ARCHIVES - 1996 to FOREVER

I got up this morning about 06:00, and it was a beautiful morning... indeed, it was a beautiful day all 'round. High around 75°F, light breezes, sunshine... just perfect. We aired the house out a bit, turned that AC off for a while.

And I finally put in the screens that have been setting in the computer room for a coupla months.

And I might not have mentioned it, but I got the HD installed, so I can start copying music from one of the 80Gig drives... if I could get the computer that it's in on line.

Karen cleaned house today to welcome JD home, and I cleaned up the computer room somewhat, it's been needing it for a while.

Then Karen went out with Kim for a while, Kim had to get a new wireless router, since hers bit the dust. She brought home a Belkin, which should work just as well as the Linksys, but I couldn't get her machine to link up very effectively, and I can't figger it out. I spent about 90 minutes on it and got very frustrated and gave up, so I need to go back sometime tomorrow and do it right... whatever that means.

A little after 20:00 I started off to Walgreens, and I rounded the corner to 25th street and saw a red pickup coming towards me... yep, it was JD!

We stopped, and then I turned around and had him take me to Walgreens after hugs were exchanged between the three of us... Karen had been sitting in the porch swing when I left, and of course she was still there when JD and I drove up two minutes later.

And it sure is good to see him!

He looks about the same as he did last time that I saw him in March, of course, but I don't look like I did last time that he saw me... which reminds me, I need to get a picture up of my hairy self, it's been a coupla months since I started growing my hair back, and it's been a long time since I regularly put pictures up here. Need to get back in that habit, I guess.

We're going to the Bottleneck in Lawrence tomorrow night, seeing Rasputina, a female rock chello band. Should be very interesting.

23:46...
Also very interesting was the conversation that JD and I had sitting out on the deck in this beautifully cool weather. We're supposed to set a record low tonight, and I actually got chilled.

Anyway, the conversation got around to doing venipunctures, and JD has not yet had much experience at that. He told me that he uses scalp vein sets, also called butterflies, to draw blood. I told him about a trick that I learned years and years ago about using butterflies, instead of making the puncture with the bevel of the needle up, you make it with the bevel down. I've been meaning to write this up for publication for years, but I've just never got around to it.

For what I do now, we use Jelcos, which is a now-generic term for a set that uses a needle to make the puncture, but after the vein is hit the needle is withdrawn and a teflon tube is left in the vein. Anyway, we do use butterflies occasionally....

But the point is, with a Jelco, you can't insert the needle with the bevel down and still withdraw it easily from the tube... it's gotta go the other way. Bummer, to say the least.

But the *real* point is... the way that venipuncture is taught is wrong. Well, maybe not *wrong* but there is a better way, and once I get around to writing it up, the world will realize that.

And here it is almost midnight, dammit, and I'm really, really tired. And I'm not gonna complain any more about the toe either... but I'm gonna call the doc tomorrow, and go in and see if it's gout or not. Yep, brother Dan convinced me finally....

Tomorrow's entry will be written really late... or maybe really early. Y'never know... unless yer on the reminder list, of course.

O'yeah, go read JD's last entry! He'll appreciate the hits....