Journal Entry Seventeen
Spring Break
I’ve received a few questions about the Siletz River. It begins in the Coast Range with whitewater and rocks, and is wide and sedate when it enters the Pacific between Lincoln City and Salishan.
Julie and I canceled our plans to drive up the McKenzie River because of last week's crazy weather. Instead, we took a pretty drive east of I-5, from Canby, Woodburn, Silverton, and Scio, to Sweet Home.
I had never been to Scio. It's an attractive little town, well kept up, with pretty gingerbread houses.
For much of the drive we talked about the contrast between neat little farmhouses and their neighbors, who invariably had mobile homes surrounded by piles of rusted cars and garbage.
Toward the end of the week, in addition to appointments with my physical therapist and my occupational therapist, I got a bipap machine. The bipap doesn't breathe for me, but through a mask, supplies extra air at night. It has been compared to sticking your head out the window of your car at 70 miles an hour, and trying to breathe. Fortunately, it only took four or five days for me to get used to it. I wasn’t happy about getting the machine, but I now have to admit that the bipap is a milestone that helps me feel better instead of worse!
