Old School. Mind Games. They still make film for these Twin Lens Reflex cameras.
While sorting all my toys and getting ready to pack them up, I had a crazy idea. What if I didn’t take anything that had a battery or cable. What if I went 4 months – totally Old School?
What would I leave behind:
Forbin, the computer.
Shamu, the phone.
Alexa, the ??? well what is she anyhow?
Kindle, the library.
The iPad.
The noise canceling earmuffs.
The Pen-F.
The underwater camera.
The blood pressure machine.
The “transistor” radio.
The headlamp flashlight.
The Panasonic water pik.
The toothbrush.
The watch.
The Fitbit.
Talk about making room in my life for “white space”. And, I couldn’t even replace all that stuff because I wouldn’t be able to get to Amazon. And, if I borrowed a computer, it wouldn’t do me any good because I couldn’t get to 1Password to let me into my accounts.
Note to self: You will be one of the first to die after an EMP event.
All checked in for tomorrow’s flights. No word from my doctor’s office. And, I invoked the “Don’t ask questions you don’t want to be answered” rule and didn’t call them.
I may or may not post tomorrow.
And yes, I am taking Alexa with me.
Looking pretty busy in exciting downtown Kailua-Kona this morning… Don’t know if I’ll be able to handle the excitement.
We had an impromptu “Bring Your Own Dinner” party in my apartment this evening.
AND, an Asylum Sister knitted me a pair of socks! How cool is that? And they are real socks. Not tube socks.
I couldn’t knit a muffler. Much less (OOPS, just lost power for an instant) socks. These bad boys are going to Hawai’i on my feet. After that, they’ll get a lot of rest in Kona.
I need to get a lot of rest in Kona too. Gotta learn how to throttle back. To take it a little slower. Not stop doing things. But to just put more whitespace in my life.
Well, that can start on November 1. No time for whitespace just yet. Actually, November 2012 was the last time my life had whitespace. Carlton’s major health issues became all-consuming in early December 2012 and I have been Energizer Bunny-ing my way through life since then.
Well, having heard nothing from “my hospital” – I decided to just pack up and go to Kona on my broomstick on Halloween as planned. I haven’t done anything getting ready to go-wise except at work. I didn’t want to jinx the trip. But, how much do I really have to do?
Decide what toys to take. That is what I have to do. Sort of thinking about going old-school camera-wise. Just take one fixed length (35mm) lens. And, the retro Pen-F body. That cuts about 3 pounds (plus a monopod) off my gear. Or I could go totally modern and just shoot with Shamu the Phone. Well, I don’t have to decide that until tomorrow or Monday.
Sign in my elevator lobby: Oh, we have hot water. We are just not sending it to you!
I have never had acceptable hot water service here at the Asylum. (Carlton would not have been happy.) But, it has gotten worse since they tried to fix it. If I want a shower, about 15 minutes before I hop in – I start the hot water running and maybe it gets tepid. And, that is about like the hot water is at my hotel in Kona.
This is for my Asylum friends.
This is the original recording of one of the most mournful songs ever. I rather prefer Aaron Neville’s version. But this is where it starts.
Note to those who do not live in The Asylum: yesterday afternoon they had a little event the involved group singing. Old white people singing isn’t pretty.
First: A famous resident whose anonymity we respect tried to get to the elevators without making a scene or being seen.
Next: By and by Lord, they start singing May the Circle Be Unbroken. A really cheery song for old people. And can nobody except me sing harmony? Nobody. And, I don’t sing.
And then: Wait for it…
The rescue squad come rolling a gurney through. May the circle be unbroken.
Thinking that I’ll just go to Hawai’i on Halloween as planned. What’s the worst that can happen?
Stay tuned.
BTW – Tonight I went clubbing with some of the Asylum Sisters. The food was mediocre – but the entertainment was great. Saw Susan Werner at a dive in Vienna. (Hey, when everyone is over 70 – that is clubbing.)
Went out to dinner with most of the nurses from my office this evening.
That was after working ALL day. ALL day. From 0715 until 1630. Outrageous.
No results from yesterday’s biopsy yet. Not even going to think about what I might do or not do until the results come back or Saturday morning. Whichever comes first.
And now, I do believe I’ll make a nice cuppa And waddle off to bed. You can not believe how many calories were consumed this evening. Let me count the ways:
Beer
Pimento/pickle nachos
Fried green tomatoes
Pig and cheese sandwich, grilled
Brussel sprouts and hominy
Biscuits and honey
Nibbles of macaroni, burger, pancakes, cheese and grits
I will not be able to fit in a plane seat if I don’t get out of here soon.
And now for something really scary – me after the FINE needle biopsy.
The FINE needle biopsy went FINE. Just a little band-aid. But, it does rather feel like I got a karate shot to the neck. Not to complain, a nap and a handful of ibuprofen worked wonders. I went off to work and then joined forces with a friend who also had a procedure at the hospital. We went to “lunch”. We had a well-balanced meal of ice cream and coffee. Hot and Cold. Chocolate and Vanilla. Well-balanced.
Or were you expecting Halloween picture? How about this FINE creature?
South 4th Street. A T-Rex maybe?
On a more serious note – “they” said that the results could take up to 5 business days. I really want to know by Friday. Because, if I am going to need to the surgery – I want to move my departure from Halloween to say Thanksgiving. And, if I am going be told: “we’ll just watch this…” I need to get my ass in gear and get ready to go. How does one hurry cytology?
Being a kickass old woman, I got an appointment (Wednesday AM) for the “Fine” Needle Biopsy. Wonder if “fine” when applied to Fine Needle Biopsy means the same thing it does when I say “Read the FINE manual”… I’ll let you know on Wednesday.
They did tell me that I could drive myself home. GREAT! That must mean that they are going to give me a car. Make it red and convertible.
A car which I would have to park –
Not all parking spaces are created equal. Not even close.
I found this spectacularly shat upon car while walking home from the bus stop.
Taking tomorrow off from work to sort of get ready to get ready to go to Hawai’i as planned on Halloween. I think the trip will take place as planned. Well, maybe I hope the trip will take place as planned.
Continue to have issues with my Time Machine Backup. I think it is some conflict between Sierra and High Sierra maybe exacerbated by file encryption.
Way fewer bands, way more cars in this year’s parade.
Had trouble with Time Machine this morning. I started backing up at 8AM and by noon it had backed up 2 of 38 gig. I stopped the backup and backed Forbin up to a different (unencrypted) drive. It did 300 gig in less than 2 hours. Don’t know how much less, I wasn’t watching.
I know I backed Forbin up to the encrypted drive after I upgraded to High Sierra. And, it didn’t seem to take too long then. I suspect it is some issue with file structures and my encrypted backup disk. I am not happy when my backup system stops working smoothly.
As for my medical issues. Tomorrow, I will be on the case to get an appointment for the biopsy. Guess what? To my complete surprise – one of the ladies here at the Asylum essentially “wrote the book” on fine needle thyroid biopsy. Maybe she can do it for me in her kitchen!
Ran away from myself this morning. I went to the Howard University Homecoming Parade. I used to go every year – if it wasn’t raining – last year I went was 2013. The parade was shorter than it used to be. And, no horses. But, it was still great fun. And, I had very good public transportation karma. Never waited more than 3 minutes. Finally, I took a lap or two around Nordstrom’s and didn’t find a single thing that I need or even wanted to buy.
Howard University Homecoming Parade
Took the newly repaired OMD with my favorite lens. I also discovered that the favorite lens works fine on the new PEN F camera. But, it looks really silly.
(Note to readers: I am not devilishly concerned about this health problem. It is the thyroid and not some rouge lymph node. I am, however, pissed off beyond all recognition that it is messing with my scheduled migration to Hawai’i.)
Well, shit. It was all going well until it wasn’t. I got to hospital with lots of time to spare. Was the first customer in ultrasound. Got the best sonographer. Had a good day at the office. When I am coming home the nurse calls and says I should get an appointment for a biopsy. No surprise. I tried to get her to go directly to biopsy. But, in modern medicine – gotta spread the money around. The ultrasound folk have to earn a living too.
As soon as I get home, I start trying to get an appointment for the biopsy. Not only could I not get an appointment. I couldn’t get anyone to answer the phone. I left 2 messages and 2 phone numbers and got 0 calls. The doctor calls to be sure I made an appointment. I tell her that I can not get them to answer the phone. She calls back and says that she to failed but she left a message for them to call me.
By then end of the afternoon – I was seriously mad. Annoyed. Pissed.
I wrote a letter to the CEO of the hospital. Want to read it? Sending it would be a bad idea. But, at least writing it gave me something to do. I need Carlton to tell me to chill. And just shut up and keep on keeping on.
October 20, 2017
James Cole
Virginia Hospital Center
1701 N. George Mason Drive Arlington, VA 22205
Mr. Cole:
The VHC website says: Radiology & Medical Imaging Center at Virginia Hospital Center provides the highest quality diagnostic and interventional radiology services to our patients and referring physicians in a compassionate and professional environment. To perform 170,000 diagnostic imaging services and interventional radiology a year, we integrated the most advanced medical imaging technology.
The Interventional Radiology impressive list services include: advanced vein vare (sic) including venous sclerotherapy, diagnostic angiography, endovascular stent graft repair of thoracic, abdominal & pelvic aneurysms, endovascular stent graft repair of aneurysms, transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunts, uterine artery embolization, tubal cannulization (for fertility treatment), kyphoplasty, interventional oncology (including chemoembolization, RF ablation), and thyroid biopsies.
All of those words are wasted because; Interventional Radiology Scheduling does not answer their phone. I spent all afternoon today (10/20/17) trying to schedule an appointment. My doctor’s office also tried. We were only able to leave messages requesting a return call. I left two phone numbers and received zero calls back.
People do not call Intervention Radiology for insignificant procedures. It is not like calling a salon to schedule a pedicure or Dominos to order a pizza.
Before this wasted afternoon, I was feeling good. I had taken action. Gotten the results of an ultra sound and was taking the next step. I would schedule a thyroid biopsy and get on with life.
Good intentions notwithstanding, I couldn’t schedule anything. I have no recourse until with VHC IR until 8AM Monday morning. I am left feeling helpless and annoyed.
Annoyed enough to ask my doctor to send me a copy of the order and find another hospital – and I do have choices in this area – to do the biopsy and provide any follow up treatments.
This evening I am embarrassed to call VHC “My Hospital”.
/signed/
PS: The ultra sound people were super. They answered the phone, had me in for an appointment and the results were back to my doctor in less than 24 hours.
Took 4 different busses today to get to work to the doctor and back home. Since I have a “Senior Bus Pass”, I think all this riding around cost me $2.70.
As you can see from the 25B riders above – it has cooled off nicely here.
The Nurse Practitioner has me getting an ultrasound of my neck tomorrow at 0710. Not hugely inconvenient – if I get on that 25B bus 0635 and if the 52 bus that I transfer to is on schedule – I make it with 4 minutes to spare. Do you think maybe I should take an earlier bus? We’ll see. Google says I should get on the 0612 bus. Maybe I should listen to Momma Google.
Suspect that my Halloween departure to Kona may be in jeopardy.
Caught some of Bush Junior’s speech today. Did you ever think that we would admire a George W speech? That it would be considered logical, intelligent, and even elegant?
