Attitude Archives | Page 3 of 5 | Funky Texas Traveler

Oct 19 2017

Breast Cancer. 5 steps to take before treatment

POST MAY CONTAIN AFFILIATE LINKS- READ DISCLOSURE FOR INFO.

You just joined the 1 in 8 sisterhood of women who get breast cancer. Before you head down your treatment road, here are five steps I discovered helped me mentally and financially.

To make your looming cancer journey a little less threatening now’s the time to compare this trip with something in your past that was initially unfamiliar but you quickly adjusted to. Maybe a new job or going to college far from home. For me, it was summer camp.

There are similarities between the way you felt as a kid when you got dropped off at summer camp the first time and the way you’ll feel entering a cancer center as a patient for that first appointment. Just like camp, you’ll be out of your comfort zone, make new friends, sometimes cry late at night, be embarrassed, disoriented, be required to do different things and have different things done to you. As a kid, you probably asked some of the older girls in the hood about what to expect at camp.

Consider me an older girl in the hood and this post an idea of what to expect at “cancer camp.” In addition to the five steps to get you started, here’s a link to exactly what I went through day by day in treatment. I’ve tried to be as complete as possible of the treatment post to help you feel more comfortable about you may be facing. That makes the entire story a long post. You can read the journey here when you are ready. Right now, I suggest looking over this list of things and actions that helped me most. [Read more…]

Oct 19 2017

Dan Pecore, Port Aransas boat builder

Dan Pecore, a Port Aransas boat builder, is bringing the only Texas scow schooner back to life. Pretty life-changing for a city kid from Houston who moved to Port Aransas years ago to raise a family. While Dan was growing up in Houston’s museum area, he’d spend weekends on his family’s farm. In the country, this city kid discovered a serenity from working with wood, specifically old wood.

How did Dan become involved with boats?

Dan especially liked the weathered posts from the stock pens and their imperfections – all worn down and sometimes stained by urine and cow shit. He told us he seemed to be able to feel the years and changes the old wood had watched. Sometime later on Port Aransas, he started to build beautiful things from the scraps of aged lumber – jewelry boxes, furniture, keepsakes.

And then Dan began looking for pieces of old boats, specifically dismantled sailboats from places like the Chesapeake Bay. He refashioned that wood into projects, using the knots and the holes to lead him. And in time, he started to build wooden boats.

Texas Scow Schooner project

In 2015, Dan hired on to lead a team to complete the construction of the only Texas scow schooner that now exist anywhere. He has thrown himself into the project with the passion of affair with a stubby, squat beauty that will eventually be called the Lydia Ann.

The balance he has created in his life by building keepstakes, resurrecting the Lydia Ann and reading Rumi is being tested by Hurricane Harvey. Good luck and traveling mercies, Dan.

Oct 06 2017

Breast Cancer – Think you might have it? What happens now?

POST MAY CONTAIN AFFILIATE LINKS- READ DISCLOSURE FOR INFO.

Have you missed a mammogram or are ignoring a lump in your boob because you think you might have breast cancer? Early diagnosis of breast cancer is very, very good! I found that out in 2013 when I got to take a trip on the “breast cancer cruise.” My diagnosis was accidental but the outcome was everything I prayed for.

If you are procrastinating, I hope this blow-by-blow story of my cancer trip makes you call or email your doctor right now. Consider this your Breast Cancer Month obligation to everyone who loves and depends on you, including yourself. And if you find out that you’ve joined this sisterhood, here are some steps to take immediately to help you stay strong in mind and body while you take care of this detour.

Breast cancer hits like a drive-by shooting

This Halloween, I’ll be cancer free for four years. Of any eight women, one of us will get breast cancer. Finding out you could have cancer when you don’t feel sick is scary, something you can’t imagine. It’s a little like being the victim of a random drive-by shooting. You hear the shots but surely you weren’t hit. [Read more…]

Aug 31 2017

Surviving Hurricane Harvey flooding – 8 practical ways to cope

POST MAY CONTAIN AFFILIATE LINKS- READ DISCLOSURE FOR INFO.

This post was written a few days after Houston’s historic flooding. We made a list of items you need on-hand when your house floods. And also some things we wish we had had while the waters rushed in. To find out how we recovered, go to Harvey – One Year 8 88Later.

Like Cousin Eddie in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, Hurricane Harvey flooding made an unwelcome visit to our Houston home this past Sunday morning. For the next 17 hours, we sloshed around downstairs saving what we could and taking breaks up on our balcony to watch the show going on outside. Here are some practical lessons we learned to survive Hurricane Harvey’s floods.

8 items you need on-hand when your house floods

1. Have a working inflatable raft/boat

You’ve probably got inflatable mattresses for guests. Get an inflatable raft too. If things start to look like you could need it in the next 12 hours, blow it up with an electric pump while you have power. Hell, you can throw in pillows and blankets and let the kids sleep in it, so you don’t feel stupid having a boat inside your house.

We watched dozens of people with trash bags walking in thigh deep water to escape Hurricane Harvey flooding. Don’t use the raft if there is rushing water, but in the slow rising flood we had, it would have helped.

After dark, we saw an elderly lady with a basset hound and a younger woman trudging down the street toward safety. It wasn’t until then, we remembered we had an inflatable boat in the garage under all our crap.

2. Resist the urge to flush!

If you are sheltering in place and there is water all around, don’t go flushing after every visit to the john. First, the only water you have may be what’s already in the pipes and secondly, where is that flush going to go? Putting toilet tissue in the trash can would help too.

3. Have rain boots

I bought some for a NOLA Jazz Fest that turned into a mud fest. After sloshing around in eight inches of water all morning, I remembered them. With rain boots, you are invincible!

Trudge out to the garage to help get the freezer up on cinder blocks? Great! Go downstairs to rescue some medications? Fine! Check on the pick-up truck abandoned on the side of our house during the height of Hurricane Harvey flooding? Done! If you don’t have rain boots, buy some. Target has some so cute, you’ll want to find an excuse to wear them!

4. Dogs “gotta’ go too” – take pity on your pet

It took hours for our dog Lucy to finally give up and pee in the flooded yard. If your dog is well trained, it may be stressful for them to pee in the house. From now on, I’m going to have a package of puppy pads stashed in the upstairs bathroom.

This next part is gross, but I think I’m going to follow Lucy out to pee and get a little of the urine scent on a paper towel. The plan is to freeze it after I’ve triple bagged it. That way, we can scent a puppy pad, so she knows it is all right to go inside. It wouldn’t be the worst thing I’ve ever found in my freezer. That was a frozen bobcat.

Or do what a neighbor across the street did. He has four Bichons. We saw him float his dogs across flooded Rice Avenue in a big red plastic tub. He was taking them across to the high ground of the fire department.

5. Move your coffee maker upstairs

If you usually need coffee to get started on an average day, facing a natural disaster like Hurricane Harvey flooding is no time to forego caffeine. I braved nasty water in the kitchen to retrieve my Keurig coffee maker, a handful of French roast coffee pods and a little carton of cream. You won’t believe the difference it made.

6. Load up at the library

You’re going to want a variety of things to read, especially since there is no newspaper delivery. I’m on book two of the three I brought home just in case. Non-stop disaster coverage of Hurricane Harvey flooding gets old, and you need a break.

7. Live in a two-story home with a balcony if possible

It must be hell to evacuate for an extended stay with only the clothes you are wearing and a backpack. In spite of our downstairs being flooded, I thank God we live in a two-story home with a balcony.

During the worst of it, we had a front row seats to what was happening. Now we are living upstairs while we repair. If the water had continued to rise, it would have been easy to signal help with the last thing on this list.

8. Have a big white sheet or towel handy

If all else fails and you must signal for rescue, this is a common sign of distress. Don’t be without one to drape on your roof or hang on your balcony.

What would you recommend?

Hurricane experts may disagree with some of my suggestions but as our Hurricane Harvey flooding adventure unfolded, these are the things I was glad we had or wished that we could have. Stay safe!

Aug 25 2017

How hurricane hijacked Caribbean sailing vacation in BVI

Ever wonder how a big hurricane seems to sneak up on vacation places like Mexico and the Caribbean Islands? We got a to experience that first hand years ago when Hurricane Gilbert dropped in on our Caribbean sailing vacation. Here’s how we ended up bailing water from a sinking dinghy while friends in the US had many days of advance warning from someone like “Weather Stud” Jim Cantore!

What hurricane?

“Will we be able to take off with this hurricane coming?” I asked the woman behind the counter at an old RAF airfield. That aging facility now functioned as an airport for the British Virgin Islands. She handled guest relations and security such as it was back in September of 1988. “What hurricane?” she responded blankly. I think of that woman when I hear news of those unexpected hurricane disasters in the Caribbean.

The four of us finally boarded a packed prop plane for a choppy flight to Puerto Rico and our Delta connection back to Atlanta. Once on that flight, the Delta captain announced, “Congratulations, folks. We are the last plane cleared for takeoff. This airport is shutting down for Hurricane Gilbert.” Finally, someone spoke the dreaded “H” word.

Tiny British Virgin Islands

My husband Hank and I started off the week sharing a bareboat charter with his friend Greg and Greg’s new girlfriend. Greg was a very experienced sailor and thought Hank and I would enjoy the British Virgin Islands, an area he had visited many times.

The BVI is made up of sixty islands in the Caribbean, spread across 58 square miles. The Sir Francis Drake channel is the strait that separates the main island of Tortola from the smaller islands to the south. This strait is popular with boaters because it is like a sailboat superhighway, allowing them to race wing on wing directly downwind.

BVI-British-Virgin-Islands-in-Caribbean How hurricane hijacked Caribbean sailing vacation in BVI — By Hogweard (British Virgin Islands in regions.svg) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Days of Sun, Nights feeding the Barracudas

We spent days swimming in lagoons and exploring Sandy Cay, Little Jost Van Dyke and groupings of park-sized atols called “The Dogs” and “Little Sisters” In the evenings, we moored at places like the Bitter End, on the eastern edge of Virgin Gorda where the next landfall was Africa. Nightly, sleek barracudas would circle our 45 foot Irwin. Like well-mannered hounds, these toothy visitors hoped to gobble down a foil wrapped chicken or bacon-wrapped filet when we got careless turning the silver packets on our transom grill. The ship’s store had stocked us with a variety of frozen entrees and plenty of Red Stripe beer. The more beer we drank, the more foil packets the barracudas consumed.

On Thursday, September 8, we stopped at Cane Garden Bay to try windsurfing. The wind was so erratic that we left early and sailed to Norman island. Uninhabited except for wild goats, Norman Island and true tales of its buried treasures are thought to have inspired Robert Louis Stevenson to write Treasure Island.^[5]^T

Unaware-Hurricane-Gilbert-will-join-our-sailing-trip-690x400 How hurricane hijacked Caribbean sailing vacation in BVI — At Cane Garden Bay, unaware of storm forming.

Sleeping in hurricane pj’s – yellow life jackets

Our crew was more interested in an old schooner named the William Thornton which operated as a bar and restaurant, As the sun set, cumulonimbus clouds made it obvious there was a storm brewing but how big and where? Hank and Greg dinghied over to a large yacht that was moored close by. The big boats had the luxury of weather radar. Crews from smaller boats were heading over like ducklings converging on their mama.

There was a fast forming tropical wave south and east over the Barbados islands. Growing winds and rain squalls were fanning out hundreds of miles. We spent the night in our yellow foul weather gear with life jackets close by and two sea anchors set out. We ate a cold meal and barracudas were absent. Our boat twisted round and round on her sea anchors and squalls pounded us

The Caribbean is blasted by Hurricane Gilbert

On Friday, the tropical wave strengthened into a tropical storm named Gilbert. Greg piloted us across the eight mile strait with Hank in the dingy bailing out water. Several times, rough seas threatened to capsize that little vessel and finally we pulled Hank back to the Irwin.

On Saturday, Gilbert became a hurricane. The news had apparently not reached the woman in charge of the BVI airport. Gilbert intensified rapidly to a category 3 and then a category, so destructive that Gilbert’s name was retired by the World Meteorological society and replaced by Gordon.