Wow, shortdrum, that’s awesome! Yay on your sister! (And another yay on you!)
Great story, Bobbio! Sounds like you’re getting nicely settled into the new ambulance gig.
shortdrum - your sister is a wise woman. and yay to both of you.
Bobbio - re Stacy’s patient. EWWWWWWWWWWW; re you working your way up to crew chief, YAY!
I am awake. And tired.
Yesterday went better than I had expected. Once I explained why we couldn’t buy the usual groceries my grandma remembered (at least for a little while) and recognized that grandpa’s health was more important than a bottle of Ranch dressing. I bought things that I think they will like and we’ll just have to hope for the best. Thanks everyone for your kind words and especially Tugig whose words I read right as I needed to hear that exact thing.
And to my sister in arms, phoukaroo, many hugs to you and also good for you with the therapist. Boundaries are a hot top when I talk to mine, too.
Ok, gotta run. I hope everyone has a great Saturday!
Good Mornin’ Y’all! Up and caffienatin’. YAWN 'Tis 46 Amurrkin out with a predicted high of 59. A late Winter’s day in south Jawja. All the pine trees have these greenish-yellowish poofs on 'em. That means the pine pollen is about to fly. ICK!
BBBobbbio yay we have stories again! Gross, funny Bambilance stories!
Shortdrum yay for your sis! Tell her that she can always blame the fart smell on whoever was in the office last. “Can you believe that ol’ so and so came in my office and let out a stinky fart!” Also she can blame it on the person who just walked in. “I can’t believe you came in here and let out that stinky fart!” See, there’s always a way. 
Glad things went better with your grandma than you thought they would StickyBuns.
giggity I forgot yestiddy, but yay on the new hi-tech shiny camera!
Now I shall seek more caffiene and consider brekkie. Waffles sound good this mornin’.
Happy Sattidy Y’all!
Up, caffeinated, off to irk. Hockey tonight.
Friday at work was a horrible day, really busy and very stressful as I was trying to get everything on my list done before going on hols. I was very relieved to leave work and get on the train to London. Spent last night in the Paddington area, slept in the smallest hotel room I have ever been in - we were literally falling over each other trying to move around in there.
Now it’s early afternoon, I’m in the Clubhouse at Heathrow airport, had lunch and a couple of cocktails, I’ve got an appointment at 2pm for a manicure and then a facial before we get on the flight for New York.
And Tuesday is Van Halen day. Did I mention we’re off to NYC to see Van Halen? perk bounce bounce
I slept in till after 8!!! WOW!! It’s windy as all get-out and that’ll only make the day feel colder. I just heard my sweetie get out of the shower, so I guess it’s my turn next.
**congo **- your sister is most impressive. While I am an advocate of education, I also recognize that it isn’t the be-all and end-all. If you’ve got your stuff together and you work hard, you can really go far, and your sis is proof - yay!!
BBBobbio - yet another reason I’ll never go near that IHOP, as if it being a disgusting restaurant wasn’t enough… 
I’m not talking the chain in general - just that particular location.
**BooFae **- that’s a long way to go for a concert - dang!!! :eek:
Dunno what the plans for today are. Probably laundry at some point. We’ll just make it up as we go along! Happy Last Saturday of February!!!
Whoa! Very cool, BooFae!
Glad things went OK, Sticky.
Up. Kinda. Need to get stuff done.
Hugs.
GT
Good Morning all! Man I am glad it’s Saturday! Got a couple hours to chill then a good friend of mine will join me in a trip up to Frederick to see our other friend (my college roommate) who has colon cancer. Fortunately he is doing very well, and has the support of a wonderful wife, so I imagine it will be a fun visit.
Got to use the camera for the first time last night, my all important big market media mission was to drive to a Frederick County, MD high school and shoot hoops. Eight hours employment for 20 seconds of highlights. I sat in the parking lot for an hour and transferred the accessories from the old camera to the new:light, wireless microphone receiver and a clamp that holds the reporter mic on the camera for easy grabbing when needed.
Now the thing about that this new camera is it really isn’t that different than the old camera. Hell my trusty DVCPro was state of the art in it’s day, and is still dependable and shoots great video. In fact if the station is willing to sell it cheap enough I would gladly buy it from them.
This one is several pounds lighter, weighing in at approximately 19.4 lbs. The old one was closer to 25, so that’s nice. It’s better in low light, and it’s high def (though we have them detuned to DV right now because our editing is not high def ready). But it has one really cool feature that I think is going to give me a long photog’s woody for some time.
The bane of a news photog’s life is missing the shot. Countless times I have been to places and I have not taped the moment because I wasn’t rolling tape. This camera has Cache Memory Record. If I think I might need it, say at a police standoff or whatever, I can throw a switch and then whenever I hit record, the camera records what I am shooting and the 15 seconds it was looking at before I hit the record button!
OMFG!!!
Now as long as I am in Cache mode and pointed the right way, I can have the camera just waiting on a scene, and when it happens I just push the button and I have it. Big example: the Capitol Police have a robot working a suspicious package. I know they are going to blow it up in the next 10 minutes, don’t know when. Set the camera on the tripod, frame my shot, wait in Cache mode. When I hear BOOM! reach over and touch record. I got it. No wasting 10 minutes of media for the one shot I need.
And that’s just one little feature it has. I won’t bother y’all with the rest, but it definitely has a few more cool features.
In other news, Swampy, how You doin? Ya better watch out, I be a free man and Google Maps says I can be in GA in 13.5hrs.
Van Halen in New York? Way jealous! Back in the day I was a big metal head, Priest & Iron Maiden type, but it’s been awhile.
Anyway, enough rambling. Need to start the chores and get ready for the road trip.
Aw, geez, are we going to have to put up with the **bear **and **gigs **flirting all the time now?? There goes the neighborhood… :smack:
**Tugig **- if the new camera is digital, why does it matter how long you’re shooting? It’s not like you’re burning thru tape, right? Or do I misunderstand? So if you know something’s gonna go boom, why not set it and forget it? Bear in mind this question comes from someone famous for close-ups of fingers and shots of insides of pockets…
We had breakfast in Leonardtown, where **FCD **found a new favorite treat. He put some on his western omelet, and, I swear, his face turned red and he was sweating like crazy! He claimed it wasn’t all that hot, but he said it was really good. So we bought a bottle.
Then we ran to Joann’s so I could get more white yarn. I’m making an afghan to use up scraps, but the main color is white, and I didn’t have enough. Now I have tons, so yay.
First load of laundry is in the machine. Maybe one more today. **FCD **did a water change - it’s a easy chore since he built the sump in the basement. It’s still crazy windy out. And all in all, life is good.
Oh, yeah, and we’ll be going to FL for Easter to see the inlaws, then back to our old haunts to have dinner with friends and maybe spend a day in St. Augustine, just because. Just gotta arrange for someone to deal with the cats and the fish while we’re gone.
Tugig - Sweetie had a rather rude reaction at your DVCPro comments. From the other end (the engineering one) they’re a bitch and a half he says. He said he had 3 decks for them sitting around waiting for parts so he could fix them. After enough years of waiting without being able to get them, he threw the decks out.
What model is your new camera? (Sweetie wants to know, it wont mean anything to me)
Mooooooom - Sweetie says that if you need 15 specific minutes but you don’t know when it’s going to happen, you end up taping an hour to get that 15 minutes. But, you can’t go back and tape over it. Those 45 minutes that you wasted are gone until taken off the hard drive.
His cameramen are still using tape, but HD tape. It’s a realtime record so if they record an hour worth of footage, there’s an hour worth of information on the tape. When the cameraman is done for the day, they take the tape out and give it back to Sweetie and Sweetie gets it to the editor and then puts a new tape in the camera.
The camera we have at the house has a hard drive built into the camera so we don’t get the time back until we delete it and we can’t take the drive out and put another one in. So, if I spend 5 hours recording my dogs being cute and then we get another tornado, I might not be able to get any shots of the tornado because I don’t have enough room left on my drive (and because I’d be in the basement).
The camera we used to have had a card that could be removed and replaced so if we recorded too much on one day of our trip to Disney, we could use another card the next day without having to upload and erase everything.
So, it all depends on the camera.
grumble grumble…
We’ll be waitin’ on ya big boy. 
BooFae you’re goin’ for the makeover and a slinky dress for Van Halen? They don’t stand a chance! 
Today we have had brekkie, N.O.L. and a nappy poo. The next big excitement is dindin which shall be sallit, steak and scalloped N.O.T.. Oh there was a trip to the sto’ after N.O.L.. The Pig has eight pieces of dark meat fried chikin for $3.99. That’s cheaper than I could make it at da cave and the Pig’s fried chikin is kinda good. Thus tomorrow’s N.O.L. shall include Pig fried chikin. For those of you that don’t know, Piggly Wiggly is a supermarket chain down this way commonly referred to as “The Pig.” Even though a pig fryin’ chikin is a great visual, no actual pigs are fryin’ chikins.
It’s Saturday. There’s a home health nurse interviewing Dad (and mostly, Mom is answering, because Dad just Does Not Remember). Mom and I are rapidly recalculating on things, deciding on changes and trying to re-organize around Dad’s needs.
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the car keys are hidden. A friend made a great suggestion. When Dad wants to drive and can’t find the keys, the answer is “Oh, Dad, younger bro, when he visited last time, he accidentally took the keys with him. He FedExed them back, but they haven’t gotten here yet.”
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we’re rearranging schedules to minimize any time Dad is alone. Mom agrees that I cannot be “on call” all the time. I have to have time when I know I’m not going to be yelled for and suddenly diverted to whatever is going on. So, it looks like older bro and I will be splitting the days - I take mornings, he takes nights.
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Dad knows something is wrong. He knows he’s missing something. He knows he can’t find words, remember things, and he’s aware that he had some incontinence. Right now, he’s exhausted, and any emotional stress just takes him out. He’s actually been fairly gentle in his mood, but I haven’t had to play point much.
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On the “take care of phouka” level, I bought a teddy bear. Sounds silly, but it actually helps to hug it, especially when I’m going to sleep. The dog is very suspicious of it. I also went out today and bought several new tops. I plan to get a mani-pedi as soon as the cut on my foot heals, a massage perhaps tomorrow, and then get my hair cut (which is maybe a twice yearly event). This is going to hit my trip fund, but Mom’s offered to help out.
One thing that has made a huge difference in handling the daily ins-and-outs is a website/guru a friend pointed me to - FLYlady. I’m sure many of you have heard about her. While she’s a bit on the schmaltzy side, that’s okay. Her approach to daily organization has really helped save my head.
And BTW, thank you, guys. I feel guilty for not responding to others’ posts, but I do read them and silently cheer, boo, or feel sorrow as appropriate.
Tugig, I don’t know where you hang out, because I feel like that guy in Airplane! 2 who has limbs dropping off because he can’t hold himself together.
Teddy Bears are a wonderful thing. I still have my first (his name is Ted because I wasn’t an imaginative child). I still hug him when I need him and he still helps to make me feel better.
I have a teddy bear name George because I hug him and pet him and squeeze him.
I feel the need for an adult libation.
I don’t have a teddy bear, but I do have a stuffed monkey named, surprisingly, “Monkey.”
My teddy bear is named Oliver. He’ll be 30 this Christmas. I might throw him a teddy bear picnic.
Bobbio: re your new Tales of the Bambilance, there isn’t a :eek: big enough.
It’s finally my weekend! Yay! I aims to waste it.