My Summer

I have been on a road trip through the US for the last 4 weeks. I have seen 9 states, and numerous sights. I am currently in the Aurora public Library in colorado checking in on my travels to Ireland. I will write much more when I return from Ireland!!! I fly out tomorrow morning.

open letter to the creators of Ice Age 3

Whoever was responsible for this movie should be ashamed. I am a science teacher who finds it difficult to teach students strong science because they are so influenced by the media. Having dinosaurs in the ice age, let alone having the ice age be the DAWN of the dinosaurs is a farce. This is ridiculous. The dinosaurs went extinct about 65 million years ago, all, except their relatives of birds and some reptiles, would not even have seen the ice ages. The dinosaurs you depict in the film were not around for the ice age and had been extinct longer than any man or mammoth has been on this earth. Shame on your writers and producers for not putting better science into films. I will have to reteach these students based upon what they see in their movie theaters.

Cory J. Eklund

TEE

I went to the hospital Friday morning. They checked me in, hooked up an IV and then wheeled me to the radiology unit. They sprayed the back of my throat with this gross Banana tasting tranquilizer. It tasted like cough syrup on steroids. Then they injected my IV with the drugs. I don't remember much after, except swallowing a giant tube and then I remember them trying to get it out of my throat.

Evidently the doctor talked to me and told me all about my heart,....I remember nothing. I remember getting wheeled back to my room and asking if I could run a marathon and one of the nurses said that I probably shouldn't. I then came to slowly and Marie was there to witness. She wrote down all that the doctor told me so I have some information to take home. They will give me a copy of the procedure on Monday.

Here's what the Doc said. I have a nasty valve. I have a jet stream of blood that flows back into my heart after each beat. I have a bicuspid valve that is not dialating. Because I have no symptoms, we will have echos (not the TEEs) every year until they see enough to have surgery. Usually people don't need the valve replaced until the age of late 40's early 50's, but he said there is still a possibility I may need to replace it before the age of 30. I will be having a follow up appointment in October to discuss my results and my future with the doctor. I think he will ask if I have had any syptoms or not at that time as well.

Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers. I will certainly keep everyone updated.

Summer is finally here

Monday the 22nd was officially my last day of work for this school year. It was a good year, but a long one. We made up 5 snow days and a sewer day. I think I was one of the last teachers in a school in Oregon, maybe the country. I am still not done. I moved rooms the last few days and I still need a signature from the principal that says I am all moved out.

On Saturday I MC'd a wedding reception for a couple of teacher friends. I was in charge of the microphone and DJ the dance with my friend's Ipod. Marie and I tried to catch the tail end of a retirement party, but all that was left was the host family. They were very hospitable and we stayed for a drink and some laughter.

On Sunday, Marie and I went to a Third Eye Blind concert at the Crystal Ballroom in Portland with a friend leaving for Nebraska soon.

On Wednesday, we are headed to Seattle for a Mariner's game and then I will go in on Friday for my TEE. Summer is happening and I am excited!

This week

A storm came through on Thursday and blew down some of our front yard tree. Marie cut it into smaller pieces and our landlord is going to take care of it for us.

The seniors at the high school graduated on Friday. I knew a few of them from class, but recognized many from being at the high school another year. It was a good ceremony.

Marie and I took a trip to Pacific City on Saturday. It was fun to be at the beach even though it was short.


A week and a half more of students!!!

my heart

I went in for my echo cardiogram on Thursday and they found that I have an enlarged valve that also leaks. I have an enlarged left ventricle as well. The doctor told me he wanted me in for a trans-esophageal scope to look at the other side of my heart. I will go in for this on June 26 and then the doctor will know more.

He told me that I will need surgery to replace my valve. We are not sure when but it seemed like not an immediate need, especially since I have no symptoms. He told me that at my age I will recover quickly, but it needs to be done in the next 2 or 3 years. I am imagining if it can be scheduled for this summer, I would take advantage of it.

I am covered through the school district, so I think I am in as good a spot as I can be in....except I need heart surgery.

Heart Murmur

I went to the doctor today and it turns out I have a heart murmur. He told me it is not too much to worry about, but scheduled me for a echo cardiogram for Thursday. They will be able to tell me more.

I went grocery shopping and brought in my own shampoo bottle. I filled it with bulk shampoo, but there was no price on the bottle. My cashier went back and found the price of the 2 gallon bottle and figured that was the price per pound. I then was charged $50 for a bottle of shampoo. I realized when I got home that I was charged too much. So I went back and got my money back. Never have I ever been charged so much for a bottle of shampoo.

The Brody Theatre

Last week, Marie and I went for a friends birthday party to a theater in Portland that had an improv show called doomed to repeat it. A group of actors take a suggestion from the audience, research the topic for a week and then come back and do an improv show on the subject. Last week we saw the Overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy. At the end of the show, Marie suggested they do a history of the pill. They took our idea and coming this week is the history of the pill. We are going to go see what they come up with.

200,000

My car recently went over 200,000 miles. I was able to film it while driving down empty streets in Mcminnville.

Greg Mortenson

Marie and I went to a talk by Greg Mortenson, the Author of Three Cups of Tea. He was a mountaineer who failed an attempt up K2, then stumbled into a small village emaciated, weak, and unbathed. The village elder took him under his wing and nursed him back to health. Greg saw that there were no schools and teachers, so he made it his personal quest to build them.

He has negociated with Militia men in Pakistan and has talked with all the Generals who have been in charge of Afghanistan. His book is required reading for soldiers and officers going to Afghanistan.

He was a great speaker and Marie and I stayed and got our books signed. He lives in Montana and we talked education and Montana for the 1 minute I had his attention at the book signing.

If you haven't heard about it, check out the Central Asia Institute.

Bridgetown

This weekend, Marie and I went up to Portland to see one of the shows of the Bridgetown Comedy festival. There was three improv/sketch groups to start our night. The last group was Beer Shark Mice. It was awesome. I laughed so hard I was hoarse the next day.

After an intermission (and another pitcher of beer) there were some stand-ups to entertain. The first was a local who was decent, but the second guy on shocked me. His name was Kyle and I played ultimate frisbee with him and also did open mics with him in Corvallis when he literally did his first jokes on a mic. I hadn't seen/talked/heard from him since 2005. After his time we went to the lobby and talked comedy and our past. Strange small world.

Todd Glass and Bill Dwyer were the only two comics I recognized the rest of the night. Maria Bamford, one of my favorite comics (#1 or #2 female) was scheduled but had a family issue and wasn't there. Janeane Garofalo walked up the aisle but never did any jokes.

On the ride home my cars odometer got up to 199,991. Next trip anywhere I will top 200,000. It would be more impressive if I put on all the miles but I got the car with 183,000.

DC

Marie and I woke up with my brother and when he drove to work he dropped us off at the mall. We had hopes of seeing the american history museum and the portrait gallery, as we had seen most things last summer. We got the AHM at 10am and the doors were just opening. We went to the 3rd floor and looked at Lincoln's collection almost by ourselves. Within a half an hour, it seemed that every school group in town was there. It fills fast.

We went through every room and saw all the displays in the musuem. Well worth it. We then grabbed a quick lunch and off to the portrait gallery. We saw the temporary exhibit and the presidential gallery. The coolest piece was the obama hope poster. It was originally a collage made of newspaper and then spray painted.
We then met my brother and grabbed our bags from his car and took the metro to the bus stop. We almost missed the bus. We did not have any change, and as Marie ran for cash, the bus showed up. It had closed its doors and pulled into traffic as we waved him down.

Needless to say the flight home was un-eventful and we made it back home at 11pm last night. Now comes the task of planning for next week with little time to decompress.

Free day in DC

Marie and I were on hold for over an hour on Wednesday night. I finally got through and asked if we could fly to DC standby on Thursday instead of Friday. They said no.....Sad. Marie woke up earlier than I and called to ask if we could just switch our ticket to Thursday and they said YES!!! Ask the right questions, i guess.
We hurriedly packed our bags and hailed a taxi as we were to fly out 2 hours later. We got to the airport in plenty of time and flew to Dulles airport. The ride from New Orleans to Dulles took us less time than the ride from Dulles to my brothers house (via bus and metro). My brother met us took us to his apartment and fed us some leftovers. We were very appreciative and also threw in a load of laundry.
We then went out to a nearby bar and played pub trivia. Daimon is a regular and his team is a competitive one for sure. Daimon's wife, Kirsten, joined us there. We played the five rounds and won. I was not able to help much on ancient rulers and their kingdoms but my shining star came with actors who starred in movies with pets and little kids.

We then went back to his apartment to watch the end of the Missou-Memphis game. It was awesome to have a place to sleep and not pay for it. THANK YOU BRO!

Beads.....and possibly another night

Wednesday Marie and I drove out to the industry part of the city for our last volunteer day. We signed up to help recycle Mardi Gras Beads. We worked with Arc employees to sort the beads. The beads were from pick up points around the city. People donate beads and trinkets associated with Mardi Gras at many spots around the city.

We then sorted them into piles and put alike beads into 30lb bags and put them on palettes.

We worked with others for six hours. Terrance, the man I was working with, became my "best friend" that day. It was a fun experience, and I am glad we did it.


We then returned to our hotel and took well deserved nap. We returned our rental car and realized we forgot to fill it up with gasoline. Whoops. It will cost us $5.99 a gallon to fill it. We then went out for drinks and appetizers. When we returned to our hotel we found out our flight was cancelled for tomorrow. We have been rerouted to Washington DC on Friday instead of Denver on Thursday. Marie and I are currently both on hold with Customer service. We are trying to get standby to DC tomorrow so I can stay with my brother, instead of paying for another night at a hotel. Wish us luck.

Thibodaux

Marie and I had signed up to help replant wetlands, and the only activity from our connection was to pot plants at the Nichols State U. farm in Thibodaux. We drove out of town and got to the University at around 10 o'clock. We met our connection Matt and he drove us to the green house. We learned how to mix up soil for the planters and filled cups to plant Christmas Berry. The greenhouse was used to plant starts of native plants to eventually be planted on a man made ridge used to stop erosion in the gulf. We talked and planted until noon. We made over 600 cups.

Matt then led us to a great lunch place called Bubba's, where Marie and I ate crawdads with great sides of potatoes and beans.


We then went to the Laurel Valley Plantation and saw an old general store/museum. There are also old slave houses that have been used in many movies including the scene in Ray when Ray Charles was young.

We then drove to Jean Lafitte National Preserve and hiked along boardwalks that led us into swamps. Around the visitors center we saw many lizards, frogs, birds and snakes. Marie was surprised how well I saw little animals that blended in so well. We then hiked through a picnic area and headed out to a swamp. We were all by ourselves at 5pm on a Tuesday. It was very peaceful. I was looking for baby gators when Marie spotted a pretty big one on a stump. It was probably 3 to 4 feet long. We walked further to the end of the boardwalk and on our way back I spotted another alligator. The gator was bigger and started to swim (I believed toward us), and started a large gator (6-7 feet long).

The big alligator began to growl, and startled us enough to get us to move quickly down the path. We realized we didn't get a photo, so we walked back and the two larger alligators swam through the water as we walked. We then ran into a few other hikers and told them about the wildlife. On our way back to the car Marie heard some rustling and spotted an armadillo rummaging through some leaves.



We then drove back into New Orleans and had a drink at our hotel. We then took the streetcar out past Loyola and Tulane university and ate at a little restaurant called Jaques-Imos. It was delicious food and nice to see a different part of town. We rode the Streetcar back and went fast to sleep on full bellies.