Tales of another reality. Reminiscences of my time in the sick people business, and random thoughts otherwise clinging to my attention, like a baby monkey on a weimaraner.
The other day, a young woman came in for a cough, or a cold, or some such thing. She told me that earlier this year she had come in seen me, and had been facing some sort of surgery.
She told me that she had been frightened, stating, “I was freaking out. You calmed me, and, once you were done, I wasn’t afraid. Thank you! You really helped me!”
I received a hug.
I looked in the record, once she was gone. I had NOT seen her.
So, whoever DID see her, and Did The Right Thing, comforting her, well done. Thank you for making the rest of us look good.
The other day, The Darling Wife-Mark II and I went to the range. Her arthritis has been acting up, and so I brought our “repel boarders” rifle, an AR pattern modern sporting rifle, for re acquaintance, as well as a pistol in .380 and a Ruger 22-45 in 22 long rifle.
She shot the rifle ok, which, since it was a firearm familiarization day, was pretty much everything I expected.
She shot the 22-45 well, but found that the 1911 sized grip was large for her hands.
She shot outstandingly well with the browning 1911-380. The grip is more svelte that a full sized Colt pattern handgun, the recoil is considerably less than from her 9 mm, and she affirmatively enjoyed herself.
Those insights led to her shopping for another handgun. She settled upon a Smith and Wesson Bodyguard, in 380. Now, we are waiting for the conjunction of a nice day, a day off (for me) and (relatively) caught up projects (for the both of us).
So, we have cats. If you have visited here before, likely that is no surprise.
Cats make bad decisions. I suspect that fact is the origin story of the “cats have nine lives” commonplace.
Our cats persist in making bad decisions: Bad for us, the humans, as well as more or less bad for the felines.
So, a while back, The Darling Wife-Mark II was doing (whatever) at the kitchen table, and the cats were lolling around, doing cat stuff. She (The Darling Wife) was not paying attention, (mistakenly) thinking that there was no big problem sort of mischief afoot.
This misapprehension was soon remedied, when there was a “CRACK!” sound, shortly followed by the sound of cat feet, beating feet to un-ass the kitchen.
TDW caught a glimpse of the fleeing feline, sufficient to identify the cat as Max.
She retrieved Max from his hiding place, and examined him. She identified a burn mark at the corner of his mouth. Otherwise he appeared intact. Sort of anxious, but generally alright.
She identified the cord that evidently Max had been chewing on, powering a tabletop heater that she, TDW, employed to keep warm. (this, part of our compromise regarding the heating bill: I keep the heat set at around 72, rather than the sixty that my wallet demands [and not the 80 that she desires], and she makes up the difference in warmth with a portable heater)
Well, THAT heater went out de door, and the next one had the cord preemptively protected with the loom that installers of automotive sound systems use.
That seemed to work pretty well, until (cat to be identified later) decided that the cables charging our cell phones seemed like a tasty treat.
Here, behold BEFORE! NOT cat resistant cable!
And, now, the (I sincerely hope!) Cat Resistant Cable!
Recently I wrote of my battery adventures. Well, as it develops, that entire “Battery Checklist” thing?
Incomplete.
I found that my (battery powered) hearing protection, had not been checked since they had joined the household.
Oops.
I did not discover this when the electronic hearing protection went belly up (thankfully). Rather, after a visit to our local range, I was putting things away, and said to myself, “Ya know, Self, if you were to look inside these electronic muffs, and ensure that the batteries were functional, why, I bet that they would function just so much more effectively!”
Likely so.
And, having a medical sort of bent, once upon a time I observed that (insert name of on line big ass marketing enterprise, here) had fingertip pulse oximeters on sale for something on the order of ten dollars each.
Since I had worked, once upon a time, for an establishment that approached preventive maintenance with all the enthusiasm that third world militaries are reputed to demonstrate, well, from time to time, when I was curious about how well a particular patient was oxygenating, and the “house” oximeter was hors de combat, well, I went to my Bag of Tricks (h/t to that Noted Medical Philosopher, Felix T. Cat), and retrieved mine, and voila’! I had an oxygen reading.
The Darling Wife Mark II thought that having that capability at home would be nice, since I am a geezer and she is wedded to a geezer. Now we have four.
If one is none, and two is one, how many is four?
As it develops, should one NOT place the pulse oximeters on the battery checklist, they may go for some time without being checked.
Then, there is the multi meter that I use to measure battery voltage, so as to form an educated opinion as to the readiness for service of each battery. THAT takes batteries. NOW, it has a fresh battery, as well as a label prominently displaying the last check date.
Of course, with Autumnal Equinox freshly behind us, there is the matter of checking the smoke alarms (and, for those of us who use wood heat, carbon monoxide detectors/alarms). My smoke alarms advertise that they a decade of service, non homeowner serviceable battery inside.
I wrote “Smoke Alarms” on my checklist, and then function tested each one. With hearing protection.
Once I had all my lanterns re-batteried, with known good batteries, I observed that my stock of AAA batteries was low.
As I have related in the past, I will not employ Duracell batteries: indeed, should The Battery Fairy gift me with Duracells, I will ash-can them at the earliest opportunity. I have been using Eneloop batteries recently, and so far they have performed as desired. They are made by Panasonic in Japan, and, while I would prefer made-in-USA, made-in-Japan appears to serve adequately.
During this adventure, noticing the various dates of service of my batteries (manifested by the thought, “When did I buy these things? How long ago was that?”), it occurred to me that labeling batteries with an in service date might be useful in making that sort of determination.
I present you with the labeled battery.
Thanks for your attention. Hope this has proven useful to some of you.
Continuing my jolly tale of Fun! Ways! To! Spend! Days! Off!, The Darling Wife-Mark II and I were chatting, and realized I had spent around 10 (ten) hours over 5 days, and while I had recharged the radio batteries, I still had not checked our crate-o-lanterns.
This crate is intended for camping use, as well as power failure illumination. There are two “C” cell Siege lanterns, one “AA” Siege lantern, 2 Coleman Quad Panel lanterns, along with several assorted “Brand X” cheapo lanterns.
I had observed to TDW that, even considering that I had halted my battery assay incomplete, due to, ya know, going back to work, every time I turned around I identified another light/stash of batteries that I had overlooked. This even in the face of the fact that, every time I inventory batteries, I update/edit my battery list.
The most recent of these revelations happened when TDW and I went camping. When we do so, we bring our two dogs along with us. When we do so, we make it our practice to walk them.
Crazy, right?
When we walk them, we have a small flashing light on each collar, so as to allow others (say, drivers at night/during twilight, in an unlit campground) to see that something is there, and maybe not hitting that something (us, and our little dogs) would be nice.
And so (try not to get ahead of me, here…), TDW observed that the beacons appeared particularly dim, and therefore wondered if replacing the BATTERIES might be smart.
Two each, CR 2016, to be specific.
Another insight was that the thermometers in the household are, themselves, battery powered. They, as well, had gone ever so long without examination.
That examination revealed unresponsive thermometers. (we have had a run of afebrile good luck) Investigation revealed that of the three we possess, two take LR 41 batteries (which I had in stock) and one took #384 (not in inventory: presently on the way). Two thoughts strike me from this: commonality of logistics is a good thing (make sure all my thermometers take the same batteries, and have those batteries on hand), and ensuring that my battery powered thermometers are on my BATTERY checklist, might be smarter than that which I have been (not) doing.
Tales of another reality. Reminiscences of my time in the sick people business, and random thoughts otherwise clinging to my attention, like a baby monkey on a weimaraner.
Tales of another reality. Reminiscences of my time in the sick people business, and random thoughts otherwise clinging to my attention, like a baby monkey on a weimaraner.
Tales of another reality. Reminiscences of my time in the sick people business, and random thoughts otherwise clinging to my attention, like a baby monkey on a weimaraner.
Tales of another reality. Reminiscences of my time in the sick people business, and random thoughts otherwise clinging to my attention, like a baby monkey on a weimaraner.
Musings of A Stretcher Ape 