Evening doodle on the Tablet

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.

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.

Sarah and Minny: Looking back

I can't find any digital pictures of Sarah or Michelle's newborn or kindergaten pictures to match the one of Gwen. But here they are as early as I can get. Sarah is off to University of North Texas in Denton (near Dallas) and Michelle is up to 11th grade.

Looking back as school starts

As we get ready for Kindergarten it seems like a good time to look back.
Here is Gwendolyn relaxing in what has to be early February, 2000. Which makes her about a month old.

[sorry for the low image quality, cheap webcam and low-light conditions]

Birthday list 2005

So the day is coming up and I thought I would post the list (or links to lists).

I can't say enough good things about Stardock products. So my list starts with a renewal to my Object Desktop subscription.
They also have a gaming division that uses a token system; I'd like some tokens. Take a look at TotalGaming.net.

I have a wish list at Amazon and ThinkGeek. Lots of Books, magazines, toys, clothes, movies there.

I'm not asking, I'm just listing.

Maybe Gas Prices Aren't Quite so Bad

I don't know the souce so I'm a little leary . . .but not enough not to post the chart.

It sure would be nice to have an alternate choice of fuel. But don't get me started on "hybrid" vehicles . . . that's not alternate fuel, that's just NIMBY.

Kindergarten begins

We went to the "Meet-the-teacher" event last night at the elementary school that our older kids went to.

We've been away for six years but a lot of the same faces were there. It was another piece of the community that makesthis place home.

I was bored during the introductions so I sketched out the teacher that Gwendolyn will have (along with Elmer Eagle and a bit of flag hanging on the wall).

Gwendolyn loves me more than . .

As I tuck Gwendolyn in tonight she asks for one more thing.

I'm ready to get upset with her. Miriam's crying, we've done books, and teeth and hugs and prayers and stories and every other thing a five-year-old can think of to stay up.

But I'm a good dad. I ask her "What NOW Gwen?"

She says:

"I love you Dad.
I love you more than my room and my house.
I love you more than my blankie.
I love you more than any thing.
And I love Mommy the same.
Can you tell her?"

"Of course I can Gwendolyn."

What else can I do?

Wicked cool mapping

The beta appears to be closed but for those of you who were lucky enough to grab a copy, Google Earth is amazing.

Take google maps, put high resoultion satalite imagry on it and then put all that on a globe.

Then let the user pan, rotate, and zoom around it. Let the driving directions fly over the globe showing landmarks or gas stations or whatever along the way. Maybe render in 3-D mountains and magor American cities.

I love this! I'm think now of getting an adapter for the Tablet in the car. It's THAT cool.

Could a hotel be built on the land owned by Supreme Court Justice David H. Souter?

I have been quiet about the decision of the Supreme court regarding eminent domain while I try to gather the will to be surprised and outraged instead of just outraged. The Supremes are breaking my heart on this issue.

But how can you not share this?

Hotel Liberty

DrunkenBlog: Get your Cow on (not what you think)

My kids have mixed feelings about being getting the kind of press that comes from being featured at DrunkenBlog: Get your Cow on (not what you think).

I only wish that some of my better (in my opinion) post were more recent. I've been pretty busy and lazy the last little bit.

Allow me to point out a few of my favorites:

• Magic Water
• Today is a good Day
• Freedom FROM Religion

The Riots of the Faithful - Orson Scott Card

Orson Scott Card writes an essay on where Newsweek went wrong and what we need to do in the face of of such behavior.

World Watch - May 15, 2005 - The Riots of the Faithful - The Ornery American:

"So Newsweek prints an uncorroborated allegation about American interrogators flushing Qurans down the toilet in order to get fanatical Muslim prisoners to talk, and there's rioting and death all over the Muslim world.
There are several lessons to be learned from this incident, some trivial, some quite important. "

Read more . . .:

Best Friends at the YMCA Spash pool. Gwendolyn and Miriam.

Grocery Store Wars

I should search out as many parodies as I can . . .but that's too much like work. Instead I'll just link them as I find them.

The following piece is brought to you by the Organic Trade Association

Link

Long, but funny

"Sexy" Cheerleading bill won't see the light

A while back I introduced you to HB-146. A bill that passed the Texas House to limit sexy moves in public schools. It came down to a "We'll know it when we see it and then we'll stop it" kind of thing.

The Senate has a little more sense I guess.

"We have some very important work to do in the next two weeks, and that's
not one of them," Republican state Sen. Florence Shapiro, who chairs the education committee, said Friday.

The fact is that parents can put a stop to bad behavior in a number of ways. But you'll have to spend time with your child and attend a rehearsal or two

1. Tell the sponsor you don't like the move.
2. Tell the other parents that you think the moves are inappropriate for your child's age.
   You may become unpopular with tea parents that don't care or don't want to stifle their child's creativity.
3. Tell your child they are not allowed to be part of the group.
   They may hate you again.

Being a parent that cares is not easy. I've got four daughters, ages 18, 16, five, and two. And there are lots of days when it would be so much easier to give in and let bad behavior go.

I want my children to be better people than me. So I make hard choices hoping they will learn from them.

Border Patrol told to stand down in Arizona -- The Washington Times

Amazing. Simply amazing.
Just one more example of the sham called homeland security.

Because the Militiamen did so well, the border patrol has been told not to patrol the same area so the civilian project does not appear successful.