Category Archives: General

Fouche Gap Claims Another Victim

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This story, like so many of my stories, starts with taking the dogs for their regular morning walk. We walked down the driveway and then along the front of our property on Lavender Trail. The first thing we noticed when we reached the intersection with Fouche Gap Road was a set of three highway hazard triangles blocking access down into Texas Valley. We proceeded, wondering what we would find. Or, at least I wondered. The dogs probably not so much.

What we found was a tour bus that didn’t quite make it around the first hairpin curve down on that side of the mountain. This is what it looked like when we came back up. I think the driver kept his lunch in the compartment that’s open.

I asked the driver whether he was following a GPS. He said yes. If you happen to come from the south side of the mountain and want to get to some place in the valley, a GPS will usually route you over Fouche Gap Road. There is a perfectly good road with no sharp curves and no steep grades that can take you into the valley, but Fouche Gap is a good shortcut. This is the second time a vehicle too long to make the curves in this road has followed a GPS into disaster. Or at least a big inconvenience.

He had been taking six passengers to a farm in the valley that hosts weddings at a venue, as they say. Fortunately for the passengers, someone was coming up from the valley and could take them back down to the wedding venue. I know you’re wondering why they needed a bus that size for six passengers. Me, too, but I didn’t ask.

The front wheels of the bus were right at the edge of a fairly deep ditch. The back of the bus was scraping the pavement. He couldn’t come or go. I was a little surprised that he had made it up the south side of the mountain, because there is another serious hairpin curve on that side. The big difference is that that curve is closer to level, while the one that trapped the bus takes a steep dive down through the curve.

I suggested that he get a bulldozer, and then set his bus on fire and push it off the road, but he said he had already called for a big wrecker.

The dogs and I continued down to our normal turnaround, and then came back up. A couple of cars passed us on their way up. I tried to flag them down, but one couldn’t figure out what I wanted him to do. No worry. He found out soon enough.

The guy in the pickup that’s turning around in the photo above is someone I speak to when he passes me and the dogs. He stopped this time, and asked whether something was still across the road. I couldn’t quite understand what he said, but I figured he must be talking about the bus, so I said, “Yes.” Then he said he had brought his chain saw to get it off the road. I was a little puzzled by that, but as he drove off I called out, “That might work.” I think I meant,”That probably won’t work.” But then I replayed his words in my mind and realized he had asked about a tree across the road.

The big wrecker showed up just as I came back up to the bus.

I thought about staying to watch what happened. I think the wrecker was going to pick up the back of the bus and move it over. It would have been interesting to watch, in a large-machine-at-work kind of way, but I thought it might take a while. That was a good decision (on a day with some not so good decisions, fortunately not my own), because it was about two and a half hours later before I heard the wrecker and the bus come back to the top of the mountain.

A couple of months ago Leah and I were coming up the mountain and found the road blocked at the second hairpin curve on the south side. It was a big tractor-trailer truck carrying chickens. The driver said his GPS had routed him over Fouche Gap. The front of his truck was pushed up against the bank at the side of the road, and his trailer wheels were off the pavement, perilously close to a steep drop-off. The wrecker he called was probably the same size as the bus wrecker. It might even have been the same wrecker. In that case, we had to take the 10-mile detour out the nice, level, no-sharp-curve road into the valley and then up the far side to our house. I never found out how the truck driver got back off the mountain, but the truck was gone the next time we drove down, so he must have managed somehow.

On the bus job, the wrecker had backed down from the intersection at the top of the mountain, somewhere around a quarter to a third of a mile. When he got the bus unstuck, the bus driver had to back up to the top of the mountain. At least he wasn’t towing a trailer.

I think a sign on Huffaker Road warning of very sharp curves might save some trouble on Fouche Gap Road. I think I’ll suggest that to the county, even though it will reduce the drama on the mountain.

Milestones

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We passed two important milestones on Wednesday.

I have mentioned before, probably too many times, that we have a regular Wednesday lunch of huevos rancheros at our favorite Mexican restaurant. But for at least five weeks Leah has not been able to attend. She has had a really painful time with sciatica.

I had heard of sciatica but never understood how debilitating it could be. She has been taking a lot of pain pills for a long time with very limited relief. She had an epidural two weeks ago last Monday which hurt like hell and provided no relief . She has promised she will never have another one. On Tuesday she finally got a prescription for gabapentin, which is used for nerve pain. That seems to have helped, because around noon on Wednesday, she suggested that maybe we could eat at the Mexican restaurant. And so we did.

This was the best lunch we have had in a long time. Maria, the waitress who knows us best, served us. The hot sauce was the best we have ever had. I have heard TV chefs talk about chilis having a fruity flavor when prepared a certain way, but until we had this sauce, I had never tasted it. It was exactly the right combination of heat and flavor. The burrito sauce was also good. And the eggs.

So, we passed a milestone: Leah was able to get out of the house and have lunch. I don’t know whether it was a major milestone, but it certainly felt that way.

The second milestone involved a dog.

Zoe has a history of running away. I have told the story of her four-day road trip to who-knows-where, and at least a couple of other all-day affairs. On Wednesday afternoon I took Zoe and Sam into the front yard to play. I put them on about a 10-foot leash so they can get some running in. They had played for a while, and I was fairly relaxed, when they saw a squirrel near a tree at the edge of the yard. Zoe took off and jerked the leash out of my hand. She ran to the tree, and when the squirrel climbed the tree, Zoe kept going into the woods.

I called and called as she disappeared. I couldn’t run after her because I had Sam on his leash (plus arthritis in my knees), but Leah heard me calling and came out. She held Sam, and I was just getting read to hobble into the woods after Zoe when Leah said, “Here she comes!”

Yes, Zoe came back when she was called. It took a little more calling than would be ideal, but she actually came back to us.

So, we turned a corner. We passed a milestone. But I’m still going to keep her on her leash when she’s outside.

She’s lying on our living room couch in the photo. Leah is not thrilled to have her on the furniture, so she stays off until Leah goes to bed. Then she steps up to the couch and asks permission. I pat the cushion and she jumps up. Leah knows she’s doing it, but doesn’t really complain, as long as she doesn’t actually see it.

Cicada song

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It’s cicada season here in Georgia. They are everywhere in the woods. Their song is loud, droning and constant during the day. At night the crickets take up the task of constant song, and the cicadas do intermittent solos. If you are the kind of person who needs complete quiet at night, you can’t sleep with the windows open.

As for me, their sound tends to fade into the background, and I mostly don’t notice it. When I walked the dogs on Sunday, we went all the way down the mountain and then back to the top before I suddenly woke up to the sound. It was hard to believe that I didn’t notice it before. I recorded this video strictly for the sound.

The buzzing was amazingly loud. What you can’t tell from the video sound is that the buzzing seemed to circle around me. There was a constant sound all around, but overlaid on that was a louder buzz that seemed to circle around us. I don’t know whether it was real or an illusion.

The cicadas this year are almost certainly the annual type. I think, based on the images here, that ours are Southern Resonant/Great Pine Barrens Cicadas. Georgia also has 13-year and 17-year cicadas, none of which were due to emerge this year.

Cicadas spend most of their lives underground, eating away at grass and tree roots. When they emerge, they climb up a vertical surface and moult, leaving their exoskeletons behind to be picked off the bark of pine trees by little boys.

They die soon after mating. We occasionally find one in its death throes on the driveway. The dogs are fascinated by them. They nose them and then when they start buzzing, they want to eat them like crunchy little treats. Mollie the cat also sometimes brings them in, usually unharmed. Then we have to push the dogs out of the way so we can scoop them up and toss them back outside.

Tuesday, opposite the sunset

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We can’t see the sunset from our front porch, or, really, from any place on the mountain. But the eastern sky, opposite the sunset, is often nice enough.

This was Tuesday afternoon. It had been sunny all day, but started to get cloudy later in the afternoon.

It has been dry right here on our little spot on the mountain, although areas around us are getting rain. Leah had a doctor’s appointment last Wednesday. On the way home the rain was so heavy it was hard to see the road. Then, about three miles from our house, it ended. We drove out of heavy rain onto dry pavement. The only consolation is that the nearby rain will help maintain our well. At least I hope so.

In other news, Leah is suffering from nerve pain in her leg. I think it’s sciatica, but her doctor hasn’t actually named it. She does agree that it’s a never, however. The bad thing about nerve pain is that normal pain relievers don’t seem to work all that well. Leah is supposed to have an MRI on Friday. We both hope it shows a path to some kind of resolution.

Last Friday on my regular morning dog walk, we went down into the valley. At the first sharp curve on the way down, someone had dumped a pickup-truck load of renovation debris. It was mainly carpet padding, along with some wood trim and wallpaper. I posted a picture and description on Leah’s Facebook page. A lot of people commented; one gave the number for the county police department officers who handle that kind of thing. I called to report it on Tuesday. Maybe they can figure out who did it. For a first offense the police give them a choice: clean it up or get a ticket. I have heard that the ticket also depends on the guilty party’s attitude.

I found out from one of the Facebook commenters that the curve where the trash was dumped is the Horse Shoe. It’s a very sharp curve, if not a really sharp name. The next sharp curve down is the Water Holler, named after the small perennial creek that flows in the narrow valley there. I like that name.

I have never figured out how the creek continues to run in even the driest days. It’s not that far from the top of the mountain, and it doesn’t seem to drain a huge area. Another unanswered question about ground water.

And finally, even though I am happily retired and do not miss work even in the slightest, it looks like I will be doing some. Fortunately, I will be able to work from home, and the hours are very flexible. I asked my former boss how many hours that would mean, and she said anywhere from five to forty hours a week. I suppose I can handle that.

Three shots later

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I saw my orthopedic surgeon’s PA on Monday. My knee was still swollen but not nearly as much as when I took the photo in the previous post. I showed the picture to the PA and a nurse. They were impressed. The nurse said if it had been that big when I came in, it would have been their new record.

The PA drew some fluid from the knee with a fairly big syringe. Not horse-sized syringe, but large-human sized. He got a little more than two syringes full. My knee is somewhat smaller but still a little swollen and stiff. They also gave each knee a shot of lidocaine and triamcinolone, which is what is apparently used these days instead of cortisone. He wanted both knees to start from the same place. He promised immediate relief. It is better, but I am definitely not back to 100 percent.

Actually, it is no longer possible get to 100 percent. On my best days, I think my knees are around 80 percent, as long as I don’t ask them to do too much. I’ll see tonight if I get an achey knee around 3 am, which is my normal now.

On a brighter note, we had a nice, full rainbow in the front yard Monday afternoon.

I used my iPhone’s panorama mode to get this. You can see a lighter band on the left side of the image, which is an artifact. I must have jiggled the phone there.

The ends of the rainbow are not in our yard, so no pot of gold for us.