No sooner had I reveled in my foot being back to 100%, I managed to get a cold/asthma/sinusy thing. I was pretty sick for awhile and struggled with getting an "emergency inhaler", albuteral. Because I had absolutely NO asthma problems while in Africa, I didn't come as prepared as I thought. I had a canister of albuteral but didn't bring an inhaler sleeve for it, thinking it would fit into the sleeveI use for my other inhaled drug. Anyway, after nearly two weeks of struggling with coughing and difficulty breathing, my Denver doctor called in a prescription to a Fairbanks pharmacy (2 1/2 hours away) and my dear roomie drove up to get it for me. Two days later, the three months supply I had ordered at the beginning of the entire ordeal, came in. It was a good three weeks of feeling like shit, but I am good now and loving it. I imagine I've written this before since I believe it so strongly, but I think being sick is about learning to appreciate NOT being sick. I get so accustomed to feeling good that I take it for granted...now I am fully appreciative and determined to remain aware and appreciative so I don't need another reminder.
Nancy and I went to Fairbanks for two days last week to celebrate her 77th birthday. We had a lovely, laid back time. We took a riverboat cruise to a living Alaskan Native museum. The cruise was beautiful and the museum was quite interesting. We stayed "downtown" (Fairbanks is a really small town" and walked around, had a nice birthday dinner at an Italian restaurant and watched some TV...a treat for Nancy. The following day, Nancy did some shopping and got her hair cut while I lounged at Barnes and Noble and had a couple cups of tea. Following our attendance at a fabric art show at a gallery, where we got the unexpected and out of the blue news of Sarah Palin's resignation, we had lunch and headed back. It is just good to get "off the reservation" as we are very isolated here at the lodge. Even taking the shuttle buses, there's no where to go but the park and the commercial area, which is a couple more lodges, souvenir shops and adventure booking offices.
I'm on the second day of my "weekend" again. Yesterday, Nancy and I walked about 6-7 miles...it was a beautiful day. We had had five days of dense smoke from many forest fires in the area and had just had a good nights rain the night before. So, though it was overcast, the air was clear and it was a cool, lovely day. We went to the park for a bowl of their great vegetarian chili for lunch and then just walked and knocked around til dinner time. It's fun just being with someone so compatible. We then came back to our lodge for dinner in our dining room (NOT the employee dining room but the real one)...having heard that their vegetarian pizza is to die for. And it was...it is large, four cheese and filled with slow roasted veges...yum!!! I also had my bi-annual beer and a hangover today. I KNEW I would but I HOPED I wouldn't! Damn, I wish I could drink...that beer tasted sooooooo good!
I heard from a Denver friend, Germaine, that she will be in Denali in early August. We are trying to arrange a get-together, which shouldn't be too difficult. Although the park is 6 million acres, it is nearly all wilderness with a very small commercial area...so I'm looking forward to seeing her. Later, in September, I'm hoping my dear friend, Jo Lynda, will come up. Roomie Nancy is leaving at the end of August, so I'll have an extra bed and we've been tossing around the idea of her coming up and then leaving with me on the 19th. I found a really cheap ticket directly from Anchorage to Denver and snapped it up, totally deleting my plan to go back to Vancouver and then taking the train through the Canadian Rockies to Calgary and then home. I have to save my money now...Nancy and I are planning a month long trip to China and Tibet in the spring and it will take some change. That suddenly changed my thought of this summer as an experience in itself, paying only for itself, into a way to earn some bucks for the big one! I also plan a road trip to New Mexico over Thanksgiving with my friend, Linda, and Christmas in Vancouver, so it will be a busy year. I'm thinking, from here, that I might enjoy spending next summer in Denver. I miss so much of the fun being away then, Kirsten's garden, the music and movies in the park, seminars in Vermont (!), watching tennis and golf tournaments...lots of stuff I haven't done for a long time. We'll see. By the way, I posted a new photo album of wildflowers. Check it out!
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