God have mercy upon his soul.

My father died today at 5:45 pm in Centerville, Iowa.

God have mercy upon his soul.

~~JD~~

Ariane's Doing Fine, Thank You . . .

Ariane had her biopsy today, and was a real trooper about it. I stayed with her the whole time (except surgery, or course).






Ariane is mildly mollified by my taking pictures for the blog. (Don't tell her I posted them!) We arrived at 10 am after I worked a midnight shift the night before, so pardon me if I'm punchy -- I haven't slept yet.














Ariane came back after an hour and was pretty tired from the ordeal, but was out walking and ready to go home within an hour. We should have the results of the biopsy later next week (Labor Day Weekend, don't cha know?), but the two medical assistants who watched were strongly optimistic to us.
















Happy Ending!

~~JD~~

Friday's Feast!!!

Appetizer: Who is the easiest person for you to talk to?

God, no question. It didn't used to be that way at first, but I've found He's a really good listener.

Soup: If you could live in any ancient city during the height of the quality of its society and culture, which one would you choose?

Why in the world would you want to live in any ancient city? Poor hygiene, no air conditioning, terrible health care? These truly are the best of times.

Salad: What is the most exciting event you’ve ever witnessed?

The baptism of the first person I brought to Christ. I couldn't speak for half a day. After that, it was the movie "Somewhere in Time" with Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour. So terribly sad.

Main Course: If you were a celebrity, what would you do for a publicity stunt?

My own funereal. I have it all planned out -- a traditional Irish Wake with plenty of food, beer, and cocktails, and my cremated body in an urn they could pass around and reminisce with. (I'm actually planning on doing this too -- I think the traditional Irish Wake is very cathartic and healing.)

Dessert: What do you consider the ideal age to have a first child?

For the child, or for me? We had our son when I was 30, but my wife was 24 and suffered for it. My son, however, was an infant and that seemed just right for him. Generally I see less problems with couples in their late 20's / early 30's have happier families and better relationships. It makes me wonder how these teenaged pioneer families managed it!)

The International Nursing Shortage; or "Headhunting" Nurses from the Philippines

Here's an article from August 10th in the Asian Pacific Post details how apparently one of the greatest exports of the Phillipines is not just pineapples, electronics, textiles, and baskets, but . . . nurses!

In a Nursing Shortage! Imagine that!

Canadian hospitals are headhunting Filipino nurses working in Ireland, with offers of fast-track work visas, better wages and even low-interest-rate car loans. There are more than 10,000 foreign-born nurses working in Irish hospitals — a huge proportion of whom are Filipino nationals, Dublin media reported.

Yet the "headhunting" doesn't stop from Irish hospitals poaching Filippino nurses; Canadian hospitals poach from Ireland:

Filipino Overseas Ireland Ltd, which was on a recent recruitment drive, is hoping to attract 250 staff nurses for a hospital in Alberta. Quoting sources in the Irish-Filipino community, a hundred nurses based in Irish hospitals signed up to work in Canada at a recent recruitment fair. The steady exodus has led to the magazine Filipino Forum running a lead feature titled “Goodbye Ireland.”

To date, very few Filipino nurses have been awarded citizenship in Ireland, even though many came here almost seven years ago. “Very few have long-term residency, which is also only temporary. Even the first batch [of nurses] still haven’t got citizenship,” points out Michael Ancheta of Filipino Forum.

In stark contrast, the Canadian government allows brothers, sisters and parents to emigrate to Canada after four years. Other incentives include affordable subsidised housing grants as well as cheap car loans, local media said.

It also appears the Nursing Shortage is not solely an American phenomena:

In Alberta hospitals right now, roughly 20 per cent of Alberta’s 26,000 registered nurses are in a position to retire, creating a scenario for a serious shortage of nurses. There’s also a new provision that allows nurses considering retirement to work part time and still get full contributions to their pensions.

The nurse crunch is also being faced elsewhere in Canada. According to a 2004-05 government health report, there are 1,260 nurses per 100,000 people in Manitoba, 1,172 nurses per 100,000 in Saskatchewan, 1,020 nurses per 100,000 in Alberta and 823 per 100,000 in B.C. All across Canada, there’s 1,004 nurses per 100,000.

The article goes on to note that while Canadian employers benefit from the training and excellent english skills of Philippino nurses they recruit, such things as the Irish Green Card system and their children being treated as foreign students has made Ireland a nice place to visit, but they wouldn't want to live there.

“But it’s not just Filipino nurses who are leaving. In the past eight years, about 12,000 Irish nurses have left for places like Canada.”

Bonus!!!

Hat Tip to Interested Participant, who also notes:

So, nurses leave the Philippines for a better deal in Ireland. Then, nurses start leaving Ireland for a better deal in Canada. What's next? I don't know but it's worth mentioning that nurses get permanent residency visas upon arrival in the U.S.

That's true because after the Spanish-American war in 1898 the Philippines became an American possession (along with Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Guam.) Anyone who can prove their parents (or grandparents) were American citizens can almost automatically receive permanent residency in America pending citizenship application; which means practically the entire archipelago of the Philippines is eligible.

One of my wife's best friends is a staff nurse in Indiana -- and a Philippino. Almost all the charge and half the staff nurses I worked with at one hospital here are Philippino. They are especially in demand in South Texas for their bilingual abilities with the Hispanic population here.

The thing I'm seeing a lot more of lately? Nurses from Kenya. What's that about, other than there aren't enough nurses to go around in the USA?

~~JD~~

Nursing's "Dirty" Little Secret

I read with a great deal of amusement that Medicare is going to start refusing to pay for hospital acquired infections, which has sent shock waves through the medical community. as many as 10 to 25% (and some surveys say even more -- up to 40%) of everyone that enters a hospital will leave with an "Nosocomial" infection-- an infection they contracted in the hospital that they did not have before entering.

And it happens a lot. A LOT.

The reason I mention this at all is I got waylaid yesterday by that Performance Improvement guy. He seemed shocked that I was so "vociferous" about washing -my -damned -hands!

Well, frankly, I'm astonished that more people don't get sick, considering as little as most nurses wash their hands. Nurses know the Acronyms MRSA (Methcillin Resistant Staph Aureus), C-Diff (Clostridium Difficile), and VRE (Vancomycin Resistant E-coli) -- as well as that they were created by the overuse of antibiotics (MRSA and VRE in the hsopital setting, and C-Diff in Livestock.) Yet few realize (or WANT to realize) that every one of these organisms is vulnerable to two simple items readily available to every nurse every day:

Soap - and - Water.

I shower every night when I get home. I shower every morning before going to work. I wash my hands after any patient contact, before eating, and after the restroom. I've even been contaminated by MRSA before -- and got rid of the bug very simply.

Soap - and - Water.

I watched one nurse this afternoon wash her hands a total of three times the entire day. The sad part is, she was the only one I saw (besides myself) that washed her hands more than once the entire day! The main sink in the Nursing Station was DRY every time I came to wash my hands -- which means I was the only one using it all day.

So Medicare won't pay for hospital-acquired infections anymore?

Good for them. Maybe hospitals will finally get serious about employees washing their hands.

Eeeeewwwwwwwwww~

~~JD~~

Friday's Feast!

Appetizer: Say there’s a book written about your life. Who would you want to narrate the audio version?

Marcel Marceau? I think if there's ever a book wsritten about MY life, it'll be an abnormalpsychology textbook -- no audiobook necessary.

Soup: Take the letters from your favorite kind of nut and write a sentence. (Example: Perhaps every avenue needs understanding today.)

People have favorite kinds of NUTS? Really? That just seems rather silly to me.

Salad: If you could go back in time and spend one week in another decade, which decade would you choose?

I wouldn't need a whole week. I'd go back to the 1950's and buy 100 shares of Xerox. or the 1970'a and buy 100 shares of Microsoft.

Main Course: Name a song that brings back memories for you.

Anything by Boston, from any album. I've just loved their harmonies mixed with the heavy-metal sounds of the steel guitars.

Dessert: Do you prefer to wash your hands in cold water or warm water?

Ah, finally a NURSING question! You should always wash hands in cold water -- not necessarily freezing, but tepid to cool. Warm or hot water removes the essential skin oils and causes micro-fissures to form on the skin, which forces any micro-organisms you were trying to remove into the skin and can cause infection. So washing with hot water actually doesn't kill the germs -- it gives them a place to live and reproduce!

As You Can See, I've Been Playing With the Layout . . . .

Deleted a few things, rearranged a few others; and changed the layout entirely. That's the beauty of Blogspot; you can just change the entire layout with a click of the button.

The previous layout was a bit confining and limited my ability to post pictures -- you could put one picture in a column, and that was about it -- followed by another picture, and another; etc. This new layout lets me put two side-by-side. And it allows me to showcase the wonderful Day by Day comic strip in it's full glory.

I'm still working on the colors, though. You might see a few more tweaks over the next few weeks or so. As Douglas Adams liked to say, "Don't Panic."

~~JD~~

Living In The Cone

It's getting interesting around these parts -- like it usually does this time of year. This is the projected storm track currently for Hurricane Dean. The "cone" -- the yellow part where Dean is projected to go -- that's the part you pay attention to this time of year. Right now a High pressure area is parked over the southeastern U.S., which is sheltering south Texas from Dean's wrath. That's a good thing -- but still we prepare. If that High decides to slide off the Atlantic coast in the next 12 hours, everything changes.

** As I blogged last week HERE, The State has begun seeking volunteers for Nursing Home Evacuees.

** Just heard on Fox News the Alamodome has been set up for 13,000 refugees with enough food and water for 30 days.

** Evacuation Officials at the Alamodome have devised a method of color-coded wristbands to keep evacuee families together -- another lesson learned from Katrina.

** 30,000 barrels of gasoline have been shipped to the Rio Grande valley in case a massive evacuation is needed -- no stations will run out of gas like happened with the Katrina and Rita evacuations two years ago.

** As of last night both Ariane and I have 60 bottles of water in the backs of our cars.

** Today we pack our emergency kits -- just in case.


Because the truth of the matter is this -- if it's not Dean, it'll be Felix -- of whatever names of Hurricanes come after that. Hurricane season officially ends November 1st, and strong storms can and have occurred after that (remember the move The Perfect Storm -- that happened in November.)

That's life in the "cone".

~~JD~~

Another Great Moment In (Temp) Nursing

So I got a call last night -- the Skyscraper Hospital I like to work at is looking for someone tomorrow morning. Now, despite the fact this call comes at 7pm, I said "Sure -- sign me up." I go home, cancel my plans to re-arrange the living room and do our "Hurricane Packing" tomorrow (load the cars with water, pack emergency bags, etc.) and leave Julian home with an earache to pick up this shift.

So, there was some sacrifice involved is what I'm trying to say.

5am the call comes -- I'm canceled -- they have enough staff.

. . . . . . . Dammit.

Okay, well, no biggie -- I had plans, and didn't feel to good about leaving my sone home alone sick, but he's 16, right? We'll just follow plan "B" here.

Then at 6:45am, another call comes -- they do need you after all. Can you copme in Immediately? They'll even pay you a premium ($4.00/hour more) and pay for the 12 hours after all.


. . . . well, . . . . No.

See, this is the thing I hate most about Temp Nursing. You never know where or when you'll be working. You can get canceled at the last minute, and if you let them, they can jerk your strings back-and-forth all day.

Well, i decided not to let them do that today. Sick kid, Hurricane preparations to make -- and the last time this hospital did this, I was literally at the front door of the building when they called to cancel me -- got paid nothing.

Today they'll be short -- and I hope the stupid Night Supervisor that canceled me at 5am gets asked why they're short today. (With any luck at all, they'll hold her over to work my shift. Heh.)

Another Great Moment in Nursing

Si, I worked at another mis-managed facility in San Antone over the weekend. They begged for someone for three days, then only used me for two. Typical.

So the second night I was there I was having a lot of trouble closing the refrigerator door. I checked the temperature of the 'fridge and it was 54 degrees -- Way too warm for the medications in there. And amongst the meds in that fridge were four doses of Aranesp (R) -- what we call a "hematopoetic" medication; meaning it makes more blood for anemic patients. Cost? Between $5000.00 and $10,000 per dose -- all ruined.

No, I am not kidding.

So I started looking at why the door wouldn't shut. The freezer section was so completely frosted over from the door being ajar for so long it was impossible to close the fridge door. So, this happened over time -- a long time. I found the refrigerator temperature log, which is supposed to be done on a daily basis.

The last entry was August 19th -- 2006!!

So I defrosted the med refrigerator, as well as the Staff Refrigerator. Took me about three hours using the "Towel and Fan" method. (Unplug refrigerator, empty refrigerator, line bottom of fridge with towels, turn on fan full blast at freezer, watch those suckers melt like butter in an Iowa summer.)

And as soon as I started doing it -- it never fails -- there was one dumpy, obnoxious, frump of a nurse who had a snarky comment for me every time she saw me for the rest of the night.

"You know we have to get permission to clean the refrigerators, don't you?"

"I don't think you're using the correct solution to clean that."

"If those medications get to room temperature, they're no good."

"Make sure you get all that water up so nobody slips."

"You know it's too early to draw labs -- we don't usually draw labs this early."

Too lazy to do it herself, but just can't let it go by without whining about it. Surprisingly, there's more of these whiny, lazy nurses than you'd think. Every unit has one, but you get two or more and the place just gets unbearable. Nothing gets done, gossip abounds, and the innocent get blamed.

Unfortunately for me, the places with two or more of these whiners are the places bleeding staff -- and the places I work regularly.

Lucky me!

~~JD~~

Life Is What Happens on the way to the Flood

I received these two letters in the e-mail last week. The first is from Angel Staffing, who arranged the staff needs for the Hurricane Katrina evacuees two years ago, sent last Thursday:

The City of San Antonio and the State of Texas needs YOUR help!!!

Angel Staffing has been asked by the San Antonio Metro Health District and Baptist Child and Family Services to coordinate all medical staff San Antonio medical shelters around the clock for Tropical Storm Erin and Tropical Storm Dean evacuees.

ALL VOLUNTEERS WILL BE STAFFED IN SAN ANTONIO.

Primary evacuees will be from nursing homes, hospitals and assisted living facilities.

Here is an update about TS Dean:

TS Dean is strengthening and is expected to obtain hurricane status within the next 12 hour period. Based on information obtained during the 4:00 pm State Operations Center conference call with the National Weather Service, this storm is expected to become a major threat to Texas over the next week. Current modeling indicates this storm has the potential to grow to CAT 3 or CAT 4 status and is “likely” to impact the Texas gulf coast. Tasking from the State of Texas for Angel Staffing IS EXPECTED for what will become Hurricane Dean.

This will be challenging, but I know the medical staff of San Antonio are up to a challenge like this one! All volunteers are asked to commit to a minimum of 12 hours; 7am/pm-7pm/am.

It is not necessary to be affiliated with Angel's or to work for Angel's to volunteer. Angel Staffing is donating our time and efforts on behalf of the cause and we are simply helping out by coordinating volunteer's for this massive local effort. Please pass the word on to your friends and co-workers. If you plan to volunteer please call 616-9526 to let Angel's on call staff know you are planning on helping out. This coordination effort will be most sucessful with good communication, this way we utilize all medical staff in the most efficient manner.

Angel's will be waiting to hear from you, 210-616-9526!

Thanks to all of you,
Melanie Register
Executive Vice President
Angel Staffing, Inc.

The second is from the Texas Board of Nursing Examiners sent last Friday, sending broadcast e-mails to all south texas nurses who have e-mail accounts. (Apparently the State of Texas has learned well from Katrina's lessons):

Dear Texas Nurse:

The Texas Board of Nursing is sending you the following message because we have your email address. Your assistance may be needed in the event that Hurricane Dean makes landfall in Texas. If you are willing to volunteer, you are requested not to respond directly to this email but to the web address at the bottom of this message.

By responding, you are giving permission to Ready Texas Nurses/Texas Nurses Foundation to contact you.

Ready Texas Nurses Emergency Response Program, a project of the Texas Nurses Foundation, in its role as a private partner to the State Disaster Health Plan has been asked to identify nurses who may be willing to serve as volunteers in response to Hurricane Dean.

Hurricane Dean has picked up speed and no one knows exactly where Dean may make landfall. The State of Texas begins pre-staging and mobilizing assets 120 hours before hurricane force winds make landfall. With the increased speed of Dean the 120 hours alert could be as early as Saturday, August 18th.

Nurses are reminded that their first responsibility is to fulfill any obligations to their employer, either through their employer’s disaster plan or to carryout job assignments, especially if you are in a 100 mile radius of the disaster area. While the State of Texas has not totally completed its state plan, TNA believes the following are opportunities where nurses may be needed.

A. The State is setting up a system for evacuation of special need patients located in areas impacted by the hurricane. Multiple methods will be used to transport patients/evacuees to San Antonio, where evacuees will be triaged and assigned to appropriate shelters. Nurses will be needed to travel to San Antonio, where they will be assigned to a specially prepared bus and travel on the bus. The nurses will receive triaged patients onto the bus and will oversee and provide care of these patients while traveling back to San Antonio. Nurses accepting these assignments need to be skilled in life support.

B. As with any potential disaster there will be numerous shelters and emergency clinics established around the perimeter of the storm areas. Nurses will be needed for these areas as well. Depending on Dean’s path and where the storm makes landfall, nurses also may be needed to provide shelter support.

DSHS will provide more specific information as that information becomes known, which again will depend on Dean’s path and the impacted areas. Nurses should be able to volunteer for at least three days.

If you are want to volunteer for either of the above opportunities please reply by email to tna@texasnurses.org and provide the following information:

Full Name
RN License #
Phone # (s) where you can be reached during the next 12 hours. Indicate, work or cell phone
Email Addresses – where you can be reached both day or night
Where you can help: (1) Travel to San Antonio to man the special needs buses; or (2) work in one of the Special Needs Shelters (information to follow).

For just-in-time information and a list of recommended items to take with you when you volunteer please visit the Texas Nurses Association’s web site at http://www.texasnurses.org/rtn/rtn.htm.

Obviously, a lot of thought has gone into plnning for "the next Katrina." I haven't volunteered yet, but I'm sure I will as Dean gets closer. Of course, I'll keep you posted.

And, of course, this is all the San Antonio Spurs fault.

Huh? What? Spurs???

Yeeeessssss, the San Antonio Spurs. Every time they win an NBA championship, South Texas suffers a direct hit from a hurricane. In 2005 we got Emily, Katrina, and Rita.

Go, Spurs, Go. First we have to suffer through Tim Duncan's free-throw shooting -- now this. (sigh).

~~JD~~

Friday's Feast!!!

Appetizer: Describe your laundry routine. Do you have a certain day when you do it all, or do you just wash whatever you need for the next day?

About every other 2nd or third day I grab the laundry basket and start washing. That way it doesn't take so long. It drives me nuts to wait too long. I wash everything in the house.

Soup: In your opinion, what age will you be when you’ll consider yourself to truly be old?

I was truly old when I was twelve -- or, at least, I've felt that way since then. "What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun." (Ecclesiastes 1:9)

Salad: What is one of your goals? Is it short-term, long-term, or both?

Long Term: I need to finish my RN degree. I really should have done it a long time ago. Short Term: I need to get to bed -- right now.

Main Course: Name something unbelievable you’ve seen or read lately.

I saw a UFO about three years ago. If I hadn't been with my niece when it happened, I might have thought I was crazy. I saw a ghost about ten years ago. I still think I might be crazy just from that.

Dessert: On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being highest, how happy are you today?

Happiness is overrated. Service to others is more important. I'm happy if I've been of service to others, which is why I'm a nurse. Somewhere around a 7 currently, I guess -- but I haven't worked in a week.

~~JD~~

Vignettes from the Road (Aftermath)

************Updated 11:20 pm**************


Just in case anyone wondered what the "lifted leg" pose is all about -- Think Captain Morgan. "Got a little Captain in Ye?"

We rolled into San Antonio at 1:20 am; about 5 hours later than I figured. After the stop in Kansas at the Pizza Hut we made only one more stop for gas (no, it wasn't a Murphy USA or a Wal-Mart.) and for ice cream at a Braum's Ice Cream when we started to get funky. I could tell Julian was starting to get tired when he almost sideswiped a truck, so i drove from Dallas until I started to get leg cramps so bad I wanted to literally scream. He then drove from San Marcos home again. All things considered, he did a pretty damned good job.

We knew we were back in South Texas when the remnants of Hurricane Erin met us at the doorstep of San Antonio last night, and it's raining again. Unlike the drenching, dark clouds of spring and early summer, these are high, light sprinkling rains interspersed with drenching downpours as the rain bands of the hurricane move inland.

Hey, more rain for the Edwards Aquifer. Bring it on, Baby!

Update: It;s just after 9:20 pm. It's STILL raining sideways at a rate of 1.44 inches an hour, and we've had 4.56 inches, with 32 mph of wind.

Bring- It- On!!!

Update 2: We ended up with a total of 10 inches. Fill up my aquifer!

Beats the hell out of Chicago Snowstorms!

~~JD~~

Vignettes from the Road (Part VII)

***************Updated 11:05 pm*************
Today – we go home. Traveling is nice, but after a while we’re REALLY ready for our own beds and bathrooms. Today is that day.

Left Dad about 6am after having been woken up by a phone call from Nurse- finders. I had comple- tely forgotten I was scheduled to work today! Fortunately, they were calling me off (which likely means they’ll call me off again tomorrow, too.)

Well, I had a LOT on my mind. A wake-up call in more ways than one.

Kelly and her daughter Alicia came over to see Dad last night. Like us, they were pretty startled to see how bad he’d become so fast. So Julian got to meet his other cousins on the Long side, and we traded phone numbers and e-mail addresses and promised to do this again soon – like, BEFORE any funerals.

We hit the ground running and took Iowa 2 across to I-35, then I-35 south. We stopped to get these pictures:

If you squint REALLY HARD, you can see a llama over Julian’s right shoulder. No, really!

7:30 am: Here he is at the Iowa/Missouri Border. Thrilling. We ran across four lanes of Interstate to get these photos. (Fortunately two lanes were under construction, so it wasn’t quite as dangerous as it sounds.) And the Missouri State Trooper was very understanding, if not humorless . . . .


10:30 am: Kansas. There were no fancy- schmancy signs welcoming us to the great state of Kansas; otherwise we’d have stopped and risked life and limb to get a photo again. We DID get this neat picture of Julian driving through the gorgeous wheat fields of Kansas (that’s the shadow of his fingers on the steering wheel at right . . . )


2:00 pm: Here’s the Oklahoma Border. It’s not “just” a sign; it’s a 10 foot by 40 foot pink marble engraved monument! Oklahoma has a LOT of style. It’s looking more and more like we’re actually going to get home to San Antone by midnight local time, which means I’ll be working tomorrow. (Yay!!!) So far we’ve done excellently with our budget, so I’ve promised Julian the biggest, fattest steak we can find when we get to Texas – which, believe me, is one big honkin’ steak.


6:05 pm: Closing in on the Texas Border. I'm scheduled to work in the morning. We gotta get moving here. The one thing I learned on this trip: All Days Inns have free (i.e., non-passworded) wireless Internet. After the horror story in Waynesville, I don't feel one bit guilty.

We ate at a place called "Pizza Hut Italian Bistro" somewhere north of the Kansas / Oklahoma line. It was outfitted a lot better than your standard Pizza Hut, and a lot of the same fare (although the Salad Bar suffered in the conversion -- that's a mistake) with some very nice pasta additions. Julian had the Penne pasta dish while I stuck with the familiar Caesar Salad and wings. WARNING: Pizza Hut's "Mild" wings are a LOT hotter than mot places "Hot" Wings.

7:30 pm: Texas Border. Julian wanted to take a picture, but traffic was rough and the shoulders get weird here in Texas. Plus both of us just want to get the hell home at this point.

11:05 pm: Oh, look! There's Waco! (And I gotta work in the morning.) I'm seriously wondering if I'm EVER going to get home.

~~JD~~

Vignettes from the Road (Part VI)

*** UPDATED WITH NEW PHOTOS -- WHOOPEE!!!***

Did some exploring this morning.

Found the local McDonald’s, and they didn’t have any new Legion of Super- Heroes figures, but we still had breakfast there. Julian was amazed there was still a McDonald’s that served their Bagel breakfasts, so he was quite pleased with his Breakfast bagel with cheese and bacon. We then found Wal-Mart, and continued our Wal-Marts of the World Tour (and as you can see, Julian is not fond of that name.


We also found my cousin Kelly Baker (and Julian’s second cousin) at her place of employ- ment; an antique shop. We took pictures, of course.



I also found the old Dairy Bar. I actually have memories of running across the stone wall along the back of this place when I was 18 months old. It seemed to me at the time the wall was ten feet high – and to an 18-month old, it was.







We also walked over to the intersections of Iowa 2 and Iowa 5. I remember my grandfather Roy making loops of dandelions here and hanging them around my neck. I remember finding the coordination to extremely difficult – and, again, to an 18-month old, it was.












We've found a new way to post. We find a wireless hotspot (here from the Centerville Library) and post from the car. It saves a lot of time, and we don't have to get out of the car into the heat.

~~JD~~

Vignettes from the Road (Part V)

A brief word about Dinner Saturday with the lunatics from the Dixonverse Message Boards; it was just fantastic. Drew Geraci and his wife were gracious and intelligent hosts, and a GREAT time was had by all generally. We all agreed what Chuck’s next book to write was (I’m not telling) and decided that Prima Donnas in a workplace ruin everything. Make of that what you will.


It was while I was having dinner with my mother Sunday afternoon that she told me about my Dad. He had Prostate Cancer several years ago and had his prostate removed, but at that time refused to undergo the recommended preventative Chemotherapy. If it was going to make him sick, he didn’t want to go through it.

So he didn’t, and his prostate grew back, and grew back cancerous again. And, of course, being the medically-avoidant pain in the rump he is, he never got another PSA test for Prostate cancer.

Until last fall, when it was too late. He’s been through radiation and chemo without any appreciable results, and he’s decided to just go the hospice route. Right now he has a massive bladder infection, is on the verge of renal failure, and takes more painkillers than I’d care to think about. Fortunately he sleeps a lot of the day away, napping on and off throughout.

I’m having decidedly mixed feelings about it. My parents were divorced when I was young and Dad was in-and-out (mostly out) of our lives, just popping in long enough to cause some chaos amid the (admittedly) brief joy. As Ariane noted, “I always have had a soft spot for him. He’s my favorite bad guy.”

And now he’s dying.

There have been time I missed this man so much I wept, despairing if I’d ever see him again. And there have been times I was so furious at him, I wanted to kill him myself.

I have absolutely no words for what’s going through my soul right now. None.


We drove from Chicago without telling anybody we were coming, and surprised them all. (Julian slept a good portion of the trip; the wear and tear of the road is starting to catch up to him.) We stopped in an Oasis over I-294 for souvenirs before departing Chicago, and arrived about 4:30pm. Iowa in August is a hot, humid, horrific place to travel, so we were pretty happy to arrive relatively unscathed.


My Aunt Joanne (Dad’s sister) has been bringing over meals, so she brought extra meat loaf, peas, and noodles tonight for us as well. She was happy to see us, and astonished we’d made the trip, and both she and Dad thought it was an incredible coincidence we were in Chicago when we found out.

Well, I don’t believe in coincidence.

We all talked into the night and exchanged minituae. Dad was tickled to see all the pictures I brought on my computer, and I’m going to go make him copies at Wal-Mart tomorrow. He likes to look at pictures a lot lately.

Wouldn’t you?

More tomorrow, I hope.

~~JD~~

Vignettes From The Road (Part IV): Family Ties

Time Flies, indeed. The children of my cousin Nancy that I remembered as pre-teens have really grown up. Adam is a worship leader at Liberty Bible Church in the praise band Sunday Mornings.



We got to Liberty Bible Church just in time to worship and meet my cousin Nancy and her daughter Kate (who I remembered in pigtails and overalls, and has grown up into quite the young lady.) We caught up briefly, then went on a brief tour of Valparaiso to see the sights and meet for lunch.



One of our stops was julian's Elementary School, which was little changed from his school days. The vegetation was more lush, and there was no one inside, but essentially the same.



After luch at Strongbow's with nancy, we had dinner with my mother and caught up for a few hours, then went over to my cousin Bob's house for a few minutes of catch-up there. (We both decided we gotta get back more frequently.)

Finally, I called my Dad, and he confirmed what my Mom had told me; he;s dying of Acute Renal Failure and Prostate Cancer. We only talked a few minutes, but I promised to call again tomorrow.

And tomorrow, I'll tell you what my evil plan for Monday is. Don't want to spoil the surprise . . .

~~JD~~

Vignettes From The Road (Part III): Chicago Comicon Part B

The Cup O' Joe Panel lead off the second half of our Con experience. I asked the Chuck Dixon question ("Does Chuck Dixon have anything in the pipeline?") and got an unqualified "No." from Joe, CB Cebulsi, and Dan Buckley in unison.

Oh, and just to spoil it -- Captain America Returns in 2008 with Alex Ross doing the artwork.

This "reveal image" from the last moment of the panel is grainy and blurred, but it's Iron Man kissing Spider-Woman. Try to contain your enthusiasm.











Pam Bliss of Paradise Valley comics was seen and re-connected with. We'd lost track of each other when we moved to Texas years ago. Her wonderful mini-comics are available at her website at Paradisevalley.com.

Scott McCullar and Ethan from the Dixonverse are seen here as we co-ordinate carpooling to dinner tonight. All were informed that Michael Hutchinson was not attending due to nearly being washed away in a rainstorm.

Here's a photo from the DC Direct booth of the upcoming Marvel Family figures, complete with both red and white Mary Marvel figures. (No "Black Mary" figures seen.) Of particular note is the "Hoppy the Marvel Bunny" figure at near left.

And finally, Greg Karras was seen at his booth for Galactic Greg's Comics. He's also got a new comic book coming out from Moonstone Comics called CLASH. Go, Buy one already!

~~JD~~

Vignettes From The Road Part III: Chicago WizardWorld

We got a good jump on the day with Breakfast at the Silver Stallion restaurant on Mannheim road. (Think "Dancing Zorba's" from My Big Fat Greek Wedding.) Julian, unused to being awake at the ungodly hour of 8:00 am, does his best to smile.

Here's the line to get into WizardWorld. Fanboys on Parade -- make of it what you will.

I attended the DC Panel "New Worlds Order". I asked if Chuck Dixon had anything in the pipeline -- Dan Didio said "Maybe." They showed trailers from the New Frontier (JLA) and Doomsday (Superman) animated videos coming out, which were excellent. Dc also has theatrical releases in production of Justice League and Watchmen, and the Flash movie is currently deciding on which Flash to use (Wally West seems to be the favorite of the crowd.) Vertigo also has several animated features in development, including Sandman.

From the Q&A:

Items listed as "Resting": Warlord and Aquaman ("Sleeping with the Fishes")

Items listed as "WTF???": War Comics from DC, audiobook versions of comics

Items listed as "Depends on the Sales . . . "' Ultimate Dark Victory,

Coming Soon: JLA/Hitman (2-part story)
All Star Wonder Woman ("As soon as we get enough issues in the can to release it")
Teen Titans "Games" Graphic Novel ("It's a long process -- George has been real busy on Brave & The Bold")

Also noted: Paul Levitz says "Kyle Rayner will not die -- but we will beat him up a lot." And something from James Robinson in the near future is a "definitely yes!". Also Firestorm Vs. Darkseid in JLA (he wasn't supposed to say that)

Almost immediately I found Todd Fox and J. Morgan Neal (yes, that's a "Jughead" beanie he's wearing . . . ) of "Aym Geronimo" autographing their Graphic novel. We confirmed plans for dinner tonight (8pm at the Ram Restaurant). Seen vaguely in the background shadows is Scott E. hileman, who says "Hang In There and Take Care!"

The DC Direct booth has lots of new statues. While the Legion of Super-Heroes has none apparent, the DC Direct guy told me "that's the questioln we've been answering all morning; and the answer is an unqualified 'YES!'". The Legion will have a full line of figures and variants of all versions of the Legion, if not from their licescee Mattel, then from DC Direct. Seen here is the 12" Green Arrow figure, complete with multiple interchangeable arrows and the legendary Boxing-Glove Arrow. Not pictured are the saliva stains on the carpet from Scott McCullar, noted Green Arrow afficianado.

Here's something you see a lot of at these kind of conventions; fanboys (and fangirls) dressing up. Here we have Batman and Superman fighting over Emma Frost of the X-Men. With that costume of hers, you can see why. She may win the "most photographed" award at the costume contest.

This is one of my favorites; a perfect (and I mean PERFECT) Batgirl costume, right down to the patent leather and spandex. Yvonne Craig's costume on TV was not this perfect.


And I suppose this was just a matter of time; the inevitable Mask kiosk has a sale on "The King" masks from the Burger King commercials -- only $40.00 each. Advertising becomes pop culture.

More later.

~~JD~~

Vignettes from the Road (Part II)

It started late today. We didn’t really get to bed until about 11:30 pm, between blog posting, cleaning up, and wrestling out the confusion with the desk clerk. So when the wake-up call came at 6:30, I just hung it up and slept for an hour more. We needed it.

However, there’s a few things about the St. Robert Missouri Days Inn that you should know, should you feel the desire to ever stay there:

1) They messed up our reservation – badly. Wrong address, wrong credit card, wrong discount (AAA) – we were lucky to get our room right.
2) The deadbolt in our room didn’t work. We put a chair against the door just for prudence’s sake.
3) Somebody threw up on one of the chairs in our room, which stained it. They tried really hard to get the stain out and failed. My feeling is, personally, if you’ve got a stained chair in your room, it needs to be replaced.
4) The complimentary breakfast is no compliment if it’s gone before you wake up.
5) The first sight that greets you when you walk into the office is a sign on the public restroom that says “Out Of Order.” It still wasn’t working when we left, which is too damned long.
6) That’s right next to the complimentary breakfast, by the way. Ewwwww.
7) And just to make it all surreal, a dwarf waited on us at checkout. I wouldn’t mention it except that after everything else was so wrong, this just capped it off nicely.

No, I DIDN’T take a picture.

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Waynesville, Missouri has changed a LOT since we lived here from 1989 to 1993. Exit 156 on I-44 (where we exited for downtown Waynesville and our house) used to have just houses, a Casey’s quick stop, and a Cinema 8 (which was built the year before we left.)

Now there’s entire mini-malls built around the site, which has revitalized Waynesville proper. St. Robert (a traditional strip town around a military base’s main gate) has also been revitalized and cleaned up. The third Wal-Mart in the town’s 20 year history has been built (a new Super-Wal-Mart this time) and moved the city center a mile north in the process.

We stopped by our old house and were sorely dis- appointed. The site was trashed, and in dire need of repair. Very sad.

And while Julian didn’t remember much of Waynesville, he had a memory flashback as we passed St. James Missouri just past Rolla. Ariane used to have two friends who spoiled Julian rotten as a baby. He remembered Terry used to live in St. James.

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One of the real historical treats of the expedition was finding an actual section of old Route 66 between Exit 163 and the Highway J exit between Rolla and St. Robert. This is actual, unrestored Route 66 here, in some disrepair but quite drivable. The 1920’s era construction techniques played havoc with my suspension, but it was well worth it.

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Lunch was fun – White Castle sliders. My wife thinks the frozen one you can get in the store are just the same, but Julian and I both think they’re better in their natural habitat – fresh steamed from the store.

The fries suck, though. Ick.

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Second major stop of the trip (after re-touring Waynesville) was the St. Louis Arch. I wanted to stop in the gift shop and get a little souvenir arch for my collection of souvenir landmarks (I have tiny copies of the Golden Gate Bridge, Sears Tower, World Trade Center, Eiffel Tower, Empire State, and such) and Julian wanted to go up in the Arch itself. But as we entered (and security was as tight as any airport when we entered – metal detectors and everything – I had to take off my belt to get through!) they announced that lift tickets were sold out through 5:30pm. (This is being announced at lunchtime.)


So while we didn’t get to go up, we did get some nifty souvenirs, some great photos, and a promise to go back on the way if we can.


Julian got to drive right after we picked up I-55 in Illinois and lost I-70 (those interchanges can be tricky business; and the last thing I wanted was having a teenaged driver panicking in downtown St. Louis – let alone East St. Louis.) The end result; he drove all the way across Illinois top-to-bottom! Did a great job, too.


Well, we made it to the Sofitel and after a bit of confusion (I turned the wrong way on Mannheim road and ended up in Schiller Park – wrong way!) we had dinner at Harry Caray’s and did a little recon for dinner tomorrow (The Ram: an Irish brewpub, which means Julian is driving home.)

More tomorrow.

~~JD~~