Sturgeon’s Law Ninety percent of everything is crap.
Derived from a quote by science fiction author Theodore Sturgeon, who once said, “Sure, 90% of science fiction is crud. That’s because 90% of everything is crud.” Oddly, when Sturgeon’s Law is cited, the final word is almost invariably changed to ‘crap’.
|
Alternate titles considered for this entry were: “Ladies, Get A Mammogram” to “Donna Battles Breast Cancer” to “$@%&!”
February 28th Donna had her yearly female checkup.
March 1st the doctor’s office called and asked, “Can you come back in tomorrow we want to take another picture of the right breast.”
March 2nd were called into the OB/GYN’s office and told that Donna had a suspicious lump that needed to be removed.
March 7th Donna met with a surgeon to get a sonogram to help in locating the “suspicious” mass, so he would know where to aim the big fat needle to get a sample.
March 9th we spent the afternoon at the Women’s Health Center for her to have a needle biopsy.
March 14th we get the bad news from the surgeon, the mass is malignant.
March 15th Donna spends a couple aggravating hours at the hospital doing pre-surgery workup.
March 16th we spent nearly the whole day at the hospital where Donna has the lump removed. They also don’t like the looks of the sentient lymph node so the doctor removes 10 more for sampling.
March 17, 18 & 19 Donna spends in a pain pill induced fugue state.
March 20th we meet with the surgeon to remove a drain tube and he tells us that the first lymph node has some abnormal tissue that had not tested as cancer, but they weren’t sure what it was.
March 24th we meet again with the surgeon and learn that whatever was in the abnormal lymph node was left over from possibly some childhood infection and the rest of other nodes were clear.
March 30th we meet with the oncologist where we got a cancer primer written on the tear off tissue used to protect an examining table.
This is just the outline. There were many little stories that I could have easily filled a blog post with, but held off because we have been waiting for the one appointment where we would get a definitive answer on what we are facing and develop a plan to effect a cure. Trouble is it seems like at each doctor’s visit we were presented with a new surprise. They are not totally through either, we have more tests this coming next two weeks to see if her body is up to the things the are going to throw at the disease.
The next few months will be very interesting around the Bogardus household. Because of Donna’s foresight to get a yearly mammogram, we have caught the it at an early stage, so that not only survival but preventing any return of the cancer is into the upper 90th percentile.
Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 96
 No I haven’t given up taking pictures, there on the left hand side of that photo you will see the LCD of my new camera, a Kodak V570, displaying the EasyShare System logo.
The couple of negatives I didn’t like about the camera, proprietary battery & no direct USB connection to the PC, were over ridden by the positives, seperate 23mm wide angle lens, very small (about 2/3rd the size of a deck of cards) , 2.5″ LCD and short shutter lag.
I have always loved the look of wide angle shots, so the separate 23mm lens was the big factor in the decision. The other lens is the typical 35–105 found in most point and shoot digital cameras. The big factor for my wife was the short shutter lag. It has always been a thorn in my side, but after Donna struggled mightily to take picture during the BMW Ultimate Drive last week, she said, “You’ve got to find a better camera.” This camera has about a 2/10 second shutter lag which feels positively instantaneous compared to the Olympus.
The rechargeable battery gets juiced up as long as the camera rests in the dock, but I’ll probably buy a second battery somewhere down the line, they’re only $20. The no direct USB connection to the PC will be solved by getting a SD card reader for the laptop to take along when traveling. The camera has 32MB internal storage, but I bought a 512MB SD card when I picked up the camera last night.
The Olympus had a panoramic mode where you could take several shots and then you knitted them together using the Olympus software on the PC. This Kodak has a panoramic mode where you take 3 shots and they get knitted together right in the camera. With the 23mm lens you can get a little more than a 180 degree picture. I experimented with it this morning when we were in the woods. I may go ahead and add a panorama gallery to the website.
This morning Donna and I went for an atypical walk in Hitchcock Woods. Instead of wandering semi aimlessly, we had a definite destination, the centrally located horse ring. Today was the last day of the 90th running of the Aiken Horse Show.
Our neighbor’s daughter competes and we thought it might be nice to see if she was going to be there. When we arrived at the ring we looked and looked, but didn’t see her. As we were leaving the area near where all the horses were, she came running up. When we asked when she was riding she shrugged and said later. Aaah, youth. She knew Mom would tell her when. Turns out it was much later than we had planned on staying, but what the heck we have some time. Unfortunately at the last minute they shuffled the schedule, delaying her start into the early afternoon and we didn’t have that much time. Plus we didn’t have the money nor the desire to eat from the “roach coach.”
I did get a chance to shoot a bunch pictures with the new camera, including a few using the panorama function.
Clicking on the image will take you to a 40% reduction of the 4576 x 1220 original.
Seeing this is April you may see another one of the shots in the Hitchcock Woods 2006 gallery later this month. While you wait, check out March’s entry from about three weeks ago.
Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 96
 My picture taking had really slacked off recently, but now that I have a new toy the “magic” is back. We were at the local Honda dealer this afternoon and inside their showroom they a meticulously restored 1973 600 Coupe. I used the 23mm wide angle lens to take the picture and then added a Kodak EasyShare fun filter called appropriately, cartoon, to get the finished product.
This car is famous in my memory because while stationed on Guam, one of my VQ-1 squadron mates owned one. When Super Typhoon Pamela made a beeline for our tiny little island in July of 1976, he had to be on one of the squadron’s planes that flew off to safe harbor in Japan. He left his car parked with those of the rest of the aircrew near the hanger, which was in plain sight from the back of our barracks about 200–300 yards away. On the typhoon’s way onto the island, it was best to be holed up in your barracks room, but after the eye passed the wind shifted so that the back stairs were in relatively quiet air and we could stand on the landings and watch the winds wreak havoc on the airfield buildings and hangers.
As some of us watched 4 x 8 sheets of corrugated tin roofing get peeled off an older hanger, my roommate pointed back towards our hanger. There rolling down the tarmac was that poor little Honda 600. It got rolled onto one side, then onto the roof and then over on the other side before coming to a stop pressed up against the squadron’s duty pickup. To add insult to injury, the wind then pushed a nearby dumpster sliding along the pavement until it mushed into the roof of the tiny 1200 lb car. Needless to say the car was a total loss.
Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 98
A lady goes to her priest one day and tells him, “Father, I have a problem. I have two female parrots, but they only know how to say one thing.”
“What do they say?” the priest inquired.
They say,“Hi, we’re hookers! Do you want to have some fun?”
“That’s obscene!” the priest exclaimed. Then he thought for a moment. “You know,” he said, “I may have a solution to your problem. I have two male talking parrots, which I have taught to pray and read the Bible. Bring your two parrots over to my house, and we’ll put them in the cage with Frank and Jacob. My parrots can teach your parrots to pray and worship, and your parrots are sure to stop saying that phrase in no time.”
“Thank you,” the woman responded, “this may very well be the solution.”
The next day, she brings her female parrots to the priest’s house. As he ushers her in, she sees that his two male parrots are inside their cage, holding rosary beads and praying. Impressed, she walks over and places her parrots in with them.
After a few minutes, the female parrots cry out in unison: “Hi, we’re hookers! Do you want to have some fun?”
Stunned silence, from both the humans and parrots. Quickly the moment passes and one male parrot looks over at the other male parrot and exclaims, “Put the beads away Frank, our prayers have been answered.”
I pretty much ignore pre-season baseball, because well, it doesn’t count. Friday night I received an email from MLB.com reminding me that my Gameday Audio subscription was going to be automatically renewed. After last year’s experience I thought it might be a good idea to tun into the last preseason Red Sox game playing right then. Guess what? That’s right, the same issue I had with the WEEI broadcasts last year, annoying sound gaps, were present again. So I turned it off in disgust and fired off a reply to that email telling them that I wished to cancel my subscription.
MLB.com will honor any refund request for a seasonal subscription made within 10 days of the purchase for the current season or at any time before the subsequent season begins.
By Saturday afternoon I hadn’t received a reply to the email and time was running out. I dialed the 1–800 number in the email. After drilling down through the voice mail prompts to get where I needed to be, I was informed that I should call back during their normal working hours, Monday through Friday 9 AM to 8 PM and Saturday from 12 noon to 6 PM, then automatically disconnected. Wait a minute it is 4 PM eastern time, unless their phone support is in Hawaii, I was calling in their “normal working hours.” Very convenient, Sunday is the start of the season, so they have pretty much guaranteed that I won’t be able to get a refund.
Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 98
After rereading the blurb from the email:
MLB.com will honor any refund request for a seasonal subscription made within 10 days of the purchase for the current season or at any time before the subsequent season begins.
I haven’t missed my opportunity to get a refund, now is the time. My credit card was charged on Monday, so I have until the 13th to request my money back.
They’ve got it covered though, take the phone off the hook. I tried calling them 4 separate times today and all I got was a busy signal. I’m sure the phone is not off the hook, but their lines are overloaded by folks like me trying to get their money back.
Now I’m not so sure I want it back. While listening to tonight’s broadcast it was fine up until the 6th inning or so, then it started to break up. At the half inning I shut down the player, cleared IE’s cache, closed and restarted the browser, restarted the player and it has been fine ever since. Once is just anecdotal evidence, more experimentation is required.
Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 98
The monthly meeting of the MMC was held tonight at the local Red Lobstah. I had two refills of sweet iced tea, 1–1/2 cheese biscuits, a garden salad with 1/2 portion of blue cheese dressing and a main course of Salmon New Orleans (Pan-seared fresh Atlantic or King Salmon & shrimp seasoned with Cajun spices in a rich lemon butter sauce. Served with a side salad, seasonal vegetables & your choice of side.) This is about 38,000 calories, but I can’t be sure because the Red Lobster web site does not have a nutrition guide. Thirty eight thousand is coincidentally the same number the wounded Emperor’s odometer passed through on the way to the meeting.
Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 98
The FRS have the night off, but I thought I might see if I had issues with any other baseball broadcasts (not that I expected to, as everyone I tried last year worked fine.) When I logged on with my email and password I was dumped to a page that said to access that content I would have to subscribe by paying $14.95.
I guess someone at MLB.com got my email requesting cancellation. They haven’t yet acknowledged it and of course, they have not yet credited my charge card.
After our first consult with the Oncologist last week he outlined a course of treatment to rid Donna of any cancer. First up is systemic treatment with 4 rounds of adriamycin & cytoxin 3 weeks apart. After that it is localized treatment consisting of 6 weeks of radiation blasted at her breast.
Both of the chemo drugs list hair loss as a side effect, so to get prepared for that eventuality we visited the little boutique at the Cancer Center on Thursday. We had a about three hours to kill while waiting for the radioactive tracer to get distributed throughout her body for a bone scan test. With the help of the nice lady that runs the place, Donna tried on a whole bunch of styles of turbans, scarves, hats and such. We picked out two neat turbans, two more dressier hat/bonnets for work, a nice little cotton beanie for sleeping and under ball caps. Although Donna liked the scarf option they seemed a little tricky to get looking right. The last item we picked out was a small hair piece 6″ wide with about 4″ of hair to simulate bangs that give a more natural look to the other items.
The shop keeper took a copy of Donna’s insurance card and said she’d call and see if our items would be covered. We when back to the hospital and finished up the bone scan, etc. We then went home and had lunch. The woman called shortly thereafter to say that our insurance didn’t cover those kinds of things. We told her we still wanted to buy the items and would come over later to pick them up.
Donna called at about 4 o’clock to see how late they were open and was told the store was closing. Oh, well, no problem we’ll come over and get them tomorrow she told the woman. Tomorrow was today, so we took a lunchtime ride over and guess what? Right, the store closed at noon on Friday. The woman at the front desk had our stuff in a bag for us, but couldn’t take a charge card.
I guess we’ll try again Monday at lunch. We will call before we drive over though, as with our luck, the place is probably only open in the afternoons on Monday…
Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 98
 We were supposed to go up to Kershaw, SC today to see fellow MMC member John Haff race POS in the SCCA Solo I & II event there, but we didn’t make the trip. The weather was listed as iffy all week and this morning we checked the radar and figured that we were going to have a very rainy day and that Kershaw probably would too. I’m sure John, who with his wife Carol were already up there, got in some laps because it looked like they didn’t get wet until a little after noon time. A couple other couples from the Club were also planning on going, but I don’t know if they made the wet drive up or not.
We mostly hung around the house and listened to the rain hit the roof. I sorted through nearly all of 4,000 photos in the My Pictures directory and renamed, resorted and arranged in directories. I still have about 350 in the “Photo Dump” directory that need sorting or more like deleting. While I worked on the digital pictures Donna sorted through a bunch more of the old photos in the Big Box of Morrison Memories. Included in there was another blast from from the Miata past. About a month after picking up our first Miata, a 1990 Mariner Blue A package, we drove down to New Orleans for Christmas. I don’t remember what I got for a present that year (if you don’t count the new car), but the Miata got a cracked windshield on I-20/59 in Alabama.
After the rains cleared here this evening Donna and I went downtown to get some pizza at Ferrando’s. While not the pinnacle of the pizza peak, the pie from Ferrando’s is right up there past the tree line and there is none better in Aiken.
Started down, went up, went down, back up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 101
Donna and I don’t golf. We really don’t even like the sport. The only thing we do like about it, is one day we might live on a golf course (just so we have someone else take care of our backyard.) We don’t follow golf except for one little tournament, for four days during the first week in April the TV is tuned to coverage of the Masters.
We moved to Aiken in May of 1989 and in the spring of the following year we attended a Masters’ practice round. In those days practice round tickets were unlimited, you walked up to the gate on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday and $5 got you in. This went on for 2 or 3 years and in an attempt to mellow out the rowdy Par 3 crowd and reduce the traffic surrounding the course the Masters organization decided to limit the attendance each day to some super-secret number. The use a lottery system to dole out the tickets, Donna and I got tickets for the next two years and have been shut-out ever since.
In one of those first visits I bought a really nice ball cap. A perfectly shaped brushed twill that had a dark green body and a navy bill with the word Masters in script embroidered in white on it. I wore that thing out. Well figuratively at least. Every year I hope anxiously that we will get an invite to the ball, so I can get a new hat and every year the wicked step mom denies us.
There is a little gift shop by the main gate that you can buy official merchandise at, but there is a very limited selection of stuff to choose from. I’ve been holding out on getting an exact replacement, so I left that option off the table, until now. This morning I could stand it no longer. Donna and I drove over to Augusta, parked about a mile from the National in a Kroger parking lot and walked over to buy me a hat.
The selection was so small I almost didn’t want to buy any of the available hats. But, we came all this way, so I grabbed a black ball cap with a small Masters’ logo in yellow and a tiny little green embroidered “Masters.” It won’t become the hat that sits on my head every time I leave the house, but it will make it into heavy rotation.
I did a test on Friday, but the results were inconclusive. I took a swiffer cloth and wiped a stripe clean on the center of the dash at lunch time. With the top down and the wind blowing, the dash stayed really clean. Unfortunately the wind was blowing straight on, so the dash was really protected. We got a nice big rain on Saturday which is always a help.
Today I washed the car.
I hope the pine pollen is gone for a couple of reasons, 1) I like a clean car and 2) if Allstate comes through and admits liability, I will be getting the car painted and we don’t want any of those little yellow vesiculate pollen grains getting under the finish.
Started up, went down, back up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 104
The administration of this particular elementary school decided to start a more inclusive policy on which words were “bad” words. Among those initiated to the category was “suck” (when not referring to the principle of suction).
One day a child came up to the teacher to inform her that one of the other students had said a bad word.
“What was the bad word he said?” asked the teacher.
“I can’t say it.”
“It’s ok to tell me, you won’t get in trouble for it.”
“No, it’s too bad, I don’t want to say it”
“Well I have to know what he said in order to punish him. Can you tell me what it is without saying it?”
“Well… it rhymes with ‘fuck’”
Yanked out the cocomats yesterday evening to vacuum the car and I left them out for good. I went ahead and put the tan OEM ones back in, even though they were slightly dirty.
I really loved the look of the black mats with the tan dots. Check this photo for a feel of them. The dark color broke up the vast expanse of light colored tan interior and the mats hid the dirt real well. On the downside, they shed short back fibers on the “carpet” and they started to come apart right where you place your first foot down when entering the car. The shedding I could handle and I worked around the fraying on the driver’s side by artfully snipping out the offending strays, but now that that malady has effected the passenger side too, it was time for them to come out.
Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 106
Everyday since our little fender bender on March 31, I have been on the phone with Allstate Insurance who covers the woman who smacked my trunk lid. Sometimes twice a day and a couple a times more than twice. But not today.
If they were hoping that I might develop amnesia, forgetting about my claim, from beating my head against the obstacles they have thrown at me, they were almost right.
At first they refused to do anything without getting the accident report from their agent. South Carolina law says that you have 15 days to turn in the report to your insurance company, so you can guess when the person at fault will be turning it in. After 4 days I finally got them to agree to accept my copy if it was faxed from my agent to theirs and then their agent would fax it to them. When they got it last Wednesday they said that because they hadn’t actually talked to the driver yet, a manager had to OK it to assign liability and that might take up to 3 days!
In this time I have called the 1–800 number for Allstate Claims about 8 times and had spoken to 8 different people with varying hoops to jump through or bits of advice, including one kindly southern old lady who suggested that I make the claim against my insurance and let the 2 companies fight it out. Right!?! I had also spoken to the local agent who insured the vehicle several times and they have been as nice as they can be, but keep running into the same walls as me. They have tried to contact the insured on several occasion and keep getting a busy signal or no answer. The Allstate Claims office had gotten the same non-responsiveness. They had even sent a letter to them, but nothing yet.
Thursday, 6 days after the event, the driver turns in the accident report. But claiming time constraints cannot talk to the claims office. Finally on Friday the local agent gets the driver on the phone and connects them to the claims office. When I contact the claims office it turns out that talking to the driver was not entirely enough. She is not specifically mentioned on the insurance, so now the insured (mom or dad) has to be contacted to be sure she had permission to drive the car. Jeez, if not, that is a whole ‘nother department and the 10th different person I have spoken to at 1–800 claims office says that might take weeks.
Over the weekend we make no progress contacting the insured and even take a step back when the “manager” determines that he needs a real accident report, not just the basic exchange of information form that got filled out at the time of the incident. I kindly explain to the customer service rep, which I know will do no good, that is all they are going to get because both vehicles were drivable and no one was injured.
Yesterday, Monday, day 10, we have a breakthrough, my pestering the local agent gets them to try the insured again, after all, how much manpower is Allstate going to commit to the job of contacting them anyway? The local folks get the insured hooked up with the 1–800 claims people. When she hangs up with them she calls me and says it looks good I should be hearing from the claims people later that day or tomorrow (which is today.)
So I don’t try and call them today for fear of tying up my phone and Allstate not being able to get through to me. So far, silence from the Good Hands people. I guess I’ll call tomorrow and see what the Excuse Du Jour is.
Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 108
The only way to pull off a Sunday afternoon quickie with their 8 year old son in the apartment was to send him out on the balcony with a Popsicle and tell him to report on all the neighborhood activities. He began his commentary as his parents put their plan into operation:
“There’s a car being towed from the parking lot”, he shouted.
A few moments passed … “An ambulance just drove by”
A few moments later, “Looks like the Anderson ‘s have company”, he called out.
“Matt’s riding a new bike.….”
A few moments later, “Looks like the Sanders are moving”
“Jason is on his skate board.…”
A few more moments, “The Coopers are having sex !!”
Startled, his Mother and Dad shot up in bed! Dad cautiously called out, “How do you know they are having sex?”
“Jimmy Cooper is standing on his balcony with a Popsicle too.”
MLB.com — For the heck of it this morning I tried the 1–800 number for customer service. Instead of the busy signal I have gotten the last dozen times or so, it rang. They must have added more incoming lines, but they didn’t add anyone to answer the phone. Because I have a speaker phone at work I decided to just let it ride and see how it would take to get a human. I turned off my music and listened to their classical on hold stuff. Ten minutes into waiting my wife showed up for our morning break. I left the phone alone and we went for our two laps of the parking lot. Fifteen minutes later when I returned the classical music was still playing. I went about my usual business, not worrying about waiting by the phone. Fifty-five minutes into the wait the music inexplicably changed from classical to classic rock. Finally, at one hour and fifteen minutes, Shay asked how she could help me. She did confirm that on the 6th my request for cancellation was honored. I was then informed that it takes 7–10 working days to get the refund credited back to my card and if I don’t see it by, say, the 20th I should call back.
Allstate — When last we left it, I was waiting for Allstate to call me and tell me everything was worked out, so I could go get the car fixed. Flush with my success with MLB.com I decided to call the 1–800 claims center and see what was up. What do you know, it was all settled and I could pick my body shop. Just when were they going to call me?
Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 110
 Two weeks ago the oncologist ordered up a series of tests before he begins treatment. Last Thursday was 2 tests, an echo cardiogram (ultra sound of the heart) and a bone scan to make sure those systems are up to the rigors of chemo. This morning was a CT scan w/contrast.
We were supposed to see the oncologist this afternoon, but they called and left a message on our answering machine yesterday to reschedule the appointment until Monday because we were only having the CT Scan that morning. This did not sit well with either the patient nor her spouse because we had taken the day off from work, so we could do both things.
We went over to the hospital and did the CT scan early. I think Donna must have been the first patient of the day, because we breezed right through and were out of the building by 8:30. When Donna asked the tech how long would it take to get the pictures because we were going to have an appointment later that day, she said, “Hold on, I’ll burn you a CD.” Cool we thought, we’ll drop these over at the oncologists office and we can still keep the Thursday appointment. Nope, they not only needed the images, but they needed time for a radiologist to read them before we could talk to the doctor. But because we pushed, they could get the results of the scans on Friday morning and the doctor could see us at 11:00AM. This worked out almost as well because we have Good Friday off and won’t need to miss work.
Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 110
For the last couple of weeks we have had an elephant in the room with us. The tests the oncologists ordered were not only to see if Donna could withstand the rigors of chemo, which we were fine with, but there was also a darker reason for them, to see if the cancer had metastasized to her bones or other places.
Today was truly “Good” Friday for us, as we found out that we dealing with nothing extra, just your run of the mill breast cancer. She will still have 4 sessions of AC chemo, followed by the 6 weeks of radiation to make sure there is not one single cancer cell left anywhere in her body. Because her cancer was ER+, after that she will be on Tamoxefin or similar for 5 years to foil any more cancer.
Although there are a list of side effects as long as your arm for each of the two drugs she will be getting, Adriamycin and Cytoxan, each person will have different reactions to the medicines. Hair loss is almost always a given, but we are physically prepared with out scarfs, turbans and hair tidbit. Nausea is another, but they have so many different anti-nausea drugs out there we should hopefully be able manage that.
Right now we both have a positive attitude about this and from all we have read, that is a big help in getting through this. Later when Donna is actually dealing with the chemo and the attitude slips some, then it will become my job to prop it back up. I don’t have a definite plan on how to do that right now, I’ve considered ordering “Clowning for Dummies” from Amazon.com, but any other suggestions are welcome…
Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 110
We started the year right on our quest to bicycle more. We did the out portion of the Aiken Bicycle Club’s traditional New Year’s Day ride to the Aiken State Park or 20 miles. We rejoined the Club with intentions to do some of the easy Sunday rides. Aaah, the best laid plans…
If you don’t count the 5 mile ride I took with the Club for a photo op back in February (and I don’t,) today was the first time we have ridden since January 1st. We got up early to beat the heat and did eleven flat miles. We took it sorta easy for two reasons; 1) we hadn’t been on a bike for, well, 3–1/2 months and 2) it has only been 4 weeks since Donna had surgery.
We took Thursday off as a vacation day. We had Friday off as a holiday, so we are having a nice little 4 day weekend with no real plans. We have done a bit of shopping for stuff we need (and some stuff we didn’t need) as we are redoing one of the bedrooms. We want to move in on the other side of the house because it is cooler in the summer than our current bedroom.
Thursday seemed like Saturday to me, but it was not. Friday seemed like Saturday too, but it wasn’t. Today was Saturday and it felt like…Friday. Wonder what day I’ll think tomorrow is?
Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 112
 I may have to start a South Scandilina gallery. I’ve already got a picture of me in Switzerland and the town of Denmark is just around the corner.
Donna and I got up early and drove to Orangeburg to visit the city’s really nice Edisto Memorial Gardens. Not the best time to visit, the roses aren’t totally out yet and most of the azaleas are past, but still worth the drive. There is a really nice sensory garden, a really cool metal palmetto tree fountain and a long boardwalk along the south fork of the Edisto River. We walked all over the place for a couple of hours, but knew it was time to go when Easter services around town let out and families descended on the place to have pictures taken in their spring finery.
I spent the afternoon up a step ladder installing two ceiling fans in our soon to be new bedroom. Two, because the first one didn’t work once I got it 90% installed. Lowes was more than happy to swap out for another of the same style fan, but they wouldn’t refund me for my time spent. The good thing about the second install is it took less than half the time of the original one.
Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 112
For those of you hanging around to see if my lipid profile ever levels off with all the numbers in the green, you will have to come back in 6 months. My latest numbers, from a blood draw on the 6th of this month, are the best ones yet, but a couple of numbers are still slightly off. Medication remains the same from the last testing, Tricor, and the supplement as well, 600mg of “red yeast rice.” Two things have changed since the December test; 1) in January I started drinking one 4oz glass of red wine with dinner at home and 2) about a month ago I changed my breakfast cereal from Frosted Mini Wheats to the new Smart Start® Healthy Heart Maple Brown Sugar.
| |
Chol |
HDL |
LDL |
Trig |
| Goal |
<200 |
>40 |
<100 |
30–150 |
| 09/21/04 |
209 |
24 |
131 |
271 |
| 01/10/05 |
176 |
33 |
110 |
167 |
| 05/06/05 |
174 |
27 |
108 |
194 |
| 06/17/05 |
164 |
31 |
85 |
238 |
| 07/28/05 |
177 |
30 |
113 |
169 |
| 12/08/05 |
182 |
35 |
120 |
137 |
| 04/06/06 |
168 |
37 |
106 |
126 |
I have been a mildly disgruntled Tracfone customer for a couple of years now. Donna and I are limited cell phone users and they are a very cheap, for us, alternative. We bought a second phone from them at the end of last October and it didn’t work for the first week. Seemed dead, but miraculously it started working.
This last Saturday it just as miraculously stopped working. No signal. Same symptoms as when we first got it. I called customer service and was told to take the phone to another city and see if I get any signal. I took that sucker all the way to Norway and still got nothing. To make things more interesting I have an identical phone, that was sent to me back in October, that I had never opened up. I charged it’s battery and it has been showing no signal right along with the current phone where ever we have gone for the last couple of days.
I was tempted to just buy another Tracfone, get it up and running and then transfer my 54 minutes of time over to the new phone. But I decided to not to throw any more good money after bad. Narrowed down my choices to two providers and came with in a hair of pulling the trigger on a Boost Mobile phone, but in the end elected to get a Cingular GoPhone with the pay as you go option.
Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 112
After we finished up some yard work this evening and showered off, I was watching a little TV while enjoying a malt beverage. My wife decided that she wanted a fudgesicle, so as not to make me feel left out, brought me one too. Somehow I don’t think the fudgesicle will be replacing salted peanuts as America’s favorite bar snack soon.
When I talked with the last Allstate Claims drone I was informed that I would have to pick a body shop and tell them who it was before they would cut a check. The check would then be made out to both me and the body shop to protect the lien holder of the car, Amsouth Bank. This way I couldn’t just cash the check and not get the car fixed reducing the value of Amouth’s property, makes sense. I picked one of their recommended shops, Satcher Ford because I would get a lifetime warranty on the repair. Last Thursday I told Allstate who I picked. Well, I got the check in the mail from Allstate today, and it was made out just to me. I guess I could go ahead and get an undamaged trunk from the junkyard and have it painted, blending the metallic paint be damned and pocket seven or eight hundred dollars, but I won’t.
I got an email today from MLB.com:
Dear Valued Fan,
Thank you for sending your email.
We really appreciate your feedback and comments and have forwarded your email to the appropriate department.
Please feel free to call our toll-free Customer Support Hotline at 1–866-800‑1275 for information or assistance. Thank you again for taking the time to write!
Regards,
MLB.com Support
Was that in response to my April 1st email? Or the one on April 10th? I guess after paying all those players gazillions of dollars a year there isn’t much left over for actual customer service…
Started down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 112
Nothing here to see. Move along. Return to your homes.
Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 114
When I started work here in Aiken in 1989 there was one other draftsman already here. I say draftsman, but he was much more than that. Lynn was also designing all the valve assembly test fixtures. After he designed them, he built them. In between all that he had to teach me how to use AutoCAD. When I was in Florham Park I used something called CADAM that ran on a mainframe computer. Everything in Aiken was running on PCs (8088 and some 286s) and they had AutoCAD version 9.
Lynn used to do all the drawings by hand, but a couple years earlier and engineer had won an Apricot computer with AutoCAD version 2 installed on it at a trade show. Lynn learned to draw on the “new” computer and even started redrawing the plant layouts. The kicker of this is the Apricot didn’t have a mouse, he navigated around drawing walls and lighting and such in our150, 000 sq ft plant using the arrow keys to move the cursor.
As we started growing on the production side, all that work defaulted to me and Lynn kept up with the assembly side. We shared a 20′ x 20′ room that had the back 1/3 separated via cubical walls where Lynn built the test benches and fixtures. I nicknamed him the Mad Scientist because it was almost comical the noises that emanated from behind those walls. About eight years ago they really separated us when he got his own room on the other side of the plant.
Two years ago he retired from ASCO. The Assembly Engineering Department had grown from just Lynn to an Engineering Supervisor, 3 Engineers and him. He didn’t stay retired very long. Seeing as he had pretty much designed and built every piece of test fixturing out there, he had to come back in and consult to help them fix them up. Soon he was coming in every day, they found a spare cubical and dusted off his old PC, and he was back doing pretty much what he was doing before he “retired.”
Two weeks ago, after he got done burning some leaves in a pit behind his house, he hung up the rake in his garage. There must have been a piece of something still burning on the rake he didn’t notice. The ember fell off onto a gas can and before you knew it the garage was on fire. Lynn tried to put out the fire with a nearby hose, but couldn’t do it. Before some construction workers from next door could pull him away from the fire he was badly burned. Lynn is lying in an induced coma in the burn ward of an Augusta hospital with 3rd degree burns over nearly 25% of his body. His lungs were burned badly from the heat and he is breathing with the help of a ventilator. It was touch and go for a while, but he appears to be getting a little better each day.
His daughter has a blog where she is posting updates for all of his family and extended work family to read: Lisa’s Family Page
Started down, went up, back down, still down
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 116
Last night we moved into the freshly painted bedroom. There are a couple items still on the punch list:
- Hang some pictures on the bare walls.
- Rewire the ceiling fan so that the light is controlled by the wall switch instead of the remote control.
- Buy some matching curtains to replace the too dark temporary ones up now.
- Touch up the closet door and the back of the room door to cover the patched holes.
Our new Cingular cell phone arrived via UPS yesterday. My attempt to activate it on the web failed, so I tried the 1–800 customer service number only to be told to call back during working hours, 7AM to 9PM week days. I’ve got a couple of items still on the punch list for it too:
- Transfer over the dozen or so phone numbers from the soon to be crushed Tracfone.
- Email the dozen or so folks who have our old number and give them the new one.
- RTFM to see how to work some of the features.
- Setup my account online so I can recharge the minutes when needed.
Donna’s replacement cycle-computer also arrived yesterday. It came FedEx Ground. Good thing the packages came several hours apart, I would hate to had a fight between the two competing drivers happen in my driveway. I’ve got a couple of items still on the punch list for it as well:
- Enter the wheel circumference.
- Set the date and time.
- Transfer over the the year’s mileage so far (32ish)
Moved my computer desk from the front room to the middle bedroom today and only one thing remains to be done there, fix the small string of white Christmas lights that I use as stage lighting for the Fab Four. But I’ve got a list for you anyway, this is how many electrical plugs I have to accommodate for the desk:
- CPU Tower
- Monitor
- Speakers
- USB Hub
- Flatbed Scanner
- Slide/Film Scanner
- Desk Lamp
- Cordless Headphones Base
- Printer
- Camera Dock
- Wireless Router
- Cable Modem
- Cell Phone Charger
Phew!
Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 117
Yesterday morning’s Chemo session went pretty well. Had a great nurse which really helped. The private suite made it a little better too. We never did watch a movie on the DVD player, but just kept the Today Show running in the background as a distraction.
So far Donna has been doing OK. They pump a little anti-nausea stuff in the IV and we were given 2 prescriptions and a 5 day sample pack of something else too. She took 1 dose of Ativan yesterday afternoon and one in the evening. She then took a Compazine before bed last night and this morning she melted one of the high dollar sample tablets of Zofran. She felt a little funky mid morning, but heated up a bit of soap and felt better, but so far no real nausea, just a little unsettled feeling in the stomach. Hey, we even had pizza for lunch. We plan on repeating this process for the next few days.
Neither one of us wants to brag to loudly about how she is feeling for fear of jinxing it. Tomorrow morning we are planning on a walk in the woods or maybe another short tandem ride…
Started up, went down, back up, down again, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 120
The Emperor gets goes to the body shop tomorrow, so this evening I detuned it a little. Not that I don’t trust the body shop or anything, but I decided to remove a few of the add-ons I have added on, so they won’t accidentally lose or ruin something. I pulled all the junk tucked into the little cubby on the left of the trunk along with all the little tidbits under the carpet surrounding the spare tire. I pulled out the CB antenna, the cute little net thing and the CD changer. While I was at it I went into the interior and emptied out all the little storage bins, the console holes and the glove box. For good measure I removed all the pins attached to the mesh on the windblocker and swapped out the EJECT cigarette lighter for the stock one. And in case some one gets in with greasy shoes, I put the cruddy cocomats back in. I was going to wash the car to get the dead bugs off the nose, but I got sidetracked and forgot.
Cross your fingers.…
Started down, went up, back down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 122
I checked my credit card bill online today and guess what? MLB.com had refunded my money. Not only that they had done it the day after I talked with the 1–800 people.
I cancelled because I absolutely hated the sound gaps between when the announcers weren’t speaking. But it turns out, I really missed the listening to the games no matter how bad the quality or how bad the FRS lost.
2–1/2 weeks and I couldn’t take it any more, so I signed back up for Gameday Audio on MLB.com. But I came in through the backdoor and for only 66% of my original cost. To sign up for a year’s worth of baseball, any team’s game with your choice of either the home or the away radio broadcasters, is normally $14.95, but if you join the Red Sox Nation for just $9.95, they toss in Gameday Audio for free.
Wouldn’t you know it, the BoSox have the night off, so tonight I’m listening to the Marlins/Cubs game on WGN.
Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/06: 123
Continue reading MLB.com Returns
I thought for sure that my Enterprise experience yesterday evening would be fodder for a great ‘rant’ post, but other than having to wait 45 minutes to get a car, it went pretty smoothly. Take a look at the below photo and tell me what kind of car I’ll be driving will the Miata is in the body shop:
The title is an homage to what I used to call this site…
My ride for the week is a Dodge Neon and up until 2001 when Plymouth disappeared from the car making map, they both sold the car which were nearly identical. At least when GM badge engineered cars that were basically the same, they got different names and they gave them a different look by changing the front end, tail lights, etc. Chrysler didn’t even try, the only difference between a Plymouth and a Dodge Neon at first was the nose badge. During the 3rd model year they broke down and at least added the car company badge on the trunk too.
A woman who works with my wife owns a Neon, hers is a Plymouth. A year or so ago she was involved in a little fender bender and off the car went to the body shop. When she got the car back it looked almost better than when it went in. But there was one small glaring mistake, it had a Dodge badges on it, not the correct Plymouth ones. I guess the body shop called their supplier up and just asked for Neon badges. She made them order the Plymouth ones…
Every morning when I get to work I fire up the PC and wander into our “cafeteria” to fill my mug full of ice and water while the computer boots up. Donna and I start work at 7:30 and the production and assembly folks start at 7:00, so the place is usually deserted.
This morning as I approached the ice machine I hear, “Psst. Bri-yan.” Over by the water fountain, just inside the door, is one of the women who work on the assembly line motioning me over. She hands me 50¢ and asks, “Can you go buy me a large cappuccino?” So I put my mug on top of the ice machine and get her a hot cappuccino out of the coffee machine. As I bring her her cup another woman shows up and asks if I could do the same for her. I say, Sure.” So she hands me 2 quarters and I head back to the coffee machine. After they have both poured their paper cups of steaming cappuccino into their approved, covered mugs, they thank me profusely and go back out to their respective assembly lines.
I’m guessing that they are allowed into the cafeteria as far as the fountain so they can get water, but can’t go anywhere near the snack or drink machines unless it is during breaks or lunch. It felt just a little like going into the package store to buy a six-pack for some high schoolers…
Since I got Gameday Audio back the FRS are 1 and 3. The old Red Sox fan in me would remark that it was probably my fault, I jinxed them by starting to listen to their games again on the internet. But since 2004, when the Curse of the Bambino was finally laid to rest and the Sox were the World Series champs, I know better, random outside events have zero effect on the outcome of a Boston baseball game. The fact that the FRS have lost three out of the last four games they played really means they probably just suck.
 Got up this morning and took a road trip. Donna wanted to visit the Swan Lake Iris Gardens in Sumter, SC and I wanted to go to Denmark, so that’s what we did. First stop was to the country, er, city of Denmark which is famous around these parts for two things, it is the closest spot to board an Amtrak train and is the home of artist Jim Harrison.
From there we headed northwest towards Sumter. Somewhere around halfway there we passed a small sign at a gravel road that said Kensington Mansion. About a half a mile later we did a u-turn and went back to check out the place. They offered tours, but we could find no one to tell us anything about them. We walked slowly around the whole outside of the place and just as we finished our circuit the latest tour was finishing up, 4 people and one guide came out of a side door. We asked if there was a brochure or something and Donna got a 1/3 sheet flyer thing and the guide wanted us to stick around for another hour for the next tour. We declined and drove off.
At Sumter, after a lunch at Chik-Fil-A, we visited the Swan Lake Iris Gardens. Lots of hungry swans and turtles and not much on the way of gardens. We walked around a bit and did a boardwalk around the lake which looked remarkably like the boardwalk near the river of two weeks ago in the gardens of Orangeburg. After an hour or so we had had enough so we got back in the car and turned west for home.
Just west of Columbia we almost past right by a little car show at a roadside flea market. I’m hoping we missed the big action of earlier in the day, it was 2:30PM, or this was one very poorly attended happening. I took a few pictures of some of the more interesting cars there before we ate an elephant ear and came on home.
Started up, still up.
Neon Top Transitions since 04/24/06: 0
So far the treatment we have received at the Carolina Cancer Institute has been great, we like the doctor, any of the nurses so far have been great, heck we even like the lady in billing, but, and we are not sure where this is rooted, communication about changes in appointments have really been shoddy. The first involved rescheduling of pre-treatment tests and the initial doctors appointment.
Friday we got another surprise. After the first chemo treatment last week we were given two appointment cards, one to come in at one week and have blood drawn and a second to come back in two weeks to see the doctor. The blood work was scheduled for 8:30. Seeing as Donna was still taking one Ativan in the morning and we have an unfamiliar car, she wanted me to drive her over. No problem, we both told our bosses that we were going to leave the plant at 8:15 and would be back in 45 minutes at the latest.
When we checked in at the desk we were told that the doctor wanted to see us today too. After the blood was drawn, we asked where was the doctor? He is not here yet, but should be in about 15 minutes would we wait. OK but not too much longer. We were seated in an exam room and we waited. We were just about to give up and leave when we heard his voice through the thin walls. OK, he’s here we’ll wait a couple more minutes. After waiting some more, all the while hearing him talking, we got up to leave. As we passed by the chemo room we could see him talking to patients. Had no one told him we were waiting? On our way out we told the nurse to reschedule us an appointment. She said could you wait, we can write you an excuse.
We didn’t have time to explain that it wasn’t that the excuse wouldn’t have been good or anything, it more the fact that we had already told folks we would be only gone a short time. Work has been wonderful about the missed time and they would have said, no problem, had we come back later than we originally mentioned, but it was more the principle of it all. When had the doctor decided that he wanted to see us? Sometime during the week? And if that was the case why weren’t we notified. Was it normal procedure to see the patient after giving blood one week into chemo? If so, 1) they need to work on their description of the appointment because we both understood it to be just a blood draw and 2) they should schedule it differently so that the doctor is in the building.
Turns out the doctor does have a legitimate reason to talk to us, Donna’s white blood count was a notch below the lower limit on Friday. The normal range is 4.1 to 10.9 and her’s was at 4.0. Her pre-chemo level was only at 5, so the drop, while not huge, is still cause for some concern. The nurse left a long message on our answering machine asking if we could come in at noontime to see the doctor or if not could we be there Monday at 3:ooPM. We of course couldn’t go in at noon because we didn’t get the message until 4:30PM when we got home. I guess the nurse didn’t get the hint that we were leaving because had to be back at work.
|
|
