Injured
September 26, 2006
Betsy hurt her knee back when she was in Arizona a couple of months ago. She fell on something and got what could have been little slivers of fiberglass embedded in her knee. Grandpa removed what he thought was all of them, but it seems like there may still be some in there. A growth has formed where the injury occurred, and now it’s 1/4 of an inch in diameter.
She bumped her knee today and it ripped the growth about half off. There was a ton of blood and it hurt her tremendously. We went to the dermatologist to finally get it removed, but Betsy wouldn’t stop crying and screaming from fear over the needle that they would use to numb the area. We’ll have to try again another day. In the meanwhile, we are just hoping that she doesn’t bump into anything else with that knee.
UPDATE 09/28 : Here is what my friend, Mark, who is a dermatologist had to say:
Poor Betsy. Nice picture by the way – it’s hard to take really good skin pictures without a macro setting, is that what you used? I showed the picture to my chief resident. She was also impressed with the photographic quality. [Ed: Yeah, it was a macro lens. Oh, and thanks!] Given the history of trauma to the area, and the fact that it bled a lot with minimal subsequent trauma odds are really good that it is what we call a pyogenic granuloma. These usually start in areas that get bumped (it doesn’t have to be a major trauma), and in the process of healing, the skin gets a little exuberant and incorporates a lot of blood vessels, and never quite makes a scar like it should. They are not cancer and do not turn into cancer. Unfortunately, they usually continue to grow very slowing, and because they usually have a lot of blood vessels in them they bleed a lot with minimal trauma. I don’t know why one person gets them and another doesn’t. The fact that Betsy has one does not mean that she’ll get them everytime she gets a sliver. As far as I know it’s a random event. If you “Google” pyogenic granulomas you’ll probably find some enormous fungating lesions (they always put the worst stuff on the internet) – so take the pictures and info on the internet with a big grain of salt.
The only way I know to get rid of these is to cut them off at the base. Sorry. I had to remove a few from some kiddos when I did my month of pediatric dermatology and the thought of the procedure is much worse than the actual removal. That won’t help Betsy to tell her probably. Sometimes people just leave them on until the kids get so sick of them that they want them off. I don’t know if you want to do that though, because they do bleed very easily and if Betsy’s sufficiently afraid of needles it make take a while to convince her that the 10 minutes it takes is worth it. (She’ll only feel the shot for 5-10 seconds) then nothing else afterwards.
Turner Classic
September 17, 2006
Back on August 6th, I recorded The Godfather, Part II on TCM. I finally got around to watching it. That is a darn good movie. It’s been almost 15 years since I watched the whole trilogy, and I’d forgotten how good they all are. I’m going to need to buy the whole set or, better yet, find it on BitTorrent.
UPDATE: Found parts I and III and have already downloaded them. That didn’t take any time at all.
Failed Hit
September 16, 2006
Following up on my previous post about the $500 hit, here’s another one regarding the same type of conspiracy. This time, though, the hitter wasn’t an undercover cop. It was a just a guy who didn’t think he was going to end the day dead. Here’s a tip: If you’re a little guy, don’t try to kill a big woman with close hand to hand combat. He tried and died.
Prejudice
September 15, 2006
I watched an episode of 20/20 tonight about stereotypes and racism. One of the clips they showed was of Dennis Miller saying, “Other than the bombs that are strapped to their chests, I have no idea what makes Palestinians tick.” I’ll admit it. I laughed, and I laughed out loud. Am I bad? Probably.
Bend Weather Changing
September 14, 2006
Well, it’s starting to cool down here in Bend. It was absolutely gorgeous today at lunch, with a high of 79 degrees. Ron and I put the top down on the Porsche and enjoyed the drive to lunch at Taqueria Los Jalapenos. Unfortunately, seasons change and nice weather comes and goes. So, while we had nearly 90 degree temperatures on Monday and Tuesday, it’s supposed to only get up to 60 on Thursday and 58 on Friday, with lows around 34 and 32. I can’t help but think that it’s too soon for this. Summer was just too short.
One of the things that I noticed this year is that the weather here is pretty nice. During the summer, it very rarely stays hot at night. Here in Bend, you’ll find that the nighttime low is often less than 50% of the daytime high. F or example, it got up to 95 degrees at times this summer, but at night it was still down into the low 40s. This was even during the height of summer, when it was supposed to be hot. Contrast this to when we lived in Utah or visited Arizona, and you’ll find that it wouldn’t drop below 80 in Utah or 90 in Arizona at night. Here, we rarely leave the windows open at night, as it’s just too cold. In fact, the only window in the house that’s open at all right now is the one immediately behind me as I sit in bed. It’s cracked ever-so-slightly, and I’m still going to have to close it because it’s too cold.
So, all told, I’m not looking forward to fall/winter.
Found Email
September 14, 2006
I just found the following email from Jon, dated Tue 11 Sep 2001 18:10:59 (UTC):
Subject: How I found out …
This morning I was in an airplane at Washington-Dulles Int’l Airport, taking off (at 8:25 am ET), around when the first plane hit the WTC. I landed in Dayton, Ohio, met my coworker Mike Heins, and we went to get breakfast. He heard someone announce at the airport that all United Airlines flights had been cancelled, but that was all. Will still had no idea anything had happened, until a waitress talked about everyone being home watching TV, and I asked why …
I got some bad vibes at the airport, but didn’t think it would be anything like this.
Jon
More memories of that day …
Me Brothers
September 14, 2006
An Irishman walks into a bar in Dublin, orders three pints of Guinness and sits in the back of the room, drinking a sip out of each in turn.
When he finishes them, he comes back to the bar and orders three more. The bartender approaches and tells him, “You know, a pint goes flat soon after I draw it, it would taste better if you bought one at a time.”
The Irishman replies, “Well you see, I have two brothers. One is in America and the other is in Australia, and I’m in Dublin. When we all left home, we promised that we’d drink this way to remember the days we drank together. So I drink one for each o’ me brothers and one for meself.” The bartender admits that this is a nice custom, and leaves it there.
The Irishman becomes a regular in the bar and always drinks the same way. He orders three pints and drinks them in turn. One day, he comes in and orders only two pints. All of the other regulars notice and fall silent. When he comes back to the bar for the second round, the bartender says, “I don’t want to intrude on your grief, but I wanted to offer my condolences on your loss.”
The Irishman looks quite puzzled for a moment, then a light dawns in his eye and he laughs. “Oh, no, everybody’s just fine,” he explains, “It’s just that me wife had us join that Mormon Church and they don’t allow drinking so I had to quit.”
“Hasn’t affected me brothers though.”
$500 Hit
September 14, 2006
A woman offered a “hitman” $500 to knock off another woman. Is it just me, or would a hitman who would accept $500 for a job have to be very desperate? I would have been very suspicious of the hitter if he hadn’t tried to get me to pay more. Not that I’m into that sort of thing.
Unix Fortunes
September 14, 2006
Here are some of the fortunes that I’ve seen when logging into various Unix or Linux servers:
- Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today. There might be a law against it by that time.
- Weiler’s Law: Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn’t have to do it himself.
- Stupid, noun: Losing $25 on the game and $25 on the instant replay.
… and counting
September 11, 2006
Five years ago …
The radio came on and woke me up at 7 am. The radio people on KSL were talking about how Manhattan was essentially closed down and there was no travel going to or coming from. I was still a little groggy, but got the point that I should be heading downstairs to check out the TV to see what was going on.
After changing the TV station away from whatever it was that four-year-old David was watching, and then feeling his wrath for having done so (he was MAD), I saw some very disturbing things. The first images I saw that day were of both towers burning, with black smoke billowing from each one. I, apparently, had just missed seeing the second plane hit.
I still had no idea what was going on. As we watched the first tower fall, Melanie and I just sat dumbfounded that this could happen. We had no idea that it was even possible.
I called my mom and talked with her for a couple of minutes, followed by my friend’s mom, and then my friend, Fran. As Fran and I were talking on the phone while watching our TVs, the second tower fell.
The weird thing is that when I said, “The tower is falling. It’s down,” Fran said, “No, it’s not. It’s still right there. Oh, now it’s going.” It turned out that ABC, which I was watching, was a little bit faster in its broadcasting than CBS was and Fran happened to be watching CBS. CBS was easily a good 5 seconds or more behind ABC.
I remember getting to work, not wanting to be there at all. I recall that I spent a bunch of time going back and forth between my office and the newsroom downstairs, wanting to see everything I could about what was going on. I wanted to know exactly when we as a country did something, anything, to retaliate.
Fran, James and I went shooting at lunch that day. I remember going up to West Mountain, though, and shooting clay pigeons and other various targets we found there. I also remember being completely pissed about what had been done to MY brothers and sisters, to innocent civilians. I mean, I can understand militant people attacking military installations, etc., but this was completely without justification. It was not a military engagement. It was outright murder of thousands. The three of us sat and talked about who could have been responsible for all of these deaths, and we came to logical conclusions that it was either Osama bin Laden or Saddam Hussein, with bin Laden being the most likely culprit. We just didn’t see anybody else as being willing to perform suicide attacks like those except for Muslims.
I had friends all over the place, and I worried about them. David and Rita were in the LA area, as were Mark and Kristilyn. Kristin was there, too, I think, as was Brian. Matt was stuck down there, too, because of the air traffic being shut down. I worried about all of them because the LA area could very well have been a target. Shaun was pretty much okay, being in Provo and all. Jon and Erin had just moved to Virginia, so they were definitely in the line of fire.
While my family was all in San Jose still, I worried about my grandmother. She had grown up in Staten Island, and had spent so much time in Manhattan in her younger years, so she was particularly troubled by what was going on. Evidently, one of her brothers’ granddaughters had an apartment next to the World Trade Center, and nobody had heard from her since the attacks. I asked my grandmother if she was watching the news that night, and she said that couldn’t. She just wanted to sit and listen to the music on the radio. In all honesty, I don’t know how her heart would have been able to handle the stress if she had been watching the TV.
These attacks didn’t injure or kill anybody I knew, but I was deeply affected by them, as were quite a few of my friends. I held my little family a little closer that night, wanting to let my sons know that I would do anything and everything I could do to protect them. I made a vow to take my kids to see the important places in the history of the United States. I would take them to see Washington, D.C. and teach them about democracy. I would take them to Philadelphia and teach them about independence. I would take them to New York and teach them about recovery and the will to survive. I would take them to the temple to teach them about love. Melanie and I would teach them to not have fear and to trust that God is in control. We would teach them that, no matter what the situation, to have faith in God and in the infinite atonement made by His Son, Jesus the Christ, on behalf of all those who have ever inhabited, or ever will inhabit, the earth.
Many things have happened since that long day in 2001. Melanie has given birth to two more children, the youngest of whom turned two last week. We have moved to a different state, where we had no friends nor familiy. We have made new friends and have added to our “virtual” family, those people whom we love like family, yet have no blood relations to. We have grown closer together and have recently celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary. While we are obviously concerned about the future, we know that (to quote a portion of a song) worry is wasteful and useless in times like these. I won’t be made useless, won’t be idle with despair.
We will live our lives in peace and happiness, focusing on the good things rather than the bad. We will do whatever we can possibly do to bring our kids up in righteousness. We will serve our fellow man (and woman) in an effort to live better lives, and will teach our kids to do the same. Our kids will grow up to make the world a better place than we have to date.
