Monday, July 07, 2008
Much Ado About Something Very Small
It was far from nothing. For those of you that have never given birth - that being the vast majority of our readers, let me tell you - take the drugs.
It was a warm, summer day. Perfect for a picnic - or a going away party for your Aunt and Uncle - as the case may be.
I was manning the grill, serving up burgers, dogs and chicken in the heat. Should I have been drinking more, yes. Did I think it was a problem, no...
So after everyone was fed, I grabbed a plate of food and merged myself into the "kids" table. We're all married and in at least our upper 30's, but that's what it was...
I needed to go to the little boy's room, so I excused myself and went inside and upstairs. Without getting into graphic details, and there are many! I felt as if I still needed to pee, even after I was done. This is new for me - it was like something was stuck.
Rut roh Raggy.
I went back outside and ate, but nothing tasted all that great. I soon was back inside, still feeling like I had to go. Do you have a going problem?
After several more unsuccessful attempts to go, I realized I was starting to sweat. A lot. Then I got a stitch in my right front side. Great - I thought - my appendix. I went into my parent's bedroom and collapsed on the bed. By this time I was pretty sure I was in trouble, so I headed downstairs to get some help. They took one look at me and started dialing the local Urgent Care locations. I was an ugly shade of gray and dripping with sweat.
Michelle ran to get the van and we were off. I wanted to go to Park Nicollet - since they have all my charts, but by the time we were a half-mile away I was rolling the window down because I was sure I was going to puke up all that fine food. Then the tingling fingers started in. Nothing in the chest - Thanks God! but Michelle was on the phone with someone trying to decide if we should go to West Health - which was just Urgent Care - or if we should go all the way to North Memorial. Why is there no hospital in Maple Grove?!!!
We opted for West Health and pulled in - my hands had started cramping as I was trying to move them to make the tingles go away. They looked like crab claws and I kinda gave up on moving them and concentrated on walking. I told M to go ahead and find out if they could help me.
I started on the left side of the walkway across the street. By the time I was half way across - I was hanging onto the Street lamp on the right side of the path. OK, gotta focus. I made it through the doors and the security guard, who may have watched me weave across the walkway, asked if I wanted a wheelchair. Nah - 20 more feet down a hall, I can handle that. Just barely.
I leaned against the wall and just stood there - holding onto the corner. At this point M looked back at me and interrupted the nice lady admitting people. She took one look at me and got the Security guard behind me with the chair. She wheeled me over to a little side triage area and got me a bucket and a towel. I was still dripping with sweat. It was literally running down my nose onto my shirt.
They took me back to a room and the world stopped spinning. Well - it kept on going, I just didn't feel like it was spinning extra fast just for me. The tingling went away in my hands, by the time she got my vitals and asked me what my pain level was, I could honestly say it was a 2. I'm no sure what a 10 is, but I imagine the white flash I saw when I destroyed my foot in a college football game must be close. This at it's worst was maybe a 5, but I've never had that kind of physiological reaction to pain before. There was nothing I could do and I didn't know what it was. At least when you blow out an ankle or knee, you know what the problem is.
The Dr. came in and I gave him the cliff notes version of this tale. He said - "could be kidney stone, could be appendix. If you can pee in a cup - we can run a test to see if there is blood in your urine." I peed in the cup and they went off to run the tests. They got me a shot of something. I have no idea if it did any good or not, but by now I was feeling better.
The Dr. came back in and said they had found blood in the urine. Probably a kidney stone. He gave me a prescription for Flowmax and Vicodin. One a day of one - as needed for the other. Drink a ton of water and go to the hospital if you feel like you're going to fall over again.
I was feeling much better by now.
We went to Walgreens and dropped of the prescription.
Back to the party to explain.
We left an hour or so later and went to get the prescription. On the way there, the pain came back. Not as bad as before, but still...Drugs please!! They messed up the insurance info, so we sat there with 4 kids carrying on in the back of the van and daddy grimacing in pain in the passenger seat. They finally got the insurance figured out and I got my drugs. I actually don't remember a lot of the ride home. Until we got off 694 at Hemlock. By then I had felt the little bugger move from my right side to the middle. I was doing everything I could think of to help it along on it's voyage.
By the time we were home - just a minute or 2 later, the pain subsided and I felt fine again.
Did I mention that the Dr. gave me some filters to pee into? And a little cup to place anything that didn't go through the strainer into for my doctor to evaluate. So off I went to strain... and strain, and read a book and drink lots of water. Some time around 8 I had my nose in a particularly interesting part of the book. I had to pee, so I did.
Clink.
Huh? Pee doesn't go clink. Sure enough there was a little black rock in the bowl. I fished it out and put it in my cup. My mother in law thought it only fair that since Michelle had 4 kids, I should have 4 little stones. No such luck. But boy do I feel better...
It was a warm, summer day. Perfect for a picnic - or a going away party for your Aunt and Uncle - as the case may be.
I was manning the grill, serving up burgers, dogs and chicken in the heat. Should I have been drinking more, yes. Did I think it was a problem, no...
So after everyone was fed, I grabbed a plate of food and merged myself into the "kids" table. We're all married and in at least our upper 30's, but that's what it was...
I needed to go to the little boy's room, so I excused myself and went inside and upstairs. Without getting into graphic details, and there are many! I felt as if I still needed to pee, even after I was done. This is new for me - it was like something was stuck.
Rut roh Raggy.
I went back outside and ate, but nothing tasted all that great. I soon was back inside, still feeling like I had to go. Do you have a going problem?
After several more unsuccessful attempts to go, I realized I was starting to sweat. A lot. Then I got a stitch in my right front side. Great - I thought - my appendix. I went into my parent's bedroom and collapsed on the bed. By this time I was pretty sure I was in trouble, so I headed downstairs to get some help. They took one look at me and started dialing the local Urgent Care locations. I was an ugly shade of gray and dripping with sweat.
Michelle ran to get the van and we were off. I wanted to go to Park Nicollet - since they have all my charts, but by the time we were a half-mile away I was rolling the window down because I was sure I was going to puke up all that fine food. Then the tingling fingers started in. Nothing in the chest - Thanks God! but Michelle was on the phone with someone trying to decide if we should go to West Health - which was just Urgent Care - or if we should go all the way to North Memorial. Why is there no hospital in Maple Grove?!!!
We opted for West Health and pulled in - my hands had started cramping as I was trying to move them to make the tingles go away. They looked like crab claws and I kinda gave up on moving them and concentrated on walking. I told M to go ahead and find out if they could help me.
I started on the left side of the walkway across the street. By the time I was half way across - I was hanging onto the Street lamp on the right side of the path. OK, gotta focus. I made it through the doors and the security guard, who may have watched me weave across the walkway, asked if I wanted a wheelchair. Nah - 20 more feet down a hall, I can handle that. Just barely.
I leaned against the wall and just stood there - holding onto the corner. At this point M looked back at me and interrupted the nice lady admitting people. She took one look at me and got the Security guard behind me with the chair. She wheeled me over to a little side triage area and got me a bucket and a towel. I was still dripping with sweat. It was literally running down my nose onto my shirt.
They took me back to a room and the world stopped spinning. Well - it kept on going, I just didn't feel like it was spinning extra fast just for me. The tingling went away in my hands, by the time she got my vitals and asked me what my pain level was, I could honestly say it was a 2. I'm no sure what a 10 is, but I imagine the white flash I saw when I destroyed my foot in a college football game must be close. This at it's worst was maybe a 5, but I've never had that kind of physiological reaction to pain before. There was nothing I could do and I didn't know what it was. At least when you blow out an ankle or knee, you know what the problem is.
The Dr. came in and I gave him the cliff notes version of this tale. He said - "could be kidney stone, could be appendix. If you can pee in a cup - we can run a test to see if there is blood in your urine." I peed in the cup and they went off to run the tests. They got me a shot of something. I have no idea if it did any good or not, but by now I was feeling better.
The Dr. came back in and said they had found blood in the urine. Probably a kidney stone. He gave me a prescription for Flowmax and Vicodin. One a day of one - as needed for the other. Drink a ton of water and go to the hospital if you feel like you're going to fall over again.
I was feeling much better by now.
We went to Walgreens and dropped of the prescription.
Back to the party to explain.
We left an hour or so later and went to get the prescription. On the way there, the pain came back. Not as bad as before, but still...Drugs please!! They messed up the insurance info, so we sat there with 4 kids carrying on in the back of the van and daddy grimacing in pain in the passenger seat. They finally got the insurance figured out and I got my drugs. I actually don't remember a lot of the ride home. Until we got off 694 at Hemlock. By then I had felt the little bugger move from my right side to the middle. I was doing everything I could think of to help it along on it's voyage.
By the time we were home - just a minute or 2 later, the pain subsided and I felt fine again.
Did I mention that the Dr. gave me some filters to pee into? And a little cup to place anything that didn't go through the strainer into for my doctor to evaluate. So off I went to strain... and strain, and read a book and drink lots of water. Some time around 8 I had my nose in a particularly interesting part of the book. I had to pee, so I did.
Clink.
Huh? Pee doesn't go clink. Sure enough there was a little black rock in the bowl. I fished it out and put it in my cup. My mother in law thought it only fair that since Michelle had 4 kids, I should have 4 little stones. No such luck. But boy do I feel better...
Tonka Night
It was a beautiful night to be on the water. July 3rd 2008. Plenty of big boats were out on Maxwell bay, so I was hoping that they wouldn't scare all of the fish away.Fortunately they didn't.
SKW had a nice bass on early, but it made 2 nice jumps and did a cartwheel, spitting the hook. We drifted the bar and didn't have much more luck, the water is dropping now and the weeds are matting up a bit, making it harder to find fishy water.
After I switched to orange and brown I got a few takers. We went to the very back of Stubbs bay and had another nice bass on, then we headed for the slop. SKW tried the Blade Dancer, but had too much trouble with the weeds. He actually had a nice pike follow it out of the gorp, but it spooked at the boat. He also had a buzzbait he could keep above the gorp and caught a bass on it.
LSJ was having a little trouble with the camera and the fill flash, so the pics aren't world class, but they'll do. There are some really big fish back there. Now we just need to figure out a way to get to 'em.
Sunday, June 01, 2008
Namakagon 08
OK - How pathetic is this that it's 2 weeks later and I'm finally getting ar
ound to this post.The Sven's left on the 29th for the annual fishing trip. This was a trip of amazingly few SI moments. We did have to buy a new bilge pump for SvenJohn's new boat, but that was about it.
This is SvenJohn's first walleye in over a decade. He caught it sitting on the dropoff by the island.
This year we finally had something to look at the "rock pile" that I found the first year. It held lots of fish, but the wind was usually so strong, we couldn't sit over it very well. How do I know it held fish? I'm so glad you asked...
Here fishy fishy!
It was really sad that after all of the whining that SvenKirt and SvenMark had to endure over the AquaVu, that SK couldn't be with us to share in this special moment. We could clearly see that the "rock pile" was actually more of a log cabin. It was a crib that somebody sank to attract fish to that dropoff. I saw several walleyes and pike within a few feet of the crib and it was literally covered with Bluegills and RockBass.
OK so there was one SI moment.
That's a Byerly's bag cut to form a darkening shade for the camera. You can't see jack in those things if there is any light behind you. There will be an improvement to the shade in the near future. I'm not yet sure what it will be, but I'm thinking paper is probably out.
As usual we didn't suffer much. It was a little cool, but that meant very few bugs. As one might guess there was enough fishing action for most of the Svens. I had the unfortunate experience of having the most often hit - and missed - and spit lure on the trip. The BladeDancer finally succumbed to the gaping maw of something that broke my 17 lb. Spiderwire. It was a sad day.Fortunately others did better than
me. SvenJay used the reveredblue and yellow to catch a 20" largemouth right off the boat launch. We didn't even have a camera in the boat yet. Here is one he caught Saturday afternoon.
SvenJay may have thrown more different baits than the rest of us combined. He probably caught more fish.
This is MC's pig
Brozeback. We both caught our Smallies off a bridge. I had a ~40" musky follow right up to the boat in the same inlet, but she wouldn't eat it.
As usual, we spent our Saturday night in the Echo Point Steak House. A good time was had by all. The place is for sale. I think some of the Sven's were tempted to look at
a new
career.After all of that food, I'm not really sure why SvenSteve was going vegetarian the next day...
SvenDan and SvenMatt were so full they had to take a break.
All in all - a good time was had by all. We don't know if we will be able to go back next year. We'll miss it, but I just have 2 words.
Red Lake
EXIT ONLY!!
Saturday, May 24, 2008
OK so it's been a while, but the Svens are about to come out of hibernation and hit the water again. Truth be told, we have been on the water a bit already, with little to show for our efforts but a few panfish.
Next week we head back up to Namakagon to try our luck again on the annual Sven Run. We'll keep you posted.
Next week we head back up to Namakagon to try our luck again on the annual Sven Run. We'll keep you posted.
Labels: Back At It
Monday, December 10, 2007
Three Sven Elves
Merry Christmas!!
Wrapped up in a Office Max box I found this nugget of Seasonal Cheer.
Enjoy!
Three Sven Elves
Wrapped up in a Office Max box I found this nugget of Seasonal Cheer.
Enjoy!
Three Sven Elves
Thursday, September 13, 2007
The Scout Motto is...
Be prepared!
I failed terribly yesterday...
Let's see, last week I killed the battery trying to control the boat in the wind. Sven Mark caught a few fish. I got skunked.
This week we moved to Wed. night so I could actually see my kids one night. So Sven Kirt said he'd bring his battery. Cool! I knew I was low on gas, so I made a mental note to get some from my mower/blower can. I forgot.
So Sven Kirt and Sven John showed up and we got the boat hooked up and I tested SK's battery and it worked. Sweet!
Do you have a camera? - SK-No! So I went to go grab our camera. Michelle left it on - plugged into the PC. It was dead. SJ do you have a Pearl? No! But I do have a camera on my phone.
Sweet!
Off we go.
We put the boat in and fired it up. Full choke, three pulls - off it goes. We motor out onto the lake and sputter, sputter cough. We're out of gas! No worries, I'll just zip us back into the launch and go get some gas. The trolling motor spun for a total of 3 seconds. And about 5 seconds with mine.
Get out the paddle...
I paddled us back to the launch and ran to the truck with the gas tank. Booked up to the gas station on the corner. They don't have 2-Cycle oil. So I got 2 gallons and ran back home to put the oil in.
Back to the launch - I hope there's still a parking spot - whew.
One pull and we're off for real this time. The hard clunking that I've been experiencing since the Clearwater trip was diagnosed by SJ as the clutch dog sliping. Hmm, I might have to pull that spring out and stretch it again.
We went down to the South East side and started drifting and casting. We got past the Surdyks dock and SK got a strike on a spinnerbait. It broke his line. He threw back in with the Booyah and got a strike. Fish On!
Is it a good one? Eh - no not really...
It was 7:10 and pretty dim light - dark water and the fish stayed down. Then I saw the fin. Do you want the net?
Well, it came up and we saw that it was a musky, um yeah - get the net!
SJ had the net open in a jiffy and SK brought it right up to the boat, SJ scooped it up and it went nuts!
We had everything under control, but the fish was really green. We had some help from the local homeowner suggesting we cut the line and let it go! Give me a break.
It did not have SK's spinnerbait in it's mouth, so there must have been another fish. As we drifted North we must have spooked something, because there was a big pile of bubbles that trailed off to deep water. Hmmm.
We took our time and she was fine. SJ's camera on the other hand was not. Equipment malfunction! Even taking as long as we did to get the fish out of the net - SJ couldn't get the camera to boot.
We measured - approximately 39"- and put her back in the water. SK kept her there for a while trying to give SJ's camera a chance to boot - but it was not to be.
Further down the drift, SJ masterfully hooked a Sunfish with his Mepps and SK caught another pike, but nothing for your's truly.
We caught up to a boat full of Musky hunters and decided to go to the NW side. The wind was a lot worse, so I had to keep the motor running to control the drift. In one of the transitions from backtrolling to drifting a big fish took a shot at SJ's spinnerbait but missed. Dirnt!
SJ did catch a bass along that drift. The light was fading and I hooked up the dead batteries to the lights. Mine lasted 3 seconds and went completely out. SK's battery lasted better, but it was pretty dim, so we headed in.
Fortunately on the return trip, there were no unforseen complications.
So I'm 0-fer August and September. Next Week!
I failed terribly yesterday...
Let's see, last week I killed the battery trying to control the boat in the wind. Sven Mark caught a few fish. I got skunked.
This week we moved to Wed. night so I could actually see my kids one night. So Sven Kirt said he'd bring his battery. Cool! I knew I was low on gas, so I made a mental note to get some from my mower/blower can. I forgot.
So Sven Kirt and Sven John showed up and we got the boat hooked up and I tested SK's battery and it worked. Sweet!
Do you have a camera? - SK-No! So I went to go grab our camera. Michelle left it on - plugged into the PC. It was dead. SJ do you have a Pearl? No! But I do have a camera on my phone.
Sweet!
Off we go.
We put the boat in and fired it up. Full choke, three pulls - off it goes. We motor out onto the lake and sputter, sputter cough. We're out of gas! No worries, I'll just zip us back into the launch and go get some gas. The trolling motor spun for a total of 3 seconds. And about 5 seconds with mine.
Get out the paddle...
I paddled us back to the launch and ran to the truck with the gas tank. Booked up to the gas station on the corner. They don't have 2-Cycle oil. So I got 2 gallons and ran back home to put the oil in.
Back to the launch - I hope there's still a parking spot - whew.
One pull and we're off for real this time. The hard clunking that I've been experiencing since the Clearwater trip was diagnosed by SJ as the clutch dog sliping. Hmm, I might have to pull that spring out and stretch it again.
We went down to the South East side and started drifting and casting. We got past the Surdyks dock and SK got a strike on a spinnerbait. It broke his line. He threw back in with the Booyah and got a strike. Fish On!
Is it a good one? Eh - no not really...
It was 7:10 and pretty dim light - dark water and the fish stayed down. Then I saw the fin. Do you want the net?
Well, it came up and we saw that it was a musky, um yeah - get the net!
SJ had the net open in a jiffy and SK brought it right up to the boat, SJ scooped it up and it went nuts!
We had everything under control, but the fish was really green. We had some help from the local homeowner suggesting we cut the line and let it go! Give me a break.
It did not have SK's spinnerbait in it's mouth, so there must have been another fish. As we drifted North we must have spooked something, because there was a big pile of bubbles that trailed off to deep water. Hmmm.
We took our time and she was fine. SJ's camera on the other hand was not. Equipment malfunction! Even taking as long as we did to get the fish out of the net - SJ couldn't get the camera to boot.
We measured - approximately 39"- and put her back in the water. SK kept her there for a while trying to give SJ's camera a chance to boot - but it was not to be.
Further down the drift, SJ masterfully hooked a Sunfish with his Mepps and SK caught another pike, but nothing for your's truly.
We caught up to a boat full of Musky hunters and decided to go to the NW side. The wind was a lot worse, so I had to keep the motor running to control the drift. In one of the transitions from backtrolling to drifting a big fish took a shot at SJ's spinnerbait but missed. Dirnt!
SJ did catch a bass along that drift. The light was fading and I hooked up the dead batteries to the lights. Mine lasted 3 seconds and went completely out. SK's battery lasted better, but it was pretty dim, so we headed in.
Fortunately on the return trip, there were no unforseen complications.
So I'm 0-fer August and September. Next Week!
Saturday, August 11, 2007
The Little Red Bag
Thursday night found the Svens hitting the Water again. The wind was out of the West, so we drifted the NW end, but only got a nice pike out of it.
Sven Mark was having a small problem with some over attentive flies. For some reason they really, really liked his ankles. So we decided to go to the East side and try our luck in some new territory.
Sven Kirt had brought a little red bag with a dozen or so lures in it. He grabbed one that looked like a backwards platypus and started chucking it. He was about 10 minutes into figuring out how to use the thing when the water exploded. It missed. But it came back! And missed again. The the boat drifted down to it and spooked it. We fished the south east end, but didn't get anything.
So we went back to the willow and tried for the one that followed last week. Once again - no luck. Eventually we all picked up a pike and then the trolling motor battery started the quick descent into nothingness. The bugs got worse, and crab legs were calling, so we bailed off the lake and headed for home.
Unfortunately for us, they roll up the sidewalks at 10 in Arbor Lakes on weeknights. Ah well, less girth to haul around the park in Sept...
Wednesday, August 01, 2007
An ill wind blows
Well it wasn't really ill. It was just out of the South. We haven't had much luck this year with a
South wind. The Three Svens tried the West shore and had a lovely drift, but only 1 small bass to show for it. The wind was too strong to keep out of the gorp on the NW flat, so we motored up to the reeds and tried the backwards drift on the NW corner. I had a nice fish on for about 5 seconds, but it threw the spinnerbait and never came back. Note the crabby Sven in the background...
We eventually tried the NE reeds and Lily Pads and SK had several little bass pound the Booyah. The light was fading but the wind was still kicking up near whitecaps so we decided to fish the docks on the East side. SK hooked up with a few docks, and SM hooked up with the bolts on his seat, but no fish.
The closest we got was a monster Musky that followed the Tallywacker in but never took a shot.
Next time...
South wind. The Three Svens tried the West shore and had a lovely drift, but only 1 small bass to show for it. The wind was too strong to keep out of the gorp on the NW flat, so we motored up to the reeds and tried the backwards drift on the NW corner. I had a nice fish on for about 5 seconds, but it threw the spinnerbait and never came back. Note the crabby Sven in the background...
We eventually tried the NE reeds and Lily Pads and SK had several little bass pound the Booyah. The light was fading but the wind was still kicking up near whitecaps so we decided to fish the docks on the East side. SK hooked up with a few docks, and SM hooked up with the bolts on his seat, but no fish.
The closest we got was a monster Musky that followed the Tallywacker in but never took a shot.
Next time...
