In Texas even the DOGS drive pickup Trucks . . .

In Texas, apparently Beagles can drive. How he gets those little stubby legs down to the pedals is a mystery to me. I laughed so hard when I saw this little guy toodling northbound on U.S. 281 I almost didn't get the picture. (He sure looks like he's having a ball, doesn't he?)


Had a small nightmare of a bureacratic tussle happen this afternoon. Julian has been getting nasty automated e-mails from the Northeast Independant School District (NEISD) reminding him he needed a new tetanus shot, so I picked him up from a school meeting and we went to the "Express Med" clinic at the main University Hospital branch. (Ariane works at Uiversity Hospital, so we have Insurance through them.) We signed in the clinic just after 12pm and waited.

After 40 minutes of being ignored by the three (3!) receptionists behind the desk -- apparently their cellphones and hospital gossip were more important than the patients -- a male nurse came out and told us that Julian needed the "TDP" vaccine, and that they didn't have it at that clinic. Now, as a nurse who has previously worked in an Immunizations clinic, I knew that the TDP vaccine (which protects against Tetanus, Diptheria, and Pertussis -- or whooping cough -- thus the acronym TDP) is for children under 12 years old, which I mentioned to him. He clarified this with the doctor, who insisted there was a new vaccine for adolescents that their clinic did not have, so we would have to go to the Downtown Clinic.

So off we went to the Downtown Clinic, known as "Brady Green". Brady Green is about the same age as my hometown hospital, Porter Memorial, and reminds me a lot of the 1960's version of Porter Memorial, so I usually enjoy a chance to go there. So we signed in about 1pm and waited.

And waited. And read the paper. Then we palyed computer solitaire on my Palm Pilot.

Then, -- we waited some more.

About 3:30pm -- 2-and-a-half hours later -- the receptionist (whose name was Esmerelda Zapatas) informed us that we had signed in on the wrong sheet -- so we would have to go to the Pediatric Waiting Room now. Mind you, there's been NOBODY at the desk of this clinic to direct us when we arrived or since -- and she's getting all bent out of shape with us because somebody knocked over the signs at the desk. So we sat down in the Pediatric Waiting area and began a game of musical chairs lasting another hour. First we had to do the paperwork to get Julian into the system. Then she called us back to explain that we were in "the wrong type of clinic." Apparently University Hospital has Free Clinics for the indigent (where we were currently) and other clinics for the employees -- so our Insurance wouldn't work here --and we would have to pay for his immunization! In a "Free Clinic."

Note to my family and friends: this is the point where I stopped speaking to this nut-job for fear I would raise my voice and call her a naughty name. So you can imagine how pissed I was by now.

Then there were subsequent trips about every five minutes to (a) sign a paper to have our $15.00 co-pay deducted from Ariane's paycheck -- (b) another to assume financial liability if our insurance wouldn't pay, and (c) finally to tell us they didn't actually have the vaccine Julian needed. All the while she's going on and on in acronyms and jargon that I wouldn't have understood if I hadn't worked at University Hospital myself for a year and been a nurse -- and I'm wondering how frustrated the poor schmucks who walk in off the street must be listening to this whine-bag make excuses and baffle them with b.s.

At this point I can physically taste the bile in my throat -- and the urge to strangle Ms. Esmerelda is becoming ever more difficult to override.

At this point a lovely older nurse named Dolores Nolan came out and took Julian back to give him the Tetanus shot. She had heard there was "an immunization needed doing" and took care of us quickly and efficiently. She explaine that there was, indeed, a new "Adolescent Tetanus Shot (called the "TDaP") which is why the doctor at the first clinic was confused -- but that the Health System has not actually RECEIVED the vaccine yet. She updated our shot records, gave us a copy of the Immunization form they send to the Health Department, and gave us a new shot record they use down here in South Texas.

A real gem, that Dolores. I'm writing a letter to the CEO of University Hospital demanding she get a raise.



So, to celebrate our freedom Julian and I had Dinner at P.F. Chang's chinese restaurant (I had the calamari and fried rice -- Julian had the lettuce wraps and corn fill), and we went to see the movie Elizabethtown with Orlando Bloom and Kirsten Dunst. It's funny, uplifting, and romantic -- but not your average chick-flick. At times it was laugh-out-loud funny as the foibles of family, dating, courtship, and facing your own mortality plays out in rapid succession on the screen. But it also has lots of moments guys will appreciate -- like Orlando Bloom's hilarious encounter with a drunken, over-the-top groom whilst he's trying to steal the groom's beer from a drunken per-wedding party. (The slogan "24/7" takes on new meaning after seeing theis bizarre wedding party at the Brown Hotel in Elizabethtown, which backdrops the Dunst/Bloom romance.) I went to see it because Kirsten Dunst is a babe and the plot looked good -- but this movie is so good it made even me like the much-hated Susan Sarandon.

Great movie. Very much recommended -- you should most definitely see it if you get the chance. In fact, make the time for it.

~~JD~~~

Saturday Musings and Fifteenth Birthdays

Julian turned fifteen years old Thursday, which was a great surprise to me. I'm astonished his mother or I didn't kill him long before this.

He actually had a surprise or two for his birthday this year. He wanted a figurine of the Starfire character from the Teen Titans, but the one he wanted was a $250.00 maquette statue that was a bit pricey after his Sony MP3 Player he received a week early.
(You can see the product description by clicking on the title of this post above.) He also loves to eat out and was fairly certain we'd do it again for his birthday, but his mother was determined to surprise him, saying "We are NOT going to go out for dinner this year!"

So his mother and I both arranged to be off on Thursday and after dropping him at school, we cleaned the house and went to Target (for a folding Papa-San chair for his room, a new hassock, and a wooden wall shelf), Wal-Mart (for new bed linens and decorations), Bob's Comics (for a smaller, less expensive paperweight version of Starfire), and a Chinese Restaurant for his favorite Take-Out. We cleaned his room thoroughly (no small task -- how the HECK did he get it so dirty since moving in 2 months ago???) and redecorated it with his new linens, chair, hassock, and Starfire prominently displayed on her new oak shelf on the wall. We also put Halloween lights up on the windows and had them all plugged in, ready to go when he came home.


The bed linens are particularly nice, made from a fabric called "Microfiber" that looks like suede, feels like silk, and is machine washable -- very nice and luxurious -- not to mention affordable.


His first words when he sat on the bed were "I feel like a Millionaire!" So, it was worth it, I guess. (Heh.) Well, he did make First Chair in Orchestra with his violin, so I expect he deserved some reward for the hard work.


Some small changes to the 'blog: I've added two links to the massive amount of Internet Debris on my 'blog. The First is "The Radio Equalizer" a blog on the server I post with also -- by Brian Maloney, a radio host out of Michigan, I believe. Brian is also one of the insiders in the radio industry and has some fascinating stories of the crap going on behind-the-scenes at various and sundry places, like Air America and the hardball tactics being used by ABC Radio Corporate with their local hosts. (Those of you from the Chicago area might remember how Garry Meier was forced off the air at WLS-AM through these same tactics two years ago while being half of the top-rated duo on Afternoon Drive in Chicago. Well, same stuff, different day -- just in San Francisco this time.) Fascinating and intelligent reading.

The second new link is "Protest Warriors.com," which teaches budding neo-conservatives how to use the Left's own tacticts against them. They cite using the ACLU's own website as a reference point for information (Love It!), how to sneak into Leftist demonstrations and disrupt them with counter protest (something the Left isn't used to doing or seeing -- with hilarious results); as well as first-person accounts of some of the Lefty forces of Indoctrination confronted by neo-cons with their own side of Free Speech. Love these folks. Scroll down the Left-Hand side to the "Favorite 'Blogs" section to find them.

And finally, I've stopped allowing comments to the postings. Apparently one of the new ways for advertising leeches to rip you off is a new variation of the e-mail "spam" theory -- they post bogus comments with links to their websites. I discovered they were bogus when (a) one of them was referencing something I hadn't even talked about, and (b) a comment turned up on a post I hadn't even completed yet! So, since they've ruined this for the bloggers as well now, I've just cut them off by eliminating the comments sections. E-mail me if you want to say "Hi!"


Oh, and my Cat says "Hello!"

Aftermath: life Slowly returns to "Normal" . . .

Hopefully you can read the wording on the sign; it reads "Delays on Routes to Houston." This alternated with "IH-10 closed at Baton Rouge Louisiana."

No Kidding? Texas Department of Transportation: Masters of the fine art of understatement.

The "Special Needs" Shelter I was working part-time at has closed as they continue to consolidate the remaining refugees at Kelly AFB. Governor Perry has made it quite clear that any and all refugees who want housing in Texas, however temporary, are damned well going to get an apartment, house, trailer, nursing home, or whatever they want, and right now! Probably less than a third of the original Katrina refugees are left at Kelly and the number of Rita refugees is markedly less.

An interesting vignette or two from the disaster zones: one of our elders at Northwest Church is originally from Mississippi. His home church had the roof torn off during Katrina, so we arranged to purchase all the materials to replace the roof and sent it on it's way the first week. When he got there they replaced the roof as congregation members cooordinated relief efforts from the parking lot; serving up barbecue on grills as meat markets donated their stocks that would've gone bad without electricity anyway. (Fortunately for us, God had seen fit for our congregation to pay off our mortgage last month, so we had the cash on hand to do that for them.)

Meanwhle, Max Lucado's Oak Hills Church has been quietly finding refugee families that want to stay in San Antonio and completely furnishing their new apartments/homes with furniture, kitchen items, clothing, and everything they need to start over. They've done it for an uncounted number of familes so far -- and I'm sure they'll try to continue to do it anonymously as long as loudmouths like me don't ruin it.

Two interesting things of a Nursing nature that tie into this as well. One of the reasons I cut back on my volunteering towards the end was the incredible inflexibility of my co-workers. The "Hospital Nurses" couldn't seem to get over the fact that the clinic would frequently shut down when there weren't enough nurses to cover 24/7. To me this seemed to be the logical outcome when (a) you're dealing with volunteer help, and (b) it's a First Aid Clinic -- not a hospital ward, for crying out loud.

The other was the attitude some of the evacuees displayed. One of the Nurses I work with told me that when she was distributing clothing to a 10-year-old-girl, the girl replied "I don't wear Levis, I wear Fubus.."

The nurse asked her, "Honey -- where's your suitcase?"

The girl replied, "I ain't got no suitcase."

The nurse said to her "That's right sugar -- and you ain't got no Fubus, either. These are brand-new Levis -- still got the tags on and everything-- that somebody paid good money so you wouldn't be walking around naked -- like you're about to be if you turn down these Levi's again." The girl took the Levis. When the girl's mother heard what happened she apologized profusely -- said the girl had never had a pair of Fubu jeans in her life.

So, more than a few frustrations, as you might imagine.

Meanwhile, our planned expedition to Galveston this weekend did not come off as planned, as you might guess. Instead we went north 40 miles to San Marcos Texas, which has no less than two huge outlet malls. Ariane and I got some new scrubs for work, and I found a Dickies outlet store (I always wear white Dickies pants with my scrub tops; looks professionally "Nurse-y", and doesn't feel as weird as scrub pants.) Ariane found a "Le Creuset" kitchenware store and dropped the appropriate hints so that I know where to shop for Christmas; a mere 83 days, 4 hours, 1 miute, and 29 seconds away as I write this.

The weather has returned to what passes for normal in South Texas this time of year: blue skies, 90+ degrees, and more sunshine than should be legal.

So, all is well -- if not peachy!

This Just In . . . . (The Bitch-Slapping of South Texas by Rita; Part VI)

As the realization hits me that we really, truly dodged the bullet with Rita, I find myself overcome with unequal parts of disappointment and relief.

We drove to San Marcos (40 miles north) this afternoon to shop for Julian's birthday present. (Fifteen. Fifteen!!! Can you believe that?!?) On the way we stopped at Costco in San Antonio and witnessed a wonderful example of human compassion. One of the familes in line had a variety of household supples in their carts; pillows, clothing, blankets, linens, and a refrigerator. When they tried to pay with a white Visa card with a Red Cross on it (one of the cards they're handing out to Katrina Evacuees) the cashier called the manager. You could see the consternation and fear on their faces, wondering why the manager had to be there -- until the manager explained "We're not letting you pay retail price for these -- you only pay Wholesale when you have one of these Red Cross (or FEMA) cards."

So they walked out of Costo wiht $1,500.00 of goods for less than $750.00. Made me tear up right there and get the sniffies.

Meanwhile, the shelves of the stores are getting bare. (See the Link above). As the Katrina evacuees start setting up shop in their new homes in San Antone, the Rita evacuees are buying groceries for their host families whilst they're here; as well as groceries to take back to Houston/Corpus Christi/wherever with them. (With most of the stores closed where they came from, they're being cautious and taking stuff back with them.) So I think it'll be a very profitable and happy 4th quarter for San Antonio retailers, but a lot of fun shopping for groceries the next few days.

I'll probably be working more than a few shifts the next few days at the Baptist Church Shelter for Katrina Refugees. More than a few nurses evacuated San Antonio when Hurricane Rita seemed aimed at the city (or were federalized by FEMA or local Health Departments) which makes Shelter Help at a premium.

Isn't there some kind of Chinese curse that says "May you live in Interesting Times?" Heh-heh-heh.

Ah, who am I kidding? I'm loving this!

~~JD~~

This Just In . . . . (The Bitch-Slapping of South Texas by Rita; Part V)

What a difference a day makes, indeed.

Pastor Al from Indiana called this morning. He, his wife Betty, and his brother are holed up in a hotel in Schulenburg Texas; halfway between Houston and San Antonio. They were kind of humbled to think God had found them somebody to offer their home to them this far from Indiana, and incredibly grateful. Well, we're all just servants, and i was glad to have been of (potential) service. So they're fine, and may head back to Corpus Christi tomorrow or Sunday, depending on what Rita does in the next 12 hours.

The clouds are again rotating above San Antonio like they did for Katrina; just a LOT closer this time. As the storm has shifted farther to the north the winds have started shifting to the northeast and coming in pretty quickly -- about 20-40 mph gusts. The clouds have filled the normally clear-blue cloudless South Texas skies; rotating counter clockwise overhead.

Awe-inspiring, really.

We're all watching this very warily of course. This damned storm could quite easily take a left turn when it makes landfall and still give San Antonio hell.

But, for now, we appear to have dodged the bullet.

The best part of all is: I'm facing a Saturday where all the shopping, laundry, cleaning, and chores have been done already. Plus I've got a case of chilled Coors in the refrigerator and 2 bags of chip and dip.

I feel a "Lord of the Rings" marathon coming on . . . .

~~JD~~

The View from I-10 Eastbound

The Westbound lanes of IH-10, usually empty during the morning commute, are full of refugees from Galveston/Houston area. The sun rises through a murky mass of impending cloudbank from Rita; still hundreds of miles away but whose cloudtops are easily visible from San Antonio. (Pardon the blurriness; shot on the fly during the morning commute.)

The View from Sam's Club in San Antonio

Thursday afternoon 9/22/2005: It doesn't look too unusual until you notice everyone has 2 or 3 cases of bottled water in their carts. Bottled Water! Also, due to the limitations of my camera, you can't see the lines -- 8-10 people long each.

This Just In . . . . (The Bitch-Slapping of South Texas by Rita; Part IV)

It's 3am, and I can't sleep. I swear I can feel my ears pop with the lowering barometric pressure.

Spent yesterday doing laundry (if the power goes out you can't wash clothes -- and we usually do laundry in Casa Largo on Saturdays -- right when Rita should be coming ashore. See Previous Post "Hurricanes and Moral Quandries . . . still don't Help Me do the Laundry!")

About noon I went to get some shopping done -- same reason. Wal-Mart had Guards! on the bottled water!!! Apparently it went fast when Rita started aiming at South Texas, and one store had some kind of trouble when the water ran out. They were limiting customers to one case each; so i had to make a trip to Sam's Club to get another case. Wal-Mart was in short supply of bread, tuna, peanut butter, and cold remedies, as well as water.

Traffic was remarkably light. Really weird. Applied Rain-X to both cars' windsheilds. That stuff really works great; and it's too late to apply it when it starts to rain.

Got an e-mail from my former church in Indiana; our former pastor is in Corpus Christi with his brother and seeking shelter inland. I e-mailed them back to call us if they need anyhting. We'd be happy to put them up in our tiny apartment.

Picked up my weekly quota of comic books and extra Coors and chips. Gotta do something if the power goes out.

And I still can't sleep.

~~JD~~

This Just In . . . . (The Bitch-Slapping of South Texas by Rita; Part III)

MSNBC'sw Website captioned this "Thousands of cars slowly make their way out of Houston, Texas, on Wednesday to escape Hurricane Rita." I'd say that's about right.

Rita is still a Cat-5 storm, and has started to shift to the Northwest. While that's something of a relief (since we won't be hit head-on) I'm feeling more than a little guilt as she sidles up towards already-devastated New Orleans and the bulk of the Katrina refugees in Houston.

So, that's a bad thing. Fotunately Texas has a no-nonsense governor in Rick Perry who started evacuating those refugees earlier this week to Arkansas and (sigh) San Antonio. And unlike New Orleans' Mayor Ray Nagin (who seems terrified that he'll lose his constituency and is trying to re-populate his city frantically) Perry has expedited placement of the refugees in permanent housing through Section 8 vouchers and Housing Loans for refugees. Lotta these folks are here to stay, whether Ray Nagin likes it or not.

The sun also rose this morning; with apologies to Hemingway. The high overcast is reflecting glare everywhere and makes the sky appear bright white. Governor Perry has ordered the Southbound Lanes of I-45 and I-10 to be turned around at 9am to double the flow of traffic outbound from Galveston; which means it's getting VERY serious.

And Fox News has just reported that draining groundwater from the aquifers und Houston has lowered the elevation of the city fifteen to twenty feet in the last century; which could be catastrophic if Cat-5 Rita comes ashore there.

An interesting aside for the Global Warming conspiracists lurking out there. Several years ago I visited the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, where they have the U-505 German U-boat on display. I asked the tour guide why there was so little German U-boat activity in the Caribbean during the war. He replied the Germans were terrified of hurricanes; that a U-boat could only stay submerged 12-16 hours, and if they had to surface in a hurricane, the crew would all be killed. This made little sense to me (Hurricanes? How often are there Hurricanes?) until I heard on the TV Joe Bastardi from Accu-Weather saying that his father (who was also a meteorologist) saying that there used to be a LOT more hurricanes in the gulf in the beginning of the 20th century. Houston/Galveston had hurricanes in 1900, 1909, 1918, 1926, 1935, 1946, and 1954 -- then no hurricanes until 1983.

Apparently the cycle has swung around again; and considering the sunspot cycle just completed a major upswing a year or two ago, it seems likely we're starting back toward that cycle again.

Just don't spout the pop-psych answer of "Global Warming, Dude!" I'm not in the mood right now.

~~JD~~

This Just In . . . . (The Bitch-Slapping of South Texas by Rita; Part II)

Traffic was stop-and-go all the way home both ways tonight; a far cry from the usual San Antone commute. I'm glad I have the day off tomorrow; it's bound to be a cast-iron BEAR driving through town tomorrow.

Some interesting changes in the weather as Rita (I keep wanting to type "Katrina") has advanced to a solid Cat-5 storm. Already. The sky seemed grayer than usual on the drive home tonight, but nothing really unusual for late summer haze over South Texas. When night fell was when we noticed it was a solid high overcast. We've been watching the full moon for three days now; but there's no moon tonight, and the sky's reflecting the city lights in an errie glow.

Plus there's no wind with high humidity and high 80's -- a bit too warm and humid. The weather channel's radar is showing feeder bands bringing thunderstorms ashore in Corpus Christi already. Wow.

I have that weird little gut feeling I get when my predicitions are about to come true; and I still have it. Nothing but bad vibes coming from the near future and Rita.

I'm filling the cars' gas tanks tomorrow (just in case we lose power for a few days) and buying candles and lantern fuel. Also a couple of cases of bottled water, just in case. I'm pretty much counting on working all weekend; either in the Katrina Shelters or at work (in case somebody can't get in -- which is quite likely.)

My first real hurricane. I'd be excited if I wasn't full of foreboding. Frankly more than a bit scared, too.

~~JD~~

This Just In . . . . (The Bitch-Slapping of South Texas by Rita; Part I)

All computer models are predicting Hurricane Rita will hit somewhere between Galveston and Corpus Christi Texas Friday or Saturday. She should be a minimum Category 4 storm (like Katrina) and possibly a Category 5. Just a little Texas history here; in 1946 a Category 5 storm hit Victoria Texas (about the same place Rita will hit) and charged inland to San Antone, destroying much of the city.

Which is where I am.

And, being a nurse, I couldn't evacuate if I wanted to. The Interstates heading northbound out of San Antone (I-10 and I-37) were clogged wall-to-wall with traffic this morning; making rush hour very interesting, indeed. (I may have to take the surface streets home tonight to get home at all.)

And to make it even more interesting, San Antonio's full of Katrina refugees. as well as coatal refugees fleeing Rita. My place of business is accepting patients from Corpus Christi starting tomorrow.

I may be off the Internet for awhile. Gotta go buy some bottled water tonight, if there's any left.

The Invisible Storm: Texas Steps Up and Kicks Ass in the Aftermath of Katrina.

The city of San Antonio Texas. The obvious allusion is that there's a Storm brewing; but it's more like an earthquake.

The line to unload donated supplies to the warehouses at Kelly AFB. It took me less than 3 minutes to get to the front of this line -- they work really, Really fast! Several of the folks in line were singing hymns as they worked, and a lot of the group joined in on songs they knew.

The line of volunteers (over 50) waiting to undload your vehicle of donations. I saw SUVs, vans, cars, station wagons, buses, and the occaisional 18-wheeler unloaded in rapid fashion. Ants should be this efficient. No messin' around here, bubba. Welcome to Texas.

The first thing you see on entering the warehouses the refugees call "home" is the Red Cross registration desk for Volunteers. Whilst I blurred the pictures deliberately to protect identities, thye actually DO move that fast and efficiently trying to get everyone signed up and working. This airman in particular had been at this desk almost 16 hours, and was looking forward to going home for abite to eat in 8 or 9 hours . . . and then working Saturday as long as they'd let him. "These are my People; I'm from Baton Rouge," he said. "They need our help, and I'm not gonna let them down."

The SECOND thing you see on enteing the the warehouse; row upon row of military field cots. Ugly but quite comfy, there are 175 cots stacked up so everyone can have more than one if necessary. The refugees comforts are being seen to very capably and humanely, indeed.

The Job Fair in progress 24/7 at Kelly AFB in the Refugee quarter. Major employers from all over San Antonio are screening and hiring folks on the spot for everything from truck driving to hair cutting to nurses to engineers. (By the way; I should mention that the refugees are housed in air-conditioned Motor Pool warehouses that ate roughly 100 yards wide by 500 yards long -- and there are FIVE of these monstrous hangars end-to-end full of people!) The Job Fair occupies the entirety of Hangar #2.

The DMAT Medical Teams (Disaster Medical Area Team, I think) who have the absolute WORST bedsidemanner ever. Most of these folks were activated against their will and sent clear across the state to San Antonio on short notice, and their attitude shows.

A view of one smaller shelters in San Antonio; called a "Special Needs" shelter because the occupants have more medical or other problems. Putting these folks in smaller shelters (such as this one ruyn by a local Baptist Church) allows them better attention so that hopefull these folks won't fall between the gaps of a social system stretched incredibly taut.

A few of my co-workers at the shelter I'm volunteering at this week (and most likely this month.) I've worked with nurses from Iowa, Alabama, Illinois, South Carolina, Florida, and even a few from Texas, imagine that!