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August 2--Street Legal

2024-08-02T01:00:50Z

Our big project for this trip was to attempt to complete the process to have our marriage legalized here in Thailand. When we were first married here in 2007, we didn't register it, as we were planning to get married in the US. That turns out to have been a mistake, as it is much more difficult to register a marriage here when you are married somewhere else.

You'd think it would be a simple matter of taking your California marriage certificate to the local amphur (regional government office) here and have it registered. That's what we thought, and we were incorrect.

We had to go back to the US and get a certified copy of the marriage certificate from the county. We then had to send it to the California Secretary of State office for a stamp to show it was legal--a certified copy not being enough.

INTERMISSION

Next, we had to send it to to the US Department of State for their approval. It languished there for about three months before mysteriously appearing in our mail one day.

After that we had to send it to the Royal Thai Consulate in Los Angeles so they could authenticate it and certify that Malida was an actual Thai citizen. We got it back in a week!

So we brought the entire package to Thailand, where we had to have the whole mess translated into Thai and sent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. We paid the translators to take care of the whole thing for us. Paying people here gets stuff done a lot faster.

We stopped by the post office yesterday, and the package from the translators had just arrived. So we took it to the amphur, hopeful that we had everything we needed.

Turns out that we were missing one thing--after all those certifications and stamps from every possible agency both here and in the US, we needed a witness. Malida offered the clerk 100 Baht "for coffee" to witness it herself. The clerk took the money, but kind of just sat there. Malida inquired, and the clerk replied, " I drink a lot of coffee." Another 100 Baht took care of her coffee needs, and some time later we were officially registered in Thailand.

We needed to do this in order for me to be added to the house papers and other little legal matters, which will be our next project.

Once we were done, we went for coffee ourselves, to a very cool coffee place across the river in an old building that used to be some sort of mill.

Then we had lunch with some friends and watched the rain fall.

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July 29--After another brief absence (of two + years) or From the Farm

2024-07-29T01:09:20Z

I didn't realize how much I have missed writing here until I started writing this post. I hadn't really even thought about it, but someone friended me yesterday, and that reminded me that this exists.

We're in Thailand for a while. Malida's here for a month and I'm here for two months. We are about two weeks in. We spent the first few days in Bangkok, attempting to get our US marriage license legalized (still waiting on that) and now we are out at the farm.

Malida's mom making sticky rice. She and Malida's brother are staying here with us, along with Grandpa, four dogs, and everyone else who happens to stop by. We had four generations at breakfast the other day.

One of the other things we had to do here was address some of MaMa's health issues. We were concerned that she had had a TIA or a stroke in the recent past, and we took her into the city the other day to have her checked out. She saw a neurologist, got a CT scan and some labs, and everything looked good. Most likely some benign inner ear thing. Malida and MaMa were both relieved, and I took them to lunch, where they devoured a big pot of fish soup and three big plates of rice. I had the delicious shrimp cakes.

It's the rainy season here, which means it rains a lot. We haven't really seen any heavy rain until a few days ago, and now it's raining steadily. Good for the rice fields, says Grandpa. It has been really humid, and the only cure for that is to accept it and take lots of cold showers.

We were planning to take a short trip up the Mekong to Mukdahan today, but it might be raining too hard for the drive. We have a very small, very old (24 year-old) Honda, which works good most of the time, but needs the right conditions for travel. We are looking into getting a new car, and will probably do that next time we are here.

A neighbor's buffalo, on the way home from sampling some of the local grass. These buffalo are among my favorite creatures here, and I never miss a chance to take a picture of them. If I lived here full time, I'd be tempted to keep one on the farm. I'd name him Hector.

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March 9--after a brief absence...

2022-03-09T20:12:43Z

...of three months.

Not much has been going on in my life, which is a good thing. By this point, I have learned to appreciate the lulls in life where it seems like nothing is happening. Something always happens soon enough, and not always something good. I can think back to any number of stressful times and wishing there was not much going on. So I am savoring it.

As I mentioned toward the end of last year, back in July I started walking every day. At first I could only go about a quarter mile without having to take a rest. Eventually I increased the distance, and am now walking 9-10 miles a day, divided up into a morning and afternoon walk. I mostly walk in the light industrial area behind our neighborhood and listen to audiobooks. I have lost a little less than 70 pounds since I started walking, and feel a lot better. None of my clothes fit anymore. I'll buy some new clothes before I go to Thailand in May.

Hopefully we go to Thailand. At the present, there are no quarantine restrictions, but that has changed in the past and could change again. We are hopeful. We have still not seen our completed house on the rice farm, and are anxious to do so, as well as see the family.

I have not taken very many photographs in the past few months. I had been planning a photography trip to Death Valley next week, but decided not to go because of gas prices (and Malida grumbling a bit about not being able to go with me because of work). I am not in a photography mood lately. I'm not sure why. For some reason I just feel the need to stay close to home. Much different than I thought it would be after I retired. I imagined myself out there every day.

Instead, I am spending a lot of time in my yard, cleaning things up and getting ready to do some planting when the weather gets a bit nicer. I like being out there, and find myself with enough energy to do all sorts of things I couldn't do before.

Back in January we took a trip up to the Mendocino area. Rather than stay at the place we normally stay, we got an airbnb outside of Fort Bragg. It was lovely, and had a nice kitchen, so we could prepare our own food.

A waterfall along a nice trail at Russian Gulch State Park.

I guess that's it for now. I am expecting my LJ to disappear any day now as the war continues to rage in Ukraine and the Russian government continues to act like barbarians. I made a separate entry over on LJ letting people know I am over here, so hopefully we don't all lose touch.

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December 8--Molly Caldron Iredale

2021-12-09T00:03:50Z

After our lovely walk in Point Reyes on Sunday, we headed into San Rafael for some lunch, and then out to the cemetery where some of my family members enjoy their eternal rest. It was the anniversary of my grandfather's birth (137 years ago, back in 1884). His birthdate is one day before mine, and when I was little we used to celebrate together. He turned 80 the same year I turned 8.

His mother, my great-grandmother, is interred there as well. She died a few months before I was born, and my dad never had much to say about her, other than that her husband died young, and she lived in the Shattuck Hotel in Berkeley in her later years.

Last year I started messing around with my family tree on Ancestry, and found out some more about her. I have been thinking about her life a bit, as I have been reading a book about a woman and her family out here in the west, that takes place in the late 1800s, which is pretty much the same time my great-grandmother was living out west.

One thing I learned was that census records from back then are not always accurate, as I have three possible birth years for her, only one of which matches the date on her marker, which is 1866. I think the 1866 date is the most accurate, as this would make her about 18 when she had her first child, my grandfather.

She arrived in the US from England in 1870, when she was 4 years old. Her parents were both born in Ireland. They settled in St Louis, as far as I can tell. She married my great-grandfather, and had two children. He died 10 years after they married, of Phthisis Pulmonalis, or TB, and she was left a single parent with two young children.

They stayed in the St. Louis area for a while, and the census records indicate she worked as a cigar maker and as a private duty nurse. Eventually they moved to Colorado Springs because of a health issue with her daughter, and the daughter died there three years later. She moved to Oklahoma, where she worked as a private duty nurse for some family, and eventually came out to California where my grandfather lived.

Her name was Mary, but everyone knew her as Molly. I imagine her life wasn't easy. She lived to be 90 years old.

One of her sisters married a friend of my great-grandfather, and lived a long life as well. One of her descendants is a very conservative Republican state senator for Missouri. He has supported a bill to allow health insurance companies to deny coverage for contraception, and has a 92% favorable rating from the NRA. I don't think I will be reaching out to this long-lost relative.

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December 6--001: They Say it's Your Birthday...

2021-12-06T14:05:32Z

...well it's my birthday too, yeah!

I'll be turning 65 in about 40 minutes. I got my Medicare card in the mail last week. I feel great--at least 10 years younger than I did this time a year ago. Not that I actually am 10 years younger--that would be an interesting accomplishment. I do feel good though, and am looking forward to the coming year. My plan is to keep being retired, enjoy life, and walk a lot. I bought myself a bicycle for a present, and will ride that as well.

We got up early yesterday and drove down to Point Reyes for a hike in the fog. It was cold, but invigorating. It is among my favorite places in the world. We had some butternut squash soup before we headed out, and walked about 3.5 miles out, and then back.

I walk a lot these days. That's what I have been doing to feel better after such a shitty year last year. I walk 3-4 miles every morning, and about 2 miles every evening. I've done that every day since about the middle of July, except for the one day where it rained for 24 hours straight. I've shed about 45 pounds in the interval. That's been my focus for the past six months. I plan to keep doing that, and want to walk at least 1500 miles in the coming year.

Some elk in the mist. We saw these guys and some coyotes, as well as lots of birds. After we got off the trail we drove down to visit my grandfather's grave--yesterday was the anniversary of his birth back in 1884. When I was little, the family celebrated our birthdays together. I only remember one--the year I turned 8 and he turned 80. We went to a place called Sabella's, which was a great seafood restaurant. Back then, abalone was on the menu.

Sabella's is long gone, so we went to San Rafael Joes for lunch--the other place I remember eating at as a kid. After a delicious lunch we walked around the town, and gathered a bunch of bay leaves from the tree near where my other grandparents lived. Then we drove home and I finished watching the new Beatles documentary.

It was a lovely day.

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October 11--In Search of Lee Mellon

2021-10-11T12:57:13Z

It's been a while, but you still look marvelous!

I've been retired for about five months now, and am settling in to it nicely. I did a bunch of work for the nursing program at the beginning of their semester--helping to get the students going and training my replacement. I'm all done with that now, and moving on to other things.

We were supposed to be in the middle of a month-long road trip up through Montana and Wyoming about now, but one of our cats has cancer, so we are sticking closer to home.

Chocko seems to feel fine at the moment, and is her usual self, except that she seems to be spending a lot more time around one or the other of us.

We took a short trip this past week down to the Monterey and Big Sur area to celebrate Malida's birthday. The weather was perfect--it is starting to feel like fall now. We saw all sorts of marine mammals--dolphins, otters, seals, sea lions, and plenty of birds. I haven't downloaded my pictures yet, so only iPhone shots for now.

The Big Sur coast.

I was prompted to return here by both a nudge from Crooked Finger, and some thoughts I have been having about some sort of writing project. I haven't quite decided on how this writing project will play out, but I have some ideas, and this is the perfect place to try them out. We shall see.

For now, I am healthy, happy, and at peace. I've spent a good part of the past five months regaining my physical and mental health after what was a brutal year. I walk every day, and listen to books. I participated in a 5K walk a few weeks ago, and finished in 164th place. I set down my camera for a while, and am not quite ready to pick it up again, but I am sure I will.

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June 14--Group 320

2021-06-14T14:21:06Z

I'm sitting outside this morning, as the temperature is pleasant for the moment. We are expecting a heat wave this week, so I'm enjoying it while I can. It's supposed to get up to 109 on Thursday.

I'm also on jury duty this week, but don't have to do anything until later this afternoon. Most of the time I am happy to go in and be a prospective juror, but this week, in addition to the heat wave, one of our major freeways is closed down for repairs. It's the freeway I would take to get to the courthouse downtown, so I'm hoping they will just let me stay down here, where the birds are singing and the coffee is strong and plentiful.

Ol' 97, out near Michigan Bar.

I spent a good part of last week working on estate stuff, particularly the sale of my dad's car and the sale of my step-sister's house. The car sale should have been easy, but my dad, when he bought the car from the leasing agency, never filed the sale paperwork. That was 10 years ago. So I had to clear that up, and then transfer the title from the estate to my sister.

The California DMV is perpetually screwed-up, and I desperately wanted to avoid having to go in, but I had to. I will say that everyone I talked to was pretty helpful and nice, other than the unnecessarily gruff security guard at the door. Maybe he's seen things.

In any case, I took in every possible form the could ask for (they asked for every one), and after a series of checkpoints and waits, I made it to the counter, where I was able to get it done.

I turned the car over to my sister and she took off for home, even though we had invited the family over for dinner and I had barbecued all sorts of stuff she liked. That's my sister.

A hazy morning in Yosemite Valley.

My step-sister's house got put on the market last week, and sold almost immediately for a lot more than the asking price. I am involved mostly because half the house was in my dad's name, though he had no financial interest in it. So I sign a bunch of documents, and hold on to the money for a while, until it goes to its rightful owners. Everything is done electronically, so not much to it, other than taking the time to read the documents.

I've been retired for almost a month. It feels like I have been as busy as I was when I was working. I think this week will be less busy, provided I don't have to go to the courthouse. I haven't had much time to go out and practice with my drone, and want to do that.

We did go up to the Sierras yesterday for a picnic with our friends, and I flew around a bit, but forgot how to access the manual camera controls, so a lot of the pictures were overexposed. I have since downloaded the somewhat unhelpful manual to my phone, and watched a bunch of videos about how the settings work.

I think this one was taken by Tanika, our delightful houseguest. We're all there somewhere. Once I figure it all out, I have all sorts of ideas about how to use it.

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May 31--The Case of the Giant Cucumber

2021-05-31T14:20:08Z

I'm sitting out on the front patio enjoying the cool of the morning before it gets hot. It is supposed to be 106 here today, though my smart watch predicts a slightly less 102. Either way it's going to be hot. We did our big house cleaning and yard cleaning yesterday, so today is a day of rest.

On Friday, we took our houseguest out to the coast so she could see the Pacific Ocean and we could eat some yummy seafood. It was cold and foggy, which was ok with us. We hiked around in Point Reyes for a while, then headed up to Bodega Bay for lunch and to wander around. The above pic is from Bodega Head. Our houseguest has never seen The Birds, so all the seagulls flying around meant little or nothing to her.

We had our first post-pandemic dinner party last evening. I spent the afternoon cooking, which was great. I think it is the first big meal I have cooked in more than a year. I grilled a tri-tip, and had some green beans, ranch beans, mashed potatoes, and mushrooms, as well as some Thai dishes the girls made. It was so nice to see our friends again after so long.

I stayed up too late, and had to be up at 5:30 for the online morning prayer that I lead on Mondays. I stumbled into this morning prayer thing by accident last summer. It's an Episcopal community in Pennsylvania. The priest there is an old friend from Livejournal, whose LJ name I now forget. Way back when, she was a hard-partying attorney in Atlanta. In any case, I came across the morning prayer that they do on FB every morning, and started watching every day before my online class. They are a small, and very welcoming community, and represent the best of what a faith community should be.

Lupines overlooking the south beach of the Point Reyes National Seashore. One of my favorite spots in the whole world.

I am on retirement day 12, and it seems like I am about as busy as I normally am. I probably won't notice the difference until the fall, when I don't have to ramp up for the semester. Today is the last day of my health insurance, and I have to figure out what to do for the next six months until I am eligible for Medicare. I have options, though none of them are as good as the excellent plan I got through the teacher's union. I spent 48 years working in healthcare, and still ended up without a retirement medical plan.

My retirement gift to myself was a new drone with a nice camera. It arrived yesterday afternoon, and I will try and figure it out today. Maybe the next post i make will feature PICTURES FROM THE SKY!!! Or maybe it will land in a tree and that will be that.

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May 26--Crash-Barrier Waltzer

2021-05-26T12:52:59Z

We are home after our little trip to Yosemite. Our next adventure is a trip to Costco later this morning. I'm looking forward to it. I' be sure to post pictures.

After seeing a photograph that someone else made of a sunrise over Yosemite Valley, I decided I would try and get something similar. I got up at 4:15 and drove the hour or so up to the Tunnel View, where I could see most of the valley.

I was not alone. I arrived there at about 5:45, and there were lots and lots of people with the same idea. I managed to wedge myself into a spot and waited. It wasn't super cold, and I had a thermos of coffee, so I was all set.

The sunrise, when it arrived at about 06:20, was much less spectacular than I had hoped for. The low smoke pretty much obscured everything, and the lack of clouds didn't help. That's ok. I learned something from this, and will be back next year, a week earlier, when the sun should be rising right over Half Dome.

When we were walking around in Mariposa the other day, we stopped into a little shop that sold all sorts of blank journals. I found one I liked, and decided it would be the journal where I write down what is going on at different points in the year, so I can remember to go out and take pictures of whatever it is. Sunrise over Half Dome in mid May is my first entry.

I drove down and made a loop around the valley before I headed back to Mariposa. The fires are still smoldering, and there was a crew setting up to do some more burning. I took some pictures, then headed back to have breakfast before we headed for home.

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May 24--Controlled burn

2021-05-25T02:12:13Z

We're up at Yosemite for a few days, showing our houseguest around. I don't recall if I mentioned our houseguest in the previous post, but she is with us for the summer. I'll talk more about that in the next post.

We rented a little house in Mariposa, about 45 minutes from Yosemite. It's a nice house, but no wifi to speak of, unless you're standing outside on the driveway. I guess the main house is up the hill on the other side of the driveway, and they are too cheap to run internet down here.

I have my computer hooked up to my phone, which has marginal cell service. It's slow, but it works.

We spent all of yesterday hiking around on the valley floor. It was a perfect day--not too hot, not too many people. This morning we went up to Glacier Point to look down on the valley. It's a spectacular view. As we were up there, we saw smoke rising up from the valley floor. Someone said it was a controlled burn. There's a lot of dead wood down there, so it's a good thing.

Not for the people down in the valley, especially near the village and all the valley touristy spots, though.

We drove past the controlled burn site. One of the people told me they were trying to do 400 acres over the next few days. They also are doing a major road construction project, and there are all sorts of traffic back-ups. In any case, we were able to see what we wanted to see, so got out of there and will explore elsewhere tomorrow before heading home. We go up to Yosemite at least 3-4 times a year, so we are happy to let them make it a better place.

As we drove back down to Mariposa, we talked about some of the other stuff we want to do this summer while our guest is here. Next stop is the ocean, and San Francisco. We also talked about heading up north in the fall--maybe October. October was always my favorite time to travel, but I have not been able to get the time off while I was teaching. Now I have the time off.

We are thinking about driving up through Oregon and Washington, and into Canada (if they are letting us in then). Do some camping. We shall see.

Some nice flowers from the other day.

I will be surprised if this actually posts.

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May 22--Official

2021-05-22T14:18:45Z

Ok, I am now officially retired, as of Thursday. It was a busy week up until then with final exams, graduation, and cleaning things up. Friday morning I slept in until 7, which was a real treat. I woke up thinking I had stuff to do, but I didn't.

Yesterday's to-do list. I did a lot more than that, but it was nice not to have a whole list of things that had to be done. I fixed the drip irrigation in the front, went to the hardware store, prepped some bread dough for baking this morning (I can smell it baking now), and watched half a movie.

At some point, I started posting a photo countdown. Not for every day--pretty much just random odd days. I started with this old one from 2013, which is my avatar here. Twenty-nine has been a special number for me since way back.

On my last day of work, we had a faculty meeting--a real in-person meeting at the house of our program director. It was the first time we had all seen each other in person since March 15, 2020. We have all been vaccinated. I gave my final presentation as the medical-surgical content expert, and then we had a retirement party for me and my colleague, who was also retiring. I'm not generally one for parties, but I really enjoyed this. I received lots and lots of well-wishes from former students. It felt good.

Photographically speaking, this was my favorite of the countdown pictures. Everything came from our garden, which is doing really great this year. I have all sorts of roses blooming out front, and there are a trio of little old ladies who walk by every day and comment on them. They stop and smell the roses. I can see them from my office window. I came out and said hi one day, and they told me how much they like our front yard.

The photo for my final day. All my favorite little characters from my desk and my Hello Kitty lecture box. A lot of this stuff was given to me by students over the years, so it has special meaning. The Hello Kitty rock was a gift from my boss after we successfully gained national accreditation for our nursing program.

What's next? Who knows.

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May 2--a 90-day supply

2021-05-02T14:02:05Z

My plan was to post every day for this final semester, so I could capture what it was like. I didn't do that, and now there are only 17 days left in the semester, and at the end of that, I will be done.

The semester has been uneventful. I was back in the hospital with my students, and the rest of it was all online. I had pre-recorded my lectures, so there really wasn't much to do. Lately, I've been putting together stuff for my successor, whoever that may be. They won't start hiring until after the semester is done, and I will be gone. I'll come back and orient them, but they won't be able to pay me. It's a dumb system.

El Capitan, in Yosemite. We spent the weekend up in Yosemite a few weeks ago. A couple of my sisters were up there, so we got to spend siblings day with them. They rented a cabin, and I barbecued some pork tenderloins.

I spent a good chunk of April out exploring and taking pictures. Kind of a retirement test-drive.

I started out the month in Death Valley, wandering around in the wilderness. I needed the solitude to get my head straight. I found a great bbq place just outside the park boundaries in Gardnerville, Nevada.

I took a day trip across the Sierras and back. It was too late for snowy landscapes, and too early for wildflowers, but I like the drive.

Other than the trips, I've been pretty reclusive. That's what I got out of the pandemic--an extreme case of social distancing. I'm going to need to work on getting out and seeing people again.

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April 4--Easter Day

2021-04-04T13:48:15Z

I spent most of last week out in the desert by myself, thinking about things.

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February 5--Bring me a shrubbery

2021-02-05T17:33:08Z

I'm at work, at the hospital, hanging out in the cafeteria while my students assess their patients. It's our second full week here, and things are going pretty well. So far the semester has been smooth, and I am hoping it continues this way.

The hands of a student practicing an IV start in the lab. I take some version of this shot every semester during our IV skills lab. We didn't have a lab last time, due to the pandemic, but we got permission to bring the students in in small groups this time. We held the lab in the new building, which was pretty nice.

One of my favorite coworkers, from another semester was there. She's the person who used to get to the office early at about the same time I did, and we would always chat for a while before starting our day. I hadn't seen her since last March. She gave me a big hug. My first non-family hug in a long, long time. I really miss hugs.

The big thing about this semester that is different is that we are here for the entire 12-hour shift. I get here at 6 am, and leave at 7:30 pm. I did this shift for years as a staff nurse, but it has been about 10 years. It took some getting used to, and when I get home, I'm completely spent.

The great thing about it is that I get so much more time to interact with my students. I have a lot more time to teach, and do things like deep diving into the medical record. I like it.

I haven't had much time for going out and taking photos. Once the clinical rotation is done in about 4 weeks, I will have some more free time, and I will go out exploring again. It will be early spring, and everything should be green and beautiful.

From 2 years ago. I have hardly any photos from the first part of last year.

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January 20, 2021--Lovely Day!

2021-01-21T03:27:26Z

When day comes we ask ourselves,
where can we find light in this never-ending shade?
The loss we carry,
a sea we must wade
We've braved the belly of the beast
We've learned that quiet isn't always peace
And the norms and notions
of what just is
Isn't always just-ice
And yet the dawn is ours

--Amanda Gorman, Poet

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January 19--My feet stand on level ground

2021-01-20T03:11:32Z

I taught my first class of the semester this morning. It's my least favorite of the semester--training for the hospital computer system, which I barely understand. When I retired from bedside care, we were still using paper charts, and I missed the whole transfer over to electronic health records. So in spite of the fact that I have never used one in a clinical setting, I am teaching it.

I got through it, and admonished my students to pay good attention to how the nurses use the EHR, so they can actually learn how it works. They will. Anyway, it's the last time I will have to teach this particular class. 121 days.

Abstract, courtesy of my screen saver.

Tomorrow we get a new President. I am relieved, but not quite ready to exhale yet. I am so ready to, though. It has been a long four years.

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January 18--Black Hole Sun

2021-01-19T02:21:10Z

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January 17--I beg your pardon...

2021-01-18T01:28:12Z

...I never promised you a rose garden.

That song has been running through my head all afternoon. We were driving back from spending the morning up the Sierras, and all of a sudden there it was. I don't recall hearing it on the radio, though that is a possibility. After we got home I took a nap, and when I woke up, it was still there. It's still there now. Help me, please help me.

Anyway, after Christmas, we went up to Silver Lake and walked around in the snow for a while and said, "we ought to have snow shoes," so we got some snow shoes and went up today to try them out. Unfortunately, it hadn't snowed in a while, and there wasn't much left at Silver Lake, so we went up to the Carson Pass, where there was still some snow on the ground. And no people.

My left foot, and friend, in snow shoes.

We were pretty surprised at how easy it was to get around on them. We walked along the Carson River and enjoyed the morning.

Malida loves being in the snow. You'd never guess she grew up in the tropics. Or whatever the climate is over there. Ok, I looked it up--it's tropical.

I like it too, though not as much as she does. I did like walking around in the snow shoes, right up until one of mine snapped in half. I put my foot in a soft patch, and the shoe just kind of folded up, breaking the aluminum frame. I fell over and landed in the snow. A few moments ago, Malida recreated the scene for me in the living room. I can still hear her laughing.

I was able to mostly use it to get back to where we were parked, without any trouble. I'll send it back for a replacement, and we will do it again as soon as there is some new snow.

It's a beautiful spot, and one we return to in all seasons.

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January 16--Yesterday's news today

2021-01-16T14:09:31Z

Yesterday was the actual first day of the semester, filled with meetings. We started with a district meeting, then on to a college meeting, followed by a division meeting, and ending with a department meeting. All on Zoom, all pretty boring. One thing I won't miss.

We finished up at about 4 pm. Too late to take a nap, though I thought about it. I am really going to miss my afternoon nap when I start my 12-hour clinical shifts next week. One good thing is that they are allowing us to park at the hospital again, since they are restricting visitors. For the past couple of years, we had to park on campus and take Lyft over. These two things (naps and parking) may seem unrelated, but I have a plan brewing.

An oak tree, sans leaves, in the fog.

We took a walk in the park the other day when it was really foggy. I love these foggy days, and I love bare trees. They remind me of a vascular system.

I have a cat sitting on the desk next to me, purring loudly for no particular reason.

The first thing I did this morning after I woke up was to go outside and look up at the sky. Visibility is pretty good, and I could see quite a few stars. I would like to be up somewhere where there is no light pollution.

There are five Ingress portals in this picture. I don't really play Ingress anymore, but I still see portals wherever I go. Even in the fog.

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January 13--Out back

2021-01-14T01:37:03Z

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January 12--From chicken to chicken soup

2021-01-13T01:26:59Z

I was feeling fine yesterday morning, and we went out to the Hmong grocery to get a fresh chicken so I could make some chicken broth. We do this about once a month or so. We were hoping to get a black chicken, but they only had one, and it didn't look as good as this one.

After I got home, I cut it up and tossed it in my big blue stock pot, which I got as a housewarming present from someone I used to work with, back when I bought my first house back in 1991. I guess that pot is 30 years old now. There was a side story about the person who gave it to me, but I'll skip it for now.

I put in some carrots, celery, some leek, onions, a few bay leaves, and some salt and pepper and left it to simmer for about 6 hours.

Meanwhile, after I got the soup going, I started to feel not too good. I got a headache, and felt sickish. I am assuming that it is the after-effects of the vaccine I got the day before. I was told that I might feel this--it is my immune system working the way it should, developing resistance. I went in and laid down, and slept for the next 5 hours.

The stock was done when I woke up, but I didn't feel like doing anything with it, so I turned it off and let it be. I went back in and slept for a while longer before waking up to go to bed.

I felt better this morning, but still with a bit of a headache. We had thought about taking a drive up to Yosemite today, but skipped it. I processed the broth and put it in bags for freezing.

I ended up with close to 6 quarts of stock. I divided it up and put about 16 ounces in each bag for freezing. Malida held some out and made a delicious soup for me.

I start back to work formally tomorrow. It's not a busy day--I have a meeting in the morning, and then will head over to the hospital to make arrangements for my students.

Despite everything going on in the world, it was a restful break.

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January 11--which they ate with a runcible spoon

2021-01-11T15:43:23Z

It was a quiet day in the land of flamingos. We didn't do much of anything other than the usual daily chores. Laundry day was put off until today, for no particular reason other than, "lets do it tomorrow".

We ordered some food from the Cambodian restaurant, and ate it with garlic toast.

I received a call from Kaiser asking if I wanted to come by in the afternoon and get my COVID vaccine, rather than waiting until Monday. I said I would, and they said they would make a medical record number for me.

I got another call from Medical Records, asking if I was the same me who used to live in Santa Clara, who had Kaiser insurance back then. I was, and had completely forgotten about it, and that I had lived there for a brief period of time back in 1983.

I went over at the scheduled time, and was quite pleased to see one of my recently graduated students working the registration desk. I love seeing former students doing good things.

I got the shot, and waited for about 15 minutes to see if I was going to have any reactions. I didn't, and came home.

I took the obligatory post-vaccine selfie. No real after-effects other than a mild headache. I noticed that my hair is now almost completely gray. I'm not sure if that's from the vaccine or that I just haven't been paying attention.

I woke up pretty early (4 am) today,thinking about what I still needed to do for the start of the semester. Our first day of class is next Tuesday. I got up and finished setting up the course site and evaluation site. Pretty much everything else is done. There are meetings later this week, and then the big convocation on Friday.

I ordered some new scrubs and socks for clinical. It's the first clothing I have needed to buy in almost a year. It will be strange to have somewhere to go a couple of days a week.

Random bubble against a cliff at Bodega Bay. You saw it here first.

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January 10--some more baby lamb

2021-01-11T01:32:51Z

Baaaaaahhhhh!

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January 9--Not an infomercial

2021-01-09T18:14:03Z

I finished up the work necessary to get my students onboarded for their clinical experience in a couple of weeks. It's one of those tedious and time-consuming tasks that has to be done, and has to be done while I am on break. It all needs to be completed two weeks before the start of the semester. It went smoother this time than any other semester, which is ironic, since it will be the last time I need to do it. I'll pass it on to whoever. Maybe it's not really ironic, and there's probably someone out there muttering to themselves, "No, no--that's not irony."

A great blue heron from our drive around the delta the other day. We saw such a wide variety of wildlife that day. Malida saw a red fox in a field.

I have been waiting for the opportunity to get a COVID vaccine. Not because I think I am going to get it again, but because I think it will be necessary in order to do anything in the hospital, which I will need to do in a few weeks. Not to mention international travel. I want to go back to Thailand this summer.

I called my healthcare provider to see what the situation was. I'm kind of in a gray area between Phase 1a and 1b, and they said they didn't have any to give. I mentioned it to a coworker, and she told me that Kaiser was offering immunizations for nursing school teachers, and got me connected. So I'm getting the first jab on Monday.

We had all sorts of really bad fires this summer, and one of them was along a creek where I used to fish, back when I used to fish. I took a drive out along the creek to see what it looked like. You can see all sorts of devastation, but there is a lot of new green coming up that softens it a bit.

Some chickens inspect my left foot.

I walked down a trail to the creek and these two guys came out of the bushes and started following me around. They were the friendliest chickens I have ever met. I talked to them for a bit, and apologized for not having any dried corn in my pocket. I did remember, though, that I had some unsalted peanuts in my camera bag, and gave that to them.

I was curious about them--why they were there. I was nowhere near any farms or structures. I am wondering if they lived on a farm somewhere and fled the fire, ended up next to the creek, and decided to stay there. They look pretty healthy. There's probably someone out there muttering to themselves, "No, no--that's not how chickens behave." Ironic, isn't it?

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January 8--the long and winding road

2021-01-09T03:29:53Z

Montezuma Hills Road

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