Thanksgiving

This will not be as artfully done as Robert Brague's Thanksgiving Day post, but I have something to share.

First, check out the birds in my kitchen this morning:



Dorothy is crafty, not in the sly way, but in the arty way. She goes to great lengths to make my place more enjoyable, and for that, I'm thankful.

I'm also thankful for this recipe for stuffing (or dressing, if you prefer). It's too late for you to try this for Thanksgiving, but Christmas is right around the corner. I think this came from my paternal grandmother, and where she got it, I don't know. But it's still the best I've ever had. Don't let the olives scare you, this is really good.

2 loaves of white bread, toasted and torn into small pieces
One medium to large yellow onion, chopped
6 stalks of celery, chopped
6 ounce jar of salad olives, including juice
Sage (a little)
Parsley (a lot)
3 eggs (beat with warm water)
Salt & pepper
Chicken bouillon (a cup or so)

Mix this all together, and use the bouillon as needed to give it the right consistency. "You want it moist," as my mother says. There is enough here to stuff a large bird, and whatever is left, put in a glass (Corning Ware) dish, covered, and heat at 325 for about an hour.

Skype

I recently discovered a great internet application called Skype.

My daughter Sonja is very close to her due date. I have some foreign travel coming up, and I fear that I'll be out of town when little Beatrice arrives. So I was trying to figure out a way to stay in touch while away. My other daughter Natalie suggested Skype, and I'm glad she did.

The idea is that you can make calls to anyone in the world at no cost. The limitation is that both people must have Skype, and both must be on the computer. (Skype also has a computer-to-phone service, which costs $2.95 per month, but for my purpose, I don't need it.) You need a microphone of some sort, and many computers have them built-in. If you don't have one, Skype sells a low-cost digital headset that works like a charm.

After I loaded Skype, I had to find someone else who had it in order to test it out. The search function on Skype is intuitive. I searched for a friend of mine in England, and it turns out he had an account. I called, he answered, and the sound quality was so good that it seemed like he was in the same room.

Sonja and Ash have a webcam, and yesterday we tested it, and wonder of wonders, it was almost like they were sitting across the table from me. So if Beatrice arrives while I'm gone, I'll be able to see and talk to the proud new parents and the baby. We also tried a conference call with Natalie, and it too worked very well.

The website is skype.com, the download is free, and once you use it, you'll appreciate what a great application it is.

Out Stealing Horses

Probably the nicest part of having cataract surgery is regaining the ability to read.

The stack of books on my kitchen counter has been growing for quite some time. I would run across a book I wanted to read, but reading was so difficult that I just let the book sit on the stack. No more.

The first book I pulled from the stack was a shortish novel called Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson. Petterson is a Norwegian novelist who has several books to his credit, but this is the first one I've read. I intend to read others.

I won't get into a lot of details, lest you want to read the book yourself, but this is the story of Trond Sander. The novel takes place in Norway, from Trond's adolescent years (shortly after WW II) through his old age in the late 1990's. It's about his relationships with family and his friend, and it's about the boy becoming the man, but it's more about seminal events in his life, which were not recognized as such when they occurred.

This isn't a book review blog, but I think a comparison of Out Stealing Horses to one my favorite books is in order:




Judging by these criteria, Horses beats out Green Eggs and Ham by a score of 4 to 2. I highly recommend it.

Lighting Up the Night, Part 2

I guess I was wrong about Dennis' role in the latest shuttle launch. It wasn't a toilet repair mission, it was a toilet replacement mission.

Here's the toilet that went up on the November 14 launch to the International Space Station:



And Dennis was kind enough to remember me as he worked on this toilet. In his words: "Actually, we launched an entire new toilet system. Here's a couple photos of it. I signed the back of the toilet rack for you, Sam. It says, "For a good time, call 460-6446 (if you're a former Republican senator)."

















I leave the phone number as he wrote it, because I no longer have that number. So if anyone is inclined to call that number, please be kind. But it warms my heart to know that I am now a part of space history. More or less.

In addition to the toilet photos (of which he must be very proud), he sent some NASA photos of the launch that Liz witnessed. The photo I included on the last post was a stock NASA picture, but these are the real deal from the November 14 launch. No more words needed...what a sight.

Lighting Up the Night

My sister Liz sent a note to the clan yesterday. She lives on the gulf coast of Florida, and went outside the other night to see if she'd be able to see the space shuttle after its launch. Lo and behold -- she saw it, from hundreds of miles away. She said she could see it for about two minutes as it powered its way out of the atmosphere.

My friend Dennis is a contractor at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. He's been working on -- among other things -- fixing the toilet in the space station. (I'm sure there's a pun just waiting to happen here, but it's early in the morning and my brain isn't yet fully engaged.) He went to Cape Canaveral to watch the launch. I just can't imagine the sights and sounds of a night launch from that vantage point.

I've never seen a launch, but we were in Cocoa Beach a few years ago when the shuttle was returning from space. It was at night, and although we could not see the shuttle, we heard its characteristic double sonic boom as it approached.

We spend a lot of money on space travel, and I think it's well worth it. The moon landing required a great deal of technology that didn't exist, and we all benefit from the advances that were made during the race to the moon. Think of the technology that was required. I met a few astronauts while visiting Dennis in Houston a few years ago, and one of them piloted the shuttle during a docking with the space station. He said that the most exacting part of the mission was the docking itself. The shuttle was coming in from above the space station (relative to the earth), and he explained that it was eighth-grade geometry that dictated the approach. The space station was closer to the earth, hence it had a shorter orbit than the shuttle. "It's as simple as two pi r," he explained.

I was excited when we finally put a telescope into orbit. The Hubble Telescope has taken loads of pictures, in various wavelengths, and we've learned a lot about the cosmos as a result. But for all our learning, we still have to marvel at the sheer beauty of space. Here are a few examples, and there are many more at the Hubble website.

Antennae Galaxies - NGC 4039-4039



Orion Nebula - M42



Galaxy Cluster

Here and Now

Years ago, I read a book called Future Shock, which proposed that change would accelerate in the future. The future is here and now...

Perspective

Life is full of challenges. All of us have to manage work issues, home issues, kid issues, financial issues, and so on, und so weiter.

The key to maintaining your sanity is to keep everything in perspective. The world doesn't come to an end when the delivery guy throws your morning newspaper into the bushes, and the sun will come up tomorrow, even though you had to tell the waitress three times that you'd like some mustard.

I thought this picture from Mars was awesome. It is the first picture ever taken of the earth from another planet. It really does put things in perspective.

Election Day

My plan this morning was to be at my polling place when it opened (6:30 AM) so I could vote, go back home to eat some breakfast, then head out to the golf course for the traditional election day lobbyist golf outing. And I was up in plenty of time, but I sat around drinking coffee and reading the paper, and doing the crosswords, before hopping into the shower.

Hence, my procrastination got me to the polls at 6:35 AM -- not real late, but enough that it allowed about 90 people to get ahead of me in the line. I voted and left the polling place at 7:40 AM. I have a feeling that vote counting will not be completed until very late tonight -- turnout is going to be probably the highest it's ever been.

One notable thing about standing in line this morning -- I didn't hear a single person complain about the wait. You've gotta love democracy, even when things don't go your way.

New Vision

It's been health care week for Sam. I had cataract surgery on Monday, followed by a dual epidural for my back on Friday.

As a reminder, this is very close to what I saw through my right eye just a week ago...



We'll call that the "before" picture.

The epidurals were the second series I've had in the past three weeks. After two back surgeries, I didn't think I'd have any more problems, but I was wrong. These were sacroiliac, meaning that they were injected into the area where the sacrum meets the ilium. A rather painful experience, but I hope it will be worth it.

But back to the cataract surgery.

It is a very strange feeling to be lying on an operating table, awake, while the ophthalmologist is cutting into your eye. The preparation for the surgery involved a physical exam (after coughing up some cash for the medical co-pay), then going to a different floor of the building to check in (and cough up even more cash), then finally getting onto the operating table. The nurse explained that I'd be knocked out for a few minutes so they could numb my eye, after which I would be rolled into the operating room. She told me that I would be awake for the surgery, but I wouldn't feel anything or see anything. So they knocked me out, and when I woke up, my eye was numbed.

I don't really know how long the surgery lasted, but I could see some light through my right eye throughout. Once it was over, they flushed the eye and taped a plastic cup over it. The cup would be removed the next day.

The most painful thing about it was when they inserted the intravenous line prior to the surgery. The only after-effect I noted was some soreness in the eye, something like you would feel if your eye were scratched. I just took some Alleve for that, and it seemed to take care of it.

When the cup came off on Tuesday, I had some serious double vision. I was somewhat alarmed by that, but the nurse told me it was common. And it improved a lot during the rest of the day, and by Thursday, it was just about gone. But the other thing I noticed was how bright and colorful things looked. I didn't realize how flat colors had become, and I'm happy to say that I can see them much more vividly.

They gave me a cup and some tape to take home so I could wear it at night. One thing you don't want to do after this surgery is rub your eye. So that's what I did, except Thursday night I dozed off without wearing it, and I woke up in the middle of the night rubbing my eye. And my vision was noticeably worse on Friday, although I think it has straightened out since. I'll see the ophthalmologist tomorrow and tell him what I did, and with any luck he'll tell me I didn't do any permanent damage to it.

But now the moment you've been waiting for: the "after" picture: