09:11 – Laundry and science kit stuff for me today. Barbara has yard work. With taxes out of the way, I can get back to re-writing the forensics book.
Our target date for biology kit availability was 18 April, which we’ll meet. I don’t expect to start getting many biology kits orders until maybe a week or two after the book hits the stores, which is late this month or early next. We have 30 biology kits in stock, and the components in inventory we need to build another 30 in a couple of hours. We also have most of what we need to build 30 more chemistry kits. All we lack is a few of the bottled chemicals, and we’ll be filling, labeling, and sealing the last group of those this weekend.
I talked to our letter carrier the other day. Until now, the most I’ve been shipping is one or two kits a day. I told him that with the new book hitting the stores, that number might increase significantly on some days, and asked if that would be a problem for him. He asked how many, and I told him I didn’t really know but it might be five or ten kits on a heavy day and maybe more than that on a very heavy day. He said it’d be no problem at all. We’re near the end of his route, so his truck is normally almost empty when he delivers our mail. He said that if there wasn’t room in his truck he’d take what he could and come back to get the rest or, if necessary, call in to the post office and have them send out an empty truck.
Man, slow day at Bob’s blog today. Must be all out enjoying the wonderful spring sunshine and blue skies. Except for those in the mid-western states, where they must be hunkering down in the storm cellars. Hope Chuck is ready in Tiny Town.
Mrs. OFD got outta Missouri just in time, looks like.
OFD wrote:
“Man, slow day at Bob’s blog today.”
I have it on good authority that Bob’s taken the day off to go cat hunting with Colin… 🙂
Been working my butt off, between taking care of the four-year-old, writing, and looking for a new full-time contract. So sorry you’ve missed out on my wit and wisdom. (Or cut-rate facsimiles of each.)
I think the worst of it is over. Lots of thunderboomers today, and the grass looks like it has grown a couple inches just during the constant rain. Still intending to build the earth shelter house if Tiny House ever sells–then I would not even know what is going on outside.
Relatedly, we got a notice at the radio project, that the National Weather Service does not think they scare enough people with their forecasts (they pretty much said it that way), and are going to make them sound more threatening starting now. In fact, there have been messages all day about possible tornadoes from Iowa through Ohio. Hardly any wind at all today, so they really make themselves look like they are crying wolf. Fact is that there are so many tests of the emergency sirens around here that when a real emergency comes, nobody will pay any attention.
Meanwhile, my son and his S.O. returned from almost a year in the land of 1/8 of my forebearers: Lakotaland of S. Dakota. My son can work anywhere there is Internet, and the S.O. had the opportunity for some career training there; they love camping and spent most of their weekends exploring the Badlands, Custer National Park & Forest, and N. Dakota right up to Canada. They have some amazing wildlife pictures, and landscape photos that my son describes as Mars, but really the mountains of the Dakotas. The terrain is so rugged that it looks impossible to traverse. Apparently, my minimalism rubbed off on them. They proved that you can live in a 1 room efficiency with only camping equipment, as she decided to take the job while they were on a 1 month vacation exploring the boundary waters of Wisconsin and Minnesota. Instead of moving all the stuff they have in Tiny House, they just camped in an efficiency for almost a year.
It was in the low 60s here earlier today with sun and blue skies. I dint do jack all day, ‘cept a couple of store errands. Downloading Deft Linux for my netbook, a security version developed in Italy. Also watched Battle: Los Angeles, where I was rooting for the alien invaders, but otherwise it sucked. Also got a PBS two-part series on London’s Blitz, which I am researching for a writing project involving the East Ender kids who undertook positively heroic stuff during it and under fire, twelve-year-olds leading the ops amidst smoking rubble.
Now the temp is back down to 48, but we are told possibly record temps Monday in the high 70s.
Daughter enroute from Montreal that day to help us celebrate birthdays of MIL, who is now 84, Mrs. OFD at 57, and granddaughter at Year One.
Ladies and gents: tempus fugit irreparabile. Or something.
Well, I haven’t been having a slow day. I’m repainting my living room and three bedrooms, and had to go to a old co-worker’s funeral.
Davy, my MIL was one of those East Ender kids, bombed out of two homes before she was evacuated to Prince Edward Island. She didn’t do anything heroic herself, other than follow instructions. After she was evacuated, her mother was bombed out of one additional home.
OFD said:
“Battle: Los Angeles, where I was rooting for the alien invaders”
I had to laugh. I watched this last week while hopped up on narcotics for my gallbladder (horrible organ to have go wrong, excruciating!). One would hope that the film would have been better under the influence of drugs – it was not. I too was rooting for the aliens. Dreadful waste of time.
OFD said:
“PBS two-part series on London’s Blitz”
Sounds intriguing – what is the series title, please?
BGRigg says:
“repainting my living room and three bedrooms”
We too are engaged in painting bedrooms this weekend, in preparation for bringing home our new daughter from NICU soon. Two months premature, 4 weeks old now and doing incredibly well. While there are indisputably numerous problems with paying for our health care system, there has been nothing at all wrong with the dedication and compassion of the numerous individuals who have provided care to myself and our daughter for these past many weeks. Virtually all of the healthcare professionals with whom we have interacted have been not only knowledgable and competent, they have generally excelled at sharing their knowledge and helping us to understand the rather frightening situation we were in.
Now if only the insurance company were as transparent and compassionate.
Good luck with your daughter. One of my friends was born two months premmie in 1970. She was in hospital for two months before she went home. And she turned into a beautiful, tall young woman with no obvious health problems.
If your problem is gallstones you have my sympathy. I was diagnosed with one at the end of 2004. I consulted a surgeon who said in my particular case the best thing was to leave it alone. I did and forgot about it for months at a time. Now, I forget about it for years at a time.
“Sounds intriguing – what is the series title, please?”
“The Blitz: London’s Longest Night”
There is apparently scant information on those kids in the East End, other than the very sparsely collected/recorded memories of elderly survivors. A challenge.
“…if only the insurance company were as transparent and compassionate.”
Don’t hold your breath. But best wishes for your own recovery and your new daughter.
61 here now and climbing…
Jenny,
Much success on the painting, and best wishes for your daughter. My niece was two months premature in 1982, and while she had a rather difficult childhood with illness, she blossomed into a beautiful woman who had her first, and full term, child just before Christmas. She was also the first person I knew who met, and subsequently married, a man she met online.
I had gallbladder issues twenty five or more years ago. A pain I can vividly recall, and I winced reading your words. My doctor at the time was eager to cut it out, but I have a rather large aversion to cutting myself so I elected to alter my diet, and haven’t had any problems since. I imagine it will eventually return, as all things must pass. 🙂 At least modern techniques have become less invasive. I could allow a small incision.
The only thing I altered in my diet was the elimination of pork fat. Every occurrence had followed a meal of pork and while correlation doesn’t always mean causation, the effects were immediate. For fifteen years I avoided pork like the plague. Oddly, I was never affected by bacon, which I adore and must have on burgers. The pain simply stopped, and hasn’t come back. About five years ago, I started to reintroduce pork back into my diet, but I eat only lean pork and cut off any remaining fat, and so far my gallbladder remains at peace. YMMV
Davy, my MIL has very dim memories of the Blitz, but quite a bit on her life on PEI as a evacuee. She is writing her memoirs of that time, and I shall ask her if she has anything she could share of her time in London. I have met a number of people who lived through the Blitz, and many of them deliberately suppressed the memories of those insane days as a coping mechanism.
Bill wrote:
“At least modern techniques have become less invasive. I could allow a small incision.”
The surgeon I saw said it would take four small incisions, I’d be inflated, and they’d cut the whole thing out. Gallbladder and all. I asked about blowing it up with ultrasound and he said they no longer did that here, for some reason. As I had only minor discomfort he suggested leaving it alone. That was 7-8 years ago and I’d forgotten all about it until today. It doesn’t cause any problems.
The kidney stones are a long and quite different story. They took about four years to treat – my specialist discharged me last December. No surgery, thank goodness, all medication and diet change. I’ve heard other people’s kidney stone stories and feared the worst, but in my case it wasn’t that bad. Not fun but not horrific.
Thank you, Mr. Grigg; I would be in your debt, but please do not disturb anyone who is still pained and uncomfortable talking about their experiences then if they are not ready at this late date. I know enough to be able to imagine the horror visited upon them.
Mrs. OFD and I spent a nice couple of weeks at a remote seaside cabin in the northeast corner of PEI a few years ago, near blueberry fields. We were startled away the first couple of nights by shotgun blasts and found out later that they were blanks set off automatically at random to discourage avian interlopers in those fields. A couple of my long deceased relatives came down to Maffachufetts from PEI back around the late 1800s.
and let’s try this again, shall we? “We were startled AWAKE..” not “away.” Arrrrgggghhhh!
Gotta miss the edit function.
One of my grandmothers lived in London during WWII. She lived through a lot of narrow misses. And she says she’s only told us the happier stories…
A chap I know lived in Dartford during WWII. Was bombed out at least once. Must be very sad.
No worries, Davy, she likes to talk about it, she just can’t remember much of it. She was, IIRC, not quite seven.
I’ll see what she has, and will let you know.
Thanks, Mr. G. My information is that kids as young as your MIL were part of the organized groups of kids, led by kids, in the East End, most adults either dead, hospitalized, or otherwise gone. The Luftwaffe had been ordered to bomb the shit out of that part of London, of course, due to shipping and manufacturing located there, but the ‘corollary damage’ was to densely packed residential housing. This did not endear the Germans to the British and was no doubt a factor in their lack of sympathy, and perhaps, enthusiasm for, the Allied bombing of noncombatant areas in urban Germany.
I meant to add the following to my previous post:
Jenny, glad to hear your daughter will be coming home soon. Our daughter who will be one year old soon spent 5 days in the hospital after surgery a couple of months ago. Let’s just say I’m glad that is over with.
Our insurance company turned out not to be that bad. The only problem so far seems to have been convincing them that they were our daughter’s only medical insurance. But they seem to have figured that out.
Ironically the roughest part of the hospital stay was the last night. That night she was off the serious meds, and could open her eyes and tell she wasn’t in her crib. Lets just say i drank two large diet cokes between 5:30 AM and 9:30 AM, and just after we got home I had no trouble sleeping.
Jenny says:
Now if only the insurance company were as transparent and compassionate.
I see the inside workings of that almost every day I have a video job. The whole purpose of an insurance company is to collect and pay out money, but it is quite obvious when you get to see their inner workings, that their attitude is to resist paying out any money for any reason–and many refuse to do so until they are sued into compliance, and even then they continue fighting it until a jury smacks them.
That is why I really cannot countenance anything but mutual insurance companies, which are owned by the people who pay policy premiums. A regular shareholder insurance company sees themselves as nothing more than a money pump, and–IMO–they possess few scruples and are obvious in the misplacement of their purpose as to make shareholders–and most importantly, top executives–rich, while neglecting the needs–and sometimes the rights–of policy holders. At the very least they make it very difficult to collect, and they actually train their customer service people in this resistance (full disclosure: family member has worked in customer service, and revealed a lot of their tactics).
Life in the US is pretty screwed up, and the screw-up individuals in life have gotten such control over things, that they really are affecting the welfare of the rest of us. Those of you who have read my posts over the years, know I am no fan at all of Robert Reich, but he sure has this one correct.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rodifJlis2c#