morrowlife

Here’s another look at LRN4’s painting from last week.  This version’s a bit less complete.  This is how true artistic genius begins.  Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam and part of my famous Workbench series.

Don’t give me that look.  That’s a workbench.

Great day today!  LRN4’s white blood cell count is up from 0.2 (200 cells/microliter) to 0.4!  That means the transplant is “taking.” Things are moving forward right on schedule.  We are so ready to get out of here.  This needs to work.

Nothing else new.  Spent some time trying to get a TIFF file manipulation library to compile as part of a program I’m working on.  It just won’t work!  I’m not sure how other people do it, but there must be a way.  I keep changing directions to try to make something work.  Changed directions again this afternoon.  I made some progress before coming up against yet another dead end.  Very frustrating.  This ought to be the easy part.  What am I doing wrong?

Anyway.  I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this shocking food violence news: missing-taco rage!

See you tomorrow.

Here’s the lighthouse in Portland, Maine, as seen from below.  Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam, taken during last year’s east coast cruise, and part of my famous Cruise and Vacation series.

Good weekend.  LRN5 and her family finally arrived!  We had nice visits on Saturday and Sunday, after which they departed on their vacation.  They’ll be back on Friday and they demand a dinner that night.  We’ll work something out.  LRN3 comes in on Saturday and demands a dinner that night too.  Pretty tough Loyal Readers, but I can handle ’em.

On Sunday, our dear friends Art and Cathie made a surprise visit.  We really enjoyed seeing them.

Moved out of the Residence Inn and into the Hampton Inn on Sunday.  It’s way smaller and not nearly as nice, but it’s also way cheaper.  I mentioned in my letter to the family yesterday that it’s helping me prepare for the Village.  I have a feeling that place will be relatively humble.  I’ll be ready.  Actually, I don’t care how humble it is.  I’m ready now.  Get me out of this hospital!

Otherwise, I hung out at the hospital with LRN4.  She’s doing pretty well – just a little better each day.  Still no increase in the white blood cell count.  We expect it within the next couple of days.  Hopes are extremely high.

We had a nice birthday celebration for LRN4 on Friday.  The nurses sang Happy Birthday to her and gave her a piece of cake.  Then they told her it’s not low-bacteria, so she couldn’t eat it.  So it became mine.  Then my cousin Betsy and her husband Bob came over with a carrot cake (that LRN4 could eat!); birthday plates, napkins, and forks; birthday presents (from them, LRN3, and me); a birthday sign; and birthday hats.  We had a really nice time together.

And that’s it for today.  I’ll leave my Loyal Reader with this shocking food violence news: hot-dog-dumping helicopter!

See you tomorrow.

Here’s another view of the dragon from yesterday’s post.  Only this time, LRN4’s taming it.  Observe the crazed look in the eye.  Ride ’em, dragongirl!  Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam, taken at Dorney Park, and part of my famous Machinery and Statue series.

Very quiet day.  LRN4 is starting to have some symptoms that indicate engraftment is starting to take place.  It’s a pretty uncomfortable situation for her, but it’s fantastic news anyway.  We’re excited.  The discomfort won’t last forever, but the healing will.

It’s LRN4’s birthday eve!  Tomorrow is going to be a great day.

I’ve been thinking the last couple of days about making one of these.  I don’t really need it and that kit is outrageously expensive.  In the original Make magazine article on the plane, they said it could be done for about a hundred dollars.  So I would buy the parts myself wherever I could find them for a good price.  I don’t need it, though.  And I’m not sure I could find anyplace around here to fly it.  The attraction is that it’s simple and cheap to repair when I crash it.  And it’s a machine.

But it might be more fun to make a robot.  Or maybe to get a couple of old bicycles, fix them up nicely, and use them to ride around the hospital campus while we’re here in the hospital.  But I think I’d probably enjoy the airplane or the robot more.  There’s no place for bicycles in our garage.  What do you think, Loyal Readers?

Struggling with work.  Can’t get deep into anything.  I keep hoping that’ll happen when we get out of the hospital.  Don’t know, though.  I need to decide what I really want to do and start doing it.  Sigh.

And that’s it for today.  I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this shocking food violence news: yogurt spill!

See you tomorrow.

Here’s a dragon statue from one of the treehouses at Longwood Gardens.  Very intimidating.  Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam, taken last June, and part of my famous Statue and Garden series.

Another quiet day.  It looks like my package from Amazon arrived at my cousin’s house today.  That’s a great thing because I have a certain use for it the day after tomorrow.  I believe there may be another package coming from somewhere in Virginia in the near future too.  My kind cousin Betsy is planning to bring anything that shows up with her when she, her husband Bob, and a very special treat or two make their appearance.  Act surprised, LRN4!

LRN5 and family are coming in two days!  I can’t wait.  Don’t yet know what time to expect them, but I don’t think it will be before mid-afternoon at the earliest.  They’re driving down from the Bay Area and they’re not normally too keen on pre-dawn departures.  We’ll see.

I’m enjoying being in the hotel.  Very relaxing.  Very refreshing.  Very expensive.  But I don’t care.  I like the Residence Inn.

And I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this shocking food violence news: schnitzel smuggler!

See you tomorrow.

Here’s some actual Great Art, painted here in the hospital by LRN4 during last week’s art class.  It reminds me a bit of a Van Gogh. Although she still has both of her ears.  Great Art courtesy of both LRN4 and the exclusive iPhone-cam and part of my famous Garden series.

Yeah, that’s a bit of a stretch, but flowers grow in a garden, right?  That’s what I thought.

Fine day today.  I moved out of Betsy and Bob’s house with deep gratitude and moved in to the Residence Inn.  Well, sort of, anyway.  My luggage is supposed to be in my room now and I expect to be there in a little bit more than an hour.  I’m really pleased to have a place of my own again, while I’m sure I’ll miss my kind relatives’ company.

LRN4 is feeling and appearing better on pretty much all fronts today.  There’s a little bit of new discomfort in her mouth, but her hands and feet are almost completely better.  Only a little sensitivity to heat remains.  That’s great!

The wait for recovery continues.  Things continue to look up.

And I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this shocking food violence news: hot dog cart assault!

See you tomorrow.