Farewell Felix

Monday, November 4, 2019 at 9:30 AM, my cat Felix went to sleep for the last time.

The previous Tuesday, he was listless and uninterested in his usual routine. We took him to a clinic that found his heart "galloping" but could do nothing else for him.  The next day we took him to his regular vet, and they took some blood.  The results showed that he was severely anemic.  They recommended taking him to Oak Vet Animal Specialty Hospital.

After admitting him, Felix had more blood taken, and received a blood transfusion.  They kept him overnight for observation, and took a spleen aspiration as well as ran an ultrasound.  The next evening he was deemed stable enough to come home while the tests were run.  We were given steroids to give him twice a day, and would return Monday for a diagnosis based on the test results.

Friday he was a little better.  He ate some Gerber's chicken baby food, and moved around some.  Saturday he was more active, but didn't eat, and Sunday he was little better than he had been Tuesday.  That night we put him on a towel and he sat in my lap for a few hours of television.

Monday morning he was tired and weak, and no longer had the strength to reach the litter box.  Jennifer and I went into the appointment having already talked about our options.  The diagnosis we were given was that his blood and spleen had a high count of neoplastic cells. The doctor said Felix could have another transfusion to get him strong enough to see an oncologist who would then talk options of chemo therapy.  This could have given him six months to a year if he were strong enough for the treatment.  When we told the doctor we didn't want to put Felix through all of that for something that might not work.  He understood and agreed, and we said we were ready to move ahead.

Before the two injections, we were told that he could perk up for a moment as he fought going to sleep, but he was ready to go because as the injection entered, he laid his head down against my arm, and went to sleep.

Felix was exactly the cat I had wanted.  He liked to cuddle.  He was playful.  He would come visit while I sat.  He purred easily.  We could chase each other around the house.  He kept Jennifer company while I was away.  He and his brother Oscar were amazing together.

I will never forget our big boy, our cuddle muffin, our Hole in the Stairs, our hungry Void, our house panther.

Farewell Felix.

Happy Birthday Dad - 2019

Several years ago while I was in the CSU Sacramento Marching Musicians, we were at Disneyland on my dad's birthday.  I don't if they're still there, but AT&T had these big speaker-phone booth rooms that were soundproof(-ish).  To start the day off, I got a bunch of the band members to go with me straight to Tomrrowland and pile into one of the booths, and we all sang my dad "Happy Birthday".

This is a callback to that day.

How to Find a Nerd in Hiding

So this morning at our job site, we were gathering for our daily safety meeting.  One of the crew was in socks and flip-flops.

Now this is okay, because we're outside of the work zone.  But it still got him some ribbing.

People were asking if they were the new style of steel toed shoes.

I said, "No, their transparent aluminum."

And off to my right, I heard someone snort.

That's how they'll catch us in the end: obscure jokes we can't help but snigger at.

Up and Down and Up and Down and...

So this week, I'm working on a small barge.

Now, this isn't a barge like a coal barge that carries (or carried, I don't know how much it still happens) coal down the Ohio River.

This isn't even like the barge that I worked on when they were retrofitting the Webster-Posey Tunnel from Oakland to Alameda.

This is a small barge.

The barge in the Alameda Slough had a conex on it.  And a full sized drill rig.  And three large diameter spuds that kept it in place once it was in position.

I'm on a small barge that uses three small anchors to place itself.

And I'm on it for about 8 hours.

Now, I sometimes have motion sickness.  I've gotten seasick on whale watching trips.  I used to get Doom-sickness with the old FPS games.  I still sometimes have motion sickness symptoms when I play Portal or the new Doom.

I've been okay so far this week.  I know the symptoms and if they start, I stand steady and watch the horizon until they subside.

My issue is that this is the longest I've been on a small craft.  The ferry is less than an hour.  Other things haven't moved as much.  And with this, I'm having to get my land-legs.

I get back to the hotel, I sit at the computer, and everything in my peripheral vision keeps bobbing up and down.

I almost fell on the floor when I stood up from the toilet this afternoon.

At least I feel like I'm rocking myself to sleep without even moving.

Sir Terry

So yes, I am re-re-...-re-reading the Discworld.

An d as the anniversary of Sir Terry's birthday passed there were two great articles about his writing.

First one on Tor.

And then one on Hobbylark.

The first came to me in an email newsletter I get from Tor.  The second came via Google News.

Share and Enjoy.

Ribs and Butcherbox

So let me tell you about my dinner last night.

First I have to tell you again about the wonders of vacuum sealing.

We've been doing vacuum sealing of food for a little over a year now.  The length of time we can store food, both raw and cooked is amazing.  Jennifer has been eating on frozen, vacuum sealed peach halves for months.

Towards the end of the summer last year, I signed up for Butcherbox.  What sold me was that the offer when I signed up was free ground beef with every delivery for as long as I use the service.  The first package came with a mini-recipe book, and for the ribs that I got with my latest delivery, I used the pork rub recipe.

The ribs sat for about a week in just the fridge, then Saturday afternoon I applied the rub, and Sunday I cooked them up.  All it took was an hour on the grill on medium-low.

Don't they look amazing?

I really should have taken a picture before I cut them.  However, I still have another half rack, so I'll be experimenting again.

Now, Butcherbox is pretty great.  The food all comes vacuum sealed, frozen, and shipped in green Styrofoam pellets and dry ice.

The latest deal they're offering is if you sign up with a referral both of you get you get free salmon in your first box.  Interested?  Go here, and use my e-mail "schadwen@yahoo.com".

Visulaization

So, as promised, here are photos.

I couldn't remember when I was typing, but I double-checked, and it is a Woflgang Puck dutch oven.  Not that is necessarily indicative of quality, just what it is.

Here's the Cincinnati chili.  I did it a little different not adding onions, but using onion powder instead.  I also didn't add the vinegar that it calls for.  Everything else was as written.

The first time he made it, Dad put the chili in ceramic boats, and we cut the pasta and ate it almost like a loaf.  Mine wasn't that thick (I had to set the lid a bit off to get it to cook down.  Dutch ovens are great for keeping in the moisture.), but it turned out thick enough.

It's also traditional to top it with sharp or extra sharp cheddar, but we were out having used up the cheddar for the last time I made chili.  Instead I used Colby jack.  It added a nice smoothness to the recipe.

And I Was Doing So Well

So, I'm back after a gap.  I had wanted to get back to daily, but oh well.

And so I'm cooking dinner tonight.  I'm trying to do more.  Jennifer is eating meat less, and I'm okay with less, but I still like some.  And then as most who know me know that I'm a bit of a picky eater.  So it's nicer that I cook and do what I like.

I'm not going to go so far as make a separate pot of chili with beans (not technically chili if it has beans right?).  But I will add things.

But what I'm really enjoying is my cherry red dutch oven.  We got it at Marshall's one day and actually walked it home.  For those that don't know, a dutch oven is a cast iron cooking pot with a lid that are enameled.  The inside of mine is white, and the outside is a gorgeous red.  The really cool thing about the dutch oven is that there are these bumps on the lid that acts a condensation points for the moisture inside and so it can self-baste.

But I've been playing around with sauces and such.  I've made the basic chili that I like, and a pasta bolognese sauce.  I recently did a chili mac with rotini that turned out amazing.  And today I am making the deconstructed recipe for Cincinnati chili.

I can remember the Christmas that Mom bought the cookbook for Dad.  She had marked the recipe with a bookmark so that he would see it.  And when he unwrapped the book he was so excited he almost pulled the bookmark out before Mom could stop him.

It's not that hard of a recipe.  It's just getting the ingredients together.  And I don't use the onions or beans it calls for, so yay!

Can I say that the most dangerous thing about the dutch oven is that the handles are of a piece with the pot?  Get you some silicone gloves, or holy cow, that gets hot.

I'll be sure to add pictures later.

Lunch

So, I have a reputation among coworkers and some of our subcontractors that I only eat one thing for lunch.

It's not entirely true, because there are times that I change it up, but this usually due to circumstance rather than desire.

I like peanut butter and jelly.

Then I saw this a few months ago, and thought yeah, this is me.

Now, John hates peanut butter.  When we were roommates, I always knew my Reese's were safe.

And when I'm in the field, my peanuts and peanut butter consumption goes up.

I have peanuts for snacking with chunks of dark chocolate.  I have Nutter Butter Peanut Butter Cookies and peanut butter M&Ms.  I also love making peanut butter and cinnamon graham cracker sandwiches.

And so, on a final note:

Enthusiasm

So, today I'm back in Oroville, and I had a craving for ice cream.

It's 40 degrees up here right now, but I sent for a walk.

It reminded me of this old Nancy comic strip I cut out long ago.  I think Mom saved it for me.  I used to have a book of all the old comic strips that I'd saved.  Jennifer scanned them for me, so now it's in my computer's digital archives.

I was in two coats and wearing gloves.

Those that know me will note a certain lack of beard.  This morning was my annual physical for my HAZWOPER certification.  I had three fit tests with half-face and full-face respirators, and the newest bit was a dust mask.  The dusk mask is a new thing based on us being up in Oroville during the Camp Fire.  I passed everything, but man am I sick of that stupid Rainbow Passage.

Rainbow Passage
When the sunlight strikes raindrops in the air, they act like a prism and form a rainbow. A rainbow is a division of white light into many beautiful colors. These take the shape of a long round arch with its path high above and its two ends apparently beyond the horizon. There is, according to legend, a boiling pot of gold at one end. People look, but no one ever finds it. When a man looks for something beyond his reach his friends say he is looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

I read it six times.

Six times because there's a timer going and you have to keep talking during that portion of the test.  Last year I convinced the proctor to allow me to read it backwards the third and fourth times just for some variety.

And I've read it now for 14 or 15 years.  You'd really think I woudl have it memorized by now.

Micro-management

First off, here is a quote from The Labyrinth Index by Charles Stross:

The besetting vice of high office is the temptation to micromanage, to take direct control of a small, concrete, easily understood subsidiary operation and start issuing orders, to the detriment of the chain of command (and the neglect of the big picture). The reason micromanagement is a vice is that it's a temptation to self indulgence: it's too easy to get carried away. Taking on a low-level coordinating role while retaining the full executive authority in fiscal responsibilities of senior rank is like playing a game you've mastered on the lowest difficulty level.

I just hits the spot after some of the things I've had to deal with in the last few months.

This Dilbert comic from closing on 24 years ago is also fitting.

Working in a Gold Mine...

So, not really, but that's what a lot of the public in Oroville thinks we're doing.  Lots of people keep asking if they can pan our excavation spoils pile for gold.

It's difficult getting across to people that the whole reason we're working there is to take out dangerous levels of chemicals.  These chemicals are carcinogenic.  Others a simple elemental poisons.  And when I say elemental poisons, I mean two of the most basic: lead and arsenic.

I'll leave you with two quotes.  The first is in relation to pollution, and the second kind of sums up most of the way work has been going for the past two months.  I have actually said the second onsite multiple times.

First:

"Plutonium may give you grief for thousands of years, but arsenic is forever."

-- Pollution, Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

Second:

"There are four rules you need to remember: Make the plan.  Execute the plan.  Expect the plan to go off the rails.  Throw away the plan."

-- Leonard Snart/Captain Cold, The Flash, "Infantino Street"

But it's just not the same without hearing him say it:

Journal Start

So I recently came across these journaling prompts, and then today I re-discovered them in my Pictures folder.  So, here goes:

If you had an empty room, what are the ten things you would add to it?

1. A comfortable chair
2. A Bluetooth stereo speaker to play music from my phone
3. A good light to go behind my chair
4. A bookshelf with my favorite books
5. A table to go beside the chair that can hold my water or lemonade

It's at this point that I re-read the question and think about the assumptions I've already made.  This room is empty, but not a vacuum so it already has breathable air in it.  My first world assumption also makes the temperature comfortable, wires the room for electricity, and within range of a strong WiFi signal...  So let's make a final assumption, like a mathematician or physicist, to make things easy this room is suddenly simply available as a new attachment to my home.

6. A rolling, tilting desk that I can bring to float over my lap
7. A ream of paper
8. A collection of colored pencils with sharpener
9. A plate of cheese, crackers, and cookies
10. A pair of comfortable cushions to keep my cats happy and calm

Additional Posting

So I'm spending the next several months in Oroville for work.

I had a nice routine built up for work, and working out, and cycling.  Now I have to build a new one.

So I thought I had some more Top Ten Lists, but unfortunately all of the rest of them are too full of inside jokes.

I've still got a big collection of others that I didn't write, but then that's the problem: I didn't write them.

Generic Content

So, I keep wanting to try to get back into this.  I wanted to start up again on my birthday, and that's more than a week in the past.  So finally today I had an idea, and thought I'd post something.

Then I got to Blogger, and found that Russia appears to no longer be surveiling me.  However, I am suddenly huge in France.  By a factor of 2:1.

Am I suddenly the Jerry Lewis of blogging?

Or are the Russians using a VPN that puts them in France?

So anyway, here is the content I was wanting to putout there.  These are Top Ten Lists that I created back when I was in school.  Here is the first that is worthy of sharing:

The Top Ten Safety Tips

10. Never eat or drink anything offered to you by a villain.

9. If it looks like a vampire, cringes from a cross like a vampire, and sucks blood like a vampire; then it sure as hell ain’t a duck.

8. Dragons and gun powder do not mix.

7. If someone asks if you are a god, say, “Yes.”

6. If you are not immortal, then you are not immortal.

5. Entropy and chaos work for the universe, not you.

4. Don’t cross the streams.

3. Death is not an adventure, it is the end of the adventure.

2. When you need your reputation the most, henchmen will recognize you only as an enemy of their master.

1. The black arts are named that for a reason.

Four Movies

So this morning, I read an article on the A.V. Club that asked what four films define you.

Now, this isn't supposed to be your favorite movies, but those that helped make you who you are.

So let's see...

Star Wars (1977)

Superman (1978)

The Princess Bride (1987)

... and, hmmm.  Let me think.

So, let's start with Star Wars.  It shaped so many of my generation, but it became the center of so much growing up.  The toys were a collection to be completed, but I was forced to stop collecting midway through The Empire Strikes Back sets.  The music was everything to me.  It was what I listened to always.  John Williams became the standard against which all other composers were measured.  And then there was the beginning of the concept of what a Jedi is and what they can do.  Star Wars also began the slow trickle of science fiction into my life.  Surte, it's actually space fantasy, but it still piqued my interest.

Superman was a given that I would watch with my love of comics, but again there was more to it.  It was truly giving in to the hype that "You will believe a man can fly."  It was the amazing score again by John Williams with the main theme that I would use to test any new sound system.  Or for celebration.  And seeing my favorite comic book hero looking so real just kept me waiting to be a better person.

And speaking of being a better person, we come to The Princess Bride.  Released the autumn of my freshman year of college, it had everything Peter Falk's character promised: Fencing, fighting, torture, revenge, giants, monsters, chases, escapes, true love, miracles...  Fencing became very interesting to me, and I even took a weekend class on it.  The more I learned about it, the more amazed I was at the choreography in the movie.

My fourth is difficult because there are two that helped bring me into my groups of friends in Maryland for high school and California in high school and college.  The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension has to become a close fifth movie, but the true fourth is Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975).

Monty Python had been something that I watched with my parents and their introduction to me of the movies was vital to those who became my friends.  In my high schools in Maryland and California, I bonded with other members of the marching bands.  It was where I first learned about the entertaining call and response aspect of reciting lines.  In college, that was only reinforced.  And then there's just the whole structuring of my sense of humor.

Shoes

Growing up, I had weird feet, apparently.

Most shoes didn't fit well.  And so,  I wore a lot of Stride Rite.  (And as I'm writing this, I'm discovering that they still exist.)

Stride Rite had great customer service.  When we would go to get me shoes, we would usually go there first, and then walk around the mall afterwards.  This would let me partially break in the shoes and see if they were truly a good fit.  I can remember a couple times when we walked back to return shoes that were painful or causing blisters.

It was a big thing to finally be able to wear different shoes.  Sure, I had dress shoes, and my favorite cowboy boots, but finally wearing Nikes was great.

Nikes work well for me.  They tend to have a more narrow heel, and most styles have a sloped sole at the back.  This work for me because I have a narrow heel and walk heel to toe.

This walking style was reinforced by marching band.  Years of marching band.

When I wear other brands of shoes, the square back of the shoe makes a weird shock on my foot.  I tend to get blisters and/or weird calluses.

And yet, as an adult, I've experimented with other brands, most recently trying Skechers.  They've got some nice memory foam insoles, but the soles don't last, and the extra-soft insole makes for strange bike riding sometimes.

This weekend, we went to Nordstrom Rack to try to decide my shoe size for various shoe brands.  I had learned over the past few years that for 20 to 30 years, I had been buying shoes with growing room in them.  And I've had the same size foot since I graduated high school.

So, shoe shopping is still an adventure sometimes.

But when we got to the Rack, I beheld a lovely site: a giant pile of orange Nike shoe boxes.  There was an event going on.  And I got to slip into my favorite shoe brand again.  There's still the getting used to wearing a shoe that my big toe goes to the end of, but I'm working on that.

Cooking

So a couple weeks ago, Jennifer got some pork shoulder.  The butcher suggested she make it into carnitas.  She found a citrus recipe to slow cook it, and we had some amazing tacos.  But then we still had half of the pork shoulder leftover.  So I went looking for a new recipe for carnitas chili.

I found this one, and made some modifications:

Carnitas Chili

Ingredients

---

·         2 tablespoons chili powder (heaping)

·         1 tablespoon ground cumin

·         1 teaspoon paprika

·         1 tablespoon celery seed (ground)

·         2 tablespoons ground cilantro

·         1 tablespoon garlic powder

·         1 tablespoon onion powder

·         2 teaspoons kosher salt

·         3 tablespoons vegetable oil

·         1 cup beef broth

·         2 carrots, cut into 1/4-inch discs

·         1 28-ounce can tomato

·         1 bay leaf

How to make it

·         In a small bowl combine the cumin, paprika, salt, chili powder, cilantro and garlic.

·         In a large Dutch oven, heat the oil over medium high heat.  Add seasonings to bring out oils.

·         Add the beef broth and the bay leaf and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium-low, add tomato sauce and cover.

·         Chop carrots and add to sauce.  Cook sauce for 1 hour.

·         Warm pork after an hour.  Separate meat from grease.  Save grease for noodles.

·         Remove and discard the bay leaf.

·         Boil noodles

·         Plate noodles, then pork, then sauce, then grated cheese.

·         [Jennifer suggested that next time we try ¼ teaspoon cinnamon or cinnamon stick, and 1 clove]

Movie Time

So lately, I've had a bit of a backlog of movies to watch.  We're not going to the movies as much, and we're enjoying television more than the movies.

And yet there are still ones that I want to see.

So this weekend, I had the opportunity, and I've caught up on some.

Pirate of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales - Not really a great movie.  Enjoyable to watch on the background while playing a game, but otherwise unexemplary except for the effects and the story of the cursed crew.

Attack the Block - I got this as a recommendation because of the soundtrack, but the movie was actually cool too.  Three surprise actors in it that I wasn't prepared for.  John Boyega (Finn the the Star Wars postquels), Jodie Whitacker (the new female Doctor on "Doctor Who"), and Franz Drameh (half of Firestom on "DC's Legends of Tomorrow").

Kingsman: The Golden Circle - A fun sequel, but not something I couldn't look away from.

Arrival - A really cool movie that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Passengers - Both good and disturbing.  A good excuse to watch pretty people in peril.

Logan - As violent as expected, and wonderful.  Getting to hear Professor Xavier cursing was so awesome.

Predestination - The work on this was really great.  To take a short story like "All You Zombies" and make a full length movie out of it was quite a task, but so well done.  This is one could watch again. Not that I missed anything since I knew the story, but just for the pool pleasure of seeing it again.

TCM Backlot

So whenever I'm not home, there is a 97% chance that the television is on Turner Classic Movies.  Jennifer has it on for background noise, as well as for her love of classic movies.

A few months ago she joined the TCM Backlot which gives its members some fan club perks.

Then she looked into creating a local chapter.  There needed to be 10 members to get one formed.  She did a search, made a webpage (yes, it's one of the many things she does) for the TCM Backlot San Francisco Chapter, and also made a Twitter account.

She even got me to join, because it's no fun to go alone, and you have to be a member to get the free tickets.

And then, we got offered a block of tickets from TCM for the Noir City 16 at the Castro Theatre.  The tickets were for two movies ("This Gun for Hire" and "Quiet Please, Murder!") as well as an opportunity to meet Eddie Muller, the host of Noir Alley on TCM.

When we got there, we had a reserved section for our group, and then upstairs were a few tables with things for sale.  TCM had one as well, where they were giving away the Noir Alley - Batman comic they had partnered with DC to make with Eddie Muller as a character who teams up to help Batman.

Now, I've got a copy signed by Eddie Muller.