What a week!

Last week turned out to be an exciting week for Eagle staff.

You should know that we plan ahead to make sure we cover local events, such as the Finnish American Folk Festival that occurred July 29-31 in Naselle.

Reporter Diana Zimmerman already had a series of interviews planned for the weekend, but western Wahkiakum/Naselle correspondent Karen Bertroch said she would be happy to cover the event for The Eagle.

I have a compromised immune system and avoid crowds. And when Friday rolled around, I became concerned about my health. My lower left leg had become red earlier in the week, and thinking I had a recurrence of cellulitis, my doctor had started me on an antibiotic. However, it was evident that the antibiotic wasn't working, and wanting to avoid sepsis, I checked into the emergency department at the Oregon Health and Sciences University in Portland.

I was there six days. To make the long story short, we learned that I didn't have cellulitis; instead I had a blood clot in my thigh and a tumor in my lower leg that was causing internal bleeding and the redness in the skin. I left the hospital in good shape, with an IVC filter to address clotting and an appointment with a radiologist in Longview for the tumor.

While I was at the hospital, I used my laptop to do some work remotely. One of the tasks was to determine where major stories and photos would go. Early Wednesday morning, when we compose the paper for printing, I consulted with Production Manager Geri Florek, who was going to do all the page layout for the week by herself. We were surprised to learn from each other that we had received nothing from Karen, neither Finn Fest coverage or her Downriver Dispatches column. That was an unpleasant surprise, and we wondered what had happened to Karen.

As I like to say, we punted and rearranged the layout. Readers might only have noticed we had no Finn Fest coverage, and one subsequently admonished us for that.

It turned out that Karen had gone to the Finn Fest, talked to people and taken some photos. But before she could send them to us, she crashed. She had contracted covid-19 and took an ambulance ride to the Ocean Beach Hospital. You can read her story on Page 5 and photos on Page 10.

This week, things are on the mend. We're all back on task and doing well.

I do have to say "Thank you" to Geri and Advertising Representative Ian Brandon for picking up the extra load. They're a great crew.

After that, all I can say is, "What a week!"