My Desultory Blog

Posted By RichC on October 11, 2010

My “greatest generation” father-in-law (Brenda’s dad) has been struggling medically for the past month and a half suffering with pain from his back and a fractured hip. After a valiant attempt at rehab and without significant success using drug and therapy, he opted for back surgery in hope to eliminating pain and to regaining functional use of his legs. Back surgery isn’t someone anyone goes into lightly, but at 85 years old it is even more challenging. His daughters, all three live out of town, have been evaluating and traveling home to western NY to help care for him and they nervously helped schedule their dad for neurosurgery.

With work and family schedules as they are, I was the one able to schedule my work week and drive up to lend a hand. So, last Friday Brenda’s mom and I took my father-in-law to Buffalo (and hour and a half drive) at 6AM for his scheduled morning surgery. Unfortunately an emergency took the early surgical slot and his 3 hour surgery was moved back to 2PM. The neurosurgeon finished up at 5PM and gave a positive post op report to us. The doctor felt confident that he was able to open the spinal column and rebuilt the L4-L5 vertebrae. We were able to see Brenda’s dad to his recovery room although he was a bit spacey that Friday evening. We heading home for the night and headed back to visit on Saturday.

Saturday morning was semi-promising as the major pain was gone, but he was vomiting. We weighed the recommendation for a nose tube in order to decompress the stomach (he didn’t want) and remove any blood and bile, but gave him a little more time to settle his stomach. It worked out to be a good decision. After a long day at the hospital, we headed back home and a fish dinner at my favorite Jamestown restaurant.

Sunday morning was my ‘hand=off’ day … as my sister-in-law planned to head up and relieve me. I took Brenda’s mom back to the hospital and was happy to see a smile on my father-in-laws face when we arrived. He was sitting up in a chair with his brace on and looking forward to trying to eat something – liquids only were the doctor’s orders. We had a positive meeting with the doctor and I felt good when I left for home.

All in all it was a long and taxing few days … but the weather was nice and the autumn colors beautiful. I was surprised that it was 34 degrees as I swept out the barn on Sunday morning and then 8 hours later 89 degrees while driving through Ohio on my way to Cincinnati.

Category: Personal, Photos | 1 Comment »
Tags: family, surgery

Posted By RichC on October 10, 2010

While driving home from New York I listened with frustration as the Bengals suffered another loss with a performance that was full of mistakes. Although they had the game wrapped up with a 7 point lead with only 2 minutes left in the game, their veteran players ‘bungled’ the lead and gave way for a Tampa Bay comeback. LINK

Unfortunately the mistakes by Cincinnati professional athletes aren’t only on the gridiron, our Reds continue to be plagued with errors giving the Philles the opportunity to wrap up the National League Division Series in 3 games tonight (yet to be over as of this posting but it is hard to be confident.) Errors, Errors, Errors!

Palm Pre photo of home theatre screen.

Category: Sports | 1 Comment »
Tags: baseball, bengals, cincinnati, football, reds

Posted By RichC on October 9, 2010

Category: Automotive, Diesel, Misc | No Comments »
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Posted By RichC on October 8, 2010

Just before the “flash crash” computerized enhanced market tumble in early May, the DOW had crossed 11,000 … which was the last high water mark until today. The psychological hurdle was crossed most likely due to optimistic news that the November elections could help reel in some of the out of control spending and growth in Washington DC. I’d like to think that some of the sidelined cash (business and personal) will be invested in American business, real estate and retail sales … all three are needed for job creation.

Category: Financial | No Comments »
Tags: djia

Posted By RichC on October 7, 2010

I don’t recall recall if the Apple iPhone advertisement appeared during the Philly’s no-hitter 4-0 win against the Reds or not, but the ad was intriguing in that the Twitter and Twitpic information had me checking the links. The marketing establish @gagebock account (currently 60-some friends) and Twitpic photo (700+ views) that was used in the ad was intended to have people do exactly what I did – do you occasionally do the same thing? By the way, if you are a Verizon customer, it looks as if you’ll finally have the opportunity to use the iPhone next year.

On another note, I was impress at photo quality above having captured the above photo with my Palm Pre off of my media room set-up … not bad if I say so myself!

Category: Cellphone, Photos, Social Media, Technology | 2 Comments »
Tags: Cellphone, iphone, twitpic, twitter

Posted By RichC on October 6, 2010

While celebrating our dog Tootsie’s 13th birthday on Tuesday – she’s a teenager (born: 10/5/1997) – I caught the last few minutes of an Animal Planet program “Weird, True and Freaky – Lost and Found.” I remember mentioning the story on my blog about a cattledog that fell off of a sailboat and survived on a tropical island hunting and eating wild goats. Since the dog was the same breed as ours it caught my attention. Unfortunately I missed the entire episode, but I wanted to at least clip enough of it to share. Sophie Tucker (video above) is an amazing survivor … and in my opinion is a double for our Tootsie (photo right).

Below is the story from UK’s DailyMail:

When Jan Griffith’s beloved dog, Sophie Tucker fell overboard from her family’s yacht she feared her pet had drowned.

But Sophie Tucker, a grey and black cattle dog, wasn’t going to give up that easily.

The determined pet swam six miles through ferocious shark-infested seas to an island, where she survived for more than four months by hunting wild goats for food.The extraordinary story of the castaway hound emerged today when Miss Griffith was reunited with her beloved pet.

‘I thought I’d never see her again, but she’s proved to be a dog who can really look after herself,’ said Miss Griffith.

Sophie Tucker, named after the American vaudeville comedian, fell overboard from the family’s yacht when they ran into bad weather off the Queensland coastal town of Mackay.

Miss Griffith and her friends searched the area, putting their own lives at risk in the rough seas, but there was no sign of Sophie Tucker.

Unknown to them, the dog swam towards remote St Bees Island, a quiet volcanic strip of land fringed with reefs.

On land there are rainforests and dense grasslands where koalas and wild goats live.

A handful of people living on the island reported seeing a dog running around, but assumed it was a feral animal.

When the bodies of several young goats were found, locals contacted wildlife rangers and word of a dog on the island reached the ears of Miss Griffith and her family.

‘We wondered whether it could be Sophie Tucker but thought ‘No way’.

‘She would have had to have swum through five miles of sea to get there and then work out how to survive.

‘It just couldn’t be her, we decided, but when we were told the dog had been caught and they were bringing it to the mainland we thought we should have a look.’

They waited at the marina as the rangers’ boat came in – and there in the cage was a grey and black dog.

‘We called her name and she went crazy – whimpering and banging on the cage, so they let her out and she ran over to us and almost knocked us over with excitement,’ Miss Griffiths said.

‘She’s settled in well back at home now. I think she’s appreciating the air conditioning.’

Locals said it was astonishing that Sophie Tucker had not been attacked by sharks.

Even though she was lost inside the Great Barrier Reef, which tends to keep sharks away from the coast, tiger sharks and hammerheads do swim through the coral – and dogs are at particular risk.

‘The smell of a wet dog is irresistible to a shark,’ said a fisherman.

‘You don’t often hear of dogs surviving if they decide to go for a bit of a swim. Even a big fish will have a go at their legs.

‘So for this dog to swim for five miles or so, and then swim a bit between islands, is incredible. She’s a very lucky animal.’

LINK

Category: Environment, Personal, Sailing, Video-TV | 2 Comments »
Tags: australian, blue heeler, cattledog, dog

Posted By RichC on October 5, 2010

I’m generally not surprised how casual some people are when it comes to abortion (some even late term abortion)… but I was shocked to hear British television pundit Virginia Ironside on a BBC Sunday talk program saying she would suffocate a child with a pillow to end its suffering. Ms. Ironside was equally as “loving” stating that abortion can be a “moral and unselfish act” –obviously she knows best. [sarcasm]

Miss Ironside said: ‘If a baby’s going to be born severely disabled or totally unwanted, surely an abortion is the act of a loving mother.’
She added: ‘If I were the mother of a suffering child – I mean a deeply suffering child – I would be the first to want to put a pillow over its face… If it was a child I really loved, who was in agony, I think any good mother would.’

LINK

Category: Faith, News, Video-TV | No Comments »
Tags: abortion, bbc

Posted By RichC on October 4, 2010

I’ve tracked nearly 200 fuel fill-ups while driving a 2006 Honda Pilot 4WD and have been wondering if the new tires have impacted my efficiency. I do know that the new Michelins have significantly better wet traction than the long lasting Goodyear Integrity tires that came on the SUV. In creating a quick chart, after downloading the raw data from Fuelly, it is difficult to see a noticeable trend.

The low dip in the middle of the chart was due to pulling a trailer.

The slightly more aggressively treaded Michelin LTX MX2 tires may have slightly lowered my 20.6 lifetime MPG. In comparing the high points on the right side of the chart, it does look as if MPG may have dropped a little more than 1 per gallon, at least for highway driving. Overall though, I’m happy with the higher priced LTX MX2 tires as the ride is smooth and quiet yet is offering better wet traction – we’ll soon see how they perform in winter weather.

Category: Automotive, Personal | 3 Comments »
Tags: fuel efficiency, fuelly, goodyear, michelin, mpg, tires

Posted By RichC on October 3, 2010

Major League Baseball has announced its schedule for the first four days of division series. The Reds will play the Phillies for game one late on October 6th (5:07 PM EST) – it’s going to be a challenging match-up. Game two will be early on Friday evening – 6:07 PM EST.

Sunday afternoon for me was spent painting and frustrated after watching the Bengals lose to the Cleveland Brown, 20-23.  Although I’m still a Browns fans (13 years in Cleveland) my loyalties are with the Bengals nowadays.

Category: Personal, Photos, Sports | No Comments »
Tags: cincinnati, mlb, reds

Posted By RichC on October 2, 2010

Brenda and I enjoyed visiting our son on Saturday for Family Weekend at Miami University. Although we didn’t spend the entire day with all the planned activities, we did enjoy a brunch with his professors and department head. It was nice to be in a small group talking with them about internships and future options for graduates with geography, urban planning and GIS degrees. It was great to hear Taylor talking confidently about his classes and thinking about his future. Thanks for the hospitality.

This afternoon I stopped to pick up some paint for the new garage door and was shocked to see what Lowe’s already had on display – do they know we’re still 3 months from Christmas?

Category: Personal, Photos, Shopping | 2 Comments »
Tags: christmas, lowes, miami, university