Mother's Procedure

Mother went in for her long-awaited D&C today. Although she had it at the AV Surgical Center the last couple of times, this time her doctor scheduled her for Lancaster Community Hospital Outpatient Surgery, presumably in case of complications that might require hospitalization.

We've always gone to AV hospital before and were pleasantly surprised to discover that Community is quite nice; Mother really liked the nursing staff. It turns out that our folks' neighbor from across the street (remember Vicky?) is the head surgical nurse, and Mother had a chance to tell her how pleased she was with the people when Vicky came in to visit.

The procedure itself went well. The doctor found an area of interest (he indicated something of less than an inch in size with his fingers) where he took samples. Because of the long weekend, it will be next week before any results of cultures are available, so we made an appointment for Mother to see him Thursday morning.

In the past, this procedure has caused some discomfort, but this time, Mother experienced a great deal of pain, and the nurses gave her an analgesic they described as "stronger than morphine." It took care of the pain, but it also upset her stomach. We did, however, manage to get her home after only a couple of hours or so, and she was much happier to be there than in the hospital.

She told us that, when the doctor had come in to see her before beginning, he asked her if she had any questions.

"No," she said. "Do you have any answers?"

Now we wait until Thursday, and then Mother may have some difficult decisions to make. I'll keep you posted.

Another Driver!

Glen passed his driving test this morning and has a shiny new temporary permit. I'd better get cracking on insurance issues.

Tatsu! Gesundheit.

Evan and I couldn't make it to media day for the grand opening of the new Tatsu flying coaster at Magic Mountain, but we did get to the ACE (American Coaster Enthusiasts) event at Magic Mountain today. Two hours before the park opened to the general public, ACE members enjoyed ERT (exclusive ride time) on X, Viper, Revolution, Ninja and Tatsu. We didn't get off to a particularly early start, so we just went up to Tatsu, rode it a couple of times, then had coffee and doughnuts (part of our coaster enthusiast package) and rode Tatsu again. This third time, where we sat in the front seats, is immortalized in the somewhat blurry onride photo seen above. According to the Tatsu webpage:

Aboard the wings of TATSU, experience flight at speeds in excess of 62 miles-per-hour through a series of “butterflies-in-your-stomach” plunges, huge sweeping spirals, stomach wrenching loops and sharp dives, high speed banked curves deliberately designed to enhance the ultimate sensation of flight. With more than 3,602 feet of blazing red, orange and yellow twisted steel track barely visible intertwined through the mountainside, TATSU'S intense three-and-a-half minute flight faces a dramatic 263-foot change in elevation from its highest peak to inches off the ground and spans four separate areas of the Park.

This new coaster is a far cry from the last Magic Mountain effort, Scream, a floorless coaster that tends to be brutal and is built over an unadorned parking lot. They could at least park a few wrecks or old monster cars there to at least try to tie in some kind of theming, but there's not much they can do about the ride itself. It is a mirror image of the Medusa coaster at Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey, which Evan and I rode once but saw no point in re-riding. We both agreed that Six Flags would have done better to duplicate their Medusa at Marine World in Northern California, which is also a floorless coaster and even has the same paint scheme (and name, obviously) as the one in New Jersey, but is an excellent ride.

Tatsu, however, is a dream, and by far the best flying coaster I've ridden in the US (I've also ridden Top Gun at Great America in Santa Clara and Batman at Six Flags America near Washington, D.C.). It's even better than Air at Alton Towers in England, which I really liked for its smooth ride. Tatsu has comfortable restraints, except that the corner of the padded leg bars tended to bite into my shins. Once I realized this was an issue, I found it easy enough to adjust for, and the shoulder, chest and seat were quite comfortable. I could almost get the feeling that I was flying, and the scenery was beautiful - mountains, trees, desert, water. It was definitely worth the extra couple of minutes waiting for the first row seats, although you get a pretty good view even further back.

As we were loading for our last ERT ride, the public started to stampede in, and the line formed quickly. By the time we had gotten our ride photo (the third guy in it is also an ACE member, but his wife chickened at the last minute) and left, the queue stretched past a sign proclaiming: Wait Time from This Point 1-1/2 Hours. I'd have thought those people were nuts, but Evan and I waited something like two hours for our first ride on X.

X used to be my favorite roller coaster; I especially loved the skydive element near the beginning, where you go up the lift hill on your back, and then flip face forward as you go over the top so you're diving toward the ground face-down at 89 degrees to vertical. Unfortunately, as coasters often do, X has gotten rough, and I just can't enjoy it the way I used to, since I'm bound to get beaten up in more than one of the turns. In spite of ERT, I passed up the chance to ride it this time.

I also bypassed Colossus, a woody that used to be pretty good but has gotten so rattly that even Evan doesn't much ride it anymore. I did ride Goliath, which I can enjoy if I remember to brace against the g-forces in the later turns (Discovery channel had a show that explained what pilots do, and it helps).

Evan upgraded his Six Flags annual pass to the Xtreme Pass, so he gets four The Flash Pass coupons each visit. These are nice, because he can share them with me even though I don't have any kind of Six Flags annual pass. He convinced me to go on Riddler's Revenge with him, pointing out that I might enjoy it more (or, in fact, at all - I hated it the one and only time I went on before) now that I'm in good physical condition. I wouldn't wait long for it, but with the, pardon me, The Flash Pass, we didn't have that long a wait. We got the back row, too, which is often the best if the coaster is smooth, which Riddler is. It's a stand-up coaster, and if you don't get your straddle seat positioned properly, it can be brutal; the first time Evan rode, he had his too low and walked like Groucho Marx for an hour or two afterward. This time, though, we got our seats adjusted nicely and found the ride quite exhilarating. Losing weight and working out definitely makes riding certain coasters more pleasurable.

It was supposed to rain, and even though it didn't much, Evan and I came equipped with rain ponchos. Under the circumstances, we used them on a couple of water rides. Ironically, on the Whitewater Rapids raft ride, the other four people in our boat got splashed worse than we did, and a couple of them got almost totally drenched. We were still glad of our ponchos.

Perhaps the new owners will change this, but Six Flags parks are not known for much besides their roller coasters. At lunch - a basic fried chicken buffet with ice cream bars for dessert - in one of the picnic pavillions, Magic Mountain put on a raffle (everyone got one raffle ticket), but disappointingly, no one spoke to us about upcoming plans as they have sometimes done in the past. Maybe instead of adding yet another coaster, Magic Mountain will spend some money on maintenance and repair. The Sky Tower observation tower was supposed to have been re-opened, but it wasn't yet, and the Orient Express funicular's tracks are a foot deep in mud in a couple of places following the construction of Tatsu. The Metro monorail is still in place but hasn't been running in probably six years. Elsewhere there are signs of decay - rust, flaking paint, warped wood and so on. Six Flags might also give some consideration to putting in some better eating places. The only full-service restaurant the park has, Mooseburger Lodge, can have some incredibly long waits. In fact, when it came time for dinner, Evan and I left the park and went a couple of miles east on Magic Mountain Parkway to Mimi's, and I expect that the Marie Callendar's across from Magic Mountain's entrance does a lot of business that Magic Mountain could have if it offered better food.

Licensed to Drive!

Evan passed his driving test this afternoon. We are all particularly pleased because he had to take the Drivers' Safety examination, and we weren't quite sure what would happen if he failed. I knew he was well prepared, but if he did something dumb because he was nervous, or if he had the bad fortune to have a pedestrian jump out in front of him unexpectedly, he could have blown it.

At any rate, it appears I need to start looking for another car, especially since Glen is scheduled to take his driving test next Tuesday. If he fails, it won't be a big deal, since he can take the test again in a couple of weeks. I don't expect him to fail, however.

In keeping with family tradition, I really ought to get an old Ford pickup as old as, or even older than, my guys. Red. It needs to be red, with the doors tied shut and gears that need coaxing to shift. Both Lee and I experienced such character-building vehicles when we were young. Still, I know who would have to bail them out when they inevitably broke down, so I expect I'll get something more reliable. It probably also ought to have an automatic transmission, too.

Color Coordinated Causes

Some people wear silicone wristbands as a fashion statement, or because they're popular, but I wear mine to show support for various family members and friends. The light blue one (as well as the Puzzle Ribbon pin) represents autism awareness; the gold one next is for childhood cancer; the red-and-yellow supports the Children's Miracle Network (Children's Hospitals), and the gray one represents brain cancer awareness. I wear these on behalf of my sons. Both of them have autism, and the older one had a brainstem tumor for which he had two surgeries at Los Angleles Children's Hospital and spent some time in physical rehabilitation there.

The peach color wristband I wear in honor of my mother, who probably has uterine cancer, and the pink band and rhinestone ribbon are for my best friend, who died in March after fighting breast cancer for more than five years. The white one came from the American Cancer Society and represents all cancers, as does the variegated purple one, which says "Cancer Sucks." If I had wristbands for my in-laws, I'd have dark blue for my father-in-law, who died of colon cancer; pearl for my mother-in-law, who died of lung cancer, and light blue for my husband's brother, who has prostate cancer.

Almost everyone knows that the yellow one is a LIVESTRONG band, and it is the first one I had. It not only represents cancer awareness but promotes a healthy lifestyle, which seemed quite appropriate considering I got it at a time I was regularly accompanying my son the brain tumor survivor to the college gym. His tumor and surgeries had left him weak to the point he had to use a wheelchair and a walker for awhile in elementary school, and he was still not physically strong in high school. In college, however, he signed up for weight training and found it suited him. After a couple of semesters, I decided to join him. Some things he can do better than I can, particularly if they involve abs, and a couple of things I can do better, but we're both physically fit.

I have no idea where one might find the Children's Miracle Network or American Cancer Society wristbands, but I got the gray one from the American Brain Tumor Association, and the peach one, the gold one and the purple "Cancer Sucks" one from Choose Hope, Inc., which also has ribbon charms, t-shirts, coffee mugs and other stuff in a lot of different colors. A wide range of autism awareness jewelry is available from Crafts'N'Scraps. The yellow wristbands can be ordered in multiples of ten from The Lance Armstrong Foundation. Pink wristbands and jewelry are available in a lot of places, from drugstores to department stores.

Deposed

I went to give my deposition today, and on the way I had to make a detour around a rather major traffic accident at an intersection nearby. I had been having Evan practice his driving around there not a half hour before, and we had gone through that same intersection at least twice. There were three fire trucks and an ambulance, and I saw them wheeling somebody away on a gurney while I was waiting for a pedestrian to finish crossing on the red in front of me. A policeman directing traffic gestured, rather impatiently, for me to make my right turn and stop gawking, so I'm not sure he had seen the pedestrian holding me up.

The irony is that the accident I went to give a deposition about regarded a pedestrian crossing against a red light and getting hit by a car. Since I witnessed the accident more than a year and a half ago, some of the details had gotten fuzzy in my memory, but I think I acquitted myself reasonably well. I hope the other witnesses fill in the gaps as well as corroborate my own account. I also hope the two attorneys convince their clients to settle. I know there was fault on the side of the pedestrian, and there may have been fault on the side of the driver, as well. It will be interesting to read the transcript.

After I left the deposition, I was surprised to see that the accident at the intersection had not been completely cleared more than an hour after it occurred. I also wondered why there was a police cruiser parked up on the sidewalk by the traffic signal. After I drove past, I saw that the police car had taken the corner too fast (or perhaps swerved to avoid the accident?) and had run its passenger side into a pole. If I'd had the presence of mind, I'd have remembered I had my camera with me and pulled into the parking lot of the mall next to where this took place and gotten a few snapshots. Unfortunately, I was some way down the road before I thought of this and decided not to go back. I did hope to find some pictures online, but the news media is slower than that. With any luck, there will be a photo in the paper tomorrow; the offices of the Los Angeles Daily News are only a few blocks up the street from the scene of the accident.

Happy Mother's Day

I figured out a few years ago that the way to get the kind of Mother's Day I could enjoy is to do it myself. I generally have as much family as I can lure to my house, and I feed them well.

This year, the logistics were a little more complex than in the past since my mother's health is so poor. Last Thursday afternoon, I drove to Lancaster to help my parents pack (not that my dad needed much more than moral support). Then on Friday morning I left my car there and drove them back to my house in their Subaru. My sister Charlotte arrived from Stockton early in the evening, and her daughter Alex, along with her son, and my brother Bob arrived late that night. Alex met someone she knew on the plane, so she managed to get a ride to our house, but Charlotte and I went to the Van Nuys Flyaway bus terminal to get Bob. I think it was nearly two o'clock in the morning before I finally got everyone situated in various sofa beds and air beds and was able to hit the sack myself.

On Saturday I got up in time to fix breakfast, but when all of my guests but my parents went out to do some shopping, I suggested they take a nap and did the same myself. Fortunately I woke up before the Homo Sapiens Yoyo group got together here to write up their zoo project. I managed to start lunch (spaghetti) before the guys arrived, and after I ate I popped in at intervals to make sure they were staying on track. It took them several hours, and I began to think we were going to have a couple of extras at dinner (I had even started a couple of tritip roasts). Fortunately, they managed to finish before the meat was done, and we were able to clear the study stuff off the dining table and set it for dinner.

This morning my family was waiting when I came downstairs for me to fix breakfast. It took me a little while to get everything together to do this, and while I fixed the omelets for those who didn't care for mushrooms, Bob and Charlotte took the baby and walked around to the nearby grocery store and got some for the rest of us. I had bought some English Farmhouse Cheddar, and it made a superb omelet cheese; everyone but Glen had some (he eats his omelets plain). Because I had fresh strawberries, my dad (or maybe it was Lee) requested waffles to put them on, so I got the Van's Belgian toaster waffles out of the freezer in the garage. It's a little too much work to make fresh waffles when I'm making cook-to-order omelets.

While I was in the kitchen, Alex gave me a card "For an Aunt Who's a Blessing," and it almost made me cry. It was very sweet. She also had cards for her mother and grandma, but I didn't get a chance to see those. Glen had gotten his grandmother a neck pillow specially designed to use on a recliner chair: it has a strip of non-slip fabric that drapes over the back of the chair that holds it in place. My sons and husband got me a necklace and earring set - a very elegant sterling silver Mickey Mouse design. Besides the family weekend, I did some scrapbook pages for my mother's scrapbook. I had photos from our England trip, photos from Charlotte's scuba diving and some pictures I got of our sister Rebecca's family from their online photo album. Bob had said he'd send me some pictures, but he hadn't, so I just had a nice background in place for his family.

I had barely recovered from breakfast when my mother asked if I could take them home today. For me, it wouldn't make much difference whether I took them today or tomorrow, except that tomorrow they'd have to wait until I got Alex and Bob back to the Flyaway, one at about 6:45 a.m. and the other at about 10:00 a.m. So I said, "Sure." Charlotte had to leave to return to Stockton, and she decided that she could detour slightly through Lancaster, taking Bob, Alex and the baby with her. Then when I returned, I could bring the three of them back with me. That way, she'd have more time with her daughter and grandson, and I'd have company on the way back.

My dad was quite disappointed at having to leave a full day earlier than he had expected, but he didn't argue. He did try to get people to stay at his house longer, but since Mother left my house due to exhaustion, staying didn't seem like a good idea. I was particularly sorry that he didn't have more time with Bob, since they hadn't seen each other since Mother's Day last year. Bob is hoping to come out for a longer visit a little later this year, though.

I plan to go to bed early tonight.

Califur 2

Two years ago, Glen and I went to Califur 0, a furry convention. Glen is a budding artist with a strong interest in anthropomorphic and theriomorphic art, and such conventions are a great place for him to socialize with people who are as weird as he is. Last year, we took Evan along to Califur 1. This year we added Lee to the party. Glen is the only one of us who actually attended Califur; the first year, I went shopping at the South Coast Plaza and to the San Diego Wild Animal Park. Last year, Evan and I went to the Bowers Museum of Cultural History and Disneyland.

This year, Glen started out Friday morning with an ear infection, so we had to delay our departure a few hours to get him into the doctor. We were late enough that we got into rush hour, making it take a lot longer than it should have to get to the hotel in Costa Mesa. As a consequence, we just dropped Glen off at the convention hotel and went to dinner, albeit at Storyteller's Cafe at the Grand Californian Hotel at Disneyland.

We three non-furries went to San Diego's Museum of Man on Saturday. I had been wanting to see their Footsteps Through Time primate evolution exhibit for some time, and this seemed like a great opportunity. Their earlier full-scale models (representing the outdated linear-evolution theory) seemed too crammed together, and I wish they could have been displayed without all the reflective plexiglass, but it was an excellent exhibit overall. I particularly liked the reconstruction of Chauvet Cave in France with its numerous famous cave paintings. A representative selection of fossil reproductions illustrated the modern theory of human evolution: that a variety of hominids evolved, but only one line eventually evolved into homo sapiens and the others, including Homo neandertalensis, died out.

Today the three of us went to Wilmington to see the Drum Barracks Civil War Museum and the Banning Residence Museum. We all enjoy looking at historical residences with period furnishings, and the Banning house even had mostly original furniture. It was an afternoon well spent.

Zoo Narrative: Homo Sapiens Yoyo

As part of their zoo study project, Evan and Glen and their two lab partners are supposed to write a narrative describing the behavior of their subjects, in this case, six orangutans.

I, on the other hand, observed five subjects, also great apes. AM1 (Adult Male 1) and AM2 arrived at the Red Ape Rain Forest orangutan enclosure shortly after 2:00 in company with AF1 (Adult Female 1), their mother. AM2, prompted by AF1, got out his laptop computer and started to compose a narrative based on his observations. He also recorded observations told him by AF1. AM1 made observations but did not communicate what he saw. AF1 also took photographs.

At about 3:00, AF1 supplied AM2 with a fob watch, and both AM1 (who had his own watch) and AM2 began recording behaviors for two orangutans each at fifteen second intervals over the space of ten minutes. AM1 lost track of the number of intervals, and AF1 showed him that if he used the recording sheet properly, he would automatically know how many he had already recorded. AM1 restarted his observations.

AM3 arrived at about 3:35. AF1 lent him a wristwatch (her own, personal, Mickey Mouse watch) and explained the use of the data recording sheet. AM2 completed his fourth and final ten-minute set of observations on his pair of individuals, a mother and infant pair and returned the watch to AF1. At some point between observation periods, another adult female orangutan and his subjects had traded positions, causing him to observe the wrong female for at least one ten minute period.

The female of the male-female pair AM1 had been observing got called in to the dormitory during his second observation period, leaving only the male, who appeared to sleep the entire time. Then the male got called in to the dormitory a few minutes later.

AM4 arrived at the zoo about 4:00, just as the final orangutan made her way to the dormitory. AM1 had tried to call him earlier to tell him not to bother, but by the time AM3 managed to get him on the phone, AM4 had already paid his entrance fee and was on his way up. AM3 returned the watch to AF1.

This represented our fifth visit to the zoo, and the project is due a week from Monday. I found myself explaining the term "dry lab." They have everything except the complete fifteen-second-interval observation charts, and they've certainly watched the orangutans long enough to put together something believable.

I have to say that the behavior of AM3 and AM4 makes me feel a lot better about my own kids (AM1 and AM2). Let's say, mine aren't the only yoyos in college.

Muesli Darlingtonia

When we were in England last summer, several of the bed-and-breakfasts we stayed at offered either Alpen or their own, homemade muesli, and we became quite fond of it. When we got home, we discovered that US Alpen is Not the Same, nor is the muesli available here comparable to what we got in England. After some experimentation, I came up with my own recipe.

Combine in an airtight canister and shake to mix:

• 2 cups Quick Rolled Oats/Oatmeal, dry*
  
• 2 cups Quaker Multigrain Cereal, dry*
• *Make sure the cereals call for 1 minute cooking time, but don't cook them.
• 1/2 cup dried blueberries (or raisins, cranberries, etc.)
• 1/3 cup sliced almonds (or crushed walnuts, pecans, etc.)
• 2 Tbs. Turbinado Sugar (or brown sugar)

A 1/2 cup serving is 2 Weight Watchers points, plus another point for 1/2 cup of nonfat or lowfat milk. You can eat it cold, or microwave it (1/2 cup cereal with 1/2 cup milk) on high for 1 minute for a very quick hot cereal that is much better than quick oatmeal.

More Grandma

Today I went to Lancaster (or as Lee calls it, Land Scatter). I had some more new clothes for Mother, who has dropped a couple of sizes lately, and I also had a pillow speaker for her to try out on her TV in the bedroom. Sometimes when she can't sleep, she'd like to watch TV but is afraid to disturb my dad unnecessarily. The pillow speaker has a line from the TV's headphone jack to a small speaker with its own volume control that she can put right by her ear and listen, so I hope it works for her.

I wish she were feeling better, although she did feel up to getting her hair done. Fortunately the new style (without that kinky permanent) not only looks much better, it also requires her to spend a lot less time in the beauty shop than the old one. She also walked partway up the block and back with her physical therapist, who decided she knew what she was supposed to do well enough that he discharged her from his care. Even though she has been discharged from PT, both the therapist and her home health nurse insist that she continue to use a walker. I had earlier brought the fancy four-wheel walker Lee's mother had me get her a number of years ago, and Mother likes it much better than the standard Medicare-authorized model.

She is looking forward to Mother's Day. I'll be going up to Lancaster a day or two in advance to help her and Daddy pack, and then I expect we'll come back here. I'm already planning the menus. If anybody who is coming has a special request for a menu item, be sure to let me know.

I Got Served

...With a subpoena. I was dishing out the oatmeal this morning when the doorbell rang, and, wondering who it could be, I answered it. There stood a guy with a subpoena for me. Fairly quickly - but not quickly enough, I think - he explained that I was wanted as a witness. At any rate, I have to give a deposition on some matter (I'm not sure what, but I can guess) in a couple of weeks. Fortunately, it's on a day I don't already have booked for something else, and I don't have to drive very far, either. I wonder if I will eventually have to appear in court. I sincerely hope not. For one thing, if this concerns what I suspect, I witnessed it more than a year and a half ago.