FNFD.BLOG

So, I went into my contact list to get the info for the person who is using me as a guinea pig/hair model tomorrow so I could get the address, when what to my wondering eye should appear but at least 100 contacts I know nothing about. Apparently the contacts for someone who knows a lot of people in Moscow, Idaho and Spokane, Washington have found their way into my phone. Also Monsanto and some Biotech, which is at least close to what I’d have, but still, I’m curious as to where they came from. Bluetooth is off, so it wasn’t that. It’s only ever synched to my home computer, which I don’t think knows people I don’t. The only thing I can come up with is that maybe the IR transfer capability is active and somehow my phone was lined up with someone else’s sometime recently.

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So, yesterday my computer was being very slow for most of the day. After rebooting, I no longer had access to my second drive. Some additional inquires have lead to the conclusion that something very bad has happened to it, and it’s no longer readable in any way.

This is fairly unfortunate, since that was the drive that all of my programs and data were being stored on, so I’m going to need to get a new one and accept the loss of most pictures I’ve taken from the time I switched from my old computer to the new one. I’ve probably downloaded some things too, but that’s not particularly significant, since I can just get it again whenever I remember what it was and why I needed it. Maybe I’ll get two drives and have them mirror each other so that this is less likely in the future.

Filed under: Scott Complaining
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So, mid-June is my anniversary date at work, so, that’s when various things like my annual review and any associated changes in status or raises occur. It tends to be a slow process though, and this year being slower than usual due to some time intensive projects my manager has had to work on, so, it finally happened yesterday. As a result, I guess I got promoted in June and got a raise, so I’ll be getting some back pay most likely this week. Which will be nice, but did they really have to wait this long, and then still have it in this tax year? I think it might screw up my goal of having my dental bills be enough of my gross income to be useful. Oh well.

It’s also a bit problematic that now I only have 6 months until my next review to complete my developmental and other goals for the year, which I’ve only found out about now.

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Well, it’s been a week of 12 hour days, with things going less than well in the lab, on the opposite side of the country from where I would prefer to be, in the cold with daily rain. But, I don’t feel particularly badly about it as a whole. The hotel was in a mall-like area with a lot of restaurants, so I could eat somewhere different every night within walking distance of the hotel. Not great places, being of the Corner Bakery, California Pizza Kitchen, Joe’s Crab Shack, generic Japanese-Thai variety, but certainly places to go and eat.

One thing comes to mind when I think of the trip, and that is driving around the DC area. Now, as I understand it, the LA area is supposed to be notorious for stressful driving, however, it was a relief to be back into that kind of traffic this afternoon. It’s traffic I can understand, on roads that have obvious names and ordinary exits. As opposed to signs which only list the direction I don’t want to go in, leading to roads with no label which only have a way to get over to the parallel road which has the actual exits every 18 miles or so. Keeping in mind that I’m not good at navigating at the best of times, but adding in darkness and other difficulties it really wasn’t all that surprising that I made the wise decision to take the only exit I could find that was not some sort of toll, and make my way back to Dulles to try again. Had I gone another mile before turning back, I would have been to where there is an exit to get me where I wanted to be.

On the plus side, Radar is home again now, so I’ll have some company. Once he settles down instead of being more crazy than usual. Probably I should do the same.

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Well, not exactly a layover, but since I got home last night and leave again early tomorrow morning, it’s pretty close.

Things went pretty well last week. As it turned out, the casket was on the same flight I had out of Denver, so I guess I got to make one last trip with my grandmother. It snowed quite a bit the night I got in, but I’d gotten to the hotel to meet up with the family before it started, so it wasn’t any real trouble. The viewing and funeral were both on Wednesday, and there was a pretty good turnout for the poor quality of the weather, and the amount of time since she moved away (15 years). It was nice to catch up some with family and family friends, and some more unusual connections, such as my grandfather’s barber.

The funeral was fairly lengthy, being a catholic affair, so there is a lot of stand up, sit down, kneel, sing, pray. I feel out of place, being from the branch of the family that got away from the church, so I don’t know the responses to the prayers, and am always a step behind. My aunt’s eulogy was good though, pointing out that after all the years of my grandmother sitting in the back of the church every week, she was finally up front, and how she lived her life in the way of St. Francis, always out gardening and taking in injured animals to nurse back to heath and release.

When we were lining up to go to the cemetery, a dog came down the road along the cars and stayed at the hearse until we were ready to leave, and then ran across to meet it at the corner as it came around. We all took that to be a positive sign.

One plus to catholic ceremonies, is that there was a large lunch for everyone afterwards. Food and relatives are a good way to cope with things.

I vaguely remember alcohol and karaoke the night before, but I’m not altogether sure where that fits on the stages of grief, so it’s probably best to just ignore it (Fun Fact: Probably the worst possible way to sing karaoke is to have been signed up by your sister-in-law without you knowing it, to sing a song you’ve never heard of)

Apparently this never posted last week before I left, so I’ll put it up now.

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Pretty much I’m away from home the next two weeks. Flying home tomorrow for the funeral Wednesday, then flying back Friday afternoon, and then out again Sunday morning to Maryland for a week there on business.

On the plus side, my phone is working, so I’ll have some sort of net connection during my travels, so I won’t be completely out of touch.

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Tomorrow is her birthday, I believe she will be 90.

On Thursday, she went out for Thanksgiving dinner with one of my uncles. On Saturday, my cousin tried to call her to see if she wanted to go to church with them Sunday morning, but there was no answer. On Sunday, my Dad called for his weekly phone call, but there was no answer, which was strange, so he called one of his brothers to check on her.

The best guess is that her heart had stopped and then restarted, causing a stroke. Since she was in bed, she was probably sleeping. Right now, she seems to be aware that people are in the room with her, but it’s left her blind and unable to speak, and will most likely slip away in the next few days.

I’m sad, I’m angry, but through it all I know she had a good life with a vigor and independence to the end that I can only hope I will see as well.

Filed under: memorial
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So, on today’s issue of my luck being legendarily bad, doctors.

Saturday, or possibly Sunday morning, I woke up with some abdominal pain on the lower left side. This was not overly concerning, as pains just happen sometimes. Also, most of the interesting problems hurt on the right side. However, it was still hurting on Tuesday when I went back to work, and if you are going to need to see a doctor, it should be on a day you are supposed to be working and not a day you have off. So I called the number for my doctor on my insurance card.

That number immediately comes up with the “type in the name of the person you are trying to reach” auto-response thingy. Well, my doctor’s name came up with nothing, so I tracked down an operator. As it turns out, my doctor has become injured, and has been out for 4 weeks, or 4 months, or something, I wasn’t listening too closely. So, I had to call in to Blue Shield to see what they wanted me to do. They wanted me to go to my assigned doctor. After several rounds, the situation set in, and she asked me if I wanted to change doctors. Which I did, so she assigned me a new one. The change being effective December 1st. I explained that this was less than ideal, as I am in pain now, I could be dead by December 1st (actually not that second part, if I let them catch on that I might be seriously ill, they’d probably drop my policy). In any case, it turns out that she was able to make the change effective retroactively to November 1st.

In calling my new doctor, it turns out the office has moved, so I got a different number to call. After calling, it turns out that my doctor will be out for 4 weeks. On the plus side, another doctor is covering for him, so I decided to take the risk that maybe Blue Shield won’t find out I went to someone other than my primary care physician, and all will be well.

He poked me for a while, and we determined that, yes, I do have pain where I thought I was having pain and that I have a slight fever. Other than that, there isn’t much other than a list of things I probably don’t have due to being younger than they normally show up (Well, look at my day, things that should not happen to anyone happen to me regularly, so I probably _do_ have something that only appears in the elderly)

Today, I’m feeling a bit better, and also got to give samples of various bodily fluids for tests, so next week I’ll have a better idea of what I don’t have, also what I do have in terms of cholesterol. If you are taking my blood, you might as well give me something useful.

Filed under: Scott Complaining
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Well, October 22, the day I moved in last year. It’s been rough at times, Scott isn’t all that easy to live with. Just last night he kicked me in his sleep, and it seems like every night where he complains that I’m standing between him and the clock when I get him up. Honesty, why does it matter what time it is, I’m hungry, which means it’s time to get up. It’s not like I’m going to just go away when he pulls the blanket over his head. What I’m going to do is reach under it and poke him until he gets up. With my nose if he’s lucky, with some claws if he’s not.

Things are pretty good though, I have some nice places to hang out and watch the world go by. Sometimes there are other cats out there, so I have to tell them to go away.

A couple times I had to go have people poke and prod me, and stick a tube somewhere I really don’t want to talk about. Lately I’ve been feeling good though, so I don’t think I’m going to have to go back.

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Well, technically, rocks on my head, but they could have been in it.

It’s a windy day. Wind and trying to skate along a pretty much dry river in what is essentially a desert are not things that go together for two primary reasons. The first is that it’s difficult to make any headway against the wind. The second is that the wind is not entirely wind, but is wind with dirt, leaves, small rocks, and twigs. I feel somewhat scoured. Also blind, but mainly it’s the sand that gets under my fingernails every time I scratch my head that is the most annoying right now.

On the other hand, after turning around to go back to my car, things were really nice in that it didn’t require much effort at all, and on one occasion managed to cover a long flat stretch, a downhill and an uphill without needing to do anything but let the wind push me. Back on the first hand, excessive easily obtained speed doesn’t go well with the various bits of tree debris that had blown onto the path since they kept tripping me up.

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