morrowlife

Here’s the view we had from our balcony in Pennsylvania one night last July.  That lovely orange glow is the beginnings of an apartment building burning down.  Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam, taken in July 2012, and part of my famous Architecture and Event series.

Or maybe that should be my famous Destroyed Architecture series.  But since I have no such series, this will have to do.

Wonders of WordPress again today.  I keep forgetting to post on Mondays.  I guess it’s just hard to get out of Weekend mode.

LRN12 and her other grandma weren’t able to make it today.  We’re expecting them Tuesday morning instead.  Did I mention they were coming?  Maybe not.  Well, they are.  Monday was the designated date, as Other Grandma was scheduled to be here in Los Angeles to help a good friend clean out her apartment prior to entering hospice care (I assume) and dying.  Very sad.  Even sadder – the friend died on Saturday, so Other Grandma’s plans were all changed.  We were more than happy to accommodate the change in schedule, of course.  Cancer.  Very sad.

Anyway, we’re really excited for their visit Tuesday morning.  We saw LRN12 a few months ago when LRN4 was still in the hospital, of course, but this visit will be under happier circumstances.

And speaking of LRN4, let’s examine her condition, shall we?  She’s doing very well, thank you.  Her condition is noticeably better than it was on Friday.  I know I keep saying that, but it’s true.  Even she noticed it a day or two ago.  Her body is really regenerating itself – her limbs are gradually but very obviously gaining back their musculature.  I’m crediting excellent caregiving, of course. Eyelashes are short but there and eyebrows have started growing too.  The hair on top of her head is still holding back a bit, but we think we see signs of growth.  She’s starting to look . . . normal!  More time and improvement are needed, of course, but she’s well down that path.

The iOS program is coming along.  I feel like I really made a breakthrough in both progress and understanding over the weekend, and there aren’t that many hard parts left to do.  It’s actually starting to look like a working program now!  I’m feeling very good about the possibility of getting it released within a couple weeks.  Which will be only a couple weeks behind schedule!  I really want to get it done and on the market and be able to turn my full attention to the medical program.  Although I also have a bunch of updates I need to do to my Morse Trainer app.  But that can be done as a very part-time job.

One work problem I’ve had in the past is that I continually let too much time pass between writing iOS programs, so my Mad Programming Skillz fade away and I have to relearn everything every time I sit down to program.  Now that I’ve retired from LockMart, the idea was to just keep cranking out the iOS hits.  However, the medical thing was too good of an opportunity to turn down, although I don’t think it’s a permanent full-time job either.  So my efforts will necessarily be diluted, leaving me a choice.  That leaves me with a choice – either become an incompetent part-time iOS/Objective C and part-time Windows/C# programmer or a skilled one.  I’m shooting for the latter, of course.  My Loyal Customers will have to be the judges on that one.

And that’ll be it for today.  I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this rare food law-enforcement violence news: chili robbery defense!

See you tomorrow.

Here’s the apartment across the way from us, as photographed last night. Slightly fuzzy Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone cam, taken from our porch during an evening phone conversation with my mother, and part of my famous Architecture and Garden series.

Wonders of WordPress today.  No post on Monday either.  I have excuses, though.  Someday I’ll tell you about them.

Kind of a tough weekend for LRN4.  She got her lumbar puncture, as previously discussed, and immediately started feeling quite sick, with a massive headache, dizziness, weakness, exhaustion, and general malaise.  Spent the entire weekend that way.  At our regular Monday appointment with our doctor, she told him what was going on.  He poked and prodded a little bit, made some phone calls to the Radiology department, and got us an appointment immediately for a procedure they call a blood patch.  That’s where they take a little bit of blood and poke it into your back so it heals up the puncture in the spinal membrane.  It worked essentially immediately and she’s feeling very good again.

Unfortunately, my takeaway from the weekend’s events is that I’m probably going to be nervous about relapses for LRN4 for a good long time.  As she felt worse and worse and her symptoms were similar to what was going on when this mess long, strange trip started, I found myself being very worried about whether LRN4 was having a relapse.  Subsequent discussion has revealed that she was feeling pretty much the same way.  Sigh.  I guess a lot of water needs to pass under that bridge before we feel really comfortable again.

And that’s about it for today.  More on Wednesday evening.  I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this shocking food violence news: hamburger heist!

See you tomorrow.

Here’s LRN3 standing in front of one of the treehouses at Longwood Gardens.  That place was even beautiful and fun in the middle of winter.  Also, cool hat, LRN3!  Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam, taken in March of 2012, and part of my famous Garden and Architecture series.

Do treehouses count as architecture?  In this case, mes oui!  (Did I get that right, LRN5?)

I just spent a few moments looking at that picture up there.  How I love my children!  I’m so proud of each one for the wonderful people they are.  They all face incredible challenges every day with patience and courage.  They’re all kind, gentle, loving people.  They were all such fun little children and they’re now such wonderful adults.  If I could live my life over again, I would have each one of them be the exact people they are now.  The only thing I would change is myself.  Why, oh why wasn’t I kinder, more generous and open with my love, more accepting, and more available to them?  Learn from me, Loyal Readers.  If you do nothing else, love your children while you can.

And thank you, LRN4, for dedicating your life to them and me.  It was worth it.  Still is.  You’re a great success.

Pretty long day today.  LRN4 had her third lumbar puncture and chemo treatment today.  She needed two units of platelets ahead of it, so we spent a lot of time at the clinic.  We started at 8:45 for her blood draw.  That one only took a few minutes.  We were supposed to go back at 10:30 for the results of the blood test, but they called us about an hour early.  That’s when we found out about the platelets, of course.  The way they do it is to infuse the first unit, draw blood, send it to the lab for testing, and have you wait for the results.  When the number is still too low, they infuse you again, draw blood again, and send it to the lab again for testing.  In our case, the lab people weren’t happy with second round of blood (it was clotted or some silly thing), so they drew it again and we waited again.

The lumbar puncture was scheduled for 2:00 and we still didn’t have the final results.  As happened last time, though, they told us we could go over to radiology and the blood test results would follow.  We did and they did.  It took about half an hour to get things set up and then a few more minutes to get the job done.  Then they couldn’t find a room for her to wait in.  They finally found one and wheeled her over there.

Incidentally, when we got to the room with the beds, it was completely empty.  Why couldn’t they find her a bed?  Always something to complain about, huh?

She stayed flat in bed for a total of three hours, as ordered.  It keeps the headaches at bay, for some reason I don’t completely understand.  We got out of the clinic at 6:30 this evening.  So it was a long day.  As I mentioned before.

LRN4’s not feeling 100% tonight, sadly.  I don’t know whether it was the drugs they gave her to prepare for the infusions, the drugs they gave her to numb her back for the procedure, the chemo drugs they gave her, or just that it was a tough day.  In any case, I’m hoping she’s back up to snuff tomorrow.  In fact, let’s all hope she’s back up to snuff tomorrow.

Let’s see, what else is new?  Slow but steady progress on the app.  Very slow and not particularly steady, now that I think about it.  I’m really doubting I’ll be ready to release on August 1, which is regrettable.  Maybe things will suddenly pick up very soon, but that’s not something we should count on.  I don’t even have the basic functionality working yet and there are a ton of features I still need to add.  I need to improve both my productivity and my patience.  Neither one is looking very good right now.

Also, I’m eating way too much.  And it’s showing.  Sigh.

On the good news front, our doctor asked yesterday how many days it had been since LRN4’s transplant.  I conferred briefly with my friend Siri and discovered that yesterday was day 70!  How the time has flown by.  We’re supposed to go home at the 100 day point, assuming all goes well, of course, which it pretty much is so far, so we’re in our last month as Village People.  I’m really ready to go home.  But not until LRN4 is good and ready.  Also not until her doctor is ready for us to go.  But it better be in a month or less.

Oh, regarding yesterday’s question on the opening song of Art Good’s wonderful old Lites Out San Diego radio show.  Mr. Good has a website promoting his current syndicated show called JazzTrax.  It’s very similar to Lites Out, but aimed at a national audience.  The website also promotes a couple of annual jazz festivals he hosts in Big Bear in June and on Catalina Island in October, and there’s a contact email.  I decided to take a chance and send my question to that address.  I didn’t know who would read it, but I figured they might be able to find me an answer.  Art Good himself emailed me back with the info this morning.  What a nice thing to do for an old fan!  It turned out to be Grover Washington Jr.’s title track to 1980’s Winelight.  I bought it and have already enjoyed listening to it.

Nice poster, by the way.

And that’s about it for this week.  It’s been a pretty good one.  I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this shocking food violence news: Nutella heist!

See you on Monday.

Here’s the famous green wall in the Conservatory at Longwood Gardens.  Looks pretty impressive, huh?  All those doors are bathrooms.  Hence, it’s pretty much the most popular room in the place.  Those two old guys there both look a little unhappy to be in my Great Art.  Fortunately, they’re not Loyal Readers.  Also, it was a public place.  Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam and part of my famous Garden and Architecture series.

Aah, the Conservatory.  That wonderful place where architecture meets gardening.  I love that place.

Fine day.  We had our Thursday medical appointment a couple hours early.  And LRN4 still didn’t need any blood product transfusions!  In fact, her platelet count was up.  Maybe her white cell count too.  We don’t remember and we forgot to get the paperwork.  So it will remain a mystery.  In any case, LRN4 will undoubtedly be getting platelets tomorrow as they prepare her for lumbar puncture/chemo number three.  No problem, man.  That’s why we’re here.

My app continues to frustrate me.  I made essentially no progress today.  Spent a lot of time today not doing anything useful.  I’m so far out of my capability zone right now, I’m just barely doing anything.  Must . . . stay . . . focused.  Must . . . figure . . . it . . . out.  This sort of thing has happened before, of course, and it has always been due to . . . human error.  I’ll get there.  I just have no idea how right now.  Ommm, ommm.

The nice people at [amazon asin=B00BGGDVOO&text=Roku] sent me an email today that included a $2 gift certificate for MP3s from Amazon.  I probably shouldn’t have accepted it, as I’m pretty sure they’ll use it to track my internet movements or attack me in some other way.  But I did it anyway.  I’m still trying to decide what to download.  I’d really like to figure out the song Art Good used to play at the beginning of his Lites Out San Diego show on KIFM back in the 80s and 90s, but I’m completely stymied.  Can’t remember either the who or the what.  So are there any other download suggestions, Loyal Readers?

And it’s bedtime again, so I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this shocking food violence news: interstate cheese theft!

See you tomorrow.

Here’s a tiny stained glass window.  It’s a couple of inches across.  I believe it originally came from some medieval church, but it’s not there anymore.  It’s in Pennsylvania now.  Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam, taken at Bryn Athyn, and part of my famous Architecture series.

Need to give this short shrift tonight.  It’s almost 11:00 and LRN4 is already asleep.  I should be too.

Good day today.  We had an excellent visit with our substitute doctor this morning.  Actually, it was a physician’s assistant and we liked her very much.  Our regular doc is on vacation for a few days.  LRN4’s red blood cells were low, so they pumped some new ones in.  Her white cell count was at 2.0 this morning.  That’s kind of low.  I asked the PA if we should be concerned that it doesn’t seem to be going up very well on its own.  She said LRN4’s progress is perfectly normal for this point.  I asked if it was normal for the count to go down so quickly after it was pumped up to about 9 by the neupogen just a week ago.  She said it was indeed normal and that the good sign is that the levels responded so well to the neupogen.  That means her body is capable of making as many white cells as it needs.  It just takes a while for it to sort everything out and get back to working normally.  LRN4 is still in the middle of rebooting, to put it in terms even I can understand.  We just have to remain patient.  But I’m tired of being patient.

I was about to say that I want my wife back and I want her back now.  But I do have her back, miraculously.  We just need to hang on for a little while longer.  And then reach the point where we can remain focused on the present and the future and not spend time looking over our shoulders wondering whether the past is catching up with us.  We’ll get there.  It’s harder than I thought it would be, but we’ll get there.

Watching [amazon asin=B0001WTWVU&text=Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House] tonight.  It’s one of our favorite movies.  Has both Cary Grant and Myrna Loy – something for everyone!  What a perfect movie.  Highly recommended.

Loving the new computer and iPad.  Time to start using them to make money now.  I continue to find it difficult to concentrate on work.  It’s getting a bit better – I’m actually thinking about working now!  But doing the work is still a bit elusive.  I realize I need to take one step at a time, so I’m trying to be patient with myself (there’s that word again).  Time’s a’wasting, though.  Deadlines loom.  But I’ll make it.  I’ve always worked best under a bit of pressure, whether externally imposed or self-procrastinated.  And now that I have deadlines, things will pick up Real Soon Now.

And I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this shocking but very fortuitous food violence news: banana skin slip stops steak knife stabbing!

See you tomorrow.