Category Archives: Uncategorized

Leaving on a Jet Plane

Holly Doyne Posted on by  

in the morning. Or early afternoon as the case may be. SFO to Frankfurt on Lufthansa. This is a rebooked, rebooked trip from last August which became Sept/Oct which was put off till this spring. I think that we might have been able to continue to slide the flight, but there doesn’t seem to be much point. 

The original trip was to cruise the Danube River again plus spend time in Prague and Sofia. I am not holding my breath as to the quality of the cruise but the scenery will be stunning as always. I am not sure how many (if any) of the included excursions I am going to bother with in favor of wandering around towns on my own. It is not like I haven’t been to a few of these locations before. 

But first – we will spend Wed (arrival day) in Heidelberg to Friday night. We fly again early Sat morning from Frankfurt  to catch the ship. On the far end, we fly back to Frankfurt and have a couple of days before heading back to SFO on the 7th. It was just today that George informed me that he was spending those couple of days visiting relatives. Okay…. and now I have a couple of days in which I have nothing planned. I could go back to Heidelberg. I could go to München. I could find cheap digs in Frankfurt. I could just wander around….

Decisions, decisions. 

My bowl of cherries

Holly Doyne Posted on by

It is that time of year again.

The cherries have arrived! 

In fact, they probably have been available at Berkeley Bowl for a week or so. But George brought home almost 2kg of cherries. 

That might just last me till we fly on Tues…

Too early for coffee

Holly Doyne Posted on by

It was quite dark when I awoke. After failing to find my phone so that I could check the time, I grabbed a scone, a glass of juice and went upstairs to my craft disaster. After all, having some nice quiet time to stitch was just the thing. 

A short time later, after finishing the scone and thinking about ordering coffee (which would involve a run to Peet’s) I checked the time….. no wonder it was dark. Just after 2 am as a matter of fact. Totally insane to be up and certainly too early to be drinking coffee.

I headed back downstairs and went back to bed. 

Otherwise, the As managed to lose another game.  I made serious progress on this month’s Zodiac Girl (Taurus) getting to 66% (which number includes the presence of beads which I am not doing right now) According to my ball park calculations – that leaves me about 800 stitches to go for this month. 

 

 

Admin Law

Holly Doyne Posted on by  

or, Administrative Law if you want to be formal. It is the branch legal whatever which covers all the routine rules and regulations by which most decisions affecting our daily life are made.

For example: Immigration judges are administrative judges. Their job is to see the rules applied exactly as written/intended if alternations from regular courts have clarified/created changes. This of course, speaks only to those countries under common law. Does the person meet the criteria? Yes/No. end of discussion. There are forms/procedures and of course – paperwork

I learned about all this in the abstract in the ADMIN Law course at UC Hastings (or whatever they have changed the name to in this era of PC).

If, for any reason, you are called to any kind of administrative hearing – this is not DIY. Seriously., it is not DIY. Appearing at an Administrative hearing isn’t a trial. But, as it should be no surprise to anyone – there are forms, paperwork, submissions and potentially witnesses. Take a lawyer. Take a good lawyer, one who is very familiar with the particulars of this specific admin section. I saw it in action today giving testimony in support of a friend. It was interesting – it was on Microsoft Teams rather than in person. I will say that I am impressed, that particular platform functions even less well than Zoom.

I am hoping it all goes well.



A lost day

Holly Doyne Posted on by  

Everyone around me knows that Thursday happened. Could have fooled me. Yes, I know that there is a Thursday every week, so obviously the day happened. 

It leaves me wondering why, when I get repeatedly tested for antibodies, that I never show up with any. If I was brave, I would go get a Zoster immunization and figure out whether it was the mRNA type of vaccine which knocks me flat, or Moderna in particular. 

I attempted to stitch on a very simply band sampler. After ripping out the area three times because I couldn’t get it right, I gave up. So, back to sleep after finding the ASA, ibuprofen, and acetaminophen.

The wreckage of my desk

Holly Doyne Posted on by 1

I thought I had found it, my desk. But it was a lie. There are still piles of stray things that haven’t yet found a home made worse by coming home late last night from San Lorenzo High School (and another stint as a vaccinator). It wasn’t one I had signed up for. Rather, I was thinking that it would be smarter to limit the distance I had to drive, to not drive at night (insane drivers on the freeway seem to multiply after dark). and otherwise work in congenial surroundings.

But then I received a phone call about 2000 on Wednesday evening. I know the co-ordinator. He explained that they really needed to add a station and besides, two of the planned stations were going to be staffed by new people. Ok, I can do this. 

Shall we just say that the evening was accomplished with minimal stress overall? Which put me in recovery mode today. I didn’t feel like cleaning. I just settled for being frustrated. (and I am not willing to even guesstimate how many items are nesting on the desk. By category, I am thinking mid-double digits…)

But I managed to get Noah to Richmond so that he could get his booster, I planted three new solar lawn flamingos and embroidered (machine here) four name badges to take along on Saturday when the one clinic I had been planning on working this week will take place. 

It is late, I have to leave early, and am obviously not too terribly coherent!

Summing up 2021

Holly Doyne Posted on by  

I will end the year with the most important detail of all.

We all lived. No major illness, no COVID, no hospitalizations for anyone in my close family for any reason.

We had enough to eat, roofs over our head, clothing to wear, internet, and hobbies.

Dayenu

Measles and Ft McCoy

Holly Doyne Posted on by

When I spent part of summer there, it was Camp McCoy. July and August in Wisconsin can be humid on top of being hot. There were fields all around us. I was there as a doc, part of my annual time as a reservist. The reason my unit was there? The year was 1980 and we were dealing with another set of refugees – that time from Cuba.

Now why anyone would decide that Wisconsin – not near water, not near many Spanish speakers and certainly not a camp in great condition was a good place to temporarily house 10,000 male refuges is beyond me. Then, unlike now, there was a positive attitude toward the refugees and a definite dislike of Castro’s Cuban government much of which was regularly briefed by the earlier Cuban refugee population which. for the most part, had settled in Florida.

I was at Camp McCoy to provide medical care for the Military Police Battalion deployed from Kansas which was providing security for the site. In addition, we an an Air Borne reserve unit or so out of Chicago that came every supper to hang out and get in their jumps.

I am mentioning all of this because that summer our issue wasn’t measles (as is the problem with the current Afghan refugees) but rather STIs (sexually transmitted infections). By the time my unit (5501st USAH) showed up many of the other challenges had been overcome. The refugees were down to spoons, and plastic at that, due to the amount of violence (prisoner on prisoner – excuse me – refugee on refugee) that can be perpetrated by turning even plastic knives and forks into shivs. Most of the window no longer had glass for the same reason.

The US Public Health Service was providing the health care for the refugees. The two nurse practitioners were excellent as was the PA. Their supervising doc was out of his depth and apparently spent his time drunk in his bunk. That was the rumor. I never even met the man. End result is that of the four of us on our side (one pathologist, me, one PA, one NP) I became the go-to doc for everyone when a doc was needed due to clinic issue, emergency transport, medical issue, or common sense. 

If I could deal with 10,000 men who kept passing around various STIs because of a stupid policy. Some [idiot]  had decreed that treatment should be given only to those with positive penile cultures. The lab had been told not to process rectal cultures. Contact tracing was almost impossible. Solution? Literally butt loads of penicillin. I signed off the meds for the PA and NPs and they started aggressively treating anyone with a problem and all mentioned buddies. [Of note, besides those who wanted to leave, Castro also tossed out a lot of prisoners, mental health patients and every gay man that was identified. Which is how we would up with such an interesting collection of individuals. In August, in Wisconsin, during haying season. Did I mention a lot of steroid dependent asthmatics?)

Anyway  I see no reason why we should be stopping the flow of refugees for measles. Yes there may be a few contagious individuals. So send a team to Ramstein Air Base with a load of MMR and solve the problem. Identify all contacts so far, isolate as you can. And realize that getting everyone to the US will ensure that health care will be provided to those who really get ill. Under the current conditions the transmission chain is going to keep going . There is a reason that most refugee camps run by MSF and other NGOs in low income countries provide measles vaccine to all children on entry to the camp. Wisconsin had decent immunization of children. And Ft McCoy? Out in the middle of nowhere. 

It is not like we aren’t already dealing with SARS-COV2. Much rather deal with someone escaping from a war-torn country than someone who denies science while demanding medical care as their oxygen level tanks.

 

 

doing the same thing twice

Holly Doyne Posted on by  

Or at least that is what I woke up thinking. Now if I could just remember the rest of it?

Nah, so it was on to puzzles (Whimsy this time) and finishing the second Cryptid so I am ready on Friday for #3.

That just leaves me Zodiac, Seasonal Skies, and There is no Planet B for monthly SALS. We are not talking about Pixels, or Aster’s Amazing Adventures, or the Ingelside Urn. … Too many projects I am thinking…

 

Mostly Stitching

Holly Doyne Posted on by 1

I only had one shift week before last and none this past week so I had been hoping to spend a bit more time with a tapestry needle in my hand (as apposed to a syringe loaded with vaccine de moment).

As mentioned before, this seems to be the year of the Stitch-a-Long for me. I am reasonably current, considering all. 

In the last few days – I have been working on

< 1.

Part 9 – there is no Planet B

Cloudsfactory.net – I have to finish the tree holding the mother and baby sloth, then stitch the tiger – so 1-2 days more on this one.

2 –

Halloween SAL

from Stitchonomy. Last year she started 1 Oct. This year? Figured that most of us would really like to be done BEFORE Halloween. The frame is that of a book. Yesterday I stitched the cats, today the pumpkin head – and – surprise, surprise, apparently Mothman has struck here as well..

3. Cryptid – Part 2

Part 2 – the Fresno Nightcrawler

of which I have half it’s frame stitched – so have the other ½ of its frame and the night crawler. AND some outlining/backstitching to do before Friday to the tune of another 600 or so stitches

4. And Follow the Yellow Brick Road is FINISHED!

Follow the Yellow Brick Road

This was a six month SAL which the last part just dropped this month. The designer is LittleDoveDesigns, It is stitched on 16 ct Fiddler’s cloth with the called for DMC (except for a few detours into shiny). Now that I look at it, I need to add Dorothy’s face and the cables on the balloon. From there – it may well land in the pile of shame till I figure out how I want to finish it.

5. This particular SAL is based off a TV series, which, no surprise, I have never seen. Even so – the first part of the pattern looked cool so I signed up. When the designer hit some family issues, she offered to release the rest of the pattern at once rather than monthly to any of us who were interested. That may have been a good deal for me, or perhaps not. The total stitch count was a lot higher than what I expected – much of which turned out to be huge solid color blocks.

The Supernaturals

I am thinking this is 18 ct white Aida and the thread is one of the Sulky blendables (no – I was NOT interested in stitching black….).  I am down to the last 5k or so of stitches which actually go reasonably fast as it is mostly fill in. Given how many other projects I have – I really don’t expect that I will finish it in Sept.

And that was today…..

I don’t need

Holly Doyne Posted on by 1

The stake and the machete after all.  My sister was kind enough to notify me that our mutual sperm donor had finally passed away. He managed to gasp his last breath in Florida, Apparently witnessed, so that I don’t need to insure that he doesn’t rise up to haunt us all.

Unlike my Aunt Ruth (his sister) who was an incredible person – bright, loving, energetic and about as brilliant as she could possibly be, this man was selfish and manipulative. A born con man if there ever was one. It isn’t a legacy that I particularly care to know more about than I unfortunately do. Scattered broken families and lack of positive communication are not something to which any of us aspire.  This is a man who never even bothered to learn his grandchildren’s birthdays.

Completely against tradition, I think the decision has been made for cremation. Probably for the best.

Like I said, it spares me the challenges with TSA or having to find a local hardware store.

 

 

Ending the year

Holly Doyne Posted on by

2020 has been a challenge for all of us.

It really doesn’t matter if you live in one of those rare areas which has either been not much affected by the spread of SARS-COV2 or had a sensible government which managed to pretty much keep things under control.

There has been much discussion especially in the US about “personal freedom.”

It seems strange to me. I served in the military for 33+ years. The key word there is served. I find it very hard to understand why anyone would choose to risk the health of others just to make a point. I find it on the same level as walking around with a loaded weapon and pointing it at random people….

What each of us does affects those around us. 

I know too many who have buried a family member, dead from COVID-19, this year to take anything lightly. 

Please stay safe and let us get through the next several months with the least loss of life possible so that all may have a future.

 

rather than fish

Holly Doyne Posted on by

let us take a break and look at fowl.

Please follow this link to New Zealand Birds – Vote. 

Yes, even if you are not in New Zealand you can vote. While you are at it, learn a little about their native bird species.

It is much more interesting than watching paint dry, vacuuming up cat hair, or watching vote counting….

Euclid Update

Holly Doyne Posted on by 2

Let me see, where do I start?

As you can probably guess, the last six weeks have been not a lot of fun. No one here has yet to acquire COVID-19 but that doesn’t mean that other illnesses haven’t intervened.  At least I have had enough sense not to make public the bitching, whining and otherwise self-pitying posts that have been written. I am in the process of separating out craft content from general whines and will release what is fit for public consumption over the next couple of weeks. 

The kids (ok, none of them are kids, with an age range from 27 to 41, but still, they are my kids) are all well; either working or in school. George, on the other hand developed some issues which landed him back in UCSF for about 9 days early July. Poor guy, he had the cheerful prospect of celebrating his birthday in the hospital. End result of the hospitalization is a guesstimated diagnosis. Follow up treatment is consisting of  by eight weeks worth of IV antibiotics here at home. At q12 hours (with total time for each set of infusions added up to about 5 hours) I am getting. a bit sleep deprived. He has more tests this coming week. 

Meanwhile, I have been avoiding cleaning and organizing in favor of listening to old favorites on audio, doing a lot of stitching, and spending time with Miriam’s cat in my lap when he gets bored. This, of course, lets me completely  avoid doing anything else. 

 

I finally checked

Holly Doyne Posted on by 4

For whatever reason, I screwed up the courage this morning to visit Webadvisor. What is that you say? It is the extremely clunky and difficult to use registration/transcript program that UCHastings uses. 

Amazingly enough, this time (as apposed to a month or so ago) it was willing to log me in for the start of an extremely frustrating attempt to located my transcript. Believe it or not – hitting the “transcript” button gets you exactly nothing. No idea why it is there, nor do I remember if it worked in the past. But for now? Meh. Rotating down the list several times – I tried “grades” which led me to the choice of Fall2018, Fall2019,Spring2019. The first was blank. Go figure – I wasn’t a student then. Fall2019 actually gave me a list of the courses I took that first fall. Of course, since the MSL students are not on the same grading system as the law students, I have the explanation for why clicking the GPA button got me no where. 

[side note – programers are not stupid, that page could be designed so that it only gives you the options which are applicable to your situation. This means that the person who wrote the specifications was either shortsighted or the school was cheap on funds.]

Checking the Spring2019 showed that my incomplete had vanished and an MSL version of a grade was posted. This means that I am done, Done, DONE!

Now, do you suppose that they will ever mail me my diploma?

Should I add more letters after my name? Perhaps in the British or European style so that the numbers of letters after one’s name exceeds the actual length of the particular name? Having a short name could really help.

Just wondering…. 

the Baristas know my name

Holly Doyne Posted on by 4

(and WordPress eats another post…..)

My environment is worlds better than living on Bagram Airbase. No matter what aspect I look at: my bed is more comfortable (and not a sleeping bag); I have much better food (Miriam has been cooking dinner); the company is sooo much better (and all related to me); there is a cat.

But the sameness is there…the same things at same time. The circumscribed route which is pretty much inside the house. Bedroom, kitchen, dining room, living room. And around. 

And going outside the wire? Excuse me, leaving the house. That is fraught with decision making and risk assessment. Where am I going? Why am I going? What route? When will I be back? Should I maximize my route for safety, efficiency, or people avoidance? Priorities…

All of this came up because Miriam needed to “go to work” which apparently has the designated location of her older sister’s second bedroom. Which is in Richmond. (California, not Virginia). Planning takes the route past the local Peet’s so that she can bribe her sister with a latte while drinking her own chai latte. 

All of this leads me to not having my own coffee. So I stop on the way back. And the guy at the door looks at me and say – Holly, your order will be up in a minute. 

And I hadn’t even had a chance to say hello….

Alive, well, and bored

Holly Doyne Posted on by  

As are most of you, I am spending the majority of my time at home.

If any of you think this is a short term state of affairs, you are sadly mistaken. The positive side of flattening out an epidemic curve is that the medical system doesn’t get overwhelmed. The downside is that, by flattening the curve, the epidemic is prolonged for months. Expect that, with bad luck, we are looking at a minimum of six months and probably more realistically a dozen months before any semblance of normality returns.

At that point, there is going to be little left of the developing world as the health care system there is not robust, to say the least. Similar to the 1918 Influenza Epidemic, we will never have an accurate picture of the number of lives lost in many areas as neither birth nor deaths are accurately recorded. Many areas and countries have a fragile logistical system which is constantly disrupted by conflict, militias, and environmental disasters.

Most of the more developed world will be in severe economic straits with our more vulnerable populations decimated as individuals and families no longer have the ability to pay for shelter, food, clothing or health care. Those countries with good health care systems that cover everyone will fare far better than the US. I honestly expect that Canada, Norway, Sweden, and Finland will come out of this crisis with large portions of their population and economies intact. Australia may be able to do the same. Western and Central Europe will have major challenges as they are so interdependent for food and energy.

and all of this is gloomy.

I think I will go back to my cross-stitch….

D+3

Holly Doyne Posted on by  

At this point in the process, one’s own white cells have pretty effectively been wiped out and the stem cells are s ttling, but haven’t started replacing all those white cells. Means that there is a serious risk of infection (which helps explain at least part of the handful of pills which include anti-virals, antibiotics, and anti fungal agents.)

Anyone who has been through chemotherapy and recovery knows about how wiped out one can get. The rest of us can just use our imaginations while being grateful it is not us at this time. All of which lead me to thinking about past years.

Twenty-one years ago, I was in the Balkans as the Commander of Task Force Med Eagle. Sixteen years ago it was Kuwait as the Command Surgeon for ARCENT-KU. Eight years ago, I had just been retired and was home in Heidelberg. From 2007 on (which is about the past 12 years, I can just look up archives although I wasn’t able to get all the photos transferred from my old German blog host to the current one).

My, time flys when you are having fun….

Survived, barely

Holly Doyne Posted on by

At least I think I did. There are two theories when taking a portion of a test that is multiple choice. One either thinks of it as multiple guess and goes with ones best, first guess. The other is to take on those questions as a serious challenge worthy of one of the three hours of the exam and try to reason them out. Even going back at the end to see if something in another part has cast light on some of the answers.

This time my method fell somewhere in between. This faculty member is reasonable, at least somewhat. Since there was relevant legislation to the essays, he kindly provided the appropriate sections just to make sure that we understood that he was not trying to fake us out on section numbers or content. Of course, this particular bit of legalese was written in 1946 and has a density of about 100gm/word. As I often, remind everyone -I am NOT a lawyer. I have no desire to be a lawyer, to think like them or emulate their behavior. This particular degree is my evil plan to understand, undermine and control….. Oops. Back to Admin Law and today’s three part exam, Multiple choice section, long essay section, two shorter essay sections.

Over, done and hopefully passed. Since I am not on the same grading curve as all the young, bright and beautiful, my goal is simply survival. I have learned a lot this semester, so it was a course worth taking. This leaves me with only one exam to go (take home, 72 hours once the clock starts and upload before Midnight on Tuesday). Means I didn’t have anything I needed to do this evening? Right?

Well, there was this reception for the staff and invited authors, the occasion being the Bay Area Book Festival. George, because of course he has nothing to do with his time… (!), is on the Board. Hence the invite. The good thing? I could get some photos of the sunset toward SF and hang out on the edges of the group. The downside – way too many people jammed into one place for me and the noise level was painful.

 

2121