morrowlife

Here’s the big fountain out in front of the Main Medical building here at the City of Hope.  Check out that fleet of wheelchairs there in the background.  They mean business around here.  Great art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam, taken at the City of Hope in Duarte, California, and part of my famous Statue and Garden series.

Yes, I realize this particular fountain has been featured here before.  That was totally different, though.  That was night, this is day.  They’re as different as … umm … night and day.  Har!

Pretty view, night OR day.  But I still think those parents are taking way too many chances with that poor little kid.  Also, that woman has one leg that’s way shorter than the other.  But it’s still no excuse for child abuse.

Good day today.  I made substantial progress on my app.  Of course, nowhere near enough progress, but it’s moving forward.  I think I have the database architecture figured out and I’ve started implementing it.  I also put in a quick placeholder for the Settings/About view.  Good (but not great) progress.

LRN4 is feeling pretty well today.  We’ve increased the daily quantity of the medication that is supposed to reduce the pain in her feet.  That drug is also pretty famous for making you sleepy.  So she’s sleepy today.  And her feet hurt.  But otherwise, she’s doing great!

We watched one of our favorite movies tonight: [amazon asin=B0001WTWS8&text=My Favorite Wife].  It has Cary Grant, LRN4’s favorite actor of all time, and Irene Dunne, umm . . . an actress I like.  Not to mention Randolph Scott.  [amazon asin=B0001Z4OXS&text=Raaandooolph Scooott]!  Highly recommended.

And there’s nothing else to add today.  So I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this shocking food violence news: burrito assault!

See you on Monday.

Here’s the button they gave LRN4 during this year’s annual Bone Marrow Transplant Reunion, held on May 10th.  She wasn’t technically in attendance, but I ran over there and had a bite to eat and looked around a bit.  They had t-shirts and buttons for all the survivors there, so I asked them for a shirt and a button for LRN4.  They obliged and marked her number of years as a survivor.  She liked it and it gave me a ton of hope and cheer to think we were on our way to her twenty-year button.  Slightly out-of-kilter Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam, taken in LRN4’s former hospital room at the City of Hope, and part of my famous Event series.

Very short shrift tonight.  I’m using the Wonders of WordPress to backdate this to Wednesday because it’s actually just a little after 1:00 AM on Thursday morning.  I sat down to write this about an hour ago, but the internet was dead (as usual), so I decided to pass the few minutes of waiting time by working on my iOS program.  Really got going and made a breakthrough!  The thing I’ve been working on for about the past four days is done.  Now on to the next huge obstacle, for which I need to come up with not only the code to make it work, but also the theoretical model for it.  It’s going to get interesting tomorrow.

LRN4 has been working on learning Adobe Illustrator and producing a logo for the app.  She has a design degree, after all, so I’ve hired her as the official Business Casual Software chief designer.  For no money, of course.  But she does get to keep half of all the sales.  I’m not sure whether she would be better off just getting paid by the hour, but I haven’t made that an option.

I’ve contracted with LRN2 to produce some XML files for the app, or more likely a single gigantic XML file.  I need to transform data from either an existing PDF file or an HTML file out there on the internets.  That kind of work is right up LRN2’s alley and he’s available right now, so he said he’d do it.  For money, of course.  This is a business expense.

Speaking of LRN2, he had a temp job yesterday that involved manual labor, and plenty of it.  He doesn’t seem to have enjoyed it at all.  Finish college, LRN2!  Really.  But in the meantime, congratulations for getting back into the wage-earning life.  I know you can and will succeed.

Oh, LRN4 had a good day, for all of you LRN4-tracking Loyal Readers.  We went over to the clinic this afternoon for her CT scan, which took only a couple of minutes.  That was pretty much our only excitement for the day.  We need to go out for the mail and one prescription tomorrow in addition to her clinic visit, so it should be a much zestier day.  Although today was also great, at least work-wise.

And I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this exciting Morrowlife Employment Agency job opportunity: flying squid!

See you tomorrow.

Here’s the grouchiest lion I’ve ever seen.  Possibly it’s because he’s assigned to guard the rattiest-looking part of the hospital campus.  There are lots of little donor plaques over there (see the background, for example), but it looks kind of like they don’t maintain it with their usual alacrity.  The lion thinks they could do better.  Just saying.

Fine day today.  LRN4 is feeling pretty good and so am I.  We both got drowsy in the afternoon, so we both took a little nap.  She managed to lie down for hers.  I slumped over in my chair.  Same thing, really.

I’m trying to finish watching the series of iOS development videos in the next few days.  I’m not quite halfway through – I think there are about 11 to go, and each takes about an hour.  I’m really enjoying them and learning but after a couple in a row I tend to lose concentration  So there’s a challenge for me.  Plus, I get busy doing other things, some of which are important and some of which are time wasters.  Might have to try watching two in the morning and another two in the afternoon for the next few days.  We’ll see how that goes, won’t we?

I’m still trying to figure out how to spend my $25 Amazon birthday gift certificate.  Any suggestions, Loyal Readers?  I’m at pretty much of a complete loss at this point.  Maybe [amazon asin=B00906PKQ4&text=this]?  Or even [amazon asin=B007HZLLOK&text=this]?  Or how about [amazon asin=B005OQYOB6&text=this]?

Short post tonight.  I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this shocking toilet violence news:  plunger beatdown!

See you tomorrow.

Here’s LRN4 with LRN1 and LRN3 at the entrance to the conservatory at Longwood Gardens.  What a great place that is!  We miss going there already.  Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam and part of my famous Uncategorized series.

I’ll have to think of a new series, huh?

Lots going on.  LRN4 is now 13 days away from her stem cell transplant!  She’s feeling great right now.  Her last chemo pill was taken on the 15th, so there’s no poison in her body to speak of.  There are also very few white blood cells, of which probably not too many are non-cancerous.  Hence the transplant.

Melanie has been here for her physical already.  We believe she passed all the tests.  LRN4’s doctor did mention this morning that there’s about a 1% chance of LRN4 contracting Hepatitis C from the transplant, since Melanie has antibodies for that disease in her blood.  We think that’s a small enough risk to continue per plan.  LRN4 completed her final test on Wednesday, so all systems are go

Today is the first day in the official transplant countdown.  She starts on three days of pre-radiation medication that’s supposed to protect vulnerable tissues, such as her stomach lining and the inside of her mouth.  The medication might make her uncomfortable, but it’ll be worth it.  She gets five days’ worth of radiation, starting on Monday.  After that, it’s a day of high-dose chemo, a rest day, another day of high-dose chemo with a different drug, two rest days while she starts taking anti-rejection medication, and the transplant, which is scheduled for May 9.  Then she starts getting better!

In the meantime, life is pretty good here at the hospital.  We wish we were home, of course, but that day will come.  But we’re enjoying being together and relaxing.

Played bingo yesterday afternoon.  Unlike the previous time, we won a few games!  LRN4 got a much-needed t-shirt (looks great on her) and a hat, and I got a couple decks of cards to help while away the hours.  We had a nice time, and it was fun to win.

All the kids appear to be doing very well.  LRN1 is getting ready to move from Provo to the Bay Area.  He hasn’t been really happy in Utah this time, so I expect this move will be a good one for him.  LRN2, on the other hand, seems to be enjoying Provo/Orem just fine.  He’s started taking technical support calls at his new job and reports that it’s fun.

LRN3 and LRN15 just bought a new car yesterday!  It’s pretty much just an update of their old car, but it’s better in many ways, it’s brand new, and it’s cheaper than the old one.  So that’s all good.

LRN5 and non-Loyal-Reader Cliff are celebrating the release of Cliff’s band’s new album!  They put it on a Kickstarter-like service called Pledge Music and got enough pledges to produce it.  It’s a fascinating idea – the band is called Concourse in Atmosphere, and it consists of several musicians who recorded in their home locations across the world (including LRN3!) without ever getting together.  I’ve listened to some of the music and plan to get my download today.  Buy it, Loyal Readers!  It’s good music.

And I’m moving along just fine.  Haven’t really started doing much that will earn my keep, but I’m making a few noises in that direction.  I have a few irons in the fire and am trying to decide which of them deserves my attention and in what quantity.  I’d really like to be making money again a year from now, so I need to decide how to distribute my efforts between now and then to make that most likely to happen.  And also to make it most likely for me to enjoy what I’m doing.

I’ve started a project with my nephew John to complete the testing and do everything else necessary to market and sell a very useful medical program he has written.  Medical software isn’t exactly my main strength, but I think I can learn what I need to know in that area.  Software testing is definitely a strength for me, so I feel very confident that I can make a contribution there.  Software marketing and sales is another kind of new thing for me, but I think I can pick that up fairly well also.  Besides, John is doing a great deal of the marketing for me – he’s writing and presenting papers on the software and talking to colleagues about.  He has a fairly large group of people just waiting to buy the thing when it comes out.  He’s planning the official rollout at a conference next February, so I guess I’ll plan to attend and staff a booth there, if booths exist.  Need to talk to him about that and start making plans.

So far, that’s the project most likely to earn me a substantial amount of money in the near term.  In addition, I’m starting to lay the groundwork for some work with my brother LRN23.  He’s very active in the field of military flight simulation and thinks there might be some opportunity for us to collaborate in that area.  I’ve found time to make a first draft of a tool that reads the tags in TIFF files.  I’m not sure if he’ll find it useful, but it was a good intro to C# and .net programming for Windows, which is something I’ve not done any of.  I have several planned enhancements to the tool and we’ll see if anything interesting comes up in the future.

I’m also still hoping to get some iOS programming done, which is what I intended to do when I retired from LockMart.  It’s funny how quickly my efforts have turned in a different direction, but I certainly want to follow the money and opportunity.

And then there’s writing.  That’s something I can do here in the hospital, along with the programming.  Don’t have much writing on my plate, other than the blog and my daily family letters on LRN4’s status.  I’m planning an editorial calendar for my two company websites, though – businesscasualsoftware.com and spinfo.info.  One way to generate interest in your work is to provide interesting, useful content on your website.  So I want to do that.

Speaking of websites, I’m trying to decide whether to register another LLC and domain for the medical software business.  Tough decision.  I don’t want to dilute my efforts too much with two companies and three websites.  On the other hand, it might be better to have a business name that sounds more like a medical forensics company.  Still trying to figure that one out.  Any advice, Loyal Readers?

And that’s it for today.  My commitment is to write something daily, so I’m hoping to increase the frequency of these posts again.  Wish me luck!  I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this exciting Morrowlife Employment Agency job opportunity: long-jumping guinea pig!

See you on Monday.

Here’s the new Fortress of Solitude.  Great Art taken before we moved in and started ruining it.  Also before winter reared its ugly head and turned a few leaves slightly brown.  Oh, the horrors of winter in the desert.

That’s right, we’re in Las Vegas!  Also, I’ve retired from Lockheed Martin!  Also, LRN2 has moved in with us!  Also, umm . . . nothing else.  But isn’t that enough, Loyal Readers?  Cut me a little slack here.

We’re enjoying our new life, I believe it’s safe to say.  I haven’t missed going to the office every day, although I’m already getting to the point where I’m ready to start actually working again.  I’m excited to be working out of my house.  My commute has shrunk from two hours each way in California to fifteen minutes each way in Pennsylvania to ten seconds each way here.  That’s the direction I like to see it taking!  I guess the only way to shorten it would be to just stay in bed all day, and that might get a bit old after a while.  So I’ll keep walking down the hall to my office.

Been pretty busy getting things in ship-shape shape around here.  So far, I have installed the following:

• One water softener
• One garage door opener, with all its appurtenances
• Five ceiling fans
• Twelve blinds
• Three bathroom light fixtures
• One fish-shaped key hanger

Still to go: a whole bunch of towel racks.  That’ll happen tomorrow.  Also, one more blind, which has to wait until LRN4 finds the time to paint the master bathroom.

Which may be delayed a bit longer than expected.  LRN4 has been feeling pretty sick for a few days now.  Yesterday seems to have been the worst, but she’s nowhere near healed up yet.  Looks like a particularly nasty cold.  Right now, it’s pretty much confined to her throat and her usual splitting headache.  She can’t talk, which has made for a couple of uncomfortably silent days.  I guess I’ll have to start taking up the slack in that department.

Shortly after we got here, we paid a bunch of money to the local rec center to use their exercise room.  The rec centers here are unbelievably nice – they have beautiful new equipment (treadmills, stationary bikes, elliptical machines, weight machines, a few free weights, etc.); they run frequent classes, both exercise-related and not; they have a very nice basketball gym; they have very nice racquetball courts; they have various meeting rooms; and they have amazing indoor and outdoor pools.  Unfortunately, our membership pretty much only gets us access to the exercise room, but it was quite reasonably priced and everything else is essentially as cheap as free.  For example, the indoor pool is a buck to use and the outdoor pool (open only during the summer) is two bucks.  Racquetball and basketball are similarly priced.  Not too shabby.  We’re going over there weekday mornings in our continuing effort to shrink the gut and grow the muscles.

Not much newly-purchased from Amazon lately.  Did I mention this cool [amazon asin=B000NZ5QG0&text=tool set] I bought myself for Christmas?  Perfect for working on computers and other electronics.

Much more going on, but it’s time for dinner.  I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this shocking food violence news: frozen sauerkraut chaos!

See you tomorrow.