An interesting couple of days...

The Chinese have a curse;  "May you live in interesting times."

Thus; I had a CT scan a few weeks back and my specialist said,
"You have a complicated cyst of the left kidney and you need a CT guided biopsy".

Um, okay.   I tried to schedule that at CVH but there was a problem getting the biopsy to a lab soon enough.  So I scheduled with Mercy Medical in Roseburg.  That happened this morning.  My impression was that if it was like most x-rays, I would be easy in and out.   Um, not so fast, young lady!

Went in fasting, husband very kindly drove and shepherded me from place to place.  Got all signed in and informed.  I got to lie face down for about 45 minutes while I was numbed up with Lidocaine (It was supposed to burn but I must be immune).  They took three core samples from the right kidney, and was trundled off to Day Surgery for two hours.  I had thought that my left kidney would be biopsied but no, they do not routinely biopsy cysts, more interested in the kidney itself.  AND I had to be in postop for TWO HOURS....to make sure that I am not bleeding because the kidney is ultra vascular.  Good news, I took a 45 minute nap between periodic vital checks.  Was finally dismissed and we went to lunch at Elmer's. (Dutch Baby!!) Discharge orders include bed rest 24 hours, next 24 hours take it easy.  Um I can do that, no one does take it easy better than moi. We will go trotting back on 31st for visit with Dr. K for diagnosis and what ever happens next.  So since they were not looking for CA they are looking at kidney failure.  Hopefully getting BP under control will stave off that.

Also, this week we received the new smart phone from Tracfone and are still getting acquainted,  neither of us want to read the manual so texting, posting pictures, accessing email and other apps are to come in the future.  The 21st Century is so strange. We received a picture of Cica while in Roseburg and had to get home before we could FIND THE TEXT MESSAGE and figure out how to REPLY.  I hate being stupid.  We also need an App for a calculator, if it is built in we haven't found it.  AND husband took a very unattractive picture of me on the gurney, and thankfully I haven't figured out how to send pictures to my computer and have plenty of time to MAKE IT DISAPPEAR.  

Bye for now, I will keep you posted.

Some Monday thinking......maybe more fantasizing.

I have some ideas for the renewal of downtown Coquille.

Years ago, I and Mom and a couple of sisters drove back to Missouri to a Cousins Reunion. On the way there or back we encountered a smallish town known for Victorian Lady houses and we visited downtown. I was astounded to see an outlet mall occupying most of the vacant store fronts. It was fabulous! I thought it was a terrific idea and wondered if many other failing downtown centers had tried this.

I think with a few good volunteers that something similar could be done here. First of all not everything outlet would fit particularly if there is already a similar business. We have four or five eateries in the downtown area, so any others would not be a good idea, but we don't have a book store, a shoe store, a stationery store, small appliance repair, no place to purchase a good bra, no fabric store, no music store, no jewelry store, no car dealership, no butcher shop, no open 24 hours place at all. Now a lot of old timers from Coquille remember when those things did exist, so lets give the 60's a call and get the eclectic movement going.

Eventually when traffic picks up and it will, need to expand car parking into other spaces, get transportation buses going from parking to down town, enclose downtown so the lovely Southern Oregon liquid sunshine does not interfere with all the delightful commerce.

I propose fund raising to begin with the aim of salting away investment funds and some charitable options. A program for homeless; they pick up trash, turn it in at the recycling center, get a chit to be exchanged for any goods and services downtown; food, clothes, housing. Local health care entities would be provided matching funds for anything spent on the low income and/or homeless; counseling, treatment, etc.

This effort should be all inclusive culturally, there should be a huge celebration for Cindy De Mayo, All Saints Day, Earth Day, Christmas, Passover, Kwanza, Gay Pride, All Benevolent Organizations, Renaissance Faire, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, you name we will host/celebrate it.

Should give some consideration to the future of the Coquille Carousel project. All those lovely horses and such are waiting for construction, assembly and a home. Since the general theme of Coquille has been Gay Nineties how about a good old fashioned tasteful theme park? I envision a Ferris Wheel, Kids rides etc. Maybe space for a visiting Circus. Oh yeah, Circ du Coquille. Phew!!

I believe that a central quasi employment agency for DownTown Coquille would have jobs for all of the kiosks and businesses that get involved. Veterans and local highschoolers would get preferential hire and the wages should be good enough to keep our people fed, housed and clothed. I also propose that the DTC provide tax free status as well as matching funds for any investment made by various businesses.

Townwide transportation should be encouraged with green buses at very low cost, free for seniors and run at will. If a senior is standing anywhere the bus will stop and pick them up. Barring that, how about taxi service subsidized by DTC?

Any and all religious organizations may participate as they wish. I would not favor creation of a megachurch simply due to limited space. Having said that worship could be accommodated in smaller spaces.

There should be a major effort to support local sourcing and buying for as many products as possible, if you milk a cow in Coos County then plan on selling the milk in Coos County it will still taste just as good same goes for plants and veggies.

Lets give a little thought to the future. If your goods and products come by way of long haul truckers, the future may give way to circular trucking. For instance if that doo hickey you purchased on E-Bay is making it's way to your home by truck, the truck company may find itself limited by gasoline, repair costs and truckers. I propose that the big haulers divide up the whole country into circles of oh say 200 miles in diameter. When the trucks reach the edge of the diameter they swap loads with another truck at the next circle. I think somebody is going to save some cash.

And last but not least, please let my Power Ball numbers hit to finance this monster. A person could get the giggles.

Dreams

Dreamed last night of a landscape where in I was trying to get to my room.  I could not find my room and I walked upstairs, downstairs, outside and found a kind of wilderness with some construction and mud.  

Eventually I found a hotel like establishment and told someone that I was staying in so-and-so's old room and I went there and changed clothes to go to dinner.

I went to the dining room hoping for a table for one with a view.  But no, I was seated at a large L-shaped table far from a view actually looked like a special chef's table.  I was seated near a couple. The woman was dressed in a very colorful dress.  We began speaking.  I complemented the woman on her dress and she mine.  I then looked down and was confounded to see that I was wearing what appeared to be large square of material casually tied together at the top like a bath towel.  I actually said, "I didn't have enough material, only three yards, so I didn't cut it."

That strangely enough was the end of the dream.  Now I have been watching Project Runway Under the Gunn so that may have had something to do with it.  My dream, as usual, was very colorful and I never hear sound before so talking was a new bit. 

Dream site says fabric is symbol for creativity.  Um really, then uncut fabric must represent unfilled creativity, yah?  'fraid so.

The Voice UK 2014 Episode 3

I tried loading The Voice UK 2014 episode 3 but you may have to find it yourself.  Having said that, slap on yer best head phones and prepare to be blown away by the singers.  

It was team Tom and team Kylie, they have each chosen seven singers who assemble on stage and sing their songs one by one.  Tom and Kylie then choose 3 singers to go onto semi-finals.

It was tough.  The absolute best was one of Tim's singers,  a lady who opened for other acts in her youth, retired kind of and got back into the business.  She sang "Walk On By" and nearly everyone wept.   One young lady sang, "Three Little Birds" By Bob Marley? I have never heard the original but her rendition was outstanding.
One of the men sang a very emotional song and he had the crowd weeping in their hankies.  

I am looking forward to The Voice America 2014 next week, they will start the knock out portion of the contest and I find that my lovely television does not possess quite the sound that I want so I will probably listen to a re-run on my computer.  

If I were the producer for each of these shows I would bring them ALL back for a choir performance.   That would be awesome.

Deja vu or whut?

Oh, dear.   I was reading a perfectly ordinary sci/fi space opera the other day and something went "BLINK!" in my brain.  This paragraph struck me as awfully familiar.  The story is set in a universe where gorgeous alien male triplets seek a single woman who makes them a four-some. Um and they are shapeshifters of course. Yeah, yeah, plot done to death.  However, the conversation is amongst a set of triplets who in their capacity as security are searching for a missing female.  As they examine this certain space station, they notice that an order for repair of cargo bay 6 door has been logged by a new maintenance man and the order has been filled out incorrectly.

As they investigate this repair, the bay door is open, a transport is backed up into it awaiting delivery.  Simultaneously the female is trapped inside a bag inside a locked box, dark, stuffy.  She panics until she remembers her father telling her to "Use your head". She sends out a mental call for help.  One of the triplets hears her and she is rescued in the nick of time.  This is all well and good, however, I am pretty darn sure I have read this almost exact same scenario in a different book or story.  Dang!  My brain either short circuited or two different authors wrote the same scene.  Plagiarism, coincident? I do not know but the details are haunting me. 

'Cause the other story I remember is set in a shape shifter universe where single men are looking for their mate and these men are all dragon shifters, they all have golden symbiosese and are also warriors.  I have searched these books and cannot find the scene and am cudgeling the gray cells trying to remember another author who writes in a similar vein.

Also, I am thinking that maybe an editor or a fun scifi convention panel played their version of "here is a story idea, all of you writers make a story.   Submit within 48 hours." kind of thing.  Otherwise the  P word comes into contention; plagiarism...and we don't want that.

However, in the interest of full disclosure, I must mention that I have  read a book called "Love In The Time of Cholera" as a literature class assignment.  The object being to do a book report.  In the course of my reading I stumbled over a paragraph about 3/4 of the way through the book that sounded eerily familiar.   It was a description of sleeping on a rickety passenger boat; how hot it was and uncomfortable including sounds and smells.  I completed the book and then started over very carefully looking for instances of this same description.  Eventually I found the original paragraph, identical for about 30 or 40 words.  Jeez, that was weird.  In both places the paragraph made perfect sense and the story proceeded from there.  I wonder if the author was snickering to himself as he wrote this Easter Egg into the story.  I also wonder if there are other literary Easter Eggs lying about in books meant to give the reader a "hey what was that" feeling as they read? Has anyone out there in the vast web found something similar?  I would love to know.

Either that or early senescence has raised it's ugly head.  Gee, think of all the new books I get to read!!

Must go Google literary Easter Eggs.