White tree
Here’s a white tree here on the campus of the City of Hope. Well, the whole tree’s not white. The leaves look rather green to me. But the bark is certainly white. Well, I guess it’s kind of grey. But that’s white enough for this blog. Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam, taken here at the City of Hope in beautiful Duarte, California, and part of my famous Garden series.
By the way, my Loyal Readers may be surprised to know that I never retouch my Great Art. It’s brought to you exactly as it was captured by one of my exclusive cameras. Any Loyal Readers not surprised by this fact are welcome to submit a comment. Keep ’em positive, Loyal Readers!
Fine day today. LRN4 has been feeling pretty good. I think she still doesn’t see the improvement in herself as well as I do, but she’s coming around. Our daily series of stair climbs (30 steps at a time in the hospital building after morning clinic visits) still kind of tires her out, but she’s climbing them faster and doing more sets. Today we did five. That 150 stairs climbed in just a few minutes. Take credit where it’s due, LRN4!
Also, she continues to look healthier. Her muscle tone is gradually coming back and she’s pretty much entirely lost that slightly gaunt look that so many long-term hospital patients get. Especially the ones going through chemotherapy, radiation, and stem cell transplants. I’ve even started to detect a few dark-colored hairs growing on her head. She’s ready to have her hair back, so that’s a good thing. It’s coming.
Her very sore toe is still draining. It looked to me like there might be a little blood in the drainage. Kind of gross, but hopefully not a bad thing. The PA we saw on Monday had suggested she soak her foot occasionally in water with hydrogen peroxide added, so we did that this evening. If nothing else, it certainly made it look a lot better. I’ll suggest it more frequently unless our regular doctor, whom we are visiting tomorrow morning, advises otherwise.
We have a friend here in the Village. His name is Tom and he and his wife were coming to the clinic at the same time as us every day (they no longer have to go daily; what’s the deal with that?). His wife is a much stricter caregiver than I am – she won’t let him go to the store or anywhere else off-campus, drive, wear shorts, go anywhere without a mask, etc. Much of that is sound advice, but LRN4 found out yesterday that they haven’t been to the post-release caregiver briefing we had several weeks before we exited the hospital, where they told us it’s just fine to go places as long as you stay away from crowds. The crowds pretty much take care of themselves when they see someone with no hair wearing a mask. Driving is just fine, as far as I can remember. The shorts and masks are actually a bad idea and a good idea, respectively. So she has that much right. But Tom is feeling a bit restricted. LRN4 suggested the class and he’s very excited about it. They hold it at least once a month.
LRN29 wasn’t able to make it on Tuesday of this week, so she’s coming tomorrow. Very kind. We’re looking forward to seeing her tomorrow. Since she’ll be here on Thursday, she’ll be able to visit the farmer’s market with us. Which we enjoy every week.
As discussed yesterday, I made a plan to get some progress made on my education app. I have felt like I needed to go through some refresher training before I could make much progress with the app, so I’ve been reviewing the 2011 version of the excellent Stanford iOS development course in iTunes U. Why the 2011 version and not the 2012 version? I’m glad you asked! I was about a third of the way through that series before LRN4’s recent little series of events. Also, I think it’s probably a good idea to check out the iOS 5 version of things before I move to the iOS 6 developments. Which I need to hurry up and do before the iOS 7 videos come out. Which should be in just a few more months. Also, I don’t have the 2012 series downloaded yet, and with the lousy wifi connection we have here at the hospital, it’s going to take many, many days to get it. So I’m watching the 2011 version, and it appears to have pretty much exactly what I need to know. So that’s what I’m watching for now.
It’s been taking seemingly forever to get through those classes, though. There are 26 sessions, most of which are a little more than an hour long. As of this morning, I had about 12 classes remaining. So I decided to spend four hours a day finishing this class. By my reckoning, that means I’ll be done on Friday. Got my four sessions in today. I’m committed for Thursday and Friday. And the first draft of the app will be done next week.
But don’t get me started on watching the 2012 and 2013 WWDC session videos. There is more absolutely critical content I need to consume than I can possibly find time for. I despair.
Speaking of which, I checked out three very interesting-looking electronic books from the library last night and I have two weeks to read them all. Plus, I put a few others on hold and received notifications today on two of those. Plus, I have four paper (old school!) library books with their own ticking clock. There just isn’t enough time in the day for this stuff.
Note to people considering learning how to write iOS programs and compete with me. Do not view this course. It would be very bad for you.
And that’s about it for today. I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this shocking food violence news: corn heist!
See you tomorrow.
June 27th, 2013 at 8:32 am
You and LRN4 are just fantastic!! I am amazed by your patience, progress, and hard work towards recovery!! Don’t forget that we are still cheering you on and know that you both can do it!!
June 28th, 2013 at 7:46 pm
The picture of the tree worked out really well. I didn’t know if you’d be able to get enough of it for it to be logical, but it did. I like it!