Rattle, strum and stroll -

I didn't feel the earthquake last night - but enough folks on Twitter certainly did. As a reference, the San Jacinto fault is *right* next to my Mom's house? So we called, talked to my mother who was very unimpressed with the whole matter. Nothing fell, nobody died, ho hum. She's also got a goodly UTI working right now and is on one of the antbiotics she doesn't cope well with on top of it. I seriously doubt much would get her attention under those conditions - poor thing just doesn't feel good.

August is coming. This doesn't make me comfortable. August is traditionally when all the bad stuff happened - the past few years have broken that streak, but in Cliff's last five years of life? Like lockstep - something happened every August to take things down a peg further. And as you might expect with the long hospitalizations that followed at Cedars-Sinai, I know far more about Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur (and really, the long way) than I ought.

I'm being greedy about Mom, I know, I know. Mid-eighties, getting very frail - but damn if she isn't enjoying the heck out of things happening right now and who would want her to miss any of it?

I've also had two dreams recently where the only thing I remember is being in perfect health and told I had only four more months due to a cancer diagnosis. I wake, shake the sleep out of my head and remember nobody has even talked to me recently on any medical issues, let alone a cancer diagnosis. Twice. Not scared - but shaking my head nonetheless.

See, there's this little family history on Mom's side of the family - both her brothers and her father were dead at 59 from sudden death coronaries. Mom? Had her heart attack in her seventies. Her sister, much the same. I've nearly accepted the fact I will have one myself someday - and with the state of medical science, survive it.

But I'm 50 this year. The last one died in the seventies - so things have changed a LOT since then. I'm expecting to see 100 - but in the meantime, I'm looking over my shoulder a bit.

Dad's side of the family? Self-destruction, to be short and sweet. If they didn't off themselves, they lived into their nineties.

There's nothing like going back to 2004 entries and reading what I thought about people who have recently made my life too interesting a place recently - again. I'm kinder now, to be blunt.

Marines with kittens. D'awwwww.

For Hank: Jackie Chan sings 'Be A Man' - in Cantonese Add to the database?

Why I'll not retire anywhere other than CA. Now, if we can just retain these standards - that's the challenge. Nursing care is very labor-intensive, and in these days of ship it offshore, expensive. Relatively. I hope Iowa or New Mexico is checking as well - shorting patient care at the long-term intensive level? Heinous. There are few populations more helpless, and I would know.

In other news, what me, retire? Right.

Listening to the news, it's amusing to listen to the governor order the state controller to do Something he's already told everyone repeatedly can't be done due to software restrictions. This was true years past. No more money has been put into said payroll application - but yet, the governor wants stupid out of it. Sounds about par for the course for his whole administration. And now it's in the courts - when it really needs a bunch of programmers and related smarts (and the required $$$). Also very par. *eyeroll*

I'm going to go yell at a spreadsheet.

Rattle, strum and stroll -

I didn't feel the earthquake last night - but enough folks on Twitter certainly did. As a reference, the San Jacinto fault is *right* next to my Mom's house? So we called, talked to my mother who was very unimpressed with the whole matter. Nothing fell, nobody died, ho hum. She's also got a goodly UTI working right now and is on one of the antbiotics she doesn't cope well with on top of it. I seriously doubt much would get her attention under those conditions - poor thing just doesn't feel good.

August is coming. This doesn't make me comfortable. August is traditionally when all the bad stuff happened - the past few years have broken that streak, but in Cliff's last five years of life? Like lockstep - something happened every August to take things down a peg further. And as you might expect with the long hospitalizations that followed at Cedars-Sinai, I know far more about Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur (and really, the long way) than I ought.

I'm being greedy about Mom, I know, I know. Mid-eighties, getting very frail - but damn if she isn't enjoying the heck out of things happening right now and who would want her to miss any of it?

I've also had two dreams recently where the only thing I remember is being in perfect health and told I had only four more months due to a cancer diagnosis. I wake, shake the sleep out of my head and remember nobody has even talked to me recently on any medical issues, let alone a cancer diagnosis. Twice. Not scared - but shaking my head nonetheless.

See, there's this little family history on Mom's side of the family - both her brothers and her father were dead at 59 from sudden death coronaries. Mom? Had her heart attack in her seventies. Her sister, much the same. I've nearly accepted the fact I will have one myself someday - and with the state of medical science, survive it.

But I'm 50 this year. The last one died in the seventies - so things have changed a LOT since then. I'm expecting to see 100 - but in the meantime, I'm looking over my shoulder a bit.

Dad's side of the family? Self-destruction, to be short and sweet. If they didn't off themselves, they lived into their nineties.

There's nothing like going back to 2004 entries and reading what I thought about people who have recently made my life too interesting a place recently - again. I'm kinder now, to be blunt.

Marines with kittens. D'awwwww.

For Hank: Jackie Chan sings 'Be A Man' - in Cantonese Add to the database?

Why I'll not retire anywhere other than CA. Now, if we can just retain these standards - that's the challenge. Nursing care is very labor-intensive, and in these days of ship it offshore, expensive. Relatively. I hope Iowa or New Mexico is checking as well - shorting patient care at the long-term intensive level? Heinous. There are few populations more helpless, and I would know.

In other news, what me, retire? Right.

Listening to the news, it's amusing to listen to the governor order the state controller to do Something he's already told everyone repeatedly can't be done due to software restrictions. This was true years past. No more money has been put into said payroll application - but yet, the governor wants stupid out of it. Sounds about par for the course for his whole administration. And now it's in the courts - when it really needs a bunch of programmers and related smarts (and the required $$$). Also very par. *eyeroll*

I'm going to go yell at a spreadsheet.

Rattle, strum and stroll -

I didn't feel the earthquake last night - but enough folks on Twitter certainly did. As a reference, the San Jacinto fault is *right* next to my Mom's house? So we called, talked to my mother who was very unimpressed with the whole matter. Nothing fell, nobody died, ho hum. She's also got a goodly UTI working right now and is on one of the antbiotics she doesn't cope well with on top of it. I seriously doubt much would get her attention under those conditions - poor thing just doesn't feel good.

August is coming. This doesn't make me comfortable. August is traditionally when all the bad stuff happened - the past few years have broken that streak, but in Cliff's last five years of life? Like lockstep - something happened every August to take things down a peg further. And as you might expect with the long hospitalizations that followed at Cedars-Sinai, I know far more about Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur (and really, the long way) than I ought.

I'm being greedy about Mom, I know, I know. Mid-eighties, getting very frail - but damn if she isn't enjoying the heck out of things happening right now and who would want her to miss any of it?

I've also had two dreams recently where the only thing I remember is being in perfect health and told I had only four more months due to a cancer diagnosis. I wake, shake the sleep out of my head and remember nobody has even talked to me recently on any medical issues, let alone a cancer diagnosis. Twice. Not scared - but shaking my head nonetheless.

See, there's this little family history on Mom's side of the family - both her brothers and her father were dead at 59 from sudden death coronaries. Mom? Had her heart attack in her seventies. Her sister, much the same. I've nearly accepted the fact I will have one myself someday - and with the state of medical science, survive it.

But I'm 50 this year. The last one died in the seventies - so things have changed a LOT since then. I'm expecting to see 100 - but in the meantime, I'm looking over my shoulder a bit.

Dad's side of the family? Self-destruction, to be short and sweet. If they didn't off themselves, they lived into their nineties.

There's nothing like going back to 2004 entries and reading what I thought about people who have recently made my life too interesting a place recently - again. I'm kinder now, to be blunt.

Marines with kittens. D'awwwww.

For Hank: Jackie Chan sings 'Be A Man' - in Cantonese Add to the database?

Why I'll not retire anywhere other than CA. Now, if we can just retain these standards - that's the challenge. Nursing care is very labor-intensive, and in these days of ship it offshore, expensive. Relatively. I hope Iowa or New Mexico is checking as well - shorting patient care at the long-term intensive level? Heinous. There are few populations more helpless, and I would know.

In other news, what me, retire? Right.

Listening to the news, it's amusing to listen to the governor order the state controller to do Something he's already told everyone repeatedly can't be done due to software restrictions. This was true years past. No more money has been put into said payroll application - but yet, the governor wants stupid out of it. Sounds about par for the course for his whole administration. And now it's in the courts - when it really needs a bunch of programmers and related smarts (and the required $$$). Also very par. *eyeroll*

I'm going to go yell at a spreadsheet.

In other news?

I finally watched Dina Caliente die from old age. Atta girl. Now, for your sister -

In other news?

I finally watched Dina Caliente die from old age. Atta girl. Now, for your sister -

In other news?

I finally watched Dina Caliente die from old age. Atta girl. Now, for your sister -