Wednesday's Digressions

• At work yesterday I had two nursing buddies rolling on the floor in laughter- at a fart joke. 

  

  What 14 buck got me at Bakers Ribs the last time I went. The emphasis is on last time in case you were wondering. Phweeew it was bad. I ate there in the past at least 4 times a month and did so for years.

• People often think of hospitals and health care facilities in general as being super clean- sterile even. You should know the opposite is true- bacteria and virus are by nature highly concentrated there. Hospitals are where you go to get sick- if not already.
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• Yesterday I had a black and Bleu burger with bacon at Shaws on Magnolia. Have them put the Bleu cheese on the side when you try it though.
• John Oliver on dialysis in the US.
• Paul's on Hemphill has changed their fries to a smaller, crispier McDonald'sesque type and they are fantastic. Previously their fries were not terrible but they could be a little doughie in the middle.
• Slow clap starting for you now Paul. Bravo my friend bravo...

  

  Sir, are you aware you are a deer?
   Bwhaaat...?! Me?!  This may be a picture of a deer but it and my little joke are a better picture of our hive mind created or at least affirmed by the Internet. I have never seen it but there is a 100% chance somebody has created a meme based on that picture using a similar caption. If they wanted to be snotty they could sue me I guess but there is a zero percent chance I have ever seen the meme.

Thursday's Thoughts

• At work a bit between myself and our old doctor was when he was asked a question by a nurse he would reply to the effect, Well, allow me to confer with my colleague... and turning to me he would say, Doctor Kevin- what would you do in a case this? I would make my reply resulting in him rapping his knuckles on his desk and telling whoever asked the question, I concur with my colleague. Make it so...
• A weird loosely connected thought- another physician and I were bustin' each others bawlz one day between patients. A female nurse whom he does not get along with and who also doesn't really get how the world works approached me later and said something like, I saw the way he was talking to you. I get it. I have trouble dealing with him too. It is hard sometimes... It took me a minute to process what she even meant. She just did not get it.
• A Perfect Circle's cover of Imagine is terrible.
• My ex GF sent me an email this morning (02/28/2017) asking if it was me she saw as I drove by her place on the way to work. It was  nice to hear from her. That is until a program at Pro Flowers and Kendra Scott took note of our interaction and started sending me spam.
• This morning I listened to Deftones and Marilyn Manson back to back and for hours on end.
• My nursing buddy whom I know to have long ago had a falling out with another mutual nursing buddy could not even remember why she hated the other nurse when the subject came up this morning- but she still hates her just the same.
• Oreo McFlurrys are great.
• Although I cannot remember what it was for (baseball, soccer or karate?) I once gave my ex wife a blank check for her to use during the registration process. It was seen as the craziest thing my co workers had ever heard. It was just practical as far as I was concerned and you know- if we cannot trust each other with something like that at this point in our lives- it would not matter what we did or did not do- we would be doomed to failure raising our children.
• Life pro tip: if at all possible when providing for your children always use a check or electronic transfer tagged CS (for child support). It may never matter but if/when it does it will be a big deal and you will thank your past you for watching out for future you.
• A ground war in Syria would be a huge, massive mistake.

Wednesday's Digressions

• In my nursing I have to deal with people's addictions. It is interesting to me the number of people who swear they have not touched their particular product of destruction be it drugs, alcohol or tobacco or whatever in years; yet they keep a sample of whatever to remind them. Patients have even referenced the change in pack appearance as the marketing of their old cigarette or booze brand has evolved. One patient told me he quit crack years ago yet keeps some in his house along with a pipe. His theory is if he had to go out and get it when the urge strikes he knows he would do it yet, if he is ever tempted; that urge is tempered by how easy it would be to destroy himself with one little trip to his garage...
• I am not sure if that is brilliant or stupid.
• ZZ TOP, AC/DC and Van Halen: bands that top the list of absolute legends- that just never were all that great.
• One Of These Days...
• Yesterday (today is 02/19/2016) in one of our meetings a supervisor who usually has to be heard (as in she almost can't help it) did not say a single word- not a word. I nearly forgot she was there.
• Mmmmm...
• Su silencio era ensordecedor.
• Until very recently I never called my children kids but now I refer to them as that more often than not.
• A recent WWWIHBST believed whole hearted in equal rights for and empowerment of women until it was time to pay a bill; then suddenly chivalry became the rule of the day. I knew there was an unfairness present but oddly, didn't know the extent until I saw how much extra money I had after we parted ways.

Monday's Missives

• An old friendly acquaintance crossed my mind recently. She was gorgeous, funny, smart and sweet and coincidentally had a rockin' bod. She was also married. There was some tension between us that was made worse by the fact I know she dared herself to jump the fence with me. Thank God it happened late enough in my life I was strong enough to resist ( I am an oak after all). Her hubby had several health problems and was unlikely to live a statistically full lifespan. Some time after she and I parted ways I thought of her and the question, I wonder if he is still alive ? involuntarily crossed my mind. I hope the fact that I felt like a monster for thinking that, made me less of a monster.
• Although she lived in Dallas, an uncle who had for the most part raised her was buried near Weatherford. She called once and ask if I wanted to meet up for lunch as she was at the cemetery- a cemetery which I was coincidentally nearby so I swung in and we walked around together. We stopped by some railing on a trail that winds through the cemetery. I leaned back and put my hand on the rail. She leaned back and accidentally on purpose put her butt on my hand; then with faux shock she jumped away and we laughed. She then sighed and leaned into me and put her head on my shoulder. My heart jumped up into my throat. We did go eat lunch but I never saw her again.
• Why?! Because I am an oak. 
• After telling a younger person about my life growing up in Decatur TX she said, Wow, that sounds perfect! To which I replied, Yeah, it was like leave It To Beavertown but all the grown-ups smelled like cheap cologne and makeup, fried food (or barbecue) beer and stale cigarettes.
• When I was way too young to be doing so I would disappear from the house and be gone all day. There are memories of little old ladies giving us lemonade and cookies and of course there was always random hose water but how did I not die of a heatstroke, get run over by a car or be sauteed by Albert Fish's grandson?
• Jesus
• A woman asked me for my cel phone number yesterday. That is always a mild thrill and nice little validation.
• The other day I saw a patient in a restaurant and had to catch myself before I said hello to her and her friends found out I was her tuberculosis nurse and we had met at a TB clinic.
• Consumption.
• My 9 year old is getting an Ipod for his birthday- a device I could not have comprehended at his age. He is about the same age I would have been when I  picked up Coke bottles to buy a used AM/FM radio from a neighbor lady who had offered it up at her yard sale. She saved it for me until I had the money. I wonder where that thing is? It followed me into adult life as I recall using it when I did make readys for an apartment complex during the summer while in college and think it may have even been used in a garage in my married life but have no independent recall of when it finally gave up the ghost. 

Thursday's Thoughts

"Kevin!" Somebody who didn't like me was being nice (and that is nice). 

• Today (01/09/2015) as I drove through a drive-through of a Whataburger (pronounced Water- burger in the parlance of my homeland)  the girl in the window tried to flirt with me a bit. She took note of my state of dress (short sleeves in 30 degree weather) and said, Where is your jacket or sweater? Aren't you cold? I replied, Nah, I'm good. I'm hot blooded. She handed me my change and then said, Oh, you're not much of a morning person? (although it was fairly late in the afternoon). She realized what she had said and went red all over and tried to backtrack. I said, Its all good- here this is for you and gave her a tip. She was gorgeous- literally beautiful. I don't know her story but could make some guesses. She was covered in tattoos. She seemed smart, funny and personable but not as any of them those as she had probably been in the past. Something derailed her. She didn't belong there but maybe kind of did... 

  

  Everybody in the house got sick this past winter. It was a challenge- but I pulled everybody through somehow. Half the time we were in Benadryl induced comas the other half  we were wandering aimlessly at 2 in the morning tweeked out on pseudephedrine.

  
  

  

  So a foreign born patient asks, Do you like fresh coconut? You answer- Of course! She reaches into her purse with her dirty hand and pulls this out and hands it to you. What do you do? You make a big deal of thanking her for thinking of you, let her see you place it on a paper towel on your desk and tell her you'll eat it on break of course.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Here, have some Sex Pistols
• Yesterday (01/13/2015) I initial dosed a patient on some medications. Approximately 30 minutes later she said, Kevin I don't feel right. My face is burning. I feel weird. and then a minute later she said, Hey,  I'm starting to itch. Me being the smartest guy in the room and learning in nursing school that it isn't normal nor advantageous to have a burning face, feel weird nor itch, I quickly whipped up a referral to the emergency department and sent her to the hospital.
• Although that particular case was cut and dried- a lot of what I do consists of knowing when to make my problems other people's problems.
• It is 02/25/2015 and snowing like mad. The big thing now is talk of the 50 Shades of Gray movie. I won't watch it as it looks incredibly boring and dumb- even worse than the horrifically bad book. Soon though, all the news stories will be about people damaging themselves and presenting to emergency departments acting out the dumb things they saw in that dumb movie. Also, watch for the reports centered around kids and their antics after they watch it.
• Think of the kids!

At Fort Richardson. Which of the 3 do you like?

If the air temp is cool enough to at least not be considered hot and your sodas are too warm, place them in a grocery sack of water in the shade. It will probably have a little leak or two (although you don't want it to leak like a sieve) if it doesn't- poke a couple of pin holes in it. Fill it a time or two and over a period of 30 minutes or an hour and your Dublin Dr. Peppers will be if not frosty- much more refreshing as the water running off and evaporating pulls some of the heat away. Someday you should ask me about how in my old National Guard unit we would expend a fire extinguisher over our beverages in the field to cool them.

Monday's Missives

The ubiquitous purple Texas sunset through the net fence pic trick.

• I did not know until this (02/05/2015) morning that when Aubrey Hawkins was called out to where the escaped convicts from Texas Department Of Corrections would eventually kill him he was having dinner with his son at the time. I was reminded of Hawkin's murder as Texas killed one of the guys responsible yesterday evening. Here are his last words, " I would. That each new indignity defeats only the body. Pampering the spirit with obscure merit. I love you all. That's it."
• That is sure to make the list of  stupidest famous last words.



Before the choir came out for Handel's Messiah at the WC 2014



I may have shown you this before but can you get too much Richard Nixon pummeling a saber tooth cat with brass knuckles?

• Sir Mix Alot Posse On Broadway- what I'm listening to.
• There is a personal beliefs exemption in some states to allow parents to withhold vaccines from their children. Vaccines are like a lot of things that are in place for safety and health- everybody has to do them all the time or the machine falls apart and it won't work. Anyway, maybe the worst thing about that exemption idea is it allows dumb people to basically dictate policy and public health. A lot of people will see that exemption to mean there really is a huge danger to vaccines and likewise if there is an exemption it must be OK to to take advantage of said exemption as the gubmint itself says it is- OK.

  

  I swear-  they're just making up words to name cars theses days.

• Recruits to ISIS have left the group (when they don't get their heads chopped off in the process) reporting if they're males being treated poorly and fed inadequately. Females who have left report being serially raped. Um, I don't mean to add insult to injury but- you're surprised a group of sociopath, homicidal maniacs would be mean and rude to you?

  

  Photogenic lady fishing at Holland Lake

• Weird: at work we are supposed to double envelope any medical record information we send to a patient and stamp CONFIDENTIAL in red on the exterior of the outside envelope thus increasing the risk the information could be compromised when that bulk of envelopes goes through a reader machine at the post office and gets ripped open. Furthermore, if you want to keep something under wraps, you probably do not want to drawn attention to it with the very provocative word, confidential in all caps and red ink.
• The more you over-think an otherwise simple situation- the more likely you are to come to the wrong conclusion.



There is nothing like a nice fire- amiright?

• Recently, Jordan strung up a couple of Iraqi jihadis in retribution for ISISs murder of a Jordanian F16 pilot. One of the people they hung was a woman. As I said earlier I don't mean to add insult to injury but the first time I saw a picture of her it was alongside one of the pilot. It was more/less a thumbnail and I thought her face was President Obama's Photoshopped onto a pic of a woman wearing a hijab and took it to be a statement of how the fate of the pilot was entwined with or dependent on President Obama somehow. Later I saw a larger image of the same picture and at a glance thought it was Fred Armisen. I mean- Woof!

  

  Murica!

• I heard day before yesterday from one of sources in the nursing underworld that one of my favorite instructors from my nursing school days has died. He went in for a procedure on his heart and coded as it was being performed and then expired. We bumped into each other a few years ago. He didn't look so great then. His face was slightly puffy and he was pale. Sad, he was a nice, smart and very funny guy.

Monday's Missives

Honda Rune is on my list. I like it not only because they're interesting and beautiful they're actually good, reliable and rideable machines. They're based on the Goldwing with an upgunned engine.

• Callaway made a wagon version Vette back in 1982 that was disgusting- it was literally gross. They intend to unveil one in 2014 that is really pretty cool looking. I get where the 1982 was ugly to start with and the new Vettes are beautiful but it still could have gone bad. The 2014 Vette with 7 speed manual starts at 51 thousand bucks- an incredible bargain for the car it buys.

  

  In FGs bedroom. She is quite a bit younger than me.

• From an earlier post Katy and Don made me think more about snipers in war time. If a Jihadi with a scoped rifle drilled my gunner in the face with a bullet while we were on combat patrol and Jihadi Joe and I came face to face with each other in an ensuing cordon and rundown there is not a chance he would have lived to rot in Abu Graib and/or get his neck stretched. I would have have shot him down and I know this for a fact. I would not have been able to live with myself if I let the guy live. If my gunner was killed by an IED and I caught a guy that I was sure triggered the blast he would regret the day he met me- he would remember our interaction for the rest of his life but he would probably live to rot in Abu Graib for a while and/or get his neck stretched. Their is no real difference- hypothetical soldier is still going home in an aluminum box but there is to most of us a big- huge difference and we're not sure why. I guess that is why the subject intrigues.

  

  Here, a couple of flowers for you.

  
  
  
• I am dangerously close to 50 and riding a bike indoors is still one of lifes simple pleasures.
• Yesterday (10/03/2013) I randomly saw FG outside of the home and/or a planned meeting. We bumped into each other after she left work. It was oddly slightly strange.

  

  One more couldn't hurt.

  
  

  

  I have always been intrigued by bamboo and believe it is underutilized in the west. Traditionally, it should be given to you as a gift if you intend to grow it and not bought.

• The Rifleman episode I am watching now (10/05/2013 @0633) features a young and very good looking Adam West as a school teacher turned gunslinger. That show has aged very well. I still enjoy it and can appreciate the sweet morality tales it provides. You know really, it covered redemption, alcoholism, single parenthood, second chances...- in the 1950s and interestingly, Lucas McCain always tried to use non violent methods first to resolve problems.
• A connected thought: if you had been told the actors playing Lucas and Mark were actually father and son in real life you would absolutely not have been surprised such was their chemistry.  Anyway, what a sweet old show.

  

  I don't know what this is but it makes my skin crawl.

  
  

  

  FG has to use a clipboard, calculator and stopwatch at work. A little Velcro and a storage clipboard with a calculator and voila! I'm not through yet though- I have an idea to make it hold her papers better and keep everything organized in the storage compartment.

  
  

  

  The Trek bike my buddy gave me. When he told me I could have it I asked him to bring it to me as I don't have a pick up. He said, What else do you want me to do- ride it for you? Hey buddy, sarcasm is my thing. I gave him 20 bucks for his trouble and to keep him from whining too much.

  
  

  

  Sophie the pup.

  
  
  
  
  

  

  Nice legs.

  
  

  

  Gag- such a beautiful body style ruined with tacky decals and stupid looking wheels.

  
  

  

  This pic doesn't do this guys cammo any justice.

  
  

  

  Mediterranean gecko on the porch ceiling. They're an interesting migrant to Texas that arrived in shipping containers years ago in Houston and worked their way North. Interesting because they don't do any harm that I'm aware of- they eat insects and they don't spread disease. As far as I know they are innocuous and beneficial. They don't even harm or displace native wildlife. Heck, predators here eat them when they can.

  
  

  

  FGs dumb cat loves baths

  
  

  

  Umm infected implanted studs are hawt!

• People at work come to me to treat their boo-boos and get ibuprofen and get second opinions from what they were told by their doctors. And then of course there was the one who after closing the door behind her said, Kev can I ask you something between you and me...?  Anyway, her scumbag boyfriend was unfaithful and gave her something she didn't deserve.

  

  Paper wasp nest. The maggots taste buttery and sweet- kinda like whole kernel corn that wiggles in your mouth.

  
  

  

  Our South of the borders friends have discovered Turner Falls. It has been trashed and vandalised over years like no park setting I have ever seen. The city of Davis doesn't appear to view itself as any kind of steward of the land and it's wildlife- it is their Golden Goose.

Just A Tuesday

Part of the concept behind these pictures were I wanted them to be be candind- actors being themselves so I thought that idea was blown when these girls hammed it up but I realised that is exactly what they were doing- being themselves.



Lady troll.





The pyrate who had lunch with us.




The first time I saw the troll away from the bridge.



• US Marines in Marjah Afghanistan.
• The last time I was at The Ballpark I sat just to the right of where the firefighter was who was killed going for the ball Josh Hamilton threw into the stands. I could not even stand the thought of moving around that railing.  I jumped and grabbed him every time my eldest even leaned toward that railing. I literally drew up inside and held my breath and looked away when people I did not even know walked near that thing and had to pass each other. I cannot comprehend somebody falling over it while going for a stupid ball.
• NPRs left leaning light shines brightest when discussing gun control. They will have a Harvard professor in favor of gun control along with a Yalie of the same stripe in the same line up as a 250,000 dollar a year spokesperson for the gun control group du jour who will be followed by a woman whose 3 and a half year old triplets were killed by a gun and if any of this is balanced by a gun rights advocate, he will be somebody they obviously found talking to himself while masturbating and rubbing his own feces in his hair while standing in front of a gun store.
• One of our supervisors is a pretty lady who looks easily 10-15 years older when she is in a stressful period in her work life. When that time passes- a deadline is met or whatever, the years just as dramatically fall away.
• Lori, pics of the horse and falconer are on the way.
• A patient struck me as someone who might have been infected with TB by being some place she should not have been, for example a drug house. I'll even further guess she was not using but was hanging around people who did- probably a boyfriend. It doesn't matter where she got it really. I don't know of a cluster of drug resistant cases coming from a particular drug house etc. but I would like to know the truth- to know if my hunch is correct. 
• There is a big deal being made over a blog called Reasons My Son Is Crying. The author snaps a pic of his toddler crying, then as the title suggests lists the reason why he is crying. I literally do not know what people are thinking- whether he realizes it or not, he is molding that behavior and contributing to increasing it and he has made a monster that may follow and define that child for literally the rest of his life.