Fantanstic weekend! Then bad news...

I got back from our Mt. St. Helen's climb and camping weekend. I'm pretty exhausted, but it was great! The weather held out for us and turned out to be perfect! Not too hot and just windy and chilly at the top. None of the pictures will do St. Helen's justice: you have to see it for yourself. I was especially grateful of the view given I've climbed that fuckin' half-ass of a mountain bitch twice before, but this one time all of my effort and exhaustion was justified in being able to stand up on the crest's edge and look down into the crater. I was surprised to see how active it was: plumes of steam in several areas and areas where you could see hot sulfur had be spewing. Very very cool. Not to mention the sudden rock avalanches that would come loose around the edges of the crater. You would hear a distant rumbling (which gave me the heebeejeebees), then you'd look over and see a waterfall of rocks and dust rolling down and edges. On our way up I definitely said to myself "This is it, this is the last time I'm doing this fucking climb." Then on my way down I thought "I totally doing this again next year!"

I was happy that Ami and Julian were able to come on the hike and camped with us for the weekend. This was the beginning of their 3 month long road trip around the country! They are really stoked. They have their station wagon loaded up and pimped out to live out of for the next 3 months. I'm planning to fly to New York to meet up with them in October! I just need to get on buying my ticket....

After getting back to civilization and cell phone service I discovered that my Aunt Sandy suffered a massive stroke and is in the ICU in Vancouver. This is especially horrendous news so soon after my Grandma past away last month. My Uncle Leland, husband of Sandy, had been the closest to my grandma before she past and took her death very hard. He is now losing his wife. The news of Sandy's sudden stroke, literally shocked my Aunt Karla (older sister of Leland and my dad) so much that she ended up also being admitted to an ICU! (Apparently she had multiple underlying issues making her unable to process such emotional stress: pneumonia, fatigue, dehydration, and severe electrolyte imbalances). At least my other Aunt Mary just recently got out of the hospital after breaking her sacrum shortly before my grandma died. My dad seems to be keeping it together. Sandy had a massive clot in her brain which they treated with a blood thinner (tPA), after which she then began to bleed out into her brain. They had to take her to surgery to remove part of her skull to relieve the pressure on her brain in hopes of saving tissue. Her best chance right now would be to get back to the capacity she was at before the surgery which was completely paralyzed on her right side, minimal movement on her left, non-verbal. If she doesn't begin to recover in the next 72 hrs then they will remove the breathing tube.

Also, while we were gone for the weekend, our bathroom rug grew maggots in it!