the local coffee shop

Before there was Starbucks®, the "local coffee shop" usually meant an independent donut shop. In my case, the only nearby "dedicated coffee shops" are in/near office parks and are open 9-5 weekdays. Starbucks changed all that, extending their hours, creating atmosphere, and putting them on every corner -- hence their current saturation problem.

There are nine (9) Starbucks locations within three (3) miles of my home - two are inside grocery stores. Two of the remaining seven are on The List To Be Closed in the next few months, and only one of the seven has a drive-thru. I was mildly surprised by one of the closures .. Preston/Beltline (actually it's closer to Preston/Alexis) which always seemed to be busy - located between a Blockbuster and Wendy's. Granted, there's another Starbucks a hundred yards away, but it's inside a Tom Thumb grocery store and lacks the ambiance (!) of a Real Starbucks.

I waddled over to the 4th-closest Starbucks yesterday (the nearest one with a drive-thru window) to try their new smoothie - er, Vivanno™. There are only two from which to choose: banana-orange-mango or banana-chocolate. I could definitely taste the "whey protein and fiber powder", but it was otherwise unremarkable. Noteworthy: just like Jamba Juice®, you can add extra stuff (in Starbucks' case, that means a shot of espresso; matcha green tea powder; or substitute nonfat milk to shave 20 calories).

Vivanno verdict: it's okay but not sure $4.06 (with tax) for 16 ounces is something I'd go out of the way for. I found McDonald's Iced Coffee more refreshing at less than half the price (also more healthy if you opt for the sugar-free vanilla flavor -- 60 calories). I suspect I should compare it with an offering from the local Jamba Juice (co located with Whole Foods), smoothie-to-smoothie:

16 oz. Vivanno (banana-orange-mango): 250 calories, 16 grams protein, 6 grams fiber, 2 grams fat, 1 fruit serving. (No artificial colors, artificial sweeteners or high fructose corn syrup.)

16 oz. Banana Berry™ (Jamba Juice): 280 calories, 3 grams protein, 3 grams fiber, 1 gram fat, 2 fruit servings. For comparison, add the "whey boost" to get ~16 grams protein and 4 grams fiber.

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For an apples-to-oranges (er, banana-to-coffee) comparison, here's the info on the McCoffee:

16 oz. McDonald's Iced Coffee: 60 calories, no fiber or protein.

Premium Roast Coffee. Light Cream: Milk, cream, sodium phosphate, sodium polyphosphate, DATEM, sodium stearoyl lactylate, tetra sodium pyrophosphate, sodium hexametaphosphate, sodium citrate, carrageenan. CONTAINS: MILK. Sugar Free Vanilla Syrup: Water, erythritol, natural (plant source) and artificial flavors, cellulose gum, sucralose, salt, malic acid, potassium sorbate (preservative), acesulfame potassium, caramel color (with sulfites). Ice.

double reds

Earlier today, I did my first-ever "double red" donation, and it went well enough that I may do it again.

As explained on Carter Bloodcare's website:

"Unlike a traditional whole blood donation, Double Red Cell Collection (2RBC) allows the donor to safely give two units of red blood cells, instead of just one. The process separates blood into its components while it is being drawn. Because only red blood cells are being collected, enough can be collected for two red cell transfusions. The remaining components are returned to the donor. The collection procedure takes just 20 minutes longer than a whole blood donation and can be performed every four months. 2RBC donors must meet certain height and weight requirements, as well as routine donor criteria"

Once I'd completed the usual (CBT) pre-screening questionnaire, and hemoglobin test, and body temperature, and blood pressure check, I was plugged into a Most Splendid Machine which did the 2RBC described above. All told, I was there about 65 minutes.

Advantage #0: only red bloodcells are extracted during this procedure; you're compensated with an anticoagulant and returned plasma. My system didn't seemed as "shocked" as during a whole-blood donation (although my most common side-effect has been that hematoma bruise, which I try to mitigate by drinking lots of water before donating .. making my vein easier to find).

Advantage #1: the phlebotomist assigned to this device is the senior one (sort of like asking for The Head Barber), so the chances of Yet Another Hematoma are drastically reduced.

Advantage #2: being a sucker for technology, I enjoyed watching the monitoring device, which (among other things) accurately predicted the duration of my donation to within 60 seconds.

Advantage #3: a double-red donation doubles the interval between donations, from 8 to 16 weeks. They gave me "double the credits" per donation, so it'll mean that I'll be visiting 3 times/year instead of 6*

* technically, 3.25 times vs 6.5 times, but .. who's counting?

Finally, the phlebotomist "complimented me" on my high platelet count, and suggested I give a platelet donation at my next visit. Their website says platelet donations are possible every 2 weeks (and take 90 minutes) so I'd be badgered expected 24 times a year .. I think I'll pass on that. Well, maybe once .. but only if I get a really gooder commemorative T-shirt.

All Clear

I had my two-week eye exam this morning, and the doctor/surgeon gave me a clean bill of health. I can now stop most of the water torture (one week to "come down" off the corticosteroid drops, and then I'm done) and don't have to go back until January, when he'll tell me that I can play the piano again.

It's too bad that I didn't get a cataract in my left eye at the same time, since it'd be nice to have perfect vision in both eyes. As it is, I can wear my (gas permeable) contact lens several hours a day, but the eyeglasses I wore at home are now completely useless; the resulting double-vision is unworkable. It's something like wearing stilts on one foot and flats on the other -- but I was told that before the surgery so it's not a shock.

Now, I'm learning to ignore the complete blur in my left eye (home during the day) and 20/20 vision in my right eye, when I'm not wearing my contact lens (not lenses).

Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. (repeat)

One of the more annoying things about my recent eye surgery involves The Next 30 Days, which involves a lot of eye drops. Four times a day, I'm supposed to use Vigamox (antibiotic); Econopred Plus (corticosteroid) in addition to the Travatan-Z I take before bedtime.

I calculated 270 drops in the next month, all to be taken a few hours apart. While it's not the same as Chinese Water Torture it's as close as I care to get. Time to develop a 30-day spreadsheet.

Several of the nurses noticed my long eyelashes and said that's common among people who take Travatan (to keep my IOP - intraocular pressure - in check).

Not shown: Systane lubricant eye drops (I was cautioned that they are preservative-free so each tube must be used immediately).

Earlier (in a comment) Geoff asked "why all the Tylenol?" and my answer is that I had a dull headache for a day or so after the actual surgery. It really wasn't a lot of pain - more like the dull throb I get when listening to most VP-level conference calls.

Both my ophthalmologist and eye surgeon warned me that I may want to have surgery on the other eye, and today I understand why. Everything's dandy (!) when I wear my contact lens in the non-operative eye, but wearing eyeglasses (now a clear lens on the right) is a bit like wearing flat heels on one foot and stilts on the other. It's truly odd that I can see clearly out of my right eye when I wake up - for the past 45 years I've always reached for my eyeglasses before even getting out of bed.

Odds are that I will have the same surgery on my left eye, since I can't wear contact lenses all day (they're gas permeable - hard - due to my astigmatism) and the double-vision with the glasses is unacceptable. Right now, I'm entering this blog by closing the right eye, which is now great for distance but lousy for reading or computing. Looks like a new set of Reading Glasses is in my future: oy.

eye surgery update

I'll add details later, but .. my eye surgery ("cataract extraction and intraocular lens implant") was yesterday, and today I return to get the bandage (patch) removed. Then, I'll know whether this was a success or not. The discharge paperwork said I could take Tylenol for the pain, so I've been doing that every four hours.

From the time I checked in (07:15) until the time they wheeled me into the surgery area was two hours, so I was mostly annoyed, although the COLORS during surgery were very impressive (yes, they keep you awake during the procedure).

another 9/11

I turned 50 today. I skillfully avoided anything remotely resembling a celebration (who would choose a birthday on 9/11?) so .. I can now start checking the (x)50-54 box on all those surveys which land in my lap.

The only recent good news (?): my eye surgery's now scheduled .. for late October. The surgeon tells me that, after it's done, and presumably for the first time in my life, I'll have near-perfect vision in my right eye. Because of my severe nearsightedness, I may elect to have the same procedure done on my left eye, because it will be such an imbalance. They won't do them any sooner than two weeks apart, and due to the popularity (!) of this clinic, and how long it takes to make an appointment for anything, it'll be a minimum of six weeks, if I decide that's what I want to do.

I was told the imbalanced vision will be a little like walking on stilts .. but only on the right leg. I can hardly wait.

By the way, those Travatan-Z eyedrops I'm taking each night appear to be Doing The Trick, as my IOP [intra-ocular pressure] has dropped to 15 ("average") in both eyes, down from 24-26 before. Woo hoo. Will I be on these the rest of my life? Time will tell. Per gallon, this stuff must cost well over $1 Billion .. the drug companies are making out like bandits, fer sher.

comparing multivitamins (male)

My doctor hands all patients something I'll call This Year's Health Recommendations - at the Annual Physical Exam [APE]. One of those bullets includes "daily multivitamin" and I've gotten into the habit of buying Bayer's "One-A-Day Men's Health Formula". Honestly, I never thought much about it.

Recently (at Costco), I spotted a different multivitamin: Nature Made's "Multi for Him" and thought it was probably a clone of the Bayer product: not so. A closer examination showed significant differences between the products. Should I switch?

Disclaimer: I am not a doctor. I'm just trying to make sense of this stuff.

I was mildly surprised to see that there's disagreement between what the Feds (US Department of Agriculture) and the supplement manufacturers place on their label. The most recent USDA info I found is dated 2002 and I suspect those are current recommendations. I further suspect that this stuff is examined by Real Experts, but I couldn't find it anywhere on The Internets. So, I made my own chart (the numbers are for men age 31-50 and don't apply to anyone else).

Supplement	100% DV (label)	100% DV (USDA, 2002)	Nature Made %DV	Bayer %DV
Vitamin A	5000 IU	900 µg	50 (60% beta carotene)	70 (14% beta carotene)
Vitamin C	60 mg	90 mg	300	150
Vitamin D	400 IU	5 µg	250	100
Vitamin E	30 IU	15 mg	167	150
Vitamin K	80 µg	120 µg	100	25
Thiamin(B1)	1.5 µg	1.2 mg	100	80
Riboflavin(B2)	1.7 mg	1.3 mg	100	100
Niacin	20 mg	16 mg	100	80
Vitamin B6	2 mg	1.7 mg	200	150
Folic Acid	400 µg	400 µg	100	100
Vitamin B12	6 µg	2.4 µg	300	300
Biotin	300 µg	30 µg	10	10
Pantothenic Acid	10 mg	5 mg	100	50
Calcium	1000 mg	1000 mg	16	21
Iodine	150 µg	150 µg	100	-
Magnesium	400 mg	420 mg	25	30
Zinc	15 mg	11 mg	100	100
Selenium	70 µg	55 µg	100	150
Copper	2 mg	900 µg	100	100
Manganese	2 mg	2.3 mg	200	100
Chronium	120 µg	35 µg	100	100
Molybdenum	75 µg	45 µg	100	-
Potassium	4.7 g	4.7 g	-	3
Lycopene (no RDA)	650 µg			600 mcg (no DV)

So what did I learn after making this analysis (remember, I Ain't No Doctor)?

1. The USDA (2002) and the supplement manufacturers don't always agree on RDA [Recommended Dietary Allowances];
2. The Nature Made product is better in 10 categories;
3. The Bayer product is better in 5 categories;
4. Not all categories should be weighted equally (Vitamin C is more important than Molybdenum?)

Bottom line decision? I'll buy whichever is on sale.

a drop a day keeps the doctor away

Partial good news from my ophthalmologist yesterday: the prescription eyedrops I've been using since my last visit had the desired effect. In my right (control) eye, my intraocular pressure [IOP] has fallen into an acceptable range (10-21 mm Hg).

I've been seeing this doctor for 2+ years and my IOP's never been below 24 mm Hg, and had risen to 26 mm Hg in my right eye (the one where the cataract is developing). So, he asked me to try one drop/day of Travatan Z. It worked; in 30 days my IOP dropped to 18/19 mm Hg (left/right). Presumably, continued use of these Magic Beans will bring it closer to the middle of that range (15.5 mm Hg if my math skills are intact). Noteworthy: while I only applied drops to one eye, my IOP fell in both eyes; the doctor explained that this proximity effect (he had some Fancy Medical Term for it, but I fërgôt) is not unusual.

The bad news is that I now have Yet Another Prescription and will have to add this to The List. Now that my IOP's controlled, the next step is to contact a cataract specialist (they're not open 24x7) and undergo an evaluation. {sigh} Getting old isn't as much fun as getting young.

überwüzy

I got an email from the local blood bank, who said their supply of my blood type (O+) was low, and they needed donors. So, I waddled over at 6:30pm and gave them a unit (my last prior donation was 3 May). Nurse One missed my left arm vein, whispered something about "hematoma" to Nurse Two, at which point Nurse Two took over, switched to the right arm and proceeded. 15 minutes later (not even enough time to catch up on one podcast) I was out of there. Nurse One had disappeared.

I didn't notice anything unusual on the drive home, but about 3 hours later started feeling überwüzy* when walking|standing and decided to crash early. This morning, I'm still feeling the effects a little, so will take it easy (I usually spend my Fridays operating heavy machinery).

* take that, Google whackers!

Aside: they always have some article of (promotional) clothing when leaving - sometimes a ballcap but most often, a white T-shirt. Yesterday, it was a brown T-shirt .. whazzup wit dat?

the c word (lower case "c")

I went to my ophthalmologist yesterday to find out why my right eye's malfunctioning, and got the news that I have a cataract (early stage). Well, isn't that special? He gave me some drops (Travatan Z) to take each night and we'll decide what to do about this in 30 days. Until then, life's blurry on my right side.

PS: I'm posting this today using a Nokia 770, partly to see how practical it is (early verdict : a regular keyboard is much faster but the autocomplete feature is nice, and it's hard to beat the portability). I've used it to fetch email and do some basic web surfing, but had trouble with the (Pidgin) IM client.

National Day of Reason

Today, I donated blood and voted (early voting is underway for the 12 May election). Both were for a good cause: the National Day of Reason.

I also accomplished one other notable task: I finally located a pint of Americone Dream (after looking for the past several weeks). Sadly, it is now but a fond memory. Thanks, Ben. Thanks, Jerry. Thanks, Stephen.

Look out, Tulsa

A story in today's Dallas Managed News says:

"The Dallas-Fort Worth area is No. 2 on the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America’s latest list of the 100 most challenging places for allergy sufferers to live.

Tulsa leads the list."

I'm guessing our local politicians are working on a plan to make Dallas #1 .. so the Tulsans (Tulsians? Tulsicans?) had better watch their back. Meanwhile, will someone pass me another tissue? And some eye drops? And some sinus meds? And ...

lowered expectations

Since I've been doing The Insomnia Thing the past few weeks, I found a good use of my time between midnight and 0400 today : installing patches.

Although Microsoft told everyone they'd "take a month off" and not have a Patch Tuesday in March, they did anyway .. requiring 4 or 5 updates to the stuff on my various PCs running Windows XP.

While they were doing that, Apple released the Mac OS X 10.4.9 bits .. which took a few hours to download. In addition, there was an iPhoto 6 update on my Mac Mini (Intel Core Duo) but not my PowerBook-G4.

Once all that was done, I caught a few hours sleep before today's first concall .. at 0830. And the cycle continues ...

innoculated

I finally remembered to get a flu shot, while driving past CareNow (a local doc-in-the-box). It was $15 and so very exciting (zzzz). The information form that's handed out says the ideal time to be vaccinated is October-November, so I'm hoping the virus waits awhile before making the rounds.

Like last year, the small diameter needles are barely perceptable. They asked me to hang around for 10 minutes after the shot, to make sure I didn't have an immediate allergic reaction. I waited 8 minutes, then left. Do you think they'll come after me?

fun! with spam

Spammers must be, on average, even more stupid than the average Republican Party Lackey.

Today, while sipping my morning coffee, I took a (very) few minutes to look at one email account which has become a spam trap. I originally used this account only for a job search, so all the spam came as the result of my resume being Out There. Since I'm not currently in the job market, this account serves no other function. In the past 4 days, it attracted 182 emails; all were trapped by the spam filter (my settings are to relegate anyone not in my Address Book as a spammer).

Of the 182 messages, I looked only at the Subject lines for a breakdown:

43 - sex      (either "make me a stud" or "viagra spelled N different ways")
38 - health   (mostly innocent stuff like "want to be healthy?")
37 - nebulous (random words)
30 - cheap medicine
24 - credit   (most say TransUnion; Experian; Equifax or FICO)
 7 - name     (my name is in the Subject: line)
 3 - get rich quick

It's worth noting that I didn't read the body text of ANY of these. People who want to reach me are in my Address Book. Even if someone acquires that list, odds are very high that the spam filters will trap the message due to content alone. Legitimate senders may have to resort to a phone call to advise me that an email is en route, but resending is trivial (for all but AOL newbies).

Memos to spammers:

1-Your messages are not reaching me.

2-You are throwing your money away - the only one making any money is the guy who sold you the list. By the way, 98% of the addresses have been abandoned due to excess spam, anyway. You're paying good money for a list which contains only 2% live addresses, and I'd guess that 90% of that 2% (get our your calculator - if you can operate one) will be trapped by spam filters. Your odds at even getting anyone to read your message - much less respond - is starting to look very, very remote. Then again, you never were any good at math.

3-You'd be better off playing the lottery -- which is for other people who Can't Do Math, either.

4-You'd do much better putting the money you're paying for the spam list into a savings account at 2%, but since you didn't pay attention in school, I don't expect any of you inbreds to understand this.

Spam™ (the capitalized one) is probably a trademark of Hormel Foods, who produce fine meat products. No harm intended, guys.

Is it hot in here, or is is just me?

I'm still trying to decide what I thought about a lecture tonight: "What are the Health Impacts of Global Warming?" (subtitled "How could the 17 proposed coal fired plants affect our health?")

The primary speaker was Dr Catherine Thomasson, incoming director of Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR). Oftentimes when I listen to emotional presentations - on either end of the political spectrum - I secretly wish for "the other side" to be speaking to me through an earbud, ala the commentator at a golf tournament.

"The quote she just made was taken out of context, from a 1983 report on the impact of strontium-90 on three ferret-eating albinos in Alabama."

or

"What she says is true, but it would require raising taxes, and there's not a politician alive who has the cajones to do that, because they'd be diselectrified in the next election"

Don't get me wrong: there were lots of seemingly valid data points in her preso (to be posted to the Oregon PSR website later this week (look for "Energy Independence Texas")

Examples:

• Much of the bad air we breathe here in Dallas comes from coal-fired power plants in west Texas ("The Dallas-Fort Worth area had the biggest health impacts of Texas metro areas, with 290 early deaths, 476 nonfatal heart attacks and 10,263 asthma attacks annually")
• Texas is the 7th largest CO2 producer in the world, if it were counted as a separate country (in comparison, the USA produces 25% of global CO2)
• 16 of the world's 23 largest cities are on coasts, thus susceptible to rising sea levels caused by global warming
• Texas' 17 coal power plants contribute 10% of USA's particulates
• watch for a press release Real Soon Now from the "Texas Mayors for Climate Action" (yeah, right .. I'll hold my breath for that one)

Related website pointers:

• Oregon's Department of Energy
• Architecture 2030 standard
• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IGCC)
• Carbonfund.org
• Public Citizen's Climate Action Committee will meet later this month at the Dallas Central Library
• The Sierra Club's Cool Cities campaign
• LEED standards

As I was leaving, I noticed 3 Toyota Prius parked in the lot. One sported an Expose Exxon bumper sticker. I wonder what that's all about?

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Unrelated #43.6: MoveOn reports that Texas senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson (quote) "was the deciding vote against Internet freedom voting to give corporations like AT&T more control of what you see and do online. Your senator voted to let companies like AT&T put tollbooths on the Internet and gain more control over what you see and do online. The fight to preserve the free and open Internet now moves to the full Senate."

Gee, what a surprise that my Radical Rightwing Senatress (who gave women the right to vote, anyway?) is out of touch with Her constituents! She, along with our other Senator - John Corningware (or something like that) - would be better served as workers at the Whataburger drive-thru window.

now ain't that phat?

What a way to spend a Saturday. Inside the Dallas Convention Center with 600 people I'd never met before (well, except for Mayor Laura). This was part of Shaping America's Health .. the next seven hours in a surprisingly fast-moving 21st Century Town Meeting® called Shaping America's Youth.

Turns out this is the 2nd one of these ever held. The first was in Memphis, earlier this year. Dallas had over 1046 registrants but only 600 made it to the event. I guess that's a good turnout, especially on one of the 4 nice weekends in Dallas every year (otherwise it's too hot/wet/cold).

The meeting itself was reasonably hi-tech. Each table (10 people) had a Mac iBook connected on a wireless network to a Think Tank near the stage. As we Solved World Hunger, our ideas were passed to this group which cut-and-pasted them into a presentation, offering near-immediate gratification.

The session leaders were David Campt and Julia Sullivan; they did a commendable job staying on their feet the entire time. Many of the attendees (37%) were Hispanic; several accepted the offer of earpieces for a Spanish translation (see also: Avance Dallas). We were handed wireless "voting gadgets" which had a USB interface at the top; the thing was called an "OpinionCounterIQ" (sadly, I didn't think to take a photo of it).

Random stuff:
0- Texas is the 6th fattest state; 63% of Texans are overweight or obese.
1- 35% of school-age children are overweight or obese; only 11% attend PE [Physical Education] classes.
2- David Campt (session leader) said that overweight Americans will die 19 years early, on average.
3- an upcoming TV show is due to be broadcast here on May 27th (channel 11); "The Biggest Generation" will be a good thing to TiVo.
4- Coming soon (April 27th): Bike & Walk to School day. Yeah, like parents will leave their SUVs at home to escort Junior to school. Right.
5- The Cooper Institute has program called "Promoting healthy behaviors in children"

Other speakers:
6- Bradie James (a Dallas Cowboy);
7- Alex Wolens - the mayor's 15-year old daughter;
8- Terry Wade regarding Marathon Kids (Richardson ISD);
9- Dr LeAnn Kridelbaugh, of the Dallas Area Coalition to Prevent Childhood Obesity (probably an offering of Children's Medical Center of Dallas)

over 1 million points served

I've been running the UD Agent for over 4 years on my oldest PC, and I just noticed that I bypassed one million points on/about January 21st. I'm currently at 1,082,944 points* and adding 1,070 more each day, running three instances of the UD Agent. Pity this software doesn't run on anything except MS-Windows. It's quite unobtrusive, but I wish they'd make a tweak to the way it handles proxies. One of my PCs goes that route part of the week, and the UD Agent isn't smart enough to bypass the proxy when the VPN is disabled. I have other software that is smart enough to look for alternatives when the network connection fails.

* 583,753 since joining The Team

The active projects haven't changed in awhile: United Devices Cancer Research and Human Proteome Folding. I wonder how much of the data from earlier, now completed projects (United Devices Cancer Research Project, Phase I; Smallpox Research Grid Project; United Devices Anthrax Research Project) was found to be useful?

A few years ago, I was asked to join a team; now there are 45 active members, and I've moved up to 6th place in Points, and 9th in Results. I wonder when I can expect my Certificate of Achievement in the smail (snail mail).
 

	Reference architecture	Processor	Memory	Storage	Network
100	"High-end Desktop System" (Pentium IV)	1.5 GHz	384 MB	5 GB	1.54 Mbps (T1)
and then my 3 instances in comparison:
124	AMD Duron	0.8 GHz	512 MB	10 GB	2.68 Mbps (DSL)
205	AMD Sempron 3000+	2.0 GHz	1 GB	10 GB	2.68 Mbps
220	AMD Athlon XP 3200+	2.2 GHz	2 GB	10 GB	2.68 Mbps

still sneezing after all these years

I must be getting used to the allergens quickly. I was driving around Dallas with the sunroof open, and whatever's floating around (looks like the same stuff from earlier in the week) didn't bother me today. Hmmm.

Today's allergy levels for DALLAS, TX: Thursday - 11.1/High
Today's predominant pollen: Cedar/Juniper, Oak and Hackberry

(thanks to pollen.com for the daily update)

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spotted at a building in Santa Clara, California:
What's with the bias against irregular steps, anyway? Is that why they are chained off?

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What's that? Did I update the Sundry on Thursday blog for your web surfing pleasure? You bet! How hard can it be?

road trip : day one

gotta git me some-o-dat flavored syurp (at the World-Famous Canton, TX Dairy Palace)

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I got The Call this morning at about 6:30, soon after I'd fetched the morning paper. I'd already made plans for an urgent trip to Mississippi, since mom's health was deteriorating rapidly.

It takes about an hour longer to drive door-to-door, than to fly (drive to DFW, park, take an airport shuttle, wait, fly, rent a car @ JAN, drive 2 hours) .. and you're at the mercy of ATC. I opted to drive, especially since a lot of schedule uncertainty would be ahead.

It rained hard today, for about half the drive. I encountered snow (on the side of I-20) about 10 miles before Vicksburg MS, and again a few miles north of Jackson MS. For about a minute, I was hailed on (no obvious damage from the pea-size hail). And there were several nearby lightning strikes. I didn't spot any toads falling from the sky.

Although I knew there was hail in the area (from a few quips on the CB radio) I wasn't able to dodge it. All I saw was a dark black cloud .. but where would it go? It's not like I could knock on someone's door and ask if I could park my car while the hailstorm passed.

Drive time: 7 hours 45 minutes. No major delays.

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I stopped by the funeral home this afternoon and got the form they use to gather all the information; it'll be the basis for the Death Certificate; newspaper obituaries; and sundry other documents. I completed it tonight:

Vital Statistics Record

name
sex
race
age
residence address
birthdate
birthplace
education level
marital status
spouse's name
social security number
telephone number
occupation
industry
veteran? Branch:
service number
enlistment date
discharge date
father's name & birthplace
mother's name & birthplace
church membership
clubs/organizations


list of surviving relatives
relation/name/location


funeral service information
place of funeral service
date of funeral service
time of funeral service
place of visitation
date of visitation
time of visitation
final disposition: burial/entombment/cremation/other
minister(s)
Bible/literary passages
musical selections
pall bearers
clothing preferred: own/funeral home/other
hairdresser
jewelry: on/off disposition after service
glasses: on/off disposition after service
use of flag: yes/no/folded/drape casket/present to:
memorials or donations
newspapers to contact
military discharge papers
cemetery property deed
insurance policies
additional information or requests
casket: outer contai ner:
person authorized to arrange final details


record of death
date of death
cause of death
place of death
pronounced by: