Log Book (december) 

The tooth fairy visits Bianca again, apparently undeterred by the exchange rate.  If any more teeth fall out of Bianca's head she wont be able to eat. 

The first thing we do every day is wake up. 

The first thing I do is go running.  I am usually out around 6:30.  Lately I have been running up the hiking trails up to the top of the hills so I can see and hear the ocean.  I miss the ocean. 

The snow just makes things more beautiful.  The sun hasn't risen yet.  Everything is quiet and nobody else is up yet. This is good for me.  If I skip this part of my day, my brain has trouble getting out of neutral. 

This is the trail I am running on. 

The river that feeds Quidi Vidi has been full because of all the rain we have been getting lately.  This is on my way back down the hill.

While I am running everyone else gets up and Deb makes me breakfast and then goes up in the brewery and takes a shower. 

Most every day the girls do school in the boat.  About once a week they come up to the office I am renting and do school with me. 

Jannelle taking a break from School.

I spend most of my day behind my desk.  I write this web site, and I am working on a book that I have been contracted to write.  I also do a fair amount of goofing off on the web. Picture by Jannelle.

Picture by Jannelle

For lunch we head back down to Precipice

December 6

The singing Christmas tree extraordinair

We got invited to the local Pentecostal Church's Christmas concert.  If I were to do a Saturday night live spoof of a Church Christmas concert, this would fit the bill almost completely. Deb and I found ourselves laughing.  It was just too much Hollywood squares meets 1973 lighting technology and music.   It was a little embarrassing.  For everyone.  I am very glad that I got to spend time with friends though. 

I can imagine that just about anything I write about this sign is going to get me a letter from somebody not happy with me.

WE HAVE UPDATED OUR PICTURE SECTION HERE

December 9

The first time I have had Icicles hanging from my boat while in the water

Jannelle hanging ornaments on the Quidi Vidi Village Christmas tree. 

Today we got to be part of Quidi Vidi's first annual tree lighting.  In years past the did something called Mumming. It is like Caroling in the states, except I am told that the costumes here were crazy.  I am sorry to have missed that, but the town felt that it was getting unsafe with the kids running ahead to the next house and cars driving fast on the narrow, crooked village roads.  The Christmas tree lighting was a fun event.  I was amazed at how much of the town showed up, and also, how much of the town I knew already.  I would guess about 100 people showed up.  We counted down and then, like magic, the Christmas tree lit up.  Later, Santa Clause showed up.  Just as I suspected, Santa has a home in Newfoundland and lets the elves work up at the North Pole while he enjoys the relatively mild St. John's weather.  He even has a genuine Newfoundland accent.  I never really noticed this as a kid, but it all makes sense now.

Santa makes a rare appearance just outside his secret home in Newfoundland.

Jannelle and Bianca with Nan, who used to own the antique shop across the street and is allowing the village to use her yard for the tree. 

The tree is lit, and everyone joined in singing.  Even me.  It was good to be part of it. 

Deb is having fun, even though her core body temperature was more suitable for hibernation.

Way up on the hill, a reminder of why the birth happened. 

I left feeling glad to be part of Quidi Vidi.  Community. 

December 12 MARCONI DAY

Here I am helping Paul enter in call signs as we made contact with hams around the world

On this day in 1901 the first transatlantic radio signal was received on what is now called Signal Hill by Guglielmo Marconi.  Every year on this day, ham radio operators from around the world try to contact Signal Hill at radio station V01AA.  I was one of the radio operators manning the station this year, with my newly minted ham license.  I worked the station for about 15 minutes, and made contact with hams in Europe and in the USA.  I bowed out quickly though, because I sounded like a dork - this being my first time at the mike. It is nice though, because every year at this time I can remember the day of my first HF radio experience - Marconi Day. 

Bianca watches Joe send signals by Morse Code.

Joe operating using Morse Code.  He could talk to me and listen to it at the same time.  It was amazing.

The Ham Radio Shack on signal hill

This is the trail that Jannelle and Bianca walked with me to get up to Signal Hill

The wind up on Signal hill was so strong, they closed the tower.  A security guy had to let us in. 

Dec 13

This morning I got up and did my usual run, except that I decided to run up to Signal Hill instead of my usual route east of Quidi Vidi.  The run up to Signal Hill is a little more developed and has stairs on the difficult parts.  It is also well traveled compared to my usual route.  The temperature was warm.  It was 16 degrees (62F) when I left on my run.  I passed a couple walking their Dalmatian and an older man also out for a walk.  Then I ran as hard as I could up the longest set of stairs, going two at a time and took a rest at the top taking a picture. 

My Picture from the top of the stairs. 

I turned around from taking my picture, and the old man I had passed earlier was just getting to the top of the stairs.  He looked like he was having trouble.  I started to say something and he started to fall forward.  He took a swing at the hand rail at the top of the steps, missed, and did a perfect face plant right into the solid rock ground.  I ran over to him and tapped him hard on the shoulder and asked him if he needed help.  He didn't respond and he wasn't breathing.  At this point the couple I had passed earlier reached the top of the steps.  I yelled at them that if they had a cell phone, they should call 911.  At this point, everything else I did, I only knew how to do it because I had taken CPR.  I had just refreshed my CPR for my Captains license last month, and I am glad I did. 

I rolled the man on his back.  He was blue, just like a pair of jeans.   I tilted his head back and listened for breathing - none. When I tilted his head back I could feel for pulse at his neck with my hand - nothing.  His body was rigid at this point, and his tongue was stuck between his teeth.  I stuck two of my fingers in his mouth and opened it and looked inside for any obstruction.  His mouth was clear.  His tongue was bloody from where he had bit it, and his lip was bloody from where he had hit the rock.  I said to myself that it was time to get bloody.  I plugged his nose, put my mouth over his and gave him two rescue breaths.  It didn't seem like anything went in, like I was blowing on a plugged hose.  I locked my hands together and gave him 30 chest compressions.  I put my hand on his neck to check for a pulse and felt nothing, and I couldn't hear any breathing.  At this point, he was still blue - but he looked different.  I don't know if there is a color for dead, but if there is - he was that color.  Gaunt, lifeless, gone. His eyes just stared into nothingness, and they looked dead too. 

This kind of pissed me off. 

My next rescue breath was either going to get some air in, or I was going to blow his lungs and eardrums out.  I plugged his nose, put my mouth over his and blew hard.  Nothing. I checked in his mouth for something stuck in there and it was clear. I plugged his nose, put my mouth over his and blew HARD.  I heard a wet fleghmy gurgling noise that would have been really gross at any other time but sounded good to me because I had gotten air in!  My heart sank though, because none of the air I just got in came out.  My next thought was - time to break some ribs.  My first CPR instructor said that if you don't feel ribs cracking, you probably aren't pushing hard enough.  I locked my hands together, got myself over top of him and put all of my 100kg (220lbs) on his chest.  I felt things cracking.  Five of them.  I got the air out of his lungs though.  Each of my 30 chest compressions were hard enough to hurt someone.  My next rescue breaths were difficult, but I knew already how much pressure it would take to get air into this guy.  My next set of 30 chest compressions took all my weight but I could feel that they were doing the trick.  I plugged his nose, and just as I was about to put my mouth over his he gasped in a breath of air.  One gasp!  Oh how beautiful a sound!  I checked his pulse.  Nothing.  Shit.  Because he had pulled in some air, I immediately started pumping his chest hard, cracking more things in the process.  After about twenty compressions he breathed a couple of breaths and stopped.  I started talking to him. "Come on, you can do this - BREATHE, just do it for me.  You got to just do this."  I started compressions again and he started breathing and stopped.  It was like I was trying to get an engine started that was flooded.  Each try, and the engine would run just a little bit longer and then stop.  "Nice work there, but you have to KEEP ON BREATHING," I told him in that jerky voice you make when you are talking the same time you are pushing on something.  He started breathing again, and then he looked at me.  His eyes moved.  I checked for a pulse at his neck and felt that most beautiful feeling of a throbbing vein pushing back against my finger.  I let myself feel good, and it washed over me.  After a couple of minutes he asked me a question he would ask me at least five more times, "Where am I?"

By this time,  I could hear sirens off in the distance but we where a good 15 minute fast walk from a road.  The man who had the phone had left to go show the rescue team where to go and had left the phone with his wife next to me.  The 911 dispatcher wanted to talk to me.  I asked the guy who had just remembered how to breathe a bunch of questions, but I wasn't getting any answers that made sense.  His age changed between questions, and so did prior conditions.  Pretty complex stuff to remember when you were just dead.  He stopped talking and then closed his eyes and faded on me.   I slapped him, "YOU HAVE TO STAY AWAKE, YOU CAN SLEEP LATER IN THE HOSPITAL, I HAVE TO KNOW IF YOU ARE ALIVE!"  He softly says something that still is going through my mind, "This is a good place to die, I have always wanted to die on this trail and today is a good day."  He closes his eyes again.  I tap his face, "YOU ARE NOT GOING TO DIE TODAY, NOT ON MY WATCH, YOU CAN PICK SOME OTHER DAY TO DIE BUT NOT TODAY"

At this point, the fire rescue guys showed up and put an oxygen tube around his ears and into his nose.  He started to take on a little nicer pink color, and he started making more sense. 

He didn't really start making any sense until they hooked up the oxygen tank.

The paramedic team came and set up a sled like body board, and slid him down the stairs with a rope, and then carried him the rest of the way to the ambulance. 

All strapped in, ready for a sled ride down the hill.

I visited him later that night.  He was coherent and sitting up in bed.  Apparently, his heart has always had a bad rhythm.  The doctors still don't know what happened.  They know it wasn't a stroke or a heart attack.  He did tell me again that he wants to die healthy, and that if he would pick a place to die, that trail would be a good place.  He did genuinely thank me for my work, and his daughter called me and invited our family over for dinner. 

I got home after all this and cried in the shower.  I guess I just had emotions that I didn't let myself feel until I could relax.  It's a pretty big deal to see and touch someone who is dead, and then feel their heart start and hear them breathe. 

A couple thoughts:

1. If you don't know CPR or you haven't taken it in years do yourself a favor and take it again.  If I had not just taken a refresher course I wouldn't have had a clue what to do.  With the course in my head, I just followed the steps.  I cannot imagine how down I would feel if I had this guy die in front of me.  Don't think what you see on TV is going to help you either. 

2. Getting air in and out of this guy was difficult at first.  If I hadn't been coached on the whole "cracking noises are normal" thing I would have been to squeamish to go as far as I did in getting this guy's system pumping. 

3. Buy yourself one of those CPR kits that keep your mouth away from their mouth.   By the time I got done, I had blood all over my face and hands and in my mouth.  It would have been nice to have gloves and the right tools.  I took the class and was told this twice, but like everyone didn't think that this would ever happen to me.  It is a pretty yucky job. 

4. Life is fragile.  Any one of us can go at any moment.  Are you living the life you should be? 

The girls played in the Jacuzzi and very loudly had fun.

Later that night, friends of ours invited us over for dinner.  They had a niece visiting also.  The three girls had fun all night, eventually taking in two movies, overloading a Jacuzzi, and building a gingerbread house.  We had steak and potatoes, watched the "Bee Movie" and went home. We had the whole boat to ourselves while the girls stayed and had an ever so poorly named "sleepover". 

The gingerbread house was quickly devoured before the US mortgage fiasco could damage it's value.

One last thing about today.  It was 64 degrees today and we were out in T-Shirts.   St. John's is about the same latitude as Sault Ste Marie, but the Gulf Stream moderates the climate.  This means that all you people in Grand Rapids, MI (where we came from) are all much much colder than we are.  I don't miss it. 

December 14

Two thirds of the three wise men. 

Jannelle and Bianca acted in the church Christmas play, both being wise men.  It was a good play, if not a little long for my attention span (about 31.5 min.) for these things.  Jannelle got to carry a camel (not pictured) and they both had lines.  Bianca even spoke up so that everyone could hear her.  I will have to get in touch with the church and see how they pulled that off. 

One of the church members brought yesterday's newspaper in.  Jannelle and Bianca and I got a half page full color picture of us talking on the Ham Radio on Marconi day.  I will try to scan it in later. 

December 18

Erin Sulley, of the CBC TV show "Living Newfoundland Labrador" came and visited our boat. 

A Newfoundland daily TV show came and interviewed our family on what it takes to live in a small space.  The show itself is a kind of a "Hints from Heloise" on steroids giving tips for living from members of the community.  The topic for our family was getting along in a small space.  The crew spent a half hour in our boat, didn't ask any dumb questions, and didn't act like our life was this extraordinary big deal, which was kind of refreshing.  The camera man, Daryl, was patient with us as we remembered how to talk with a microphone in our face.  It was fun.  When the actual show is made, of which we will star in about 2 min. of, I will get you a link. 

I am still getting used to the whole "shoreline-facing-east" concept.  I kind of like sunrises.  This is from my morning run.  Nobody died. 

December 20

Precipice grows a skirt

Last night we had 45kts of wind and -13 Temps (8F).  The waves lapping up on our boat built up an ice skirt all around Precipice.  We also found out that the automatic electric heater we bought two months ago was stuck on low. This is the fifth heater we have bought in an attempt to find one that works.   We were still all warm and cozy, and are good to go for lower temperatures - although it usually doesn't get much colder than this here. 

December 22

Deb's Dad got us a bouquet of flowers. It immediately became our Christmas tree.  Our best gift yet.  Thanks Dad!

(Notice that I removed the Red Eye from this picture so that you could look at it, Mom S.)

Dec 23 hiking

The sun sets over the old American Military Base

St. John's Bay

The Sun Rises over St. John's Bay

Bell Island

Our friends Jack and Kim.

Flat Rock Bay

Crossing a Stream

Lunch over looking........

...... the bay.

Cows in Newfoundland.  Our first sighting.  We miss cows. 

Happy Shiny People Everywhere.

Dec 24-28

These days are a blur. We partied like, well, like we were Newfoundlanders.  We had salt fish, lamb, turkey, more turkey, ham, and much much more.  The cooking was great.  We went somewhere every night.  Some days we went two places.  Gifts were given, many more were received.  We did not find the holidays wanting.  Thank you everyone for inviting us and sometimes giving us rides. We truly had a good time and nobody, and I mean nobody, beats the hospitality of Newfoundlanders.  Amen.  

December 27

We woke up this morning and Precipice wasn't moving.  She was locked solid in the ice. 

Dec 28

In the middle of the night Deb noticed that our boat was starting to tilt.  I pulled on some pants and stepped out into -10 (14f) temperatures to find that our boat was being shoved into the wharf by the ice as the tide went out.  Not good.  I started wishing that I had hot water to melt the ice with after I tried hitting it with a boat hook and finding it rock hard.  I could walk around the boat on the ice.  I remembered something said to me by the owner of the brewery about how he wished that he could use the latent heat of the harbor for a heat pump to heat the brewery with.  I realized that my boat came equipped with an 18HP heat pump.  I started the motor and put it into reverse.  After about a half hour the ice was soft enough to start breaking up from the warmer water being brought to the surface by the propeller of our boat still tied to the dock. After about two hours, we had created our own little personal harbor surrounded by three inch thick ice.  We were pretty pleased with ourselves, if not a little tired. 

Our personal circle of Ice free water.

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