| Barbara continually laments the fact that her grandchildren do not dwell locally, and so welcomed a chance to visit with some of them when Ameilia came down recently. |
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As I understand it, the purpose of Ameilia's trip was to celebrate Abbies birthday by visiting the mall. I suspect I should let Ameilia supply the details of that adventure. |
| Barbara drove the grandkids around in her wheel chair, and it was difficult to tell who was more pleased. |
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AJ also brought his turtles out. Again, the grandkids were pleased, but I'm not so sure about the turtles. I did think Wyatt's shirt decorations were apropos. |
| Would you enjoy being handled by a juvenile of a species about 100 time your height and weight? |
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Perhaps this setting was the origin of the phrase, "Killed with kindness." |
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I have accomplished a couple of thing since my last posting. The Woodruff Range Cookbook is now complete and available on line at www.grandmasweb.com/woodruffrange. It was truly a labor-intensive undertaking, and I am glad it is finished. If I could figure out how, I would still make some changes, but overall, I pleased with the architecture. I ran all the verbiage through spell check, but I know it still contains many errors. If/when you encounter one, let me know. And speaking of food, Chucks Stamps gave us some pomegranates, and I made a thick syrup out of them. That on ice cream or popovers is my latest love... |
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I have set a goal of learning something new every day. Perhaps a better statement would be that I want to remember something new from every day. My mother used to lament that she couldn't retain new facts or things she had read, but I wrote it off as her not really wanting to put forth the effort. Well, the circle is now complete. I recently read the Handbook of Clinical Pathology, a tome of about 900 pages that deals with the tests that I routinely send out. If I'd have read the book when I was 25, I could have regurgitated about 85% of what it contained, and for 25% of the facts, I could have told you where on the page the information was located. Now, about all I can tell you with any degree of certainty is that I have read the book. |
| My lack of retention is both frustrating and appalling. So, I am attempting to retain bits of information. So far, in addition to defining some medical terms, I have learned first, that there are four types of cancer (sarcomas that arise from bone or connective tissue, carcinomas that arise from epithelial cells, lymphomas that arise from tissue that make blood components, and germ cell tumors), and second, that repository rate is increased in response to excess carbon dioxide in the blood, and not to a lack of oxygen. I am starting through that handbook for the second time. Wish me luck. |
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At work they continue moving towards electronic medical records. At this point I hear talk but don't see change. My boss (at least one of them) assures me that, "the new computers are already here, and will be installed shortly." But, I'll believe it when I see it... |
| As you probably didn't see (in the letter AJ didn't post), a couple of months ago, Brittney dinged the front of her car. The lad brought the car out and tried his hand at straightening various structural components using an engine tree and a come along. I didn't get to witness the effort, but I understand it was partially efficacious. But alas, it was for naught as the transmission in the vehicle, being jealous of effort being applied to enhancing the body, expired. I understand they are looking for (or perhaps by now have acquired) a replacement vehicle. I suspect we will see and hear about those exploits in AJ's next letter... |
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At the close of my bicycle trip (8-29-09) I purchased some peaches, and was impressed by how well they stored. I put a couple dozen in my refrigerator, and ate one or two almost every day. On 10-10-09, I ate the last one and, as you can see, it was still in very good condition. On the one hand, thinking about them makes me want to plant a couple of peach trees in my back yard. On the other hand, that sounds like a lot of work... We'll see which personality wins out. |
| Over my protests, AJ and Brittney brought out an ice cream cake to celebrate by birthday, and again over my protests, proceeded to plant candles in it. Fortunately, the camera turned a blind eye to most of the festivities. |
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I gave an ancient digital camera (the old one Symantha had) to Chris (the X-ray tech at work) who had not yet transitioned from film, and he rewarded me by posting this image throughout the clinic. |
| This last bit has been one of those periods where everything I touched turned out wrong. It started with the Geo Metro, which has squealed on starting (particularly in the wet and/or cold) for at least a year. This unpleasant noise goes away within a couple of minutes and I assumed that was the time it took for the offending device to reach operating temperature. I have drowned the belts in belt dressing, and replaced everything that the belts turn with the exception of the crankshaft pulley and the tensioning pulley. After several parts shops informed me that my car was not equipped with a pulley that took a ribbed belt (and offered to sell me the "correct" pulley for only $56.49), I concluded that it had to be a dealer item and I estimated it would cost a minimum of $150. Now first off, that much for a pulley seems absolutely surreal, and secondly, it has been a matter of honor that I have never bought a part from a dealer. So, I invested a fair amount of thought searching for an alternate course of action. It still surprises me how much thought (with its attendant time) can be substituted for action. Eventually, I concluded that (with a little bit of luck) I should be able to remove and replace the bearing which was press fitted into the pulley. I made the attempt, and the entire process took about 15 minutes of effort (not counting the two days necessary to obtain [with AJ's help] a replacement from Tucson Belt and Bearing). Further, the procedure worked exactly has I had envisioned it, with a cost of around $16. That was the good news. The bad news was that changing the bearing made absolutely no difference in the generation of squealing noise. I took photos, but inadvertently left the camera in the manual focus mode... |
| My next foible had to do with my mountain bike. Lisa Byrd, a Physicians Assistant here at work, has agreed to participate as a team member in a 24 hour bicycle race this coming February, and, as part of her training, has been riding with me at lunch. On a day she was off, I was standing on my pedals trying to climb a steep off-road slope when my derailleur grabbed a spoke and proceeded to wrap itself around the rear axle. I was surprised at the damage. In addition to the plastic spoke protector (whose breaking initiated this catastrophe), the rim was bent, a spoke (whose replacement requires removing the cluster gear, using tools I don't own) was snapped off, the derailleur was twisted in two places and sheared in one, and the bicycle frame was deformed. |
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After replacing the derailleur (I found that exact model on one of my numerous yard ornaments), tweaking the rim with a spoke wrench, and removing the broken spoke (I ignored its absence), I turned my attention to the frame. The fork tine in the background of this photo shows the correct geometry. The one in the foreground has been "opened up" to the point that both sides can no longer be simultaneously captured by the axle bolt. Tapping ten minutes with a couple of hammers partially restored the required geometry, but once metal has been stretched, it never really returns to the same shape (without being melted) and hammering it induces fatigue. Still, the alternative was to replace the bike, and you don't just walk away from an old friend. I suppose that, when on some 110° day, it finally snaps and strands me 30 miles from the nearest water, I may no longer consider it a friend... |
| My next adventure involved car maintenance. At Checker Oil, I purchased two oil filters, two air filters, and a case of oil. The bill came to $94. Wow! Then, while surveying the Kia Rio, I inappropriately placed then forgot about my glasses, and slammed the hood on them. Although a screw was pulled loose, I managed to cobble the frames back together, and so far the lenses have stayed in them. Still, I suspect it is just a matter of time until I have to procure another pair. I have come to really appreciate the Geo Metro. It has about seven inches of clearance, and I can readily access the oil pan drain, as well as the oil filter. I drained the oil and changed the filters before moving on to the Kia. What I forgot was to refill the crankcase with oil. Fortunately I recognized the oversight before sustaining any damage. |
| The Kia is not so user friendly. Its' ground clearance approaches 4.5 inches, and its' oil filter sits about 15 inches above the bottom of the engine but is completely inaccessible from the top. After positioning the vehicle over the pit, I was just barely able to reach the oil filter with a giant pair of slip-joint pliers. The next thing that happened, though, was that hot oil ran down my sleeve. What a mess. Perhaps next time I will take it to Jiffy Lube, or equivalent. After three gas tanks full, the Kia is averaging 35 mpg. I guess it could be worse... |
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And what adventure would be complete without a "honey-do" or two? Barbara has been complaining for quite sometime that the threshold in the front door was loose. Finally, the weather stripping under the door pulled loose, and the door began to catch on the threshold. So,... I undertook repairs. After playing around with a pair of pliers, a hammer, a chisel, a nail bar, and a hacksaw, I finally settled on brute force and beat the threshold out using a sledge. I cleaned the debris out from under it, then replaced it using enough long screws to keep it from moving. Unfortunately, the first side drifted while I was inserting the screws, and in attempting to compensate, the other side stuck out far enough to interfere with the screen door closing. So,... I removed the screen door and modified it (think custom by crunch). And the beat goes on... It has been a seemingly endless string of less-than-spectacular achievements, and to add insult to injury, most of these last mentioned misadventures occurred on the day I had hoped to start my ocean to ocean bicycle ride... |