Last week I went back to Kansas to see my middle daughter, Chelsea, graduate from nursing school.

It was a good trip. As always I was dreading the weather there. I do not do well in hot weather. In fact, I hate it. I never have liked it, and living in the mountains in Colorado and here on the Olympic Peninsula has really spoiled me. Cool weather and beautiful surroundings – perfect. The weather was actually cool and much like where I am now – 50s and 60s, with some cloudy days.

I bought a new GPS at Cabela’s at a screaming deal. This was followed up, of course, by lunch at he best barbecue in the land – Rosedale’s.

I got to see family and friends – some who I had not seen in many, many years and it was really good to see everyone. Perhaps if they see this blog we can stay in touch.

The graduation was really nice. I am proud of you, Chelsea! You will be great at your new profession! If you were here you could try out your new skills… More on that later.

Friday night’s celebration was a lot of fun. No further details will be provided, but suffice to say it was a big time.

It was a good trip, but it is always good to get back home too. Once I see the water I know that I am back and ready to get on that ferry to come back across.

On Sunday, I ended up going out for a late but hearty breakfast with my friend Sue and then we took off and did a couple of hikes in Olympic National Park. We spent the whole day together. We had a great time and it was one of the best days I have ever had. You could say there has been a lot of smiling lately…

I got back out to my island on Monday. The weather has been absolutely gorgeous. Sunny, very few clouds, mid 60 temperatures, and smooth water to be out on. Paradise. I got some grass mowed, and spent several hours out of the water.

DAZED AND CONTUSED

When I got out here, there had been a landslide across the road coming from the marina on the island up to the top of my cabin is. There are some researchers out here who had cleared some of it out of the way before I got here but it was still blocking most of the road. I moved a little bit more, but some of the boulders were just too big to move. The landslide is these large boulders, but it’s not rock. It’s made up of glacial silt – sand dirt rock.

It’s a long story so I will cut through the fluff. We were clearing off the road. The biggest boulder had been pushed up onto another one and we were trying to break it apart to make it manageable with the tractor. Being soft, some of them would just break into really fine dust almost the consistency of talcum powder. I was trying to break the big one apart and it broke where I didn’t think it was going to break. It’s split into three smaller but still large pieces. One of them rolled down on me and pinned my leg on the ground. Not sure how heavy it was, but it was substantial. It took two people to pick it up just enough for me to get my leg out. Without the adrenaline rush, they couldn’t move it after I got up and got into the truck. I must note that the people I work with were awesome. They sprang into action quickly and calmly and took care of things. Mad props to them.

So off we went to the doctor. It didn’t seem like anything was broken – I can move my ankle, I could move my leg, I can move my toes, I can move my foot – so everything seemed to be okay.

After getting it painfully cleaned up and some x-rays, I was told I was extremely lucky that nothing was broken. When it hit me, it rolled once and scraped down the front of my shin right below my knee, stopping just above my ankle with the uphill part of the boulder. I have a pretty nasty scrape there and you could say that there is some swelling. A lot of swelling.

Today, my calf is swollen about half again it’s normal size. Got some pretty good aches and pains everywhere from getting bodyslammed to the ground. My shin hurts to even the lightest touch – I’d swear Kathy Bates had been babysitting me.

Looks like I won’t be doing any motorcycle riding for a few weeks now. We were really looking forward to getting out on two wheels. Oh well, the best weather is yet to come.

This looks to be possibly a busy weekend out here. This is a few of the eleven days of the sporadic halibut season, plus with the unofficial beginning of summer Monday there is going to be a lot of people out and about. Good luck to the halibut fishermen!

Well, off to prop my leg up for a few hours before I head to town for a grocery run. It is going to be a great weekend!