Australia business trip

  A week after Jackson's surgery I was sent off to Australia on a 10-day business trip for work.  Short story: the customer is a smelter on Boyne Island in Queensland (Northeast coast) that bought a retrofit trough with all the fancy automation.  It made for a challenging project...and it didn't help that we had to wear long-sleeved shirts, pants, and boots in 85-degree and %80 humidity.  Around the pits it was probably close to 90 degrees and %85 humidity.  Yuck!  But that's all work stuff...let's get to the real goodies of the trip!
  After finishing up early on Wednesday, my two colleagues (Jorgen and Tiho) and I took the advice of our customer contacts and spent a day on Heron Island (here's the website: http://www.heronisland.com/).  Since it was the middle of the week, we got a room for $315which included the boat ride to and from Gladstone (where we were staying).  The room wasn't much, but we didn't really spend a lot of time in it!  It was great...no TV, no cell service, no internet...just white sandy beaches, blue sky, and beautiful clear blue water.  The first thing we did was rent snorkel gear and head to "Shark Bay", where we were told we would have the best chance to see...yes, sharks!  The nice gal (who actually happened to be from Oregon) assured us that the sharks and rays were harmless, but my instincts still were screaming "Stay away!".   Here's a rough map of the island:

I have to come clean here and say I wasn't too excited to go snorkeling with sharks.  This mainly stems from the snorkeling experience I had in Cabo Mexico on my honeymoon, which is where I first tried snorkeling.  The waves were fairly high, the water was pretty cloudy, and I swear I got sick from swallowing that nasty Mexican sea-water.  It also doesn't help that I'm not much of a swimmer...but this all changed after swimming in the Great Barrier Reef!
  It only took 15 minutes and Jorgen spotted his first black-tipped reef shark.  Jorgen didn't buy a $20 waterproof camera like I did, so naturally he wanted me to swim over and take pictures.  Imagine my trepidation...by the time I came over the shark was gone (I was actually relieved), but we did find a 6-foot Shovelnose Ray bedded down in the sand.  While we were standing there waist-deep in the water taking in the view and planning our next destination, Jorgen jumped out the the water and freaked out..."Something just brushed my leg!!!!".  I threw my mask on and took a peek...there were about 15 Eagle Rays surrounding us!  Two even bedded down next to the Shovelnose Ray we were standing by...
  Now, you're probably wondering "Where the hell are the pictures, Phil?!".  Funny story...for whatever reason, that cheasy POS (piece - o - shit) $20 camera I bought didn't take one damn picture!  I got it all the way back to the states and found out the whole roll of film was blank...yes I am pissed.  But believe me, that first afternoon was awesome!
  After we saw a few more Shovelnose Rays we decided to check out the area just west of the harbor.  When we got there, we could see 5 sharks circling in the shallows.  Jorgen waded in and started taking pictures, and when I saw the sharks were paying him no attention I finally got up the nerve to get in.  I'm glad I did, because you really can't understand how majestic sharks are until you've swam with them from 6 feet away.  It was very cool.  I grew a little tired of chasing the sharks around the shallows, so I ventured a little farther out to check out the reef.  There were all kinds of really cool fish of all sorts of colors, shapes, and sizes.  The best part, thought, was when Jorgen found a 3-foot green turtle bedded down in the coral.  As I headed over to check it out she came up from the bottom for a breath, so we got to swim with her a bit!  We actually found another smaller turtle that also granted us a little play time too.  I have to say swimming with turtles was the best part of the snorkeling adventure this first day.  Rays and sharks are neat, but turtles are just plain cool!  These creatures are so beautiful when they are 'flying' through the water.  I just wish I could have gotten pictures of it!
  That night after dinner we visited the bar and  listened to a really great 2-person band called Beautifully Mad (web site: http://www.beautifullymad.com/).  I have to say, the gal wasn't much to write home about...but the other guy absolutely rocked!  And I'm pretty sure it wasn't the Jameson talking here...he was just amazing on the guitar.  He also did a beat-box bit on the "Turn it back Around" cover they did.  Very cool.  It turns out they live on the island year-around and have earned some very prestigious music awards in Australia.
  While we were snorkeling earlier, we noticed some turtle tracks coming up on shore.  My Discovery Channel turtle-sense told me that this meant the turtles were laying eggs right now...turns out I was right.  After the bar closed, I got a crazy hair to see if we could find some of these turtles and talked the guys into checking out the area next to the dock real quick before heading to bed.  I'm glad we did, because we found this beauty...

  She was just finishing covering her eggs and heading back out to sea...
  The next day we signed up for a snorkel trip for $45 each.  The original camera I bought is a 35mm camera in a waterproof case, so I figured I'd just buy another roll of film.  No such luck...they were all out of film!  So after buying another $26 waterproof camera, we headed to the dock.  They took us along with about 5 other snorkelers and 6 scuba divers out to Pam's Point.  From there we basically just followed the tide along the outer reef to Heron Bommie, where the boat picked us up.  The Bommie, we were told, is on Jacque Cousteau's top-five list of best places to snorkel in the world.  Here's a map of the island and surrounding reefs...

I don't know if I would say it was all that amazing.  After swimming with sharks, rays, and green turtles the day before this snorkel trip seemed pretty mellow.  But we did see this Eagle Ray there...

...I know, I'm not impressed with the pictures either.  Actually, I'm pretty upset about it!  The water was much clearer than this shows and it really doesn't do the experience much justice.  I've decided I'm never going to buy one of those damn waterproof cameras again.  I think I'm going to invest in a waterproof video camera that I can just strap to my head or hand and forgo the whole camera thing altogether.  It's pretty difficult to look in the viewfinder through the snorkel mask under water and see anything!  At least with a camcorder you just push play and swim along...then later you can capture screen shots for pictures if you want.  This is now what I think I'll invest in: (http://gopro.com/products/?gclid=CJnyo6vOi64CFeUaQgod5lw06Q).  For about $300 I won't have to ever worry about this happening again, and I can take video of  motorcycle rides as well.  This price tag equates to about 15 underwater disposable POS's...sounds like a good goal to me!  This camera is definitely going on the ol' X-mas list!!  I originally had the idea in Mexico when I didn't get any underwater pictures at all...you think I would have learned!  I digress...that's enough about the crappy and lacking photos...
  So this whole experience has officially got me bit.  I'm hooked...I really like snorkeling!  And I think diving would be even more fun!  I think I'm going to look into getting certified somewhere here in CDA or Spokane sometime this next year...
  One other thing...don't go to this island when we did!  It turned out it was mating season for some ugly-ass white-crested black dicky bird or some bollocks...they were annoying and LOUD!  Not only that, but the whole island looked like this:

...which would be really cool, like you were walking through a jungle right?  WRONG!  Every one of us got shit on by these damn birds at least once.  As a matter of fact, if this picture was a video, you would hear Jorgen say..."dammit!  I got hit again!".  I almost diverted the bombs...until the last day.  There were THOUSANDS of these birds on this island.  Oh, and another bird happened to be mating at the same time too...a burrowing brown bikkie-somethin-or-other.  They only burrow at night...and mate at night.  Have you ever heard what it sounds like when cats are bumpin' uglies?  Well, that's exactly what these mating birds sounded like!  I'm not kidding...if it wasn't for the long fun-filled day, keeping cool by sleeping directly under the ceiling fan, and the help of nice Mr. Jameson...I don't think I would have slept at all!

  Here's a few shots of the island and resort...

The Gantry is seen on the left here...

The Lounge

  

Our 'Bungalo'

 This view really made me want to stay...

 The boat kinda puts the shark's size in perspective...they weren't really that big...

Black-tipped reef shark

  

My collegue Tiho wading while we waited for the boat back to mainland...

  Here's a photo of us leaving the island...

    After we got back to 'civilization', it became clear just how UN-civilized it all really is.  The cell phones started going off... e-mails from work came through all of our PDA's triggering high blood pressures and comments like "what the $%*# is wrong with people?!".  Oh how I wanted to be swimming with the sharks, rays, and turtles again.  For a split second, I actually wondered if I might be able to talk Joyce into moving to an island surrounded with reefs to explore...just for a second.  It's all just a great memory now...maybe someday I can take Joyce (and maybe the kids, if they're really good!) to someplace like Fiji or Hawaii.  The high prices in Australia will definitely keep me from taking holiday in AU, and I doubt I'll be going back to AU for business again...but there's always hope!  There's always hope... 

Jackson's surgery: Post-surgery

  So after the surgery, Jackson was asleep for most of the first day.  Joyce stayed with him in the hospital overnight and was very impressed with most of the nursing staff at Sacred Heart.  His head was wrapped like a mummy and he had a tiny drain tube coming out the top of his head...

3 Hours post-surgery

 ...that tube of red stuff is the drain contents.  He looks a bit pale...

18 Hours post-surgery

   Hello!  Now he's thinking, 'what the hell happened?!'.  He was still a little sedated with morphine for the pain, but was looking a lot less pale after a transfusion from mommas blood.  All that direct-donation crap with the blood bank wasn't for nothing!!!  Yay!

24 Hours post-surgery

   The drain's out, mummy-wrap is gone and you can see the doctor's handiwork.  I have to say, it's really hard seeing your little boy like this...

2 days post-surgery: Discharge!!!

  Boy is it nice having everybody home again!  The night JJ came out of surgery it started dumping buckets of snow.  And I swear as soon as some of these people see a snowflake it turns into student driving all over again!  I mean, splitting lanes on the interstate going 30 mph!  Anyway...here are some CT scans of post-surgery...

Huge hole-top of head

  I know...holy crap what a big hole!  At this point I really started wishing I asked for the bone he cut out of his head.  Just think how cool that would have been for show-and-tell!!!!  That thing going over the skull is  the drain tube.

Barrel stave cuts on right side of head.

Back View

Barrel stave cuts on left side of head..and patchy holes.

  It's truly amazing what doctors can do these days and it's even more amazing how tough little kids are.  Jackson is smiling at mom and dad already and he is on a minimal dose of ibuprofen.  I will also say that it is extremely difficult to see kids go through things like this, especially your own.  I hope this is the end of it!
  So he gets fitted with a forming helmet on Friday and he gets to sport that for six months.  With any luck, he won't have to go in for surgery again and the helmet will shape his head a little better.  Until then, it is really weird to touch the 'hole' in the top of his head since it is really just like touching his brain.  I can't wait for him to rock the helmet so we can get that huge soft spot covered up!

Jackson's craniosectomy...or something like that...it begins: 1-17-2011

  About two months ago, we noticed that Jackson's head was a little 'weird-lookin'...it seemed that it wasn't rounding out.  At his first checkup we brought it to the doc's attention...he replied 'Well, everybody has differently-shaped heads...' ...I almost made HIS head a different shape with that remark.  This wasn't my first time to the rodeo...out little girl has a good head and I know an 'alien-type' head when I see it.  We agreed to wait until the next check-up (a week later) to see if it rounded out any more.  No dice...so then the doc did some research and told us about craniosynostosis.  This is when I found out that a baby's skull consists of several plates that are not attached (or 'fused') until they are 6-9 months old.
  Fast forward a couple weeks...after a CT-scan and a visit to the pediatric surgeon we found out that two of the sutures (gap between the plates) had prematurely fused together.  One suture is on the top of the head (sgattital) and one is on the right side of the back of his head (lambdal). The CT-scan is shown below...

1 Month Old...Top suture and left rear suture is completely fused

  On a side-note...this picture is a screen shot taken from the disk they gave us when we asked for copies of the scan.  It is totally BA!  What you are actually seeing are 3-D images that I was able to rotate so you can see the right parts of the scull.  Coming from someone that works with 3-D models all day, this was very bitchin'...okay...now on to the rest-o-the story...
  The solution is to cut a 2-inch strip of bone where the sagittal suture should be, and a 1/2-inch strip where the lambdal suture should be.  After a week, he will get a forming helmet that will help hold his head in the proper shape while the sutures grow together.  Six months later he loses the helmet and hopefully leads a 'normal' life.
  So, here we are in the hospital now...been here for almost three hours and our little guy is hungry as hell.  Mom is doing a swell job of keeping him happy but I know that won't last.  We're waiting because there's a bit of an issue with the blood...which is another story altogether.  But we obviously have time, so I'll give you the skinny on the deal.
  The surgeon requires there be six pediatric units of blood on hand if they nick an artery or need it for some other reason during or after the surgery.  They gave us the option of using blood from the blood bank or doing a 'direct-donation'.  I hate getting stuck, let alone drained of my essential juices...but this appealed to Joyce - motherly instinct I think.  Little did we know this would be such a big deal.  Here are the steps they stated this all had to happen in:
1) Donate your blood at the blood bank to make six
2) Take baby to get his/her blood drawn to find baby's blood type (labs)
3) If your blood type matches, they'll make the units of blood and ready it for surgery.
  Screwed up, huh?  So we don't even know what his blood type is and they need blood from us.  Wow.  WTH?  I thought it would go something like this:
1) Take baby to labs to find his blood type
2) If parent has matching blood type, do a direct donation
3) Blood would be ready for surgery
  When Joyce went to the blood bank with all her forms (there were quite a few!), she handed them to the secretary there...and the secretary was like 'Why do you want to do this?'.  Huh?  Did she really ask that?  This is when they told her that the doctor's office had provided us an 'old form' that didn't have a signature - only a doctor's stamp.  Oh yeah, and this was after she arranged a babysitter for Claire and an hour in the blood bank office...and she didn't even get blood drawn!  This is when it became clear that they don't really like people doing direct-donation, and they certainly don't make it easy!  Anyway, we got that all figured out...The doctor's office rushed in proper info to the blood bank and I watched Claire the next day so Joyce could get sucked.
  But now we're waiting...for blood!  They don't have the blood here and it will probably be another hour (or two) before we're able to start surgery.  What a pain in the ass.  Turns out Joyce is O+ (she thinks) and he's A+ ...this means nothing to me, except my boy be exceptional!!!!  Who knows what Joyce is...jk!
  Here's a pic of Action-Jackson in his samurai suit ready for his big day...

Been a while...deep thoughts!

  So here I am about 11pm on a Friday night, making sure my boy Jackson is truly asleep and not pulling his little cat-nap trick again.  I truly hate waking up after only half an hour...it's like someone punches me in the face and then makes me walk a tightrope.  Anyway, I'm sitting here waiting...and it hits me...life changes!  Not only does it change, we MAKE it change!  The trick is making the changes you want while trying to achieve every American dream: pursuit of happiness.  Let me back up a bit...Tarantino it all if you will...
  I'll only go back to college, because let's face it - high school blows.  You really understand this once you LEAVE high school and see how cool college is.  But that's just my point!  Get this...think about every life-changing experience you've ever had and go back in time one week...one month...or maybe half a year.  Now tell me, how comfortable were you?  When I started college, it was a little scary but exciting at the same time.  But during about the third year in school, I started to become very comfortable where I was at and was loving just being in school.  Hell, that's part of the reason I stayed another two years!  But you graduate and start looking for jobs, that feeling of 'what the hell is going to happen now?' comes back.  The same scared-but-excited feeling returns!  So you find a job, big deal, everyone works right?  But you soon realize you don't know anything about how the real world works.  You only know what they taught you from the books...there is no 'real-world 101' class.  And again, the scared/excited felling is back...or more like 'wholly shit, man...I don't know what I'm doing!  I hope nobody notices...'.   But alas, a year goes by and those feelings pass. 
  If you are so lucky you'll find someone you can call your best friend in the whole world.  And if you're luckier, they'll agree to spend the rest of their life with you.  Yes, this is another one of those moments that can be scary/exciting.  Yes, I say it CAN be because I have a confession to make: marrying my wife was easy.  I didn't have butterflies the day of my wedding, I didn't wake up in cold sweats, I didn't even forget anything for the wedding!  It was easy because I was COMFORTABLE with the situation I was getting into.  I dated her for almost five years, most of which was long-distance.  But she was worth traveling every distance to me...she is my best friend.  And honey, if you are reading this...I love you!  ...now let's get back to the situation...
  Kids change EVERYTHING!  Anybody who says kids don't change anything are full of bull-pucky...or just lead a very boring life.  When we had the first ultra-sound and I saw the legs, arms, and head of my little Claire...yes you guessed it...scared/excited again.  If you ever read this Claire, don't take this the wrong way...but when I saw those pictures of her I was struck dumb.  I thought 'wow...what am I going to do with this little girl!?'  I know...weird thought, huh?  I thought so too.  I realized then and there that I would never be absolutely ready for fatherhood...but you know what?  After one year with Claire, all those feelings of trepidation are gone.  I'm gettin' comfy again!
   Now comes the epiphany I started out with: pursuit of happiness.  See, I was married to Joyce for two years before we had our first child, Claire.  Man we had some times!  We toured a bit of Alaska, went camping, fishing, traveled to Canada a few times, went skiing every winter, enjoyed the family cabin together...yada yada yada...man it was fun!  It was comfy!  I went riding, golfing, and fishing whenever I wanted, and she traveled and did whatever she wanted when she wanted.  But that all changed with kids.  We don't camp, fish, ski, or anything like that anymore...yet!  This is what hit me tonight (I get great thoughts at night!)...though my hobbies have dwindled to a select few, my life is plenty full.  Most of the hobbies will come back again someday, but will be different because the kids will be involved with them.  When they're of age, we'll go fishing and camping and hiking again.  I'll teach them to ride motorcycles and how to hit that ever-so-tiny ball with a steel-shafted club (hopefully better than I do - that's every father's dream isn't it?).  So the real trick is simply this: how will the kids, wife, and I all have fun doing what I like to do?  And that's the real poser...every kid is different...they all like different things, and that's great!  My job is to expose them to the hobbies I know and love and hope that they like at least one enough that we can spend quality time together doing it.  Who knows, they may show me a thing or two along the way too...
  So that's it...I know, I know...THAT was the epiphany?!  To all you old guys that just said that, I think this is a huge realization for a young father...and don't kid yourself - you remember going through the same things!  And for all you guys that just don't understand what the hell I'm talking about...just wait...it'll come to you someday.  What's funny now is - I don't think I'm going to be comfortable again for a VERY long time!  I hear the kids make sure of this...
  ...I'm done and spent!  Jackson's definitely asleep now...me pillow beckons me...

My Little Dancer

  I realized (with the help of my buddy Rob) that I didn't have hardly any pictures of my little girl, Claire.  So I thought I'd one-up him with a really cute video...

  She really likes to dance...

1978 Husky - First Ride!

So I made a 3mm woodruff key from an 1/8" key...filed it down...close enough!  And here we go...
  ...here's the youtube link if it doesn't show up on the blog: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=utJqZcOqV4s

 

  It won't go on the pipe for some reason...I'm going to try and dig into the carb sometime this week to see if I can find a problem with the main jet.  But I was amazed with the mid-range power it has.  

Vintage 1978 Huskvarna 390 OR Dirt Bike Rebuild

  This bike has a long history...which begins in Idaho Falls.  My neighbor had this bike under his deck, just rusting away until my 18-year old neighbor bud (Devin) bought it to rebuild.  After it sat in his parents garage for a year (or two?), my dad somehow came to buy it from Devin.  And again...it sat outside for another number of years.  I went off to college for a number of years, moved to Post Falls, and eventually bought a house.  At this point I think my dad realized he wasn't going to be able to get to it, so he sold it to me for pennies.  Here's what it looked like before:

 I first started work on the engine the winter of 2009 while trying to obtain a title for the bike.  These vintage bikes are a real pain to get the titles for because up until...like...'77 they didn't sell the bikes with titles in many states (including Idaho).  Nowadays you can't ride a bike offroad without producing a title to buy an ORV sticker...so a bike is pretty much useless unless you have the title in hand anymore.  Turns out the title was still in the original owner's name, who unfortunately had passed away some years ago.  Lucky for me, his wife is still with us, remembers the bike, and signed the title over to me.  It really worked out well...
  Here's some pics of the rebuild:

Clutch pack and bearings...yuck!

Bearing replacement

   To change the bearings in these old magnesium cases without warping them, they need to be heated evenly to about 300 degrees...what better way to do that than in the oven?  I have to thank the wifey for letting me do this...it made the oven smell like degreaser for a few days...

Freshly sandblasted and painted frame

Engine, swingarm, and triple-tree installed..

Rebuilt forks, carb, rear suspension, and air cleaner can installed

...just something rad about these bright red springs...

after a bit of time on the seat and fenders, and a ton of time on the tank...the finished product...

After kicking the damn thing over hundreds of times and finally getting the carb set right, it fired up...and how!  It is one gnarly-sounding beast.  Unfortunately it was 8:30 at night and there was no way I was riding this thing in the dark...not to say I didn't entertain the idea!  A couple days later I was going to ride it for the first time, but as I got ready to go it bogged down and died.  After a quick trouble-shooting session I found the woodruff key to be sheared in half!  Turns out I didn't torque the flywheel tight enough and the power was too much for the poor little 3mm key.  The crappy thing about it is...nobody carries metric keys!  I'm still in search of a damn key, but when I do get it I'll fire it up again and take some video...