This morning, one week after he went missing, my cousin was found.  This will bring the family, friends and community some peace.

You know how you really look forward to something for a long time but when it finally happens, it sucks?

That wasn’t the case here.

Last Friday I met Emily, Becky and Dustin in Manhattan for the day.  I got to know Dustin and Becky through our blogs, and then I met Emily through them on Twitter.  We always have so much fun online, but I’ll admit to feeling somewhat nervous about the face-to-face meeting.  What if we didn’t like each other after all?  That would really bite.  Despite the nerves I was determined to go, have a good time, and not let my inherent shyness overwhelm me.  I believe that, if you ask them, they’ll testify to the fact that I succeeded admirably.  In fact, they probably had trouble shutting me up! *G*  This was made easier by how comfortable they made me feel from the moment I stepped through the hotel room door.

I had been unable to get a taxi at Grand Central (3 taxis out front, all of them off-duty! What was that about?) and am unfamiliar with the subway and bus routes.  So I walked from 3rd Ave. to 8th (because I turned the wrong way out of Grand Central, adding a block to my walk), and then from 42nd up to 51st.  It was a long, hot walk.  I was forced to dodge or run over fellow pedestrians who lacked the sense to get out of my way; I was a woman on a mission!  By the time I got to the hotel I was red-faced and sweaty.  Such was their good nature that they let me in anyway, and even allowed me to hug them!  These are truly rare people.  And for once I mean that in a good sense.

We spent the day walking through Times Square, Rockefeller Plaza, and in and around stores.  Becky was taking photos for her teenaged daughter who was feeling miffed because Becky hadn’t brought her along.  I told her that if she really wanted to bring Taylor a photo she’d like, Becky should let me push her in front of a bus and take a shot of her then.  For some reason, Becky didn’t think this was a good idea.  She took a picture of a pigeon instead. *G*

After meandering around for awhile, Emily (our Fearless Leader) navigated us through the subway system, taking us uptown to Serendipity for supper.  What a great restaurant!  I ordered a frozen mochacino.  I expected a tall glass.  Instead I was given a gigantic sundae dish filled to overflowing with the yummy goodness that makes up this delightful beverage.  Nobody thought I could drink it by myself (the waiter automatically brought 4 straws) but I took up the challenge and drank it all!  A cheddar burger, fries, coleslaw and part of a butterscotch sundae later, they rolled me out the door.  From there we headed to a nearby candy shop, and then took the subway back to Grand Central.  Sadly, I had to go home.  Dustin had to head out as well, thereby unleashing the two women on NYC unsupervised.  And you know what they say: What happens in Manhattan… shall be documented on their blogs, not mine.

Enchanting Emily

Beautiful Becky

Debonair Dustin

Thanks for an amazing time!

Still no sign of my cousin.  It’s pouring rain and the river is near flood levels, so I don’t think there will be any searching today.

This will not stop me from meeting up with Becky , Dustin , and Emily (who hasn’t launched her blog yet, but soon will) in Manhattan tomorrow.  I’ve been looking forward to this for months, and nothing is keeping me home.  My back isn’t healed yet and the train rocks back and forth on the rails, but I’m going.  My physical therapist and I decided that the rocking motion will be a chance for me to work on my core stability. *G*  Anyway, I’m still out of work next week; I’ll have plenty of time to recuperate then.

I need a little fun in my life!

I didn’t want to say anything until I knew for certain, but it’s just been confirmed: It was my cousin who died.

I didn’t know him.  He’s from the paternal side of my family.  I’ve met him in passing, and know his mother best out of most of my father’s siblings.  But I don’t really know my father’s family, so that isn’t saying much.  I hate that I should have known right away that he was my cousin, but didn’t.  Families can be so complicated!

It’s also been confirmed that his body has not been found.  I don’t know where the “pinned under the waterfall” story came from.  The recovery mission is still in progress by boat and helicopter.

Update:

I’ve just spoken with my aunt.  She’s staying with another aunt, and they’re having people over.  They’ve got a campfire going outside and people are welcome to come and go.  They’re honoring his memory, celebrating his life and sending out positive thoughts.  My aunt believes that sending him loving and positive thoughts will help his soul on its journey home.  This will be going on for the next couple of days.  Services will be some time next week.

Update 2:

Friends who were at the falls tell us that my cousin died a hero.  He had actually made it out of the river after jumping in, but one of his friends was pinned in one of the caves carved out over time by the falls.  The current was holding this kid there and he was starting to drown.  My cousin, a strong swimmer, jumped back in to help him while another kid approached the cave from the trail above.  My cousin managed to free his friend and get him up to the other kid, saving him, before being swept away himself.

It seems that 3 teenaged boys decided to celebrate the last day of school by heading to the falls when they were released for the summer.  They went to the overlook at the top of the falls, which is where I took that photo.  The falls are about 80′ high there, but we’ve had several inches of rain lately so the river was deep; they decided to jump.  It was a tragic mistake.

Thanks to all of those storms we’ve had, the river is raging, the current dangerously strong.  It was too much for the boys.  Witnesses realized that the boys were in trouble, and called for help.  When rescue workers showed up, one boy had managed to pull himself onto a rock in the river, where he was stranded.  But he frantically directed the rescuers back to the base of the falls.  They found another of the boys there.  Both of these boys were rescued, one of whom is being treated for a severe case of hypothermia.  But one boy was still missing.  They searched a five-mile stretch of river, but in a horrific turn of events, the third boy’s body was found under the falls themselves.  The waterfall has him pinned in the pool at its base where the water collects before flowing down the river.  The falls are pounding down so hard that the police divers couldn’t go in to get him.  They’ll try again tomorrow, but for now, he still lies in the pool under the falls.

He was 15 years old and had just finished his freshman year of high school.  It’s so sad, and I feel sick to my stomach.  It’s such a tragic waste.  I can’t stop thinking about him there, and my heart goes out to that poor, poor family.

(Note: another news item says that the body hasn’t been found yet.  That’s almost a happier thought)

Bad news in town today.  Some people hanging out at the Great Falls seem to have been washed away.  I don’t know any details yet.  From what I’m hearing, some were stranded on rocks and rescued, but others are supposedly still missing; the airboats are manned and the search teams are out looking for them.

You can see some pics of the Falls on my My Town page.

I hope they’re okay.

As most of you know, I have a phobic fear of rats.  There was a headline today about the rats all being gone from Rat Island.  You’d think I’d be ecstatic about their demise.  But I don’t believe it.  They didn’t die off.  They’ve immigrated.  They’ve plotted and are on the move.

They’re coming for me.

Just thought you should know.

I’m kidding.

I think.

On what I feel to be a much happier note, I’ve managed the upgrade.  Yes, I know I said that I wasn’t going to do it.  But I didn’t really do it.  On a whim I tried the automatic upgrade feature yet again.  This time, for some reason known only to it, the upgrade worked.  All is right with my blogging world once more.  Thanks to Dustin for encouraging me during the process.

May I say once more how happy I am that I switched to WordPress?

WordPress is prompting me to upgrade to 2.8.  I clicked on the automatic upgrade feature, but after mulling it over, the automatic upgrade tells me that it can’t, well, automatically upgrade.  It wants me to upgrade manually instead.

Uhn uh.

Nope.

No.

Upgrades lead to darkness of the soul.  They take you to a place of sheer madness.  So.  Not.  Happening.

I will ignore the siren call of the upgrade and its tempting promise of faster loading.  I will not foolishly fall for promises of ease.  I know from previous experiences that these are all dirty lies.  Why do you think I’m stuck copying files from my old Movable Type installation?   You know that show, Girls Gone Wild?  Well in my case I could do a show on Upgrades Gone Wrong.

Begone Upgrade prompt!

I will not succumb…

I have a wonderful husband.  He’s loving, considerate, caring.  He brings me flowers for no reason, remembers every anniversary, calls just to say he loves me.  He shares everything with me and never fights.  Well, the latter can be kind of annoying, but you get the idea.

HOWEVER

It drives me absolutely insane when he tells me to rent a movie that we can watch together.  Anything I want, really.  He doesn’t care.  I ask him what he wants to see, and he insists he’ll watch anything.  And he will.

Until he falls asleep 5 minutes into the movie.

It isn’t a chick flick thing.  He falls asleep to thrillers…action…  You name it, he’s probably fallen asleep to it.

I know this.  In the past I’ve asked him “Which movie do you think you can stay awake through?” He would laugh and tell me to pick whatever I want to watch; he won’t fall asleep.  He’s very insistent that he won’t fall asleep, which infuriates me even more.  Because he always does.  Lately I’ve taken to saying “What movie do you want to fall asleep to?”  I get the same answer, the same insistence that he won’t fall asleep.

Then he falls asleep.

He even snores.

Then he denies that he was sleeping.

And that’s when I want to kill him.

Now, I realize this is a small thing compared to all of his many virtues.  But we (and by that I mean I) have just watched another movie.  He woke up as the credits rolled.  We have barely spoken a word.  I think he knows I’m blogging about him right now.  He’s wisely saying nothing.  He knows I’ll get over it.

Besides, it’s almost time for him to go to bed.

I haven’t blogged because frankly, my weekend was too boring to write about.  I stayed off my feet, read, and watched a little t.v.  I’ve been working on those archives as well.

There were some things in there that took me back.  I was very excited every time I came across the first comment left by many of you; that was fun!  I considered linking to each of your first comments, but some of them were responses to really depressing or angry posts; why dredge that up?  The most difficult part of archiving so far was when I copied the post and comments regarding the death of my dog, Greta.  That was difficult. I still have Sam’s to look forward to, but he didn’t die until 2007.  I’m sure there will be many happy posts between then and now.  I mean, I had to be happy sometimes, right?  *G*

At any rate, I’ve only just finished 2004 and am working on 2005.  Despite how time-consuming this project is, I wish I hadn’t deleted February 2002-June 2004.  I know I was depressed then and wanted to excise some painful memories but, in doing so, I erased some joyful ones as well.  Of course there’s nothing I can do about that now.  Still, I would caution those who are considering the deletion of parts of their blog to consider it long and hard before taking action.

Enough about archives and the past, though.

I went back for more physical therapy today.  Over the weekend my leg pain eased some.  But my lower back is killing me, further supporting the hypothesis that it’s my back that was injured, not my leg.  There’s even some pain on the left side now.  So we’re treating my lower back.  He had me do some exercises and gave me one of those tingly treatments while icing it. I’m supposed to do those exercises at home twice a day, to ice my back regularly, and to use a back-support belt; I should continue to rest otherwise.  I go back for more PT on Thursday.

So that’s it.  But before I go, I came across this gem of a quote in my archives and I love it so much I have to share it again:

“You couldn’t get a clue during the clue mating season in a field full of horny clues if you smeared your body with clue musk and did the clue mating dance.” ~Edward Flaherty

I have come back from my first physical therapy session, and the results are mixed.

I have confused the very highly regarded therapist.  Despite what the doctor thought, Mike (said therapist) isn’t convinced it’s a hamstring problem. He’s seen this sort of thing before and, based on various symptoms, he thinks it might actually be a lower back problem.  He conducted several tests but the results were contradictory.  In some ways my leg does seem to be the problem.  Other tests, though, strongly indicate my back.  For example, the classic knee reflex test revealed that the response in my right leg (the “bad” one) is distinctly less than that of my left.  Even I could see it.  In the end, after a thorough assessment, he couldn’t decide whether it’s my back, my leg, or both.  Because of this, he is not assigning me any exercises; he’s afraid of hurting me further.  Instead, I have to wear a cortisone patch for 4 hours every few days.  Because it is located on my backside, I can’t sit while it’s on.  I have to lie flat, or as close to it as I can, to keep it in place.

Some of you may be thinking that you wish you had an excuse to lie flat on your back for 4 hours.  If so, you’re very silly.  Oh sure, it’s nice for a little bit.  But it becomes uncomfortable in a surprisingly short amount of time.  And when is the last time you were able to drink anything while lying prone?  I can sit up a little, but it still isn’t easy to sip my coffee.  And that, my friends, is a crime.

I have two more appointments next week, two more dates with this patch.  Then perhaps another week after that.  He’ll continue to assess my condition.  If I don’t improve, then Mike agrees that I should see an orthopedist.

As I’ve said before, at least I have plenty of reading material.  I’ll also have time to work on those blog archives.

Still, I’m kind of bored already.

Oh yeah.  That’s right.  I am.

I have been slowly, meticulously copying archives dating back to 2004 from the broken Movable Type entries to a WordPress blog matching this one; I’ll link to it when it’s complete.  I have worked on this for hours, and have only copied entries from July ’04 to November ’04.  That doesn’t include fixing the broken image links, which is also part of the To Do list.  It may come as a shock to some of you, but I was once a prolific blogger, sometimes posting a couple of times a day!

I hate myself for that now.

BUT…

Once I am done with this project (I’m thinking the next millenium), I will have a clean set of archives, and can delete a lot of useless files from my server.  It’s a spring cleaning of the blog, as it were.

Still, I can’t wait until I reach my college days, when entries become sparse.  It’s yet another reason to revere higher education…

My leg hasn’t gotten any better.  I tried to work yesterday.  I tried again today.  The pain was too much and I had to come home.  There’s a stabbing pain high up and deep; I suspect tendon or ligament.  The pain goes down my leg, and that feels more like a tired muscle, the kind you get when you’ve just pushed it too far.  Randy took me to the doctor again, who still believes that it’s a pulled hamstring.  Since the anti-inflammatory he had me on didn’t really help, the doctor isn’t giving me anything for it.  Instead I’ll be out of work (again) and undergoing physical therapy.  The cool thing is that the PT/rehab is located in the nursing home where my mother works; we’ll be able to visit while I’m tortured.  If PT doesn’t work, then I’ll be sent to an orthopedist.  Let’s hope it doesn’t go that far.

Thank goodness I just received a book order- I’ll have plenty of time to read!

I dreamed that a tsunami wiped out the building I was staying in on some unknown beach.  My mother and brother were there, but in the dream he was only 3 again.  Very cute with bright golden curls.  My sole purpose was to protect him when the wave hit.  I could see the water quickly retreating from the shore, gathering and building into a wave so large that it wiped out the sky even from a mile away.  My mother and I curled around my brother, our only hope to protect him from the impact.  We murmured words of reassurance to him.  Just before the tsunami hit the building I heard someone say to me “No, you don’t understand how bad it’s going to be.”  Then the wave hit, the building tilted, bodies flew everywhere, and I woke up.

Let this be a lesson to you: don’t drink a coffee coolatta just before taking an afternoon nap.