General Tso's Rug Gets Shampooed

07/24/06

I took out the passenger's seat on the General Tso as I figured this would most effectively let me clean the carpet. I shampooed and brushed the carpet and front and rear mats. I vacuumed the rug after it dried. The seat was shampooed, brushed,and vacuumed too.

Of course the hardest part was aligning the screw holes with the holes on the seat. The left front screw hole had been stripped by the time I got through. Saturday night I tried to screw the seat in and got really angry. I tried to pry, curse, and sweat through the ordeal.

Then Dad checked his blood pressure and found it to be 205/??. We then called 911 and an ambulance came. The paramedic and EMT examined him and found him to be fit despite his having the jitters. We thought it best to have him go to the ER.

KAT

Blackballed and a Clarification

Hi!
I got blackballed today!
I posted a comment on a blog about the blogger administrator's opinion on Bibb's public schools. I told him his attitude towards supporting the schools was akin to the Alan Jackson song (lyrics if nothing else), "Prop me up 'side the jukebox when I die". He was in effect propping up dead schools. I then admonished him to think of his kids rather than the institution of public education. I capped it off by referring to the "dog excrement" sending their kids to school as being the big reason Bibb schools stink.

We do have bureaucrats and top-down management wreaking havoc on our schools. Not that they were perfect. My dad used to say that any white Chevrolet truck with a work body going somewhere slowly was a Bibb BOE truck. My mom said it took two people from BOE headquarters to run around a classroom with a Flit can to kill bugs.

If I stepped on the administrator's toes I must apologize but not because I was wrong.

KAT

Mayor Cialis tells MHA board to resign

Hello
Mayor Ellis today told the Macon Housing Authority's board to resign. This request is in light of a federal report detailing improper spending.

So I wonder who among the mayor's friends frittered away the housing funds? I'm waiting for the MHA's members and Mr. Hiscox to tell us their side.

KAT

General Tso gets new brakes for real

07/12/06
I went to put in a new network card for a friend but the card didn't work. I had bought a card to install in her computer but I couldn't find it. I saw her new dog; it is sooo cute. It's an 8 month-old dachsund.

I went to get my hair cut and finally found a place after three tries. I cannot believe how poorly staffed some salons are! In Warner Robins I went to the second-hand office furniture store. They had some nice office chairs and a few tables but oddly enough the tables, as simple as they were, cost 99.00. I need a smaller table for the sewing room as well as a flippable ironing board.

Next I went to Home Decor. It is one of few businesses that keep the lights on at the Houston Mall. I would advise bulldozing all but the anchor stores and outparcels, putting the bricks and other items for sale on Ebay as keepsakes, and building a strip. This would entail a bit of capital though and I am sure the property makes a nice tax write-off.

At Home Decor I found $4.00 bath towels, some nice mats, and a sheet set for 13.00. I could go nuts with my money in that store. I also found old store racks and fire extinguishers from Wal-Mart. I might partake in one of the extinguishers for the house. I saw some hanging torso squares with female breasts along with some store mannequins.

I slept then changed the brake pads on the General Tso. I put a new retainer clip on the left side and compressed the piston with a C-clamp and a chisel laid flat. Even with this I had to do some tapping to slide the caliper on. I am sure a pro would not have to resort to tapping to force a caliper onto the rotor. I hate travel space and feeling a thunk when I brake slowly and hard. Possibly this is normal operation but I did see less of this happen thanks to the new pads.

I got Dad his medicine to calm him down and allow him to sleep.

The Dang Thing Works After All

Hello
I asked the local ambulance service about problems transmitting my dad's 12-lead EKG to the hospital.

It turns out the ambulance crew did get a link up to the hospital. I stand corrected. For those who don't have 12-lead EKG in your ambulances I advise it since a cardiologist, in some instances, can read your EKG on a Blackberry or other PDA even if you collapse near a turnip field. Automatic defibrillation should be in every place visited by tons of people along with staffers trained to use it.

Robins AFB Strippers get automated

Hi!
On CNET's news page I saw a C-130 getting its paint stripped (Photo via CNET). An automatic machine cuts five days off the task of stripping the birds. The article did not mention Robins AFB by name but likely that is where the robot cranes work. NIST, a government agency, developed the Robo-Crane technology which includes an AMP (Aerial Multi-Axis Platform adapted for stripping. The operator is safely enclosed in a compartment. Previous painters had to don suits and deal with hazardous toxins. NIST's web page reports that two production units are being installed at Robins.

It's good to see Robins (if not by name) make it onto front-page geek news.
KAT

Telegraph endorses Stebin, Ellis faves

07/06/06
Dad is doing fine; just hates being hogtied to a hospital bed by his condition.

I read the Telegraph's endorsements for City Council and State House 137. Some of the nominations make sense but I dislike something about Nancy White and Cynthia Knight, two candidates endorsed by Mayor C. Jack Ellis. Something must be cooking for Ellis to endorse these two.

I also refuse to comprehend how the Telegraph, given Becky Burgess and Allen Peake's reform attitudes, can endorse Stebin Horne. Actually I can; Stebin "kills" more babies than the leading candidate (booming tv ad voice). He is lenient on abortions compared to Allen Peake as per a pro-life group's survey. The Telegraph liberals ate this up.

My support is going with Allen Peake. The Mercer University School of Law has been a staffing firm for the Georgia House way too long. Not that we have had bad lawyers in there at all; Floyd Buford did a reasonable job and so have a token few others.

Becky Burgess has largely been working at Mercer since she received her law degree from there. She is the third banana of somethingorother at the Medical School. She wants to freeze property taxes prior to the sale of property. This means municipalities lose a windfall from companies who reform blighted property. So the knife cuts both ways. Becky also wants to consolidate Macon and Bibb so property owners outside the city limits won't be the rich uncle to the decaying city. I don't see how planning a consolidated government is in her hands; local leaders will have to concoct a charter.

The Peach Pundit says Stebin's mom handed out campaign buttons in one of the classes she was teaching.

As for Dale Washburn the citizens of Jones County weren't totally happy with him when he was their County Commissioner. He could be tempremental with Jones residents although there was the "free lunch" crowd of Macon refugees who have since become more bourgeois. At my store back in the Eighties one lady who had trouble getting a road paved advised her friends weres going to hold a motorcade protest on "Dale Washboard Road." His base, according to the PP, is largely confined to realtors.

Also I have a homework assignment for the readers! I remember Stebin Horne last year was reluctant to restrict the mayor's powers at one point because he disliked being too restrictive on the office of the mayor. This was on a certain issue which escapes me. Clue me in, please. I know Stebin did propose limiting the mayor's power on another issue to be frank with everyone.

Prediction; Aaron Bowers and possibly Cynthia Knight get on Council. And it's a runoff between Allen Peake and Becky Burgess. Becky advertises with the right words and Allen Peake appeals to the average person for what he's not- a lobbyist or lawyer. Anyone who runs restaurants and is a CPA earns their money and then some. If you don't think the restaurant business is hard just try my biscuits- with a good set of dentures.

KAT

Dad's brush with death

Early Thursday, July 6, 2006
Hello
This early Monday morning on July 2 my dad had his defibrillator go off 15x at our house at 1:45 or so in the morning. I was night fishing and returned home to see a red light flashing in my room's window. I knew there were no red lights on our house. I drove up and saw an ambulance. I slid beside it and saw my uncle there. He said Dad had his device go off 15 times and that he almost carried him to the ER. Mom fortunately dialed 911 and had an ambulance and fire engine en route. The medics called in to the Chest Pain Center and tried to transmit a 12-lead EKG but the transmission failed. One medic told me a cell phone was connected to a fax machine on the unit. I read about these units in a news story.

Dad was conscious the whole time and Mom said he told her he wasn't going to make it. I felt a combination of shock and sickness despite knowing about the pessimism Dad always feels. He had seen this and that relative die in the past few years and his sister died as a teenager. I felt guilty. I wondered if I was spending too much time on the computer, too much time playing with my airchecks, too much time hitting the singles web sites, or too much time sleeping. I come home tired from work partly from being upset at what is going on at home and what is going on at work.

I wheeled Mom in her borrowed wheelchair to the ER's front entrance as there was nobody to watch her at the front entrance. I went out the McDonald's door, to the ER's entrance, and then got a ride with a hospital cop. I drove up to the ER and took Mom home. Now I did break a rule; never let the gas go below 1/4 of a tank. We luckily made it to a station and gassed up. I had intended to go to work in the Honda but that was before I was greeted with the ambulance in the driveway.

Monday evening I visited Dad in the CVICU (Cardiovascular ICU). After work and eating at the McDonald's (cafeteria was closed) I went to the 2nd Floor CVICU (Cardiovascular ICU) where Dad was housed. Two of my sisters were in the waiting room. One was knitting. It was cold and they were covered in thin blankets. The hospital does visiting hours at the CVICU in 90 minute blocks. My middle sister came too.

Tuesday I cut grass and one sister helped with cutting what I missed. We watered the tomatoes and before long we felt we should rest before we both wound up in the ER ourselves. I rested and went up to the hospital.

Wednesday around 8 AM we took Mom up to the CVICU waiting room. Ms. D took us to the Heart Lab on the 2nd Floor. We waited for the ablation procedure on Dad's heart nodes to be finished. This would cause sections of the heart to not generate improper impulses to make the heart beat in V-tach. It was around 12:30 when this happened. I found out later when they withdrew Dad from the Lidocaine his machine zapped him 30 times until he was manually converted. Thus they were early with the procedure. The doctor did two of the nodes and had to let a third, slightly less serious node, be managed by medication. We saw Dad at the CVICU where he was returned.

We were tired and went to the Cracker Barrel to eat as one of us stayed behind with Dad. I had a large coffee and biscuit for breakfast so I was half-tired, half-tense. The service was horrible at the Eisenhower Parkway Cracker Barrel. It needed to be bulldozed and most of the staff machine-gunned as they ran from the falling ruins.

There was some loud two-year-old behind us screaming bloody murder. I almost told them to shut up. I got some rest then my uncle brought some stew and cornbread. I ate some chicken he brought two days ago and went to see Daddy. The nurse told us what went on with Daddy and the background behind the procedure. Dad seemed less groggy thank goodness.

I told him every night he was there I loved him as I left. I felt better about myself when doing this though we as a family don't get too sentimental with each other as a rule.

I dropped by Wal-Mart around 11:00 and got some supplies. I got small Diet Cokes so Dad would have it by Mom's bedside at all times and wouldn't have to deal with the big bottles.
I left and went to Wal-Mart to pick up some supplies along with Sean Hannity's book, "Deliver Us From Evil" as it was on sale.

General Tso Brake Secrets and Flomax

07/01/06

Thursday I tried to put brake pads on the General Tso. I had pages printed from the Honda manual I downloaded which told me how to do the pads. Of course on part of another page I didn't have it advised me to move the piston. Thus when I had the 3/4 in pad and backings on each side of the rotors I was unable to get the piston (looks like a pipe) to fit around the pads. Another web site told me to remove the cap from the brake fluid.


I got a C-Clamp yesterday from Big Lots. It may not be big enough. I also need Honda-type brake fluid. The DOT3 probably isn't to specifications. I would have done the brakes last night but didn't feel like it. I am on Flomax nightly. I have considered a multivitamin 2x per day.

The Flomax may be doing odd things to my appetite and I am writing this at 15 minutes until 5AM. I got up at 1:30 and had two hot dogs and soup. I notice that even when awake at work I get dyslexic with my typing and I think it might be spilling over into my writing. I may see my general practitioner about my depressed state if things do not get better. There is a new medication out but it costs an arm and a leg. I may ask him about a few medications I have on a list underneath the mirror in my room.