EBOLA IS HERE. EBOLA IS HERE. PLEASE COMMENCE PANICKING IN THE STREETS.
I don’t know what else to say about ebola. Tell me there’s a disease in this country that makes you bleed from the eyeballs, and all I have to say is, “How is this different from PMS? Really?”
All jesting aside, I hope this isn’t the beginning of “The Stand” or anything. In the meantime, here’s some reading material:
The deportation of a dangerous illegal immigrant here in Detroit:
For five months, Teresa wasted in a Calhoun County jail cell, some of that time in a maximum security section, where she was placed with armed robbers and other violent criminals. She lost weight; she lost hope. Last week, just as family and friends mounted an effort to plead publicly on her behalf, she was again handcuffed and deported to Montenegro, the homeland she doesn’t remember.
“I do not even know where I am,” she said in a telephone call last Friday, her first day there. “It is surreal.”
Through a series of circumstances and events, most not of her making, Teresa Pecovic is experiencing the kind of culture shock few of us could imagine —dropped into a place travel guides despair of recommending, with limited language skills, and little chance for future reprieve.
A letter to George Clooney from an Arab guy:
Incidentally, now that you will have an Arab wife who advocates for Arab rights, if you were ever going to run for political office in America, you definitely cannot now. Unless, of course, you move to Dearborn, Michigan, where you will be swiftly elected mayor with 99.9% of the vote, Saddam-style.
One of the best condemnations of the machinery behind the Concussiongate fiasco came from my old pal Dave Jones in faraway Harrisburg. You should read.
Later, all.
basset said on September 30, 2014 at 10:49 pm
Football? Nothing’s gonna change.
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Sherri said on October 1, 2014 at 1:46 am
Good article by your pal. The only thing I’d add is that top donor Stephen Ross is also the owner of the Miami Dolphins.
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Dexter said on October 1, 2014 at 2:29 am
On the day the USA commits to ten more years of war in Afghanistan, Ebola arrives in the USA. All day long, Rachel Maddow was the only person who even mentioned the fact about the ten-year fresh promise. So Wolfowitz’ solemn promise that Iraqi oil fields would pay for the US invasion of The Region in 2003 was a lie, but Isis just sends tankers to oil fields, steals oil, and sells it to anyone who will buy iot, on the QT, of course. Wolfie had the right idea, just no strategy AT all.
The last few weeks only the right wing asshats on radio were bitching about treating Ebola patients at Emory U and Dallas and maybe other places, now normal healthy-feeling people are coming down sick with ebola just from being in Liberia.
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Jolene said on October 1, 2014 at 4:03 am
The NYT thinks, apparently, that we need to know a lot about Ebola and gas published this explainer. http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/07/31/world/africa/ebola-virus-outbreak-qa.html?smid=tw-nytimes
But the most disturbing thing I have read in the past few days is about the number of children who’ve been orphaned by Ebola. It’s horrible to think about the muck and slime and filth of this illness in the lousy medical settings of West Africa, but it’s worse to think about little children being left with no one yo take care of them. Ordinarily, a child would be taken in by relatives, but the stigma of the illness is keeping people from doing what they normally would. Apparently, UNICEF is trying to organize programs to help them.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to-your-health/wp/2014/09/30/latest-ebola-heartbreak-thousands-of-orphans-shunned-by-surviving-relatives/
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coozledad said on October 1, 2014 at 7:04 am
Ebola? Like Africanism, that’s a preexisting condition. If we start making it possible for poors to be treated for ebola, there won’t be enough hospital beds for God’s elect.
Oh, and if you were wondering why the Romneys always look like constipated infants, it’s because they’re all carrying coproliths in their ass:
We also learn many other fun facts about the Romneys that make them just as unlikable and awkward as they have always been. Like, for example, that Romney Lunch Hour involves “a small buffet of sliced turkey, corned beef, two loaves of Pepperidge Farm bread (white and wheat) and a selection of both mayonnaise and Miracle Whip.”
Read more at http://wonkette.com/562043/mitt-romney-finds-entirely-new-explanation-for-47-percent-remarks-in-own-ass#5oZs9sgIb4Ai3zqV.99
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Deborah said on October 1, 2014 at 7:19 am
I had to look up coproliths.
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alex said on October 1, 2014 at 7:42 am
What a sad story about the woman deported to Montenegro. I’m going to be haunted by it all day.
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Dave said on October 1, 2014 at 8:09 am
Nothing to do with the subject at hand but Jerrie Mock, the first woman to fly around the world, Central Ohioan, and a topic here awhile back, has passed away: http://tinyurl.com/le2nk73
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Suzanne said on October 1, 2014 at 8:09 am
My lunch buffet usually consists of some week old leftovers and a carton of yogurt. Low class, that’s me, I guess.
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Jolene said on October 1, 2014 at 8:41 am
Agree, Alex, the deportation story is very sad. Reminded me of a couple of WaPo stories I read a couple if months ago about the deportation of similarly dangerous criminals. The second link below gives a sense do what a horrible, overburdened mess the courts that handle deportation issues are.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/the-other-side-of-deportation-an-american-struggles-to-prepare-for-life-without-husband/2014/05/24/12de381e-e1ab-11e3-8dcc-d6b7fede081a_story.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/in-a-crowded-immigration-court-seven-minutes-to-decide-a-familys-future/2014/02/02/518c3e3e-8798-11e3-a5bd-844629433ba3_story.html
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beb said on October 1, 2014 at 8:45 am
The more one hears about the White House fence-jumper the worse it sounds for the Secret Service. He apparently wandered freely around the ground floor and was stopped by an off-duty agent and not by any of the on-duty people who should have been there. Solutions to the problem begins with the laughable suggestion that Allen West, a man who routinely froths at the mouth when talking about President Obama, should be appointed Director of the Secret Service. While Politico runs a story today that suggests that A) the president is a terrible manager and B0 nothing will change unless and until the President is assassinated. No disclaimer anywhere of “God forbid that should happen!”
Meanwhile it’s a 15 yard penalty for praying to Allah but none for praying to Yahweh. It’s the same God, you know, just different spellings of His Name. Bassett @1 is right, nothing will change in Football.
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Dorothy said on October 1, 2014 at 8:49 am
Oh alex, me too. I want to cry but I’m at work and people will stare. It really bothers me that there are no alternatives to deportation in circumstances. She didn’t even leave with her SUITCASE for Christ’s sake!!! Unforgivable….
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Jolene said on October 1, 2014 at 8:51 am
Yesterday, Brian mentioned, in passing, the body of an Arkansas realtor having been found. I hadn’t heard anything about it and didn’t pay much attention. But the article linked below caught my eye as I was looking for something else.
Had never occurred to me to think of realtors as being in a dangerous profession, but, of course, you just have to think about meeting strangers in empty houses for five seconds to realize it’s a fraught situation. Very sad for this woman and the family she left behind, and imam really tired of stories about women disappearing and being found dead.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2014/10/01/arkansas-real-estate-agents-murder-highlights-perils-of-the-job/
I’ll stop posting depressing things for a while now.
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Jolene said on October 1, 2014 at 8:53 am
imam = I am
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Bob (not Greene) said on October 1, 2014 at 9:15 am
Jolene, I wrote a about an incident involving a local guy from around here, who murdered a realtor up in Wisconsin. Guy’s name is, I kid you not, James A. Hole. He’s serving life without the possibility of parole. http://www.rblandmark.com/News/Articles/11-5-2008/Brookfield-man-pleads-no-contest-to-murder-rap/
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brian stouder said on October 1, 2014 at 10:08 am
A local radio lip flapper here in Fort Wayne reported the then-breaking news that someone in Texas had ebola – and he said “I’m just gonna say – even though the story doesn’t yet report it – that this person is an illegal immigrant from Texas” – and he went on about our “open borders” and all the rest. He was clearly savoring this (imaginary) turn of events, and getting callers who were all-too-eager to pick up that ball and run with it.
Do you suppose he’ll correct himself this afternoon? (I’m betting on a “yes I was incorrect for now, but” evasion, since we all just KNOW that immigrants are dirty and smelly and filthy and diseased…and running drugs, too!
PS – Deborah – Cooz added that word to my vocabulary today, too!
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Bitter Scribe said on October 1, 2014 at 10:25 am
That sequence in the Michigan-Minnesota game was almost comical in its callousness. The offense was screaming at the sideline to get that poor kid out of there, and none of it apparently registered. Plus why couldn’t that fat useless SOB of a coach have called timeout when the second quarterback had to come out of the game for losing his helmet? Did he really think it would interfere with his ability to come back from three touchdowns down in the fourth quarter?
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brian stouder said on October 1, 2014 at 10:40 am
Bob – That guy’s mug-shot (and alleged crime) definitely matches his name
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Jolene said on October 1, 2014 at 10:45 am
Terrible story, Bob. My view of what it means to be selling real estate is forever changed.
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coozledad said on October 1, 2014 at 11:36 am
But as he’s gotten older, his “Italian” mostly just wants to lie on the sofa and stank:
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/ny-representative-michael-grimm-italian
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Dorothy said on October 1, 2014 at 1:14 pm
Ever since I heard the details about that real estate agent’s kidnapping and murder, I keep thinking of the agents I’ve had for the home sales we’ve handled in the last 12 years or so, all of whom were women. A former colleague at Kenyon worked in our department only in the mornings, and in the last couple of years she became an agent (that’s her husband’s profession.) An awful lot of trust is involved in that kind of job – trust that the people you are meeting are legitimate, etc. I’m almost surprised these kinds of cases don’t happen more often. It’s kind of scary.
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Jolene said on October 1, 2014 at 1:48 pm
Here’s a 2011 article that discusses several cases of murdered realtors, including the one that Bob wrote about. Found this, as well as several more individual cases, by googling murder of realtors. Ugh. Why are people so awful?
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/dangers-real-estate-criminals-witnesses-safety-expert-keeping/story?id=13375723
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Dorothy said on October 1, 2014 at 2:12 pm
Yikes, Jolene – average of 75 deaths per year between 2003 and 2009 for the industry?! Very disturbing!
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Jolene said on October 1, 2014 at 2:17 pm
I’m a veritable fount of disturbing info today. Here are some predictions about the potential, perhaps likely, spread of Ebola in Africa. The guy being quoted is an infectious disease specialist from the university of Minnesota.
http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2014/10/01/ebola-is-on-the-move/
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Dexter said on October 1, 2014 at 2:39 pm
James A. Hole, now that’s funny. But I feel mean today, and I say we list our most cruel nicknames we bestowed upon our peers and our teachers.
Our janitor & bus driver was of German heritage, given name was Aelred. His friends called him “Ady”, rhymes with AID-eee. So forevermore, he was “80 or 90”.
We were sometimes non-creative, as when we dubbed the fattest kid in school, “Skinny”. My best friend heard my mom call me in for supper just one time: “Where’s my little fat boy?”…and I was “Fatboy” to my childhood friends forever since.
But I want to focus on the mean names, and I guess the worst was “Huby Fruit” , cast upon a teacher who lived with his mother, never dated, and was just “very different”.
After I became an adult, the meanest name was awarded my friend Ed, who was very tall and gangly-like. He was christened “Ima Stork”.
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nancy said on October 1, 2014 at 2:51 pm
A Realtor I know here who handles mostly foreclosures in Detroit goes through every front door with his hand on the gun he wears on his hip. Knocks really loud and barks AGENT as he enters. “If you’d seen the things I’ve seen, you would, too,” he said.
Sometimes the gun is drawn.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on October 1, 2014 at 3:12 pm
I know at least a few of the bigger name real estate agents around here carry, legally or not I’ve never asked. The clamps are down on juvenile officers pretty hard now to not visit homes without a second person along in the car, which has been crippling for me as a contract part-timer (it essentially means I can’t go to student homes anymore to find out why they haven’t responded to my calls and letters, which used to work well). I’m still on the fence about whether this is because households are that much more dangerous, or because everyone in supervision is aware that if anything happens to any of us it becomes a news story for a week (ten days if we’re killed). But we still are proudly un-armed. When that changes, I’m done.
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Deborah said on October 1, 2014 at 3:48 pm
When my then husband and I moved to St. Louis many years ago, I went earlier to look for a house. A realtor took me to one really scary place in LaFayette Square, a cool historical area of town that we were interested in. The neighborhood was in the process of gentrifying but the run down house this agent showed me was being lived in by squatters. We went right in after announcing at the front door. The squatters were in the house at the time. A terribly dirty little boy came to the door, he was about 3 or 4 but could barely speak. There were adults asleep on the floor in various rooms. I can’t believe I walked around there with the agent. I don’t think I’d do it again. The house was fantastic, it was going for a song but it would have taken multi-hundreds of thousands to fix it up, which we certainly did not have. I felt really bad for that kid.
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Hattie said on October 1, 2014 at 4:34 pm
Those deportations go on all the time. Several were deported from the prison where I used to work. One I know about was deported to Vietnam although he had come here as a small child, spoke no Vietnamese and had no family there that would be willing to look after him. Would not even have known who he was.
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Deborah said on October 1, 2014 at 6:14 pm
This is funny, “Republicans are People Too” ad uses stock photos http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/republicans-are-people-too-stock-photo
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nancy said on October 1, 2014 at 6:21 pm
This ad, meanwhile, has to be seen to be believed.
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adrianne said on October 1, 2014 at 7:23 pm
The Rick Snyder say yes to the dress ad gave me the biggest guffaw of the day. I think the man is going down to defeat, along with a lot of other nutty GOP govs.
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Deborah said on October 1, 2014 at 7:36 pm
That ad is ridiculous. Who are they targeting? What demographic would go for that? Young women? Hell no.
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coozledad said on October 1, 2014 at 8:58 pm
Deborah:The ho frat vote. It’s endemic in Florida. They’ve got to get them to the polls before they develop melanoma or marry Jews.
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Suzanne said on October 1, 2014 at 9:36 pm
Wow. That ad. Are you sure it isn’t from the Onion? If not, I will now go drink.
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Dave said on October 1, 2014 at 10:36 pm
I’ve been in Florida during campaign season, where the political ads run nonstop, but I’ve never seen a political campaign commercial as crazy as that.
Those ads in Florida really do run nonstop and make such claims, making Indiana campaign ads seem completely pedestrian by comparison.
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Jolene said on October 1, 2014 at 11:00 pm
Just saw an article saying that the wedding dress ad was put together by the College Republican National Committee. It’s being used in several states.
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/gops-most-condescending-ad-yet
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Jill said on October 1, 2014 at 11:04 pm
I have a friend who trains people in self defense. He has developed a specialty training real estate agents. I’d never thought about how dangerous their jobs can be until he educated me.
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alex said on October 1, 2014 at 11:29 pm
The Dems could always counterattack with an ad about Rick Snyder making her ass look fat. (And it does, beeyotch. And no you can’t just claim you were a stock photo model.)
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coozledad said on October 1, 2014 at 11:39 pm
If the Fla Dems had any guts, they’d counter with a drag version of that ad. If I’m the director, they’ve got Rick Scott as Count Priapus bursting out of the crab dip and shooting a stream of white Russians out of the top of his head.
But you KNOW that shit’s been done.
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Dexter said on October 2, 2014 at 12:26 am
Sherri: Schlegel, the OSU muscle-man fitness coach must be relishing his notoriety for slamming the OSU student to the turf. Apparently drunk, this long-time student ran onto the field, a 4th degree misdemeanor, but was treated to a body-slam so severe Schlegel is lucky he didn’t break the man’s neck or kill him. Meanwhile, the Secret Service and Park Police showed restraint so severe they allowed an armed man to charge and enter the White House and proceed to near the President’s quarters, and not a tackle or a shot fired until finally the last-line-of-defense guard did tackle the criminal inside the building.
So, did the student deserve a life-threatening slam, or just a huge fine and a weekend in the drunk tank…did he deserve to lose his scholarship (for caddying)? And why was not the intruder in D.C. simply shot dead way before he ever got close to that errant open White House door? It is the stuff of a Gillo Pontecorvo movie, a coup d’etat even.
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Sherri said on October 2, 2014 at 2:00 am
Dexter, didn’t you know, accountability is for little people like the OSU student, not for important people like Dave Brandon (or Jim Tressel, now the president of Youngstown State, or Gordon Gee, now serving as president at West Virginia) So obviously, he deserved everything he got, right?
We seem to be going through a surge of popularity of people going onto the field again, and it’s annoying, but no, I don’t think the kid deserved to lose his scholarship over it. Had the kid been a basketball player on scholarship, I bet he wouldn’t have lost his scholarship over it.
Worse than the intruder at the White House was the private security contractor with prior assault convictions who was carrying a gun in an elevator with the President at the CDC! What the hell is going on with the Secret Service?
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MichaelG said on October 2, 2014 at 2:15 am
So the Michigan AD was head man at Domino’s Pizza. And while there he helped things to work out so that somebody became president of UM. And then his kindness was repaid with an appointment to the position of AD. So a pizza salesman is AD at Michigan. Jeez.
A guy goes to the ER at a hospital in Dallas and tells them he’s sick and feels poorly and has just come from Liberia and they tell him to take two aspirins and get some rest. Two days he’s back in an ambulance with full blown E. And our country is ready to deal with ebola.
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Dexter said on October 2, 2014 at 4:14 am
Sherri, thanks for the updates on my two favorite people, Gee and Tressel. Honesty and valor have their rewards. (or, as Bruce Hornsby sang, “That just the way it is…”)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOeKidp-iWo
The armed felon in the elevator…what the FUCK!? At least a new Secret Service Director is on the way.
Ya know, years ago at work things got crazy, guys drinking before their shifts, smoking dope at breaks, more booze at lunch, sloppy work, and one night everybody just got all messed up on everything and broke out a case of baby powder that was used a little a time on some intricate assembly op, and a powder fight erupted,and the assembly stations and the floor were covered in baby powder..and then the day shift bosses arrived and it was very like when Nurse Ratched and the day orderlies arrived on the ward and shortly after, Randle McMurphy had his lobotomy.
And after that, shit changed, big time. Alcoholic Anonymous meetings at lunchtime in the company cafeteria, smoking cessation classes sprung up, exercise classes, new management, new floor plan, new machinery, complete changes everywhere, and that kind of sweeping change , a sea change of the first order is needed at the Secret Service, or the unthinkable is upon us, and Obama better quit saying he feels so goddam safe under Secret Service protection, and wake up and smell the coffee.
Ebola is spreading quickly, MichaelG…I heard it’s in Alaska already.
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David C. said on October 2, 2014 at 6:28 am
In an emergency room, unless there is bleeding to stanch or a bone to set, sending you home not really knowing what you have is SOP. I brought my wife in to emergency once doubled over with abdominal pain. We were sure she had appendicitis. Once they did an ultrasound and determined it wasn’t her appendix they sent us home with her still doubled over in pain. The doctor told us he is very comfortable sending people home still in pain and not knowing what they have. He said that’s what family physicians are for. We were so, so happy to hear that the doc was comfortable. We were very worried about that.
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Suzanne said on October 2, 2014 at 8:23 am
Medical care is a mess. My experience the past few years with minor things is that you have to pretty much diagnose yourself & then bug the doctor’s office. I had a blood test a number of years ago, routine check-up, with the promise that I would be notified if anything was amiss. No call. Forward to 3 years ago or so. Another routine check-up during which my doc is surprised that I am not on a statin because my cholesterol was high in that initial blood test. “No one called me” I say. He looks surprised.
A close relative who is a nurse dismissed my concerns as my own fault, saying that you should never rely on a doctor’s office to call you back with test results because mostly they don’t. She’s in the business, after all, and would know.
So the Ebola thing doesn’t surprise me much.
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brian stouder said on October 2, 2014 at 8:44 am
And regarding the guy who made all the way into the White House, please note that the guy who finally DID tackle the intruder was an off duty person who just happened to be there.
All the on-duty people simply failed in their jobs.
And indeed – why on earth was the front door unlocked? You have to be ‘buzzed in’ to pretty much any public school I’ve ever seen – but the White House is wide open?
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Julie Robinson said on October 2, 2014 at 9:51 am
I love my doctor for his compassion and common sense approach, and because he keeps asking me if I have any more questions and won’t leave until I say no. I’ve had many other doctors who showed no kindness and couldn’t wait to leave the exam room. One specialist never looked me in the face during the entire appointment, an appointment I’d had to wait 10 weeks for. (I never went back to him.)
That said, his office staff is a hot mess. I have to follow up and pester them for everything, including test results. In the last year they’ve gone to an online system, and you can request scrips, labs, and appointments electronically. So far this new system is working better than the old one.
Do remember that your medical record legally belongs to you. I always ask for a printout of labs, because I am OCD enough that I keep those all in one place together, along with my other medical records.
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Deborah said on October 2, 2014 at 9:53 am
Long ago when I still lived in St. Louis my doctor sent me to a specialist about my gall bladder because when I had a CAT scan for my neck pain weirdly gall stones showed up way in a different area than they were focusing on. But I wasn’t having any pain there or anything related to that. I never heard back from my Dr about what the specialist recommended. I was really busy at work and totally forgot to follow up on it. Months later I called my Dr and he said that the specialist had recommended that I have surgery on my gall bladder, but no one had ever called to tell me that. I decided not to do anything about it unless I was having pain there. We’ll that was at least 15 years ago, maybe 20 and I’ve never had any problem with my gall bladder. So either the stones dissolved by themselves or they’re still there. I have no idea. Maybe someday it will give me problems, then I’ll do something about it. I just hope by that then I’ll be on Medicare.
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Deborah said on October 2, 2014 at 9:55 am
Well not we’ll
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Sherri said on October 2, 2014 at 11:34 am
DavidC, bones to set? When’s the last time you went to an ER with a broken bone? I’ve had two in the last 5 years or so, and neither time did the ER set it. They X-rayed it, said, yep, it’s broken (which was beyond obvious in one situation, it was also dislocated), splinted it up, wrote me a prescription for pain medication, and told me to follow up with an orthopedic surgeon. And that’s with good insurance.
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Sherri said on October 2, 2014 at 11:38 am
To be fair, my experience might have been different had I gone to an ER at a hospital with a trauma center, but that would have involved driving into Seattle (30 minutes if the traffic cooperated) and an even longer wait at the ER, likely.
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brian stouder said on October 2, 2014 at 12:16 pm
I hesitate to share this, as all of us hereabouts seem to be serious pet people, but a very (very) unpleasant task has devolved upon me, and it really is causing more than a little distress. We are a 2-cat house, and one of our cats seems to be avid about urinating on targets of opportunity. If someone leaves clothes on a floor – it may well get marked. And, one of our chairs in the living room has become a semi-frequent target. We’ve scrubbed and scrubbed, and tried various potions that are supposed to dissuade her from this – but all have failed. In fact, in the past week she has escalated her campaign against our chair to include defecation (but not that prehistoric fecal matter, as Cooz taught us the other day).
So Pam and I have discussed the necessity of taking this cat to the pound, or else becoming crazy-cat people that live in a house that smells like a litter-box (with many floral scents added), and in the interest of not making her the bad-guy, the task devolved upon me. I’ve spoken with each of the young folks individually, and they are resigned to it….and then this morning as I was leaving for work, I noticed Pam has the pet-taxi on the table…so today is D-Day.
In fact, when I go to lunch (right about now), that is task #1……
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Jolene said on October 2, 2014 at 12:28 pm
This talk of what doctors don’t do is terrifying me. For about a week, I’ve been having severe pain in my left knee. I can walk, but just barely. My hopes that it would get better with rest, ice, and a boatload of ibuprofen have not been realized, so, this afternoon, I’m going to an urgent care clinic to see if they can tell me what’s wrong and what needs to be done to fix it. Of course, what I want is for them to fix it today. I know that won’t happen, but I hope they can, at least, tell me what the fix is going to be. I can’t bear the thought of more days of pain and limited mobility while I wait for scans, orthopedic consults, and such. Wish me luck.
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Dorothy said on October 2, 2014 at 12:54 pm
Oh Jolene that’s too bad. Did you slip and twist it somehow? I’m guessing you may have torn something. I hope you get relief soon. Have you ever had a cortisone shot in your knee? That might help. I had cortisone shots in my thumb joints once in awhile before I had the basal joint surgery. It brings relief but eventually the shots lose their effectiveness.
Brian our cat has been doing something similar, but not on a regular basis. She will go for weeks not peeing on things, and then start up again. She has peed on a pair of my flip flops on a couple of occasions; sometimes it’s a piece of paper or a magazine on the floor. But the worst has been the peeing on a nice area rug we bought last year for our new house in Dayton. Just about two weeks ago I finally urged my husband to remove the rug from the room. We had also been scrubbing the spots when we found them, and I even bought a UV flashlight to see if we were missing any spots (we were not). But all the OxyClean in the world was not making the smell disappear. We must have four or five different carpet cleaning sprays that you can get in the grocery store or a pet store. She’ll pee on throw rugs in front of the kitchen sink, or in front of our entry door (which we keep in place only in the winter). We had her checked at the vet – no health issues were evident. We theorize that she’s responding to stray cats who sometimes pee around our house. You can smell it when you go outside sometimes. We also have a lot of squirrels on our property due to several black walnut trees and the treats that are spread out in the grass for the squirrels. She has never peed on anything on the second floor of our house except in her litter box upstairs. But the floor and various items seem to be fair game.
I’m happy to say now that the area rug is out of the house, we haven’t had one instance of her peeing on anything. We have three litter boxes (for ONE CAT!) and she’s them well. The basement door is not always open for her to go downstairs, but if she does go down there, there is a box for her to use. We love her dearly but I really think if I had a cat peeing on a piece of furniture (chair, sofa, bed), that would be the deal breaker for me. Good luck. It’s not fun, I know. And who can you talk to about this?! Not many people, I guarantee.
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Sue said on October 2, 2014 at 12:54 pm
Brian, do not take your cat to the pound unless your intention is to have it live in a cage for what time it has left. A home will not be found for it. The cat’s chances of finding a good, new home are poor to bad and its chances of living a crummy (multi-owner repeat return) and/or short life are good to great. Not dissing the pound, that’s the way it works with a cat that has the marking liability.
Back off on this please for a little while, keep cleaning, and think about what you would be doing to the cat. Is the cat old, is there a possibility of dementia? Urinary tract infection?
I know this is harsh to say, but I would put a cat with a marking problem to sleep before I would take it to an animal shelter. They’re not miracle workers and you are asking them to find a home for a cat that sprays.
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alex said on October 2, 2014 at 1:27 pm
Brian, if it were me I’d make her into an outdoors kitty. Give her a place in the garage with a pet door for egress/ingress or a heated house outside. But before exercising that option I’d do what Sue suggests and rule out any medical causes.
I’d be surprised if the pound, or any shelter at all, would be willing to take a cat. They’re overrun with cats and end up having to destroy most of them.
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Dorothy said on October 2, 2014 at 1:30 pm
I agree with Sue. If we had to deal with Lucy over this issue, I’d never take her to a pound. I’d opt for euthanasia. Every time Mike would threaten to get her out of the house, I’d say “Then you have to be the one to do it; I won’t.” He is finally not saying it anymore since we checked the carpeting in the basement with the UV flashlight. We determined any odor from the basement is from her litter box, or the lidded can where we empty out her #2s.
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Jolene said on October 2, 2014 at 1:48 pm
No obvious injury to my knee. It just started hurting spontaneously. Seemed to get a bit better after the first day, but then reached a plateau and, today, seems worse again. It may just be that age and being far from thin are catching up with me. Cortisone may be the answer. Even if it’s temporary, the relief would help. If I have to have surgery, I need to put some supports in place first. Living solo is, for the most part, fine with me, but it’s damn inconvenient when health issues arise.
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brian stouder said on October 2, 2014 at 2:02 pm
Jolene, that sounds a great deal like no fun at all!
Today has been no fun at all (I’ll spare you the details), and it will become less fun this evening, when the girls are home. (I sat down with each of them over the past few days, and discussed this situation with them in advance)
Still, Jolene’s travails put this whole cat-thing in perspective.
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Dexter said on October 2, 2014 at 2:06 pm
I guess it’s easier; at least I take bad news stoically now, I guess anyway.
Tuesday my youth league baseball coach died, just 74, but that’s about all a guy can expect. Now I just read about a man from my old homestead area I knew all my life, joked around with as an adult and attended a couple Notre Dame basketball games with a few decades ago has passed at age 84, and again, that’s a full life.
I just can’t process more than one every few weeks, ya know? The Grim Reaper keeps getting louder in my ears, “Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now!”. Dickweed bastard anyway.
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Julie Robinson said on October 2, 2014 at 2:14 pm
What a wrenching decision.
Our son’s cat became an outdoor cat this spring but he keeps getting himself in fights. After the last $500 (!!!) vet bill for surgical repairs, which was his responsibility, we suggested that kitty stay closed in the garage at night. I blame it on the current neutering method, which is a vasectomy rather than castration. His hormones keep leading him into trouble.
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brian stouder said on October 2, 2014 at 2:43 pm
His hormones keep leading him into trouble.
Now THAT would be a great first sentence for a short story.
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Sherri said on October 2, 2014 at 2:51 pm
College athletes may be unduly protected in some areas, but never forget, it’s really the school that’s being protected, and the school is perfectly willing to screw the athlete: http://www.swishappeal.com/2014/10/2/6884101/daisha-simmons-transfer-alabama-seton-hall-jay-bilas
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LAMary said on October 2, 2014 at 2:55 pm
Medical Assistants, in my experience, get paid less working in a doctor’s office than they do working in a hospital. They don’t get benefits either. Some do. Not all docs are cheapskates. It’s remarkable how low the salaries are for a lot of healthcare jobs.
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Sue said on October 2, 2014 at 3:05 pm
LAMary, it’s always surprised me the number of people in healthcare without healthcare.
As in food service, is this a situation where you want someone working around you while they’re ill?
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brian stouder said on October 2, 2014 at 3:27 pm
Sherri – that article is flat-out annoying; a definite example of the Golden Rule* in action.
*as in – those that have the gold get to make the rules
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Heather said on October 2, 2014 at 3:46 pm
Please, Brian–not the pound! They’ll put it down for sure. Have you taken it to the vet? It sounds like a health issue. Cats do that when they are pain sometimes. Maybe a UTI, which is quite common. Please do this before doing anything drastic. It could also be a territorial thing. Sometimes shelters and humane societies have behavioral hotlines you can call for advice. Please, please try one of these.
Also, re the smell, there is some stuff called Simple Solution. Spray stuff. It is an enzymatic product and really works. You can find it at the pet store.
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Suzanne said on October 2, 2014 at 4:28 pm
Must be a cat peeing epidemic! Ours is doing the same thing. She suddenly decided the litter box was optional and that shoes, the bathroom rug, the heating vent, or the basement floor worked just as well. I thought UTI so we took her to the vet and $200 later found out she is just fine: no diabetes, infection, no nuttin’. She’s old, so vet thought maybe it hurt to step into the box due to arthritis. Ok, but the boxes are all pretty much the same size.
My husband, too,expressed concern that we would become “those” people who’s house smells like a cat box but don’t notice. Yikes!
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Dave said on October 2, 2014 at 5:37 pm
Dexter, my sympathies to you, I’m feeling the march of time, too. One of my dear childhood friends had a hip replacement this week, and my sister-in-law had one last week. I ran into a former co-worker the other day and I was shocked at his appearance and condition, why, he walked like an old man, just shuffling along. I think he’s roughly ten years older than myself. Our vet that we had for our dear departed pup passed away a couple of weeks ago, he was only 67. Only. Yes, “Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us”, indeed.
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Deborah said on October 2, 2014 at 5:43 pm
If any of you have emailed me you probably got one from me today. Don’t open it because it’s a hack job and if you have opened it already don’t click on any links. I’m trying to notify everyone, what a pain. I have a new email address now, closing out the old one.
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David C. said on October 2, 2014 at 6:12 pm
Sherri @51. I didn’t realize they didn’t set bones in the ER. I’ve never broken one. That’s good to know.
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Jolene said on October 2, 2014 at 6:22 pm
I’ve gone to ERs twice with broken bones, and, on both occasions, ended up having surgery to put them back together. The first time, I had broken my ankle in three places, and they admitted me immediately and operated the next morning. The second time, I had broken my wrist, and they wrapped it up with the idea that I would come back the next day to determine whether the orthopod thought surgery was necessary. He did, of course, so I had the surgery a few days later.
Am just back from urgent care, which was not terribly helpful. They gave me some pain meds and told me to see an orthopod. I’d hoped for an actual diagnosis, if not a definitive treatment.
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Sherri said on October 2, 2014 at 6:33 pm
Jolene, I don’t think they admit as readily for surgery to reduce broken bones. One of my broken bones, a badly broken and dislocated wrist, actually required two surgeries, one to reduce the dislocation and another to plate the fracture. Both were done as same-day surgeries, no hospital admission. The second fracture didn’t require surgery to set, but the ER doc still didn’t attempt it, just splinted it and told me to see an orthopod.
This is why the whole notion that if you don’t have insurance you can just get treated in the ER is stupid. The ER will do what is necessary to keep you from dying, but not necessarily treat you in the sense that the people saying that think.
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Deborah said on October 2, 2014 at 6:34 pm
I’m in moderation because of my new email address, but Jolene I’m so sorry you’re experiencing pain. Hope you get some relief soon.
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Sue said on October 2, 2014 at 7:13 pm
In the emergency room of a hospital near us there is a sign that says, basically, if you don’t have insurance we’re required to stabilize you and get you out the door, and that is what we will do.
The hospital has a name that starts with “St.”.
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basset said on October 2, 2014 at 8:46 pm
Cat: Similar situation here but more controlled, we have a couple of stains in the hallway floor and adding the litter box helped. Litter box is now in the wrong place, but the cat is almost sixteen and is gonna check out soon (or so we think, she’s had that dull-fur, can’t-keep-weight-on look for months now). About to try moving the new litter box back to the location of the old one. Again.
Body slam: Football is a man’s game. Invade our territory, you’re gonna have to do battle. This is war. Get up, loser, and get off the field. And shut up about concussions, you (expletive).
March of time: Both younger brothers gone. Several from my high school class gone too but I barely remember them, in a couple of cases not at all.
“Hormones leading him into trouble”: Just a fond memory, maybe more than one.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on October 2, 2014 at 9:01 pm
Jolene, cartilage seems to be one of those things that leave us in our fifties, along with a waist, our distance vision, and career options. There’s a whole waiting room’s worth of people my wife’s and my ages (which I believe bracket you) who are suddenly having and hearing from their doctors that the pain is due to a disappearance of cartilage in joints that have no history of major injury or episodes. Hope it’s a cortisone-responsive issue that doesn’t take your doc straight to “so when do you want to schedule that joint replacement?” Which they seem to recommend rather quickly these days, so make sure to ask questions.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on October 2, 2014 at 9:03 pm
Basset, changing litter box locations have added years or at least months to cat lives in our house. But I have to agree with everyone about euthanizing over impoundment. Because a pound deposit is just euthanization in slow motion.
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Julie Robinson said on October 2, 2014 at 10:40 pm
Oh Jefftmmo, how I wish my distance vision had waited until my 50’s to leave me!
Jolene, I hope by now those painkillers have taken hold. My own outchy knee comes and goes but I am trying to avoid surgery. Ask about physical therapy to help you heal and strengthen you against future injury. And insist on getting one with a no-pain mindset. But, you’ve probably put your crack research skills to work and know all this already. Keep us updated.
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basset said on October 2, 2014 at 11:31 pm
Achy joints… some of us “mature” men would probably be more likely to take Diclofenac regularly if the tablets were blue instead of white and shaped a little differently.
I’m 59 and my “good” knee hurts more than the one I blew out playing basketball when I was in my low thirties.
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Jeff (the mild-mannered one) said on October 3, 2014 at 12:13 am
Jolene, don’t take crack. Wait, what did Julie mean? Nevermind.
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Dexter said on October 3, 2014 at 1:51 am
Sports bonanza days, but the Tigers went into Baltimore and da boids slaughtered them, and in football the fuckin’ Packers won. And the one good news story came out of Anaheim where KC edged the Angels by a run. Ironically for me, my one dear friend from Kansas City is a political junkie and barely follows her local teams’ wins and losses.
Here’s a potential lede for the Bell Gardens story: “At least she didn’t hack his dick off.” No, this was just a straight-up murder. Husband beats 19 year old son into submission, wife shoots husband dead. LA suburbs.
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Dave said on October 3, 2014 at 2:22 am
Yeah, classmates, since I attended the same school system all twelve years (no kindergarten then), I’ve known some of my classmates since first grade. Why, that’s 58 years now. So, I remember all of them but most of us are still kicking. My brother’s class, two years behind me, has lost a lot of classmates from everything from wrecks to cancer to heart attacks to suicide. Ours, one murder, one heart attack, and I believe one cancer.
LAMary, I know absolutely nothing about your part of the country, I’ve never been there, but my youngest son is out in a LA suburb named North Hill right now. Can you tell me anything about it?
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Dave said on October 3, 2014 at 2:23 am
North Hills, sorry. Edit would have been nice.
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Dexter said on October 3, 2014 at 2:41 am
Well Dave, I never give advice, but if you do visit your son someday, try to pencil in some time to go north out of LA and get to Yosemite National Park, May is best, when the waterfalls are really spectacular. LA Mary posted a photo of the place on Facebook just yesterday.
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Jolene said on October 3, 2014 at 7:06 am
Good lord, check out this description of conditions at the apartment complex was staying. Many people who haven’t heard of Ebola or don’t really know what it is, many who don’t read or speak English well enough to understand the information about it that they’ve been given, and family members who don’t seem overly concerned about the situation.
I seem to never run out of opportunities to be reminded that there are lots of people who are not occupying the same information environment that I am. I trust the public health officials who tell us that outbreaks in the US are manageable, but, between the hospital sending the guy home when they shouldn’t have and poorly informed civilians handling contaminated materials, it doesn’t take a lot of imagination to see how things could get worse.
We should all be grateful to the nephew from North Carolina who called the CDC after his uncle was I appropriately discharged from the Dallas hospital.
http://www.dallasnews.com/news/metro/20141002-among-those-closest-to-dallas-ebola-case-confusion-reigns.ece
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Jolene said on October 3, 2014 at 7:08 am
Yikes! First sentence should say “at the apartment complex where the Texas Ebola patient was staying.” Will the edit button ever come back?
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coozledad said on October 3, 2014 at 9:36 am
Dirtbags, every goddamn one of them. If you rounded up every Republican and jailed them, the world would be a much better place.
http://wonkette.com/562297/north-carolina-republican-says-he-did-not-commit-medicare-fraud-with-that-woman
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basset said on October 3, 2014 at 9:40 am
Just to distract us from bloody murder and hemorrhaging from the eyeballs for a minute – interesting story about the last Studebaker Avanti, sold in Warren, Ohio, and a note a line worker left in the trunk:
http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2014/10/02/last-studebaker-built-avanti-to-go-on-national-historic-vehicle-register/?refer=news
(and I know they were revived later in varying degrees of authenticity, by the time everything finally tapered off someone was putting bloated Avanti shells on Chevy Monte Carlo underpinnings and even making prototype four-doors. Bad Avanti, bad…)
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brian stouder said on October 3, 2014 at 10:18 am
I’d just about say that I recall seeing those Monte Carlo-looking things around.
They looked for all the world like the little sister to the Road Queen Family Truckster (see National Lampoon’s Vacation).
Cooz – amazing, isn’t it? And if the angry white people who vote there had a non-white perp…errr – rep who did the same things, it would all just fit so much more conveniently within their blinkered world-view
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Bob (not Greene) said on October 3, 2014 at 10:42 am
Maybe everyone swings by coozledad’s blog regularly, so this won’t be news to anyone. But, man, if you think he pulls no punches here, well, all I have to say is … well you should just give it a look. I’d hate to be a “swamp tater” right about now. I don’t know how much traction you get in Person County, cooze, but the local GOP must have a picture of you prominently displayed at the backyard target range. http://rurritable.wordpress.com/
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Sue said on October 3, 2014 at 10:45 am
I’d like to hear Nancy’s thoughts on the court ruling earlier this week that poor people in Detroit don’t have a ‘right’ to water. Judge’s hands are tied, apparently.
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coozledad said on October 3, 2014 at 11:07 am
Bob (not Greene):
Larry (Swamp Tater) has been trying to get those pictures taken down, but fuck him. He’s been circulating racist flyers against his black opponent. The pictures came from a Facebook page, and the GOP cached them, in the event they could find a candidate who wasn’t constantly shitfaced.
Republicans have two settings-swaggering racist blowhard and whiny shit-covered shoat. They’re contemptible. I don’t know if it’s the frat lifestyle that hardens them to their own stupidity or that mewling blanket of racism that blinds them. Whatever it is, the ultimate result is a kind of pants-shitting cowardice that would be pure comedy if they weren’t dicking us all up the ass.
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nancy said on October 3, 2014 at 11:15 am
OK, Sue. Here’s my take, and it requires a little background:
For years and years, the water department allowed a culture of non-payment to take root. People knew water shutoffs were few and far between, and simply let those bills go when they needed to. So for the department to suddenly, seemingly overnight, institute a get-tough policy was pretty ham-fisted. It should be noted that when it was announced, suddenly 60 percent of the accounts in arrears were paid in full, so it’s obvious not every deadbeat was doing so out of economic necessity.
But.
I’m baffled by the advocates who claim water is a “right” and shutoffs were a violation of that right. What happens when you don’t pay your utility bill in any other city in the country? Eventually, that utility will be shut off. Is water less of a right in Grand Rapids, Cleveland or Indianapolis? I do believe that, having allowed that culture of non-payment to stay in place so long, they need some sort of contingency/payment plan for the people who aren’t paying, because not having water will just lead to more abandonment, more theft of water, more chaos. And that didn’t happen. I’ve heard stories that would curl your hair — water running literally for years in vacant structures, employees brokering service restoration under the table, etc.
But a right, to me, is something you’re granted by virtue of birth or citizenship, not a public utility everyone else has to pay for.
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brian stouder said on October 3, 2014 at 11:18 am
Regarding a previous sub-thread, I think when my kids are my age, they will say “I remember when they played tackle football in high school”
http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/02/us/new-york-football-player-death/index.html?hpt=hp_t2
The lead:
A varsity football player from suburban New York high school died after colliding with an opponent during a game, a school official said.
Tom Cutinella, a 16-year-old student at Shoreham-Wading River High School, suffered a serious head injury during Wednesday night’s game against Elwood-John H. Glenn High School, according to Suffolk County Police spokeswoman Joan Jesinger.
Cutinella was transported to Long Island’s Huntington Hospital, where he died later, Jesinger said.
He was the third high school football player to die in the last week (emphasis added by me), according to published reports.
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Sue said on October 3, 2014 at 11:40 am
Nancy,
Yes but.
My utility shuts off electricity for the good-weather months. And like you say, it suddenly brings in the payments. There are people who don’t pay any utility bills in winter here and make good once the pink slip is posted on their door in spring, it’s an actual budget choice rather than a poverty issue. On the other hand, spring is when our local St. Vincent De Paul society is suddenly inundated with requests for payment help, so there are real issues of poverty here as anywhere.
But never water shutoffs, never, because water is ‘life sustaining’.
I’m also curious about the discrepancy between just regular folks and (as I read) places like golf courses which are allowed to rack up bills in the high thousands, whereas arrears of about $100 get your water turned off in Detroit.
This is long-distance information I’m picking up here and there, so I’m not getting the finer points. But to me the finest point on this is that you can’t live without water.
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Sherri said on October 3, 2014 at 12:17 pm
Another story about the Alabama women’s basketball coaching staff, this time happy to let a player go: http://www.swishappeal.com/2014/10/3/6896491/alabama-womens-basketball-brittany-jack-kristy-curry
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Deborah said on October 3, 2014 at 12:56 pm
Coozledad sure does have a way with words. Swamp Tatter sounds like a loser.
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Judybusy said on October 3, 2014 at 1:03 pm
I am in the midst of reading a book about water issues. It’s called The Big Thirst, by Charles Fishman, and I highly recommend it. Only tangentially related ot the Detroit situation. A friend also shared this article about the effect of the drought in California. What the hell are these folks supposed to do? There are water trucks that can be mobilized that bring in millions of gallons of water. Why isn’t the state providing that? Should they?
In Minneapolis, we do eventually shut off water for non-payment, and the house is automatically condemned at that point. I just screened a woman with bipolar disorder for civil commitment who rebutted offered help from Adult Protection to get organized to pay her bills–she has sufficient funds–and to her increasingly filthy home cleaned up. I believe she’d been without water for at least a month, and I’m not sure what the delay getting her hospitalized was.
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Sherri said on October 3, 2014 at 1:47 pm
It seems like there are always tax dollars to throw at professional sports teams, no matter how odious the owners: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/03/sports/football/sniffing-for-dollars-at-home-of-the-vikings.html?ref=sports
Detroit may be shutting off water to poor people, but how much money are they giving to Mike Ilitch for his new hockey arena?
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MichaelG said on October 3, 2014 at 1:51 pm
There have been several references to difficulties with medical care in the last day or so, including references to problems in getting people to coordinate, getting appointments and getting test results.
I’m now back in the arms of my provider, Kaiser, since the thing on my thigh has started to grow back with a vengeance. We went to see my surgeon on Wednesday. Turns out his family comes from Madrid and I was just 36 hours off the plane from Madrid. Also my wife (Ex, sort of) is from Lisbon. We had a nice chat before getting to business. After examining me, he ordered up a CT scan which I will have today, an MRI which I will have next Wednesday and blood work which was completed yesterday. I have an appointment with my oncologist on Monday the 13th. He also noted that he and the oncologist will be discussing matters before my appointment on the 13th.
My appt. with the surgeon was for 11:10 Wed. morning. At 11:10 we were talking to Dr. Perez. I had the lab work done yesterday morning about 10:00. The lab is a walk in deal and the wait was around 15 minutes. By around 2:00 PM the full lab results had been emailed to me (and the Drs., obviously). All of this done with a smile and a pleasant word from everybody concerned. This is the kind of care to which I have become accustomed at Kaiser. I think it makes a very large difference when everyone and everything is together under one umbrella.
Since I’m now an old codger, Medicare is paying the Kaiser premium that I used to share with my employer and covers my co-pays. I just fell into all this. Truly, I’m a lucky guy and am grateful.
Medical records? Kaiser will give you a copy of yours on a thumb drive. The first time costs $5 and that includes the drive. Updates cost nothing. I got it updated a couple of weeks ago, made a copy and took it with me to Spain.
I also saw earlier that Little Bird is having surgery for a tumor on her thigh soon. Be optimistic, Little Bird. The incision on my thigh was 21cm long and has healed into just a skinny pink scar. Nothing scary looking. There is quite a depression because a large part of my quadriceps was removed, let’s hope that that won’t be part of your treatment. But think of the alternative. It doesn’t really look that bad. Best of luck. I know you will be just fine.
Also, Jolene, please feel better too.
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brian stouder said on October 3, 2014 at 2:05 pm
Sherri – the lead sentence in your linked article got me laughing out loud:
MINNEAPOLIS — The Wilfs, a family of real estate barons from New Jersey, offer an excellent example of that rarefied subspecies known as the 21st-century N.F.L. owner.
“The Wilfs”??!!
Wealthy (rat) I’d like to f***?
Wiffenpoof?
Wanker?
Wisconsin-transplant?
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Deborah said on October 3, 2014 at 3:08 pm
MichaelG, we’ll be thinking of you while you undergo new tests etc.
One thing I find disconcerting is that no one had called Little Bird about when exactly on the 8th the surgery is scheduled, it’s less than a week away now so I asked Little Bird to call them. She did and they said they would call her the day before the surgery and tell her all of the particulars about time and what she should do in preparation. I think that’s weird. I mean, I’m here to drive her and all of that but what if I wasn’t and she had to arrange transportation through friends or whatever? Many of her friends work odd hours and they’d have to know ahead of time to be available. People just think everyone can hop in a car at the drop of a hat and drive 50 miles to a hospital. I think that’s presumptuous.
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brian stouder said on October 3, 2014 at 3:14 pm
http://wane.com/2014/10/03/teen-dies-days-after-accident-at-wayne-high-school/
Shelby has been very tuned-in to this story, which has been unfolding for the past week at her high school, and which just hit the local media today. The long and the short of it was that there was a powder-puff football game in the week leading up to Homecoming, and these kiddos were “car surfing” in a far corner of the vast parking lot there.
The girl was a year ahead of Shelby, and the accident has been the floating subject for the past 2 weeks (as we motor to and from Wayne, for her flag corps/band practice, 3 or 4 times a week), since the injured young lady was (seemingly) winning the fight for her life in the hospital; and then she passed away.
Paraphrasing what a famous person said (we’ll skip the name!) – death is generally no fun for anyone, and is especially hard on young folks, since it takes them unawares.
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Dorothy said on October 3, 2014 at 3:50 pm
That’s pretty much SOP for surgeries, Deborah. When I had my thumb surgeries and my knee replacement, I didn’t know until the day before what time I had to show up the next day. They can’t call you until the schedule is worked up for the operating rooms. Once I even got a call back to change a surgery time a couple of hours after they’d already informed me. I guess they presume your driver is committed for the entire day when you need a ride to the hospital.
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Judybusy said on October 3, 2014 at 4:14 pm
MichaelG, I really hope all goes well. Deborah, best of luck to Little Bird, too!
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Deborah said on October 3, 2014 at 6:07 pm
Little Bird’s surgery is in Albuquerque because that’s where UNM is, I suppose most people would be going to a hospital in their same city, but that’s not the case with us. I know I’m making a big stink over this for nothing since I’m here and I can certainly drive her and of course I’m happy to do that, I wouldn’t have it any other way. It just makes you think about what people do if they have no family around and don’t drive. There are a lot of elderly people in that position so there have to be options? And come to think of it Little Bird really couldn’t drive herself even if she was able to drive because she will be going under anesthesia. What do people do in those situations?
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Jolene said on October 3, 2014 at 7:15 pm
Deborah, if people have no family around and aren’t able to drive themselves, they are screwed. With my bad knee, the problem is not so much getting a ride (there are always cabs), but getting out of my apartment, which involves hallways and elevators. I’ll spare you the details of what I went through to get to urgent care yesterday.
Today, I called for an appointment to see an orthopedist, as recommended. I was able to get an appointment on Monday, and I told them that the urgent care people had indicated I would likely need an MRI. Said that it was hard for me to get around and that it would be extremely helpful if we could figure out how to minimize trips. Of course, they said they couldn’t order any imaging studies until after they had seen me, so it’ll be a trip to the orthopod, one (I hope not more than one) for whatever images they order and then, I imagine, pack to the orthopod to be told I need daily PT.
Can hardly wait.
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Deborah said on October 3, 2014 at 7:33 pm
Jolene, so sorry, if I lived near you I would certainly help. Since I’m retired I have nothing but time. Alas living in Chicago and Santa Fe is no help to you.
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Kirk said on October 4, 2014 at 8:00 pm
Jeez, more than 24 hours of dead air.
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brian stouder said on October 4, 2014 at 9:42 pm
Well, we had a marching band contest at Homestead High School, which was so windy, and so rainy, and so cold – that we paid to get in, got stamped out after we saw Pam’s niece’s band, and then returned later for Shelby’s (Wayne High School) band and flag corps, and then South Side’s Green Machine (gotta love South Side, as it was Grant’s school up ’til he graduated last year, and it was my school 35 years ago), and then we fled again.
Friday evening, Grant and I went to South Side to see the football game, and I spent the first half on the Visitor side of the field (the better to be with my peeps from Wayne/Wayne New Tech), and then the second half with good ol’ South Side. And indeed, it was quite rainy and windy and cold, and Wayne pounded South Side…but more importantly, all us Wayne folks could be together and watch the event, and begin to deal with the loss of one of our students, and the bumpy treatment it got in social-media land. (and indeed, I still think when our kids are my age, they will tell their kids they remember when high schools still fielded football teams). I got to gab with the principal a little bit, and indeed – he had endured quite the rough week, all around.
And tonight/Sunday am (wee hours) – the F1 race I was very much looking forward to from Japan may well be cancelled by a super-typhoon which is about to lash the island nation…and I found nothing on the internet about this story.
Social media is great at spit-balling and goo-gawing, but deficient (at least sometimes) on actual news stories
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Kirk said on October 4, 2014 at 9:58 pm
Doesn’t seem to be anything definitive anywhere, Brian. Guess we’ll just have to stay up until 1:30 and see how big the rooster tails are.
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Bob (not Greene) said on October 4, 2014 at 11:06 pm
Brian S, my wife lived in Concordia Gardens and went to Mabel K Holland and Northrup Jr High in Fort Wayne back in the mid 1970s. Is that anywhere near you?
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Bob (not Greene) said on October 4, 2014 at 11:07 pm
*Northwood Jr High
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Deborah said on October 5, 2014 at 1:07 am
I just had an unsettling experience, I drove at night for the first time in ages. My night vision has never been great but now it’s terrible, especially my right eye. When I get back to Chicago I’m going to see my ophthalmologist pronto. Little Bird and I went to Taos again to deliver more drawings to our contractor, while the our neighbor in Abiquiu invited us to a spur of the moment barbecue. So we went directly there from Taos. It took forever to finally get some food because those neighbors have horses and they had a bunch of horse chores to do besides making the food. I left at around 9 and that’s when I realized how bad my night vision has gotten.
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MichaelG said on October 5, 2014 at 2:46 am
Cataracts, Deborah? Do get checked and be safe.
Well, Brian. I’m going to bed. Yellow flag laps in the rain.
On the plus side, Cal has just beaten Washington State 60 to 59 in a titanic defensive struggle up in the Paloose. Wazoo missed a 19 yard field goal with seconds left to give it to Cal.
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MichaelG said on October 5, 2014 at 2:49 am
Palouse.
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LAMary said on October 5, 2014 at 12:04 pm
Deborah, it could be a cataract.
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brian stouder said on October 5, 2014 at 5:34 pm
Bob – That was the fancy end of Fort Wayne! I grew up on the southeast side, near McMillan Park. They used to do the 4th of July fireworks show there, and you could see them from our front yard (although quite often we’d walk over there for the whole enchilada)
And, back in the day, you could drop off your Christmas tree at McMillan, and then they’d have a great big blazing Christmas tree fire – which struck me as genuinely spectacular (at the time), but now makes me wonder how they ever came to the conclusion that THAT was a good idea!
Anyway, quite often as our neighbors moved away, they moved straight north to your area. I remember a neighbor from three doors down that moved into a housing addition just off Trier Road, and I thought that was flat-out fancy-shmansee! (Another friend moved southwest, to what was generally referred to as Aboite*, and went to Homestead High School, and became a drug addict – forever poisoning my opinion of Homestead and ‘Aboiters’)
And, for several years back when I was a young fella and had hair, I worked at the Maloleys/Lynns at Maplecrest and Stellhorn Road (I think it is now a Big Lots).
But we’re now directly west of channel 15 (just south off West State, before you get to Hillegas Rd).
Aside from all that, the Formula One race started out farcically, and then became compelling, and then ended in tragedy – although no one is dead yet, at this writing. I guess I have a love/hate relationship with F1, and today the ‘hate’ part is the one that got watered and nourished
*The actual little place that is called Aboite was just up the road from my Uncle Harley’s farm, and it always struck me as worth a giggle that the name became synonomous with the preferred place for snobby snoots to live
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Deborah said on October 5, 2014 at 8:59 pm
We completely revamped the kitchen in Santa Fe because I made a poor purchase. We’re thinking about keeping some of our plants alive through the winter so I purchased a shelving unit that I thought would fit perfectly but ended up looking terrible in the spot near the window that we thought would be optimal for sun. So since I figured it wasn’t worth returning we’d make it work in the kitchen instead. One thing led to another and before I knew it we’d reorganized every cabinet and drawer. Whew. It’s going to take some getting used to and my cat is beside herself with the changes. Tomorrow we go to Abiquiu for the beginning of the building project. Busy, busy, busy.
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brian stouder said on October 5, 2014 at 10:03 pm
Deborah – my bet is that the household of a thoughtful designer/architect such as yourself is always libel to a thorough makeover/revamp!
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