Holiday Sloth

So, after putting a bright face on things, grinning through a double-impaction, Thomas and Mary headed south to Seattle after 3 nights.

Their visit was wonderful. I really enjoy the conversations, the work in the kitchen, etc. But, of course, there are tensions. And this year there was also a lot of pain. On their first day I had to bore them with a visit to the dentist where I had the port aftmost molar excavated, and three out of four roots were roto-rootered. The fourth was too infected to finish the work. After which I was loaded up with pain meds, an anti-biotic pill big enough to choke a horse (three times daily), and went off with the house-guests on a romp through the city of Vancouver.

I should mention they were driving a largish SUV, compliments of the distaff parents. Vancouver is not particularly SUV friendly, with no highways near the downtown core and most arterials being somewhat enlarged residential streets. We did some shopping, we did some sight-seeing, we picked up Alex from school and took him to a street-writer's (read, graffiti) shop.

Anyway, after a couple more days of fun, they headed off for more holiday visiting. I curled up in a ball waiting for the next dental appointment. And when we went in for that visit, re-open the tooth, re-rooter the three, but the fourth was still too infected to get clear. New anti-biotic, stepping into the big times.

And when we got home, Alex started to spike a fever. A big fever. I lazed about the house trying to deal with him and my jaw. Elizabeth fussed over both of us, but since none of us was particularly energetic (me staring at computer screen, he flat on his back asleep) it was mostly lazing about reading fluffy novels or watching movies for her, too.

Which was okay for 5 days, but with Alex still spiking higher than 103°, I was getting mighty nervous. Yes, it was almost certainly influenza. Yes, we were treating him symptomatically, which is all that a physician was going to do too. BUT, there are also other possible reasons for running such a high temp for so long, and I wanted the tests run to rule those out.

So we called the regional nurse line and, after the long list of questions (which we had already worked through, having a nurse in the family) yes, it was important to get this looked at, so we should bring him in to urgent care. But, since it was well after noon and none of the urgent care would be open to new walk-ins at this time, bring him in the next morning if he still had a temp.

The next day being Xmas eve, which we'd all completely forgotten, none of the local urgent care were open. But even more importantly, and something I haven't mentioned yet, was the Arctic Outflow event we were experiencing.

Every so often, once or twice a year, the regional climate conspires to have a cold blast for the coast. What happens is a deep cooling of the land just east of coastal mountains of Alaska and northern BC, developing into a cold high pressure system, which tends to push the north Pacific low pressure systems southward, and they roll ashore over Portland Oregon rather than BC's Central Coast, well north of Vancouver. Because the lows are south of Vancouver, and the high is north of Vancouver, frigid arctic air is sucked down through valleys and fjords.

These conditions usually last 3-5 days before falling apart, but often result in pretty spectacular snowfall as the very moist ocean air get's blanketed by the (for Vancouver) bitter cold from the north. Well, it set up around December 12th, and it never quite fell apart. And it certainly snowed.

The first batch of snow, about 10cm (4"), pretty much melted away. It was pretty, we were all amused. The second batch of snow set in just as Thomas and Mary were leaving, and it had been cold for a few days so it started sticking. Then, in one week, we had 4 snowstorms - one right after the other. We had more than 25cm (10") on the ground, in a city of more than a million people and a total of 20 city-owned snow plows.

And as the sun came up on Xmas eve, our fifth snowstorm within 7 days was moving ashore. Alex had a fever of 102.4°. And of course not a single health clinic or urgent care was open. So we headed for the hospital ER.

There was a brinks-type armored truck stuck in the non-ambulance entry to the parking lot, which of course was not plowed. A bobcat and two guys with shovels were valiantly trying to unstick the truck. We went to the hospital employee parking lot and walked over to the ER.

Yep, almost certainly influenza, take him home and treat him symptomatically. Sitting in the waiting room was actually rather amusing; the humanity on parade there was entertaining. An older Sikh gentleman was brought in by his son, who was about our age. A cantankerous older gent came in, loudly complaining about the service, the people around him. The quiet Sikh sat waiting until he was brought in the back, looking unperturbed while the other old guy tramped around with his cane literally shouting to make it known he was not pleased having to wait. He was sent home after 5 minutes in the back, while the Sikh gentleman - who had apparently broken his wrist and arm the day before in a fall on the ice - was sent off for orthopedic surgery.

The nasty old guy gave me a wink as he headed out and confided "the squeaky wheel gets the grease."

Then we went home and made a turkey breast on the grill (did I mention we have a gas grill on the deck?) and herbed potatoes and stuffing and steamed veggies for a nice dinner - the only real work I've done in a week. The antibiotics seem to have worked, my teeth no longer pain me, so now I'm looking at mountains of dirty laundry, dirty dishes, and a house in desperate need of a bull-dozer.

Outside the next snowstorm has warmed up to a slow drizzly rain which is finally melting our snow. Vancouver has experienced the whitest Xmas ever recorded, going back to the early 1800s, but it looks like the arctic outflow has collapsed and we'll go back to normal winter weather - chilly but not frigid.

Wishing you all a Happy New Year.