What I watched: Neil Young: Heart of Gold. This was a documentary of a performance at the Ryman Auditorium to launch his then-new album “Prairie Wind.” It was well-produced and performed, and I even got to see an old friend of mine perform, who is no longer with us.
What I read: Escape from Hell by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. This is the sequel to The Inferno, and—like its predecessor—is excellent. Essentially, the premise of this story is (according to the authors), Dante meets Vatican II. It’s much more interesting and well-written than the premise suggests. I highly recommend.
What I listened to: My trek through some of the best engineered albums of all time has also brought me somewhere that I typically avoid like the plague: movie scores. I’m not a fan, at all, of these types of albums, mostly because scores are so specifically composed to function within the context of something happening on a screen that on their own they just seem rambling and without any direction of their own. However, the score to the movie Charade—composed by Henry Mancini—not only sounds incredible, but stands quite well on its own. Not for nothing, but if you haven’t seen the film I recommend that, too.
Mrs. Butcher and I finally got to try out the dog mushing scooter with Butcher Dog. Butcher Dog took to it easily enough and was better at it when we did it a 2nd time later in the day. It also had the desired effect:
She was wiped out for the rest of the day. A tired dog is a well-behaved dog.
So, Deadsplinterites, to what are you watching, reading or listening? Planning any outings for the weekend, or (at least for the US contingent) are you just trying to recover from the gluttony of two days prior? Tell us all about it.
I’m shipping you the boys for training…
I liked Charade even if silly. Oddly enough, it is public domain so watching it on various streaming sites isn’t going to suffer the wrath of copyright lawyers.
Some movies are public domain for a good reason (Saturn 3 for example) because they’re horrible crap. Others because the lawyers were incompetent.
Trying to watch Cowboy Beebop, but ended up watching Seinfeld instead. I like the later seasons more than the early ones.
Also watching Brandon Tenold’s Cult Movie Reviews on Youtube. He loves Kaiju movies and awful movies from the 60s-90s so it is an entertaining waste of 20 or so minutes.
i ran out of cowboy bepop to watch 🙁
it started out awesome but sorta lost its sparkle as it went for me…i have some concern for season 2 as ed makes me punchy….which is impressive as he had about 2 seconds of screen time
that said there better be a season 2..coz this story isnt finished…. and they better have heavy metal queen or im suing
also currently rewatching one of the most fan servicy animes in the history of ever
its a pretty fun one if gratuitous boobage and panty shots dont bother you
and listening to seeker
which is oddly relaxing to me
now listening to heilung
which is hypnotic as fuck
i love it!
if i ever figure out how to sit still…this will be my meditation music
Watching Trailer Park Boys on myo’s recommendation. I love this show, and it keeps getting better and better. I’m glad nobody in the US has tried to remake it because they’d no doubt screw it up. But, it can’t understand why they haven’t because it’s so good.
Listening to the apparently never ending sound of construction in my house. I’ve reached the acceptance level of the stages dealing with contractors.
Trailer Park Boys remade in the US would be a dark tragedy, a literal tragedy.
At least if I mention Samsquanch and Cheeseburger Walrus in my comments, someone outside of Canada will get the reference.
I have a free watch week on Comcast so I binged “We’re Here” on HBO (Max? I can’t keep up). I cried during every episode. It’s 3 drag queens, Bob The Drag Queen, Eureka O’Hara, & Shangela. They roll into small towns in America in full drag as the opening. Then each queen has a person or people they make over for a drag show later in the week. There’s usually one queer person and one token straight guy. The stories of the people involved get emotional, lots of coming out to parents, parents apologizing to kids for bad reactions, manly men getting in touch with their femme side (and living). It’s really cool.
I got GOOD news today–a second Negative (and I’m feeling better!)
The mild bit of symptoms I was having on Thanksgiving are GONE, and so far my Auntie has tested Negative, too.
She, Dad, and I ALL had the Pfizer shots, Auntie has gotten all 3, Dad & I have both had 2… but she and I are wondering if it was maybe the hit to Dad’s system with all those other things (High Eosinophil count–so his body was attacking *something,* LOW Hemoglobin count, and low & funky-sized red cells, and he’s been having some bleeding internally *somewhere*), that was the reason Dad has the asymptomatic Positive case.
I’m keeping my fingers crossed, that my Auntie STAYS negative!! Her grandson (my Cousin’s little boy) just got on the list for a Liver Transplant last month, soooo they’ve been trying to keep all the grownups around him fully vaccinated, safe, and “bubbled” as much as possible–so that when the call finally comes (OR if we could get lucky & find a match from a living donor!💝), the little dude can get that new, healthy liver in him right away💖
Other than ^^^that stuff, and the bazillion*** phone calls a day I’ve been making, it’s getting smoother, now that Dad has doctors & medical folks working to really find out what’s happening.
The difference in care has been HUGE, and the… frankly, the intellectual curiosity of the doctors & staff at the hospital wherever at is light years different from the “Well, this id just Dementia and Dementia is hard…” conversations I’ve had with Dad’s primary care dr…
I know that Dad likes (and blindly trusts!!!) his old MD, and has been seeing him for 48+ years…
But if I had listened to that MD, and NOT my gut, after I read Dad’s lab results??? Dad could have VERY likely died, because his blood was getting SO out of whack, because whenever I ASKED HIM about things popping in Dad’s lab results, ^^^that MD kept saying, “Oh, I’m not worried, these are clinically insignificant results.”😳🤯😱
At this point, I don’t trust that MD, or his judgment… I wouldn’t trust his ability to take care of a Goldfish, let alone me Dad…
And if we’re staring down Dementia (or, frankly, Cancer!🙃), I WANT a medical team around Dad who are curious, who are up-to-date on the current best practices, and most importantly, I want Dad surrounded by a medical team who are willing to look at an older patient with multiple large and complicated medical needs, and understand that “this patient might just be having a WHOLE bunch of *different, severe, AND UNRELATED* things happening at the same time!”
YES, Dad has heart disease(CAD), stage 2-3 Kidney Disease, some sort of Dementia (dunno if it’s short-term or permanent, tbh!), and Covid, *and* he also has something really fucking STRANGE happening with his blood right now…
I expect that if *I* (a non-doctor!) can hold an understanding of all of those things in my head *at the same time,* that the MD’s and/or primary-care point person should be able to do the same, when they have all his medical records in front of them.😒😡🤬🤬🤬
And the difference in the care that dad received in his HOME clinic, to even the checkup that we got from the “Second Opinion” Nurse Practitioner, was literally night & day.
The second opinion clinic’s exam was SO much more thorough, they ASKED about head injuries & ordered imaging (Dad hadn’t BEEN to see his Primary care MD for an exam in over a year!!!), and their referrals for follow-up were a 180° difference from his home clinic’s assumption (without followups!) of Dementia.
I’m just so absolutely disgusted right now, with the way his long-time MD *assumed* what was wrong with dad. And just ANGRY & hurt, on Dad’s behalf, that this man Dad has trusted to do right by him & keep him SAFE, just kept telling me “This is just Dementia, and it’s hard, but you’ll get through it–move him into Assisted living, he’ll be fine.”
If I HAD followed that damnably dumb advice–looking at his labs and what they DID this week–Dad might’ve been fucking DEAD by next week… if he wouldn’t have been dead this week, before that second infusion *was* supposed to happen.
Because they never did any recommendations or orders for Labs & blood draws, after that one appointment on the 8th… just the referral for the covid-delayed Colonoscopy which was supposed to happen on the 24th, and the Iron/sucrose infusions on the 12th & 26th…
That was it, and that was all.
We could have lost him.
I will never forget that.
And I won’t entrust the care of my father to that clinic ANY more.
I live 2 hours from here. And frankly, as the years go on, dad will only get worse, because he has chronic diseases & illnesses. I need to know he’s got a good medical team, plain & simple. And his old MD is no longer trustworthy to be up to handling Dad’s complexity.
***Okay, really just 30-40-ish a day…
Buuuuut as both an introvert AND Gen-X’er who doesn’t typically make more than a call or two a week, I am EXHAUSTED by all the calls I’m making/taking, and ZOMFG, is it ever eating up most of my days!!!🤪🙃😱🥴
It’s a good thing you are advocating for your father. Is it possible that some of his cognitive issues could be Covid related? A friend of mine thought her father was developing dementia and it turned out to be Covid instead. Fingers crossed for your cousin’s child, staying virus-free, and receiving a transplant soon.
Thanks Hannibal!
I’m not suuuure on the dementia thing, tbh? Dad’s Covid case is CURRENT, so I’m about 99% sure the dementia came first, and that we most likely had exposure to someone/ something at either dad’s infusion on the 12th (I remember a couple staff at that hospital *not* always washing their hands, when they came into the room to help him to the bathroom, and they used a blower-blanket (the heated kind) to keep patients warm there, rather than real blankets, because “it helps us to cut down on the linens we need)… annnnd I know (because I SAW it!!!) that the person at the check-in desk of the ER there *wasn’t* sanitizing the customer-side items in between patients who were checking in…. plus Dad took his mask off to eat, then lost it before we left, and when we were walking to the car, he held the handrails allllll the way there… so there were PLENTY of opportunities for him to pick it up.
And I’m pretty sure I forgot to have him wash his hands *right away* when we got home, too!!!🙃
When my dad had CoVID he freaked out because he got foggy brain and couldn’t think anymore.
I’m still not happy with mom for not listening to my sister and staying away from her when she got CoVID (which is how mom got it and then my dad), but she’s going batty too.
That fog thing was one of the multiple reasons I’ve been worried about getting it, too!
I’ve had a co-worker who was in her 20’s, who caught it that first Spring, and she STILL said had a decent amount of fuzziness that next school year(last year). It’s taken her until *this year* to feel back to her regular self, thought-wise.
And you have ALL my empathy, with the frustration, Manchu! I’m still feeling some feelings (and frustration!!!) at the number of folks I know up here who I wouldn’t have thought were THAT stupid, but who I apparently need to do some re-assessing of, common-sense/ intelligence-wise.🙃
I watched Black and Missing on HBOMax this week. 4 part documentary series about how institutional and systemic racism means that people of color don’t get the same coverage or concern from law enforcement when people are missing.
Not really new information for me, but very well covered.
Interesting part for me was John Walsh (America’s Most Wanted, etc) was interviewed for parts in 2 episodes. I always thought based on him being an older white man who was very *law and order* that he was also probably racist and conservative, and fuck me, I was very much surprised about how blunt he was a few times in this. Pleasantly surprised, to be honest.