The World As I See It -

Which Orisha Crowns You?

Chango - Chango is the Orisha of thunder, the drums and dance. He is a warrior King, and we salute him when thunder is heard. His number is 6. His colors are red and white. Offerings to Shango include: green bananas, hot cornmeal and okra, and red apples. His symbol is a double-headed axe. Take this quiz! Quizilla | Join | Make A Quiz | More Quizzes | Grab Code

Some things I just can't resist...

You Are French Food

Snobby yet ubiquitous. People act like they understand you more than they actually do.

I picked this meme up from several friends. I couldn't resist since food is always one of my favorite subjects.

Coaxed by my dear friend and opponent aenodia, I joined the Combat Cards game.

COMBAT CARDS 2.1

watch wayfinder38 fight

CREATE YOUR CARD

I played for 40 rounds or so, enough to reach level 4. It is mildly amusing but not a game that would entrance me for hours the way 'Bookworm' does, for example.

You are The Wheel of Fortune

Good fortune and happiness but sometimes a species of
intoxication with success

The Wheel of Fortune is all about big things, luck, change, fortune. Almost always good fortune. You are lucky in all things that you do and happy with the things that come to you. Be careful that success does not go to your head however. Sometimes luck can change.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Why pessimistic? I seem to be taking a beating in the health department. I am just recovering from an accidental bout of potassium poisoning, my bladder cancer seems to be returning and my strength is fading in my arms and legs. To balance the above complaints, our motorhome is nearly done with its minor tuneup treatment. The engine is running very well again. Air systems are functioning as they should. The water system is now working as it should and our lighting systems are functional again. Our hot water heating problems turned out to be a simple need to press the right reset button. Now, all I have to do is stay healthy enough to actually enjoy traveling and recreating again.

I took this image at Token Creek County Park on November 1st. I have always been fascinated by milkweed seed pods. As a kid I would 'help the seeds to escape' when the pods opened. The Fantasia sequence that shows a milkweed seed as a fairy dancer is likewise one of my favorites.
I like the backlighted brilliance of the 'silk' in this image, the single seed about to be blown away, and the silky bokeh of the background.
This image captures a part of the essence of autumn, for me.

I posted this picture on FLICKR on Oct. 3rd with the following explanation:
For my dear friend Barney who is fighting bone marrow cancer. I wanted to show him that people care and are rooting for him. Please help me show support in the fight against cancer. Barney is currently undergoing a bone marrow transplant - a particularly stressful process, including both chemotherapy and radiation therapy, that requires considerable BRAVERY to endure.

Please upload this photo to your own photo stream to show your support for Barney and the thousands of others who have bone marrow diseases and tag it with BRAVERY.

Oh, yeah - I have just been diagnosed with Myelodisplasia myself. With luck, I will NOT have to undergo bone marrow transplant myself.

If you are able to donate to this worthy organization, I urge you to do so. I am not connected with it in any way.

If it ain't one thing, it's the other. If it ain't either one, it's both! I was shopping with aenodia yesterday at Wally World. I was riding a 'Mart Cart' cause my legs were giving me fits and she had gone off to get a pound of butter in the dairy section. I thought she had been gone a long time, and then a store clerk came up and said "Your wife has had a fall."

Well, that was the cue for a major anxiety attack. I followed him to where she was, and he explained that he had been stocking eggs and had dropped one. Before he could set up a warning cone, she stepped back from the display right onto the egg and ZIIIPPPP, down she went. She landed right on her kneecap and skinned it pretty bad. She was in a lot of pain and couldn't walk much, so we got another 'Mart Cart' and finished our shopping trip on 8 wheels (4 apiece). The store filed an incident report and gave her some ice packs to help with the swelling.

This evening, she seems to have bounced back pretty well. The knee is still tender to the touch, but she has full use of it and there doesn't seem to be any broken bones. (LUCKY!!) I told her if we'd played our cards right we could have wound up owning some stock in the company (vbg) but I am just delighted that she has had no lasting injury.

That was the BAD news. The GOOD news is - that's all the bad news.

This image was made by Gini, a Flickr friend of mine. The batrachian subject seems to be rather grumpy, which matches my current mood pretty well. It IS a beautiful portrait, though, with sharp focus and good depth of field. I really like this image.

Well, when aenodia posted all those quiz results, I just had to go and try them too (lol).

How White and Nerdy Are You?

I though I would be much whiter and nerdier than that! I must be mellowing in my senectitude.


Which OS are You?

This seems about right to me. Most people don't understand me, and most people don't understand Linux, either.


Which File Extension are You?

This is much closer than I expected! The bit about working with amateurs strikes pretty close to home - I'll have to work on that some.


Which Programming Language are You?

Again, a close hit -- methodical is a good description most of the time, but I have my intuitive moments. That's probably one of those IF - THEN - ELSE subroutines in action. Basic was the only programming language I ever became even slightly proficient in, though I did try with PASCAL. All the programming brains in the family went to our son compactspleen, who is making a pretty good living in Seattle doing just that.

This stone lantern in the Portland Japanese Garden captures the essence of the garden, for me. I like the balance of light and dark, the softness of the moss on the hardness of the stone, and the diagonal line of the waterfall. The stone lantern has something of the appearance of a grinning goblin wearing a wide-brimmed hat.


aenodia and I went to our book discussion group this evening. Tonight's book was "Anansi Boys" by Neil Gaiman, which she and I had recommended to the group. I was rather disappointed in the reaction to the book. I really enjoyed it, as did aenodia, and the book has been winning awards in the F & SF genre. One person liked it a lot, one thought is was OK, one didn't like it at all and didn't finish reading it. Another dismissed it as "mere entertainment" and said it didn't measure up to the standard set by his favorite authors. "Mere Entertainment"! Riiiiighhhtt! I don't know if Gaiman's book will become deathless prose like that of Shakespeare, or DeFoe, or Poe. I am reasonably certain that those authors wrote to *entertain* their readers, though. These two group members just didn't get the story at all. Neither of them regularly read F & SF stories or find those concepts interesting. I think they are missing some darn good stories, but that's *their* problem. Well. as the old saying goes, 'It's a good thing everybody doesn't like exactly what I like or they'd all want o eat my dinner and marry my wife!" Thank goodness for the endless variety of human likes and dislikes. It may be a while, though, before we suggest another book for the group.

I like the way sun and shadow interplay in this image of an open-topped arcade / ramada / gazebo. I think it would make a terrific jigsaw puzzle picture.

This arcade is located in the Minnesota Demonstration Gardens near Minneapolis.

I just love the work of master glass blower Dale Chihuly. The roof panels of the bridge are covered is his work. This panel is one of a dozen or more on the bridge. They rest on a glass panel base and are covered by another that is open to the sky so the colors change with the changing daylight.

aenodia and I have known for some time that we cannot afford to continue to travel in our current motorhome - fuel and maintenance costs just eat up all of our available funds and little is left to pay for food and fun. That's definitely not what we had in mind when we started out on the road. Whether we can relocate to the Pacific NW or the Desert SW or whether we'll have to stay here in Wisconsin is a major current issue. A major unanswered question (and possible determining factor) is the type of treatment my "disease of the month" will require. My form of MDS is one that is relatively amenable to treatment. If all goes as it should, we could continue on the road for some time.

We are fortunate to have excellent health insurance as retired state employees. Our current HMO requires us to reside in Dane County. If we chose another option, such as the WPS Medicare Plus plan, we could relocate to the SW or the NW and still have our insurance - we don't know, though, if the doctors and clinics (etc. etc.) would be willing to file claims to Wisconsin and accept as sufficient payment what the WPS plan would pay. If that could work, we could relocate.

This is particularly stressful for aenodia, since her mom and our son both live in the NW, where she grew up, and she has hoped for years to resettle there. I like the NW too, but I really enjoy the winter climate in the Tucson area and would like to have a place there for winters and spend the spring, summer and fall touring the rest of North America. Neither of us wants to spend winters in the ice and snow anymore. We *could* cope, particularly if we didn't have to do driveways and sidewalks, but my balance is really shaky now and icy sidewalks and/or parking lots are a major concern for me. I'm used to being the flexible one in these situations and I can be (mostly) comfortable either way we go but she is really bugged by the possibility that she might have to give up a cherished dream.

"Yes," said the Devil, "that's the HELL of it!"

Culled from a recently received E-mail

These have to be original and genuine - no adult is this creative!!


JACK (age 3) was watching his mom breast-feeding his New baby
sister. After a while he asked: "Mom why have you got two? Is one
for hot and one for cold milk?"

MELANI E (age 5) asked her Granny how old she was. Granny replied
she was so old she didn't remember any more. Melanie said, "If you
don't remember you must look in the back of your panties. Mine say
five to six."

STEVEN (age 3) hugged and kissed his Mom goodnight. "I Love you so
much,that when you die I'm going to bury you outside my bedroom
window."


BRITTANY (age 4) had an earache and wanted a painkiller. She tried
in vain to take the lid off the bottle. Seeing her frustration, her
Mom explained it was a childproof cap and she'd have to open it for
her. Eyes wide with wonder, the little girl asked: "How does it
know it's me?"

SUSAN (age 4) was drinking juice when she got the hiccups. "Please
don't give me this juice again," she said. "It makes my teeth cough."
D I (age 4) stepped onto the bathroom scale and asked "How much do I
cost?"

MARC (age 4) was engrossed in a young couple that were hugging and
kissing in a restaurant. Without taking his eyes off them, he asked
his dad: "Why is he whispering in her mouth?"

CLINTON (age 5) was in his bedroom looking worried. When his Mom
asked what was troubling him, he replied, I don't know what'll
happen with this bed when I get married. How will my wife fit in?"


JAMES (age 4) was listening to a Bible story. His dad read: "The
man named Lot was warned to take his wife and flee out of the city
but his wife looked back and was turned to salt." Concerned, James
asked: "What happened to the flea?"


TAMMY (age 4) was with her mother when they met an elderly, rather
wrinkled woman her Mom knew. Tammy looked at her for awhile and
then asked, "Why doesn't your skin fit your face?

The Sermon I think this Mom will never forget.... This particular
Sunday sermon. "Dear Lord," the minister began, with arms extended
toward heaven and a rapturous look on his upturned face. "Without
you, we are but dust."He would have continued but at that moment my
very obedient daughter (who was listening!) leaned over to me and
asked quite audibly in her shrill little girl voice, "Mom, what is
butt dust?"

This wall plaque caught my eye right away - It fits ME very well (LOL).
Photo taken at the show at Olbricht Gardens in September, 2006. All photos taken by permission of the artist.

A purple hearted daisy growing in a flower bed outside a business in Madison, WI. I couldn't resist it - flowers are such agreeable portrait subjects.

Well, since the BW dared to take the test and share her answers, I just had to do it too! Nobody's perfect, for sure not me, but I can spell my native language (most words, anyhow).

Your English Skills:

Grammar: 100% Spelling: 100% Vocabulary: 100% Punctuation: 80%

Today was a dreary day - cold, cloudy, windy and not much fun to be out in. Still, the BW and I went out to get some pictures of the rapidly disappearing flowers in the campground, including the itty-bitty crab apples that grew from the flowers we so much admired last spring. I will upload some photos 'real soon now' so y'all can admire them.

Now I'm tired and have the thin edge of a headache. I'm depressed that we will probably have to retire from motorhoming this year, and worried about how the treatment of my 'MDS' condition will affect me. Finances are definitely going to be a problem.

Well, I survived it, but it wasn't fun. Saturday night I accidentally gave myself an overdose of my fast acting insulin before going to bed. About 3 hours later I woke up to my current usual symptoms for hypoglycemia - intense colorful auras, sweating, and trembling. With aenodia's help, I got some glucose pills and juice and settled down to monitor my situation. within 15 minutes, my blood glucons was back in the safe range (but still at the low end) and we could relax a little. We had a tasty breakfast of fruit, yogurt, and granola and I tried to get a little more rest. About three hours later, She woke me up to test again and my blood glucose was still declining. We needed to do a little grocery shopping, so off we went and stopped at a local Culvers for lunch. I chowed down pretty good then, and that was enough to finally counteract the insulin overdose and get my glucose up into the safe range. Since then, I have been VERY careful to calculate my dose correctly and then take only the amount intended.

This Infrared Image of Mt. Hood over the city was taken from the Tea House in the Japanese Garden west of the city. It is one of my favorite places in Portland.

In my college days the mountain was almost always clearly visible from the city except when it was raining. For many of the years since then, air pollution made the mountain almost invisible. Recent clean air programs, though, have made Mount Hood a regular part of the city scene again.

Taken with my Sony DSC F828 digital camera.

I am exploring the possibilities of being able to add some of my favorite photos to my newly created LiveJoournal. I think I can post other folks photos this way also.