Friday, August 19, 2005
Google Earth the Weather!
I love when cool things happen. Even more so when they deal with maps. Even MORE so when technology is involed!
Slashdot reports that the National Weather Service Forecast Office is offering XML/RSS feeds for alerts, observations, and forecasts.
And they further report that the Tulsa, OK office is offering a Google Earth layer for temperature (today up to 5 days out).
Very, very cool.
Slashdot reports that the National Weather Service Forecast Office is offering XML/RSS feeds for alerts, observations, and forecasts.
And they further report that the Tulsa, OK office is offering a Google Earth layer for temperature (today up to 5 days out).
Very, very cool.
Sunday, August 14, 2005
A visit to the Emergency Room
A few weeks ago I had to go to the Emergency Room. A mildly sore throat at lunch was an incredible pain at 11:30 that night. I was unable to speak and unable to swallow. I was just short of freaking out. So off to the ER I go with Susan and there I meet people. Or, to be more precise, I meet them.
I can't help but listen to things around me. I regularly invade the privacy of people talking amongst themselves. I have friends that have practiced NOT listening to conversations in restaurants and elevators but I don't have (and don't want) that skill. I listen, I hear.
So we are at the ER for three hours or so and other patients come in and out of our sphere.
There was a very poor family that had avoided going to the doctor when one of the kids had an abscess. They looked like they had been living on fast food and hope; poor, but overweight. I heard them whispering to each other how they were going to answer any questions that the admin people might ask, mostly to avoid saying that they didn't have the money to pay for the visit.
The family included a boy about six or seven. He was tired and hungry and dirty and his mother was frustrated with him when he complained about being tired and hungry.
There was a teen girl in the room next to us. She was with her mother and having female related problems. It turned out that they were the kind of problems that she got from her male partner though. She and her mom were having to make some radical adjustments to what they thought of themselves and each other. I think that they left knowing the other loved them more than they knew. But their lives and views of each other were changed forever.
A guy came in with his girlfriend. She was in a wheelchair (secured) and obviously well beyond wasted. He appeared to know the doctor, they had the repartee' of regulars. She had OD's again and was going back to rehab in the morning. He was already making arrangements and spoke like he had done it before. He looked extraordinarily tired but looked at her with love.
As we were doing our exit paperwork another family came in. An older woman, her middle aged daughter, and the daughter's husband. They met the doctor around the corner near the ambulance bay. The older woman's husband and the younger daughter's father hadn't made it to the hospital alive. The family started to talk to the doctor about a DNR but it was too late. A nurse brought the older woman a chair. No one seemed very surprised, there weren't many tears. I'm guessing they had been shed for a while in the recent past. The family sat in quiet sadness and maybe some guilty relief.
Then we were done and went home. As we were leaving we saw the little boy was hanging out in the lobby with a bunch of teens that had come in with a skateboard snapped in half. His mom wasn't around.
Me, I got a steroid shot and some painkiller. The doctor thought it might be viral but there was nothing to be done about it. I was better two days later.
I wrote a while back what makes a good day. Here's another example of how good my life is even when things seem to be going poorly. I can provide for my family. They are all healthy. My parents are around and my kids get to see them often. My older girls were home watching the younger ones and worrying about me. Susan was by my side in case I needed anything.
Sometimes people forget what a good day is. Sometimes the bad days turn out not to be so bad when put into a different perspective.
I can't help but listen to things around me. I regularly invade the privacy of people talking amongst themselves. I have friends that have practiced NOT listening to conversations in restaurants and elevators but I don't have (and don't want) that skill. I listen, I hear.
So we are at the ER for three hours or so and other patients come in and out of our sphere.
There was a very poor family that had avoided going to the doctor when one of the kids had an abscess. They looked like they had been living on fast food and hope; poor, but overweight. I heard them whispering to each other how they were going to answer any questions that the admin people might ask, mostly to avoid saying that they didn't have the money to pay for the visit.
The family included a boy about six or seven. He was tired and hungry and dirty and his mother was frustrated with him when he complained about being tired and hungry.
There was a teen girl in the room next to us. She was with her mother and having female related problems. It turned out that they were the kind of problems that she got from her male partner though. She and her mom were having to make some radical adjustments to what they thought of themselves and each other. I think that they left knowing the other loved them more than they knew. But their lives and views of each other were changed forever.
A guy came in with his girlfriend. She was in a wheelchair (secured) and obviously well beyond wasted. He appeared to know the doctor, they had the repartee' of regulars. She had OD's again and was going back to rehab in the morning. He was already making arrangements and spoke like he had done it before. He looked extraordinarily tired but looked at her with love.
As we were doing our exit paperwork another family came in. An older woman, her middle aged daughter, and the daughter's husband. They met the doctor around the corner near the ambulance bay. The older woman's husband and the younger daughter's father hadn't made it to the hospital alive. The family started to talk to the doctor about a DNR but it was too late. A nurse brought the older woman a chair. No one seemed very surprised, there weren't many tears. I'm guessing they had been shed for a while in the recent past. The family sat in quiet sadness and maybe some guilty relief.
Then we were done and went home. As we were leaving we saw the little boy was hanging out in the lobby with a bunch of teens that had come in with a skateboard snapped in half. His mom wasn't around.
Me, I got a steroid shot and some painkiller. The doctor thought it might be viral but there was nothing to be done about it. I was better two days later.
I wrote a while back what makes a good day. Here's another example of how good my life is even when things seem to be going poorly. I can provide for my family. They are all healthy. My parents are around and my kids get to see them often. My older girls were home watching the younger ones and worrying about me. Susan was by my side in case I needed anything.
Sometimes people forget what a good day is. Sometimes the bad days turn out not to be so bad when put into a different perspective.
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