By the time most of you read this, I’ll be at the hospital to get the screw taken out of my shoulder. I expect this operation to be much quicker and simpler than the operation to put the screw in. They only need a small incision and have no ligaments to repair or reattach. I’m [...]

As I was walking down the hall at work just now, I complained that it is “Raining? Again?”
A co-worker asked “So, have to started building your ark yet?”
“No,” I replied, “but we have started collecting animals.”
Well, it was funny at the time.

Went to see the doctor today. He said the ligaments in the shoulder are healing well and that it’s about time for the hardware to come out. He also looked at the range of motion I have in the right arm and said that physical therapy will probably not be necessary. (I know, though, that [...]

I started back to work yesterday. Didn’t get in at my usual early hour because I had to check in through the company nurse before resuming my duties. I had to show her my doctor’s permission slip, then she printed another permission form, signed it, and sent me to my boss.
Of course, everybody wants to [...]

Wendy took me to the doctor today for a one-week checkup on my shoulder. The doctor inspected the incision and said it was healing well. Then a nurse removed the stitches (3) and staples (14). I’ve never had staples before, and Wendy and I had wondered how they were removed. The nurse had a little [...]

no, i’m not doing my ee cummings imitation; i’m having to type using only my left hand.
what you see below is an x-ray of my right shoulder, taken last wednesday night at an urgent care center near home. the clavicle is the collarbone and it’s supposed to be secured to the shoulder blade by a [...]

I don’t usually pay much attention to spam, but tonight I happened to notice one that I find highly amusing. I told the tale over at TechBlog.

You have probably heard about the shooting that occurred today in Building 44 at Johnson Space Center. Because I’m a NASA contractor, and I sometimes work at JSC (”on-site” as we say), everybody has been calling to make sure I’m OK. I am.
Some of you have questions about where Building 44 is in relation to [...]

I don’t usually go for the sappy stuff, but this one is something special. If it doesn’t bring a tear to your eye, you must be made of stone:

Dads are just great people. I wish more Daddys and Mommas were coming home to their families.

Genna asked me to build her some flower boxes to use beneath her jumps. These boxes won’t ever hold real flowers, just plastic flowers. The boxes are used as shown on this page; they help the horse see the “ground line” and (I suppose) to judge the height of the jump. Genna will paint the [...]

It was thirty years ago today that Fleetwood Mac released Rumours. Can it really have been three decades? It seems like only yesterday that Jerry and I were standing around at some party, listening to Rumours and gazing at the image of Stevie Nicks on the back cover. It was a good album for good [...]

Just got this email from my friend Cindy:

Jim Gray, who is a renowned computer scientist, was reported missing at sea on January 28. He is a dear friend of a friend of mine. His friends and family are asking for assistance in reviewing satellite imagery shown on the site below:

http://www.mturk.com/mturk/preview?groupId=J0XZ58STDWJZ5QY4F9M0

If you have a bit of time to [...]