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Non-complaint: Symphony Buddy and I have mutually apologized.
Third person receives both our blame.
Non-complaint: Because of the SNAFU last Saturday, I've successfully avoided spending any money for the first week of this five week "month" before payday so I still have a fresh budget and just four weeks to require it to last through. Yay!
So, to celebrate, I've booked the morning bus for tomorrow and will be having coffee, orange juice, biscuit & gravy, and bacon at the hole-in-the-wall beanery in the decrepit mini-mall. Mmmm... bacon! If I can time it right I might be able to get to the Chinese takeout before ubering to the proper grocery store half way home and also pick up prescriptions at the drugstore near there. Grocery list isn't big but there are several items needed. Salad greens being one of them but right now I'm not so sure I want to gamble on bagged salad greens because of the currently reported contamination causing severe, long lasting, intestinal illness. Perhaps I can change my meal planning/preparation a bit for a few weeks until the problem abates.
Weather has been wet & cool (low 70sF) for a couple days. Tomorrow will be sunny & high 70s.
She appreciates your well-wishing.
Complaint: Smart Machines: I complained a few weeks ago about my trusty, ten year old blood pressure (BP) monitor, deciding to die, and the cost of finding a new one at today's prices. And having to replace it someday. Well, today was the day. I had talked to my primary physician a few weeks ago about a recommendation for a decent BP monitor and he suggested the brand name "Omron". OK, so while picking up prescriptions this morning I decided burn a hundred dollar bill on a medical necessity.
Not fun, but presumably wise. Thankfully, it was on sale so I saved 20% (small yay!) When I got home I opened the box, assembled the unit, fit it to my arm, turned it on, and it went through the usual operations and at the end it reported "AF". Tried it a few more times, and same problem. A quick look in the quickstart manual says that it is reporting that I have Afib (i.e. atrial fibrillation) but didn't give me any numbers. Yes mr. machine, I know I have Afib, I've had Afib for 30 years, every doctor's nurse always tells me that I have Afib but gives me the numbers. My old machine gave me the numbers. But this machine in its infinite wisdom says I have Afib and leaves all the numbers blank and the manual says "tell your doctor".
Now, granted, this is a smart machine (it says so on the box) and it has modern features like being able to connect through Bluetooth for some demented reason. I haven't yet gone through the process of connecting it to my smart phone to find out what it tells me more than what it displays on the device itself, nor have I read through the bigger complete manual to find more information, but this $#%@$& device better be able to give me the numbers or it's going back to the store.
There's a lot more I can do with $80 than simply get reminded that I have Afib.
At minimum they need a button on the device to bring forth the hidden numbers.
As I've said for the last 40 years, "The trouble with smart machines is that you have to be smarter than they are" And that is getting harder and harder. Have you tried working with AI services, even just Google AI? Amazing what they know, and can shovel forth
, but sometimes they need additional intelligent, suggestive prompting to avoid getting the wrong idea or going off on a tangent!
But I fear the next generation of people are going to be completely incapable of thinking for themselves.
Which, when you think of it, is not much different than today.
Non-complaint: Today's mini-adventure was short and sweet. Breakfast at my favorite hole-in-the-wall beanery in the decrepit mini-mall was wonderful, but the bus arrived too early, and cafe service was too fast and I was done way before either the Chinese takeout or Subway was open. Grocery shopping went well, but I kept finding things that I'd forgotten that I needed (Clorox, 91% alcohol, laundry soap, etc...) and did manage to fill my cart. I also noticed that the bagged salad greens area was completely-full instead of the usual nearly-empty on Thursday. Apparently people are not buying bagged salad greens. Hmmm... I wonder why? So, instead of bagged greens, I bought a head of lettuce and some carrots. I hate the mess of dealing with raw veggies, but can put up with it for a few weeks. I also picked up another big bag of cherries. Mmmm... cherries!
Also picked up two unhusked ears of corn. Mmmm... freshly husked corn-on-the-cob.
The ride home was a couple dollars more expensive than usual (too early for the price lull between 10 and 11:00AM) but I just wanted to get home. Surprisingly, the Uber driver actually loaded my four bags of groceries into the car, and put them on my porch when we got home. So, yay for him.
Because in Michigan there was/is a parasite outbreak, that was causing people to get sick. Here's a link to read about it: https://www.sciencealert.com/parasites-are-causing-explosive-diarrhea-to-surge-heres-how-to-avoid-the-worst-ones
Editing to add, I would also be wary of greens from fast food places as well.
I suspect he already knew that and was being cheeky.
Eh, maybe. Tone is notoriously hard to discern via text. ¯\_ (ツ)_/¯
Yeah, "s'plosive liquid stools" is the thing.
A week ago, they were pointing their fingers at Taylor Farms, who was providing some of the greens used at Taco Bell locations, but then within 48 hours, they were saying, "nevermind!" Last Monday (7/20), I ate at a Perkins restaurant and I ordered a burger. It came with tomato slices, but no lettuce. The server mentioned that they didn't have salads that day, either. Perkins isn't taking any chances.
So we still don't know the cause or the vector. It's just "fresh produce". Could be lettuce, could be t'rmaters. But here's what I figure:
0) Cyclospora is neither a virus nor a bacteria. It's a parasite, and it can take up to 2 weeks for the victim to begin suffering. Or, if you're playing scrabble or hangman this weekend and you're looking for a conversation piece, it's a "coccidian protozoan parasite." Impress your friends and family with that, but know that it can't be killed with many common medicines like antibiotics. I guess the doctors are giving antibodies for bad cases, but this one can be a tough one to kick.
1) We already know that Cyclosporaiasis' vector is fecal-to-oral. Yep, that's as gross as it sounds, but it comes from contaminated feces coming into contact with the food supply or the water supply. It has to be ingested in order to straighten out your guts like a torpedo tube. That means that somebody (or several somebodys) has been pooping in the fields, trucks, or washing/distribution systems, or storage systems.
Or else there's improper disposal of sanitary equipment (toilet paper, spoiled underwear, diapers, or other clothing, etc), or wastewater not going through proper waste treatment processes (or not spending enough time in critical wastewater treatment stages) before that water is used on produce, either in the fields or during post-harvest processing.
Or maybe they don't wash their hands after using the restroom. There may be as many as 40% of the US population who don't wash their hands, and I'll bet everybody here has seen at least one person not washing their hands at least within the last 6 months. I'm right, aren't I?
2) Cyclospora can't "really" be washed off of produce. I don't know how that jives with bathroom handwashing, but I did read this in a couple of places. Oh, I still wash my produce, because we were all lied to left, right, and upside-down during Covid, and I haven't forgotten that (or forgiven it, either). It just makes sense to wash any food you're going to consume raw, and cook everything else thoroughly. You learn that in Boy Scouts and the military, and if you've ever had a bout with Montezuma's Revenge, you follow that religiously when camping or when making a meal in the kitchen.
3) I remember reading some years ago that Cyclospora can't be filtered out of water that may have been contaminated with it. Apparently, it can get through VERY fine filtration media. I'm thinking that the risk may be greatest for barely-processed water sources. Maybe a malfunctioning septic system that lets contaminated water back into the aquifers before the aquifers can have enough time to kill or block the bug from getting drawn out by backyard wells. Or maybe from a municipal system that somehow got wastewater crossed with post-purified clean water. Or possibly somebody pooping too close to the family well. Could be a human, but I'm not so sure we've ruled out donkeys, pigs, cows, sheep, or other livestock.
4) Summer heat. Some bugs thrive in heat. That's why I already know the name "cyclospora". Because we've dealt with it before.
5) Cyclospora CAN be killed through cooking. Temp has to be somewhere in the mid-150s farenheit (according to the source I read), so if you just cook everything to chicken's safe temperature (165 F), then you SHOULD be able to eat that food without having to sprint to the porcelain throne.
I do think they'll find out where it's coming from. This is just a tricky one. And SOMEBODY'S gonna have some s'plaining to do. Because, after all, SOMEBODY SOMEWHERE isn't properly dealing with human feces...or with SOME feces. In the 21st century!
Sorry for such a crappy post.
But that's what I know.
So I have and use an Omron BP machine every morning, so with my own vested interest, I did a little bit of research. Apparently, the AFIB detection is built-in to your Omron's operating system and it can't be overridden.
According to my own PCP, the Omrons are just about the best machines out there.
But there's good news! There are many Omron BP machines out there that don't detect AFib. You may need to find one of those.
Here's the google search term I used:
is there an omron bp monitor without afib?
Good luck!
Yeah, I was being cheeky or probably more like sarcastic because I'd mentioned the reason in a previous post.
Yep, I try, but I stick to this forum's emoticons but they don't have an "eyeroll" emoticon(anymore).
Yes, I did continue researching and employed Google AI to discuss it with. Lots of good information about the technology and alternative BP monitors. Apparently OMRON's "Series 7" and "Series 10" monitors have the "AFib Screening Technology", and yes, it is NOT possible to get numbers from them if it detects AFib.
However, "Series 3" and "Series 5" monitors use the older technology and are supposedly still available (and probably cheaper). So, as soon as possible before my return grace period is up (60 days?) I'll get back to the store and work this out. Meanwhile I'm repacking everything as best as possible. I'm easy on my toys and their packaging so it's no problem.
I had a long conversation with Google AI and thought that I had recorded it all so that I could encapsulate all that good information for others, but the copy/paste operation didn't work this time for some reason.
Good luck on the return. Most returns go well for me. But that's also why I don't like buying jeans or underwear online, lol! But I've got my jean-size dialed in now, along with graphic t-shirts.
Complaints 1. Re: BP machines. Husband has a fancy one from the VA hospital's telehealth program. The program and nurses are great but I despise that machine. The voice sounds so condescending. It doesn't just give directions but babbles on about very well known health tips every. Time. It's. Used. So far I've held my tongue but if it was mine, there'd be no windows intact in the house because of how loud I'd be screaming, "Shut up already!"
2. After one blessedly, near-autumn, cool day, we are now back to hellishly hot weather with super-heated heat indices. Our ACs are screaming, "Captain the engines cannae take't any more!"
3. Some ill-bred aging matron at Laundromat deliberately knocked over my open bottle of detergent, sitting on my machine because I was about to pour some in, and just left it there spilling on the floor. No sorry, no attempt to clean it up, & no offer to replace it. Just an "Oopsy!" with the nastiest smirk I've seen outside a middle school mean-girl clique. (See why I believe it was on purpose?) May all her future dryer loads be contaminated with crayons and full lipsticks.
Non-complaints 1. Son and Girlfriend stopped in our little town on their way to Branson Missouri last Sunday. We met at a tiny restaurant with very good food at a good price.
2. Husband finally got his wizard's gear (computer/tech stuff) together and figured out how to get into my late laptop, HAL9000 2.0. (Teensy weensy screws.) He has now recovered the HD contents and is transferring them to Victus. He had to do it because I couldn't get Victus to notice Husband's portable HD. This is typical. My relationship with computers is a mix of It's Complicated & Dysfunctional.
3. I bought a quart of cookies & cream ice cream plus Dogster doggie "ice cream" so all of us could have a cold treat this afternoon.
Complaint: The hard drive in my main computer may be failing. It wants to scan and fix it every time I start the ccomputer. And hard drive prices have nore than doubled in the last six months.
Complaint: One of my daughter's kittens (Pippin) peed in my laundry hamper. The two of them are neutered, so we don't have any enzyme detergent for pet smells on hand. Had to order some, and I will have to wait until it comes from Amazon for clean laundry, I guess. I have no idea why he thought it was a good idea to pee in the laundry. The cat box was just cleaned this morning. This better not start being a thing with him.
I bought a few 1 & 2TB USB hard drives (spinning platters) over the last year. Stuck 'em into my cardboard box-o-drives for some future need for long term backup. That storage box also contains perhaps a dozen older drives from 80GB to 500 GB. Yes, I'm a digital hoarder. And I have enough 4, 6, & 8TB drives currently connected into the system and being used for multiple copies of perhaps a total of 2TB of data that is really important, but they are mostly in an "unpowered" situation until needed in their round of the backup schedule. When it comes right down to it, there really isn't that much data that I actually care about anymore. If you can consider that 2TB of data "isn't much"(*eyeroll*). Back when computers were made of wires & iron and used tiny donuts of rust for memory, I used to keep all my data on a single 2400 foot reel of 1/2 inch, 9-track tape at 800 Bpi (20MB, wheee...)
Someday, I'm going to want something from one of those drives or want to replace a dead one in one of my six computers(3 newish, 3 old), someday, probably, I think.
I'm glad I don't have to buy one at today's prices. I think I got out of the DIY computer building hobby just in time 4 years ago. Newest machine is an Intel i5-11400 with "only" 32GB of DDR4 RAM, my everyday machine, almost ancient history.
Biggest is an Intel i7-10700 with 64GB DDR4 and an RTX-3080 graphics card, i.e. my DAZing & gaming machine.
non-complaint: Fresh sweet corn from the local farmer stand. When Samwise Gamgee said that there's some good in the world still worth fighting for... fresh sweet corn. Straight up.
complaint: We're back to the 90s, and reportedly even more humid than the last span... but past a certain point I'm not sure how much it matters anymore. Sweat can't evaporate less than it already wasn't evaporating.
non-complaint: The tin of water we put out near the entrance to our yard-bunny's burrow is empty when we go to refill it. It can't be evaporating, so it looks like the local wildlife have found it. I know I sure wouldn't want to be trying to survive in this heat in a fur coat, so hopefully it's helping.
That's so kind of you to think about the wildlife. We don't get a lot of it at my house because I live near downtown. We have had bunnies, opossums, and skunks, but not often. And once in a while we get a lost bear or moose in the neighborhood.
OMG, a loose moose!
That would terrify me. Here in this little town we get bunnies, squirrel, deer, groundhogs, and even Black Bear but a moose would keep me in the hoose. When I lived in the suburbs of Washington DC (Reston, Virginia) our balcony overlooked a wooded area between our condo building and one in the development on the other side of the woods, and would see deer, fox and racoon. In Florida I've seen alligators, eagles, hawks, squirrels, coral snakes, water moccasin, opossum, big green iguanas, Horned Owls, and wild boar in neighborhoods. I've had my only experience with rattlesnakes in Florida. Also, we used to get flocks of white Ibis coming to pick the bugs from the lawn. We called them the lawn service crew. Also when I was in Reston, VA there was a wildlife park, zoo type of thing that had a big fenced in area a few blocks from our condo. In the field were American Bison, and several type of African deer-like beasties with long straight twisty horns. So very cool to drive out of town and count the buffalo as you go by. I'm OK with most type of critters but moose and goose (or is it meese and geese?) both give me the jitters.
Non-complaint: Sardines: Oftentimes my Sunday afternoon treat snack is a shrimp cocktail, about a half dozen cold shrimp w/cocktail sauce. I thought about it earlier in the week but forgot to unthaw a few this morning. Feeling a bit peckish I decided on sardines. Mmmm... sardines in mustard sauce on saltine crackers.
You don't get moose up your way? We're in the hill country in north central MA, so maybe it's the elevation. I've had the occasional moose run through my yard. When they run, it sounds like a horse galloping. I've been inside on these occasions, because moose. Sometimes it's a lost moose calf, but we have had a couple of bigger ones. One walked downtown and went to Burger King. That made the news, IIRC. We also had a moose calf that stood on our front walk and had a staring contest with one of our cats through the screen door. That one was there for quite a while, just staring. And yeah, our bears are the black ones, thankfully. I'm still hoping for somebody to model one so I can render them.
There is a cub altough it is a pretty old model: https://www.daz3d.com/black-bear-cub-by-am
Yeah, I have that one. It's not great, but it works for some things. Thanks, though. I appreciate the heads up.
GoogleAI:
Are there moose in Chautauqua county, NY?
No, there is no established or breeding moose population in Chautauqua County, New York.While the county features several local landmarks named after the animal—such as the Celoron Moose Lodge—actual wildlife sightings are incredibly rare anomalies. The vast majority of New York's estimated 700 moose live hundreds of miles away in the northeastern corner of the state, primarily clustered around the Adirondack Mountains and the Taconic Highlands.Understanding NY Moose DistributionThe Adirondack Core: New York's moose population naturally recolonized the state from Vermont and Canada starting in the 1980s. They prefer the dense boreal forests and commercial timberlands found Upstate.Wandering Individuals: Occasionally, young male moose (bulls) wander outside their typical territory during the fall mating season in search of new habitat or mates. These transient roamers are sometimes spotted in central or southeastern New York, but they rarely make it as far southwest as Chautauqua County.Local Wildlife Alternatives: If you see a large, dark animal in the Chautauqua woods, it is far more likely to be a white-tailed deer or a black bear. The Chautauqua County Health Department frequently notes that bear sightings increase across western New York during the early summer months.
Interesting. Makes sense that you wouldn't have them if they came from Vermont. We have moose signs on the highway here, so they're around quite a bit. There's something you don't want to hit. Back in the 90s I saw the remains of a Pontiac Fiero that had hit one way out toward the end of the Mass Pike near the NY border. It wasn't good. I hope the people lived. The car was squished.
I think there might be moose up in the Boundary Waters, but we don't get them down here by the Twin Cities. My parents' house is right by a nature reserve, though, so I grew up with a lot of other wildlife visitors... woodchuck, opossum, deer (so many deer), raccoons, that sort of thing. There's at least one bear, but it's never bothered anyone that I know of. My parents always emphasized that our neighborhood had been their habitat before humans came, so the least we could do was give back in the ways we could. Mom puts a lot of thought into making sure there is accessible food/water/shade for everyone.
I can't do much because I don't have control of my yard (stupid HOA), and we're far enough from the wooded areas that critters don't tend to make it this far anyway. But I do put out water, and vegetable ends when I have them. The bits from our carved pumpkins every year end up cut up in a pie tin out there, and those go over really well.
I have seen a Black Panther twice with my wife around our house in the last 21 years. My wife & kids have seen one on two further occasions when I wasn't with them, and a visitor saw one in our garden hunting our Maine Coon cat when he was outside our kitchen window. It fled when it saw the visitor in the kitchen. On that occasion I could identify pressed down grass in the garden and followed its trail across the garden. That was 15 years ago and our boundaries are now more difficult to get through.
Google AI does not entirely agree, saying
Google AI is not entirely a fount of wisdom.
Regards,
Richard
The machine's reply sounds entirely reasonable to me. Notwithstanding that you and others have reported it, officials or scientists may have not verified in fact that there is a breeding colony. Much like the idea of me bumping into a moose. Not impossible, but most probably an aberration. On the extreme end, my brother still believes in Bigfoot with absolutely zero credible evidence, not even his own eyes.
I told him it was wishful thinking. It is a major bone of contention between us. You at least have seen a big black cat, twice.
And for the record, Google itself is not exactly a font of wisdom or reliability, but GoogleAI does a damn good job of summarizing concepts and facts, and helping us remember things that we knew, but for the moment have forgotten. I used it to "remember" the word "aberration" by asking "What is the word that begins with "ab..." and means "an unusual occurance"? Very helpful tool when you're nearly 80.
(Person with Zoology degree here.) While I take a strong Don't Trust But Verify attitude towards Google, AI, and the like, in this case the information is likely correct. It probably means that while there are some panthers in Kent, there aren't enough for a breeding population.
We have the same situation in our rural Arkansas county, with a big cat species/subspecies commonly called cougars, panthers, &/or mountain lions. They are definitely living here. A couple months ago, Husband showed me photos of one taken by a game camera less than 5 miles away from our property.
According to a friend of mine who has lived here since the 1970s, up until recently the state Game & Fish Commission insisted there weren't any big cats here, in spite of multiple sightings. Now, however, GFC says there are cougars, but it's "not a viable breeding population." I suspect the agency (which does good work IMO) clarified due to the popularity of game cams, which provided proof.
While in the Mountain West and on, we are seeing more wildlife moving through suburban neighborhoods and small towns looking for food as our drought continues. Also humans have been building into their areas, ignoring the threat of said wildlife and of fires. Moose, elk, deer, bears are common now. Standard warning is do not try to adopt a baby deer, mom may be foraging with her eye on baby. Do not try to play with baby bears even if they are cute. Leave moose, elk, deer, and bears alone. And secure your trash, house doors and windows and car doors. Do Not leave food in cars. Bears know how to open those doors if unlocked. Secure your pets in areas where wildlife are known to inhabit.
Why I live in Denver/Glendale. Yet a couple weeks ago on my morning walk a deer was foraging for food along the Cherry Creek below the Trail. I was given to understand there is a complete colony living along the creek. Much better than skunks.