Bursting into the New Year!

You never know when something will occur that will put your long-discussed, well-laid plans on hold.

After completion of our PNT adventure in late October, Dale and I spent some much needed, much appreciated and enjoyable time with friends and family, both in the Northwest and in Colorado. For the first time in many years we found ourselves embraced by family for the fall and winter holidays. In Washington we carved pumpkins for Halloween, and gorged on delicious food during a boisterous Thanksgiving Dinner. In Colorado we experienced a wonderful, wintry Christmas and quietly rang in a chilly New Year playing card games.

As midnight faded into January first, we leaned into each other, gently kissed, and both felt a rising sense of excitement and eagerness for our 2010 goals. This is the year we plan to take Beyond Sea Level from blog to small business. This is the year we plan to use our passions and long-earned skills to develop an environmental outreach organization. A kind of "ecotourism for the mind", we envision offering a series of environmentally-themed courses for life-long learners who want to improve critical thinking skills regarding current and future environmental concerns. Through this effort participants will move beyond their own personal sea levels to gain perspective on how we impact and coexist with the ecosystems we live in. We want to raise the importance of the environment in the voting booth, and by doing so make positive change in the state of our natural world and the only planetary home we have. We will accomplish this through an unbiased, even-handed approach in which people are encouraged to draw their own conclusions regarding their environmental decisions. We want to make a positive difference in the world and we plan to begin in the Puget Sound area.

That being said, Dale and I set out for the Pacific Northwest in early January with a few simple goals in mind; 1) Find immediate employment that will 2) sustain ourselves (food and housing) while we 3) apply for grants and develop curriculum for the future of Beyond Sea Level (BSL).

Unfortunately, our plans have been temporarily put on hold. A minor set-back has slowed our blogging and our forward movement in Seattle. The culprit – a burst appendix - deep in Dale’s abdomen.

Okay, so many people experience appendicitis. (According to WebMD, appendicitis will effect one in fifteen U.S. citizens). For most folks, it’s not a big deal. However, if your appendix bursts two weeks before you have it removed…well that is a problem. Yes, you read that right. Two weeks. We honestly didn’t know. Dale was feeling discomfort in Colorado around Christmas that we attributed it to high-elevation (sleeping at 8,500 feet), flu symptoms or other common gastro-intestinal issues. Clearly, something more serious was going on - serious enough that I am posting this from the hospital, six long days after surgery.

The good news – we’re doing okay. Dale’s fine. He’s in discomfort, and annoyed by the setback, but more himself every day. Since the appendix had already ruptured, and formed a lovely pus-pocket in his gut, the hospital in-patient time is extended. There’s a concern about further infection, and we’ve learned a new term: paralytic ileus. An ileus could be called “frozen gut” and not in a fun, “I’ve had too much ice cream too fast” kind of way. No, instead your bowels basically go to sleep. Until they wake up and start working again you can’t leave the hospital. So essentially we’ve been sitting around for days and days waiting for Dale to pass gas. (Giggling is definitely allowed.)

If my discussion of bodily function does not exactly correspond with our loftier plans post-appendicitis-recovery, keep in mind we also spent 3.5 months on the trail when we dug cat holes to bury our waste, peed next to each other on the trail, and could easily sink into the realm of “body-function-jokes” to keep ourselves entertained on long hiking days. And it’s exactly these moments when humor becomes as healing as the happy-drugs they push for pain.

So I post this from the hospital where Dale is resting quietly and we wait for gas to pass. We’ve been warned that recovery from this kind of acute appendicitis can take a while. We plan to use that time to continue the job search, and move forward on making BSL a reality. We will continue to blog. And we will always be grateful this did not happen out on the trail in a wilderness area miles from a trail head.

What a way to burst into the New Year, eh?