3721 "Fun" day

Saturday, April 20, 2013

No two equals are the same.

-- Malaclypse the Younger --

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Daughter is away at her 15-year college reunion, leaving Hercules and Nugget home alone for three days.  Yesterday evening, Friday evening, Hercules took the Nugget to a playground, and went down a side with her on his lap.  She was wearing rubber-soled shoes, and her right shoe caught the side of the slide, and her leg got jerked back.  With the full weight of Hercules behind her.

I had agreed to babysit this morning while Hercules went on a trail-cleaning junket with his geocaching group, so when I saw his car in the driveway last night I went over to find out what time I should be there, and he mentioned that Nugget had a boo-boo, that she said her knee hurt, but he didn't see any swelling or bruising.  When he told me what had happened, I was very concerned, but she was already asleep for the night.

I went over there at 8 this morning, and it was pretty bad. Nugget was ok when sitting, and she could move the leg, but she kept saying boo-boo, pointing at her knee, and she couldn't put weight on it.  She'd stand on her left leg with the right foot held off the ground.  It was hard for Hercules to accept that she needed to go to the doctor or the ER, because a.) he REALLY didn't want to miss the trail cleaning, and b.) he's a tightwad and didn't want to pay the copay for what would probably be nothing.

I pushed, and he called the pediatrician.  Appointment at 11.  She sent us to the big hospital 40 minutes down the coast (they have a pediatric whatsis).  In the ER they xRayed her leg, and ... surprise!

Her Daddy went into the xRay room with her.  I waited in the hall, and it was heart-wrenching.  She'd been fine until then, but she didn't want to lie down, didn't want her leg in that position, didn't like that machine, her screams were terrible.  When she came out of the room she was fine again, and loved riding the bed back to the ER.

It's a spiral break in the tibia, so common they call it "the toddler break".  And playground slides are the usual cause.

The doctor who was to do the cast was in Princeton, which is an hour away.  We waited for him.

Nugget had so far been cheerful, but we were already past lunch and running into nap time.  We got her some food from the cafeteria, and some apple juice, and then she fell asleep on Daddy's lap.  The cast doctor arrived around 3:30, and wrapped her leg up right on Daddy's lap while she was still sound asleep.  She didn't even twitch.  With her new cast, in the hospital:

It's a hard cast, toes to just above the knee, with the knee slightly bent.  Four to six weeks.  It looks blue in the photo, but it's actually brilliant purple.

She slept in the car all the way home, and then for almost a hour longer after getting home.

She keeps asking us to take the cast off, and tries to push it off.  She knows what "broken" means, and every time I explain to her that her leg is broken, and the doctor fixed it, but we have to keep the "cast" (can you say "cast"?) on until it's all done fixing, she accepts that for about 15 minutes, then she wants it off again.

She can't stand or walk.  She's unbalanced with one knee bent, and putting weight on it even with the cast seems to hurt, but by this evening she'd learned how to use her little plastic chair as a crutch.  Figured that out all by herself.

The next few weeks are going to be rough on Daughter.  The Nugget weighs almost 30 pounds, and I haven't been able to pick her up for a few months.  The cast is surprisingly heavy, adds more weight.  Daughter probably weighs about 102.  We're going to have to figure some stuff out.  Anyone have any experience with a toddler in a leg cast?

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I got a laugh from the doctors and nurses when I said that she'd been born in this hospital, and wouldn't be 2 until next week, so, uh, any chance she's still under warranty?
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3720 Waiting for news

Friday, April 19,  2013

You will find that the state is the kind of organization which,

though it does big things badly, does small things badly too. 

-- John Kenneth Galbraith --

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Seems like the ONLY news today is the Boston manhunt.  It's the same things over and over.  I had to go to the internet to find out what the news is from Texas.

The total now from the fertilizer plant explosion is 14 bodies recovered, about 60 people missing and unaccounted for, and more than 200 injured.

I guess that's just less exciting....
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3719 Some are more equal than others, or something....

Thursday, April 18, 2013

We should not write so that it is possible for the reader to understand us,

but so that it is impossible for him to misunderstand us.

-- Quintilian (Marcus Fabius Quintilianus), rhetorician (c. 35-100) --

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There was a huge explosion at a Texas fertilizer plant last night, at about 8 pm.  Authorities predict between five and fifteen dead and more than 160 injured, but they're still pulling people out of wreckage, so those numbers could go much higher.  The ones they are sure died are firefighters and a police officer.  It's a small town, and a large part of the town was flattened by the blast, including a nursing home.  So far, it is believed to be a chemical accident.

I shall wait to see if there is a big national fund set up for the injured and families of the dead, the people who lost their homes and possessions.  I shall watch for biographies of victims.  I shall wait for the politicians and their speeches.  Will there be people praying all over the nation?

I shall wait for someone to explain how a hurricane or a bomb attack is more terrible than an accident.  It isn't to the people involved.

Story at http://entertainment.verizon.com/news/read.php?rip_id=%3CDA5NSA5G0%40news.ap.org%3E&ps=931&page=1.  (And what a slap that Verizon put this under "entertainment".)

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Later:  I turned on the TV at noon to see if they had better info, and found the entire newscast was about a memorial service for Boston.  If I lived in that little Texas town, I'd feel very ... snubbed.

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On Holy Thursday, before Easter, the Pope went to a youth detention center and washed the feet of young prisoners, both male and female.  The washing of feet by the pope, usually those of other priests, is a Holy Thursday tradition.  The washing of female feet most certainly is not, and many church traditionalists were horrified and angered.  Like spitting-mad.

Ok, ladies.  How does that make you feel?

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I spent some time one late evening wandering around "Dumb Political Quotes"-type sites, and I discovered something odd.  Members of one party seem very prone to really ridiculous statements, while members of the other party sometimes says things that that pretty stupid.  The difference is that the first party is prone to declarations demonstrating a complete lack of knowledge and logic, while the other party just gets names wrong, or uses the wrong word or terms offensive to the audience.

 For example, we have these from Dan Quayle:

"Mars is essentially in the same orbit . . . Mars is somewhat the same distance from the Sun, which is very important. We have seen pictures where there are canals, we believe, and water. If there is water, that means there is oxygen. If oxygen, that means we can breathe."

"The Holocaust was an obscene period in our nation's history. I mean in this century's history. But we all lived in this century. I didn't live in this century."

"It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it."

Not a simple slip of the lip. The first one is stunning, literally.

I could fill this page with Bush-isms of the same amazing quality. Palin, anyone?

When you look at stupid quotes from the other party, there's very little to be found, and those that exist are just things like calling a female reporter "Sweetie", or getting a town or person's name or a country's language wrong. Or trying out a German phrase and calling yourself a sweet roll.  Obama's worst stupid statement seems to be referring to the 58 states. That's not so hard to understand. His mind runs ahead of his mouth. He was probably thinking of the 48 contiguous states, so it came out 58 (actually, "57 and one more to go"). Big deal. A far cry from a Mars atmosphere, or the impossibility of pregnancy from rape.

Am I biased?  Well, I know I'm biased, but I mean is my bias coloring what I observed?  Or DOES one party tend to promote their most stupid people?

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I have discovered Susie Sampson and her Tea Party Report videos.  They're funny.  Susie, in the guise of a conservative reporter, comes off with some real zingers.  Try this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjshdQc5cjg&list=UU1J66cMCW46dOueINxNbFtw, or this one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aRDaSPuGKE&list=UU1J66cMCW46dOueINxNbFtw.

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3718 Weird sighting!

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Boys have swag; men have style; gentlemen have class.

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Reddit folks have been examining Boston photos, and have settled on two suspicious-looking dudes, mostly on the basis of the straps on their backpacks compared to FBI photos of the bomb bag.  One reddit suspect is nicknamed "The Blue Robe Guy" (because "robe" is so much more sinister than "jacket"). 

I looked at one of the many photos of B.R.G., and about fell off my chair.

I'd swear that's my late husband Jay.  Same color and texture of hair.  In some other photos he looks very tall, like Jay.  Same body type, slope from chest to little pot belly.  Same face, in general.  Same smile.  Same rounded shoulders and neck thrust.  Same slope at the back of his head.  Jay kept his beard slightly longer, but hey!  Beard!  Jay also had that same white patch at his chin.  Same nerdy look.  He always carried a backpack in his hands, never on his back.  The only difference is that Jay always wore glasses, could not wear contacts.

This IS Jay in his early 40s.  He actually would have been 61 last month.

But I guess if you're a ghost, you don't need glasses any more.  And you don't age.
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3717 Something to consider

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Everything happens for a reason, but sometimes the reason

is that you’re stupid and you make bad decisions.

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• Boston is famous for the Boston Tea Party.
  
• Yesterday was Patriot's Day in Massachusetts, celebrating the beginning of the uprising against the government of the time.
• Yesterday was tax day.
• Those idiots in the mountains out west, stockpiling weapons to fight the government, refusing to pay taxes, you know, that crew, had been passing a rumor that the Obama administration was going to "manufacture a disaster in April that will allow them to take away even more of our rights."  April?  Where did that come from?

(Um, like, I'm confused.  Wasn't it the Patriot act that started that s**t?  You know, that multi-hundred page "law" that was written before 9/11, just waiting for an opportunity to get passed?  And wasn't it that same administration that decided that the President could declare war without the approval of Congress, in direct opposition with the very clear dictates of the Constitution?  Oh well.  I guess some people can't keep their presidents straight.)

Anyway, the Boston bombing doesn't have "all the earmarks" of a Muslim terrorist organization.  Anyone can get a pressure cooker.  Anyone can find out how to build a bomb.  There was no suicide bomber to ensure the timing.  There was a second blast, but in the middle east it goes off in the same area to get the emergency responders, not a block away.  So what "earmarks" are they talking about?  What ethnicity is likely to be able to leave a large heavy package on the street with no one wondering about it?

It looks domestic to me.

It looks like a declaration of civil war.
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3716 Sorry Sari Seller

Sunday, April 14, 2013

It is my firm belief that it is a mistake to hold firm beliefs.

-- Malaclypse the Younger --

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I would dearly love to use tussah silk saris for curtains.  I'd need six for the living room, four for the dining room, and two or three for each of the larger bedrooms.  I buy saris on eBay, where you can get beautiful, new, printed, silk saris for less than $30 including shipping, and fancy gold-threaded, embroidered, and/or beaded used saris for even less.  Unfortunately, the saris in my price range tend to be unique in colors and patterns, and I don't want to mix patterns.  I want them all to match on any one window.

It's next to impossible to find several matching saris for less than a few hundred dollars each.

So last night when I accidentally came across a seller who not only had close to a dozen NEW tussa silk saris in each of two patterns in colors that would work for me, I got really excited and placed bids on a bunch of them that were going to end overnight.  I woke this morning to find that I had "won" all that I wanted --- but that my bids had been cancelled....

Duh?  Why?

...because the seller had screwed up, and had listed the same two saris (one in each pattern) multiple times.  She sent me a note that she really had only one of each, that I could have, but she'd have to cancel the others.  I told her I can't use one of each.  Cancel them all.

I am so very disappointed.
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