The Wandering Minstrel

After nearly seven decades of life on the planet, last weekend, I experienced three unique first-time life events:

1. I received my first concussion
2. I rode in an ambulance (other than as the driver)
3. I had my scalp stapled together

I assure you, none of these did I ever look forward to experiencing. But, life is full of lessons and these each taught me something.

First, I now know more about having a concussion than I ever wanted or needed to know. I know how concussions affect the brain’s control over motor-sensor mechanisms and thought processing. I know that it is expected to heal over as much as a six-month recovery period.

During the second ambulance ride of the day, I was transported to the trauma unit at a major Phoenix, AZ, hospital. I observed that drivers tailgate ambulances just as much as other traffic. Yes, Arizona has it’s share of crappy drivers.

Third, the emergency room physician put three staples in the inch-long laceration in my scalp. A couple of squirts of Novocaine and three clicks later and the wound had been secured.

If you would like to see the ER’s handiwork, click on the rectangle at the upper right. Red arrows have been added to assist the location of the staples amongst the blood-matted hair. The Better Half took this photo after I was released from the hospital last Sunday. The staples are scheduled to be removed next Thursday.

I visited my regular primary care provider today to follow-up after last weekend’s Humpty-Dumpty episode. Everything seems to be progressing normally after the head trauma. They told me that I definitely had a concussion and it might take months for the symptoms to diminish.

The really good news is that the frontal lobe bleed that took place in the hours after the initial injury was going away. They examined the CAT scan series to determine the diminishing bleed.

Apparently, if one were to fall and hit the back of the head, the brain would bounce off the back of the skull and recoil against the front, thereby causing the frontal bleeding. That’s what happened to me.

The best news of the day is that I can stop taking the anti-seizure meds that were wigging me out even more than the concussion. The symptoms there would be drowsiness, slight visual impairment, insomnia (in spite of the drowsiness) and some of the weirdest dreams I believe I have ever had.

From here, the sawbones tells me to take it easy (no problem - I’m retired) and to report back if any other adverse symptoms should occur. Oh, and the beer restriction has been lifted (que Handel’s hallelujah chorus), albeit I should take it slow for a while.

The 2012 Wickenburg Gold Rush Days is now in progress. One of today’s events is the Classic Car Show held on Frontier Street near the old AT&SF locomotive next to the chamber of commerce. We saw many of the same cars that were there last year, but there were many that we don’t remember seeing last year.

The Better Half took all of the photos in the slide show. I built the Flash™ animation from some of the many pictures she took. You can pause the slideshow by rolling the mouse cursor over the picture. Roll out to resume.

While many are celebrating Valentine’s day (and we’re no exception), citizens of Arizona are celebrating the 100th anniversary of being admitted to the Union. The Better Half is a native Arizonan, having been born near Fort Huachuca in the southern part of the state. I, on the other hand, am native to California.

We are happy and proud to be citizens of the state of Arizona. Here’s a brief history about our state from Wikipedia:

Arizona became a U.S. state on February 14, 1912. This resulted in the end to the territorial colonization of Continental North America. Arizona was the 48th state admitted to the U.S. and the last of the contiguous states to be admitted.

Cotton farming and copper mining, two of Arizona’s most important statewide industries, suffered heavily during the Great Depression, but it was during the 1920s and 1930s that tourism began to be the important Arizonan industry it is today. Dude ranches, such as the K L Bar and Remuda in Wickenburg, along with the Flying V and Tanque Verde in Tucson, gave tourists the chance to experience the flavor and life of the “old West”. Several upscale hotels and resorts opened during this period, some of which are still top tourist draws to this day; they include the Arizona Biltmore Hotel in central Phoenix (opened 1929) and the Wigwam Resort on the west side of the Phoenix area (opened 1936).

Arizona was the site of German and Italian POW camps during World War II and Japanese-American internment camps. The camps were abolished after World War II. The Phoenix area site was purchased after the war by the Maytag family (of major home appliance fame), and is currently the site of the Phoenix Zoo. A Japanese-American internment camp was located on Mount Lemmon, just outside of the state’s southeastern city of Tucson. Another POW camp was located near the Gila River in eastern Yuma County. Because of wartime fears of Japanese invasion of the west coast, all Japanese-American residents in western Arizona were required to reside in the war camps.

Arizona was also home to the Phoenix Indian School, one of several federal institutions designed to forcibly assimilate Native American children into Anglo-American culture. Children were often enrolled into these schools against the wishes of their parents and families. Attempts to suppress native identities included forcing the children to cut their hair and take on English names.

Arizona’s population grew tremendously after World War II, in part because of the development of air conditioning, which made the intense summers more comfortable. According to the Arizona Blue Book (published by the Arizona Secretary of State’s office each year), the state population in 1910 was 294,353. By 1970, it was 1,752,122. The percentage growth each decade averaged about 20% in the earlier decades and about 60% each decade thereafter.

The 1960s saw the establishment of retirement communities, special age-restricted subdivisions catering exclusively to the needs of senior citizens who wanted to escape the harsh winters of the Midwest and the Northeast. Sun City, established by developer Del Webb and opened in 1960, was one of the first such communities. Green Valley, south of Tucson, was another such community and was designed to be a retirement subdivision for Arizona’s teachers. Many senior citizens arrive in Arizona each winter and stay only during the winter months; they are referred to as snowbirds.

I italicized two words above: Wickenburg and snowbirds - during the winter months, our population nearly triples with all the winter residents. Vehicles in town wear a glossary of license plates from Maine to Washington and surprisingly from warmer states like Texas and New Mexico.

On our trip home last Friday, we passed the train yard adjacent to Interstate 10 in San Bernardino, CA. I noticed this Herzog locomotive at the head of a Union Pacific utility train. I’m sure these have been around for a while, but this is the first time I can recall seeing one of them. Clickable image courtesy of The Better Half.

One of the featured events for Wickenburg’s Gold Rush Days is the Classic Car Show. Exactly one year ago, we were enjoying the classic cars on display on Frontier Street in old downtown. I posted the slideshow seen below a year ago. Next Friday, I expect to post a slideshow from this years classics. To pause the slideshow, roll your mouse cursor over the images and back out to resume.

I mentioned that we were going to visit family and take some Valentine’s Day decorations to our loved ones grave sites. Well, today was the day. We visited The Better Half’s sister and her Mom. On the drive from the albatross* to the sister’s place we passed this poor dude in a gorilla costume waving a “cash for gold” sign. The Better Half and I joked about the poor bastard in fur on a 77° day wishing he had not dropped out of school - LOL.

* Albatross is the nickname we have given our California property - the market is too depressed (thanks to the Obamination and Democrats) to want to put the property on the real estate block so we speculate that it will pick up and we’ll be able to liquidate in a year or two.

Last week during target practice, I aimed the S&W 686 at the head of the silhouette target. I operated the revolver in single-action mode by cocking the hammer prior to squeezing the trigger. I managed to get six out of seven in the head and barely missed with one. If the target had bigger ears, I bet the shot that missed would have taken an ear off LOL!

Changing the subject, I had a lot of yard maintenance chores here at the old Kalifornistan house. I cut off some dying fronds from the palms in front of the house, trimmed the hedges and cleaned up an out-of-control prickly pear cactus by the gas meter. The Better Half helped with the clean up and distributed Round-Up where things had started sprouting in a variety of unusual places.

Tomorrow is family day and we will visit some of the relatives still here in the state. We also plan on visiting the grave sites of some of our departed who are buried nearby. After that a couple more chores and we will be ready to go home where we are free people rather than subjects in the People’s Republik.