fires, fall, football, thoughts

FIRES



this is an image of the smoky fire over the skyline of austin
this smoke is from the largest of the fires that are burning around
the city of austin
this is the one that got rick perry to come back to texas
from the presidential race
guess he did not want to pull a george bush katrina snaffu

this fire is south of austin near the community of bastrop
this area is known for forests of old pine trees that nature
put in central texas and are not located anywhere else except
in eastern texas
the trees are igniting like they have gasoline poured on them
because of the high winds and low humidity it has been difficult
to fight this fire
it even jumped over the colorado river and continued on

most of the fires are in the hill country which is hilly and has a
lot of ravines
this is hard to get equipment and fire fighters in to fight these fires
most of the trees are cedar which like the pine trees near bastrop
ignite like they have gasoline on them

there is a large fire west of austin in the hill country and in the
northern part of the city
none of these fires are near containment
tonight the winds died down but today the winds will pick back up
some but not as bad
there also will be extremely low humidity in this area (<10 %) which
makes this all worse

a fire broke out again in the community where i was in practice
several homes were burned and people were evacuated to a local
high school for the night

just north of us is the largest military base in the world-ft hood texas
there is a large fire there also
the smoke from it was blowing over our house last night when the
wind shifted
the base is about 25 miles from our house
fire on a military base with all those munitions doesnt sound very good

hopefully some containment will happen today
we sure could use some rain

my rainwater tanks are real low so ive ordered water delivered
however

we missed two of the big rains in the last year because our tanks
were all disconnected when they happened and we are paying the
price for that today

the water company deliveries have been delayed by the fires and
the use of water in many of the water systems for the fires
hope we dont run out of water here
severe water restrictions are in order at the country n
rain please

FALL
the cool front has came through here and dropped the
temperatures from the 100s+ to the upper 80s
what a relief it is to have these cooler temps
its too bad it brought in the high winds and extremely dry air
which has made it worse for the wildfires

however my wife she and i are enjoying these temperatures
its so nice to open up the house to all of the fresh air and
breezes

will have to wear a light jacket this am when we go on our walk

just need rain

FOOTBALL
oded on football this weekend
but had no hangover

follow the horns and the hogs
sure wished they played each other every year
the horns are real young so will probably struggle some this year
but those young guys are talented

hogs will always have a rough season since they play in the sec
lsu, alabama, auburn, mississippi state, florida, georgia
thats a real rough schedule
so why would the aggies ask to be abused every year by joining
sec
thats aggies for you

was very impressed by baylor this weekend
as they beat tcu in an exciting game
the qb rg3 was pretty impressive-think vince young as a pocket passer

cant wait for week two of college football
and for the start of the nfl season

THOUGHTS
our thoughts are with all of the hundreds of families affected by
these fires
if you pray pray for them
if you meditate meditate for them

the organicgreen doctor

fires

FIRES
my wife she and i are getting texts and emails and phone
calls asking if we are ok in light of all the fires around the
austin area

we are north of austin and are above wind of all of the fires
the nearest one to us is 10 miles south of us
one of the fires was a few blocks from the clinic where i
use to work before i retired
several homes were burned but it was eventually contained

we can see the fires south of us in the night sky and can smell
the fire even though the prevailing wind is going away from us

there is a fire about 20 miles north of us but is too far way to be
of a worry for us

the largest fire south of us is 16 miles x 6 miles in size and is not contained
it has burned 400+ homes so far

the city of austin is surrounded by about 10 fires but the city itself
is not in any danger except on the north west edge where a large
subdivision has been totally evacuated
that fire is 0 % contained

it will be a long day here as we will be having winds up to 40 mph
its hot, dry here and with the long worse drought ever things will
probably get worse before it gets better today

if a fire started just north of us above wind it would move fast and
nothing would stop it from growing rapidly as we live in an open
area with little blocks to the wind

we actually have the perfect storm today for these fires here

thoughts are with those that have been directly affected by these fires

the organicgreen doctor

fires, skin cancer, rash

FIRES
lately around here because of the heat and lack of rain fires
seem to be a daily or weekly occurrence
when i drove to dallas this week there were quite a lot of
areas that had burned around here

when we got back from our wedding journey this summer and
after we heard the story of the fire that burned the peoples
house we stayed at during the wedding we mowed a large area
around our house as a protective barrier
one cigarette onto our pastures would burn all my property
we have had several old hackberry trees die from the drought
also and these would burn easily

the fire would go fast and probably couldnt be stopped before
the fire departments got there
luckily my house sits on a 1 acre enclosed area inside the middle
of my property
we have kept the grass cut low this summer on this 1 acre
(we only cut it once since it was dry as it all went dormant
it is all native grasses)
the rest of the pastures have been allowed since we have been
here to go completely la naturale
i have planted native grasses also in bare spots over the last
few years
so 90% of my property would burn rapidly
this is what use to happen on the prairie before we all got here

near here a fire broke out this week and burned 15 homes and
displaced quite a lot of people
luckily the fire departments acted fast to contain the fire
a few days before a few miles away hundreds of acres were
burned and was eventually contained
luckily no loss of life occurred

what we need is an end to this drought
on a recent walk i stuck my walking stick (thanks jr for the stick)
into one of the cracks in the pasture and the stick went down
3 feet into the ground
that first rain we get will probably disappear down all those
holes

in my pastures there are patches of green stuff growing
everything else is brown and dormant
as i went to a grass seminar recently on native grasses i was
able to identify the grass-it was switchgrass which is a native
grass that is good to have on your property
it got there when i planted the seeds a few years ago
maybe it will spread since the others arent seeding this year

a new storm is brewing in the caribbean
maybe it will head this way and give us some rain
lets go h-------- storm

SKIN CANCER
today i pay the price of sun worshipping a lot during my lifetime
i have a lesion that has popped up on my left cheek that
appears to be an actinic keratosis (a pre cancerous lesion) that
grows from too much sun exposure
if it is this ak (actinic keratosis) it willl be frozen off and be gone

if it has developed further as i have neglected to have it taken care
of for a few months (doctors make bad patients)
then it may have developed into a squamous cell cancer which
will have to be surgically removed
or
it may be a basal cell cancer which is also treated surgically
once it is removed it rarely returns

the one you dont want to get is melanoma
here is a picture of what it may look like



see the brown areas around the edges with the black
areas in the middles
thats what a melanoma looks like
if you have one of this dont sit around and watch it grow
it can metastasise to anywhere in the body
if caught early it can be cured as cured as cancer is cured
if caught later it becomes more difficult to treat

why did i get this lesion on my face
i worship the sun
i have always been an outside person all my life
and have not been a good sun screen person until the
last several years
a lot of damage got done when i was younger that now im
paying for
there probably will be more that will show up as i get older

note: most of the melanomas ive seen in my career were
in young people in their 20s and 30s

so wear a wide brimmed hat
wear long sleeves when possible
use a good suncreen that doesnt sweat off
reapply sunscreen when needed during the day
avoid going outside the hottest times of the day
wear sunglasses
if you get a lesion get it checked
dont do like i did and wait awhile before you get it
taken care of

RASH
videomedicine is the way of the future assisted by skyping
texting and emailing

(i recently was a participant as a patient in a videomedicine project
of the university of texas medical center in dallas using it to do
long distance videoconferencing of a neuropsychological exam
this will be used to do assessments at isolated clinics miles
away from the university)

my wet suitcase sisterinlaw is in central america with her family
something always happens to her every summer when she goes
there
last time she got a bad staph infection in her foot from stepping
on coral or something when surfing
she eventually recovered but was miserable for days with fever
and pain

now this time she got a kidney infection and was running fever
this started the same day she got zapped by a sting ray on the
heel which caused a great amount of pain

after two days of the antibiotic she developed a rash and felt
miserable (again)
so she texted my wife she and later emailed me so i could get
a better history without having to read all that text jargon some
of which i couldnt understand
rsh rd swln fvr nd yur hlp
so i got a good history from her by email
we tried skyping but the connection was bad and i needed a
finer picture to look at
so she texted me a picture of a body part that appeared to be
a thigh
it was the rash that you commonly see in a reaction to antibiotics
she was told to stop the offending antibiotic
take benadryl every 8 hours until she could get into the doctor
in a few hours
and to drink extra fluids to help flush her kidneys well

so this is how we may all communicate to get health care in
the future

i didnt mind doing it for her as i owed her for the wet suitcase story

she eventually went to the er there and got a shot (probably a
steroid shot) and got a new prescription for a new antibiotics
24 hours later she felt much better

austin texas october 15, 2011



the organicgreen doctor