than command/control mode) all day, which is also a good sign.

We don't know yet what kind, if any, neurological damage there might be.
There's almost guaranteed to be at least some temporary short term memory loss.
The top of her brain would have been most affected the longest by oxygen/blood depravation, so this could also mean an unknown impact (again, if any) on speech, memory, and/or personality. It may be that only subtle issues will become apparent, and over time with rehabilitation could possibly recover significantly if not quite completely.

The other concern is her enlarged heart. They will try to treat that with medications, and then over time see if it gets back down to a healthier size, but there is no immediate threat from that.

They are then going to have to take a lot of tests to see if they can figure out what happened with her.

When they checked her blood and such after the attack, there were not any strong indicators (markers) usually found indicative of heart damage from a typical heart attack.

So, the summary so far is:
She is stable.
She is recovering so far better than average.
So far prognosis/outlook is looking very promising.
She's aware and responsive, and comprehending.
She won't be able to speak probably for a few more days.
They will be trying to take her off the breathing machine tomorrow.
The worst of the danger period is over. Now the analysis and recovery/rehabilitation period begins.

I will post regularly as I find out more daily, even several times a day for those family who can not be here.

My cell phone has to be turned off while in the hospital, but I will get online in the computer room regularly so email, instant messaging, and this website are the best means of up to date information.

All that information is on the left hand column of my website www.hawkes-haven.com.

My mother survived thank goodness.
She came out of the induced coma and is making a remarkable recovery considering how severe the incident was.

I will still be pretty much incognito for another week or so, while coordinating with her brother and helping her and her husband out during this time.

I will be sporadically checking email though.

Only 7 days after it happened she was eating solid foods, and they began helping her get up and walk.
She's now walking down the hall and back.
There are as expected some memory and other cognitive issues. Many of which are normal under the circumstances and will possibly clear up over time. Some others we will have to wait and see.

I have been trying to take the kids to the "great outdoors" as much as possible this year.
Most of the summer they were "tied up" with this or that (summer camps, summer schools, etc.).
In the past 3 weeks (between visting my mother in the hospital), I managed to take them on two outings so far.
In both I have felt to be rather a bumbling idiot trying to fumble my way through, trying to give the kids "great experiences" and those precious "bonding moments" between father and son(s).
This has been with very mixed results.
Overall I'd say the key factors are achieved, but with great awkwardness on my part...

The irony is I used to go outdoors on my own all the time, solo survivalism all times of the year, in intense deserts in the Summer, to frigid winters in the High Uintahs, etc. No one usually would go with me, I was on my own to figure things out, and at least I survived, and most of the time had a great time in the peace and tranquility of nature untouched by man.
I stopped having most of my outdoors experiences with my dad after the divorce when I was about 7 years old.
I still had occasional visits with him until I was 12 or so, but most of those visits were tied up with intensive martial arts training he had arranged for me.
So unfortunately, though I had some vague memories and primitive skills (of about 7 year old level) with fishing and the like, I didn't really get the "training" I should have had to round it out.
And it's really showing now, much to my frustration.
Also, to quote the beginning of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings "The World is Changing....".
Things just aren't the same as when I was a kid, or not how I remember it.
It used to be so much easier to just pull down a dirt road, find a lake you liked, and make camp on the shore.
Well, here in Eastern Washington, people and companies have bought up all the roads, lakes, and lands. It's totally a different environment.
I'm not THAT old. I'm only talking about as recent as the 80's and even very early 90's when I used to do that all the time.
Even as a teenager on my own, I had no trouble just taking off in Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado and just camping just about anywhere I damn well pleased, with a camp fire, etc. I would usually not see a soul, and enjoy it very much, thank you.
Now there's people everywhere, everything is covered with fences and signs stating "No tresspassing"!
And so far I have not found that there is a single spot anywhere to freely camp, everything is reserved or pay for only facilities for camping. Argh!
Either by private companies, or local, state, or federal government agencies.
I guess Alaska and the Antarctic are all that's left on this planet (and maybe the depths of the ocean)?
So here's how things unfolded...

Several weeks back between visits to my mother in the hospital, I came back for a few days to catch up on bills and obligations at home. I had promised a couple of straight weeks with the kids before the issues with my mother suddenly occurred, so I tried to keep at least part of my word and squeeze in what I could.
I grabbed my Washington State gazetteer, and began searching for lakes with fishing not too far north of Spokane, but enough so that they appeared to be dirt roads, or better yet jeep/4x4 trails. I've held onto the Bronco specifically for this purpose.
I found what looked on the map to be a great area around Horseshoe Lake. There were also several smaller lakes around it such as Blue lake, Lost lake, and others. according to the map Horseshoe had several 4x4 trails, one dirt road, and then the other lakes had some dirt or 4x4 roads access as well.
I decided I'd take the scenic route and come in from the north east, rather than the more direct south west route.
BIG MISTAKE!
The roads were still there, but they had recently been bought up, and now have gates with combination locks on them. The surrounding neighbors had signs saying "No, we do NOT have the combinations, so do NOT ask!". The jeep trails I followed either peterred out or also ended in "No Trespassing - Logging/Mining" or gates/fences as well. The boys had fun off-roading though, so they didn't really feel it was a loss at all.
So after hours of trying different roads, some on the map, some not, we gave up and went back down south and in from the west.
There we found more dead end roads, but one main dirt road led to a narrow boat launch on horseshoe lake, with fences on either side all private property for summer cabins.
So it turned out you could only make use of 99.9% of Horseshoe lake if you had a boat, everything had been bought up for access to be impossible even on foot!
I also couldn't find ANY campgrounds during all our travels. It was getting late, so I told the boys we needed to find somewhere to camp, then we'd come back and fish from the boat launch (no dock) the following morning.
So I drove (back) to Eloika Lake (where I had come in from the North East), since it indicated there was (paid) camping there. The last place was bought (for a ridiculous $26 bucks just for a piece of dirt) just before I walked in. The owner there said there wasn't any free camping anywhere that he knew of. He said everything in the past 3-5 years of North Eastern Washington had been bought up. He suggested seeing if Pend Oreille park was open.
I went down there, and found it was open still. It was now 8:30 pm, the park gates locked up according to the ranger at 9:00 pm. I spoke with the "ranger" who was obviously intoxicated on some substance, as well he seemed very sad and lonely. Desperate for conversation.
He stated that the park used to be very busy years ago, but that it had been mostly partiers and trouble makers who had trashed the place. He'd cleared them out and kept the place nice, but in the past 2-3 years the place just died. He attributed much of that to high gasoline prices, as well as all the land in the area having been bought up so that only expensive paid recreation was available anymore, and very little free recreation was left. This meant that only the more affluent were really coming to these more remote areas any more, and if they liked the areas, they just bought up the land, rather than camp at a "lowly" campground.
So, we were the ONLY campers in the entire 400 (?) acres.
The place was well taken care off, had bathrooms with hot water and even showers!
He even allowed us to have a mellow camp fire, which was the main part of camping the boys wanted.
We stayed up until 11:00 pm telling stories, laughing, roasting weiners in the fire, eat baked beans, and having such a wonderful time, none of us wanted to go to bed. But we wanted to get up early enough to catch the fish the following morning.
So the tents were setup late, and we went to bed. But unfortunately I could NOT fall asleep. I developed a terrible nitrate headache from eating too much beef jerky and other products. I also just couldn't get confortable. The boys faded off one by one....
I have a lot more to write about this, but need to call it a night. I'll try to come back later and continue this lengthy article. Night for now.

Brennan and Drake were "Very useful engines" yesterday helping with the yard.

My back still hasn't fully recovered from the injuries of a few weeks ago, but the yard is in dire need of work.

So the boys helped with raking the yard and picking out stones in preparation for laying grass seed. Drake and the neighborhood girl across the street that's their friend helped Drake with pulling weed in the yard.

Brennan did most of the raking, and did a great job with lots of vigor! ;-)

Then after helping me with the seeding, weed & feed, and lawn fungus treatments, they were (with great attitudes I might add) happy to start shoveling the several feet deep pile of pine needles under the 40 year old Blue Spruce Pine in our front yard. When we bought the house last year, the branches were all the way to the ground. I trimmed them up (to a bit above my height) to open up the yard and let more light in and such. Well, then I saw all that 40 years of accumulated pine needles. and of course almost no plant can live in that acidic mixture.

However, one of the landscapers suggested Rhododendrons would thrive under the tree. So, the boys completely filled the garden waste can AND an entire wheelbarrow, and they made a fair dent. And they're excited to keep at it even! Only after they were doing it for a while did I mention anything about paying them.

Here's some pics of them working away (click the images to see the larger version of the pics).

Brennan & Drake Shovelling Needles (Posing)

Brennan and Drake shovelling needles working vigorously

Brennan and drake shovelling pine needles, emptying iinto can.

Indicator of a kid watching too many cartoons and too much television?
Drake said, "I wanted to fill up the basement so I can swim in it".
This in response to why he plugged the sink and let the water run in the downstairs bathroom, flooding the area and the new carpet of about one third of the downstairs living room.
He wouldn't admit it until after the contractor who did all the work, Jim with Craftsman Construction, kindly came by in response to my plea asking what we should do to try to minimize the damage.
We were trying to figure out if the foundation was leaking right after an intense rainfall, or if the plumming was backing up through the shower or who knew what. Finally Drake, after prodding from Karina (and responses of "I don't know" to me (reminding me of Bill Cosby's routine on "Brain Damaged children" :P )), admitted to being the culprit. That at least was a relief that it wasn't a structural issue.
We've scolded him thoroughly and grounded him from tv for a few days.
I've been in many "discussions" about stricter limits on TV, we've implented rationing for the older two, but since Drake is still only in school half days, he's been "allowed" to watch many more hours of tv. Me thinks this will be allowed to change now... ;-)
Now hundreds of dollars willb e spent, but we should be able to save everything.
The contractor recommended Service Master, and they came out that night to suck up the water, and then setup 3 blowers under the carpet (afteer pulling it up of course), but on top of the pad so that the padding wouldn't have to be replaced (hopefully), and a dehumidifier.
This all transpired Monday.
It's now Wednesday and Service Master is coming out shortly to check if it's dried up enough.
Once it's done, we'll have to get the carpet layer to re-lay the carpet.
Below is a pic of the carpet with the blowers in the background, and the humidifier in the foreground.

Downstairs Carpet being dried after Drake's Flooding (click image for larger pic)

Ah well. the trials and tribulations as we travel through our travails eh?
We also made it clear, that though what he did was not ok (he didn't seem to be taking it very seriously at first), we loved him no matter what. He's been abashed since having TV privileges taken away, but seems (hopefully) to "get it". ;-) Cheers.

Below is a pic of the kids in their Halloween costumes. Unfortunately, I was very tired, so didn't take a very good pic. Though the red-eye in kind of cool in Brennan's case since he's dressed as a vampire. :-P
Click the image to see the larger full pic.


From left to right:

Well my mother is finally back in her home city.
She is not yet in her home, as she goes through rehabilitation to help you recover the most completely, but things looking promising for her, especially considering what happened and what she's been through.