A Monday

That's kinda what it's like around here... nothin's negative, nor positive, just neutral.

it is what it is

Make them stop

It must be because of March Madness, the NCAA Basketball Playoff Tournament.
It seems like there are only reruns on the Tube.
Last night even the local news was a rerun.
It was just like Wednesday evening.
Seriously, there was another (third time in five days) Tornado Warning.
We had an hour and a half of meteorologists and a news anchor getting all techy about serious wind.
About the only major difference in last night's broadcast was they discussed how much longer each of the warnings would last [I mean what time would the Weather Service let the warning expire].
I was as if there was nothing else happening in the world.

There was an actual funnel cloud, just no picture

It probably wouldn't seem quite as silly if it wasn't for two of the three meteorologists driving around chasing the storm cell and calling in on their cell phones.
Are they really setting a good example for the rest of us?
The local station calls their weather broadcasts 'Storm Tracker 7.'
Lately it has been storm chaser.

right... nothin' new around here

What'd I learn?

I forget!

No... seriously, I thought I'd learned how to spell a word I've heard often and used occasionally.
Suldog's latest post, which makes total sense if you know Suldog, used it.
Out of curiosity I looked it up in an online dictionary:

clicking the image takes you to the page

I got far more information than I was seeking,
found out that I hadn't really learned how to spell it,
and learned a bunch more words to add to my vocabulary.

What I really learned is I should complete my rounds of the WEB before I start to write a post.
What I posted yesterday definitely trumps what I was originally going to post, which is pretty much what you got today [with the addition of this little blurb about ...what is it about?.

live in the moment

Why write a post?

I was going to write about something I've learned in the past two days.
Then I saw this...



Maybe I will tell you what I learned tomorrow.

maybe not

A little weather excitement ...again

The local meteorologists took over the the TV station yesterday afternoon at about 3pm,
giving those watching a play by play account of a storm cell traversing the Central Sacramento Valley about 65 miles south of here.
They were having so much fun reporting about head walls and rotation that they almost ignored the weather in their own back yard.
In the video you will see that a funnel cloud did ultimately develop into an EF-1 tornado.
The folks at the local determined it was an important enough event to preempt all other reporting ...until 7pm when Entertainment Tonight came on the air.

During part of the discussion, one of the anchors asked the "chief" meteorologist about why there seems to be more tornadoes recently than in the past.
He explained that it is because everyone has smartphones now and can provide evidence of the event.
It seems there was skepticism in the past on the part of the National Weather Service.

ain't technology grand?

So... what was that all about?

I mentioned yesterday that I had some thoughts about a blog post.
I only vaguely remember what those thoughts are.
And I sure haven't in the blanks.

I am not a happy camper.
It it virtually impossible to contact anyone in a business or professional position unless it it a sales opportunity for them.

Just try to contact support services anywhere.
A menu of of various and sundry possibilities is presented.
Once a selection is made, another menu is presented ...and so on.
Or, worse, you are asked to leave your name, a callback number, a brief description of why you are calling, and told someone will return your call.

Email is not better.
Don't try to email a professional directly.
They all have a "Contact Us" link on a website.
The directs you to a fill in the blanks form where you provide your name, address, email, phone number, account number (if you have one) and then there's box where you can enter a few words to describe your inquiry.
Then you click on "Submit" so a new screen opens and you're told someone will reply.

About the only time anyone speaks with you directly and in a timely manner is when there's a chance they can get you to give them money.
The folks who'll take your money can't seem to help when you have a problem.

They can actually stonewall you without having to even talk to you.
And they can do it on a landline, a smartphone, a PC, a Mac, a tablet, an iPad, or a laptop.

technology's grand

Grumble....

I could easily have rolled over and slept some more this morning.

Except for one little detail.

I have a dentist appointment in about 40 minutes.

I've been up and about since a few minutes after six.

I have some thoughts about a blog post.
If I can complete those thoughts, there may be a post tomorrow.

Oh, yeah, and it's gonna rain today.

and for the next coupla days

Another untitled post

apologies to Grant Snider

You've probably guessed by now...

...I got nuthin'

But if you click on the image it will give you some inkling.

My good friend across The Pond, the Brighton Pensioner, blogs daily [or, if he doesn't, you could fool me].
He also walks his dog [who I have been assured is named Fern, not Pebbles] twice each day, weather permitting.
He's also quite active in the local Lions Club, seemingly participating in all of the club activities, and then reporting them to all and sundry by publishing Jungle Jottings, the Brighton Lions Club's newsletter.
Unlike many club newsletters, which at best may run to two pages, the jottings is seldom less than eight and is always worth reading, seldom has grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors [if you believe extra vowels are okay the letter 's' is interchangeable with the letter 'z'].
It really is quite impressive.
The BP also dabbles in website creation for the Lions.
Did I mention he's a pretty good photographer, too.
Periodically, he and his wife, who he affectionately calls "The Old Bat" travel across the English Channel to make sure France is still there. 
As a sideline, he has been known to act as a food critic, demonstrating knowledge of what tastes good [at least in his own mind].

Speaking of food, I saw the following quote on his blog this morning:

"My theory is that all of Scottish cuisine is based on a dare."
~ Mike Myers

 and he's humble

Yeah... kinda like this

thank you Shoebox blog

It's a metaphor for something.

'nuff said

Run around morning

GS has a visit to the imaging center.
There's not much any time for anything much else.
(PET/CT scan from chin to knees for those who must know.)

Then it's time for the weekly labs.

might be home by spring

Another...

This caught my attention.

Another what, you ask?
Another How cool is this?

kinda like yelling "Hay!"

How cool is this?

A full year in 12 seconds.
I found this at APOD.
There's something new there every day [except when the government shuts down].

tomorrow's the day it's

 straight up and down again

One more thing about last Thursday

We didn't see a single hay truck ...or even a vehicle with a bale of hay ...on the entire journey.
That may not seem so remarkable until one realizes we seldom go across town without seeing a vehicle hauling hay.
In fact on most occasions we'll see several.

old photo from Oct. 2011

It is particularly unusual not to see any this year because there is some urgency to deliver hay because of the current drought.
There is little grass for livestock to feed upon.

We play a little travel game on our road trips.
The first person to spot a hay truck hollers, "Hay!"
They do it without any consideration for whatever else is happening.
It sounds an awful lot like, "Hey!"
Or, sometimes, "Haaayyy!"
The game is the most fun when played around someone who has no idea what is going on.
We never bother to explain the game.
Eventually they catch on ...sometimes quickly, sometimes not so quickly.
Now that I think about it, we don't necessarily have to be traveling.
There's nothing quite like hollering, "Hay!" in the middle of a busy roadside restaurant.

we're easily amused

Wherein there are more questions ...Monday update

Thursday was not a picnic.

The drive south wasn't so bad ...except for on short distance.

We'd allowed plenty of time and I even sandbagged because we were ahead of schedule.

We still arrived at Stanford more than a half hour ahead of schedule.

I used valet parking.

The valets are so efficient that I never had an opportunity to check if I had everything I wanted to take into the clinic.

It was my fault for letting them rush me [if only they were so speedy retrieving vehicles].

We made our way to the clinic and checked in.

Because we were early, we found ourselves in the waiting room for about 20 minutes.

It was pretty much routine after that, at least until they asked for the list of medications.

It was in the car.

Plan B involved a photograph of the list.

There just happened to be one on PHG's cellphone.

A nurse weighed GS, took vitals, and left us a page on which to write the medications.

After awhile the NP (Nurse Practioner) we had seen the first time we visited Stanford came in to examine GS.

She had all of the notes from the original visit and asked a number of questions regarding what has happened since that time.

We noted that she is pregnant.

I wonder if maybe GS has that effect on NPs (the NP in Redding she was seeing also got pregnant after the first visit).

She examined GS and found nothing in particular of any concern.

She said the Doctor would be in shortly.

It took longer than we expected.

But he did arrive.

He'd been fully briefed.. or he'd done some homework.

I guess I should mention we had not seen this Doc before.

He asked a bunch more questions... some of which GS, PHG, or I could answer...

...and he offered a bunch of information.

PHG had a number of questions she was going to ask, but he presented answers before she had a chance.

He has order a CT scan and a Pet Scan... and is frustrated there are no others with which to compare them.

He is recommending an IV treatment with an “anti-hormonal” drug.
He also had prescribed a different drug to control the diarrhea.

The best part is he is optimistic.

Some of the questions he had left us with some questions of our own.
As opposed to the first visit,  we know a lot more and we know not to set expectations too high.
(Yes, I know I generally frown upon having expectations.
I also know I am also susceptible to having them, anyway)

We finished up at the clinic just in time to greet the 5:00 PM rush hour.

We arrived at the approaches to the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge in time to find traffic at a standstill.

Once on the bridge it began to actually move at more than a crawl and traffic was extremely heavy until we reached the interchange where we would actually start northbound [some 90 miles from Stanford] just under three hours after setting out.

All in all we were away from home for 13 hours, of which approximately nine were driving time.

I remembered a number of words I have tried to suppress, but managed to leave them unsaid.

Besides, PHG growled enough for all of us.
Don't get on her bad side.

Friday I went to the pharmacy to fill the prescription.
They would accept the form on which he wrote it.
They did say the will accept an e-fax [whatever that is] prescription.
So I came home and called the clinic.
The nurse said she handle it and the pharmacy should have it within the hour.
That was at 4:00 PM.
At 8:00 PM I went back.
The pharmacy says they haven't received it.
On Sunday afternoon at 4:30 they still make the same claim.
Somebody is going to hear from me first thing tomorrow.

there's some steam building

Oh Yeah

Happy St Patrick's Day

Uh, oh....

I've been using Chrome.
It keeps crashing when I want to post images to the blog.

hmmmmmm!

Darn!

I remembered to get the camera from the car.
I even shot pics of the tulips on the patio.
Then I was so engrossed in cooking, serving, and eating that I forgot to shoot pics of the corned beef, cabbage & veggies, colcannon, and Irish soda bread.
We do have apic of the cookies PHG baked and decorated.
There is one loaf of bread left, so maybe we'll get a picture of it?

check in later

Update
10:14 AM

 

 

 

It's a beautiful morning

Really!
Except for the leaves that fall from the oak out front, everything is grand today.
I will put up with the leaves because that ornery oak provides more than ample shade in the warmest [sic] months of the year.
The weather is predicted to be just about perfect.

It doesn't get much better.

We are doing a low-key annual St Patrick's dinner ...there might be seven of us.
We had a little more grandiose plans, but they were just plans.

There'd be more here, but time is of the essence and there are more pressing duties.
I may have pictures tomorrow.

smells are so tantalizing and
dinner isn't for another five hours

Odds 'n ends

This won't be the post many will want to read.
It's all good [relatively] ...really.
I'm just not ready to plant myself at the keyboard.
Mrs. Cuz has our number and can call.
We (GS, PHG, and I) are all worn out from yesterday's Marathon (13 hours mostly on the road).

And a quote from Henry James's brother:

"A great many people think they are thinking when they are really rearranging their prejudices."

~ William James

I may also have something to say about those "other drivers" if I find a way to say it without using the language I learned in junior high and high school and refined in the Navy.

ask me about pizza sometime

We, GS, PHG, and I, are away shortly to the Bay Area.
It's Just for the day.
GS has an appointment at Stanford*.
Maybe we'll get some answers.
Probably we'll hear mostly questions.
It's gonna be a long day.

The section between Vacaville and Palo Alto can be real torture.

glad it's not Friday

*the Women's Cancer Center

Too funny

)

UPDATED - 12:20PM

Now I'm just a little irked.
This vid is all over F/B.
I am sorely tempted to take it down from here and replace it with this

http://bit.ly/1nizPmq

I was wondering what to post today

I thought about telling you the phone went out sometime over the weekend and the repairman will be here shortly.

Then I saw BP's post.
(I would use his real initials, but you might get the wrong idea.
They are BS.)

Alarm clocks...
We have one.
GS want to know what time it is when she wakes up.
It has been used to actually wake us up...

...probably more times by accident than on purpose.

When I was younger alarm clocks, even electric alarm clocks that buzzed incessantly for hours on end didn't wake me.
About the only thing that worked in that regard was the telephone (which may explain why,to this day, I hate phones).
As an example here's a short story from when I was in the Navy.
It was some time early in 1963.
My ship was doing ASW (anti-submarine warfare) exercises off San Diego during the evening.
The CIC gang stood port and starboard watches (half were on watch while the other half was off).
So because I was off duty and would assume the watch at midnight, I was sleeping.

Somehow, another ship in and adjacent operating area and my ship ended up in the same place at the same time.
That's not a good thing unless that's what they're attempting.
We placed a pretty good size hole in the other ship's aft port quarter [think left buttox].
We incurred a small hole in the bow.
Immediately the collision alarm was sounded.
All hands were summoned to their General Quarters stations in appropriate gear (life vests).
Yours truly heard nothing.
The had to send the master-at-arms to find me and wake me up.
That may sound like a relatively simple task.
But, when a ship has battened all the hatches for water tight security it is an entirely different prospect.
Permission to open each hatch must be requested from Damage Control Central, who, in turn have to get permission from the Officer of the Deck.
By the time I got to CIC everyone knew who'd slept through GQ.
Neither ship sank.
Both returned to Sandy Eggo [we called it Dago] immediately.
There was a board of inquiry.
I'm sure many folks suffered some consequences, but nobody was relieved of command or transferred.
Those letters of reprimand in personnel files are enough to ruin a career.

I suffered no consequences.
In fact others used to point me out as an example.
"OB can sleep through anything ...so you want to make sure if he's relieving you on watch that his feet are on the floor after waking him up."
Somebody always made sure I was out of my bunk from that day forward.

almost wish I could

 sleep like that now

Whatchoo talkin' about?

Like Buck, I'm big in the East

Don't think I'm giving anything away by posting this with my 'real' name up there.
I have never made a secret of it.
I did notice Buck, Skip, and Willis do not occur in Saskatchewan.
I wondered about it for awhile ...until I realized nothing occurs in Saskatchewan.
Both of the residents have moved to North Dakota and Montana.

I was originally going to post both maps in the same post and post something about jury duty today.
But, once more, I thought it out and decided to milk this for all its worth.

...which ain't much

Yep... a squirrel

That's my story and I'm sticking to it...

Here's why...

http://www.buzzfeed.com/keelyflaherty/which-mythical-creature-are-you

I liked it better at the quiz.
Because it did this...

Kraken Rum / Via krakenrum.com

squirrels, squids, krakens ...whatever

I will figure it out

No, I won't.
I'll blame Buck.
Wait... I can't do that either.
I saw the link yesterday over on Shoebox yesterday.
I even plugged in my name ...well, it's my everyday name.

Maybe I will post the one with the name I was given at birth tomorrow [...and maybe I will be distracted by a squirrel].
I wonder why Buck didn't post his given name?

ooh ...look!

I hate it when that happens

Sometimes a post on another blog will remind me of something in my past.
Most of the time I will remember that I was reminded, but not remember of what I was reminded.
That's not the case here.
I remember what.
I don't remember who reminded me.

The subject was cliques.
Or maybe it was about belonging to cliques.
Or maybe it was non-cliques that it was about.
Anyhow, that's only partly relevant to this.

It's about high school.
More specifically it's about Menlo-Atherton High School in Atherton, California.
It may have been [and might still be] important for the school to be in Atherton.
That's because, if the school was in Menlo Park, a good number of the residents of Atherton would probably have sent their kids to private schools... many did, anyway.

There was a social studies teacher who was doing post-graduate work at Stanford (officially the Leland Stanford Junior University [I know what junior colleges are. What are junior universities?]) also known as The Farm.
I have idea what his area of interest specifically was.
But the study took several years (9th to 12th grades) and was pretty comprehensive.
My class was the subject of this study.
It may have been limited to cliques.
Then again the clique information may have been what we learned about.
That class started out with something over 800 students.
We do not qualify as baby boomers [we're too old].
During the sophomore year (10th grade) there was a lot of shifting around of students in the district because two new high schools opened.
Many were transferred to the two new schools.
Others transferred in from still another school.
There were now less than 700 students in the class.

The kids at M-A came primarily from two elementary school districts.
There were other feeder districts but the numbers were much less consequential.

That's the background information.

The teacher passed out questionnaires to the class members... at least to those who were attending college prep classes.
Answering the questions was voluntary.
I'm pretty sure most did.
(Don't ask me what the questions were.
I don't remember.)

Sometime during out Senior year (12th grade) we found out about the makeup of our class.
There were something like 53 cliques.
They were subgroups of two main cliques.
There were also those who did not fit into any of the subgroups or the main cliques.
The surveying of the questionnaires determined the main cliques were only slightly connected to the elementary school districts.
They were more closely related to two persons.
For want of a better term I will call them princesses.
They were, of course, girls.
They also were cute ...even, in the eyes of a teenage boy, beautiful [or hot].
One group was social.
The other was service.
I mean that in the context of high school.
The social bunch were the ones who came up with ideas for dances, mixers, and the like.
They decided what was needed... what were the good ideas.
If it was fun, it was a good idea.
The service bunch were actually put on those events, as well as put out the yearbook, published the school newspaper, and anything else that required organization.

The subgroups could be pretty much put under one or the other of the two main groups.
About the only crossover subgroup was the jocks.
Those subgroups, except for the jocks, could also be divided up by whatever elementary school they attended.

Then there was a small group of those where were undefined by any clique.
Ironically, most of those in that group hung around together.
Some could have been called misfits.
One or, maybe, two really were misfits.
I was one of that group.
I'm pretty sure you could call us a non-clique clique, whatever that is. [eye wink thing here]
Most of us joined a branch of the service soon after graduation.
I have no idea where they are today.
I miss a couple of them.
Their choice was to drop out.

I'd post a picture of my car from back then...

...but I didn't even have my license, let alone a car.

Mom drove...

I ducked

Another untitled post II

Monday's post was the busiest in a long, long time.
I mean it hit number three on the all time hits list.
Go figure.
At the same time I noticed that, I saw that the Russians and Ukrainians seem to have lost interest in the blog.
I guess they're busy elsewhere.

I really hope they can sort things out peacefully because I don't have much hope that anyone with any authority over here has even a dose of knowledge about such situations.
I even wonder if the right hand knows what the left hand is doing.

See how I've managed to milk Sunday's post?
See how I've managed to change the topic ...twice?
See how I've managed to show just how flaky I can be?

In case you are interested the last post of the same title was on September 24, 2008.
OTOH it was probably no the first ...or the only other ...untitled post.

those are rhetorical questions

I know why you're here (Monday update - cont'd)

We got the apostrophe out of the way already.
Now let's see if we can finish the tale.

When we last spoke of GS she was being wheeled to a room at Mercy Hospital.

(I should tell you now that the official name is Mercy Medical Center.
It has grown by leaps and bounds since I first moved here over 40 years ago.
There used to be three hospitals, but Shasta General Hospital, which was operated by the county, was closed more than 30 years ago.
The other hospital operating here, Shasta Regional Medical Center.
The folks over at that one can't seem to settle on a name.
I can remember at least three different name changes ...and who knows how many different owners.)

Once ensconced in the room, a nurse person showed up to complete the admission process and take vital signs [they were all good].
The third baggy of potassium ran out and a fourth was hung.

Through of this squall GS had experienced no more discomfort (or symptom) than usual.
Before long a hospitalist arrived to determine what the next steps would be.
It was pretty much determined the culprit for the potassium loss is the diarrhea.

(I should explain now that IV infusion of the potassium is not the optimum way for the body to absorb and use it.
It is best taken orally as part of the regular diet ...or as a supplement.)

So how to "stem the tide."
Three medications, two prescription and an over-the-counter medication, are already at work.
Changes in diet have provided little respite.

Meanwhile, a porta-potty is moved in next to the bed.
It got a pretty good work out the rest of the day.
At dinner, the nurse was pleased to see there's nothing wrong with GS appetite.
Of course if you don't feed someone a regular meal, they are apt to clean their plate at the next one.
There was nothing wrong with mine either.
The hospital provided a 'guest' meal.

I left at about 8pm.
I was worn out,
I also figured GS would rest better if I wasn't sitting across the room fidgeting with my iPhone and Kindle.
I came home and didn't sleep well.
There was something wrong with the bed.

Sunday morning I played on the Internet for awhile and headed off to the hospital, bringing along a few requested items [and the Kindle and iPhone].
The Hospitalist (an internal medicine specialist with a really great bedside manner) came around shortly after I arrived.
He queried GS about her night.
She told him she hadn't slept well at all and had been up and down visiting the potty until about 5:00am.

Obviously the doc had done a little research.
Not that he knows any more about the underlying issue that causes the diarrhea, but he did determine that some pain medications can inhibit the bowels.
So along with the already prescribed meds, and the OTC med (Imodium), he suggested tincture of opium.
It was found  first drug of choice, mentioned above, is unavailable through the hospital pharmacy.
Choice two is a low dose of morphine.
So that's been added to the regime.

To shorten the story a little I will mention the situation improved, GS slept well both Sunday, after watching the Oscar show, and Monday night.
I got a couple of more 'free' meals from the hospital.
None were anything I would necessarily ordered anywhere, but they were tasty and I'm not that picky, except when it comes to lima beans [Aunt Wanda's are okay].
The hospital stopped short of serving lima beans.

The doctor told us on Monday he would likely be discharging GS on Tuesday if the improvement continued.
(The improvement is a reduction in the number of visits to the potty.
Saturday had seen six or seven.
Sunday it reduced to two.
Yay morphine!)
On Tuesday the routine held up and doc said GS could come home.

Evidently, other docs had the same idea about their patients, too.
There were three other patients in that part of the hospital also going home ...and one discharge nurse.
I won't present the details.
But, it involves about an hour or more per patient.

Anyhow... we got home around 4pm.
There were pork chops for dinner.

I'm sure there are things I left out.
Some might even think there's too much information?

There are pictures.
They are here [and there will be more over the next few days].
None of them should embarrass anyone.

done for now

It Tuesday ...so it's time for a Monday update?

I have been remiss.
I haven't kept all of you informed about the goings on around here.
That's mostly because I haven't been "here" that much.
What I mean is I've probably been at the hospital more than at home.

I got a phone call Saturday morning informing me that GS potassium level was less than optimum.
Eating bananas, rice, applesauce, and toast was not going to fix it.
Her GI doc was on the phone urging us to go to the ER at Mercy Hospital, where they could begin to remedy the situation.
It was not so urgent that I couldn't let her continue sleeping.

Meanwhile the doc arranged for some kind of fast tracking.
We arrived at the ER and weren't kept waiting ...for long, anyway.
They spent about an hour doing paperwork (not really paperwork, more like keypunch) and getting vitals and bloodwork.
Then they hung saline solution (sodium chloride) and a little baggy of potassium [that drips for an hour].
Then they hung another little baggy of potassium [that drips for an hour].
Then they hung another little baggy of potassium [that drips for an hour].
Then they came in and said, "we're admitting you."
"You're going to get another unit of potassium."

So GS was wheeled to a room down the hall and around the corner, only two rooms away from where she was the last two times she was at the hospital.
On the plus side... this time there is no infection and she has the port already for all of the IV stuff.

Note: I don't have time to finish this now.
So, come back tomorrow, maybe I will have time to conclude it then.

so far, so good

About yesterday's post

It isn't often my own posts inspire a second post...
...and I'm not sure inspiration is the right term.

it's only a coincidence she's blond

Is it chicken or is it fish?

I was reminded of Jessica Simpson when I saw this.

http://notalwaysright.com/

read it and weep 

Mrs Cuz is multi-talented

She paints

She writes

available at Amazon.com

She also plays Native American Flute

pretty sure she did the cover art

Smoke screen