I've been busy, sick, busy again and just got busier.

Dad returned from the hospital today.

The surgery went well. Having this second hip surgery out of the way is a huge relief to the whole family, as it means he will soon be able to walk without pain. The last few days I've been getting the upstairs handicapable. Today was spent getting him home from the hospital, getting him upstairs and reacquainting myself with bedpans and such.

Back in a few days.(Seriously..a few...as in rather less than 15 this time!)

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Whenever I ask "Oh good Lord...What ELSE can go wrong?", The Almighty answers my prayer with impressive alacrity.

Regrettably, I find this does not fill me with joy or reassurance.

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The Blue Bomber suffered a steering pump failure, a brake failure and an electrical failure all at the same time. It turns out that the steering pump was squirting power steering fluid into the electrical system....the brakes were unrelated. 

I can do homework...and..umm...stuff.

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New season.....

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^{Lucky Star girls are from...well... Lucky Star...(duh!)}

Banal Brickmuppet banality is below the fold. The above picture is unrelated.

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I can has skylight!!

...by which time the damage was done.
The city has cut off the power to the end of the cul de-sac and forbidden anyone from being in the trailer after 5pm. The last few days have revolved around salvaging what little I can...some were surprising.  Protected by their wrapping and the drawer they were in, which itself was in the closet, two long forgotten 2003 and 2004 Masamune Shirow calenders were unscathed...The thing is, they'll be good again  in 2010 and '11.

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My day began at 3 when I headed off to work. The current inclement weather caused several delays with incoming loads and I was, as a result a little late getting out. I went home to be greeted by 3 police cruisers, 2 ambulances 4 fire trucks and a patrolman who informed me that I could not drive down the dead end road where my house resides.

Hampton Roads was and still is being clobbered as I type this. Hurricane Ida, now a tropical depression, has hooked up with a nor'easter and the two have hit it off and decided to do the barometric boogie all over Southeastern Virginia.

It has rained unrelentingly for 2 days. Totals as high as 12 inches are expected by tomorrow evening. The wind is gusting as high a 67 kts.This is worse in some ways than the Hurricanes Floyd and Isabel. Total damage seems to be less but, whereas both of those storms passed fairly quickly this storm is lingering and actually intensifying a bit. Norfolk is flooded. Tides as much as 8 feet above normal have occurred and are expected. In Portsmouth the seawall was holding as of an hour and a half ago but as I drove through I noted a sand blow coming out of a manhole. The ground is supersaturated and is turning into something with the consistency of pudding. This is not a good thing as the trees have nothing to hold them against the fierce wind.

To wit....

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^{Lucky Stars Cosplaying courtesy of KL-Chan}

I've been sick so there's nothing today but some banality below the fold. As partial compensation, here is some completely unrelated promo art from Macross Frontier...wait...WHAT!!??

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Today, while at ODU to meet with my Japanese tutor, I used the Bank of America ATM in Webb Center. I got my 30 dollars, and my receipt and the machine ejected my card. I stared at the receipt rather ruefully for a moment. The balance was smaller than it ought to have been...WAY smaller. My vacation check does not seem to have been deposited. I should get this cleared up tomorrow morning. After pondering this for one too many moments I reached for my card...which then disapeared into the machine.

I tried to no avail to get the angry machine overlord to give me my card and then called BofA to find out how to go about getting it out, if that was possible on a Friday afternoon.
 It was not.
You see, as a security feature, Bank of America ATM machines shred cards that aren't removed with sufficient alacrity.

So I called the Credit Union and was presented with a phone tree which required my pin and account number...and was told by a robot that my account had been frozen...the robot then hung up on me.

SO..I cancelled my tutor session...drove across town in Friday afternoon traffic to show my IDs and (thank GOD) get my account unfrozen. Of course I now am going overseas without any ATM card, and a payroll discrepency that can be charitably described as [expletives deleted by standards and practices]. Said discrepancy will most likely be resolved soon but without an ATM card I can't get at the money overseas, and the new ATM card won't arrive for a week or more...I leave Sunday morning.

Of course I'm about to fly to Japan for 21 days....so it's very poor form to be griping...and I'm nowhere NEAR  the situation I was in last year when my apt burned down, but damn this is a big chunk of my funds.

Oh well...there will be no fires, broken heels or dislocated hip on this trip.
That is my itinerary and I am sticking to it!

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1 Whoa, how much pondering time are we talking here? Note to self: avoid Bank of America ATMs in the future. I get that it's cheaper for them to send a new card than to be liable for fraud, but they could at least post a warning or something... this is the first I've heard of this security measure. Was freezing your account even necessary, what with the card being shredded?

Posted by: Andrew F. at Sat Aug 8 13:52:35 2009 (VbNCn)

2

Whoa, how much pondering time are we talking here?

Entirely too much obviously. A minute or so? I don't really know honestly.

Oh well, there are far worse things but it was aggravating.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Sat Aug 8 13:57:44 2009 (V5zw/)

3

Ah, yes;  BoA.  In 2002, when both my folks died within six months of each other, there were those people and organizations that helped and those that shit all over me.  While ONE lady at the BoA in Gold Canyon, AZ has my thanks, I piss, PISS, on the rest of that financial institution.  Even three years later, they were still causing me problems... I shit on their pricks.

Find a better bank or put your money next to your guns.

If this seems too extreme for your comments, I apologize and ask that you delete this.  I merely added it to note that what you experienced is representative for their company.  Best of luck in J-Land... if you go near Hamamatsu, let me know I'll help you out via a friend.  Cheers.

Posted by: Tiberius at Sat Aug 8 19:59:40 2009 (TXmvK)

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Posting has been light. As compensation, here is the exact opposite of Möe...

^{Art by S. Zenith Lee (Link NSFW...and dark)}

As usual the banality is below the fold.

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I was very proud of the assembly that held the clutch cable in in the Pickup of Peril. It consisted of several wood blocks bound by plastic twisty ties. This was due to the fact that....well, it's an '84 Isuzu diesel PUP ....which was banned by an act of Congress...and they just don't MAKE a lot of the parts for those anymore.

Alas, there is a reason that Isuzu uses a different method of fastening clutch cables in their production vehicles.
The whole thing fell apart...
...in the Downtown Tunnel
...as I shifted.

Fortunately, I was able to finesse the thing into gear by precisely choosing the correct speed to shift. My cunning plan worked for 30 miles, until, just short of the auto shop, I encountered a stoplight. Hilarity, profanity and much perspiration ensued.

To top off the day, while transferring the contents of the vehicle, I dropped my watermelon, which exploded most spectacularly.

 So I'm now alternating between pedestrianism and driving the big 12mpg van my folks never use...'cause...well...it gets12mpg....This state of affairs wil persist untill the old truck can be repaired....enough for me to insert the non standard bits. There is welding involved, in part because the auto shop expressed considerable disapproval at the unique ability the driver of my truck has to view the road directly below said truck from inside the cab. This will probably be a week.

Yes the pickup of peril is perilous, un-airconditioned and has, shall we say, "unconventional fastenings" in places...

.... but it is paid for and it gets 44mpg.

So neener neener neener!

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 02:45 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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The biopsy results came back yesterday.
My mother will not require any more surgery as they were clear.

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DISCLAIMER: Clip of confectionery bliss is pleasant and cute. As such readers should be aware that it is completely unrelated to the pictures and text below the fold.

 
Those suck...

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 02:41 AM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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 Rand Simberg links to this very good piece on 5 fallacies of happiness.
Read the whole thing. It tangentially segues into the content below the fold...which is just diary stuff.

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So I had to run out to my mobile home today to pay my lot-rent and cut the grass.The latter was thwarted by rain but I stopped for lunch at a new Greek Cafe on Jefferson Avenue next to the Asian Grocery near the What A Burger.

 I ordered a slice of pizza only to be told that the store did not sell pizza by the slice...one had to buy the whole pizza! The proprietor, for whom English was obviously not his first language, seemed perplexed that people kept coming in asking for slices.

I pointed out the sign that said "Pizza by the slice" and explained that that did not mean the whole pizza was pre-sliced.

So I ordered a gyro...
...which was one of the best I've ever had. The slices of gyro meat were waaay thicker than usual, the olives were fresh and the thing was spiced differently than I was accustomed to..but better.

My weight loss scheme precluded me from partaking of the baklava

The place the Greek Cafe and Food Mart is fantastic find. It's also a tobacco shop, has a hookah booth and sells hookahs. I don't smoke, but I applaud anyone with the balls to open a hookah shop in Newport News.

Next time I'm over there I'll try some of their kebabs...or I'll take home some of their pizza...I hear its pre-sliced.

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Mom met with both surgeons yesterday. The prognosis is dismaying. She requires a total mastectomy and the surgery will take over 8 hours. There is a nontrivial chance that she won't wake up.  The surgery date is not set YET as she wants to talk to the Oncologist again...but it will be in the next two weeks. After the surgery its going to be rough indeed. As mentioned previously, I've moved into the sewing room at my folks and there is going to be a lot of help required around their house for the next few months. I talked with the manager at UPS today and informed him of the situation. I must say they are being very supportive.
Any prayers are appreciated.

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Still no word on Mom.
She was supposed to go into the hospital for the full biopsy just over 2 weeks ago. Unfortunately, she took an aspirin before the appointment which would have invalidated the test...somehow...so it was rescheduled. We should know something this Thursday. Dad and I have, of course, secured the aspirin. She has seen a cardiologist and her heart issues are not directly heart related(!?). Rather they are due to inflammation around the heart. Whether this is simple inflammation or actual cancer pressing against her heart we wont know till Thursday. I would think that if it was just an infection they would have caught it, but then I'm not a doctor.

All other issues are fairly trivial by comparison.

more...

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My current term paper nightmare brings to mind this....

...which just demoralizes me further.

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