Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Update Part Deaux

T was discharged from the trauma center Monday afternoon. His right elbow is broken and he is scheduled for surgery Thursday to put in screws. He is nicely doped up, sleeping in the guest room. He looks terrible. I can't tell how many stitches but there is a whole slew of them from the outside corner of his eye into the hairline. No washing of the face until the stitches come out (next week) and there is still a lot of dried blood on his face - hopefully it looks worse than it really is. The CAT scans found no facial fractures but his cheek sure is swollen enough to look like it is broken. Getting a beaut of a shiner too.

He saw the ophthalmologist before being discharged and his vision is intact (woohoo). The docs were surprised that the eye socket bone was not broken. Hopefully, his concussion isn't too bad and he recovers quickly. The scar, however, is gonna be a nasty looking one.

T said the van did not roll - it went into a turn too fast, left the roadway, and center punched a big tree. This was after both T and the other passenger (the van's owner) had told the driver to slow down, that he was going too fast.

I'm sleeping a whole lot. T said that when he had the cold from hell, when he was finally starting to get over it, he came down with the tireds but that only lasted a few days. After that, he was finally over it. Fingers and toes crossed that I'm finally on the downhill side of this nasty cold.

Haven't had any measurable rain since the day after Christmas. Things are looking a little worse for wear - the redwoods are looking a little droopy and we are expecting another freezing or below night tonight. February and March are the months when we usually get the most rain - we sure could use it. Only 11- 3/4 inches year to date - last year's total was 75 inches so there is a lot of catching up to do. Fingers and toes we don't try to catch up all in one storm. That would not be a good thing.

Sunday, January 21, 2007

Updates

I still have the cold from hell.

Jane successfully underwent 8 hours of surgery Thursday, recovered in ICU, and was released from the hospital today. Still thinking warm, positive thoughts for her. She has a tough road ahead but she sure is a fighter. How many people do you know that undergo 8 hours of cancer surgery and are released from the hospital less than 72 hours later?

On the home front: The stager was here Friday and I have several pages of notes in the binder about how she wants the furniture, where specific pictures go, etc.

T, my handyman, and I were going to have it all finished today but...

He was a passenger in a roll-over accident last night - was airlifted to a regional medical center with a broken arm and a pretty bad laceration on his head. The driver was drunk from what I hear. Poor T - that man has been working so hard to turn his life around and this kind of bad luck is not what he needs. He has been a good friend to me, helping me out around the little cottage by the creek in the redwoods.

No pictures because its still too friggin cold outside. Has warmed up some during the day but we've been below freezing most every night.

PGE is gonna like me - but they are really just interested in my wallet. I've been using the heater more in the past couple of weeks than I have in the 3 years preceding. The gas bill is gonna be ugly.

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Sad News


From Jane's post today:

There just didn't seem to be any other way to explain why I'm not going to be present for the first two weeks of the Libby trial so I decided to resort to the truth.

As someone who has devoted years to building this blog around coverage of the CIA leak investigation, its going to be really rough to sit on the sidelines for the first two weeks while Marcy, Christy, Pach and others cover the trial in person. I've been working for months now to obtain a press pass and set up the "Plame House" in Washington DC as a central place for bloggers to stay and share information amongst ourselves as we cover the trial. When I received (with the help of Arianna Huffington and Rachel Sklar of the Huffington Post) the only press pass awarded to a blogger to be in the actual courtroom, I was blown away. And as you might well imagine, it would have to be something pretty serious to keep me away for even a moment.

In mid-December I was diagnosed with breast cancer for the third time. It's a bit more serious this time and treatment is going to have to be more extensive.


Go over and give Jane some love.

Friday, January 12, 2007

No, Yes, Better, Thank You.

Is the little cottage by the creek in the redwoods listed for sale yet?

No. Met with Mary the Realtor Tuesday and set the appointment for the stager to come over for Thursday. Wednesday, naturally, I came down with the local cold from hell.

Yes, I have rescheduled that appointment until Tuesday.

Better, thank you. Still under the weather but my head hasn't exploded yet (contrary to what the blinding headache suggested).

It got so cold last night that Bailey got under the covers.

Sunday, January 07, 2007

Spocko's Brain Is Back Up

As Spocko would say, hailing frequencies are open. Enterprise to signaler on planet's surface. Identify self. Spocko has the blog back up (with a different server I presume) Go over and check out why Disney/ABC went after the logical one.

The phasers are set to stun and Spocko is beaming information back from the trail of the KSFO/Disney rats, letting the advertisers know how the KSFO crew makes fun of their products and advocates using their products for torture.

Since Spocko began contacting advertisers, several have pulled their accounts from KSFO, including Netflix, Mastercard, Bank of America, and most recently, Visa.

Federal Express, AT&T and Kaiser Permanente are weighing their departure as well. Disney/ABC/KSFO are up in arms at the effect of Spocko's outreach is having on their bottom line.

Logic and practical information does seem to apply here. I've added Spocko's Brain to my blogroll.

Saturday, January 06, 2007

Spocko vs The Disney Rat

It is almost as if I grew up with KSFO Radio. We moved to the SF Bay Area when I was going into the 5th grade, 1964 I think. I remember being in the station wagon, mom and dad up front, us three kids in back, listening to baseball on KSFO. Or music. Going to the grocery store. To visit family up in Auburn. We could listen to it in the Central Valley on our way down to LA. The last Bay Area station we would lose and the first station we could get on our way back home.

It was a family radio station. My dad would listen to the game while working on the car or tinkering in the garage, or inside the house, listening on the transistor broadcast one game while watching another game on tv. It was a "neutral station" in my household, a station we could all listen to, unlike my dad's country station and my rock station.

Disney, a family marketed brand name, owns ABC which owns KSFO. KSFO is now a hate spewing talk radio station. Spocko took on KSFO by contacting their advertisers and advising them of the type of garbage that immediately proceeds or follows their respective ads, in case they were unaware.

In Spocko's words, here is what happened next:

ABC Radio Lawyer tells Spocko to Shut Up

Two days before Christmas I got a Cease and Desist letter from ABC regarding my use of audio clips from KSFO radio hosts Melanie Morgan and Lee Rogers on my blog, Spocko’s Brain (see attached PDF).

KSFO is a Disney affiliate whose radio hosts broadcast violent rhetoric directed toward journalists, liberals, Democrats, Arabs and Muslims all over the SF Bay Area and to the world via the Internet. I commented about the content of these host’s broadcasts on my blog and informed KSFO’s advertisers about what they were supporting by letting them listen to the exact audio quotes from the hosts.


Spocko's ISP caved under the Disney lawyers' threats and shut down Spocko's blog.

El Gato Negro and Mike Stark have been all over this story. If you are not familiar with this story, first read this first story from Mike Stark on 01/03/07, then head over to El Gato Negro!'s place and read the several posts up there, just keep scrolling down and you will find the links to the actual audio clips that Disney shut down Spocko over.

Included are audio links to these nuggets (and many, many more):

Melanie Morgan regarding Nancy Pelosi: "We've got a bulls-eye painted on her big laughing eyes." and calling for the hanging of the New York Times editors;

Brian Sussman demanding a caller say "Allah is a whore" and his wanting to cut off the penises and fingers off detainees;

Lee Rogers saying the AP should commit suicide and this little nugget when talking about a black man from Lincoln, Nebraska, "Now you start with the Sear's Diehard the battery cables connected to his testi*les and you entertain him with that for awhile and then you blow his bleeping head off. "

Mike has some suggestions on what we can do at the bottom of that first post, as does El Gato Negro! on his blog.

Mike followed up the story here, with several more action steps that can be taken.

Read what I've linked to and then write letters to the advertisers (which are listed at the bottom of Mike's follow up post). Or call the advertisers. Let KGO know how you feel about what their radio station KSFO is doing. Let ABC know. And, of course, don't forget Disney. Let us not forget that the bogus Path to 9/11 movie was brought to us by ... Disney/ABC.

Disney - now just another corporate rat.

The photo at the head of this post is from Skippy, our fav 'roo, who has also blogged about this, in addition to many other sites, including Crooks and Liars and The News Blog, links to which are available on the right side of your screen in the "Links" section. There are some fine folks listed there - be sure to check them out.


Spocko's Brain will not be silenced.

This photo from FireDogLake and TRex's magnificent post on this last night entitled Spocko Vs. The Rat. Spocko and El Gato Negro! update in the comments so don't forget to read those too.

Tonights latest update from El Gato Negro! :

More Spocko Update for the interested.

Spocko wrote me last night that he weel have a new website up ASAP, he has ppl working on eet.

As soon as the new Spocko’s Brain ees up, he weel repost all the KSFO files and Disney weel be back to square one, except for all the bad PR. ;)

The really good news ees that Spocko had interviews weeth reporters for the San Fran Chronicle, and the San Fran Weekly, wheech are, respectively, the largest paper een Northern California, and the largest independent weekly in Northern California.


Sorry for not posting all this last night when I should have but I have been like. uh, busy, uh, working on this blasted little cottage by the creek in the redwoods since my last post.

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

And The Race Is On


Ok, if I write down the words where others can see them, then I have to follow through. Been in a major state of denial because I don't want to sell, but sell I must.

Dayamitalltomofohell! Haven't been able to turn these particular lemons into lemonade.

This house will be ready to be listed by the end of this weekend. There really isn't that much more to do - the down side is that all funding for the necessaries for the house comes out of my food budget. Have a line on a cheap mirror to put over the bathroom sink - since I was not the one who broke the mirror I can't blame this current spell of bad luck on that. The rest is mainly outside - the side yard fence, power washing the cottage, blowing off leaves and such. Ran out of the left over paint when doing the front bedroom so I have to get more paint and finish that. Shampoo the carpets in the bedroom.

I don't like the idea of people coming in here. I freely admit that I am part hermit. At least I won't see them when they come here but I will know they were here. Having to keep the place spotless so others can come in and judge whether or not the place is up to their standards. Yuck! Not being able to smoke inside while the house is on the market - double yuck. Having to round up Token and Bailey every time someone comes to look at it - well, I am thankful the girls are grown and not at that toddler stage.

There is such a big part of me - the ostrich part - that just wants to go away while this all takes place but that is not gonna happen. No more being able to sleep late, being able to stay in my pj's all day just because I want to, are you sick of my whining yet?

I spent an entire marriage walking around on eggshells, being measured against illogically high standards, never being good enough for whatever "it" was. When I left, I never wanted that feeling in my stomach again. But, that is exactly the same feeling I get when I think about the process of selling.

The words are set into bytes. No more excuses. No more delays. Time for action - not a time for revving my engine in neutral.

Monday, January 01, 2007

Happy New Year


May your New Year be filled with love, abundant hugs, and a surplus of blessings.