Chris Loehmer Kincaid's Blog, page 62

Giving Thanks for Family

    Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him. (Psalm 127:3, New Living Translation)

 During this pandemic, probably not many families have been getting together as much as they used to (which is good for preventing the spread of coronavirus, but not so good for any of our emotional well-being). I’ve been blessed to stay in touch with my kids, and we had a nice time together last weekend.

    Direct your children onto the right path, and when they are older, they will not leave it. (Proverbs 22:6, New Living Translation)

 
I can’t take any credit for how my son and daughter turned out, but I am certainly proud of them. All the work they have both done in Africa would bring tears of joy to any momma’s eyes. They are both amazing and I thank God every day that He gifted them to me.

   “Through bitter tears, And wounded years, those ties Of blood were strong. And when lightin' strikes the family, Have faith, believe.” (written by the band Journey)

No, our lives together have not been perfect, not ideal. I struggled a lot with the decision I had made to divorce their father, and I prayed a lot before marrying their step-father. Speaking of which, I thank God that He sent that wonderful man into my life, giving me a second chance at marriage.

   So I bow in prayer before the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth gets its true name. (Ephesians 3:14-15, New Century Version)

I truly am blessed to have a caring family, surrounding me with their love.

LORD , God, my Heavenly Father, thank You for the great gift of my family. And for the knowledge that I will rejoin the rest of my family in heaven one day. Amen.

Covert Covid Chronicles, Part “it’s been too long to remember”

Yes, it has been a very long time since I’ve written a blog post about how the coronavirus pandemic is going. I’ve certainly mentioned it here and there over the past months, because we cannot escape that it is a part of life right now. We also can’t escape, here in north-central Wisconsin, that it has hit us and hit us hard.

I have so many stories that I’ve written in my personal journal of the pandemic – 38,342 words since March 22. But so many of those stories are too personal and would break HIPPA laws if I shared them, or at least would teeter into that abyss of privacy violations. Or break the confidences of friends, patients, and co-workers, people I most especially cherish during these crazy times.

But I need to stop there. I seem to be starting to ramble. It’s late Thursday night as I’m writing this; I really need to get to bed. But sometimes, most of the time, a person has to write when their thoughts and feelings are most ragged.

Clearly, I’m losing my mind.

Oh, not to fret, I’ll be okay. As you should already know, I work at the small clinic in my hometown. We have eight family practice providers and until, COVID descended, a regular mix of specialties. Their presence has been somewhat hit or miss over the last eight months.

As you can imagine, working in family practice, in the only medical center in a small town, during a pandemic, is a little bit stressful. Our town’s hospital, in the same building, has around twelve inpatient beds, I think, and up until recent weeks, has had nights when only a few patients could be found sleeping there. Our emergency room is equally small, but I would seek care there, instead of a big city hospital, for any medical crisis. Our staffs are the best at what they do, but our numbers are small. And possibly getting smaller, as wards in the larger cities have begun calling out for help with staffing, as the pandemic continues to rage.

The numbers of COVID cases in the state keep going up. Sure, a lot of these people are not sick with it worse than they would be with a cold or a minor flu bug. But others, of any age, are ending up in the ICU, and later, the morgue. Our little hospital, which does not have the equipment to support those folks, is reaching out far and wide to find facilities to take them and treat them. It’s bad enough when your loved one is in isolation in the hospital and you can’t visit them because of a pandemic. But now they are being air-lifted up to two hundred miles away. How can you possibly be there to support them when they need you the most?

First time I tested someone for COVID.
Got dressed for this again this week. 

In our clinic, we are testing, on average, over twenty patients a day. Doesn’t sound like a lot, but that’s how many patients some of our providers used to see in a day, patients being seen for physicals and pre-ops and post-ops and med checks and broken bones and warts and every other malady known to man. Now, many of our patients are being “seen” via the phone or video chat, to keep them from possible exposure in the clinic. And to keep us from being exposed if they do have the corona. Yet, more and more people with possible COVID make their way through our doors and into exam rooms, rooms which then need to get locked down for deep cleaning before anybody else can use them. Our cleaning people are being run ragged.

We've hired a temporary staff member just to do COVID swabbing. You wouldn't have seen that on a resume a year ago. "My most recent job was as a swabber."  

And me? I feel like Karen Silkwood. Remember the movie where she tried exposing worker safety violations at the plutonium processing plant she works at? Where if workers are found to be radioactive, they scrub them down in the shower? I feel like I should go through one of those showers when I leave work at the end of the day. I have an active, and somewhat warped, imagination. If I was so concerned, I could get my nose swabbed periodically. But I rather be dramatic.

It's time I close this out and get to bed, so I can get up early and post this on my blog for the world to read. I suppose I should close with the lecture – the part where I stress the importance of the three golden rules – masks, hand-washing, social distancing. But you’ve heard that all before. You know what to do and what not to do, and I know a lot of people out there think they are above those rules. They don’t care about their loved ones, their family, friends, co-workers, or general public, and apparently, they don’t care about the medical community, which might not be available to them when they fall ill or get in a car wreck driving home from a bar where they were sharing all their COVID germs.

Yup, it’s definitely time to end this ramble. Have a good weekend, stay safe, stay healthy. Chris 

When we run out of human heroes to work here, I guess does will work here instead.
(Picture taken by a co-worker after work one night last month)
 

A Spattering of Area History – blog post #5 from the family vacation

   Way back on Monday, September 28, Day 3 of our fall family vacation in northern Wisconsin dawned cloudy and dreary. Temperatures throughout the day ranged from the mid-50s to low-60s with showers off and on and only the rarest glimpses of sun. We weren’t to be discouraged, though; there were so many wilderness sites to see!

First stop, that damp morning was Plummer Mine, which is halfway between Iron Belt and Pence. There is so much mining history in the area. I wish I could keep track of it all and share it with you, but I will leave the research up to you. I rather share pictures

    I’m never quite sure what all these ruins were at one time. Yes, there is a sign with a map of the site, but I can never put it in perspective.

  And with all the brush and trees, it’s hard to see the remains of what were once huge buildings.   Way in the back, up the hill, in the ruins of the smelting operation, there are several tall walls, with passages in between. Somehow, the dogs got down in there. 
Buddy and Bleu were able to find their way out, jumping up into a hole and escaping. Poor gimpy Wes, however, couldn’t figure it out and couldn’t jump up anywhere anyway. Nick was preparing to scale one of the walls into the abyss, when Val crawled in the way the dogs had come out and gathered Wes up and tossed him back out the hole. I’m not sure at which point in that operation I shot this picture. That hand is kind of creepy, no? 
Next, we drove around the Rose Wreath building in Montreal, which had originally been the machine shop for the Montreal Mine Company. Behind that, down a road with clear “no trespassing” signs, we drove past the remains of another old brick building. I’m not sure what it had been, but surely it had been another building of the MMC. 

  Between those two buildings, Nick told us there had been a grand place known in its day as the Hamilton Club. It had been built as a recreational center for area miners and their families, and had included a hardwood stage, pool tables, bowling lanes, a barbershop, and a soda fountain. It was built in 1918 and reportedly had burned down in 1968. Nick reported though, that when he had worked in nearby Hurley in the summer of 2010, that the building had still been there, probably as a burned-out shell. When he returned the following year, it was gone completely, torn down as an eyesore, no doubt, which is surely a shame.

I’m going to end this one here, as our next stop was at the first of the three waterfalls we visited that day. Each one garnered over fifty pictures, so I can’t rush through them.

  I will tell you that the day continued to be wet, which didn’t deter these three.

  Or these two.

Giving Thanks for Where I Live

House in 1990
  And a month ago

    For you are my hiding place; you protect me from trouble. You surround me with songs of victory. (Psalm 32:7, New Living Translation)

  Those who live in the shelter of the Most High will find rest in the shadow of the Almighty. (Psalm 91:1, New Living Translation)

  A house is built by wisdom and becomes strong through good sense. (Proverbs 24:3,  New Living Translation)

   The first time I saw my house, the one where I have been living for thirty years now, I instantly fell in love. Mostly, that very first day, it was the large yard which charmed me. Once I saw the inside of the house some of my excitement turned to anxiety. It was a little rough around the edges, and it only had two bedrooms. A good cleaning and a few gallons of paint made it feel like home, and nine years later, we were able to add on, giving us not only a third bedroom but a second full bathroom. Not to mention a massive family room.

 Beyond these four walls and my four acres of paradise, my little hometown is a safe, friendly place to live. We don’t have a Wal-mart, a Best Buy or an Olive Garden, and our Dairy Queen closes for the winter, but we have a dozen non-chain restaurants which offer great food and a welcoming atmosphere. For long-term residents, any time you go out in public, you hear the theme song from Cheers in your head. “Where everybody knows your name.”

 You’re safe to walk our streets at night (except of course in the dead of winter when you could suffer frost bite). And if your car breaks down and your cellphone is dead (or more likely you don’t have reception coz that is pretty common around here), someone will come along and offer you assistance. We are surrounded by lakes, woods and wildlife.

 I complain a lot about my hometown (aka Hicksville, USA), but, as already mentioned, we are safe here and if we just stay off the internet and turn off the news, we can be at peace.

  Lord, God, thank You for allowing me to live in a place where I feel safe, where all my needs are met, where I can spend time outside relishing in the gifts of this earth. Amen    

And Two More Waterfalls, Kind of – blog post #4 from the family vacation

I promise this is the last post about our second day of the family vacation in northern Wisconsin this fall. We just covered so much ground that day that it was hard to cram it in to one post.

It was getting late in the day, but we were determined to make just three more stops.

The first one wasn’t an actual waterfalls, but instead was called a dells. I picture Wisconsin Dells, or a much smaller place called the Eau Claire Dells which is just east of Wausau, Wisconsin and quite scenic. But this dells, the Tyler Fork Dells, was scenic in its own way.

Flowing water will never stop being fascinating to me.

Then there is whatever this thing called the Ice Spike Lady is.

I wish the entire sign had maintained its integrity. I haven’t had a chance to research it on-line.

Next we stopped at Upson Lake.

We had seen it from atop Corrigan’s Outlook and had to see it up close. The color was amazing.

Last for the day was Upson Falls.

A beautiful ending to a beautiful day. Hard to believe that was just over a month ago. 

 

Giving Thanks for Caring Co-workers

  Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as you are doing. (Thessalonians 5:11, New International Version)

It’s hard to believe that we have made it this far. Here it is, already November 1. I keep thinking – we got this, the year 2020 won’t be with us much longer, than things will get better, right? Well, you may have heard this from me already, but I said that same thing at the end of last year, because, if you recall 2019 was pretty crummy for me. I couldn’t wait for the new year and a fresh start. Look where that got any of us.

But we have to believe that things will get better. And we have to realize that things are not really that bad, we have to remember all the things we have to be thankful for. Thus begins my November 2020 series of blog posts sharing what I am thankful for this year.

My list for 2020 has to begin with my amazing co-workers. When the rest of the world was shutting down, when the masses were working from home, when no one was having any in-person contact with anyone except for the family members they lived with, I was blessed beyond measure to spend my working days with the best group of people ever.

As an “essential worker” (another one of those terms like “social distancing” which we never heard until this year), I continued going to work at the medical clinic nearly every day. Initially, we each had an extra day off a week, with our providers working from home via phone and computer, all to cut down on contact. As the country began to come to terms with what to do in a pandemic, we all went back into the clinic full-time.

With our masks on, we read each other’s thoughts by the look in our eyes, a look which usually said, “yes, we have your back.” We were able to share our fears, we voiced our concerns and displayed our emotions. We laughed, a lot. Because we needed to. And most importantly, we were able to feel that undeniable and vital lifeline of human life. Another human being living through the same thing as me.  

Oh, Lord, God, how I thank you for giving me with this group of supportive people to work with. You have blessed me way more than I deserve. Amen.     

   For God is not unjust. He will not forget how hard you have worked for him and how you have shown your love to him by caring for others. (Hebrews 6:10, New Living Translation)  

Two Final Things to Share – countdown days to go

Here we are, just days away from what will no doubt be in some way or another a historic presidential election. I had hoped to write about it more – the issues which are ripping us apart, the issues which should be bringing us together, how the whole voting process even works (ie the electoral college) – but here we are.

Two things I need to share. First, please click on this link and read the article. https://www.npr.org/2020/10/29/928791633/guns-protests-and-elections-do-not-mix-conflict-experts-see-rising-warning-signs

 I’ve been concerned about that very thing for months and with each passing day, my concerns lean more towards outright worry.

Second thing is a story about the integrity of one man and the power of those political parties.  

My father-in-law was Lloyd Kincaid, a former state senator and assemblyman, from the early seventies to the early nineties. Fairly early on in his career, a bill came up which would adversely affect the people of his district. He represented small rural communities in northern Wisconsin, and this bill was designed to help residents of the larger cities at a cost to towns like his.

When his political party found out that he intended to vote against this bill, the leaders of his party told him that if he didn’t vote for it, that they would find someone else from the party to run against him in the next election and they would be sure that person would win.

He would have nothing to do with it. He talked to the leaders of the other political party and they told him they would always support him. So, he switched parties. (And just to be clear, in case you research this and discover which party is which in this story, either one of them would have done the same thing. And neither party really supported him to the end.)

Moral of that story is that political parties have wielded this kind of control for decades. Reminds me of the movie “Mr. Smith Goes toWashington”. If the television networks weren’t already run by one party or the other, they would be playing that movie incessantly right about now.

But the other thing to remember is that there have been men and women in office who have had integrity, who were committed to the voters who elected them and not to a political machine which is running rampant throughout this country. We need to seek out fresh individuals who are willing to stand up for what is right and good, and serve their constituents instead of some political party.

That’s all I have for this week. May God be with you all in the coming weeks. I will be praying for us all.

Chris 

 

Two Waterfalls This Time – blog post #3 from the family vacation

Back to family vacation at the cabin up north. Last Wednesday, I only got through a few hours of Sunday morning – one scenic overlook, a river crossing and one waterfalls. Man, I could be blogging about this trip until Christmas!

After we had seen all we wanted to at Foster Falls, we drove the few miles to Wren Falls. Another spectacular place to visit.

I’d been to Wren Falls before too, years ago. I always find it so amazing that here in northern Wisconsin, just two hours from where I live, that there are these impressive waterfalls that I picture seeing in the Alps.

You don’t even realize you are that high up and the river is that far below until you are standing on the edge of a cliff, going holy cow, that’s a lot of water running way down there.

Such is Wren Falls. You think of a wren as a little bird, like this will be a little waterfall. No, not so much. My waterfalls book claims the falls is 15 feet. It seems much taller than that, probably because the river roars through a tight canyon at that point.

Very scenic spot. We hiked a way past the falls to a nice new bridge. It was part of a hiking trail and if I remember right, it led to a camping spot which was under development. No idea how anyone gets equipment back there to develop anything though.

After eating lunch in the parking lot, we headed out to find the next waterfalls in the book, Rouse Falls. I don’t know if that rhymes with grouse, but here was one crossing the road.

I’d never heard of this falls before, and the directions made it look like this one would be a challenge, but off we went anyway.

Once we got there, I was like – this really was not hard to find at all.

Rouse Falls could be one of my favorite new waterfalls. Well, it was for that day, anyway; little did I know where my son would take us the next day.

But that’s for another blog. Here is more of Rouse Falls. 

The dogs really liked it, too. 



A great day. And it wasn't over yet. 

Having Hope

 I consider that what we suffer at this present time cannot be compared at all with the glory that is going to be revealed to us. Romans 8:18, Good News Translation

 I didn’t get around to writing my Sunday blog post last night, so when I couldn’t sleep at one am, I got up and thought I’d work on it. The only thing that came to me was “hope”.

It’s been a rough ten months for most of us. Not just with the pandemic. A lot of people I know have suffered in other ways this year – deaths, surgeries, cancer, natural disasters, unnatural disasters. You name it, a whole set of adversity has befallen us all this year.  

And yet, the word “hope” came to me in the night. 

It’s been unseasonably cold and snowy here so far this month. It’s put a damper on quite a few of our fall activities – are those leaves ever going to get raked up?

But that’s why we have hope. Hope that we will still have some warm, autumn days. Hope that we have a mild winter. And if those wishes fail, we are assured that spring will come. Maybe it will be later than sooner, but some day, perhaps many months from now (possibly as many as six!), the sun will come out, the grass will turn green again, flowers will bloom. And we will find the time to gather up those withered leaves.

 Thank You, God, for the seasons and the hope that the weather will turn for the better one day. And thank You for the assurance that Your Son Jesus will return one day as well in all His glory. Amen

.  

United or Divided - Countdown 2 weeks

“We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately”. Benjamin Franklin

For many months now, as both the pandemic and the presidential election were heating up, I’ve wanted to write a series of blog posts sharing my opinion on the state of affairs. On Friday, September 18, I began the six-week countdown to the election, with a list of six topics I wanted to cover. Then life happened and here we are with only two Fridays left before November 3 and I can see that my time is already up.

What can I say to anyone at this point which will change their minds about their candidate? Is that even something I should do, or want to do? How many Americans have voted already and will their ballots even be counted? Or will millions of missing ballots become a scandal which brings our country to war?

This is how many answers I have to the current state of affairs – zero. I have absolutely not a single idea on how to fix things. And here’s the biggest reality – neither presidential candidate has any idea either. All the Democratic candidate and the Republican candidate knows is what their respective party leaders tells them.

Here’s what I want to ask those political party leaders – the people behind the scenes, who have all the power and money, who are calling the shots, but no one quite knows who they are – the people who actually picked the two choices we have for president. Does anyone out there anywhere in the United States really think that these two men are the best options available? That there aren’t at least a thousand small-town mayors, firefighters, physicians or factory workers in these fifty states who are more qualified, more eloquent, more educated and more diplomatic than the two candidates who will get 98% of our votes?

(If you read my October 2 post, you may realize that I abhor the two-party system. There needs to be more options than what has become the far right and the far left.)

I hate sounding like some whack-a-doodle conspiracy theorist. But doesn’t anyone else wonder what is going on in this country? How it started and why? And why our leaders don’t seem to want to fix the problem, but instead just want to make things worse?

I know the quote above by the great Benjamin Franklin was written in a different context, but just think about it. We need to pull it together, come together, work together. And stop pulling ourselves apart.

Because “A house divided against itself cannot stand,” as Abraham Lincoln said before the Civil War.

Or maybe the younger generation rather hear from Albus Dumbledore. “We are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided.” (J.K. Rowling)

And my final quote, “God bless us, every one.”