Nigel and a Sudden Turn

Monday evening, Liane was cleaning Nigel up after a muddy neighborhood walkabout. While she was sitting with him on her lap, without warning, he turned in an instant and bit her on the face. She was bleeding badly from two cuts around her mouth. With compress in place I piled her into the car and made off for the local ER. It's only a few blocks away but, as we left the house, I rang the Vermillion PD asking them to phone ahead so someone would meet us at the door.

An examination revealed that she sustained a deep laceration on her upper lip and that she had a loss of tissue on her lower lip. In plain terms Nigel managed to get a chunk out of the lower lip. The local doctor applied a numbing agent, a clean compress and did the right thing by sending us off to the Sanford Sioux Falls ER to be seen by a specialist. Before we left, he alerted them to our arrival and organized a plastic surgeon to be on hand. It takes about an hour to get up there. We arrived around 11-something. The surgeon, Dr. Daniel Kwan, examined Liane, discussed options and prepped for surgery. They rolled her away at roughly 1:30 AM. Ninety minutes later, Dr. Kwan was debriefing me in a consulting room. Everything went fine. He did some amazing knitting. On the agonizingly long drive up there, I was dubious about the prospects of anything other than disfigurement. But Dr. Kwan managed to align everything and get it all closed back up. Science meets art.

As for Nigel, as I write this, he is in a mandated ten-day quarantine period at our regular animal hospital in Sioux City where he will, alas, be euthanized. It brings us such overwhelming sadness that it came to this. Intellectually, we know that we are doing the right thing. All too long we ignored the warning signs of his unpredictable, aggressive and sometimes violent behavior. But emotionally it's hard to disconnect. When he was sweet, which was most of the time, he was really sweet. He and Liane had a very special bond. So for him to turn on her is really a challenge to understand. And we will likely never fully understand it.

Nigel turned five on Monday. He had a good life during his brief time in our family and we will miss him for the joys he brought to us. Liane will recover from this trauma, both physical and emotional. The remarkably talented plastic surgeon will help with the physical scars. The emotional scars will take much longer to heal.

Special thanks to Dr. Mortinsen at the Sanford Vermillion ER, Officer Kevin Malloy of the VPD, the fabulous and attentive nurses and other staff at Sanford Sioux Falls, and, of course, Dr. Kwan. Thanks also to Dr. Saulsbury, Casey and Samantha at the Siouxland Animal Hospital as well as to all of Liane's co-workers, our terrific neighbors and other friends in the community and to our extended family of friends around the country and across the globe who have expressed concern.

It's like a new machine

Ever forgetful of an important rule of any project, no matter how mundane, I neglected to make the camera the first tool used on yesterday's task. Instead, without so much as a thought about documentation, I dove headlong into cleaning out the clothes dryer. So, no pictures on this post. Just words.

In recent times, we noticed that we were having to run the dryer longer and longer to get the job done. Despite being vigilant about cleaning the lint filter after every load, over time, lint was building up inside the ducts and the heater chamber and, most importantly, clinging to the heating elements. It was as if the heater was wearing a sweater.

So, we disconnected the appliance, carried it out the back door setting it on a large four-wheel dolly that I rolled over to the door to my workshop. Working outside, I removed the top and front covers, pulled out the lint filter, took the cover off the blower wheel and fired up my air compressor. The compressor was set to 120 PSI. Wearing hearing and eye protection and using a three-foot blow gun, I blew a dust storm out of the chassis. Circuit board; air intakes; capacitors; motor windings; tension arms the whole shebang. Then I turned my attention to the air chamber; the tunnel that moves the air over the heater coils into the drum, through the lint filter, and out the vent. Another major dust up. And, um, a little Corgi hair. Paying special attention to the heater coils, I sent the tip of the blow gun deep into the ducts and made sure the blower fins were clean.

For good measure, I went over some of the parts with glass cleaner on a terry cloth rag. I also replaced a section of aluminum tape that the manufacturer, Asko, placed over a seam in the duct near the blower. The result? Like a brand new dryer. We're back to short cycles and dry clothes. And saving energy too.

We've had this dryer for about five or six years so I'm guessing this little hour-or-so project should be done every four years give-or-take. Another justification for having a large air compressor.

Here's a beautiful snapshot of the Missouri River valley taken from the scenic overlook just steps from "Our Old House." That's a thick coat of hoar frost on the trees; a remnant of dense overnight fog on a sub-freezing morning. It didn't last long with the bright sunshine. Taken in early February of this year.