3271 nookindle

Monday, May 30, 2011

"Silence is one of the hardest arguments to refute."
-- Josh Billings --

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For a little while now I've wanted to buy one o' them newfangled e-reader thingies. Nook or Kindle, Kindle or Nook? I knew nothing about them, didn't know which was better, each have their adherents, and besides, they're always coming up with "improvements" and next generations, and maybe I should wait until the dust settles a bit. And the cost is significant. If I make the wrong choice and end up disliking it, I'd feel worse.

Well, last week, before getting the news of Hal's tires, back when I was feeling flush, I came across a deal I couldn't resist. Two different websites were having competing one-day sales of reconditioned e-readers, the most recent model (there are new models coming out now), one the Barnes & Noble Nook and the other the Amazon Kindle, each for about 1/4 the list price. I could get both for 1/2 the price of either one new.

It's been my experience that reconditioned is generally as good as new, pretty much the same rate of problems, especially since a large portion of "reconditioned" had nothing more wrong with them than buyer's remorse, so how could I not?

The Kindle arrived Thursday, and the Nook on Friday.

Instructions:

The Nook's instruction book is easier to read, understand, navigate, and apply. The Kindle's instructions are less well organized, it's difficult to skip over functions you know you won't use, there are just too many options and functions, and too many esoteric terms that I'm sure the writers understood well, but are Greek to us neophytes. Nook's technical writers win.

On the other hand, to do all the things *I* want to do with it, with the Kindle everything is pretty much intuitive. The way the onscreen menus work, I don't need more than one pass through the basic instructions. With the Nook, I often stare at the blank screen thinking, "Now how do I get to xxxx?", and I have to go to the instructions. Kindle's usability people win.

Keyboard:

Nook has a touchscreen keyboard, which is ok, except that it wants SKIN ONLY. You can't use a pencil eraser, or fingernail, or anything but skin. My fingernails are long. The squares for each letter are tiny. Using the side of any finger spills over to adjoining tiny letter squares. I finally resorted to folding my index finger and using the point of the knuckle, which hurts, and one out of four letters it spills over anyway. Not cool, Nook.

The Kindle has a permanent button keyboard. The key buttons are tiny, but at least I can press them with my fingernails, which is how I usually type. I think Nook's thinking is that most people won't use the keyboard that often, so why waste space on one.

Kindle wins usability of keyboard.

Navigation:

The Nook has a touch screen at the bottom where all the menus appear. That's similar I guess to a smart phone.

The Kindle has buttons instead. There are Home, Menu, and Back buttons, and a little toggle thingy that acts like a mouse and cursor. That's similar in operation to a browser and a mouse on a computer.

I guess which one prefers depends on one's familiarity, but I vastly prefer the Kindle arrangement.

Turning pages:

You can use Next and Previous buttons on the sides of both to turn pages in your book. One thing that's annoying about the Nook is that there are those little locator "pegs", tiny stick-up dots, on the page turn buttons. With the Kindle, the buttons are smooth, and you can locate them by the softer feel of them. I guess I'm like the princess and the pea. Those Nook locator dots HURT!

You can also turn pages on the Nook by swiping across the touchscreen at the bottom, but only when there's no menu displayed there, and it doesn't always work on the first swipe.

Kindle wins, even if it is "old" technology. Fancy isn't always better.

Downloading books:

They're both pretty much the same. You need an account on the (B&N/Amazon) bookstore website, register your device, provide a credit card, and you're ready to go. Both devices use wifi, and it's fast. I mean really fast. A 600-page book arrives in like a second or two. (Howcome I'm not getting that speed on my laptop?)

I was at first a little concerned because I have no wifi here. How will that work? Heh. Silly Silk. Apparently they use cell phone towers. It just works, period. And it's completely and totally free for books downloaded from the stores. On both devices people can send files (documents, photos) to your device's email address (name@kindle.com, for example), and that does cost, charged to your bookstore account credit card.

Both stores have the usual library of books. I haven't explored what's available on B&N yet, but I discovered a slew of free classics on Amazon. Free! No charge at all. I've already downloaded 37 books - some Twain, Poe, Austen, Flaubert, Eliot, Christie, Wilde, and so on.

I've also purchased one book from each store, and that was pretty easy.

So, assuming B&N has some free books too, they're pretty equal there.

[Flash! Later edit - I went looking for free books on B&N. There are a bunch, but they are all in other languages, or things like "The history of the village of Rothugh", by the committee to promote Rothugh, ya' know? The same classics that are free at Amazon are about $1.99 at B&N. However, keep in mind that I haven't checked out the transcription quality of the free Amazon stuff yet.

The B&N website is a bit awkward to navigate. Like, there's a few "free books" links, but one gets you a 1500+ list of untranslated titles that you can't sort and have to scroll through 100 at a time, a second gets a list of books in English, at least, but they're all cheap bodice-rippers or sound rather dirty, and a third gets books selling for $7-8 (Free?), and another gets what they call "samples" - which appears to be an excerpt.

So, so far, the Kindle is ahead here, too, in website usability and really free books worth having.]

Reading:

You can't read either of them in the dark, but you can't read paper books in the dark, either, so that doesn't bother me.

I've read both in the glider on the front porch in full sun, with no great difficulty. No glare.

Both allow you to change the print size and font. I'm fine with the defaults.

General:

There is one problem, and I consider it a big problem. We know I like bargains. I'm used to buying hardcovers in the remainder bins in bookstores, and at yard sales, and at library sales of donated books, or getting them free from friends who have read them and are passing them on.

Other than the free classics, there will be no bargains in e-books. (They do both have a "lend" function, but you can lend a particular book only once, and for a limited time.) You have to pay their price, and I doubt there will be any "stock reduction" sales. No need.

On the other hand, the writers will do better. They get paid full contractual price for (almost) every reader.

Conclusion:

Both devices are pretty much the same in any area I haven't mentioned. The Nook is a tad smaller in height and width, but it's thicker. Weight is about the same, as is screen size. Battery charges pretty quickly in both, and seems to last a satisfyingly long time.

Right now I prefer the Kindle. I find it more comfortable to use - with my long nails, tender thumb pads, and preference for buttons over touchpads.
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3270 My watermelon exploded!

Sunday, May 29, 2011

“[Marriage is] about being together some of the time and apart some of the time.
About entering and leaving together.
About being free to follow your own tastes
yet always conscious that there is a seat saved for you beside the other.”
-- Terry Bisson, The Edge of the Universe -

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...well, I think it would have exploded if it had gotten warm.

I love watermelon. A few days ago I bought a very small round one, and put it on the kitchen counter. It was uncut, the refrigerator is too small, and you see them sitting in bins in the grocery store for a few days, right? So it never occurred to me to put it in the refrigerator.

It was ok this morning. This evening I glanced over and noticed that it looked ... deflated. It was flat on the bottom, sinking into the counter exactly like a leaking soccer ball.

I touched it, and it was empty-squishy-feeling. I scooped it up and ran for the sink, just in time for it to literally fall apart in my hands.

What you see in the photo is what happened when it landed in the sink. I didn't scrape it out or anything. There was a little "meat" in it, but not enough to so much as block the drain. It was mostly water.

I'd read a story about Chinese farmers who were losing their watermelon crops - that the melons were exploding in the fields because they'd had a very wet spring and the melons contained a higher ratio of water to fiber, and when they got warm they blew apart.

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Friday morning very early I drove 1.5 hours to Harriman, NY, to get Hal inspected. He's one year old this month. I'm not ready to change the registrations yet because Suzy is still in NY and that just makes things too complicated.

He passed inspection, but I got a severe shock. Both driver's side tires have bubbles in their sidewalls. Probably from potholes. PLUS both driver's side wheels are bent. They'll need to be replaced.

Hal's tires are $417 EACH! I have no idea how much the wheels cost. Note - the guy didn't say "rims", he said "wheels".

The tires are not dangerous, but they'll eventually go flat, and they can't be repaired. They're so expensive because they're "drive flat" tires. Once the sensor says it's flat, I can drive something like 50 miles - at a lower speed - then it needs to be fixed or replaced. Well, that's the dealer's definition of "drive flat", anyway. Given that this makes three bubbled tires in four months, I think it means "drive them and they go flat". And honest, since the big pothole that blew the first one, I've been very careful NOT to hit potholes, even to avoiding the north section of route 35, and the back entrance to the post office.

Sigh. I was just beginning to get control of the finances, too.

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The worst part of that diagnosis was that Fred was sitting outside with a flat tire, passenger side rear (another valve stem shot, that's the fifth of Hal's five tires in the past five months), and a holiday weekend is coming, and Daughter and Hercules are away until Monday, and now I hear Hal could go flat any minute, which would leave me stranded.

Neighbor George helped me put the spare on Fred this afternoon. (Well, he actually did it all.) The big problem with Fred is that his floor and rear axle are dropped 10 inches for wheelchair access, so an ordinary jack won't fit under him, and NO jack will fit under when a tire is completely flat. George had a compressor and pumped up the flat enough to get a special jack in there, and got it done.

George is 72 or 73, not in the best of health, and it was 88 degrees and sunny. He was bright red and sweating up a storm, lying on hot blacktop poking around under Fred, but he wouldn't be deterred. I was very worried.

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Yesterday and today I did some yard work (in bits and pieces. I stopped every time I saw a trace of blood in the urine. Since I piddle about every 20 minutes (I've GOT to get this stent out!) it was easy to keep track of.)

Today my (new, replacement) gardenia bloomed. I took this picture before the blossom was completely open. There are two other swelling buds, but, if it goes like every other gardenia I've ever tried to keep, that simply means it will die next week.

Sigh.

3269 Aaaaargh!

Sunday, May 29, 2011

“Bad news stops you for a while, then you move on. Hope is paralyzing.”
-- A line on “Criminal Minds“, 09/09/09 episode --

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This is today's Dilbert. It struck a chord with me, and not in a good way. That guy on the right, Asok, I think? That was me in The Company. I got so sick and tired of other people getting awards for things I did.

3268 Orb of Madness

Friday, May 27, 2011

“You have to expect as much from yourself as you do for yourself.”
-- Chris Darden's Nanny --

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This video was on CuteOverload.com a few days ago, under the title ""Reginald Locates the Orb of Madness".

I loved it.


[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MqHN-4okZ4&feature=player_embedded]
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3267 The Nugget

Thursday, May 26, 2011

“Women like their men occasionally childlike, but never childish.”
-- Silk --

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3266 Falling Apart

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

"We sense that life is a dark comedy and maybe we can live with that.
However, because the whole thing is written for the entertainment of the gods,
too many of the jokes go right over our heads."
-- Dean Koontz, Mr. Murder --

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(Click on the photos to see them without interference.)

Photos from Joplin and Minneapolis, from Boston.com:
Full set at http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2011/05/deadly_tornados_strike_again.html.

Photos of the latest volcano in Iceland, from Boston.com:
Full set at http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2011/05/another_icelandic_eruption_gri.html.

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I get annoyed at people who go on and on about how there are so many "more" and "bigger" natural disasters "these days", and how that's "proof" of whatever their pet theory is.

There aren't more tornadoes, hurricaines, cyclones, earthquakes, droughts, tsunamis, floods, mudslides, anything, really, not in the long view. (Maybe more and larger forest fires in the western US, but that has a lot more to do with forestry management policies than anything natural.)

It just seems like there's more, but only because we hear more about them now. Some years there are more than others, but that's always been true. The human impact is higher now, but that's because there's more people, not because the event is worse. For example, tornadoes that used to tear through prairies with little notice, now, following the same path, tear through suburbs.

Nature (or God) isn't out to get us. Humans are out to get Nature.
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3265 Meetup mess up

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Epitaph: This is merely a temporary setback.

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I was supposed to see the new 3-D Johnny Depp Pirates movie this evening with a Meetup group.

I'm very annoyed because the Meetup was canceled, and nobody notified me! Like nobody has to plan their day?

Just as well. I've got a lot to do, and I agreed to babysit Nugget this afternoon while Daughter does some shopping.
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3264 Moving forward, but slowly

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

“The deeper insanity becomes, the more consistent it becomes,
until it wraps around and looks like sanity.”
-- Silk, August 9, 2008 --

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It was a beautiful day today, sunny and warm with a gentle breeze, the first nice day in the past week and a half. And I spent most of the best part of the day, from 10:30 am until almost 4 pm, in the doctor's office or the hospital.

I admit I was worried when the doctor, to all appearances, was in no hurry to look at my scans, and then once he did look at them he wanted to see me immediately. That's almost never a good sign.

Last night I ran through all the bad scenarios, what he could say, end-stage renal failure, kidney cancer, bladder cancer, etc. etc., and pretty much came to terms with it all.

When I got there, the nurse put me in an examining room, and then later the doctor stuck his head in the door and asked me to come to his office. You know, with the big desk, and the two chairs in front, and the box of tissues on the corner. Another bad sign.

That made his news a relief. The most recent scans do not confirm either the first set which implied one collection chamber and one ureter on the left, or the second scan which says two collection chambers and two ureters. This latest set says two collection chambers, with the stent in the upper, and the obstructing stone and a few smaller ones in the lower, but neither the x-ray (IVP) nor CT confirm a second ureter, because I've got really good kidney function apparently, and the upper chamber cleared the contrast solution so quickly that it never even reached the second chamber or ureter (which is blocked anyway, remember?). So we still don't know exactly what we've got in there. But at least it is pretty clear where the stone is.

So we're going to smash the stone(s).

Not this week, because of the holiday coming up, but probably the end of next week. The procedure is Extracorporeal Shock Wave Lithotripsy (ESWL), described here: http://www.healtheast.org/st-joes/programs-services/kidney-stone/treating-stones/shock-wave-lithotripsy-eswl.html.

I told him how the stent is now causing bleeding after physical activity, it's irritating the bladder, and how I can feel it poking and it is getting worse, to the point where the seat belt hurts, and the urinary urgency is getting worse, so will we be removing the stent at the same time? He said no, because we're not sure where and how the second chamber drains, and the worst case is only one ureter, and some piece of the smashed stone gets stuck in it, blocking the entire left kidney. So no, the stent stays until we know what's going on.

Crap. I can lessen the bleeding and poking and irritation by avoiding physical activity. No lifting, raking, mowing, walking far, dancing, driving long distances, etc. etc. etc., anything that makes the stent move. Crap crap crap. I want this damn thing OUT! NOW!

So when I got home I read up a bit on ESWL. Two possible negative consequences are damage to the pancreas leading to diabetes, and damage to the capillaries in the kidney, leading to renal failure. The pancreas thing is unlikely because we're working only on the left kidney. The capillary thing worries me a little. I have fragile capillaries. I'll have to tell him about that. However, my stone isn't very big, so it (I hope) won't require much to break it up, and it's localized, and my clotting abilities are ok, so maybe that will be ok.

[My theory of what's in there is different from his, I think. I do think there's a second ureter, which the larger stone is blocking, because there are also a few much smaller stones in that chamber which, if that chamber connects with the chamber with the stent, seems to me that I should have passed those stones by now through the stent. A few other details argue for the second ureter joining the first somewhere north of the bladder. So the stent could actually CAUSE the moving stones to get jammed at the joining point. But at least then the second ureter would show up on a contrast x-ray for the length that it's open, and the blockade could be eased by pulling the stent. So I'm not going to argue with him.]

I just want this DONE!

After I left his office I went to the hospital to pick up my personal copies of the scan and x-ray done elsewhere a few weeks ago, that they had asked for for comparison, and to get copies of the recent scan and x-rays with contrast. There were at least three misunderstandings. It was three and a half hours before they managed to get it all together. About every 40 minutes or so they'd bring out part of it, and I'd have to ask again for the rest. And then wait. (At one point they actually insisted that I had NOT had the CT scan.)

When I first arrived at the hospital, at about noonish, as I was putting the top up on Hal, I got a call from Piper. We had a lot to talk about, and about 20 minutes in I mentioned that I had a bone to pick with The Angel, and told Piper about the IRS and NYS letters. Piper said he was worried about The Angel. He's had some kind of serious medical problem for the past few weeks or months, and Piper had called him twice yesterday and again this morning, "...and he always returns my calls immediately", but he hadn't heard from him. Piper was afraid The Angel was in the hospital, and if so, it was bad because otherwise The Angel would have contacted him.

Piper said if he hadn't heard from The Angel by this evening, he'd call his parents. He'll let me know.

So. Onward. Fred's tire is still flat. Sigh.
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3263 Snapper

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

The worst time to have a heart attack is during a game of Charades.
-- Demetri Martin --

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Can't post comments to blogger blogs today. Getting error messages. So, to RockyCat - "Coincidence! I found one in my back yard this morning (photo to follow in blog). They're out now looking for places to lay eggs."

And here's the subject of my comment:
Snapping turtle in my back yard this morning. Slightly larger than a dinner plate. Her throat is thick, but her actual head and eyes are tiny.

She'd dug several holes in the grass for laying eggs, but hadn't filled any of them in. This hole (following photo) was the closest to her. It's not in focus because I was afraid to get too close or stand there very long. There are some brown round things in the hole, but I'm not convinced they are eggs. They seem too small. But unless a very brave rabbit ran up and pooped in the snapper's nest, I don't know what else they could be.
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3262 I am overwhelmed.

Monday, May 23, 2011

People who are easily annoyed are more annoying than the people who annoy them.

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I am feeling very beaten down.

I spent much of Saturday on my knees with pruning shears cutting down the thicket of Japanese knotweed taking over the back yard. There was nothing there but grass when the snow melted. Now it's already four feet tall. It's next to impossible to get rid of. The websites say stuff like getting a hypodermic needle and injecting weed killer into the stems - for years! And then maybe it'll die.

Saturday night, I had a lot of blood in my urine again. Apparently any kind of physical activity causes a problem. Sunday morning the first urine was dark brownish, but it quickly went to the usual pale yellow. This morning it was brownish again, and then alternated most of today between pale yellow, and the color of pink iced tea. I'm hoping it's the useless misplaced stent tearing up my bladder, not something more nasty going on.

The urologist has had my contrast x-rays and CT scan since Monday of last week, and hadn't even LOOKED at them as of Friday! I was so angry that over the weekend I researched another urologist. I figured if the current one didn't have something to say by mid-afternoon today, I was going to make an appointment with the only other in-network urologist within 15 miles who has a local hospital affiliation.

Well, I guess he looked at them this morning, because his office called just after lunch and asked if I could come in tomorrow morning. So now I'm a little worried. First there's no rush, then there's a rush?

And, the urinary urgency is getting worse. Like, oh gee, maybe my bladder is irritated. By a useless stent. Which is in the wrong place. Thank you.

In Saturday's mail I got a letter from the IRS. They think I owe more, want their money immediately, and are assessing a penalty.

In today's mail, I got a letter from the state of NY. Apparently The Angel didn't file my business sales tax return for 2010. (I've made no sales and have filed zero-dollar returns for years now.) They want their money immediately and are assessing a penalty.

Yesterday I figured it was about time to force the builder to fix the crappy stuff, like the bedroom windows that won't open. NJ has a new-construction warranty that builders have to honor. It's one year on everything, two years on structural defects, and three years on dangerous stuff. It's supposed to start from the closing date. So I dug the booklet out of the file to find out what the process is. Surprise. The starting date on the warranty is 6/30/10, which means it expires for the non-structural stuff next month! Um...I didn't close on the house until 10/13/10. I'm getting screwed out of four months of the warranty?

Uh uh. Hell no.

I fired off an email to my attorney this morning. He said to write a certified letter to the builder reminding him that he has to change the date, and listing what I want fixed. And copy my attorney on it.

Sigh.

Then I remembered that Hal needs a state inspection by the end of the month. I haven't changed registration on the three vehicles yet because two are here and one is still at the old house, and that makes things very complicated. (Also the titles are still at the old house.) I made an appointment for Friday morning with the nearest BMW dealership in NY, one hour 35 minutes up the road.

I need to pick up copies of my records and films from the White Plains hospital. I need to actually go there, because there are some things I want that I don't know what the technical words for them might be, and back and forth by phone or mail (no email) would be a pain.

And then this evening, just a half hour ago, I discovered that Fred the van has a flat tire. I know how to change a tire, but -- funniest thing -- because of the dropped floor, when a tire goes flat on Fred, you can't get a regular jack under him to lift him. I guess I'll have to call AAA tomorrow afternoon.

There's just too much pecking at me.

On top of all this, the old house is abandoned up there, probably overrun by mice digging nests in all my upholstered antiques and mattresses and closet contents, I'm losing my possible buyer, and I'M SITTING HERE ON A STOOL WITH NO REAL FURNITURE!!!
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3261 Tornado

Monday, May 23, 2011

I read an ad for a toy that "flies as far as a football field".
I'm wondering, just how far can a football field fly?
-- Silk --

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Those green quotes at the top are random, honest! About once a week or so I set up skeleton draft posts, numbered, with the next seven or so quotes on the list, and then use them in order over the next few days. This quote is apt for today - I think maybe Joplin, Missouri, can tell us how far a football field can fly.

Wow. It looks really bad there. Houses are just heaps. I wonder how many people are trapped in basements under those heaps.

A hospital got hit. A reporter said that patient records from the hospital were found 60 miles away. What about the patients? Where are they now?

It's completely overwhelming.
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3260 Durn squirrels! And cats!

Saturday, May 2011

It's almost always dangerous to be right too soon.
David Gerrold, The Martian Child

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I put some peanuts, in shells, on the porch railing for the squirrels and for Jasper's entertainment. Then I went to the Wawa (I hate that name) to get some Greek yogurt. I was gone maybe 20 minutes.

When I returned, all my potted impatiens had been dug up, and a peanut planted in each pot.

Ok squirrels. No more nuts for you!

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There's a very ballsy black feral cat who visits my back yard and scares the beans out of Jasper when they see each other at the window. Last night Jasper was on the dining room window sill when the black cat visited and startled him.

There was an explosion.

There was a traverse rod on the floor under that window, waiting for curtains to be chosen. You know, the kind with all the cords?

Well, when Jasper exploded from the window sill, he got tangled in the cords somehow, and in his panic he dragged the heavy rod out of the dining room, across the breakfast area floor, knocking over a stool which scared him more. The 7-foot long rod somehow got airborne going over the stool, came down on his food tray 6 feet further on, spilling his food and water all over the floor, and it then jammed in the hall doorway, with one end somehow stuck behind my desk. The other end knocked Roomba off his power base and turned him on, and with a "ta beep ta bah" Roomba took off after Jasper, who tore down the hall and up the stairs, trailing traverse cords the whole way.

The whole thing happened in an instant. All was quiet, and then suddenly three rooms were destroyed. Jasper is now afraid of the dining room. Poor timid little chicken. He did not have a good night.

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I'd been considering befriending and semi-adopting that black cat, but you know, somehow I don't think it would work out.
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3259 The End?

Friday, May 20, 2011

“Those who help those who won't help themselves are stupid.”
-- LaVerne of "Empty Nest" --

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An awful lot of self-satisfied Jesus-centric Christians are going to be very surprised when only Jews are "raptured".
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3258 Unfair

Friday, May 20, 2011

"An opinion should be the result of thought, not a substitute for it."
-- Jef Mallett --

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If someone wrecks, totals, your car, civil court will award you the "Blue Book" value of the car. However, the value awarded is not what it would cost you to replace the car - the dealer value - which in the book includes the "costs of business". You get the private party sale value, which is significantly less.

So, if the guy wrecks your car, he has to give you $13,000, and then you have to go shopping, dealing, and pay a used car dealer $18,000 for the exact same car.

That doesn't seem fair.

I think the bad guy should be required to do the shopping, the dealing, and present you with a paid-for replacement car, which meets your mechanic's approval.
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3257 Frustration

Friday, May 20, 2011

PMS - the time just before a woman's menstrual period when she acts like a man.

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It's now 4 pm. When I called the urologist's office yesterday afternoon, the receptionist said that he was back, but had not yet looked at my reports. He'd call me when he did. He hasn't called yet. I'm getting angry.

Yeah, I know many of the people sitting in his waiting room have bladder cancer, end-stage kidney failure, prostate cancer, things more serious than my miserable stones. BUT! It's serious and important to me!

I can't go anywhere, like up to the old house, because the stent keeps the valve between the kidney and the bladder open, so the kidney keeps dumping into the bladder and causes urinary urgency. When I get the first slight hint that I have to go, I have to go immediately! Like within five seconds. It's exactly ten steps from the computer to the downstairs bathroom, and when I'm wearing the jeans with the side buttons and zipper, I almost don't make it. So if I know I'm going to be away from a bathroom, I can't drink anything. The drive north is too far. I can't get repeatedly that dehydrated while I have the stones.

I'm worried that the useless stent is rubbing and messing up my bladder.

I'm worried that the blocked collection chamber is damaging my left kidney. The kidney is almost unique in the body in that it's the only organ that can't heal. Any damage is permanent, does not get better, ever. In fact, any damage gets worse over time. It's like the kidney is made of dominoes.

I want this fixed NOW!

I'd change doctors, except that being a new patient, I know it will take at least two weeks, probably more, to get an appointment with another.

I am extremely frustrated.

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I heard on TV yesterday that they're seeing an increase in skin cancer on the fingers, a very unusual place, and have pretty much identified it as due to nail polish dryers that use UV light. (I have to wonder about that. Why UV? Wouldn't infra red light be the logical choice for drying nail polish?)

Anyway, today on TV Dr. Oz was pushing teeth whitening systems using UV light. You stick the darn light in your mouth! Ok. How long before they start seeing an increase in mouth cancers? And how long will it take them to figure out why?
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3256 Training a dog at the end of the world

Thursday, May 19, 2011

"There are no whole truths; all truths are half-truths.
It is trying to treat them as whole truths that plays the devil."
-- Alfred North Whitehead --

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I overheard two (both male) neighbors talking on the street this morning. One joked that there was no point in mowing the lawn because "the world is going to end on Saturday".

It turned out neither of them had any idea what it meant, what the actual prediction is. They wondered if it was a meteor headed for earth, or earthquakes and tsunamis, or the sun was going to explode, and so on. One of them did comment that no, it's not this Saturday, it's December 21. The other said he'd heard October something.

Sigh.

They did express a concern that I share - that some fools will figure that since "the world is ending", it doesn't matter what they do, so they'll shoot up their workplace, or rob banks, or whatever.

They didn't mention my major concern - that since it's a "Christian" concept, a few nuclear bombs in Christian areas would be appropriate.

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One of those neighbors was walking his dog, a happy young pit bull (yeah, it's that kind of neighborhood), and he was trying to "train" the dog.

I felt so sorry for the dog.

One of the basics of dog training is that you use the dog's name before every command, to get his attention and alert him that a command is coming, use a short distinct word for commands, like "sit", "stay", "come" (or "here"), "heel", and show the dog what you want, rewarding him when he does it.

This guy had the dog on a long spooled leash, letting him run out, and then was yelling "Come here!", "Get over here", "Stop", "Calm down!", without showing the dog what he wanted. Naturally, the dog looked at him, wagged his tail, and kept going, and the guy got mad.

I guess he doesn't understand that dogs don't parse sentences.
.

3255 Thoughts on stones and emotional reactions.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

"The more I study religions the more I am convinced that man never worshiped anything but himself."
-- Sir Richard Francis Burton --

---------------------------------------------------------

Don't know that I agree with the green quote above, but it is interesting, especially coming from such an accomplished and experienced man. Worth thinking about, anyway.

--------------------------------

The hospital folks told me that the doctor would have the results of last Friday's tests on Monday, and I was anxious to find out what happens next. I called the doctor's office, and surprise, he's "out of the office until Thursday". Great. "The reports are on his desk, and he'll look at them Thursday."

So I'll wait until mid-afternoon today, and if he hasn't called by then, I'll call him.

-------------------------------

On the trembling Friday, after the IV trauma: There was another instance of the same kind of trembling, two years ago, at about this time of year. I received an email that I thought was from a close friend. Turns out it was a fake id made to look like it came from the friend. I never did find out who sent it, but perhaps they knew me well enough to know that I probably wouldn't open an email, and absolutely wouldn't follow a link in an email, unless I knew and trusted the sender.

Anyway, I opened it, followed the link in it, and got a huge emotional shock. It was so bad I couldn't stop shaking for almost an hour. My head shook so badly my eyes couldn't focus. Arms and hands couldn't grip. Legs couldn't support me. I think I have an idea of what the later stages of Parkinson's might feel like. It scared me because I couldn't control it, and I was afraid something had broken in my nervous system and maybe it would never stop, that maybe I'd had some kind of stroke. Or something. At least fear of what was happening to my body took my mind off the message I'd just received and gave me time to absorb it.

That's what happened to me after the IV trauma Friday. The same kind of trembling. So I think maybe the nurse was correct, that it wasn't the contrast, or the cold in the room, but an emotional reaction. The trembling two years ago had the same effect on my body, too, in that it completely wiped me out. It took me a few days to physically recover then, too.

-------------------------------------

I had vowed two weeks ago that phlebotomists would henceforth listen to me, that they would try my hand before the arm, or I would walk out. I have since discovered that all along I had been using the wrong words - that talking mainly about the pain, the fire, the branding iron, doesn't work. That just gets "Oh, you won't feel this", especially from those who think they're experts, followed by the pain, the fire, the branding iron, and "Oh, you must have a lot of nerves there". Yeah, that's what I said.

What DOES work is the words "thin walls, collapse, blowout", all of which are also true. They actually listen to and think about that.

And now I have another vow. If I ever have to have anything involving both an IV and dehydration, I will go in and get the IV whatchmacallit installed THE DAY BEFORE!, when I can be fully hydrated. I'll have to talk to someone and find out if that's possible.

--------------------------------

I've been reading up on what causes kidney stones and how to prevent them. It depends on the composition of the stones, but for the most common types it seems like everything I eat is bad. Especially the diet the nutritionist put me on last year, that was working so well for me.

In my darker moments I want to blame the stones on the diet, but I don't really think that was the cause. I think it's that I've had an undiagnosed untreated kidney infection for at least the past year.

Oddly, people who live near large bodies of water and those who drink soft water are also more prone to kidney stones. No reason given, just apparently an observation, a statistical correlation. I have moved from high ground in the woods, a half mile from a river, with well water measuring 13 on a 0-15 scale of hardness, to low ground a half block from a saltwater bay, with city water so soft that I can't taste it and drying drops leave no mark. Hmmmm.

--------------------------------

I've got a new peeve.

I've been reading/hearing more and more often "one IN the same".

That makes no sense.

It's "one AND the same".

Another example of people not thinking about what they're saying.

Sheesh.

3254 Capitalism

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

"An intellectual is a person who's found one thing that's more interesting than sex."
-- Aldus Huxley (alleged) --

----------------------------------------------------

The only people who think capitalism is the best system ever are those who directly benefit from it. (...not counting people who don't think for themselves and believe what they're told.)

Unfortunately, nothing else seems to work any better.

The advantage of capitalism is that the people who benefit from it have, as a result of that benefit, the power to protect it, expand it, and keep it going.

The disadvantage, which we are feeling now, is that capitalists move to places where workers are oppressed and do not have the concessions American workers have, and where environmental restrictions do not exist.

There's no loyalty in capitalism, by definition.
.

3253 Perp Walk

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

"You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do."
-- Henry Ford --

---------------------------------------------------

From the Wall Street Journal law blog:

[T]here was also outrage about the photos of Mr. Strauss-Kahn cuffed in custody. While the so-called perp walk is a New York police tradition, allowing the press to get photographs of a suspect, a 2000 law in France tries to reinforce the principle of the presumption of innocence by criminalizing the publication of photos of an identifiable person in handcuffs who has not yet been convicted. [...emphasis mine...]

The former French justice minister whose name is on the law, Elisabeth Guigou, said she found the photos of Mr. Strauss-Kahn in cuffs indicative of “a brutality, a violence, of an incredible cruelty, and I’m happy that we don’t have the same judiciary system.”

I've written about how I think the French judicial system is much more sensible and fair than that of the US, in that assumption of innocence is ingrained and honored, and the purpose of a trial is to get to the truth, not to see who has the better lawyer.

I also think it's disgusting the way suspects are treated here. If the suspect is at all "famous", the police make sure there are reporters and cameras there for the arrest, they handcuff everyone in front of coworkers, family, whomever even if they are fully cooperative and unarmed, and then they are convicted in the media, regardless of the outcome of any investigation.

Why do they feel people have to be publicly embarrassed regardless of guilt? It must be because protestations to the contrary, we really do have a presumption of guilt before trial.
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3252 Sexy thoughts

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

If you’re standing with one foot in the past, and one foot in the future, you’re pissing on today.
-- Old Italian saying --

-----------------------------------------------------

Raising the debt ceiling thing. Look it up. If it's not raised, the US will default on obligations for the first time in history. A doomsday scenario.

There may be valid reasons for not raising it, but what pisses me off is that the Obama-haters are gleefully mentally masturbating to the thought of the consequences - completely forgetting who and what got us to this point. The more stupid of them would ensure it happens for that reason alone.
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3251 Photos from Libya

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

I’m hoping my ship comes in before my dock rots.

-----------------------------------------

This week's Big Picture set from Boston.com is from Libya.
(Click photo to enlarge. Doesn't he have a wonderful face?)

Most of the photos are more mundane than this one, but they give a good feel for life during rebellion. I chose this particular photo because I had a visceral reaction to that guy. Ye olde tummy-quiver. HOTW-worthy.
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3250 Mystery Pork

Monday, May 16, 2011

“Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.”
-- Napoleon Bonaparte --

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I had a scare yesterday, Sunday. I went to the refrigerator yesterday morning for milk for my cereal, and found a storage container containing pork stuffed with bread, apples, celery, and raisins.

I recognized the storage container as the same set my daughter has, but I swear I had no idea where this one came from, or how long it had been there! Daughter and I had talked about stuffed beef rolls and stuffed pork chops a few days ago, recipies she'd remembered me making when she was small, and she'd loved them and wanted to know how to make them. I assumed this had come from her, because of the container, but I swear I don't recall her having given it to me. I had considered making stuffed chops myself and taking some over to her, but I didn't remember actually doing it.

I was floored. I know my memory is sometimes faulty, and for the past two weeks I've suspected the anesthesiologist in White Plains had given me Versed or something in the same family in spite of my having told him it causes me severe memory problems, because little things have been slipping the past few weeks, like anything that takes less than a few seconds I might not remember, but this is BIG! Whether I made it or Daughter gave it to me, it would have taken more than a few seconds, and I don't remember it!

It really scared me. I was afraid to mention it to Daughter, to ask, because she seems to think I'm pretty decrepit already.

Sunday afternoon she asked if I'd found the pork, and if I liked it. Found? Um, yeah, but how did it get there?

Mystery solved.

After my interrupted sleep Thursday night, utter dehydration, and severe IV trauma Friday followed by almost an hour of intense trembling (which is major muscle exercise!), I was completely wrung out on Saturday. I was cold and tired, and at about 7 pm I went upstairs and crawled into bed, still dressed. I just wanted to get warm in my soft fluffy nest, and maybe nap a little.

I fell asleep over a crossword puzzle and woke up at 3:30 am. Went downstairs, was surprised to find that the kitchen TV, lights, and computer were off (I had assumed I'd left them on), went outside for a cigarette, and then went back to bed. And fell asleep immediately again.

That's what I know.

What I didn't know:

Daughter had brought the pork over at 7:30 pm-ish Saturday. She rang the doorbell twice. When she got no answer, she tried the door. It was unlocked, so she came in. She knew I had to be home because of the unlocked door, my purse on the counter, Hal in the garage, and Fred in the driveway. She called me several times. She put the pork in the refrigerator, then went upstairs to look for me.

She found me in the bed with the light on, the covers up to my ears (so she didn't know I was fully dressed) and my face planted on the open crossword puzzle book. She said "Mommy? Are you ok?" a few times, but I was obviously comfortably asleep. She didn't want to startle me by touching me. So she went back to the kitchen, turned everything off, and left, locking the door behind her.

I can't believe I didn't hear the doorbell and didn't wake when she called or spoke to me. Seriously. That almost scares me. But I guess I really was completely worn out.

And I'm not quite as crazy as I was afraid I might be.

(The pork, once I knew it hadn't been sitting there for weeks, was delicious.)
.

3249 I don't understand - foreclosure

Monday, May 16, 2011

“We need our heroes, but soon there will be no more. Our world will not grow men with the credentials necessary to survive scrutiny.”
-- Jerald Bevens, in a letter to Newsweek --

--------------------------------------------------------------------

See this: http://www.trulia.com/foreclosure/3030347024--Troester-St-Detroit-MI-48205. It's a foreclosed house in Detroit, owned now by the bank, and for sale for $150. It's a nice-looking house, it's been cared for. One assumes that the prior owners were unable to pay the mortgage.

In cases like this, why don't the original owners buy it back for $150? Like I said, the house seems to have been cared for. I understand the concept of "Don't have any money", but $150? Somebody somewhere should be able to come up with a $150 loan.

But you never hear of anyone defaulting and then buying back their home for a song. It just doesn't seem to happen. They have to live somewhere, and renting somewhere else is bound to be more expensive than buying back the house for a one-time $150 payment, closing costs, and the ongoing insurance and taxes - but no more mortgage!

I don't understand.

About the only thing I can figure is that the original owner lost a job, and just dropped the house and moved away.
.

3248 Buying some art.

Sunday, May 15, 2011

There is enough for everyone's need, but not enough for everyone's greed.
-- Gandhi --

---------------------------------------------------------

I decided this morning that I wanted to buy a print of Vermeer's "Girl Reading a Letter by an Open Window", one of my favorite paintings. I ended up at allposters.com, where they have a huge selection of art prints in various sizes, which you can order bare, or with your choice of frames and matting. I ended up also ordering Andrew Wyeth's "Master Bedroom" and "Wind from the Sea".

What I found very interesting is that there are multiple different web sites where you can purchase art prints, and although they all have different URLs, they all have the exact same page layout, choice of sizes, matting, frames, and prices, and they're all running the same 20% off sale (ending tomorrow, by the way).

Hmmmm....
.

3247 Blogger was down

Friday, May 13, 2011

Amy Tan, The Hundred Secret Senses: When there is great suffering, ... everyone suffers the same. But when there is peace, no one wants to be the same. The rich no longer share. The less rich envy and steal. ... [E]veryone is seeking luxuries, pleasures....

------------------------------------------------

For those who do not themselves use Blogger, there were no posts by anyone from Wednesday sometime through late yesterday sometime. Blogger was down. Some posts were even lost. Temporarily, they claim, but one never knows.... You could get in to read blogs, but no editing or posting was happening.
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3246 Friday the Thirteenth has vampires

Friday, May 13, 2011

We can't afford to shop at any store that has a philosophy.
-- Marge Simpson --

----------------------------------------------------------

I wasn't too happy that the hospital scheduled my test for today. Friday the thirteenth? The doctor's office (I thought) said it was a CT scan with contrast. I had to go by that because I couldn't read the doctor's handwriting. Actually, it was an IVP (x-rays with contrast [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intravenous_pyelogram]). Odd, because IVP is becoming obsolete. CT scans are more detailed. Sigh.

So, at 4 pm yesterday I drank 10 oz of magnesium citrate, which is supposed to clean out the bowel. That wasn't too bad, because there wasn't much in there. But I did lose a lot of fluid, right up until about 8 am. And I wasn't allowed to eat or drink anything after midnight. Not even water. By 9 am, even when my hands were hanging straight down, there were no veins visible. And I have thin skin.

Right. Let's take a lady who is hard to stick anyway, who has rolling thin-walled veins that blow out and shut down easily, with masses of nerves around them, thoroughly dehydrate her, then try to find a vein for an IV that will be handling a thick contrast solution, in a freezing cold room.
[-----------------phone just rang. They want me to come back for a CT scan while the contrast is still in there. Oh joy. Tell ya why later-------------------]

The x-ray stuff wasn't bad at all. One could even fall asleep, except for the frequent commands to hold your breath. Then it was time for the contrast. They brought in a guy who "does all the contrast IVs, he's done it all". I told him about the burning nerve pain, the rolling, the blowing out, the going flat, the spasms, and that the hand works better.

He blew out a vein in the right hand. Then he blew out a vein in the left arm. Then he simply TOUCHED a spot on my left arm with his FINGER, and the spot turned red and swelled up. He said he wasn't allowed to try more, and would have to call a nurse. The nurse blew out a vein in the left hand, then one in the left forearm, then one in the right hand. And every single one of them hurt like fire. The nurse called a doctor. I don't know what kind of doctor he was, but he examined my hands and arms with a tourniquet here and there and everywhere, and settled on a spot on the back of my right forearm, an inch north of bump of the wristbone. It hurt like hell, but it didn't blow out. (I actually said "Oh shit! Don't stop! Keep going! Oh shit!", and I don't say that word in public. When I was finally allowed to stand at the end, I discovered that my ears had filled with tears, that then ran down my neck.)

After the contrast is in, they usually remove the IV then. I asked them to leave it in until we were absolutely sure we were all done, just in case. Like maybe if I reacted to the dye or something. Everyone agreed that was a very good idea.

They said the contrast would feel warm as it spread, but it felt cold to me. I started trembling, and it got so bad I was shaking violently from head to toe. It didn't affect the x-rays, though, because when they said to hold my breath, for those few seconds the trembling stopped. I asked if the trembling was from the contrast, and they said probably not, but maybe. More likely it was that the room was so cold, so they covered me in two blankets. When it didn't stop, they decided it was most likely a nervous reaction to the IV trauma I'd just gone through.

Two and a half hours and we were done. The radiologist asked if I could get copies of the actual films from my last CT and x-rays (two weeks ago, without contrast) so he could compare. So I drove to the other place, and sat in their waiting room for 45 minutes while they something-or-othered, got the films and a copy of the CD, and took them back to the hospital. (Yeah, I want them back.)

I've been drinking a lot of water now to flush the contrast solution out of my system.

At 5:07 pm (I'd been told the radiologist went home at 5 pm), I got a call from the hospital. The radiologist would like me to come back in immediately for a CT scan, before the contrast washes out. Why? Because on the IVP he can't see the second ureter coming out of the left kidney, that the prior CT and x-rays say is there. The two ureters join somewhere before the bladder (they think) and they need to know where.

Duh. I could have told them that. The big stone is blocking that ureter, so the contrast never entered that ureter, and therefore it doesn't show.

You know what that means? The IVP was useless. The IV was unnecessary. And if that's what they were looking for, where the ureters joined, anyone with half a brain should have known that they wouldn't have found out this way.

I went back. The CT was quick and painless.

I am pissed.

(Um, literally pissed, actually. I've been drinking enormous quantities of water since about 1 pm to flush the contrast. Normally, if I drink 8 oz of water, within 20 minutes I piddle almost 8 oz of water. I was so dehydrated that I drank 40 oz of water before piddling, and then it was only about 6 oz. It's getting better now. I wish I had weighed me this morning. Then I'd know exactly how dry I was.)

I am also left with a nagging thought. I have to flush out all the contrast, becuse if it's left in the urinary tract, it can contribute to kidney failure. What about that blocked collection chamber? How would it get flushed out of there?

Oh, and since this last CT was not ordered by my doctor, will my insurance pay for it?
.

3245 Stray Stone?

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

We ought to keep the rich as rich as possible, because
nobody poor was ever able to afford to give anybody else a job.
-- Lewis Grizzard --

-------------------------------------------------

You hear that green quote above all the time, mostly from rich people, and from poor people who have been duped. I'm not sure I agree with it. There is such a thing as being so rich that the only jobs you have to offer are menial minimal-income jobs. Petting and pampering. The rich folks that offer real living-wage jobs are those who still have to scramble to support their lifestyle.

If we make sure there ARE no poor, then everyone can buy stuff, and that's what keeps everyone employed.

Sheesh. I sound socialist, but that's not such a bad thing, actually.

-------------------------------

After Sunday's post I went for a walk with Daughter, Hercules, and Nugget. We walked down to the bay, then along the bay until we ran out of pavement, then across some beach (that monster stroller is not fun on sand), to a park (where Hercules and I freaked Daughter out by pretending to give Nugget her first trip down a slide), and then back along some streets. Altogether about 2 miles.

Walking was a bit uncomfortable, because I can feel the stent in the bladder, swinging like a bell clapper. And Saturday evening I had noticed a sort of firm lump under the skin between the clitoris and urethra. I wondered if the stent had moved and was poking. There was no pain, just a slight pressure, like when a tampon is too low. I'm 14 years past menopause, but I still remember that feeling.

Then I took a shower, and went over to the kids' house for dinner, steaks grilled by Hercules.

Something very scary happened in my shower. I piddled before I got in the shower, but I didn't look at it, you know? Sometimes (well, usually, actually), even though I always go before getting into the shower, as soon as the water hits me I piddle a little more.

It was red. Blood. Like Psycho. Swirling down the drain.

It was Sunday. My urologist wasn't in, and not on Monday, either. My first fear was that the stent had poked through the bladder wall, or rubbed a spot raw, or something. If I call anyone, they're going to tell me to go to the ER. But hey, not only is there no pain, but the slight nagging ache I'd had in my right lower back for the past week was gone suddenly! And the firm lump and feeling of pressure were gone, too.

So from then on, when I had to go, I piddled a bit in a glass so I could see what was happening. Later Sunday night there was a bit of pink, but not as much as earlier. Monday morning, it was brown at first, but got lighter and lighter as the day went on. By early evening it was the usual pale yellow.

I think I passed a stone. From the right. Where according to two CT scans and two x-rays, there were NO stones. Which is why I didn't connect the back ache to the right kidney. Ho hum. Par for the course.

Today, Tuesday, I was to call the doctor's office to find out how my kidney function blood test from last Thursday had turned out. It needed to be good in order to have the CT with contrast. I had to leave a message, and the receptionist called back a few hours later to say that it was fine, and I should go ahead and schedule the CT scan. I didn't mention Sunday's blood. I seem to be fine now, and I figure the CT scan should notice if anything's gone flooey. (Yeah, you'd think I'd have learned a lesson by now. They miss a LOT!) I will mention it next time I see him.

Anyway, today I ran a bunch of errands in the morning, then about noonish went with Daughter and Nugget for the two-week OB appointment, then to a wonderful fruit/vegetable/bakery store where we had late lunch/early dinner outside from the deli counter. We got home about 6 pm.

It was funny - Daughter went off the pain meds almost immediately after leaving the hospital, and she's been walking a few miles every day, and taking Nugget everywhere with her, including in the car. Today, the doctor gave her permission to go off the meds, drive, and walk. Snork! If he only knew....

-------------------------------

Ever notice that on CSI and Criminal Minds, whenever the crime involves torturing the victims, it's almost always women who get tortured?
.

3244 Nice day for it

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Jay Kolb, on surveys taken on college campuses: College is not "real world". In fact,
you can't even see it from there.

----------------------------------------------------------

I mowed the lawn this morning, front and sides. I was pleased that the mower started right up.

I do have a bit of a problem with it. It's self-propelled, and seems to have two speeds - zero and "charge!" I have to almost run to keep up with it. I thought if I let up on the propulsion bar a bit, it would slow down, but it doesn't. Charge!

...Which is dangerous because the builder tried to stretch the sod, and left big gaps between the pieces. "Oh, they'll fill in." Yeah, they will, if you fill in between the pieces with dirt! Leaving two inch deep gaps doesn't do it. Grass won't cross that. So I have to be careful not to slip sideways into a gap and sprain my ankle, and at high speed that's difficult. I could go buy some dirt (a whole lot of dirt), but I'm going to cut out sod in front of the porch to put in a flower bed, and I figure I'll fill the holes with pieces of that.

Now I need to go buy a trimmer of some kind. I dislike those string trimmers. I don't know what else is available.

The back yard can't be mowed until I pick up all the stupid gum tree balls. I hit a few with the mower earlier, and yeah, not good. So I am now picking them up with my trusty pooper scooper pan and rake thingy, like over there<---. The pan will hold about a dozen of them. It's pretty easy and works well, but there are so many of them it might take me a few days to get them all.

-------------------------

Spam emails: I am getting marketing emails from every company I've ever bought anything from online. Yeah, ok, I'm an online customer.

But what bugs me is that I always check the box that says "no marketing emails". Always. Always aways. And yet I always get them.

There oughtta be a law. In fact, I think there is....
.

3243 Tired

Saturday, May 7, 2011

I may be wrong, but I am never in doubt.
-- Jay Kolb --

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I went to bed very early last night and got up early (for me) this morning. I dropped off the dead printer at the recycle center, where I spotted some large plastic pots in the plastics bin - so I salvaged them. Went to the bank as soon as it opened and deposited an important check. Then to Home Depot.

The only things on the list for Home Depot were utility knife blades and a watering can. I got them, and a patio tomato plant, a sweet pepper plant, some marigolds, some impatiens, some potting soil, some pot saucers, a soil scoop and a whatchamacallit planting diggery thing. [Much later - Aha! I remembered! It's called a trowel!]

It will probably be next year before I get a real flower bed and veggie garden dug, so I planted everything in pots. I put some marigolds in with the tomato and the pepper plants. They'll look nice and discourage bugs. Bugs don't like marigolds. Marigolds have pyrethrin in them.

I started Roomba downstairs, and got out the Eureka to do the rugs, but figured I should clean the filters first. Man, they were dirty! So I washed the filters and the collection chamber and put them outside in the sun to dry.

Then I emptied the garage and swept it out, and cut up all the cardboard stored in there to take it to recycle on Monday. Then I assembled the steel shelving I had bought for the garage several months ago. It took a mallet and a little swearing. I had to fiddle around with placement of the three units. The shelves are deep, and don't leave a lot of room for the car - and Hal isn't very big. With Hal in the garage, I can't get to the shelves. But I'm willing to move Hal out when I need to, just to get some of the crap that's currently crowded into the laundry room under the stairs out of there and into the garage.

I've gone from a 1750 sq ft basement to a cubby hole under the stairs, and from an oversized 2.5 car garage with attached shed to a one car garage barely wider than a compact car.

I'm learning that some things just don't need storing. I guess.

Oh, I also dragged out the huge heavy metal ladder and changed the light bulb in the garage door opener, so now I don't have to stumble around trying to find the door in the dark when I park Hal. The light goes on when the overhead door is opened or closed, but it seems to have a motion sensor, too. Either that or it's random....and that would explain why the first bulb burned out so soon.

My back is now killing me. I'm tired.
.

3242 Costs of defense; Baby names

Saturday, May 7, 2011

A classic is something that everyone wants to have read, but nobody wants to read.
--Mark Twain --

----------------------------------------------------------------

This is an excellent article on what 9/11 and the resultant security has cost. It's especially exceptional considering the source. I don't usually think of Yahoo as presenting well-researched hard news.

-------------------------------

Well, the baby did get a name before leaving the hospital. Daughter and Hercules wanted to wait until they'd met her before naming her. You know, some idea of her personality or something. Of course I can't tell the name here, but, sigh, it's pretty ordinary, and I don't think it's a family or friend retread. Which is good.

Of course, being over 65, I found something (Get off my lawn!) to be annoyed about. Their delay didn't bother me at all, but the impatience of others was grossly annoying. Not so much their friends, but other family members.

When friends called, they asked how Mommy and baby were doing, and so on. They might ask somewhere in the middle if a name had been chosen, and that was it. Family, however, really pissed me off. It got to where that was the first question they asked. And when told there was no name yet, they pushed! And pushed and pushed. Like it was of absolute vital importance that they know what the baby's name was, immediately!

I don't understand what was so hard about referring to the kid as "Daughter and Hercules' baby". What's so important about a name?

My suspicion was that they weren't so much simply wanting to know what the baby's name was --- they wanted to know who she was named after! So they'd know whether they should be flattered or insulted. That pissed me off.

I was also annoyed that Hercules' mother thrust herself into the naming game. She had no right to push or reject any names. Me, I stood back and said, to every name Daughter and Hercules explored, "Yeah, that's nice/unusual/strong/unique/pretty" as applied. I made no suggestions. I figured it wasn't my place to suggest or disapprove any names.

Hercules's mother wasn't of the same opinion. She and I have similar first names, and she suggested brightly that our name would be appropriate. That's the first time I expressed a definite opinion. I hate my first name, have always hated it, and asked that they please not saddle the kid with it. And I didn't much care if I insulted Hercules' mother. I don't think she should have put that kind of pressure on them anyway - and yeah, it was pressure, unless she's really so stupid as to assume the kids hadn't already considered and rejected that.

I'll admit I don't like her. She never shuts up, she pushes herself in even where she's been told to back off, she's a ditz. She sees signs and omens everywhere, and if she finds out your exact birthdate and time, she'll run your astrological whatchamacallit, and then for the rest of your life she'll be predicting things for you and "helping" you make decisions. Daughter had asked her not to come to the hospital when she was in labor. She did. Daughter didn't want her to know the time of birth. She does now.

When the kids mentioned possible names, she had to know the "meaning" of the name. Like it matters, you fool! One of the early names was "Sojourn", as in "Sojourner Truth". I actually liked it. But she didn't, because it means "a temporary stay", and OMG! That's a bad omen!!! Bad Bad Bad Bad Bad....

I could dislike her for that alone.

Oh, cripes.
.

3241 Pilin' On Hatin' On

Friday, May 6, 2011

Those who think history repeats itself will be forced to relive it.

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I've been stewing over this since Sunday evening's "The Amazing Race". There's a blog that TAR fans go to and comment on as the race progresses. I rarely comment there because I can't watch and type at the same time, but I read the comments during the commercials as the show goes on because sometimes others notice something I don't, and they are sometimes funny.

Sunday night one member of each two-person team had to make a colorful chocolate Travelocity Gnome by painting the insides of a two-part mold with colored chocolate.

Everybody loves the Harlem Globetrotters team. The commenters on the fan blog generally don't like the Goth team. They also aren't very popular with the other teams because they are seen as whiners.

Most of the racers painted parts of the front of the mold first, colors that didn't touch each other, and put that part in the cooler to harden while they started on the back - and then back and forth between the two halves.

The Goth girl painted much more of her front before starting on the back. She had just started on the back, note - a fresh blank back - when the Globetrotter went to the cooler to get his back, which he had earlier partially painted, and he found it gone. Someone had taken his back.

Now, I don't know why, but the other Globetrotter, standing on the sidelines, decided the Goth girl had taken it, and loudly accused her of it. I think it had to be some other team member, someone who had also partially painted the back and confused that of the Globetrotter with his or her own. The Goth girl didn't even get a back out of the cooler! She was painting a fresh blank back!

Now here's what pissed me off. The commenters in the fan blog (all women, not incidentally) piled on and lambasted the Goth girl for taking the Globetrotter's back! Even though they knew it couldn't have been her, they gleefully accused her of stealing and cheating. Nobody defended her. Some very nasty things were said about her, and the commenters reinforced each other.

This is why I prefer not to associate with groups of women. They were castigating the Goth girl not based on facts, but just because they didn't like her. "We don't like her. Let's make up stories we want to believe about her whether they're true or not and then kill her for those lies." I've seen that happen over and over in groups of women, and if you step in and say, "hey that's not true", they'll turn on you, too. Nobody is allowed to appeal to truth and fairness.

Too many people, and for some reason especially women, prefer to believe what they want to believe, in the face of all evidence to the contrary. And if it's about someone whom they don't like or who threatens them, they pile on with glee.

I hate that. I hate hate hate hate hate it.
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3240 Ok. I'm weird.

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent.
-- Isaac Asimov --

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Appointment with the urologist today. Last week I had the blood test, x-rays, and CT scan. Also a urine something-or-other, but the doctor hasn't got the report from that yet, so I assume it was a culture. I expected to get some good news, like that we can break up the stones and then remove the stent.

I didn't get good news, or bad news, but certainly unexpected and very annoying news.

Remember how I said CT and MRI scans are slices, and small things can be missed because they might fall between slices?

The CT scan (and the x-rays, too, which I don't understand) from the White Plains hospital a month ago missed something important.

A normal arrangement looks like this:
Inside the middle of the kidney there's a hollow urine collection area. The urine produced by the kidney collects there and then flows through the ureter to the bladder. At White Plains they told me that I had a large stone blocking the ureter at the top, and a smaller stone blocking the same ureter at the bottom. They removed the bottom stone, and put in a stent (a long hollow tube that goes up through the ureter with one curl at the upper end in the kidney collection hollow, and another curl at the bottom in the bladder) to bypass the larger stone and allow urine to pass and drain. The larger stone could be handled later, after the infection was under control, and then the stent could be removed.

Last Thursday's scans and x-rays say something different.

Look at the kidney on the left side of this sketch:

Two ureters. Turns out I have two ureters on and two separate collection areas in my left kidney. This is not rare, something like 15% of the population has it. Apparently mine is slightly different from the sketch, in that the two ureters must join just above the bladder, and the smaller stone that was removed was therefore blocking both ureters. When that stone was removed, it allowed ONE of the two collection areas to drain. The other was still blocked by the larger stone at the top.

Here comes the annoying part.

They put the stent into the collection area that DOESN'T have a stone. They didn't realize I had a double kidney. The stone is still blocking the OTHER (hitherto unknown) collection area. Translation - the stent isn't doing a damn thing! It's totally useless! I still have the blockage. We don't know why I don't have any pain, and that must be what the x-ray technician noticed last Thursday, and why he asked if I was in pain.

So the urologist wants another CT scan, this one with contrast dye, so he knows exactly what he's got there. But I can't have the contrast dye without first ensuring that my kidney function is good. (They told me in White Plains that my kidney function was good, but that was then, this is now, with another month of blockage.) So I had to have another blood test today, and then call on Tuesday to find out if we can schedule the CT scan.

This time I was very clear with the phlebotomist that my arms were absolutely off limits unless it could be proven to me that the blood absolutely could not come from my hand. This time they listened to me. It took three tries, and I now have a huge purple knot on the back of my right hand, but it was still easier and much less painful.

So, this isn't finished yet. And I don't know when I'll get back to the old house.

This is ridiculous.
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3239 Situational Summary

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Divorce is tortious, tortuous, and torturous.
-- Silk --

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I had the blood draw last week. As usual, I told the phlebotomist about my problem with sticks in the arm, that the hand works better, as usual she blew me off and went for the arm, "Oh, this won't hurt at all", as usual it felt like a branding iron and the nails on my other hand gripped the armrest so hard I punctured the fabric-backed vinyl upholstery. She seemed surprised. That's absolutely the last time I will be ignored. It will never happen again. That is a vow. I'll refuse and walk out if they don't listen to me.

The next day, Friday, I went in for the CT scan and x-rays. The X-ray technician took a several shots, then came out of his little room and asked if I was in pain. I was perfectly relaxed, lying on the machine bed, eyes closed, silent, almost asleep. I said, "No, should I be?" He didn't answer, went back behind his partition and took several more, moving me a little now and then. So now I'm worried. What might he have seen that would prompt him to ask if I was in pain? Why did he take so many more pictures than were necessary?

I hope I'll find out tomorrow at the urologist's appointment. I've had no calls, so I suppose there's nothing too very exciting. Probably just another stone on the right side.

I've got a few things bothering me right now (not the health stuff, that's just annoying) and I have no one I can talk with about it. It's big, family-type things that have been growing for thirty years and coming to a head now. It's a little depressing, because I don't know what to do about it.

I'd really like to talk with The Man, but he's being a bit distant right now. He's got his reasons, but it's still another bothersome thing, but not the biggest.

Another bothersome thing is a cash flow problem. I sold stock from portfolios in my own name, not the investment portfolio Piper manages, to buy this house, and what Piper doesn't seem to realize is that much of my income was dividend checks from that stock. So my income is down by 25%, but I'm paying utilities and taxes on two houses now. I'm not going to starve, but I'm scrambling to pay the bills without selling more stock and cutting my income even more.

I canceled the house phone at the old house. The monthly bill for that phone was less than $30, but I don't need it anymore. So I freaked when I got the final bill, and it was $280! They charged me $250 for "Tier 1 Auto Renewal Termination Fee"! What!? What the hell is that!?

So I called. They said I had agreed to some special low-cost plan that had an early termination fee. I asked when this plan was supposed to end. The guy said "In five weeks." I said, that makes it the first week in May? He said yes. I freaked. "That means I signed up for it last May? Last May I was aware I would be moving. At that time I thought I'd be moving in the fall. There's no way on this God's earth a) that I would sign up for ANY plan with an early termination fee if there's any other option, b) that I would agree to that when I knew I'd be moving. There's something very wrong here."

So he checked. Turns out that I'd agreed to the plan several years ago (and I'm positive no "termination fee" had been mentioned), and the plan is automatically renewed every year. I pointed out that after the first contract term, you can no longer charge a termination fee without active renewal of the agreement. Automatic renewal changes the terms to monthly. Plus, even if the fee still existed, when I called to terminate service, the rep should have mentioned it. She didn't. There's no way I am going to pay $250 for 5 weeks of non-service when I could have just paid the $40 five more weeks would have cost!

So he forgave the $250.

I wonder how many people would go ahead and pay it? That's a complete ripoff.

[Update: Wow! I found this article dated October 2009, that says the NY Attorney General went after Frontier and told them they couldn't charge the termination fee without telling customers it existed, and they couldn't charge it on auto-renewals, and they had to refund all those fees they had collected! Wow! And they're STILL DOING IT!!! I think maybe I'll write a letter to the NY Attorney General.]

The Hairless Hunk is taking a class about 25 minutes north of here this week, and Monday of next week. We got together for dinner on Monday. That was kind of a mess. We went to a Thai place near his hotel. I like Thai, and they had some really interesting things on the menu, but the table was very wide, and the place was very crowded and noisy, and I couldn't hear him, and I wasn't there for interesting food, I was there to talk, so we left and went looking for someplace else, and since neither of us knew anyplace we ended up at a truly yucky diner-but-not-a-diner with blah food. But at least the place was empty, and quiet.

I didn't mention any of the stuff that's been depressing me, but simply being able to be with someone who does care and would and could sympathize and offer advice if I asked for it, was enough. I feel a little better, although I still don't know what to do.

We had originally sort of planned that some evening he'd come down here and see the house. I figured it might be difficult because he'd probably have classwork in the evenings. Yesterday he called and said, yeah, stuff to read and memorize. Sad. I was looking forward to showing him the vehicle buried in the backyard (his comment was that I may have found Jimmy Hoffa).

Suzy the Suzuki is still at the old house. On a visit in February, I think, the first time all winter that she wasn't buried in snow, The Hunk and I started her. I was pleased that she started right up with no hesitation, but then she started blowing gray smoke out of the vents, something was burning, so I turned her off. We checked for beasty nests in the engine compartment, but didn't find anything obvious. I need to get her down here. My cars still all have NY plates. I've got to get them inspected and registered here, but I don't want to do that until they're all here, because otherwise it will complicate the insurance. BUT, Hal is due for inspection this month! Ack.

The Hunk and I had discussed my going back with him on Friday evening, then I can spend two days working at the old house and get Suzy into the shop on Monday, and then bring her back. BUT, that doesn't work because that leaves me stranded at the old house with no car until Suzy is fixed, and there's no guarantee on that. Plus, Hercules goes back to work on Monday, and I had promised Daughter I'd be here to help when she's suddenly alone with the baby.

It would be best if I could drive myself up there this week and arrange for Suzy's fixing now, and then, assuming she's ready to go by Tuesday, I could go back with The Hunk after his class on Monday, and drive Suzy back here Tuesday. BUT I have the urologist's appointment tomorrow, and I don't know what will happen then.

If I don't go back with The Hunk on Monday, I won't be able to bring Suzy down until Piper and his daughter visit and I can go back up with them.

I've got a feeling that somehow this is going to end up involving either a rental car or an insurance mess.

Seems like nothing is going smoothly these days. All these nit-pickin' minnow nibbles --- and I still have the big "unmentioned" problem that's going nowhere.
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3238 My strange relationship with coffee

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

A girl has to have a life goal before she starts dating boys, or boys become the goal.

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I read somewhere that coffee can contribute to the formation of kidney stones.

I have a strange relationship with coffee.

I like coffee ice cream, and chocolate covered coffee beans, and the Starbucks frappuccino that comes in the little bottles in the corner store (which doesn't actually taste like coffee).

I intensely dislike brewed coffee of any kind, and especially Starbucks brewed - it tastes burned, and too acid. I intensely dislike the smell of brewed coffee in the morning. It can make me feel sick. The simple smell will make my stomach roil and fill with acid. Extended exposure to the smell can cause diarrhea. That could have been a major problem when I was working. Luckily, I had a private office with full walls and a door, some distance from the coffee machine. After about 10 am I could handle the smell better.

So, do I like coffee or not? Some people say I like bad coffee and don't like good coffee.

Over the past three years I've developed a morning taste for very bad coffee. I have three cups of it almost every morning. I love my personal mix:
1 well rounded teaspoon of store-brand instant coffee (the usual for one cup),
1 super-heaped teaspoon of Coffee-Mate sugar free French Vanilla (enough for 1.5 cups of coffee),
3 cups of boiling water
Make it in a teapot.
Yummy. It's delicious, and has none of the bad effects on my digestive system.

So, if the doctor asks how many cups of coffee I drink per day, what do I say? It might be three cups, but it's the equivalent of one. And do I count the occasional orgy of chocolate-covered coffee beans?
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3237 Revenge may not be so sweet

Tuesday, April 3, 2011

I read the papers to find out who I am, so I can be it.
-- Steve Wozniak, Newsweek 2/19/96 --

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Ok, so lots of people are celebrating because ObL is dead. Ok. Revenge. (Not very attractive, people. I think the Bible says something about that?) And the US gets to beat its chest and roar that you may hide, but we will find you. And the CIA can take satisfaction that their black torture sites are effective. And Obama gets a boost with people stupid enough to be impressed by symbols.

But - ObL wasn't running Al Q anymore. Most cells are now autonomous. ObL had a particular beef with the US over our support of the ruling family in Saudi Arabia, and that was pretty much it. The current autonomous cells have their own agendas. Nowadays, ObL was mostly a figurehead, spokesman, and recruiting tool, and was revered as the founding father of a movement.

His death leaves a vacuum, which some middle-aged fool who thinks he's been ignored too long is going to want to step into. Or several fools who want to compete for the honor.

In order to acquire the acclaim, they'll need to pull off something big. Yeah, pissed off groups can do something like a dirty bomb in L.A., or put nasty germs or poison in the ventilation system of Grand Central station, or in the water supply of a major city (like the Ashokan reservoir - in the woods, in the remote mountains, with miles of unsecured shoreline, where fishermen are not carrying ID, and OMG! I may have just figured out why The Man never drinks water!). Any of those would be big, impressive, take out a lot of Americans --- but they wouldn't be photogenic!

If you want to get the admiration of all the other cells, you've got to do something that makes good TV. Something that will be played over and over. Like 9/11.

It will be big. It might take a year to decide what to do, to plan it, to pull it off. But most of all it will involve a big bang and lots of cameras. And this one will be a surprise to the US government. Suddenly the Mayan calendar worries me.

Al Q. was close to becoming irrelevant, you know? We just breathed new life into it.

Enjoy your revenge, folks. I hope it's worth what it's gonna cost.

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The wingnuts are, of course, screaming foul that they weren't allowed to taste the body. Last week they lost the birth certificate chewbone, so it's especially hard to take. They're not smart enough I guess to figure out why the immediate disposal of the body was necessary. We've royally pissed off the bad Muslims. It's kind of important right now not to piss off the good Muslims, too. We need them.
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3236 The Last of the Wedding Comments

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Truly, to tell lies is not honorable. But when the truth entails tremendous ruin, to speak dishonorably is pardonable.
-- Sophocles --

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Quote of the Day. . . referring to Prince William's bachelor party: "It's gotta be weird stuffing money into a stripper's bikini when every bill has a photo of your grandmother printed on it."

Photo of the Day:
Little one should be covering her eyes, not her ears.
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