"Dances with Death"

As I was driving back from the Breakfast of Hope in Seattle yesterday, I had to pull over to take some nitroglycerin. I got hot, had chest pain and started to get light headed. Denise drove me to the Group Health clinic in Kent. They looked me over and called an ambulance to take me to the emergency room at the local hospital. Then I was transported to Group Health emergency care in Redmond. I spent the night under observation. Denise brought me back from the hospital just before lunch today. They had me do a cardiac treadmill stress test before I left. I passed with flying colors. That is good.
They do not know why I was suffering with chest pain, light headedness, and sweating while I was driving. Nor why I had chest pain all day yesterday. This happened when I had my first heart attack. For the time being, I have to assume that my heart does not like the new stent. I will journey for more clarification.

A part of me is disappointed that they were not able to definitively say what the problem is. And a part of me is relieved to know that I did very well on the stress test. I know very well that life is a multitude of shades of gray. But when it comes to my own life and death issues, I can whine and wish it was more black and white.

I can look at this as a metaphor. There are no guarantees that I will have a pain free life. Life is a mystery and that is what helps remind me of the preciousness of the ever present present moment. In some ways, I am luckier than some, because I know that Death dances with me. He dances to remind me to live each moment to the fullest. Perhaps, if I can remind myself, Death won't need to dance with me so often.

Cheating Death

I wrote the following for my own and your amusement, since I am still very much alive, following a heart attack 23 April.
Sometimes one just has to laugh at death.
I cheated Death yet again. He came for me, slinking through the water, biting my arm while wrapping a rope around my chest. I eluded it when I pulled my body out of the pool. Death was not amused. Death would bide his time at the train station. While I looked out the window at the remnants of by gone forests, he sneaked up, stabbed me with his blade, right into the chest. I was dazed and bewildered. I gasped for air and fought on. I pulled my saber from its sheath and the battle began. Denise brought reinforcements, who came in their red chariot to escort me to safety. Tuba, Tuba Tubular kept ringing in my ear. I had been stabbed in the groin. I fought on, and I fell into oblivion. When I came to, I discovered that I was still very much alive and a third metal tubular armor was placed into my heart.
Death will just have to wait.

They inserted a stent into my right coronary artery. The Tuba, Tuba, Tubular refers to the stents. The right coronary artery was 90% blocked. It feeds the electrical impulse that tells the heart to beat. If it gets 100% blocked, I die. Lucky me, we caught it in time. I am recovering nicely at home.

Ah Hail

Thunder and lightning were creating a cymbolic cacophony as they collaborated in their creation of miniature snowballs, packed tightly enough to inflict pin prick bites upon any tender maiden's face.

Watch as Celeste gleefully enjoys the banter and challenge of catching the ice bullets in her mouth.

Emma Shapplin is my favorite saprano

Springtime Snow

It snowed today in Kent on the 7th day of Spring 2008.

Thus Senor Sol, continues his journey forward, once again cajoling the light to paint a little longer, coloring a larger canvas. All the while, he eases his beloved, La Luna's task of casting shadows over Winter's arduously long and frigid nights. Winter, choosing to leave a reminder that he'll return in due time, giggles as he adds his own white brush to the canvas of life and graces the Earth cake with frosting.

A part of us dies from life's little torments while our soul awakens to the new gifts, left behind, as an apology, not doubt. Life seeks a balance and when she burns our ass with trials and tribulations, she tries to make up for it by giving us gifts of strength and wisdom. We can only accept those gifts, if we can slither out of our pity pool for a respite and slink our way up to get a larger view beyond just ourselves. As we do, we see that no chest can contain a heart filled with love, compassion, wisdom and laughter. That pump, beating to the rhythm of our souls, sings its own song of love to remind us to breath. To breath joy into what we do. We must listen. Then, we must act. For joy without action is no more than a pencil sketch of a cherry pie; no color and no flavor. Hope is the paint brush. Throw away the pencil and grab the fragrantly sopping brush and stroke to your heart's content.

Flat Stanley in Yeonmu South Korea

Isis & Bonnie hold flat Stanley at the Yeonmu soccer field.

Bonnie, Isis and Tigerboy hold Flat Stanely in front of a Bhuddist temple.

Bonnie in the Breeze holding Flat Stanely and Isis

Tigerboy and his Abuelito hold Flat Stanley

Flat Stanley in Yeonmu, South Korea with Bonnie, Tigerboy and Isis

March 2008Abuelito teaches Tigerboy to play soccer

Of course, Abuelito has to take time out to play with Tigerboy

South Korean Independence Hall

South Korean Flags at Independence Hall
Mushroom Playing with the Boys at Independence Hall













Statue at Independance Hall South Korea

Click on any photo to make it larger

Sugar Booger is Going for a Ride!

Denise let Tigerboy out of the stroller so he could get some exercise. Sugar, then, got to go for a ride.

Yeonmu a suburb of Nonsan, South Korea

Grandma Denise walking Tigerboy and his dog, Sugar back home on the 2nd floor. (Click on any photo to enlarge it.)

Bonnie and Jiho's living room is a tiny 9'-8" by 9'-10" And this is the biggest room in their apartment.

Traditional Neighborhood in Yeonmu, South Korea, just south of Deajeon.

Mushroom walking Tigerboy on the street next to Jiho and Bonnie's apartment.



A feast of ginseng with the Yoon family in a restaurant in Geumsan.


Denise with Jiho holding Tigerboy in a ginseng market. There was ginseng everywhere in the town of Geumsan. It is world famous for it ginseng. Jiho has been making me a fresh ginseng smoothie every evening.
Quan Yin statue at a sacred spring (water) site.

A Little neighborhood street. Notice the 2 story school at the far end of the photo. Jiho and Bonnie live right next door to the school.
High School boys on their way to school in Yeonmu, South Korea

Isis & Tigerboy

Isis November 2007
Tigerboy February 2006

Isis & Tigerboy in the same pose.

Isis Ina Yoon is Born!!!

Isis Ina Yoon was born in the year of the Golden Boar, 4 November 2007 in Deajeon, South Korea. She was born at 3:30 in the wee hours of Sunday morning while her abuelito (grandfather) was being the celebrant at Leilani and Phil's wedding.

Phil and Leilani's Wedding

Mushroon leading the bride and her party to the wedding.

Leilani and Phil were married on Saturday the third evening of November 2007 in Ybor City, Florida. Leilani asked her uncle Mushroom to be the celebrant.















Roberta, Leilani's aunt, took these photos.

Leilani & Phil are getting married

On Saturday 3 November 2007 Leilani & Phil are getting married. Leilani is my niece. She has had a habit of stealing my heart every time I see her.
I remember, when she was an infant in San Jose, California, Denise and I taking turns holding that beautiful little babe. She is still a "babe", but now she a professional journalist and has stolen Phil's heart. I suspect that Phil left his heart in a readily accessible place for Leilani to steal it.

Hluhluwe, a small town out in the South African bush

Click on any photo to enlarge it, then click your back arrow.Fresh vegatables

Selling goods under a sign

Shoppers carrying their goods home.

Notice the large purple bag on the woman's head.

Haircut anyone? The mother is carrying her baby on her back the way Koreans do.

Elephants in South Africa

Mother and baby elephant crossing the levi to get a drink and play in the water. A second female elephant came up and charged at the lead car in order to get it to give them room to get to the water. Then it backed itself down the waterside of the levi backwards so that she could keep an eye on us.

Celebrating 33 Years of Wedded Bliss in South Africa

Denise & Mushroom having dinner in Camps Bay in South Africa

Denise & Mushroom in the Indian Ocean SandDenise is writing a love note to Mushroom Mushroom waves to Denise as he comes out of the Indian Ocean surf.Our "Tented" Dwelling was actually a concrete structure with a tent roof and partial sidewalls that allowed us to hear the night wind and morning birds.

Controlled burn of the African Bush

Denise standing beside the Nelson Mandela Statue in Johannesburg, South Africa
Married Woman at Lesedi Cultural Center
Elegant Wine Cask in Wine Country not far from Capetown