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UltraMom out of School

Wednesday, May 14
School is out for the year, and I’m feeling a mixture of relief and wistfulness. I suppose I should be ‘mature’ (nice way to say ‘getting old.’) and wise, and talk about how much I learned about myself, but I don’t really think that is the case, except the ‘mature’ part, of course.
The last day for all classes was Wednesday. I brought my special oatmeal-peanut butter-chocolate chip-raisin cookies to each class, and had enough left over to wreak minor havoc on my latest WW weigh in. In C N A, we finished up our skills testing. Reminiscent of a cheesy game show, we turned over cards laid out on a table top, which determined which three actual skills each of us had to demonstrate. Actually, I had finished mine last week, having drawn ‘feeding a patient’, ‘making an occupied bed’, and ‘perineal care.” Classmate Erica volunteered to be my patient for the first 2 skills; ‘Sarah Johnson’, the dummy in bed #1 would do for the third.
Contrary to Johnny’s assertion, making an occupied bed involves no witchcraft, just finely honed skill and a lot of making the patient roll over from side to side of the bed. When I had finished, Erica gave me a gentle reminder that I had forgotten to lower her bed. “I hope I don’t fall out of bed. It’s going to really hurt from way up here.” Thanks, kiddo.
I dumped the dirty linens, rewashed my hands and returned with instant pudding and a glass of water. “Hi Erica, I’m Kathy. I’ll be your C N A today, and I’m going to feed you your snack,” I rattled off, practicing my ‘7 ins’ while pretending to draw the privacy curtain. I tied on the ‘clothing protector’ (Link would call it a ‘bib’) and got to work. “Mmm,” said my patient, “this is good. Did you make it yourself? I would like to get your recipe.” “I did,” I told her “but I’m afraid the recipe is a family secret.” I didn’t mean to lie, but I did so want to impress.
The unfortunate Sarah Johnson in Bed #1 was missing both arms, had a bed sore or two and was badly in need of a good hair combing. I said missing both arms, but one arm actually lay next to her in the bed. She did, however, have a thoroughly clean and dry perineum by the time I was finished with her.
On this Wednesday, the last day of class, I was the patient volunteer for Donna. Donna already works in this field and made my occupied bed in about half the time it had taken me. She then took my right arm and hand through a set of range of motion exercises; then headed over for Sarah Johnson. Out of 20 or so skills, Donna had drawn two out of three skills the same as the ones I tested on. I must admit, she was a tad more competent.
After Donna’s testing, we received our pins and certificates. Now all that was left was to schedule our state board testing, and cough up another $100 or so.
My last Tai Chi class was short; our instructor had to leave early to pick up his wife from the airport. I have the 9 forms routine down pretty well, but the Liang Gong and warm up exercises are pretty hit and miss. But I have enjoyed this class.
Usually I would run home in between classes to let my dogs out, but Pat was taking care of that for me this day. She took the day off work for a Dr. appointment and we met in town for lunch at Taco Bell. UltraDad does not enjoy Mexican food, so I try to enjoy it when not with him. And I really do like Taco Bell’s vegetarian burrito loaded with beans, rice, cheese and sour cream!
I spent the several hours before “Drugs” class sitting in my car going over the terms I would be defining for my final. We had also done this activity the first day of class, and our answers this time would, ostensibly, show improved understanding. ‘Addiction, co-dependency, co-addiction, 12 step programs, uppers, downers, alcohol dependency, alcohol addiction, recovery, relapse’ and so on. The teacher made a point of saying we need only write a few lines defining and giving an example of each term, but I seem to be incapable of that. I was the last one to leave, and had covered 3-4 hand written pages.
Directly after handing in my final, I drove over to the VFW hall to lead a Weight Watcher meeting, rounding out a very busy day.
In some ways, I’m looking forward to a slightly slower pace for summer, if the weather ever cooperates enough to head in that direction. There is gardening to do and, hopefully, some trips to take. Where I’m headed from here remains to be seen, but one thing is for certain. I will be back!

UltraMom

Happy Mother’s Day to Me (and YOU)

First of all, very best thoughts and wishes to UltraGirl, the new mom on the block. Hope you are healing and finding motherhood more rewarding than exhausting!

As we know, Mother’s Day is a commercial holiday designed to improve business for florists and jewelry store. A time for expectations and obligations. That said, I still appreciate the day for the reason of phone calls and well wishes from my kids.

It was, as I told Johnny, an uneventful day. UltraDad was home, and his feet are feeling better. He got the swamp cooler ready in the event that we actually do get summer, let alone spring, and did some week-whacking before heading back to Ruby Valley to prepare for another work week. I went to church, cut UltraDad’s hair and had a nice nap this afternoon. I went over to Sis-in-law Pat’s house and we played cribbage and ate steak.
Johnny called, was available for call back and had a online chat with me, all much appreciated. He even wrote me some verse: Roses are red, violets are gay, I wish you a Happy Mother’s Day.” And a song, sung, supposedly to the tune of La Cucaracha:
“Happy Mother’s Day
It’s like any other day,
‘Cept unlike any other day
This is Mother’s Day.

I told him he needed a few more words, and maybe a mariachi band to pull it off.

Had a very nice Phone chat with Heather, which I always enjoy.
Talked to Jim, and heard “You must not like your mother’s day present. You never put pictures of it on your website.” Of course I must prove him wrong on that score, so here is my beautiful, fantastical Mother’s Day Woodburning of antlered elk.

Signed by the artist!

UltraDad and I went to see Iron Man in the Movie Theater yesterday. We thoroughly enjoyed it and I came home inspired to make a few changes to my Mother’s Day woodburning.

Ironman saves the elk!

And so, commercial or not, the sentiment of honoring Moms, imperfect though we may be, is a good one. So Happy Mother’s Day to all, and to all a good night.

UltraMom

Happy Birthday UltraGirl!

Happy Birthday UltraGirl! May 4, 2008

I know in Japan we have already moved on to May 5th, but here in the USA it is still UltraGirl’s birthday. UltraAuntDebi, whose birthday is on May 3rd, and I were discussing the different time zones and decided, just to be safe, that we would celebrate our own birthdays for a week before and after the actual day. I think UltraGirl should do the same!
I know you already have what you have hoped for above all else, that perfect, adorable little Link, but I hope you also got some extra spoiling.
I’ve had a busy week, as usual, but I only have two more weeks of school left, so it should slow down some after that. I went to work at a different prison store on Friday, filling in for the regular storekeeper who is recovering from a knee replacement surgery. It was a 14 hour day, including the driving, and was the 3rd Friday I have done this. I probably have one left to go. Ironically, two weeks ago while working there, I hurt MY knee, and it is still giving me problems. I also have to check the MacGallery and Dynamic Duo website every hour or so (when a computer is available) for any updates or new pictures of Link, which takes a lot of time! Saturday, I drove to UltraDad’s house in Ruby Valley. UltraJimbo was already there, having driven up Thursday night. The guys spent Friday at Ultradad’s sister Kathy’s place (a ranch about 45 minutes away) hunting gophers. Per UltraDad’s request, I printed out an album full of Link pictures for his brag book.
Thinking about UltraGirl brings to mind the great time Heather and I had on our trip to Japan a year ago last December. The best part was getting to spend time with UltraGirl and get to know her a little better. As I was looking at some posts I wrote about our Japan adventures, I realized I never finished the narrative. So, in honor of UltraGirl’s birthday, I will write about one of the trip highlights I never got around to writing about, though I had good intentions: Hakone. But first, a disclaimer. I cannot seem to find any of the notes I wrote about the trip. I just reviewed my photos and did a little research on the web, but what you are mostly getting here are impressions and snatches of foggy memory. Feel free to correct any glaring inaccuracies, but also, cut me a little slack and creative license!

Hakone: Land of Hot Water and Black Eggs

We made the drive by car with ultra capable UltraBob at the wheel. The scenery was interesting and varied and I took a lot of semi-blurry ocean pictures out of my back seat car window. Perhaps some of you can recognize this and tell me what it is:


I don’t know what town we were passing through, but a couple of building particularly caught my eye. One was the KathyMom Quilt shop. It would have been interesting to take a look inside.

The KathyMom Quilt Shop

This is, of course, the Merry Chapel Christmas Hotel. I don’t think I have every seen anything quite so garish.


I’m not really sure how long we drove, but I remember the road being quite steep as we drove up and up and up. And now we were seeing gorgeous hillsides in hues of red, green, yellow and orange. It definitely looked like Autumn, though the month was December. Perhaps that IS Autumn in Japan?


We walked on Owakundani Trail (at least that is what the sign in one of my photos calls it), winding along through an otherwordly sparsely forested hilly scene of bubbling hot pools and steam rising out of the ground. The signs instructed us to ‘keep left’, which I had a hard time remembering to do at times. In America, of course, we drive on the RIGHT side of the road. As we walked and climbed, I became aware of a whirring sound. I turned around to see that UltraBob had whipped out his razor and was shaving. It’s nice to have such an accommodating razor that will let you shave anywhere, but I still found this an odd choice of time and location for this grooming activity.

Be careful if you have a medical condition!


An other-wordly landscape


Time for a Shave?

Our destination was the hot spring shack to get some hard boiled eggs. These special eggs were boiled directly in the hot springs in special vats. The minerals in the water turned the egg shells quite black. At this very touristy location, we joined a long line of folks waiting to buy 6-packs of these eggs, the eating of which was said to increase your lifespan by 7 years. We joined the crowds cracking our eggs on black-shell-shard littered tables and passed the salt before consuming our, hopefully, life-extending eggs. They were quite good.

Egg Boiling Vats


Not really sure what they're trying to tell us here...


Let's go for 14 years!


Extending our lives

After some lunch, we made our way to Yunessun to sample for ourselves the delights of the hot springs. At Yunessun, we were issued a wrist band and an assigned locker, where we stashed our clothes and belongings as we changed to swim suits. The wrist bands could be used as credit cards of sorts, and eliminated the need to carry cash for purchasing snacks from vending machines or food stands. As one site put it “spending money was never easier!” You just settle up and the end when you check out. I didn’t actually take many pictures here, and I have lost my cheat sheet telling me how to insert links, so I suggest you check out this website by the cut and paste method.
http://www.yunessun.com/english/location.html


We had a wonderful time sampling the themed, outdoor hot pools. One was filled with red wine, another with green tea. Heather and I enjoyed laying out on heated stones. I had to get my courage up to leave one pool long enough to walk to the next one. It was a little chilly out of the water. There were some gigantic pools inside, Mediterranean in style, complete with jets and musical light shows at intervals. After we had our fill of that, it was time for the Onsen, or more traditional Japanese bathing, without the cumbersome swim suits. I believe this part was called Mori NO YU (from the website) and featured (thank goodness!) separate bathing areas for men and women.
UltraBob had to go it alone as Heather, UltraGirl and I made our way to the women’s side. Heather and I were glad we had UltraGirl to show us how it was done. First we washed ourselves completely, including our hair, in special outdoor showers. Then, armed with a small hand towel, we were off to the baths. The towels, UltraGirl showed us, could be used to cover strategic body parts while walking from bath to bath. While in the hot pools, you could tie or lay the towel on your head, but you were not supposed to get it wet. Of course that was one of the first things I did as I tipped my head too far having already forgotten the soft terry cloth rectangle balanced there.
I found this experience to be relaxing and invigorating at the same time, and is one I would not have liked to miss. I found one spot I especially liked where I could lay back, feeling the cool nighttime air on my face while my unencumbered body soaked in the stony pool’s hot mineral water, The dimmed lights and soft music helped in creating this peaceful atmosphere. I even kind of forgot about UltraGirl and Heather for a few moments as they moved on to try out other pools.
In time, we met back up with UltraBob, whom I assume was having a relaxing time of his own. UltraGirl and I got completely dressed, but UltraBob and Heather seemed loath to part with their stylish spa robes.


I really like the way many Japanese restaurants graphically display their menu choices in the window, complete with prices. You can see just what each menu option looks like and what it will cost you before deciding what to order. Another good thing: no tipping. After another, in a long line of, delicious meal, we headed back to the Ultras home. In just a few days, it would be time to leave.


UltraGirl, I hope you have enjoyed seeing Japan through my eyes. The next time I come, I will have something even more exciting to see and get to know: my little grandson, Link. I know you and UltraBob will be wonderful parents. Happy Birthday, my sweet daughter.
Much Love,
UltraMom