The Poo is Flying!

Well, probably not, actually. I am hoping the Porta-Potties were emptied before they went sailing up to the top of the hospital construction. Which does make me wonder just how they're going to service these things once they get used. Will they be lifted down to ground level or will some poor sap have to empty them using portable equipment?

My first thought, of course, was to ponder how big a fan one would have to have to get poo to fly so high and just how bad things must be going for said fan to have been used.

My second thought was to wonder just how big a mess it would make if a full Porta-Potty was to drop from this height.

My third thought was to speculate about how difficult or easy it would be to turn the crane into a catapult and wondered how must distance one could get from a suitably motivated, yet very non-aerodynamic Porta-Potty.

Headline of the Day:
A Distinct Lack Of Intelligence
Of course, this refers to America, specifically politics and military matters. Umm.....like this should be any sort of surprise to anybody. Here's a concept for everybody that's presently bitching about how the military and government didn't know stuff that "they" think they should have known. It's *always* easy to figure out AFTERWARD where the flaws and gaps in the knowledge base were. It's *always* easy to figure out how things went bad after the fact. It is VERY HARD to figure out every possible permutation of potential shortcomings and disasters ahead of time. Doesn't mean you can't and shouldn't strive for complete information and the best planning and implementation that you can have. Just be aware that analyzing the situation afterward and playing "Woulda, Shoulda, Coulda" isn't exactly fair. You already know the answers to the problems at this point. Playing Monday morning quarterback for the purpose of blaming people for not knowing everything ahead of time is stupid.

Word of the Day: Recalcitrant
Used in a sentence: The recalcitrant oil filter on my lawn tractor is refusing to be removed from said lawn tractor.

I have now missed two stunningly great evenings during which I could have de-thatched my lawn in preparation for fertilizing it and overseeding parts of it. It's rained a little bit the last couple of nights so any grass seed I could have planted would have been kept moist without my having to water it. Just watch....I'll get the filter changed, get the new oil into the machine, get the lawn thatched, fertilized and overseeded and IT WON'T RAIN.

I also need to find a grease gun which will fit the grease fittings on my lawn tractor so I can lube it properly. I suspect I'll be stopping at the John Deere dealer on Saturday for some assistance with that.

Tonight's dinner: Mashed potatoes and greens
Sauteed some greens with garlic. Removed the greens from the skillet. Added 4 peeled and chopped potatoes and about 1 1/2 cups water. Let that cook until the potatoes were tender. Stirred in a little butter and milk. Mashed the potatoes up. Added the greens that I'd chopped up and salted to taste. Yummy and even healthy!

I have no idea what kind of greens I have. I suppose I could look them up in a book somewhere. All I know is that they've got some zip to them and I paid about 50 cents a pound. I think they'll be great in soup this fall and winter. Right now I'm developing a craving for some warm-from-the-oven cornbread.

Work Update:
The software is now almost completely installed. I'm waiting on one applicaton on my machine and a second machine to be set up as a server for two other applications. I now have access to the hospital data from the region and started writing the script to move the flat text file into SAS with appropriate variable names. It's more complex than being space-delimited. The chief complaint field is a free-text area for the hospital, so there's all sorts of stuff in there. I have been able to figure out most of the fields in the file, but there are a few which have me stumped. Fortunately, Dr. C put me in contact with the hospital's IT guy so I can ask what this stuff is. But I should be able to get the analyses figured out in the next week or two. The next step will be to automate the whole FTP (via FileZilla) and analysis process. Rumor has it this will involve batch files. I'm going to be a geek by the time this is all said and done. Good news is that work will pay for my high speed connection! W00t!

Even better news: the local IT folks at work have decided that I need admin access to my machine. The request has been sent to the main IT office. With any luck, I won't have to harass the IT folks several times a week for help, which will simplify all our lives.

Germ of the week: Campylobacter. Hint: Wash your hands after petting livestock and before eating. Still no spinach-related E. coli to deal with.

Critter Cam:

I collected mosquitoes again this week. I saw some turkey at one of the sites, which is a private hunting area. This place is a couple hundred acres (the part that I know is the one property, at least), and has areas planted with corn, sunflowers, millet and soybeans, plus some stands of pine and some pasture area.

I also picked up a grasshopper on my car windshield at the hunting area. He hung on for about a mile before he hopped off. I'm sure it got annoying to have his antennae flapping in the breeze as I drove down the road.