Right now we are in northern Missouri headed for the Iowa border. The dog days of summer are upon us and the rolling hills and lush green landscape reminds me that we will soon be home.
Ahhh. Home.
Today marks exactly eight weeks since we left Minnesota and all morning I have been thinking about how Gunnar’s and my lives have evolved during the course of this adventure. Gunnar has come a long way…and not just because of the 700+ miles he has walked so far. He's actually less tired, more Zen-like and even the wild barking dogs don’t seem to scare him anymore. Rabid, yellow-eyed, foaming at the mouth pooches now see him coming and roll over for a scratch.
Gunnar has become the dog whisperer.
I, on the other hand, feel like I have been trapped in a major fog that I can’t seem to shake. I have little energy, an attention span of 20-second intervals and even simple questions like where are you? and what day is it? seem to leave me perplexed. My appetite has also increased at an alarming rate. For lunch I had a cheeseburger, French fries, a chocolate shake and pumpkin pie with whipped cream. Yikes. I think this is because while Gunnar is out exercising every day, I still spend most of my time in the RV suffering from the advanced stages of RVES…recreational vehicle entrapment syndrome. Here is a breakdown of how the symptoms develop:
Week One- Intrigue; curiosity about the many working parts of the RV and the novelty of the experience distracts from your physical confines. No evident problems yet.
Week Two- Confusion; inability to adapt to confined surroundings leads to stubbed toes and bruised shins. Some physical trauma experienced.
Week Three- Anxiety; lack of personal space leads to irrational behavior and fight-picking for no real reason. Some emotional trauma experienced.
Week Four- Claustrophobia; intense need for shopping and spa services leads to escape attempts no matter how high the price. Finances may be in jeopardy due to impaired judgment.
Week Five- Denial; inability to accept physical limitations may lead you to believe that you can actually cook a five-course meal in an RV kitchen, which takes many hours as the shoe-box sized RV ovens only fit one pan at a time.
Week Six- Despair; you begin to feel like you are in the sequel to Groundhog Day.
Week Seven- Apathy; personal grooming starts to suffer as seven weeks of the same boring t-shirts and shorts makes getting dressed seem like a bother. Makeup and hair care begins to seem like a waste of time as well.
Week Eight- Disorientation; inability to concentrate, read maps, follow directions or understand spoken English makes it hard to carry out simple orders (like knowing what road you are supposed to pick someone up on).
Two weeks to go. I will let you know how the symptoms progress.
***
Ahhh. Home.
Today marks exactly eight weeks since we left Minnesota and all morning I have been thinking about how Gunnar’s and my lives have evolved during the course of this adventure. Gunnar has come a long way…and not just because of the 700+ miles he has walked so far. He's actually less tired, more Zen-like and even the wild barking dogs don’t seem to scare him anymore. Rabid, yellow-eyed, foaming at the mouth pooches now see him coming and roll over for a scratch.
Gunnar has become the dog whisperer.
I, on the other hand, feel like I have been trapped in a major fog that I can’t seem to shake. I have little energy, an attention span of 20-second intervals and even simple questions like where are you? and what day is it? seem to leave me perplexed. My appetite has also increased at an alarming rate. For lunch I had a cheeseburger, French fries, a chocolate shake and pumpkin pie with whipped cream. Yikes. I think this is because while Gunnar is out exercising every day, I still spend most of my time in the RV suffering from the advanced stages of RVES…recreational vehicle entrapment syndrome. Here is a breakdown of how the symptoms develop:
Week One- Intrigue; curiosity about the many working parts of the RV and the novelty of the experience distracts from your physical confines. No evident problems yet.
Week Two- Confusion; inability to adapt to confined surroundings leads to stubbed toes and bruised shins. Some physical trauma experienced.
Week Three- Anxiety; lack of personal space leads to irrational behavior and fight-picking for no real reason. Some emotional trauma experienced.
Week Four- Claustrophobia; intense need for shopping and spa services leads to escape attempts no matter how high the price. Finances may be in jeopardy due to impaired judgment.
Week Five- Denial; inability to accept physical limitations may lead you to believe that you can actually cook a five-course meal in an RV kitchen, which takes many hours as the shoe-box sized RV ovens only fit one pan at a time.
Week Six- Despair; you begin to feel like you are in the sequel to Groundhog Day.
Week Seven- Apathy; personal grooming starts to suffer as seven weeks of the same boring t-shirts and shorts makes getting dressed seem like a bother. Makeup and hair care begins to seem like a waste of time as well.
Week Eight- Disorientation; inability to concentrate, read maps, follow directions or understand spoken English makes it hard to carry out simple orders (like knowing what road you are supposed to pick someone up on).
Two weeks to go. I will let you know how the symptoms progress.
***
Sunday, August 23, 2009 Pershing State Park
Some time before noon we pulled in to the Pershing State Park in northern Missouri to set up residence until the next morning. The state park vs. RV park is always a challenging tradeoff. While there is no question that state parks offer abundant scenery, they lack water and sewer hookups, which means you can’t wash anything (hand, dishes, etc) and you have to carry a lantern to the outhouse for late-night potty breaks. Ugh.
Anyway, it was a picture-perfect day in the park and the temperature was ideal so I dug out my lawn chair and a glass of wine, set up camp up under an old oak tree and spent the next ten hours glued to a fantastic new book, Coppola: A Pediatric Surgeon in Iraq. It’s written by Dr. Chris Coppola, an Air Force veteran who served two tours in Iraq working at a military trauma hospital at Balad Air Base. His story is a powerful first-hand account of the toll the Iraq war has taken on the medical professionals, troops, as well as the many civilians and children caught in the crossfire. In fact, it was so good that ordinarily I would tell you to stop what you are doing and immediately run out to get a copy but, unfortunately, you’ll have to wait. This was an advanced reader’s copy as the official book won’t be out until November.
The story is, several months ago, Gunnar and I had the good fortune to be contacted by Chris’s publisher (NTI Upstream) asking if we would be interested in doing some cross-promotional partnering as their publicity campaign ramps up. In addition to telling his already compelling story, it was important to Chris that the book introduce readers to non-profit organizations that share his values in support of military, healthcare and children…and he picked War Kids Relief as one of the charities he wanted to support.
NTI Upstream sent us the advanced copies and Gunnar wrote a rave review to them use in their marketing efforts. I will let you know when the book does finally hit the shelves so you can drop everything you’re doing and immediately run out to go get a copy…but for now here are a couple of my favorite passages:
“Two ER techs wearing protective eyewear and sound-dampening headsets roll the patient in on a NATO gurney. They are trailed by a medic clad in a flight suit, body armor, aircrew helmet with ear protection, heavy visor, and night vision goggles. The techs wheel the patient into the trauma bay and flip the legs out on the gurney to support the head and feet of the litter. I move in and look down at the patient lying on the stretcher. It is a child that looks to be about two years old. I had expected to see a soldier or at least an adult, and the sight of a child is jarring. I can’t tell yet if this chubby-faced child is a boy or a girl. The medic tells us he is a boy who was shot in the head about forty-five minutes prior and needed to be intubated in the field. He has been stable in the helicopter, but hasn’t moved his limbs or opened his eyes. I ask the medic if he knows how this baby was shot, but he only answers, “crossfire at a checkpoint.” Streaks of dried blood trail down the boy’s hair over his bruised right eye. There are small petechia (broken blood vessels) across his forehead and the bridge of his nose. His face is so puffy it is hard for me to open his eyes, and below them a clear plastic endotracheal tube leads into his throat, the shoebox-sized transport ventilator puffing breaths into his lungs at regular intervals.”
***
“The children in Iraq are living, playing and walking to school on the same streets in which our troops are searching for insurgents who would seek to do them harm. These children, and essentially all civilians across Iraq, are constantly vulnerable to random and devastating violence. War used to be conducted between two armies squaring off, rank and file, in a desolate field or in a network of trenches. Today, war happens street-to-street and door-to-door in areas of dense urban population. Civilians, including children, are far more likely to be victims of war than military combatants themselves.”
(To learn more about him you can check out http://www.coppolathebook.blogspot.com/. The guy knows what he is talking about.)
“The children in Iraq are living, playing and walking to school on the same streets in which our troops are searching for insurgents who would seek to do them harm. These children, and essentially all civilians across Iraq, are constantly vulnerable to random and devastating violence. War used to be conducted between two armies squaring off, rank and file, in a desolate field or in a network of trenches. Today, war happens street-to-street and door-to-door in areas of dense urban population. Civilians, including children, are far more likely to be victims of war than military combatants themselves.”
(To learn more about him you can check out http://www.coppolathebook.blogspot.com/. The guy knows what he is talking about.)
In the book, Chris also mentions his discomfort in being referred to as a hero, which reminds me of how Gunnar has described that term as well. Well, whether they like it or not, I believe that's exactly what they are. These veterans are all heroes to me. Also, as the mom of two girls with special medical needs, I would also put pediatric surgeons in the hero category as well. (Sorry, Chris!)
***
August 21-22, 2009
Because we are getting closer to home, my husband Brad and the girls came down for the weekend to visit! It was great to see them and hang out for a couple days being a family again.
And Daisy and Coco also had a chance to climb on their buddy, Gunnar…one of their all-time favorite things!
He may not admit it, but deep down I think he likes it, too.
***
Because we are getting closer to home, my husband Brad and the girls came down for the weekend to visit! It was great to see them and hang out for a couple days being a family again.
And Daisy and Coco also had a chance to climb on their buddy, Gunnar…one of their all-time favorite things!
He may not admit it, but deep down I think he likes it, too.
***
August 21, 2009, Chillicothe, Missouri
We had a session with about a dozen kids at the Chillicothe YMCA today. With the letters we collected we have just surpassed 2,500 letters.
No matter how the fundraising efforts ends up, just knowing that this many young Americans now have an understanding of what their peers suffering from war are dealing with, and have compassionately reached out to them, Gunnar and I will always believe that this 10-week event was nothing short of a huge success.
***
We had a session with about a dozen kids at the Chillicothe YMCA today. With the letters we collected we have just surpassed 2,500 letters.
No matter how the fundraising efforts ends up, just knowing that this many young Americans now have an understanding of what their peers suffering from war are dealing with, and have compassionately reached out to them, Gunnar and I will always believe that this 10-week event was nothing short of a huge success.
***
August, 20, 2009, Cameron, Missouri
Today we arrived in Cameron, Missou
ri for an action-packed day. At noon we made a presentation at the local Optimist’s Club, and that afternoon we met with about 30 kids at the Cameron YMCA. The kids were adorable, as always, and even helped us carry out our photo boards to the RV when we were done.
Nothing like cute little roadies to lend a helping hand!
That evening we stopped at the local RV-park. The good news is that what they lacked in atmosphere, they made up for with noise from the interstate.
The adventure continues…stay tuned!
Love, Dina
Today we arrived in Cameron, Missou
ri for an action-packed day. At noon we made a presentation at the local Optimist’s Club, and that afternoon we met with about 30 kids at the Cameron YMCA. The kids were adorable, as always, and even helped us carry out our photo boards to the RV when we were done.Nothing like cute little roadies to lend a helping hand!
That evening we stopped at the local RV-park. The good news is that what they lacked in atmosphere, they made up for with noise from the interstate.
The adventure continues…stay tuned!
Love, Dina
What a great site!
ReplyDeleteI believe your blog is excellent...Like the way you organized your work...
ReplyDeleteCustomized Essay