Spatter

Wordless Wednesday

                                                                                Happy Halloween!

Floyd Golf Star

I've been remiss in not pointing out to the world that the Floyd County High School's golf team won the Virginia State Championship (Class A) for the second year in a row and the third time in seven years.  It's a co-ed team and its current star is Jessica Hollandsworth. Yes, she's playing head to head against the guys...and...she's winning.

For those of you who follow women's golf, be on the lookout for her in the coming years!  She's the next Morgan Pressel...and perhaps, then some.

Click here to read details of the tournament.

Arrrrrrrrgh!

Anyone who owns a computer recognizes this feeling. You can't escape it.  As sure as the sun rises, it's going to happen.

It happened to me yesterday.  I was minding my own business uploading photos from Photoshop Elements 6 to my galleries at Smugmug.com - something I've done many times before.  All of a sudden, there was a burp of some sort. The program froze and uploading stopped.  My first thought was that I lost my internet connection and I'd just start over. The only problem was...I couldn't re-open the program.  After a few attempts by various routes, I decided the simplest thing to do would be to do a System Restore.  That didn't work.  I racked my brain and when I couldn't think of anything else to try, I went to the Adobe site and re-downloaded the program - thinking that reinstalling would do the trick.  Hours later, I found out that it didn't.

This morning I got right back to it and called Adobe support. Together we went into the parts of my computer where you don't travel alone. She had me change this and that and this...all to no avail.  Finally, when she could think of nothing else to try, she had me create a second user account.

Lo and behold, when logged into the new account, I was able to open the program again.  Ms. Tech basically admitted she didn't have a clue as to why the problem occurred or how to fix it. This second user account solution was, she admitted, a work-around.  In the meantime, she changed things that didn't get reverted back.  The changes haven't seemed to affect anything, but  it leaves me feeling uneasy. I should have made her do it, but you have to understand that by now it's been almost 24 hours of dealing with this and my brain was fried.   

So now I'm left with three options:

1. I either have to switch to the second user account whenever I want to use Elements

or

2. I can use the new user account exclusively...which would mean reconfiguring everything: Outlook, Favorites, Preferences, Verizon Access Connection, etc.  It can be done, but it's a major undertaking.

or

3. I can execute a "Letter of Destruction" (sounds ominous!) for the downloaded program and fax to Adobe.  Once done, I'd make arrangements to get a boxed disk version.  For some reason  I'm thinking it might make a difference.  I'd uninstall and re-install and see if that  does anything.  If it works, it means major maintenance too since I'd have to configure the new Elements and re-tag all of my photos.

Right now, none of it sounds like anything I want to do. I think what I want to do now is go in front of the TV and become an idiot.  

Holiday Shopping

The holidays are fast approaching. ALL the holidays:  Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas/Hannukah.  When walking through the stores though, you'd never know that there was anything going on but Christmas. 

Christmas decorations everywhere, but nary a witch or a pumpkin to be found. 

From a business perspective, I understand.  Christmas is the  holiday that takes merchants' balance sheets into the black, so they want to start prompting us sooner than later to shop for it.

But I miss seeing the other holidays' decorations. I would use them to mark the year's movement from fall to winter to the end of yet another year.  Now, the pleasure and comfort I got from this natural pace has been taken from me...mutated by the stores' rush to get Christmas spending under way.

I may not be able to reverse this compression of time, but I do think I'll let it go ahead without me...my life is moving along fast enough on its own.

Patience, Patient!

By definition, hospitals are not places we want to frequent.  Thankfully, most of the times I've been in them has been as a visitor...and even those times have been relatively few.

A few years ago though, while at work in Miami, I did have an occasion to be a hospital patient.  And that's the PERFECT word for it...because you have to be so doggone patient!

Here's what I mean: 

While talking with my supervisor in a morning meeting, I began to feel a sharp and stabbing pain in my chest. I wasn't sure what to make of it, but my supervisor decided it could be a heart attack. I was driven to the nearest hospital. In hindsight, I'm not sure why she didn't call Fire Rescue, but  I sure wish she had. It would have expedited things at least a little. 

As it was, we sat and sat and sat in the ER waiting room.  No one seemed to care that I MIGHT have needed urgent care. I'm thinking it would be nice to at least get some vitals checked out!  I guess, though, as long as I wasn't emulating Fred Sanford, I was at the back of the line.

Finally...some hours later...my name was called.  At last!  But wait, I only got as far as a triage room.  Well,  I figured...first things first.  But it was soon apparent that there was a problem. The woman attending to me couldn't speak English.  Oh my.  She opted to use visual aids...like personally lifting my shirt and bra up... in order to listen to my heart? I'm still not sure what happened there.  She took my pulse, took my temperature and wrote up a chart.  Then, back I went to the ER waiting room.

More waiting.

Eventually, I made it back to the actual ER.  I was put in a little cubby and some initial work was done to get me settled. Then...you guessed it...

More waiting.

I lied there for hours waiting for a cardiologist to see me and authorize either release or admittance.  There wasn't even a TV to pacify me. I just stared at the ceiling tiles and the people passing by until Judy arrived.

At about 8 p.m. (I had arrived sometime around 10 a.m.) I was officially admitted. They wanted to run some tests and up to a room I went.

The room. I'll never forget it. It looked like it hadn't been remodeled or updated since the 1960s.  The woman in the next bed sounded like she was dying, and she was watching Spanish language novelas (soap operas) on  television.  My TV was broken, so I got to listen to them too.

Not having anything else to do, I turned my thoughts to food. I hadn't eaten since breakfast and realized I was plenty hungry. "When's dinner?", I asked.  "Already delivered and picked up" was the answer.  They gave me a container of milk and some crackers to hold me over until breakfast. Nice.

Soon, sleep came, but throughout the night staff came in to take EKGs.  Each time it was a comedy of errors as the nurses or aides (I don't know which) worked on getting me all hooked up. One time, I even had to tell them how to apply the pads. Now that was reassuring!

My wonderland adventure continued the next day.  It was test time...many of them...and I got wheeled about from one to the next.  The timing was lousy:  I was out of the room for the delivery of every meal.  When I'd return to the room, I'd find my food sitting there...cold. 

By mid-afternoon I was very hungry and I was panicking that I'd have to spend another day in this place. My tests were over, but the cardiologist hadn't come to read/assess them. And it was Friday. If he didn't come today, I thought, he probably wouldn't come until Monday.  Oh no!!!!!!!

Judy returned in time to start being a constant presence and advocate. She brought food too. It was close, but the story ends happily.  The cardiologist came, the results of all tests were negative (turns out I had had a bad episode of acid reflux), and I was released (eventually).

Bad as my hospital experience was, it pales by comparison to the experiences of others...like a friend of mine who went into a hospital for routine by-pass surgery and ended up with a staph infection that nearly killed her.  She still lives with the effects of it...her life forever changed. I got away easy.

And yet, despite all that goes wrong...despite all the frustration with what goes on for reasons known and unknown...I still believe that more good care than bad takes place in hospitals, and I honor the caregivers who try their best to do difficult work under difficult circumstances.

I do have one request...one that I know the nurses out there will hate me for...but do you think we can get nurses back in white uniforms and hats like they  used to wear? Casual wear with colors is fun...and I'm sure more comfortable...but there was something reassuring about the sterile looking get-up, don't you think?

For more Sunday Scribblings, click here.

 

The Assault On Reason

Al Gore's book - The Assault On Reason is a book that should be read.  It brings to light the forces that work on our minds and play havoc with reason, and by so doing, goes a long way in answering the question "what has happened to our country?"

"Faith in the power of reason - the belief that free citizens can govern themselves wisely and fairly by resorting to logical debate on the basis of the best evidence available, instead of raw power - was and remains the central premise of American democracy.  This premise is now under assault."

Assaulted by...

The one-way nature of the public conversation on television and the distortion of journalism by entertainment values. Just look at the endless coverage of celebrity mishaps and missing children for evidence of this.  Information we need to understand complex issues is absent.

Assaulted by...

The manipulation of fear. There have always been leaders willing to fan public anxiety in order to present themselves as protectors, but what's different today is the intensity and constancy of fear. We are  bombarded  with news and images that keep us in a fearful state. And where fear is present, reason falters.

Assaulted by...

The blinding of the faithful.  "Fear can disrupt the balance between reason and faith...and when fear crowds out reason, many people feel a greater need for the comforting security of absolute faith...and they become more vulnerable to...simplistic explanations portraying all problems as manifestations of the struggle between good and evil."

And assaulted by...

The politics of wealth. We are becoming more and more isolated from one another, and in that separation, lose having a common goal.

In the final chapters of the book, Gore begins to address what we can do to save us from ourselves.  It's less easily summarized, but it relies on our diligence in becoming a "well informed citizenry."  We have to seek the facts, as difficult as it might be for us to do it.  Our democracy depends on our doing so.

Good For Laughs

This picture is from a post at a blog called  I-Beati where you'll find lots of witty funnies.  Can you guess the caption that goes with this?  Click here to find out.

Friday Fact - Tagging Birds

We all know birds get tagged to track migratory habits and monitor their numbers. But I, for one, never quite knew how the tagging got done.  Last week, I had the good fortune to be able to see the process first hand.

First comes the capture.  A fine nylon netting is strategically placed and, as you might expect, birds fly into it and get stuck.

It seems cruel, but evidently, the birds take it in stride. And besides, they're not in the net very long.  The birders check the nets at least every 20 minutes to collect whoever may have "dropped in".

Once out of the net, the birder takes it to his station...in this case...the back of his station wagon to take and record its vital statistics.  The birder:

Measures wing spread....

Examines characteristics and determines sex... 

         

And then, the bird is weighed. A very high tech tool is used to do this: a toilet paper cylinder!

Once the bird is in, the cylinder is placed on the scale.  Quick and easy and done.

The statistics for each of these steps are recorded.

 

And finally, a small band is placed around one of the legs...

 

After the band is secured, the bird's up and away...freedom restored. That's all there is to it.

And that's a Friday Fact!

 

Wonderful Wet

I'm listening to the sound of rain.  I've always liked the sound of it, but this time...this rain...sounds especially sweet...we've waited so long for it. 

It had rained some last night, and throughout the day today there were low clouds hovering. But like so many other times this year, no significant rain came from them.  We had been let down again. That is, until this evening. 

I was having dinner at Oddfellas Cantina when I noticed someone walking by with umbrella raised. "It must be raining...that's good", I said to myself.  But except for the umbrella, I wouldn't have been able to tell. 

Later, when I opened the door to leave, there was no question about it. The light rain had turned into a glorious torrent and the street lights gave it a surreal look you'd see in a film noir movie.

Now usually I wouldn't cherish the idea of getting cold & wet, but tonight I just pulled up my hood and started out. I didn't run to get to my car.  I walked.  I smiled.  The people I passed were smiling too. 

Wordless Wednesday

        From the "Seeing Things" gallery @ bydamanti