Who cooks for you?

When Marty and I were dating, we had a lot of late night drives home.  He lived in Butler and I lived in Sharon.  It was 40 miles between houses.  Considering we saw each other almost every night and didn't drive home until we had watched at least part of Conan...they were definitely moonlight treks.  But the interesting thing about driving at that time of night is the programs you can find on the radio.  One of our favorites was Coast to Coast with George Noory.  Most of the time we couldn't wait until the next day so we could relate what crazy thing we heard.

If you are not familiar with Coast to Coast...well, then I would consider that a good thing.  The subject matter could range from UFO's to Sasquatch to the Mothman to psychic predictions or any other crazy out of the ordinary phenomenon.  And the best part was how serious these discussions seemed to be.  

Now what made me bring this up is owls.  I was sitting in my living room tonight looking around and noticing all the owls.  I started to wonder about all those owls.  I mean, I know how the owl thing got started with us but I just wondered why they were so appealing to me.  What is it about owls that I like?  They just make me happy.  I like their big eyes and the expressions on their faces.  I like their feathers.  I like the way they sound.  So back to Coast to Coast.

I'm trying to tie this all together for you.

One night Marty was driving and listening to Coast to Coast and a guy called in and said that every time he sees an owl, a light goes out.  He could be at home watching TV and a nature program would come on with an owl and...a light bulb burns out.  He would be at Walmart and see one of those plastic garden owls...and a light would go out.  Well we thought this was pretty funny mainly because we thought...how often do you see an owl anyway?   Turns out, once we said that...we noticed an owl every day.   You just have to be aware and looking for them.  They really are everywhere.  Then we started buying owls for each other.  Then other people noticed we had owls and they started buying them for us.  And that is how you end up sitting in your living room looking at owls.  Coast to Coast.

Owls have special feathers that help them to fly almost silently.  There are over 150 different species of owls.  Owls can rotate their heads up to 270 degrees.  A barn owl can eat up to 1000 mice in a year.  (I need one at my house)  An owl can hear a mouse from 60 feet away.  Owls have three sets of eyelids. 

You can watch an owl here.

And one of the best owl related things to happen to us.   After we got married and moved to our new house...one night we heard an owl hooting right outside our bedroom window!!!   We still hear it from time to time.   It says...hoo, hoohoohoo, hoo.   

According to a bird book that I have (all good bird nerds have a bird book or two),  some owls say...who, who cooks for you....

Have you seen an owl today? 

Dream a Little Dream

I work 40 hours a week from home.  I sit and stare at the computer all day and read x-ray reports.  So you would think that the weather would not effect my work.  It did.  There are also people who work part time for the company I work for.  They code a few hours a night after their regular jobs to earn extra money.  Well apparently, several of them did not have to go to their regular jobs due to the big storm across the country.  So they logged in and worked during the day since they were home.  Good for them, bad for me.  I only managed to work 5 hours yesterday because they logged in and took all my work.  All this to say...I just worked 11 hours straight to make up for it. 

I feel like my eyes might fall out of my head.  So I need to keep this short and be off to bed.  And I really didn't have time today to wonder much except what diagnosis code to use. 

I'm not sure what prompted it, but I did wonder about dreams.  I don't usually remember too much of my dreams.  Marty is good for remembering unusually long dreams that have lots of things going on.  I'm lucky to remember one detail.  But the other night I do remember dreaming that I was at my old job at Radiology Associates (which was 1994-2000) and there were 8 patients scheduled for fluoro exams and I only had 4 barium enema bags and for some reason I was unable to do Upper GI's and so I was looking at the schedule and trying to figure out who scheduled that many and why they even scheduled any UGI's when I specifically said that we could no longer do them.  So I said I would check with Dr. Allen (who passed away last year) and I went to ask him about the Upper GI's and he walked into another room before I could ask him and I could see him through a frosted glass window but couldn't talk to him.  So what does this all mean?  I have no idea. 

I wonder what dreams are all about.  I can't say I've ever had a dream with any particular significance.  But some people do.  There are important examples of dreams in the Bible.  There are recurring themes in dreams that are supposed to mean something...like being chased or falling.  Your teeth falling out is supposed to signify anxiety.  (I used to have that one frequently).  I read that Abraham Lincoln dreamed of his own assassination.  The inventor of the sewing machine had a dream that solved a problem he had been trying to figure out with his invention.  I looked up dreams on Wikipedia and there are a lot of interesting ideas and scientific and psychological theories about dreams.  But since I have such a great need to go to sleep and dream right now myself, I will let you read that on your own. 

The study of dreams is called oneirology. 

Have any crazy dreams you'd like to share?  

Clutter

I had a frustrating day "at" work today.  This has effected my wondering.  My mind hasn't been clear enough to just think.  Well to think about anything worthwhile anyway.  

I wonder if this is why a lot of people go through life without that sense of wonder.  Are they too busy trying to get ahead, too busy being obsessed with the next best thing, too busy working to pay for the bigger house and newer car? 

Take a deep breath and just wonder about the amazing things in life.  Babies, snowflakes, love, sunshine, flowers, trees, chocolate. 

What has amazed you today?

It's Complicated.

I have to take continuing education tests to keep up my coding certification.  Here's an example:  What code(s) describe contralateral approach to treat combined SFA, profunda femoral and separate popliteal artery stenoses with angioplasty at all three separate sites, all with 50 percent residual stenoses requiring stent placement at all three sites? 

I wonder how things got to be so complicated.  Everything that is supposed to be making our lives better is just so complicated.  Medicine, technology, transportation, food, communication.  It is just all so complex.  Even just trying to figure out how to send a bill for a medical procedure takes a lot of thought, not to mention all the complexities of the actual procedure. 

The Walmart in Butler doesn't carry the bread we like to buy.  Marty and I like to joke about this.  We stand in the bread aisle with hands on hips and stomp our foot and say...I can't believe they don't have that bread!...as we stare at about a hundred different kinds of white, wheat, honey wheat, whole wheat, rye, low-fat, multi-grain, sunflower seed, Italian and cinnamon swirl breads.  We've talked about it before.  How dare we complain when we are offered such variety.  Even bread can be complicated.  We demand our options. 

When the weather is warmer, I have been making my own bread.  I was tired of all the additives and unknown substances in store-bought bread (more unnecessary complication) and decided to try to make my own.  Flour, yeast, water, oil and salt.  And it is really pretty easy.  And it is the best bread you could ask for.  It is bread in it's simplest form.  Bread of life. 

Jesus said, "I am the Bread of Life."   So we had to complicate that, too.  We have Baptists, Catholics, Presbyterians, Methodists, Lutherans, Mormons.  We've turned Jesus into that bread aisle at Walmart.  And if we don't find what we want there, we stomp our feet and complain. 

I want Jesus without the man-made additives.  

There's a new kid in town.

My sweet precious little granddaughter, Josie is now a big sister!  Her new brother, Uriah Cole was born today.  She's no longer an only child.  I can't wait to visit and meet new baby brother! 

I wonder what it's like to have a sibling.  Josie now has someone that she is forever connected to in a way she is connected to no other.  They will share memories that will be just between the two of them.  They can joke about their parents and their childhood and all the memories that come from growing up together. 

I consider myself an only child.  I know that sounds strange to say I "consider" myself to be an only.  You either are or you aren't, right?  Well...kind of.  When someone asks me if I have any siblings, I hesitate with my answer.  If I'm looking for the short answer I will say no.  Let me explain.  My parents adopted a girl before I was born.  She was about 12 or 13 when I was born and left home when she turned 18.  To this day, I really have never heard the entire story or much about her.  My mother does not like to talk about it.  So she was really only around the first 5 or 6 years of my life.  I think I should have memories of her, but I don't.  Funny, but the only thing I remember clearly was her clothes in the dresser that was in our room.  So I was pretty much raised as an only child and I am an only biological child.  I grew up wondering how it would be if I had a brother or sister. 

Of course being an only child has advantages that I'm sure other kids dreamed about.  Always your own room.  No one trying to take your toys.  All the attention.  Everything is yours.  But on the other hand, there is no one to share stories with.  Someday when my parents are gone, there isn't anyone for me to talk about growing up with.  The memories are mine alone...just another thing that an only child has all to herself. 

So I am glad that Josie has a brother.  I hope and pray they make many good and fun memories together and will always be friends.  Welcome to the world, little boy. 

Closed Captioned for the Hearing Impaired

We (as in my kids and I) used to take great delight in the fact that my parents would watch PBS with the closed captioning turned on because they "can't understand all that British talk".  As the years went by, the closed captioning began to be on more often until it was just on all the time.  Not due to British  but due to lack of hearing.  Well, my time has come.  I use closed captioning quite a bit.  More than I care to admit.  And I'm not talking only for bonnet movies on PBS.  I just can't hear most of the dialogue anymore. 

This came in handy the other night to verify a line we heard while watching the John Wayne version of True Grit.  Robert Duvall's character, Ned Pepper, is holding a gun to Mattie Ross and yells, "I never busted a cap on a woman or anybody much under sixteen!"   Marty and I looked at each other and said...WHAT?...he just said bust a cap.  Now that's funny. 

I wondered...actually we both wondered about the origin of that phrase.  We thought it was a recent term from "gansta" culture.  Yes, I just said gansta...but besides that...I figured it made that phrase at least as old as the movie or book.   After doing a Google search on this, I find out a lot of people wondered the same thing after seeing that movie.  I suppose if you think about it you can figure it out for yourself...it refers to the old time firing of a gun which required a percussion cap to make the gun shoot.  I bet when the movie first came out, no one even paid any attention to that phrase.  Anyway, just wanted to share this with you because I thought it was pretty funny to hear (and read) a western cowboy outlaw say bust a cap just like a modern day gang member. 

I love Google...it really helps with the wondering.  Did I say that before?   Probably.  I feel like I am repeating stuff but...did I mention I love Google?  You can find an answer for any question.  It's up to you whether you believe it or not. 

Speaking of Robert Duvall...did you know his first movie role was Boo Radley in To Kill a Mockingbird.  "You can pet him, Mr. Arthur, he's asleep." 

And with that, I say, I should be asleep, too. Now I just hope I don't dream that Boo Radley is petting my head. 

Back in the USSR.

I've been working on a photo album for Marty with all his Navy pictures.  I actually made it for him for a gift several years ago and presented it unfinished.  I'm trying to finish it now.  I am currently putting in photos of Moscow.   There are quite a few pictures of a military parade.   Cold War military might at it's best.   Lots of tanks and missiles and such.  In one picture there is a soldier looking at the camera with a big grin on his face. 

I started to wonder what his life might have been like.   Russia in 1989.  The Soviet Union.  Nearing the end of the Cold War.  I think of Moscow as cold and gloomy.  I imagine living in one of those huge architecturally bland communist housing blocks.  The average sized 2 bedroom apartment in Moscow is 485 square feet.  I read a statistic that stated Russia has over 500,000 alcohol related deaths per year as compared to 75,000 in the US.  I don't really know how that works out percentage wise, but it's been a notorious problem in Russia throughout their history.  So I'm imagining a gloomy life for that smiling young soldier.  

I hope that it wasn't really as bad as I think.  The sun does also shine in Moscow.  People live and love and have families like the rest of the world.  Maybe his smile continued on for many years.  I only know that I am glad that I live in the United States and not in Russia. 

I like to look at photos and wonder.