The Fourth Plinth webstream

I saw on the Flickr blog a post about the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square. The plinth is usualy reserved for statues, but is currently empty. So there is a project where, for one hour, 24 hours a day, for the next 100 days, a person will be standing in place of the statue. Sort of live art. There's a live webstream so you can see what's going on at any time. Apparently they had 22,419 applicants for the 2400 available spots. Poor guy right now is standing in the rain, but his hour is just about up...

Weird somber feeling

I found out this morning that one of my patients died of a heart attack yesterday. He was 54 and lived alone. He had an appointment yesterday, and had never missed an appointment until then. We had left a message checking in. A friend, who he referred to us as a patient, was in this morning and told us the news. It's left me with a weird somber feeling today. He was a very kind man, very genuine and thoughtful. A few weeks back he had brought me a plant -- a pregnant onion -- that we had discussed one day. He had made such a turn-around in his care, going from crutches or a cane and barely able to walk, to walking briskly and returning to work. It's just sad.

It blooms!

Three years ago, we yanked out all the nondescript, random plants the builder had put in front of our house, and we replaced them with flowering, lively plants. Two of those plants are crinum lilies. And for the past three years they have grown huge in the front flower beds, but have not bloomed. This year we bought another one from a plant sale. This one I presume is older than ours, and it is blooming. This gives me hope that the others will bloom one day. The crapper of it all is that Jeni is up in Ohio with her dad (where she should be, doing what she should be doing) and is missing the blooms. So I took pictures...


Look at all these blooms ready to burst.




It really is a dramatic flower. I'm hoping it will still be blooming when Jeni gets home. If not, at least there's something to look forward to next year.

Don is home

I'm very happy to be able to post that Don left the hospital and is home. This is a good step. He's certainly doing better, although he is still having a good bit of pain (after all, they did cut his chest open). Jackie is up in Ohio to help Jeni out this weekend.

Book recommendation, and a brief rant

Just so I don't lose my note, a patient said Jeni should read Jen Lancaster.

Also, while I'm making brief notes, I just need to get this off my chest: "worser" is not a word. It's "worse". You can't get more worse than worse and make it worser. It doesn't work that way.

Example:
Incorrect: My low back pain is worser than yesterday.
Correct: My low back pain is worse than yersterday.

Thank you.

Volcano eruption viewed from space

The astronauts aboard the International Space Station captured a picture of a volcano erupting. It is pretty amazing. This link came from the Space Weather website.

Don update

Don is out of the ICU and in a room, and Jeni should be staying until Wednesday next week, if plans hold true. He is dealing with some pancreatitis right now, which is just aggravating on top of everything else. Hopefully they'll get all that under control so he can head home and recover away from the hospital.

Don in the hospital

Well, since Jeni's birthday things have been a little wild. Jeni's dad had to have quadruple bypass surgery on Jeni's birthday, so we rushed up to Toledo, Ohio the next day to be there. He was in the ICU for six days, and finally moved into a step-down room today. He had some blood pressure, blood clot and kidney issues that needed to be resolved before he could be moved from the ICU. Chris flew up Wednesday night, so he was with us from Thursday to Saturday night, but he had to fly back home Sunday morning. I drove home Sunday -- 11 hours, most of it on I-77. I looked at a map and saw that I drove all but 17 miles of I-77 in Ohio and 21 miles of I-77 in South Carolina.

Jeni is staying up in Ohio to help with Don. Plans are just day-by-day right now. Please keep Don in your thoughts and prayers as he recovers, and Jeni and Chris too.