Waiting....

My granddaughter is playing on the piano while she is WAITING for her friend to arrive for a play date. I am watching over her while I am WAITING for news as to whether the midwife has determined the twins are going to arrive anytime soon. The cats here are WAITING for sunny weather to bring out the bugs so they can chase them. I expect that my son-in-law is also WAITING with my daughter as the time is really close. We distract ourselves from even paying very close attention to what is going on in this WAITING time.

Mountain flowers in Washington State.

What is the purpose of WAITING? It is a time for reflection, pondering, even grieving in some cases - because in the WAITING time there is change in the air and we can grieve, even in a joyful way, for what will be new and different from the old and familiar. These two new lives will bring great and wonderful changes to all around them and it looks like now they will be born under the sign of Leo, not Cancer as many expected. It is a marvel that they will be full-term twins but the WAITING has been very hard on my daughter in so many ways. And as a parent, and mother, being able to bring relief is gratifying, while watching and WAITING along with an adult child has its own kind of challenge.

Taking a Fall

Street in San Gil, looking toward the
central park area. Notice cross on the
surrounding mountainside.

It usually catches one by surprise. And later you ask yourself, "Why was I distracted? What was I thinking?" In my case, I had just finished getting some papers copied, and was planning to stuff them back into my backpack before getting on my scooter. I had a mental list of things I needed to get done before seeing my son off on the bus. The next thing I realized was my foot wasn't supporting me and the ground was rushing up to my head - and right after that I was totally - and painfully - aware that blood was gushing out of someplace on or in my head into my hands and onto the floor. People were surrounding me, speaking in Spanish, and unfortunately the face-plant didn't do much to improve my understanding.

Mutterings about "hospital," "police," and "amigo" were flying like gnats above my consciousness while I was trying to sort out what kind of damage I had incurred. Someone got me a towel, sat me up, and soon the police were there to cart me off to the hospital insisting that I needed to be seen by a 'medico.' That medico was a young and efficient woman about 30 who clarified that nothing was broken - much to our mutual surprise (I was certain I had broken my nose at the very least) - and gave me medication for pain and swelling. I had actually fallen on my knee as well, possibly breaking the impact to my nose, and it was incredibly sore, more than my nose, for several days afterward.

I forgot to mention that while I was at the hospital waiting to be seen, before I could get confirmation about the situation, I immediately started doing Reiki on myself and that, at least, kept me from freaking out about everything. Curious that the medico never took my temperature or blood pressure before assessing the damage; long ago as an EMT in training I learned that a broken anything will cause a rise in the body's normal temperature.

But in a few days, the bruises on my face were all that everyone saw - and asked me about. Concerned friends and people in the places where I shop wanted to know if I had done this on my scooter, "No, with my feet..." said as I tried to smile. The vast (it seemed to me) amounts of blood on the concrete and tiled floor are typical of cuts to the head, and it scared the owners of the internet cafe near the Cathedral enough to put down some black tape on the little step that I missed so that other people may not fall, interrupting a placid day with cries from a stranger, "My nose is broken!" in even more broken Spanish.

Taken from the hill above Barichara, looking down at the
Cathedral, which is close to where I took my fall.

What did I learn from this? First of all, the police were quick to respond and be of assistance and riding in the back of a police van, when one is hurting, on these bumpy village roads is not at all fun. The hospital staff was very attentive and even though the building and equipment may be old, it was clean. Second, as a older traveler, I need to wear shoes that hug my feet and not put me at risk of stumbling or falling because my footwear is inadequate to the terrain. That is not why I fell this time, but I don't need to increase the risk of a second fall by not paying attention to that little detail.

Early morning view from the western edge of Barichara, looking out over
one arm of the Andes; hard to believe they are over 14,000 feet tall.

Sorry, no pictures of my bruised face, which is now almost back to where it was two weeks ago. Instead, enjoy these scenic shots of Colombia and my little village, where the people talk a lot about what goes on, including the Gringa's fall, but that's part of why I love it here.

Travel Rant

I feel a rant coming on. My rant today is about traveling. On the way back from visiting Jey-hu's mother who took a tumble and got a terrible 'green-stick' fracture to her humerus (upper arm long bone), we saw an accident on the I-5 headed south. (So glad it wasn't on our side; and sorry if anyone was hurt.) However, if the accident was caused by someone with a couple of cats, dogs, children, texting on the phone, yelling at a passenger, or other distraction, I hope you realize you have inconvenienced over 200,000 people.

How did I come up with this figure? Well, some who know me know my math skills were never great, but Jey-hu can do multiplication and division in his head and this is how we arrived at the number.

There are 5280 feet in a mile. About 1800 cars will fit in that space, allowing for the fact that some cars are much shorter and trucks of course are much longer. Figuring on three lanes of traffic for one mile, that's 5,400 motorized vehicles of one size or another. But, the traffic jammed up for about 10 miles, so now we're talking about 54,000 vehicles with an average driver/passenger of 1.5, making 81,000 people fume. But their delay or frustration when they arrive home could affect another 2.5 people, so now we have a total of 200,000 more or less unhappy folks. All because one driver lost control of his or her responsibility.

AAA, in their recent Washington membership magazine, said that 'distractions' cause over 50% of the accidents today. Now in Washington it is illegal to be on the phone or texting, though some people still risk a ticket to do it. But yelling at a passenger (How successful is that?) can increase the risk of making a bad decision by 25% according to some study because the driver is focusing on the issue, not on driving. Traveling with pets which are not contained has caused problems as well, especially with cats. A woman in Texas was arrested and her 15 cats were removed from the vehicle because it was considered a serious hazard. She had to go to trial and the State won. Anyone who has traveled with even one cat knows how little tolerance that breed has for riding in cars. And sometimes traveling with a couple of kids is harder than having 15 cats.

All that being said, at least in the U.S. the roadblocks are quickly dispersed and drivers are on their way in a reasonable time... unlike China... 60 miles and nine days... read the link!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38812252/ns/world_news-asiapacific?GT1=43001

So that is my rant for today... Please drive carefully; you could be affecting thousands!

(PS: the photo is of the bridge over Deception Pass here in Washington state.)