morrowlife

Here’s the view across the way from our apartment here in the Village during the daytime.  As opposed to the nighttime view.  Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam, taken in front of our apartment here at the Village, and part of my famous Architecture and Garden series.

Fine day.  LRN4 had another good one.  We slept way in this morning, throwing both breakfast and lunch off schedule.  It was worth it.  She took the afternoon walk on her own today – I was busy with my programming – and she reports she’s building her stair climbs back up.  Before her weekend with the lumbar puncture-induced headache, we were climbing the thirty-step staircase seven or eight times every day.  After the headache, she really struggled to make it two or three times.  Today she built it back up to four.  I’m also delighted to report that she’s feeling antsy to go home.  Ergo, she’s feeling much better.  But she’s also getting really sick of having numb feet and no hair.  There’s kind of a helpless feeling sometimes for both of us.  But we’re making progress.

Made some progress on the app again today.  That’s incredibly, frustratingly slow too.  I got one important thing working right today and was making some adjustments to some things during a consultation with LRN1.  He suggested a basic change to the page layout architecture to make some things better.  I don’t want to go back to fundamental things again on this app, but he’s right – it won’t look and work right unless I fix it.  So I’ll tackle that tomorrow.  Then I’ll finish the stuff I started today.  After I get that part working, I think it will be ready to share with a couple of alpha testers.  I’ve lined up LRN31, who suggested the app in the first place, for that.  I’m excited for her – an actual teacher – to have a look and tell me what works and what doesn’t.  My new goal is to have it available for download before Labor Day, which means I really want to have it submitted to Apple by the time we leave here.  That’s coming up very quickly.  Crunch time!  I guess I actually need to get productive on this thing.  Yikes.

Watched another movie tonight – [amazon asin=B001FB55MG&text=Bedtime Stories].  Cute movie.  I’d seen it before, but enjoyed it this time too.  I could go either way with Adam Sandler, though.  He can be funny at times, but he can also be just plain annoying.  Especially when he does his stupid voice.  Just shut up and act, Sandler!  But this movie was okay.  He only did the stupid, irritating, unfunny voice a few times.

Rousing recommendation there, huh?  Did any of my Loyal Readers see this movie?  Did you enjoy it?

Nothing else new today.  So I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this shocking food violence news: pickle-related assault!

See you tomorrow.

Here’s the view in the rose garden this afternoon.  Not quite as beautiful as on previous days, perhaps, but it has a beauty of its own.  I suppose.  What do you think, Loyal Readers?  Great Art courtesy of the exclusive iPhone-cam, taken at the City of Hope’s beautiful rose garden, and part of my famous Garden series.

I think I see a little bit of color in the background of that Great Art.  But not much.  It’s been a hot summer so far.

Pretty good day today.  LRN4 is doing well today.  We went for a walk this afternoon and she moved along very well indeed.  No new problems, no new flare-ups of old problems.  Just the same old problems.  But they’re all getting better, slowly.  Some more slowly than others, of course.

I made great progress on my iOS app today!  I think I finally conquered my problem reading in an XML file and saving its contents to a Core Data database.  It was much harder than it needed to be, but you know – I’m from out of town.

I continue to live in frustration with the horrible wifi service here at the City of Hope.  It seems like it’s getting worse, in fact.  The antennas work all the time, but the system kicks you off at least once an hour, and you’re typically off somewhere between 5 and 20 minutes.  Makes it really hard to work.  Sigh.  I’m seriously considered buying a cellular wifi hotspot, but I haven’t done it yet because the hospital’s system is sort of working.  Well, it’s gotten so bad that I’m about ready to buy something.  But now we’re about three weeks away from going home.  So is it really worth it?

Plus, when I go to the various websites advertising these devices, they all seem like different versions of the same highway robbery, swindle, or downright fraud.  What to do?  Any suggestions, Loyal Readers?

And that’s about it for tonight.  I’ll leave my Loyal Readers with this ice cream cone assault!

See you on Monday.

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.