24 Hours of TV

Two guys, 24 hours, nothing but tube: 24 Hours of TV. It's running from noon Pacific today through tomorrow. It appears to be "about" television in much the same way that The New England Ironman Diner Decathalon Challenge was "about" eating. Check it out, and join the chatroom and say hi.

And no, Tom's not participating, although I suspect he'd be tempted if he was in better shape.

Curling sweeps to its Torino conclusion!

Having a ReplayTV meant that all of that sweet, sweet curling action was just waiting for me to get home from the hospital and plow through it. And I have to admit: up to now, my appreciation for the sport has been a bit of a goof. But after watching hours of it, I've realized that yes, it really is a sport, and that it's a surprisingly interesting, strategic, and cerebral sport, at that.

The USA women pretty much biffed their shot, ending down at the bottom of the rankings, just above Italy, which was allowed in to the tournament just because they were the host country. But the USA men just did something amazing, winning the Olympic bronze medal. Details at ESPN. Canada won the gold. Not so bad for the US, considering that there are something like 13,000 US curlers, and 1.6 million rabid Canadian players. Congrats to the men from Minnesota!

Wise-Women: Learning Podcasting

New over at the Wise-Women site is a tutorial by Carolyn Wood: Learning Podcasting. Check it out.

If you don't know who/what Wise-Women is, here's what Miraz Jordan just wrote:

Wise-Women is one of my favourite web design mailing lists. It's always friendly and helpful and chock full of interesting discussion on web design…

It has a companion list for off-topic matters so discussions are very much to the point. List-mom Dori Smith has a hands-off approach and the extremely rare moments of cross-purpose irritation generally resolve themselves instantly and amicably. Flames do not exist in this world.

One thing I like though is that as women, our lives aren't usually neatly classifiable into easily categorised little boxes, so sometimes our web-related discussion does include recipes for biscuits or tales of surviving a hurricane. In other words, it's very real.

[blush]

And btw, men are most definitely welcome on the list as well. Here's where to sign up.

February Ain't Short Enough

If you read this blog, you know that Tom's been pretty darn sick recently. Thankfully, he's on the mend.

The first time I mentioned Tom's illness online was to a mailing list, in response to an email from someone who said he was going to be away for a bit because he was going into the hospital. On that same list a few days ago, another person mentioned how he was thrown because a co-worker of his had committed suicide.

Yesterday, our home designer was at our house when she got a phone call, telling her that her test results were in: she had cancer.

Today, I was pointed towards Dear Elena, where I read that Dan Steinberg's six-year-old daughter Elena suddenly died yesterday.

When it was darkest and it looked like Tom might not make it, I knew if he died I'd be heartbroken. If it had been Sean, well… it's like Dan says, parents aren't supposed to bury their children. I would have been devastated. I can't really even begin to imagine how they must feel.

Our thoughts go out to Dan, his wife Kim, and to their daughter Maggie.

And for the rest of you: take a moment to tell the people in your life that you love and appreciate them. This month is just kicking everyone, everywhere so far as I can see, so the one thing you can do is make sure that they know how much they mean.

HSA's Don't Work, part of a continuing series

Bush wants to foist Health Savings Accounts on all Americans. I've written before about why HSA's are a bogus solution for the health care system, read that post for more. Today at TPC Cafe, Kate Steadman reports on what happened when South Africa went to a partial HSA system: South Africa and the failed HSA experiment. The result: higher costs, especially administrative costs, and lower coverage as the HSA companies cherry-picked the healthiest and richest consumers. Once again: Health Service Accounts suck. Don't allow yourself or your families to be fooled by them.

Tap...tap... Is This Thing On?

Hi, all.

Just thought that I'd give you a bit of an update on my progress. First: not dead. That turns out to be an enormous relief. Given how low my blood pressure plunged during the septic shock episode (down to around 40/35), I was certainly worried about not making it through.

I'll do a longer post about the hospitalization experience later; it's still rattling around in my head, and I haven't processed it all yet. But one part stands out for me.

I'm far from athletic, but it's incredibly scary when your body Just. Stops. Working. While I was in the hospital, most of the time I was literally not strong enough to turn over in bed by myself. I had to be completely handled by nurses and a bunch of brawny guys they call the Lift Team. Don't think paralysis; think profound weakness. I had a water jug next to the bed, and I had to manage it so that nurses didn't fill it too full, because otherwise I could not lift it. And I didn't get much better (to my perception) for about six days, after which it was like a switch flipped and I could sit up and start to recover.

I've been out of the hospital since last Friday night, and I'm getting stronger every day. Saturday I desperately needed a cane and leaning on walls to get around the house. I stopped using the cane yesterday (though I brought it along just in case when we went out to breakfast today, my first excursion). The PT folks at the hospital wanted to send me home with a walker; I'm glad I didn't do that. I think that I've made more progress this way.

As I said to Dori today, "Just because I'm stronger every day, it doesn't mean that I'm not beat all the time." My next big goal is to get up the single flight of steps to my office. Tomorrow, I think.

Once again, thanks to all of you for your kind thoughts and good wishes. They really made a difference.