Picto Diary - 01-07 October 2021 - Mayo Clinic

Above: T-Joe's Restaurant, Cheyenne, WY. 01 October 2021.

TIMDT, Freddie and Mwah (sic) are off in the Sprinter for Rochester, MN. TIMDT is scheduled for 2nd opinion consultation of interstitial lung disease diagnosed at U of U in April 2021. U recommended surgical biopsy. TIMDT temporized. Video call with Mayo Clinic pulmonologists, who had U Cat scans and test results, offered other options to surgery. Mayo people said surgery an option, but, they suggested TIMDT wait six months, retest and then compare the two tests. Mayo wanted to see her in person... hence this trip.

Above: TIMDT and Freddie at Fat Dogs gas. Lincoln, NE. 02 October 2021.

Diesel prices in Nebraska are up to a full dollar less than diesel prices in Utah.

Above: Cunningham's Pub and Grill. Omaha, NE. 02 October 2021.

Blowout. Huskers 21 Northwestern 0 in Lincoln. End 1st quarter.

A reminiscence. Coincidence?

In October of 1968, on a Saturday, I was driving my dad's white,1964 Buick LeSabre four door sedan, eastbound, through Nebraska. I was headed to Connecticut to court TIMDT who was employed as a social worker in New Haven. The freeway was little travelled and the communities through which I was driving seemed dead. In North Platte, NE, I asked a gas station attendant where everyone was. "The Huskers are playing a game in Lincoln," he said. While walking into the station premises to the rest room, I heard the Husker game play by play aired through the gas station premises. It was then that I learned about the importance of Husker football to this state.

Today. October 2021. Fifty three years later. Groundhog day? Saturday... denuded highways and generally ghost town look as we pull into the Fat Dogs gas station in Lincoln. I ask the station attendant, "are the Huskers playing now?" "Yes," he said. "They're up against Northwestern... the game starts in about an hour." None of this trip we are on was planned to actualize this coincidence.

Back to 1968. A week or so later, with Margaret and a couple of other BYU students, I was driving back Utah Near Rock Springs, WY, an engine rod snapped in the Buick. We had to be towed fifty miles to Rock Springs. We stayed the night at a motel and Dad came out the next day in a barrowed car to return the group to Provo. At the time, I didn't think of the financial stress and wasted time that Dad had to suffer with his Buick going on the blink. Since, I think often of his sacrifice... he was an educator. He didn't have a lot of money. I realize now that I have too long lacked full appreciation for his and Mom's generosity towards me in times when I now realize I wasn't fully appreciative.

One difference between the two cross Nebraska trips. In 1968 I had little awareness that the route by which I was travelling in Nebraska was along the south bank of the Platte River. On the north bank of the Platte River, the first Mormon pioneer wagon train was heading west in the Spring of 1847. Over the next fifteen all of my ancestors would follow the same route west bound seeking a home in the Great Basin . As I drove today along the river I looked at the river bank and tried to see my mind's eye my ancestors pressing westward.

Above: TIMDT at LT Organic Farm Restaurant, Waukee, Iowa. 03 October 2021.

Seven Acres. Owned and operated by Guyanese immigrants of south Indian origin.

Discovery of this unique place owed to TIMDT's adept usage of search functions on her I-Phone. Serendipity often plays in our travel experiences. So it did here.

Above: The Giant's Corn Cob. Rochester, MN. 04 October 2021.

When the kids were younger, during our perigrinations, we would often see a water tank in the shape of a smaller object or large sculpture of the same... a giant football... or a giant golf ball. We would refer to these features as "giant's...whatever."

Above: TIMDT. Mayo Clinic, 18th Floor. Rochester, MN. 05 October 2021.

TIMDT. 2nd opinion on lung ailment, interstitial lung disease. Essentially, good news. No deterioration since last test, April 2021. No recommended surgery for biopsy. No medication prescribed. Stay the course. Work out. Keep fit. New tests in six months. I say "essentially" because we still don't know specifics on what the actual disease is. Mayo doctor says even if we did know, it would likely not change the treatment... likely steroids. That the disease is in stasis.. ie. not getting worse... is a good thing according to doctor. TIMDT has diminished lung capacity which makes exertion, say, walking uphill, difficult. Otherwise she lives normally. For example, she can walk a flat three miles perfectly fine. We don't know the origin of the disease.

Minnesota had no mask mandates. Malls, restaurants, businesses had no mask requirements. The Mayo hospital did require masks. Outside, on the street, perhaps 10% of people were masked. This contrasts with Washington State where we were ten days ago. Washington had a mask requirement. It should be easy for researchers to compare contagion in states having strong disease control mandates with those that don't in order to make good recommendations for the next pandemic.

Above: TIMDT at Badlands National Park. South Dakota 06 October 2021.

I have been here before... TIMDT first visit. The odd geological features are more extensive than I remember. You can see seens like the one captured here in an area roughly 20 miles by five miles.

Above: Bishop. Wall Drug. Wall, South Dakota. 06 October 2021.

Wall drug is among my very first memories. For three summers from 1947 to 1949 our family lived in Vermillion, South Dakota where Dad taught summer school at the University of South Dakota. I remember Mom and Dad commenting on the ubiquitous Wall Drug signs along the road as we neared Vermillion driving from Utah. I don't recall a specific visit to the store back then, but, we must have gone. Wall Drug signs, back in the day, were small and unobtrusive. Wall Drug signs could be found throughout the west as far away as California. It was quite a marketing strategy as Wall Drug, famous only for being famous, thrives today as a tourist attraction. Wall Drug signs were ubiquitous along I-90 from Rochester, Minnesota to Wall, South Dakota.

I have a very specific recollection of learning to ride a bicycle in Vermillion at the age of four... probably my earliest, vivid, recallable, memory. I can see the bike in the front yard, the step up to an open porch and a frame house. There is Dad coaching me. I can remember the thrill of first riding on two wheels without assistance. In an offbeat sense, South Dakota is where it all started for me.

Above: Freddie at Mt. Rushmore National Monument. South Dakota. 06 October 2021.

This was a good time to visit. There weren't many tourists. The masking rule in Federal buildings in the monument (restrooms, visitors center, curio store etc.) seemed to me to be somewhat incongruous in a state which, more than any other, bucked a national trend to institute mandates.eg. lock downs, masking etc. to thwart the spread of Covid-19.

Above: Sprinter and Devil's Tower. Wyoming, 07 October 2021.

GAFGC. The Sprinter reverberates to the deep, penetrating blast of the alien chord.

Above: Freddie at Devil's Tower. Wyoming. 07 October 2021

Above: Bishop and Cyril. Thermopolis Hot Spring. Thermopolis, WY. 07 October 2021.
Me 'n Cyril, at Thermopolis hot spring. Cyril manages the 250 Belleview, WA traffic signals. Bishop always in awe of this vanishing breed: "guys who know how to do stuff." Cyril, and wife Mary Joe have a big ass truck which pulls a big ass fifth wheel with a Goldwing in the fifth wheel's toy garage.

Cyril has six techs working for him. None of them wants his job, he says. He wants to retire, but, says his superiors won't let him. He travels a lot with Mary Joe. He gets regular calls from his techs while he travels seeking advice on this or that issue. Cyril and Mary Joe live a good life. They are off in their RV two months a year seeing the country.

Skilled labor jobs seem to find fewer qualified applicants despite the jobs paying very high compensation. Via a private equity fund I am an investor in an internet employment agency for roust abouts in high demand around the world to work on oil rigs. The best of these jobs now pays $300K per annum. The average age of a highly trained roust about is fifty five. They are not being replaced. It is possible that would be workers resist entering the trade because popular sentiment says fossil fuels are a dying industry (hint: it is not). But, it is odd that parents will pay upwards of $200K for their son to go to college only to end up with a degree that is nigh on to useless for to obtain a high paying job... while these high paying skilled labor jobs are going begging.

The ratio of men to women in college today is 40/60. What are the men who are choosing not to go to college doing? They don't appear to be taking the high skilled labor jobs... roust abouts, linemen, or, in the case of Cyril, traffic signal managers. Conundrum to be solved.

Above: Ten Sleep Canyon, Big Horn Range, Wyoming. 07 October 2021.

Addendum:

Happy Birthday, Granny! And congratulations on your grandson’s great success on the drums! Fantastic!

XO,

KK,
Salt Lake City, UT

Happy 39th Birthday to the always lovely Margaret! Great place to celebrate it. Congrats on the new bike. Looks like it’s crying for it’s maiden trip to 🦣. Have a wonderful, and hopefully wet, fall day.

Mr. Z3,
Indio, CA

Wow! What a great “high” for the proud grandparents!! Such fun and what a significant accomplishment.

Survival,
Markagunt Plateau, UT

Steve,

Congrats to Drums. Can you let me know when the next varsity jazz concert will be played?

NH Cousin #1
Park City, UT