Transitions

Well, we broke down and turned on the air conditioning. Mostly for the dehumidifying effect although it did get up to 90F (32C) in the house the other day (which was only about three degrees less than outside).

The cats don't like it, which is a little surprising since when it is off they lie around like furry little rag dolls and when it's on they wake up, move around, play, eat, etc. Their disapproval stems mostly, I think, because we have to run around and close all the windows and doors before cranking up the system and that deprives them of their favorite hobby, clawing through the screens.

We set the thermostat at 83 because, like I said, it's mostly about the humidity. We're not officially in Rainy Season yet, but we've gotten into a cyclic pattern of bright, clear mornings and afternoon/evening thunderstorms. Once the storm passes with the resulting humidity drop, night time is wonderful with soft, cool breezes and we turn everything off and open all the windows and doors again. By noon the next day it's time to close up and repeat. Eventually, as we get into summer we'll have to just seal it all up completely until fall.

The MOOC and Me: Validation

I received my certificate from the Catholic University of Louvain for "successfully" completing the course Paradigms of Computer Programming.

"Successfully" is in quotes because it turned out I was in over my head and, while I did learn a great deal on the philosophical/abstract side, the practical work was mostly beyond my current skill level and the certificate represents what we used to call, back when college was for wastrel scions (aka "Legacies") who needed a little polishing before entering the family business, a "Gentleman's C."* It certainly doesn't qualify me to do anything other than, maybe, discuss tail-recursion and nod knowingly when others speak of explicit state, data abstraction and object oriented programming.

I downloaded everything I could from the course, mostly lectures and slides and such which I can now review at my leisure, but the problem sets, which were where I fell down, could not be saved.

In the meantime, I can now get back to the Harvard CS50 Introduction to Programing course which I had to suspend because Louvain had a tight deadline for completion. (Turns out it was too tight and they had to extend it by two weeks or risk losing a number of students but I still couldn't do both at the same time. Also didn't help that my laptop crashed right at the deadline for completing the final exam.) CS50 is geared much more to someone of my noobiness and is practically open-ended requiring only that I complete it by the end of the year. Plus the upcoming problem sets look to be much more fun, and less academically mathematical, than the Louvain ones.

Of course, none of the above is hinted at in the Louvain certificate, which will look good on the wall.

*The concept is not entirely obsolete. Cf: W at Yale.

Detailing: If It's Worth Doing, It's Worth Doing Eventually

As I was getting ready to leave the house for my platelet donation this morning a couple of city trucks pulled up on our main street (the one with the recent sidewalk installation). A couple of workers got out with chain saws and I thought, "Uh oh, here we go again," but, fortunately, I went out to take a look at what they were up to before waking my brother.

They did trim a little underbrush from around the power pole at the north corner of our property but just so they could get in and uproot the duplicate pole leftover from whenever they had replaced them all last. Quite a few poles along that street have these residual "stumps." They've been cut down to remove the crossbars and be lower than the wires attached to the active poles but they're still a good 12 - 15 feet tall.

I have no idea when the switchover was done. It was well before I moved down here so, at the very least, it's been years that the old poles have stood adjacent to the new ones. I guess someone finally noticed.

One of the trucks had a large log grabber on an extendible articulated arm. Once the space was cleared it gently reached over, grabbed the redundant pole and yanked it out. Neighbor Dan also had doubles on his property and apparently his was dug in pretty deep because the grabber had to twist it back and forth to loosen it up enough for the pull. It was kind of like watching an old-time dentist pull teeth.

At least now someone at city works can finally close the book on that little project.

And my donation, managed by a new tech, went super well.

A Man's Got To Know His Limitations

My laptop seized up a few days ago and I could not figure out how to unfreeze it. It went into hibernation mode for some reason, although the battery was not run down. I dozed off while holding it on my lap and apparently randomly passed my hand(s) over just the right key combinations to make it go catatonic.

I tried fixing it myself, Googling "laptop frozen keyboard." It's dismaying how many sites there are and how full and active they seem to be. I tried the various recommended key combinations, pressing the power button for extended time, with and without the power cord, etc. All to no avail. The consensus seemed to be either a bad keyboard or a bad hard drive and suggested pulling the battery to reset the machine. I got as far as pulling the back off before chickening out when I realized I didn't see any obvious way to reconnect the keyboard and screen cables I'd have to detach to have room to access the battery.

Yesterday, I took it to a local computer repair shop. If you totalled the ages of all the employees there they might equal mine. Fortunately, the young gentleman who repaired my machine in 30 seconds with three keystrokes also had excellent social and diplomatic skills and did not make me feel any more stupid or incompetent than I did (or am) already.

Today I brought them my ancient desktop PC for them to transfer files which I can no longer access because the CRT monitor had blown up. (And the operating system is too ancient to sync up without some intermediate steps.)

Also, the keyboard on the laptop still (again) didn't work (but only not within Windows) which I was pretty, but not entirely, sure wasn't my fault this time. For once, I was right. When he disabled the hibernate function yesterday, my repair guy accidentally disabled the keyboard as well. A couple more keystrokes and everything is back to normal. They even showed me what they did so as to ensure I never touch that part of the OS again.

Now I'm waiting to hear back from them about the transferred files. The whole episode should cost me $35.

For anyone reading this who happens to be in the neighborhood: PC Support Group. I recommend them.

The Best Laid Schemes . . .

My niece was tentatively scheduled to go home last Monday. I am astonished by the speed at which people can recuperate from major surgery these days mostly as a result of improvements in surgical practice that minimize trauma to the body. When I was a kid, people stayed in hospital longer recovering from tonsillectomies (surgery like she had wasn't even possible).

As it was, those plans went agley when she suddenly developed a level three (whatever that means, but it was serious) heart block and they rushed her back into the OR and installed a pacemaker. I'd like to think her heart, after struggling for years and years just to keep her alive, suddenly reacted to the lack of stress due to all the new replacement parts and upgrading and sort of "overclocked." Or kind of like pushing and pushing on a stuck door when someone finally removes the doorstop on the other side (not that that's ever happened to anyone I know).

So now not only does she have bionic bits, she's battery powered as well.

At least she got a nice visit from a cute service dog. And will stay in the hospital for another week or so. Just to be sure.

Thank You, One and All

After a long day and night I think this Facebook post from my niece's Mom says it all:

"Caitlin's father spent the night with Caitlin in the ICU. She
looks good and had a good night. Dr. Baird did some pretty
extensive work on her yesterday. He reworked her tricuspid valve
and tightened it with a ring, put in a titanium mitral valve,
replaced a patch covering the hole in the septum, trimmed off some...
scar tissue, adjusted a small group of heart muscles, and performed
an ablation to the right side of her heart. In ICU now and they are
keeping her asleep for a little while longer."

That's a hell of a lot for a fourteen-year-old to go through (and not for the first time) but her Dad reports that the oxygen tubes are out and she's breathing on her own although still drowsy from the sedatives. The use of an artificial valve this time means she should not have to ever do this again.

In a previous century she never would have made it this far, and I am extremely grateful to not just the superb surgeons who have the skill and talent to perform such work, but also to all the people over the years who developed the techniques and trained the doctors, who invented and manufactured the tools and replacement parts and those who built and maintain the organizations that could bring them all together to accomplish something so extraordinary. And to my fellow citizens, who help to pay for it all through your taxes and insurance premiums. This is the definition of civilization and, today, my niece and her/my family are the beneficiaries.

Thank you. May it all be there for you when you need it.

Nothing To Do But Wait

So today is the culmination of weeks and months of growing anxiety as my sweet, beautiful niece goes into surgery, yet again. She's fourteen and this is her fourth open heart operation. It was originally scheduled for last month but she came down with the flu a week before that date and had to reschedule.


I think at least part of the anxiety (our own, that is) comes from knowing that she is now old enough to be aware of the risks herself. The first two operations occurred when she was an infant and the last one a couple of years ago, but fourteen is a good age to have a real grip on your own mortality.


She's pretty good, although not perfect, at hiding her nervousness and spent yesterday evening swimming in the hotel pool in Boston before going in for pre-op.


The first three operations involved stitching together her heart valves and repairing leaks but they just wouldn't hold up permanently, so this one will install an artificial valve that should last.


One of her big brothers, the middle one who was just sent by the Navy on an extended tour of the Eastern Mediterranean and Black Seas (Romania, Israel and Greece, so far), made a video for her wishing her well because he couldn't be there this time. His political consciousness was formed almost entirely by 9/11 and tends to be somewhere to the right of John McCain but he is a sweet, caring, loving human being and the best big brother anyone could ask for and I'm quite proud of him.


I just received a report from her Dad that the operation is proceeding satisfactorily. They have finished replacing one valve and are working on the second one now. She went under around 8:30 this morning and the expect to be done in another couple of hours.


So we continue to wait.