Euro

Somebody left a 10 Euro bill in the mail box for disc golf. I looked it up and it's worth $10.32.

No Cows Day

It's a daily battle to keep the cows off the property. We're constantly checking gates and fences.

Hayduker

Moocher swings by. Only the third Hayduker or the fall season and he's doing it backwards so almost back to Moab.

The Following Night

Phone rings at 8:30 at night. Unusual unless there is a late check in and there isn't. A lady wants to know if I have my tortoise. I say he's in San Diego. She says they found one wandering the streets of Moab. Can I tell her anything about it. She sends me a picture. I can tell her everything about it.

Fast Forward

In the morning Heather and Linda took off for San Diego and Teresa left for a week in Chicago to see friends. A day and some change later Kobae was back in San Diego.

The Little People

With evening the raccoons ow the left side of the porch, the skunks the right side, ringtails when they show the rafters, the grey foxes the left side of the parking lot and the red foxes the right side of the parking lot. Jax normally keeps them from raiding each others positions but there are quick lightning strikes occasionally.

So the Plan Was......

To put Kobae in the biggest tub they could find that would fit in the back of the SUV and take him back to San Diego in that. However after trying it on, time for a new plan.

The new plan was to life him up and put him in the back of the SUV and take him back to San Diego that way hoping he doesn't destroy the inside of the SUV on his 13 hour journey.

With me in my weakened condiion that left it up to Teresa and Heather to lift him and get him in the back of the SUV but somehow they did it.

Lydia

Lydia, who worked here a few years ago came by to visit. She's married and has a baby now.

The Evening

Kobae

We got one last hike in and not very long. I don't take him back to San Diego for the winter normally until around Thanksgiving but this year with my health issues I can't take him at all so Heather and Linda are coming to get him, in a SUV. Should be entertaining.

Life Two

Five doctors have seen me. I"ve had x rays, mamogram, cat scan, colonoscopy, poop test, and something else I don't remember. One said I had chicken pox when I was young and those weren't bites they were a virus from the chicken pox and it shows up years later and messes with your body. There are five doctors and nine opinions. Anyway the one I'm going with and taking meds for is the poop test said I have five different infections in my stomach and that's why I'm swelled up.

The pain was paralyzing for a few months and I was mostly non functional so I couldn't go hiking anyway. Three or four weeks ago they gave me so paid meds that work on the blood veins or similar and it has helped a lot. There is always pain but manageable pain.

I feel like I'm getting better each day. My weight loss has been extreme. I went from 210 to 184 in a few months. Had to put an extra hole in my belt. I hung my canteen on my belt and my pants fell down.

Takss forever to take all the drops and pills each day. To be fair I probably deserve some of this. My body has treated me a lot better than I've treated it. Got to wrap this up. Jax and I are packed and just waiting for Kobae to head out on an adventure for the day.

Life

We're getting hikes in but I was without a camera for so long I forget to take it with me. Couple days ago a hike with Kobae into a dead end canyon still managed to take seven hours. I'm not getting the red out of the camera and half the pictures I take are out of focus. I forget on this camera to have to take a fake photo which will adjust the focus and then push it all the way down to take the real photo.

So back in March or April I woke up in the morning and had a bunch of bires on me, or maybe stings. It's happened before. There's this little wasp like looking bug that bites me and has a bad effect but that didn't happen this time other than they hurt some. In time they turned into scabs and eventually fell off. In time my stomach swelled up with a big air bubble type thing on it which you can push around with your hand. Best to describe it as the worst sunburn you've ever had on the inside of your stomach with a volcano in the middle. Yes, really.

Moab 240

It was that time again. The Moab 240, a 240 mile running race, came through and we were the first aid station at the 29.2 mile mark. Got to run a marathon to get here. 257 runners this year. As I recall the registration fee is about $1,700 per runner. Killian Korth won and just prior to his finishing he was 32 miles ahead of the second place runner. Rebecca Rick won the women's and finished 4th overall. Rebecca left here in 14th place and moved up consistently. David Goggins left here in 18th place and finished 22nd. The race started in Moab at noon Friday and the last finishers came in at 9am on Wednesday. It rained almost the whole time for six days. Lot of trenchfoot among the racers. Still these miracuous creatures, right at 150 of the roughly 250 finished. It's amazing.

I'm not sure I remember how many of these we've hosted but I do remember having to do at least one or two rescues each year. The last runners came through at 12:30am Saturday morning and kept going. The aid station closed at the cut off 2:am and everyone was accounted for and on their way to the next aid station and continuation of the race. I went over and said good night to everyone pretty happy I didn't have to do a rescue this year.

At 5:am in a rain downpour there was a knock on my bedroom door. Teresa said "Tom, you're up." I thought that's impossible. Everyone left here just fine. I walked out and talked to Thor, the female medic. She said there were three runners that didn't make it to the next aid station. They were four and a half miles down Lockhart Basin. I explained I don't have anything that can get more than a mile or so down Lockhart and maybe not to the moutb of Lockhart in this driving rain. She thought it might be that they are at the mouth of the road and not down it so Jax, one of the volunteers, Greg I think, and I headed out into the storm. Was tought to see and I wasn't always sure we were on the road as there was so much rain but a half hour or so later we made it to the start of Lockhart where a ham radio operator had the runners sheltered in a tent. The operator said he could take one of them so we took the other two and made it back at 7am.

Dinosaurs Still Exist

Two ladies showed up to play disc golf in dinosaur costumes. I'm having some focusing and color issues with the new camera. Get it figured out eventually. Not having a camera was not the only reason I didn't post for awhile but get to that when time permits.

I'm Alive

After two weeks of pictures my camera broke and I couldn't retrieve them. There was one camera for sale in all of Moab for $650 but it was two big to carry with me so when Teresa returned she brought a Go Pro with her but the box had been opened and it wouldn't recognize the SIM card so another week with no camera. Teresa got me a different one but it's gonna take some getting use to.

Three monsoon floods came. We survived the first two but the third one took out the whole driveway at the sign and on the north side of the property where Jax and I about got swept away a few years ago so we've built a dam to hopefully keep the floods from out entrance in the future.

The beach where we kayak from use to have little sgtreams in it and was nice. The floods brought debri.

Waking up to this

Hiking with Jax

I've had no shortage of medical issues this year but it feels like it's getting better overall. I had my colonoscopy last week and it's all good. Jax and I's hikes are getting a little longer as the healed continues.

Other days we go down to the beach and play stick.

Life

Each time it rains the trees which use to be on top of the upper land is getting further away from the banks.

The monsoon season is coming and each evening has clouds in it and we got four days of rain but so far nothing serious, but if it comes, as it did twice last year we're pretty good at getting through it.

Kobae comes to the porch evening around 5pm to eat. Any day now he will head down the driveway and want to go hiking. I put my pack together today and i'm ready for him.