Category: Uncategorized

A place to put that which doesn’t fit the predefined categories.

Fight for Fort Monroe, Hampton Roads, VA, Before 3:00 PM 29 November

Posted on by chappyshi

There are no use in the title nor were any a use harmed because of this, excuse.

More to the point, go quickly to the Washington Post article, “A Park-in -Waiting That Needs a Push“.   Follow the link at the end of the article to comment on whether or not Fort Monroe should be released to commercial concerns or reverted to the hands of the National Park Service.

I have been going down to tidewater in Virginia for years, since my sister moved there in the early nineties.  Fort Monroe was one of the first recreational facilities I remember going to down there back then.  I have been there for picnics and biked, walked, and hung around.  My younger sister got married in the chapel …

We all stayed at the Chamberlain Hotel.  It was quite the party as best I can remember.  I was a Buddhist for like two weeks after.  Now I am Shinto.

Copy and paste this quote, from an article in the Washington Post on Sunday November 25 by Steven T. Corneliussen into your email before you send it:

“Citizens can empower the Army to instruct Kaine and the Virginia panel to respect all of Fort Monroe as what it is: a national historic landmark ranking with — and maybe someday outranking — Monticello and Mount Vernon.”

Hospice Care and the Morphine Drip

Posted on by chappyshi

In Charlotte Allen’s Washington Post op-ed, “Back off! I’m Not Dead Yet. I Don’t Want a Living Will. Why Should I?,” dated October 14, 2007, she speaks about the bad feeling she got when, preparing to go for surgery, she was repeatedly asked if she had a living will. Charlotte expressed her doubts about the benefit of a living will and about how it actually be enforced.

There might be many people involved in trying to interpret the will but the creator is likely to have no say. Unfortunately, there are likely to be enough different interpretations of the patients desires to make them impossible to agree upon, from the point of view of the physicians and family.

That is neither here nor there for the point of this entry. One thing that particularly freaked out Ms. Allen, was an anonymous call she got about hospices, when she was visiting her 93 year old father who had prostrate cancer, in which the caller said, “Then, what you have to do is take them to a hospice. That’s what they did with my mother. They’ll put him on a morphine drip, and he’ll be gone in a few days.”

Reading this sent a chill up my spine. My grandmother Chase, who was in her early 90’s, passed away at the managed care center in her retirement community late this summer. She had recently been put under hospice care. She was in much pain from bed sores and screamed horribly when she had to move or was moved.

She had been on Oxycotin briefly when, as I understand it, the hospice representative suggested she should be given morphine. She had only been on that for a few days when my sister was called and informed that a chaplain had been in to pray with grandma in the afternoon. I got a call that evening to say she had passed away. Oh, the chill is back…

San Diego Burning

Posted on by chappyshi

Just got off the phone with Dennis Clarke in San Diego. Dennis was my roommate in Monterey. Both of us like to drink beer so we hit it off. We have kept in touch over 22 years. I had the privilege of visiting him and his wife Dianna at their new home in the mountains east of San Diego in September, 2006.

Unfortunately, their home is now a risk due to the fires in SoCal. They are staying with his mother nearer downtown San Diego having had to evacuate their home on Sunday. As best they know from reports of friendly law enforcement in the area, their home is still intact. When they left, the fires were visible a mile or so away. Thankfully, the Santa Ana winds, which were blowing at about 90 MPH at times, have settled down. Even when the fires have abated, it may be a few days before the residents are allowed to return to their homes.

Dennis is totally on edge. He talked non-stop for about 20 minutes telling me what was going on and then apologized for talking non-stop for 5 minutes.

I feel for Dennis and Dianna and everyone in similar circumstances. Considering, they had nearly the same thing happen in 2003, I would have to question my commitment to staying in the area. As I said though, I have been there. It is survivalist country. Those who live there, live there for the wildness. The country is exciting, remote, beautiful, and dry. I guess that the wildfires are something you have to deal with if you want to live there.

Bottom line is the best of luck to Dennis and Dianna. I submit a wet willy to the fire gods.

Chapter Over…Chopper Gone…CYA Later

Posted on by chappyshi

Wish I had more to say about the police cars and chopper cruising around and flying over my apartment complex….but I don’t. Please help me find out WTFIGO. Thank you so much!

I began to wonder if I had done something wrong. It did not help that when I was sitting in traffic on the way to work this morning, two state police cars came roaring up on my left in what is nominally the breakdown lane. Scared the crap out of me.

“Brown eyes in the morning looking up at me?” It’s a line from a PurePrairie League song. Who was that manly, madly tapping man in the stool (I mean stall) next to me? Butt eye regress. I da ho. Whose to nose?

Hello … Copter

Posted on by chappyshi

Right near home before I stopped at the store to get some “sundries,” I noticed a helicopter in the sky. While in the store parking lot I saw the chopper again. It was still there when I got out of the store…I could see that it was doing a circular scan of the area.

After I got to my apartment, the helicopter zeroed in on my section of the apartment complex. I looked out and saw a bunch of cop cars sitting in the parking lot with policemen spreading out and looking around. One came up to my neighbor, who was standing out in front of his place, asked him a couple of questions and showed him a document that had a photo on it.

Not sure what the deal was. Thankfully they either found their “man” or called off the search.