Hello, World!

I'm using Jen's emails as the basis for a short post.

Dad's doctor just called and said everything went A+.  Took care of the fact that everything was "horribly compressed" by drilling out everything they could while keeping the integrity of the joints intact. They also removed a cyst growing out of one of the joints.  Extremely minimal loss of blood, a teaspoon maybe, and no spinal fluid leakage. All in all it went well.  He's in recovery now.

Update:

My Dad is going to be in the hospital past Friday (yesterday's plan) due to the need for observation and physical therapy.  He's in pain understandably and trying to sleep as much as possible right now.  So, he will reach out to chat when he's ready. I will share more as I know more.

I will share more information but I expect my Dad will be making calls and sending emails directly as soon as he can.

Well, here it is, Thursday morning, un-godly early, and I thought I'd check in.  Jen actually knows more about it that I do, since I sort of wasn't there at the time.  I was doing OK thru Wednesday morning,  until the Oxycodone took a sharp turn South, with me along for the ride.   Sadly, it caused my bladder to think that it could go offline.  After about 24 hrs of futzing, I got a new catheter, and by Monday I was in low-earth orbit.   Tuesday, I was transferred to a physical therapy/rehab center.  Goal is to get me able to magnage both the Shibas and the stairs at the house.  Wound is healing well (photos below the fold, for the squeamish).  Did I mention he took a cyst out, as well??  Good times!

Thank you all for your encouragement, support and prayers!

Lee

John Galt, Call Your Office

Without comment:

Obama gives himself control of all communication systems in America

 Found at Rodge's

We Can Repair Him...

...we have the technology!

Had my consult with the neurosurgeon yesterday.  He did a bit of poking and pushing on his own, and confirmed what I was pretty sure of - surgery is indicated.  Both L1 - L2 and L4 - L5 are pretty well munged, and L2  -L3 is also degraded.  (My numbering may be off a bit - it's the whole lumbar part of the spine.)  I could get away with letting the L2 -L3 go, but on the other hand, we both agreed that going back in later was something neither of us wanted.  So the entire lumbar section of my spine will be "decompressed".  Basically, that means re-opening the foramen (the hole) that the nerves pass thru, to alleviate the pressure, and thus the pain and weakness.  (I did a quick look on spine-health.com. which goes into some detail and apparently has videos.  I only take umbrage at the comment "A condition that primarily afflicts elderly patients, spinal stenosis is caused by degenerative changes that result in enlargement of the facet joints."  Elderly my tuchus!)

He expects the procedure to last about 2 1/2 hours.  He's not sure if there's any interesting disk degeneration, but will tend to that if need be.  He doesn't want to do a fusion at this point.  Based on my recovery, I'll be in the hospital one to five days.  My personal goal is one day only.

I go in on the 16th of this month.

Prayer in any denomination is appreciated.

Happy 4th!!

Found these at Mme. Scherzo

a-mass-musing:

Long exposure firework photographs - David Johnson

(via ascenseurstory)

Biden Tee (Updated!)

Allahpundit at Hot Air remarked that, like Hillary, Biden needed a tee shirt.  So, here it is:

Update - found a picture I liked better:

(Found at heavy.com)

(Original First effort below the fold...)

FLOTUS...

...appears to have gotten herself a new gig:

Via Drudge, of course!

Audit The IRS - 6/19 (Bumped and Updated!)

More here!

I'd love to go, but the cost of gas is, shall we say, prohibitive.  I'm looking for someone in the York/Lancaster, PA area who would like to drive and split the cost of gas.  (I'll drive and split the cost if you prefer.)

Leave a comment if you're interested.

Thanks!

Update:  I've been put in touch with a group that is arranging buses to the rally.  The pick up sites are relatively close to the York PA area (Westminster, MD, Owings Mills, MD, and near Towson and Bel-Air as well.)

Info and sign-up at: Restore America's Mission

Father's Day, 2013 (Updated)

Had a nice, long chat with the Kiddo.  She was sitting in her car, on top of The Rim at the Billings airport, knitting while we chatted.  She had sent me a present, which arrived Friday.  I told her that I would wait until today to open it.  I resolved to open it when she called.  She called once, but it rolled to voice mail without ringing.  I left a message on her's, and, since she had called, decided to go ahead and open it!

To my joy and surprise, it was a cook book holder.  It's collapsible, to the size of a smallish cigar box laptop.  And, it has some storage!  And a conversion chart, from teaspoons to cups, to ounces to milliliters.

The book support has a clip for holding recipe cards and such.

And of course it holds books!

Eat What You Want And Die Like A Man by Steve H. Graham

As part of dinner this evening, Crock Pot Beans!

`

If you're wondering...

1 lb white beans                       1 c brown sugar

1 large onion                             1/3 c yellow mustard
1 lb ham, in chunks                   1/4 c cider vinegar
1 12oz can diced tomatoes      1 tbsp liquid smoke 
1 can tomato paste                   1 tbsp Worchestershire sauce
About 20 oz stew run-off (chicken or beef - I'm not sure which.  Smelled good, tho.)

I started soaking the beans Friday night to de-gasifiy them.  (Safety tip!!)

Saturday afternoon, I put everything into the crock pot, and cooked on high for about 6 hours.  I turn to low when I went upstairs, and let it go over night.  Turned down to warm this morning when I got up.

All of the above are "to taste", measurement approximate, since I squeeze and splash instead of measuring.  YMMV!  I neglected to account for heat - a couple of Thai Hot Peppers should probably have gone in, but I can always add some Tapatio if I need heat!

Dinner: planning on grilling a couple of burgers (if it doesn't rain), and having some mashed potatoes. Brownies for dessert!

Update:
I should have added more sugar.  The amount I used was what normally works well when I use catsup instead of canned tomatoes.  Also, some more liquid smoke.  I didn't get around to brownies, but I did grill the burgers outside.  And got beer.

All in all, a great Father's Day.

I May Not Be Spock...

...but I had some cool toys to share!

The Kiddo and me, at the Bird Farm, 2004-ish.

My Dad Is...

...Mr. Spock!

OK, you win.

(Via Post Secret!)

Look Out! It's A Trap!!

Richard Stallman, the man who wrote the GNU half of "GNU/Linux" and started the Free Software movement (which has forked into the Open Source movement) was interviewed a while back by The Guardian.  He cautions against "cloud computing" because he sees that as yet another way to suck people into closed-source, "...proprietary systems that would cost them more and more over time."

More importantly, he says that computer users should be reluctant to hand over their data to a third party.

Which got me to thinking... in light of the whole U.S. Government stomp on privacy, and given the apparent size to the government data centers in Ft Meade and Nevada Utah, it's probably safer to assume that the "top" of the cloud is there, and Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, et. al . are just renting space.

It's just cheaper and easier for everyone!

NSA Whistleblower Comes Out

Go.  Read the whole thing.

Mr. McEldowney's Editorial

I have been reading Brooke McEldowney's 9 Chickweed Lane and Pibgorn for years, now, and have even had an e-mail conversation with him.  I love his art, I especially love his story telling, the range of human experience he manages to capture, from the sensual interplay of relationships to the embarrassment of drooling (temporary) idiocy.  I especially love his wry use of language.  No one I know writes like him.

Today, on his gocomics.com Pibgorn page, he posted what I believe is his first editorial:

As I wrote to him, I believe we are poised for the second step.

Pronunciation (Tweaked)

This might be considered, oh, I don't know, challenging.

Or, brutal.

(Best when read out loud!)

If you can pronounce correctly every word in this poem, you will be speaking English better than 90% of the native English speakers in the world.

After trying the verses, a Frenchman said he’d prefer six months of hard labour to reading six lines aloud.

 

Entire text below the fold:

A Day Without...

Found at the NeatoShop

Bring it!

Back in 2003, when the Mistress of Pain and I were in the middle of playing real estate roulette, there was, for me, a particularly bad Wednesday when something yet again went south on me.  It was a relatively complex transaction, our purchase being contingent on the sale of our respective condos.  I was slipping into despair of ever seeing escrow close on the house we both really, really wanted.  Thursday, I was feeling better, and by Friday, things were cool again.

Then, Friday evening, our agent called me, to tell me that my buyer's lender had gone bankrupt.

I got this silly grin on my face, shook my head, and started laughing.  I felt like Lt. Dan, on top of the mast in storm, yelling to God "Bring it!  Is that all you got??  BRING IT!!"

The news about the NSA's PRISM program, reading the internet traffic on nine ISPs' servers has put me in the same frame of mind.  After, oh let's see (in no particular order), the AP story, Benghazi, IRS targeting conservatives, Sebelius hitting up the companies she regulates for contributions, I was feeling pretty down.  The I saw the PRISM article, and all I have to say is "Bring it!"

I can't wait to see what's next.  Should make for an interesting summer.

Go.  Read!

Cebolla Verde

...from Unorganized Hancock



My second favorite jazz number after "Take Five"

Via Sippican Cottage

Destroying Childhood Memories...

...one swimsuit at a time.

Via Gerard

The Problem With Diesel Powered Ambulances

Seems they have a little device required by the EPA that can shut down the engine - at the most inopportune time.



At The Daily Caller

Not About The Nail

Story over at The Coalition about an Afghani man who had a pencil lodged "...from his sinus to his pharynx..."

Which, of course, immediately brought this to mind: