Two places at once

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And it was back to UCSF this morning, followed by getting organized this afternoon. Probably the only thing at all easy about the day was the fact that the As are still out of town.

Otherwise, picked up a renta-beast (vehicle large enough to haul College Guy’s stuff including his desk chair) in preparation for tomorrow’s drive to San Diego. I left the packing to him, I went and took a nap. My first inclination had been to leave late this evening and stop somewhere along the drive. Reconsidering, I have elected to leave early in the morning and just drive through.

Early = about 0300 in the morning figuring that there isn’t going to be all the much traffic for the first 3-4 hours of the drive but having full daylight for the ugly portion (being LA and environs). Wisely, I had talked myself out of driving both ways, instead opting for the car and a flight back on Monday.

Another day, another drive

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Instead of driving to Parnassus (UCSF) this morning we had to head to UCSF Mission Bay. No biggie, right? Wrong. We were given an arrival time of 0715 which meant absolutely zero chance of adding a passenger to make use of the HOV lane. Instead, we wound up in that mess called “the Maze” where I-80, I-580 and other assorted freeway entrance ramps combine to approach the Bay Bridge Toll Plaza. Twelve minutes to get from home to the Maze (including the coffee stop). 35 minutes to get through the Maze and Toll Plaza, less than 15 after that to get to Mission Bay including getting off an exit too early.

As it turns out, the CV Center in Mission Bay doesn’t even open till 0730 so I have no clue as to why we were instructed to be there so early. The only advantage that I found was that lovely on street FREE parking spot about a block away. Of course, the meters don’t operate till 0900, but still. Free parking in SF? Totally amazing. I had never driven into Mission Bay before. I don’t get it. Two tiny bridges across the estuary. Tons of new buildings, densely packed. UCSF, Warriors Stadium, inadequate public transportation. Not an area which I would willingly visit or work in.

Tests went fine and we were home right about 0900 including a stop at Acme Bread for fresh Peach Puff Pastries. Yum. I spent most of the rest of the day with brain in idle. Watched part of the As manage to sneak past the Astro’s in Houston before they head to Arlington tomorrow. For the moment, they are actually ½ a game up in the Wild Card race.  Shana kindly volunteered to pick up Noah from the airport late tonight. Home for a day before we head to San Diego to get him set before school….

today? or 18 years

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My children at home were 8, 10, 12 when the Twin Towers fell, when the Pentagon was plane bombed, when I lost friends and colleagues. The repercussions are still with us today. In the Xenophobia & anti-immigrant policies that are being espoused by a certain group that is scared of losing its grip on what it considers its “rightful superiority.” By people who can say, with a straight face (and believe it) that the words on the Statue of Liberty only apply to those with wealth who are coming from white Europe and were never meant to include any other group.

By those who have never served, as I have, in the military along side individuals from multiple nations, from multiple backgrounds, all united for a common cause. Along side those who feel an obligation to the country which gave them opportunity, not those who take for granted that their background and privilege exempt them from the service shown by the military, the fire fighters, the police. All those who risk their lives on a daily basis.

By those who have a problem recognizing that the majority of whites in the US don’t have ties going back centuries, only decades. Who ignore the fact that Spanish were here hundreds of years before most Northern Europeans. That every last person immigrating from Central and South America can trace ancestry in the Western Hemisphere back thousands of years.

I spent more than a minute of silence and reflection. Noting as I was driving George too and from UCSF, that there were flags not at half-mast. I don’t know the custom overall, but when I think of the lives immediately lost, all those who died that day in rescue attempts whether NYC or Pentagon, those who sacrificed their lives which ended in a field in Pennsylvania, and all those who have died since then as a result of their involvement – it is the least we can do for respect.

Be grateful on a daily basis for those in uniform, be it fire, police, military. They all serve our country, putting their lives on the line on a daily, weekly,  monthly basis. They do it out of honor, responsibility, personal obligation.

You could just thank all of them for their service, in remembrance.

Tuesday – 41 years

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This is the only day this week that we don’t have to go to UCSF. I should be dancing around the house. Instead, what I really want to do is sleep. The days have been long, the nights pretty short; and I am feeling mildly guilty about whining since my exhaustion is nothing compared to what George is going through.

It is a day to get whatever possible done around the house – grocery shopping. laundry, sweeping the back porch.

However, we throughly enjoyed watching the As throughly trounce the Astros – in fact they did as good a job as the Astro’s did to us the previous night. Now – if the As continue on the same road – they will get at least as far as the Wild Card slot – and maybe a chance to play the Yankees again (who they have defeated 4:2 this season).

Probably the most significant thing to note – today is our 41st wedding anniversary. Reasonable number of years, I think. Covers Minnesota-Germany-DC-Germany-NY-DC-Germany-UK-Germany-California (with side detours for me into the Balkans, Korea, Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan) and multiple moves inside Germany. Also our four off-spring, multiple jobs, lots of travel, uncountable good times and memories.

It will be good to look back at this fall from next year, five years, ten years down the road. Knowing that we have survived yet another challenge.

I am planning on it.

Transfusions

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The trip across the Bay Bridge is becoming both extremely aggravating and boring. We have the routine down pretty well. Head out of the house, pick up lattes at Peet’s to make the ride bearable, swing by NB ride share to pick up a couple of passengers before heading to the freeway, the Bay Bridge and the SF side of the Bay.

Once again, George didn’t have much for blood, so it was platelets, two units of packed red cells  We didn’t even get on the road till 1830 so it, again, was a really long day. More so for him than me, but still. When the highlight of your day is pizza for lunch, you know you are in spinning-your-wheels-mode.

Add on top the As pitcher totally blowing up, resulting in the Astro’s wiping the As 15:0. Not fun. actually sad. And a testament to the fact that somedays, they just don’t have it.

 

 

Oakland Roots

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The East Bay has seen/will see the loss of two long standing major sports teams in the next couple of year: The Oakland Raiders – (US football founded in 1960) are moving to Las Vegas and the Golden State Warriors (Basket Ball – in the Bay Area since 1962) are moving to richer climes across the Bay to San Francisco. This leaves the Oakland Athletics (baseball) as the only professional sports team in the East Bay. In case you are counting – The Earthquakes (pro-soccer) and Sharks (pro-hockey) are both in San Jose (which assuredly does NOT consider itself East Bay).

That takes us to the present and the first match  of the Oakland Roots – a member of the National Independent Soccer League – against the Cal United Strikers (Irvine, California). The team is currently using the grounds of Laney College (part of the Peralta Community College system (Alameda County = East Bay). According to the signage – they sold 5300 memberships. According to Wiki – the stands at their (US) football stadium seat 2700. The math doesn’t commute, but the block party ahead of time was a lot of fun, adults, kids, stage with musicians, food trucks and brisk sales of logo gear.

I finally found the rest of the crew with whom I planned on sitting. Tucked in at the SW corner of the field near one of the goals (and the scoreboard) we were seated in one of the booster areas. There is cheering, there is chanting (but I do get irritated at noise for the sake of noise when it doesn’t have anything to do with what is happening on the field).

The game was a tie: Roots scored the first two goals followed by a Strikers goal and another Roots goal. After the half – the Strikers managed two more goals with the game ending in a tie. I like soccer, especially compared to US football (which is all stop and start, requiring that the team following the coaching directives from the side whereas in our current sport, there is continuous play and it is owned and controlled by the players on the field).

The hike from Laney back to the Lake Merritt BART station wasn’t that difficult, but I was more than ready to crash when I finally got back home via the El Cerrito BART station (which was where I had parked the car after a drive over to the Larkspur Ferry Landing. Steven from Southern California was en route to his brother’s and Hamilton tonight. I talked him into a short visit. The drive across the Richmond Bridge was comparable to a week day morning).

 

Too many appointments

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A long time ago – oh let us say May – I made a couple of appointments for myself. Figured that George would be well past the time that he needed to go to UCSF twice a week, and besides, his appointment days were Monday and Thursday. So here I am, end of August and needing to be at the VA at the same time he needs to be at UCSF. He did agree to be dropped off early so that I wouldn’t be late.

Imagine my surprise to find that there was essentially no traffic at all heading to SF over the Bay Bridge. I mean, zero back up at the Toll Plaza at 0815 on a Friday morning. There is normally more traffic that that at 1400 in the afternoon or 0200 at night. Dropped him off at UCSF, went to the VA.

In case you are wondering why we didn’t do it in the other order (besides the fact that I don’t really want him driving right now) it is simple. UCSF charges $4/hr for parking. Parking at the VA is free….

I finished with my appointments just about the time that the infusion center released him from transfusions

it is not ghee

(and a bone marrow biopsy).

traffic back was unusually light for a Friday afternoon.

Then we watched the As defeat the Yankees for the fourth time in a row (three in Oakland and now the first game in the Bronx).

Pussy Cat where have you been?

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Well, it certainly has not been to London, nor visiting a queen. This is as close to a queen as I have come

from a shop window

where she does the wave which I am sure is solar powered. The dogs (corgis?) wag their tails.

Most of the month it seems, I have been treading water – house hold chores, baseball, a bit of sewing, reading, a few puzzles, procrastinating (i.e. those papers are about at the 50% complete stage) and keeping an eye on George.

Unfortunately, starting last Thursday – that has turned into close to a full time job. We knew that his stem cell transplant had produced white cells, but not as many platelets or red cells as would have been expected to this point. An attempt to back down on the immune suppression didn’t help. His hemoglobin was way down and there was hardly a platelet to be found. That last is concerning, since platelets are ½ of the bodies clotting system. Clotting factors can do only so much without platelets to sort of plug up holes.

So Thursday he received necessary but unexpected transfusions and a request for a return visit on Saturday and Monday. Thursday evening he received a request to come back in on Friday which we managed. Then there was Saturday. And a request to come back on Sunday. (Dani pulled the Sat & Sunday drive). We did Monday, then Tues, then Wednesday which leads us to today. It has been platelets every day, plus more blood on both Saturday and yesterday.

The summary of which will be confirmed with a bone marrow biopsy tomorrow – but everyone is pretty sure that the stem cell transplant failed. Probably because he had a few white cells left which have managed to kill off the transplant. It could be that it just didn’t take. In any case, a couple of new donors have been potentially identified and are being screened.

Obviously, George is not thrilled and this drive is getting really, really old. Much harder on him than me since, instead of seeing restrictions lifted as we get close to the magic 100 days post transplant he has more treatment in the future.

 

Euclid->Keith->Shasta->Tamalpais->Rose->Euclid

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Off the hook today for the UCSF run (Daughter #2 did the honors) I took a dog for a walk after getting back home from my errands.

a treasure she found earlier in the week

Since there was no baby around – there was no candy involved either.

The above list is the route we wandered. Saroise was well behaved especially for her. But then, there was lots to sniff, a low traffic route and an absence of squirrels. Of note – on our street you see a variety of vehicles, a number of SUVs and more than the occasional pickup truck. In the hills above out house, it was much more upscale. Not only did one see a number of seriously large homes –

more like a European Estate

with renovation everywhere – but there were BMWs, Jags, Teslas, and the occasional high end Volvo. All of which made me glad that we are not located up these twisty little roads and have off street parking.

I went over to our Eldest’s for dinner which included a lovely backed

squash

the plant originally a gift from Alison.

Quilt for Nina

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Did I show you this? A quilt made for a young lady who showed up a bit early, just after the first of the year.

all sorts of fun summer animals

and a close up of a few

obviously there has to be at least one elephant

since her parents are dedicated A’s fans

completed

and given to her parents on Saturday at the As game. And yes, Nina was there; hanging out in a front carrier and attempting to stuff just about everything in her mouth….

More purple

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There was something I read the other day about the change in colors in the evening sky. Comments about more of a purple hue after sunset.

So, for a few days, I took a picture (please ignore the lights – as you can guess, sitting in a baseball stadium gives a certain perspective).

August 13 – Oracle Park

mostly, we were looking at the almost full moon and wondering why the bullpen gave the game to the Giants.

Aug 21 – still looked blue to me.

24 Aug – still looking at the orange

today was a day game. But still – the sky has been fabulous in the evenings – at least for those where the fog has not rolled in or the marine layer dropped.

What? No Platelets

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This morning, getting George’s lab results provided a nasty surprise. We knew that his red cells and platelets hadn’t come back the way that his oncologist was hoping. But being severely anemic again and essentially having no platelets circulating was not on the planned list of results.

The brief, short visit turned into hours as he received both platelets and packed, irradiated red blood cells.

And, if I haven’t said it before – my sincere thanks to all of you who are regular blood donors. It isn’t just the military, traffic accident victims and those caught in mass shootings who benefit from a healthy and robust blood supply. It is also those who are older, or under treatment for various malignancies who are kept alive during the course of treatment by the generosity of total strangers.

and we will have to be back tomorrow. Probably Saturday and Sunday as well.

Oh, joy.

Not an easy castle

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From Artifact Puzzles comes this lovely

should be easy?

what it doesn’t say is that the border is not straight – oh no, not at all. Randall Spangler created the original painting. I have mentioned him before – he is the one who designed those two impossibly cute dragons dealing with computers.

any way –

there are both whimsy pieces and edge pieces

the whimsy is easily seen in the crown – what I wasn’t expecting was that all those curlicue pieces turned out to be the border…

not as easy as it first looked

and there were a lot of fairly small pieces to tuck in here and there. I started this puzzle then detoured for a while.

Lugano

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Part of the joy of starting a new puzzle, especially one from LibertyPuzzles, is opening the box and gazing at the heaped up pieces just waiting to be freed. I am not compulsive about jigsaw puzzles; I neither lay them all out, or start with the edge and work in. Rather I enjoy seeing what the whimsy pieces of this puzzle represent, which often coordinates extremely well with the puzzle picture or theme. If a few edge pieces happen to tumble into their own pile, that is also fine.

that first look

 

In the case of this puzzle, there is the easel (the painter showed up later), various people, sailing vessels and a pair of crossed swords.

some of the more interesting shapes

there is a kind of peace in fitting things together, not being in a hurry and knowing that – at the end – there is actually a reward – the view of Lugano.

right before that final piece

 

Lighten Up

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glow in the dark –

and that is dog as well as flamingos. Dani says it isn’t really a harness – just LED bands that continually change color which is a really good idea when your dog is rather hard to see in the dark. Unlike the flamingos – it doesn’t take solar energy to activate her brightness.

and I added McBeth to the t-shirts completed so far –

aka – literature

Bearly there

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and before you make any comments about Golden Bears – yes I know this bear is not brown. Get over it.

Jacket back

What else?

My backer kit from the PDX Broadsides kickstarter arrived.

Relatable Content

This is a Filk/Folk group from Portland Oregon which I first heard at WesterCon a few years ago. I have a number of their other albums (electronically from BandCamp). The best track on the album is Rewind. I suggest you take a listen. Not that thrilled about the rest of the tracks – excellent quality, I am just not in my 30s. The t-shirt is from an earlier album/track Ultimate Riot.

two shirts and an owl

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or should that be owl followed by shirts? Nah, the shirts were completed long before dark when I started on the Owl

Feeding my puzzle addiction, I discovered a new purveyor of wooden puzzles. This particular manufacture has only a few available, and, as it turns out, they are made in China. Less expensive than the US made ones certainly. But the quality of the puzzles is certainly not the same standard. The owl wasn’t all that difficult to assemble, but the pieces didn’t fit as smoothly as I would have liked.

unique pieces, but no whimsy ones

The shirts – the theme today was books.

there is the elegance of reading

Books & Roses

which didn’t turn out as well as I had hoped

and then there is the reality of what is appealing to certain members of the family

the front still in the hoop

the back just prior to finishing

and before you scratch your head – the clothes pins are to keep excess fabric out of the way and avoiding it being caught either under the hoop or in the stitching area. I know this because…..Both shirts still need to be washed and a few threads trimmed. It is all progress as I am working my way down my bin of “garment blanks.”

We had a break in the middle of the day – I had a sewing machine in for service. George proved that his feet are up to par since he drove both down and back. Remember that we have a standard transmission, so if he was going to have foot pain, I am sure that it would have been triggered by the drive.

Less than an hour

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My skin normally starts to crawl when I even think of facing the traffic into San Francisco from my side of the Bay. Since this is Thursday, George has an appointment at UCSF.

Taking a deep breath, I made an early run to fill the gas tank. Trust me, the very last thing I want to do is run out of fuel on the Bay Bridge and become “one of those idiots” who impact traffic with their rudeness. I think you understand. So, full tank of gas (petrol) followed by a coffee stop at Peet’s for human trip fuel before heading back to the house to grab my passengers. Since Alex had to make a run into the city today, I had the three of us–the magic number for the HOV lane. Rather than committing myself to having to get off at the Fremont Exit, I skipped picking up a fourth passenger at the North Berkeley Ride Share and just headed out.

My least favorite part of the trip, if one could say that any portion of the trip was all right, is having to work my way across five lanes of traffic to get to the HOV lane from the University Avenue entrance. Three of those lanes are Oakland bound and they are by far denser than the right lanes. And, hello – this is California where a turn-signal doesn’t seem to mean much of anything. I can actually be appreciative of large trucks, they never ride the bumper of the vehicle in front of them so there is usually space that I can squeeze into.

Once we hit the HOV lane, it was clear sailing all the way to the San Francisco side of the Bay Bridge. Even the traffic up Olivia wasn’t that bad. All in all, we were at UCSF in less than an hour from leaving home, an unheard of fast trip for rush hour. George is stable, getting a bit stronger everyday. It would be really nice if his red blood cells and platelets were recovering as fast as his white cells, but I guess we don’t get to have everything. He has been shifted to weekly visits from twice a week, so that is excellent from my point of view.

After we returned home, I spent the afternoon organizing my studio a bit more and machine embroidering lace doilies, just because I could. And, they are pretty mindless with few, if any, color changes.

large and small

Screwed

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and no, there is nothing in this post about sex, the government, or politics. It is my summary as I sit here with an ice pack on my wrist wondering why I wanted to put together rolling carts. It is not that I can’t do it, mind you, but why I wanted to. Did I think I was a mid-20s guy with strong hands and wrists (think Engineer Guy who is currently  in Connecticut happily working and likely playing with lasers).

Perhaps I should go back to the beginning and explain myself? Right.

Phase one was cleaning up the studio. That totally chaotic room that I had claimed as mine when we relocated to the US West Coast from Germany. I have no clue how I had planned to jam in spinning wheels, a loom, sewing machines, a serger, needlework frames and supplies for all of the above. Oh, yes, and a dress form, ironing board, some kind of working surface and perhaps the knitting machine that has been boxed now for 15 years..

You see the problem? I also shipped a couple of plastic bin storage containers on wheels. Next I added a couple of small drawers cabinets;

three drawers each

oh, yes and bookshelves – tucked those in along the wall with the worst of the slanted ceiling. As I mentioned last month,, I did a major cleanup and organize–donating several good size boxes of crafting supplies and some containers to the local arts&craft recycle shop.

new cabinet with machine

Then my new sewing cabinet arrived, which meant moving things around once again. Next on the list is getting the shelves organized, the piles off the floor and into clearly marked containers, and realistically culling. Having vertical storage seemed like a great idea in a room which has zero for closets. Hence, my purchase of a couple of carts on sale from JoAnn’s on a day which boasted discounts plus free shipping. They arrived on Saturday, abandoned next to our mailbox and had to be hauled up to the house.

Each one of these lovely little things came in pieces/parts + screws and fasteners. I can put things together – easy, peasy. If I have the tools. Several hours of searching led me to the conclusion that the red tool chest was somewhere, probably in the garage beside hundreds of kilos of other stuff. It simply was not worth spending hours excavating. Indiana Jones I am not, and we currently have the garage of doom. One day if I am feeling brave, I will share photos. Meanwhile, there I was–all those parts and me without a screwdriver.

Monday when I hauled the boxes (cursing about the weight) up to the second floor, I put together the first cart. Not that hard, just attach cross pieces to the side frames (two of them on the bottom) place this assemblage upside down on the reverse side of the top and fasten with four bolts (Allen wrench provided), turn right side up, add wheels.

Today I decided to take the plunge and buy a screwdriver. Heck, while I was at it, I bought a set since I wasn’t sure exactly what size I would need and had a sneaking suspicion that there just might be more than one size involved. Oh, was I right. Construction went something like this:

take side piece #5 and attach to back piece #7 with two screws from the bag labeled #14.  Now take side piece #6 and attach with two #14 screws to the other side of piece #7, insuring that the grove in all pieces is on the lower edge. Now slide in bottom piece #9, putting that grove to good use..

With me so far? Next attache connector #10 on the inside of each forward side piece with screws from bag marked #15. Next find that Allen wrench and use it to fasten bolts #13 through the connector to the front piece (#8) making sure that the bottom is securely in its grove. Finally, fasten drawer pull #18 to the front of the drawer (with the screws provided – magnifying glass recommended by me. 10 screws, five pieces of particle board and two bolts. I needed three sizes of screw drivers in addition to that aforementioned Allen wrench.

drawer ready to be put together

And that is just the first drawer. As the instructions say: Repeat steps to assemble three more drawers…..

one drawer done, three to go

It took an hour. Not all that mentally challenging, just hard on my wrists. After finishing the first cart, I decided to hold off on the second.

Instead putting together a small six draw cart (metal) that I picked up at Costco today (much cheaper, FYI). The side pieces were fastened together with four cross pieces. The attachment being a bolt and padded washer on each side. Allen wrench, turn – Repeat. Pop on the wheels, tighten them down. Stand up right, slap on top, slide in baskets. Less than 15 minutes from start to finish, including loading the baskets with stabilizers and interfacings.

rolled into place next to one of the decades old plastic containers

I think my fun meter is pegged.