Friday, April 23, 2010

Recovery

It's been some time since my last post.  This year kicked off with positive thoughts and a good day on the river, then went down hill from there.  Luckily things very recently have hopefully turned for the better.  I've had some major health issues since Sept. of last year and haven't been able to get any answers as to why I've been in such bad shape.  After many doctors and tests an odd bump on my gums eventually appeared and provided the needed clue.  The short story is that I had a root canal that was horribly done, think metal file left in root canal, back in '07 and sometime in the past year my upper jaw developed a horrible infection.  After a few procedures, you really don't want details, I am hopefully now on the road to good health.  There is going to be a period of recovery and hopefully no complications.  There will be a number of years of serious dental work in my future:(

Between all the fun health issues I've been working stupid hard at the Paddle Sports Center at Next Adventure.  Nice weather has kicked the season off early and the shop has been very busy.  Light staffing, a new building to build out, and a full kayak school to oversee have made for some long days at work.  I'm also working hard on pulling my finances together and looking into some exciting new invesments, more info to come soon:)  I have managed to get outside a few days in the past few months, but not nearly enough.  I'll let the pictures below speek for themselves.

Julie is teaching her last day as a student teacher today!  She graduates in about a week and is very happy to see the light at the end of the tunnel.  She worked with her students to build a set for the high school play of "Oklahoma" and the show turned out great.  (Would post some great pictures, but liability issues with kids preclude me from doing so.)  She has been putting in some time on the water with both Dragon Boating and Outrigger Canoeing, and has her first big race tomorrow.  Julie is looking forward to summer and having some time to play outside.

(Julie at the top of Beacon Rock in the Gorge.)
(Julie at the top of Beacon Rock looking East up the Columbia.)
(This is the amazing "trail" up Beacon Rock.)
(Some more of the Beacon Rock Trail.)
(Me having a great day on the river with friends.  This is Off Ramp on the Farmlands section of the White Salmon River in WA.)
(My good friend Stephen Wright enjoying a spring day of boating in the gorge.)
(Me having a great line off Lava Falls on the Farmlands section of the White Salmon River.)
(Fun sculpture outside of the boathouse where Julie's Dragon Boat and Outrigger teams train out of.)
(Julie excited to be playing outside, even though her boots clash with her jacket.  We had a great 3 day weekend up at Steven's Pass Ski Resort outside of Seattle.)
(Me in my stylish new Mountain Hardware jacket at Steven's Pass.)
(Julie and I stopped by the Seattle Aquarium on our way home from skiing.  Cool place, but not as good as the National Aquarium in Baltimore.)
(Joe styling Double Drop on the Truss section of the White Salmon River at 3.5ft.)
(Bald eagle on Ross Island near downtown PDX on the Willamette River.)
(Bald eagle comming in for a landing.)
(The first Ross Island Tour of the year run through the new Next Adventure Kayaking School. 60 degrees, sunny, and no wind.  An amazing morning on the water in PDX.)

(Most of these shots came from my new Nikon D90.  Looking forward to getting back into photography with this amazing tool.)