If the "him, "in question is me, HOK, we are already friends, and I believe I am also friends with almost everyone here. If I am not online, I am away, and will get back to you as soon as I can.
The good news, however small, is that Amy did move a very little of both her arms and legs today. Thanks again for everyone who showing their support. It is a long road ahead for Amy, she needs all the encouraging she can to get her back to walking and driving again. Sent from my iPhone Messengers and Skype: BurningHawk1969 My home page: http://MarkBurningHawk.net Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/markburninghawk.baxter > On Oct 26, 2013, at 6:46 PM, eric oyen <eric.o...@gmail.com> wrote: > > have him get on Skype. some of us are faster with speech than keyboard > skills. Also, its good to hear a voice on the far end of things offering > support. > > my Skype: technomage-hawke > > -eric > >> On Oct 26, 2013, at 5:26 PM, Cara Quinn wrote: >> >> Hello again All, >> >> I just wanted to give you an update on Mark and Amy's story. >> >> Firstly though, please let me offer my sincere and deepest thanks to you all >> who have shown your support and well-wishes. This not only means a >> tremendous amount to Mark and Amy, but also means the world to me that we >> can come together as a community to support each other when we are in need. >> >> Some of you have asked where the donations will go. Any donations will be >> used for expenses associated with this incident and the medical care from >> this. Mark has said that he will keep a record of everything associated with >> this. Already it cost hundreds of dollars for Mark to simply tow Amy's car >> back home. This cost has now been taken care of for them, fortunately. So >> thank you all! :) >> >> You all are making a real difference here so I'm truly grateful to you!… >> >> Now, I'd like to share Mark's email address here so that you may send your >> support to him. If you cannot offer financial support then please do >> consider offering Amy and him your most valuable emotional support. It is >> truly welcome… >> >> Below I'll first share Mark's email address and then a copy of the recent >> article in a local Oregon paper about this incident which also offers an >> update on Amy's condition. If you would like to know more, please do write >> directly to Mark if you would? >> >> Now that this is known here, please let me suggest that we now move this to >> a more personal level off the lists. Feel free to write me or Mark and do be >> assured that any developments, I will share. Otherwise, I'm happy (and will >> now encourage us) to continue this off the lists. >> >> Thanks so very, very much to you all for your support! I cannot express >> enough how much this means to them and to me. >> >> Y'all are AWESOME!!! >> >> Have a wonderful weekend! Info and article follow… >> >> Sincerely, >> >> Cara >> --- >> Email Mark Baxter markbaxte...@gmail.com >> >> The Article >> >> The Curry Coastal Pilot - Couple survives hiking ordeal >> >> >> Mark Baxter and his girlfriend Amy Regan with their dogs, who were >> instrumental in efforts to rescue Amy after a hiking accident. Submitted >> photo >> Brookings resident Mark Baxter still isn’t sure what to make of what he >> calls his misadventure along Damnation Creek near Klamath last weekend — an >> afternoon jaunt that landed his girlfriend, Amy Regan, in ICU in Portland >> with a broken back and no feeling in her arms and legs. >> “There was a bunch of stupid decisions all down the line,” Baxter said >> Wednesday of what was supposed to have been an easy afternoon hike. “I got >> lucky. I got damn lucky.” >> The two didn’t bring a survival kit, and were wearing sweatpants and >> T-shirts. A friend has since reassured them that their clothing sounded >> appropriate for a two-hour hike along a popular trail. >> The 3.4-mile trek threads through a redwood forest down 1,000 vertical feet >> into a rocky, secluded beach. It’s rated “easy,” and the couple are >> experienced hikers. >> “At first, the trail was great, so we continued,” Baxter said. “By the time >> it got narrow and steep again, and Amy could see the ocean through the trees >> ahead, we needed to turn back; it was getting dark.” >> When they did, Regan and her dog, Luke, slipped and fell from the steep >> embankment. Baxter later learned she likely slipped on rotting timbers left >> from an old footbridge. >> “I heard her fall, cry out, then a crash, then nothing,” Baxter said. “I >> called out, ‘Amy! Can you answer me!’ And I heard nothing … for minutes.” >> When he did hear something, he didn’t think it was human. But it was, and it >> was Amy. >> “I do not think I have ever in my life witnessed that much suffering and >> agony,” he said. “It is a sound I hope never to hear again.” >> Baxter and his dog, Ezra, scrambled down the hill to rescue her. >> “She’d landed on her back, on the rocks at the bottom of an old creek bed,” >> Baxter said. “And she kept saying, ‘No! No! No!’ over and over ... and told >> me she couldn’t feel her legs.” >> Baxter struggled back up the incline and worked his way about a quarter-mile >> down the dark path until his iPhone finally got one bar. It took at least >> four 911 calls — and disconnects due to poor reception in the valley — >> before he was able to relay their situation to Del Norte’s Search and Rescue >> team. >> He gave them the name of the trail; he told them about the footbridge. >> But, no, he didn’t think he could get back to his vehicle. No, he couldn’t >> describe where he was. >> They ascertained his GPS coordinates, and Baxter’s phone died. >> A few hours later, he was getting cold. He had the dogs with him, but he’d >> left his sweatshirt with Regan. >> And he couldn’t tell if rescue crews were approaching through the thick >> trees and the dark night. >> Baxter is blind. >> Mark and Amy >> >> The 44-year-old Brookings man met his girlfriend on Facebook — he the >> disillusioned musician and she looking for a new life away from the >> strip-mine town of Butte, Mont. She joined him here six months ago. >> >> Amy has her own challenges, Baxter said, with psychiatric issues and a >> condition that leaves her in constant pain. Hence her service dog, a lanky >> German shepherd with steely copper eyes. >> >> “But we instinctively knew we were real (emotionally) close,” Baxter said. >> “She is the most loving, caring, intense person I know. She is the bravest >> person I’ve ever known.” >> >> Saturday, Baxter wasn’t feeling so brave, he said. He periodically shouted >> out for the rescue team. He huddled with the dogs. He listened. >> >> “I’d done all I could do,” he said. >> >> Four hours later, he heard someone calling his name. >> >> In many ways, it was just the beginning of their travails. It took hours to >> get Regan backboarded, up the cliff and back down to the trailhead, 3 miles >> away. It was 3:30 a.m., about 12 hours since they’d set out on the hike. >> >> As they walked, a search and rescue volunteer quickly learned Baxter and >> Ezra could navigate the dark path far better than he and his flashlight, and >> let the two take the lead. They talked about the dogs, the school that had >> trained Ezra, dogs in general. >> >> “I think he was mostly just trying to take my mind off what had just >> happened,” Baxter said. “And as beat-up and tired as I was, I cannot imagine >> what it was like for Amy to be stretcher-borne out of there.” >> >> Baxter said the dogs were the heroes that night. Luke led the rescue team to >> Regan; Ezra, limping from his flight down the hill, led Baxter and the >> search team carrying Amy out of the woods. >> >> He got a ride home from a park ranger; Amy remains in intensive care at >> Oregon Health Sciences in Portland with a broken thoracic spine, three >> broken ribs and a collapsed lung. Ezra is sore and tired; Luke is confused >> and sad. >> >> “It’s very possible Amy could recover from this,” Baxter said. “It’s too >> early to tell. They’re just caring for her day to day. I don’t know anything >> about her prognosis. And I have not yet stopped sending my gratitude to >> ‘Dog’ for walking with me, for saving our lives.” >> >> Deep in the dark >> >> Numerous elements resulted in their survival that night. >> >> “The reason we got through that was my martial arts skills, keeping a level >> head, and doing what you have to do,” Baxter said. “It’s been a theme of >> mine throughout my life.” >> >> “It is horrifying, and also amazing,” said Dawn Nelson, a friend of the >> couple who lives in Nevada. “It’s a testament to the power of love, the >> abilities of guide dogs, the service of others, and the ability to do what >> needs to be done, despite nearly insurmountable obstacles.” >> >> Baxter, born blind into a sighted world, has always refused to think that >> way. >> >> “When it came to anything at all — from high school and passing an exam, >> from riding a bike to going camping — I had to blaze the trail,” he said. “I >> had to tell everybody that, ‘Yes, I can do this; don’t put me in that box.’” >> >> He sought out experiences, began “collecting skills,” overcompensating to >> prove to the sighted people that he had no weaknesses, no disabilities, that >> he was no different than them. >> >> “If I had been sighted, I would have been immobilized,” he said of the >> couple’s ordeal last weekend. “How a species can evolve with a dominant >> sense that is useless 12 hours a day ... I just don’t get it. My skills >> don’t involve sight at all. >> >> “Hearing,” he said, “is a more beautiful and useful sense.” >> >> That comment, from a man who is also profoundly deaf. >> >> He is a tactile human, feeling the world around him through his feet as he >> walks, through pressure changes in the air as surroundings change. >> >> “Ask the land where to go,” he said. “It’s getting in nature, sitting with >> Earth. Am I getting too New-Agey here?” >> >> He attributes that to Sensei Toda Yoshi, Baxter’s martial arts instructor. >> With the attitude of ‘just do it,” the then-26-year-old learned the ancient >> Japanese tradition of Shaolin Kempo Karate. >> >> There are a lot of fist, foot and body moves in karate, but there are also >> the soft skills of the warrior: focusing the heart, power and energy through >> the mind and into the body, Baxter explained. >> >> “I credit him with helping me save Amy because without his teaching, I would >> not have been able to channel the panic in my heart, through my mind, into >> my body, into actions, that got us out,” Baxter said. “Without what I know >> about balance, and the strength that I have through keeping up my exercises, >> I would not have had the physical ability to get out.” >> >> Other skills he learned through Tom Brown Jr.’s “tracker school,” a nature >> and wilderness survival school based in New Jersey, where participants gain >> a “closer attachment to the Earth and the skills and philosophy to live in >> harmony and balance with creation.” >> >> “That’s what helped me stay on the trail, stay safe, and be calm enough in >> the dark, in the night, in the woods, to use the skills I had to get us >> out,” Baxter said. >> >> Amy >> >> Even though Regan’s out of the California woods, she isn’t out of the >> medical woods. >> >> The most recent report Baxter has on Amy is that she has a shattered >> thoracic vertebrae near her neck — surgeons put a permanent metal rod in her >> spine for stability — and while she cannot move her arms or legs, she can >> wiggle her hands and toes. She has five broken ribs and a ruptured lung. >> >> “With rehab, we hope this will get a lot better,” he said. “I constantly >> send my gratitude to the great spirit for the intervention I know I >> received, information from the land and my dogs and the night itself, which >> allowed me to stay oriented, sane, and on the path to rescuing her. This >> will all get better; it’s the waiting for Amy to come back that’s the >> hardest part for me. >> >> “It’s far from over,” he added. “I frankly have no idea what comes next. I >> will not consider her rescued until she is back with me.” >> --- >> View my Online Portfolio at: >> >> http://www.onemodelplace.com/CaraQuinn >> >> Follow me on Twitter! >> >> https://twitter.com/ModelCara >> >> -- >> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups >> "MacVisionaries" group. >> To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an >> email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. >> To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. >> Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries. >> For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "MacVisionaries" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to macvisionaries@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
