It’s been kind of a rough day.

I woke up really early this morning.  I planned on cleaning up the ATV and participating in the Memorial Day Parade with the 150th Anniversary Committee.  I took my pills and such after getting ready.  I went out and got the ATV ready.  I had to run and get gas for the ATV so I was running a bit behind.  This is where things started to go sideways for my day.

I went to the lineup area and met with the rest of the group.  I asked the police officers if they needed help with traffic control since the ATV is decked out with a yellow light bar and flashers.  They asked me to help up the street at the main intersection.  I proceeded with the parade without ever giving a thought to the fact that I forgot to eat breakfast.  My sugar has been slightly high so forgetting isn’t the most terrible thing, as long as I remember to grab a snack or something.  I take both my diabetic medicines before breakfast.  I totally didn’t think about it once I got involved with the parade.  Today… was not a good day to forget.

The parade follows Main Street up to Chestnut Street and then up into Haywood Cemetery.  A short ceremony is held to honor “The Fallen”.  I ended up being the final vehicle in the parade.  I followed straight up to the ceremony.  Two problems started to become noticeable as I stood the whole time.  The first was one I expected.  My back and right leg began to grump because of the uneven slope of the hillside where I was standing.  The second problem came more slowly and much less noticeable at first.  My sugar began to drop.  I get warning signs that its dropping.  I realized that it was dropping about halfway through the ceremony.  It wasn’t a rapid thing but I knew I was going to need to eat as soon as I left the cemetery.

Mistake number two … I didn’t eat when I got back to the house.  I pulled the motorcycle out of the barn and put the ATV away.  I decided I would come in and change, then go get something to eat.  I monkeyed with my malfunctioning computer a bit… Oops!  I got the computer working but quickly realized that I was no longer in the warning stages of dropping sugar levels.  My sugar was down to the point where I start to get the shakes and feel sick.  At this point, I normally am smart and grab some candy, sugar lozenges that I keep around or drink something sweet.

Mistake number three… I hopped on the bike and headed up town.  I ate and decided I would ride north…  Maybe end up at Presque Isle.  I still didn’t feel well, so I sat at the table for a bit.  It usually takes a bit for my sugar to catch up to the rest of me.   I still didn’t feel well.  When I don’t feel well, I usually stay off the bike.  I figured that I would feel better as my body got the sugar back in allignment. Off I went.

When I don’t feel well, my back pain becomes overbearing.  I changed my destination to Goddard State Park.  I got to the park.  There was a lot of people about. I wanted to see if I could see the eagles that nest across from the one launch.  I was hurting so bad that I actually thought about getting off the bike and just lay down on the grass and take a nap.  I knew that was  a bad idea.  I needed to get home.  If spasms started out here, I’d be calling someone to get me and the bike.  I bolted for home.

I stopped in Greenville at Big Lots.  I knew they have a bench in the lobby where I could sit for a bit.  From there, I bolted home.  I parked the bike by my truck and went staight in and laid down on the bed.  It took a while to get comfortable.  I feel a bit better tonight.  It was really dumb to try and ride when I felt that way.

I don’t plan on doing that again.

~Cappy

… right where he needed to be this time.

Took Maggie out for a spin today.  Decided I would head for Cooks Forest.  First, I would grab lunch and gas at Sheetz.  I left Sheetz and headed up 62 toward Mercer with the thought of going out through Franklin and across Route 322.  About halfway to Mercer, I was stuck behind an old lady.  She refused to go any faster than 10 miles per hour below the speed limit.  That actually was OK with me because I wasn’t in a hurry.  I noticed a vehicle behind me.  It was an SUV with a light bar on it.  I never saw the side but it was either a State Trooper or Mercer County Sheriff.  No biggy… I couldn’t do anything wrong anyway, as long as I didn’t pass the old girl.

As we entered Mercer, I gave her plenty of space.  I keep my head moving when I’m on the bike.  There are plenty of crazies out there without counting the people who just don’t pay attention to their driving…  All trying to kill us motorcyclists.  I saw a couple in a BMW Convertible come to the stop sign at the intersection of 158 and 62.  He practically blew through the intersection.  I cringed because I thought he was going to come out in front of the poor old gal ahead of me.

I let out a small sigh of relief as he stopped.  She passed him.  I kept my attention glued to him.  He wasn’t looking my way.  “CRAP!!! He’s pulling out!!!” the voice inside my head shouted.  My fingers had already been on the clutch and front break levers in preparation for the old lady’s reaction.  I downshifted quickly and applied the brakes hard enough for the back tire to lock up.  I had slowed enough so that he pulled ahead of me.  His wife was staring at me the whole time but not saying or doing a thing.

Maggie was under full control.  I released the clutch and brakes and continued to move forward, following this guy.  I hoped he would get a red light at 62 and 19, so I could give him a piece of my mind.  He got a red light.  He was turning right.  “Good!” The little voice said.  “Keep  your cool though, remember the cop.”  I pulled up along side the convertible and shouted “Hey Buddy! Wake up!! You just pulled out in front of me.”  He looked at me with a half stoned look and said “Oh.. Sorry.”  I shook my head and let the clutch out to make my left turn.  The light had turned green.

I glanced in the mirror and smilled as I turned the corner.  The reds and blues on top of the cruiser were now on and he was pulling the convertible over.  I continued to glance at the mirror as I eased toward the next light.  Yep.  He had the convertible in the gas station parking  lot.  “YESSSS!” The little voice shouted.  I hate to see anyone get a ticket, but so many people get away with near misses because they don’t watch for motorcycles.  A little justice was served for all of us who dodge the bullet every time we ride.

The rest of the ride went pretty well.  There were people out everywhere.  The weather was beautiful.  I had decided that I wouldn’t hang out long in Cooks Forest but I would at least ride back in to the Fire Tower.  I wanted to be at least most of the way back to home roads before the deer started running.

There were alot of folks back at the Tower.  I didn’t try to climb the steps to the top.  My back wouldn’t tolerate it.  I watched many  kids and families make the ascent.  I took a few pictures and headed back to Maggie.  The light would grow dim in the woods alot sooner and I didn’t want to come across any wild animals on the road home.  Maggie and I headed back toward home.

I had thought about where to stop and eat on the way home.  Many folks were grilling and having bon fires.  You can smell it all when you are on a  bike.  I had seen a sign for the Wayside Inn, a restaurant in an old house that was run by an older couple… German descent I believe. The food was served family style.  I hadn’t been there in ages.  Were they still open?  I didn’t know.  I decided I would go a different route home.  This would take me down to Foxburg and the Allegheny Grille.

One of these day, I will buy property EAST of where I am going.  It seems like I am always driving into the Western Sun, no matter where I go.  The backroads to Foxburg are twisty two lane (but barely) roads.  With the Sun in my eyes, I dared not go too fast.  I’m not that familiar with those roads and who knows what Winter had done to them.  It was still a nice quiet ride with little traffic.

I had a good dinner at Foxburg.  The waitresses forgot about me.  I ended up being served by the manager.  He said it had been a crazy day.  Business had been great but they were caught somewhat unprepared.  They had even run out of alot of their chicken based items.  I got free dessert for my wait.

I came home through Grove City… A route that I am more than familiar with.  I took advantage of the twisties that I knew.  I pulled into the driveway with about 173 miles on the odometer.  I parked the bike and sat on the swing to enjoy the beautiful evening before putting her back in the barn.

I guess I”m getting up early in the morning to participate in some way in the Memorial Day Parade with the 150th Celebration Committee. After the parade… Maybe another spin with Maggie.   Right now… I need to go put laundry in the drier so I have pants to wear.

~Cappy

… It just couldn’t get here fast enough.

Coming out of a loop

What a week, month, year so far.  Just when I think things are going great, they go sideways.  It’s been a constant roller coaster… Lots of hills and valleys with even a loop thrown in there just to make sure I’m paying attention.  This week has been no exception, starting with last Saturday.

I haven’t been to an airshow in a while.  Youngstown Air Reserve Station was hosting “Thunder Over the Valley” with the Airforce Thunderbirds.  As soon as I saw the ad, I knew I wanted to take on this event.  I’ll explain that concept in a minute.  Saturday came.  Radar showed intermittent rain showers moving across Ohio.  I scrapped the idea to go Saturday, opting for the 0% chance of rain they were calling for on Sunday.  Airshows with low cloud ceilings or rain mean limited or no flying.

I say I would have to “take on” the event because I know the walking was going to be a challenge.  Our trip to Busch Gardens, Virginia after Christmas had proven my back could not tolerate a full day of walking.  Just like there, my plan though for the airshow was to enjoy myself, regardless of the pain I was in.  The difference here would be I couldn’t break down and rent an electric cart vehicle if my back played out.

I got up Sunday and headed for the show.  I had to make the decision at the parking area whether to take my cane or not.  The Air Station doesn’t have any amount of parking so Eastwood Mall was their primary pickup point.  It would have been a long bus ride back to get my cane if I wanted.  I decided not to bother with it.  I would find somewhere to sit down and rest if I had to.  I got on the bus ready to enjoy the day… pain or no pain.

The show was great.  I got VIP seating when I got there.  I had a place I could sit down and rest if needed.  I had a very enjoyable day.  My back complained but I fought it.  In the end, I was there from around 9:45 am to about 5:45 pm… or so I thought.  Typical of my life… A great day… followed by some kind of issue to deal with.  Poor planning choices on the company hired for the busing led to an excruciating 3 hour wait just to get on the  bus.  I sat for about 15 minutes when I got back to my truck to allow my back to catch up with the rest of me.

The week hasn’t been much different.  Project ups and downs that are out of my control keep cropping up.  It took through Wednesday for my back and right leg to stop hurting.  Tink must have some issue with Spring and Summer.  She started acting weird again.  She went from a lap cat, to running from me every time I enter the room… unless of course I have food.  So far, she hasn’t been quite as bad as last Summer.  She hid under the beds and would move where I couldn’t reach her.  I can still pet her and she will come around, even when I’m awake, but something changed again.

Needless to say… All this back and forth emotional changes have stirred my depression into a frenzy.  I came home tonight and took a long nap.  Normally, I change into a pair of shorts and old shirt when I get home.  I just crawled in bed tonight, clothes and all.  I slept ’til around 8:30 pm ish.   Here I am again… Trying to gather my wits back up.  I want to get the video assembled that I took at the airshow.  When my depression is wound up like this, I get critical of everything I do… including this video.  The edits look good at one point, then I go back and fiddle with them.  In the end, I’m not satisfied and fight to get it back to the way I originally had it.  Thus is how my brain works.

I guess I should close this post and continue working on that … or it may never get done.

Catch ya in a few… days, months… hopefully not years.

~Cappy

Friday started a much needed long weekend.   My back has been on one of its silly pain ridden streaks again this week.  Friday topped it off with extreme pain in my ribs where they were broken in the ATV accident.  I had a couple spasms that almost brought tears.  I was glad when the day was over and I was able to stretch out on my bed.  That’s pretty much how I celebrated my Friday night.

I got up Saturday in much less pain.  I was bound and determined that I wasn’t going to sit in the house all day.  I headed to my usual Saturday haunt for lunch.  While I was there, I remembered that the funeral procession for Chief Phil Steele was going to be held at some point.  A quick glance at the newspaper confirmed the route and times.   I’d met Phil on more than one occassion and I know he was very well respected throughout the area as both as a member of the fire department and many EMS organizations.  That is what I would do… I would go stage myself along the route and record the procession.

I left Hogan’s Heroes about 12:05 PM.  I could easily get along the route in time for the 12:30 schedule.  I even had a spot in mind… The Knievel Cycle shop along Route 18.  It would provide an elevated position to shoot from with little obstruction.  I wasn’t the only one there.  Two other vehicles were already in position when I got there.  Big lot… No problem.  If you have never attended the funeral procession for a firefighter, medic or police office, I encourage you to do so.  It will give you insight into the type of special community these folks are a part of.

As I sat and waited for the procession to arrive, my thoughts wondered to a procession that I was part of.  Mark Pollock was a member of the local volunteer fire department at the same time I was.  He and his parents died when his own home caught fire.  I recall that day very very vividly.

Mark loved racing.  I hired him on as part of my security staff at Mercer Raceway Park.  We needed someone to direct cars where to park.  Once things settled down in the lots, he could watch the races.  The job was pretty thankless.  People often don’t follow direction so having the rest of the evening to wind down enjoying something you loved was a benefit.

Mark could always be counted on to show up.  He would even stop by my house just to make sure we were racing that day.  This particular Saturday morning I had gone to the track early.  Had I not, I would probably have heard the sirens and known what was going on as he lived just up the hill from me.  Mark hadn’t shown up that day.  He hadn’t called.  He didn’t answer my multiple attempts to call him.

My heart sunk when I found out later that afternoon that he had perrished along with his folks in the fire that morning.  I felt sick.  Here I was calling him, aggrevated that he hadn’t even called to say he wouldn’t be in.  I should have known something was wrong because it wasn’t like him to not let me know.

I wasn’t in the fire department at that time.  I hadn’t rejoined when I moved back to the area.  I felt that I needed to show how much Mark’s dedication meant to me… but how?  The thought clicked into my head immediately.  Mark loved racing.  He worked for the track.  I would ask the track owner if I could take the pace truck in the funeral procession.  She agreed immediately.  The truck was all nicely decaled with the track logo.  He would have appreciated the though I’m sure.

There is something that takes place at the funeral of an emergency services person that I didn’t know of at that time.  Its called “The Last Call”.  I carried a portable scanner for the race track so I could hear the different departments we worked with while at the track.  I took it with me in the pace truck that day so I had a ‘heads up’ on when the procession was moving, etc.  I never knew that choice would haunt me for the rest of my life.

The procession left town, went up the viaduct and out Wheatland Road, turning back up 718 to Route 18, stopping at the Shenango Township Fire Station (where Mark was a member at that time).  I was told there would be a special short ceramony there but hadn’t expected what I heard.

For those who don’t know, “The Last Call” is literally just that.  Over the county fire dispatch frequency,  Shenango’s pager tones were tripped and Mark was called to his final call.  Tears well up as I type this.  I cried as I watched Chief Phil’s procession go by yesterday, knowing that this was his “Last Call”.   Since that day in Mark’s procession, I have made it a point to attend processions when I can to honor that memory of Mark’s “Last Call”.

I went about the rest of my afternoon the way I originally had planned.  I constantly flashed back to that day so many years ago.  I finally just gave up and drove home.  I needed to work on the video I had taken of the procession.  I didn’t want to just dump it up to the Internet.  It meant something special to me.  It represented someone special to a community and its EMS responders.  It took all evening, but just before midnight I was satisfied.

I pray that Chief Phil’s family will find comfort in the support of their community.  They can move forward knowing that he will not be forgotten.

~Curtis Farster

I’ve been home from vacation for two days.  My right leg and back are finally showing improvement.  The walking on Saturday night did me in.  Sunday, I rented a cart which was much better.  By the time we pulled out of the hotel to head home, my right leg was numb from my hip joint down.  I have been laying around with Tink and relaxing as much as possible.

Last night, I stayed at home for New Year’s Eve.  I figured I would fall asleep before the ball dropped but I didn’t.  I thought of Mom alot.  December 31st was her birthday.  The trip to Christmas Town would have been something she would have enjoyed greatly.  I ended up awake till about 1:30 am.

This morning Tink woke me up by climbing up on my side and begging for pets.  She is almost back to normal.  There are a couple little things she hasn’t done yet, but that’s probably only because the oppurtunity hasn’t presented itself.  It’s great to have her back.  She’s such a card.  For months, I’ve had all her spongey golf balls in one spot.  Tonight… I’m not sure I can find one of them without a search.  She played and played and played after I layed down last night.

I have mixed feelings about returning to work tomorrow.  I have a major project to get underway which should keep me busy.  I’m hoping for a change this year.  I’m not sure what that will be yet but I will work toward it as new directions unfold.  I’ve heard it said that “The best is yet to come”.   This past year didn’t unfold that way so I can only guess that yet is still the key word.

Onward we go into 2014.

~Cappy

Those of you that have been following along probably read the story of how my two aunts and uncle left from one location and Dad and I from here with no plans of meeting up with them until we got settled in at the hotel.  That’s them in the gold Jeep with its lights on. The caught up with us just before I-95… about eighty-eight miles from Williamsburg.

Dad and I left the hotel this morning around 8:30… ish.  I stopped and filled up the truck.  We stopped at Mickey D’s for breakfast.  We officially headed for home around 9:13 (texted Renee to tell her we were off).  I knew the drive home would take a bit longer.  We took a different route and I would have to stop more often to stretch my legs/back.

I stopped for lunch in Winchester, VA at the Sonic.  I’ve never eaten at one.  I wanted something different.  The portion was huge and the price wasn’t bad.  I haven’t eaten dinner tonight because I’m still full from the onion rings.  One of my friends on Facebook commented on my ‘check-in’ that he had worked near that Sonic in the past.  Interesting… another weird connection on this trip.

We picked up some flurries in Berkely Springs, Virginia.  It didn’t amount to anything.  We stopped at the Midway Service Plaza when we got to the PA turnpike.  From there, the snow increased steadily.  We crossed through the tunnel between Midway and New Stanton to come out into really hard snow and a couple inches on the ground.  The roads ran wet.  Crews were salting so the driving was fine.  We would hit snow off and on the rest of the trip home, but nothing as bad as that.

I dropped Dad off and helped him get his things inside.  I knew a little furry creature would be waiting when I got home.  Sure enough, I walked in the door to Tink trotting her way out to greet me.  She turned back to the living room to dig on her scratching pad.  She let a ‘MEOWWWW’.  I said “Did you just meow at me?”  (She is usually pretty quiet).  She again let out a happy meow and trotted over to give me many, many leg hugs.  She asked for food, so I paused from my unpacking to feed her.  She only ate a couple bites and then it was play time.  We played ball on the steps, chased the string and even monkeyed around with a gift bag one of my presents came in.

I got settled.  Tink followed me around like a puppy.  I came upstairs to work on this blog and upload pictures.  She has been in rubbing around my legs, crawing on my lap and walking on the desk and computer several times.

She disappeared.  I went to find her.  Not downstairs.  Not in the spare bedroom.  All of a sudden a little fuzzy face pops up from behind my suitcase.  She had found the pants I had worn today and was curled up on the legs against the suitcase.  I laid down on the bed and gave her a scratch behind the ears.

I posted a couple pictures on Facebook showing a day time picture of a ride and a night time shot from a similar angle.  One of the responses I got was from the brother of one of my high school friends.  Lonnie is also a friend, though we haven’t seen each other in a long time.  It turns out he lives not far from Busch Gardens.  Oh.. and if the first two co-inky dinks weren’t enough.  Turns out, he was in the park at the same time we were on Saturday.  A small world just keeps getting smaller.

Guess who just got back up on my lap… I’ve got some photos to caption and edit so I best get back to it.

Busch Gardens “Christmas Town” 2013 Pictures

http://captcurt31.com/mygallery/thumbnails.php?album=57

That took longer than expected.  I had a cat that has never liked to be a lap cat suddenly lay down on my lap and demand being petted with both hands.  I now have pinholes in my left leg from her making dough.

~Cappy