Water…I need water. It’s 88 degrees outside outside and the wind is blowing so hard that I’m afraid the windows will be ripped off their hinges. It’s supposed to rain eventually, but right now it’s drier than an AA meeting around here. I keep expecting tumbleweed to drift across the streets below.
One of my nurses has been on maternity leave and today she informed me that she won’t be coming back. I kind of expected that, but the news was still disappointing. We had become good friends and I’ll miss having her around. Ah well, another person steps off the merry-go-round that is life on the 19th Floor. Time for a new rider.

This geophysicist is predicting an earthquake will strike the Los Angeles area in early September. I’m curious to know how Angelenos are reacting to the news. Is there going to be an exodus from the city around that time? It would be pretty cool if we could predict earthquakes down to the specific date and time of their arrival. I’m imagining a whole fleet of buses driving people into the desert for one big slumber party and then returning the next day to clean up the mess.
Hearing about the recovery of Saint-Exupery’s plane brought back memories of my high school French IV class. We read Le Petit Price and went to see a bilingual production of it at a local college. There were only nine or ten of us in the class and it was at the end of the day, so things were always very laid back. Our teacher had an atrocious accent, but I can still conjugate irregular verbs because of the endless drills he put us through

I was checking my Visa bill over lunch and I noticed a charge of which I had no absolutely memory. I called the credit card company and discovered that it was some “hobby store” in Las Vegas. Then I called the number associated with the vendor. It turns out that some guy in Jupiter, Florida ordered three hundred dollars worth of sex toys using my credit card number. I’m absolutely mystified as to how someone appropriated my account. The card wasn’t stolen and it never even left my wallet in Miami. Fortunately, the charge was removed from my account and I’m not too concerned about it. However, I think I will ask for a new card given the slight chance that someone may still have my number. But I bear this guy no ill will. I hope that he’s enjoying his new Turbo-Charged Vibrating Ecstasy Sleeve, or whatever the hell he bought.
The FDA has improved for human trials the brain implants about which I’ve previously written. I’d be the first in line to volunteer, but I’m not too crazy about wires dangling from my skull. Two surgical openings in my body is enough, thank you very much. Think I’ll wait for the wireless version.

Here’s a brief article about a young man with cerebral palsy who was admitted to a hospital for bedsores and malnutrition. The story doesn’t contain enough information to determine whether the mother was negligent, but the description of the boy’s condition is alarming. As many parents of children with disabilities will tell you, including my own, raising a child with intense needs can be exhausting. Everything becomes centered on the care of that child. And sometimes, it simply becomes too much for some families. I witnessed minor examples of neglect in some of my friends with disabilities back when I was a kid. Bodies that hadn’t been washed, clothes that hadn’t been changed, etc. It’s not behavior that’s justifiable, but it is understandable, especially considering the slashes in state human services budgets over recent years.
Next month, ABC is airing a television version of A Wrinkle in Time. It’s one of my favorite books, so I really don’t want to be disappointed in this adaptation. But knowing Disney, they’ll screw it up and make it all cutesy. Incidentally, there’s a great profile of Madeleine L’Engle in last week’s New Yorker.

If you aren’t checking out Josh’s Talking Points Memo, you really should be. He cites a Washington Post article that reveals the President has spent approximately 40% of his time in office on vacation, working or otherwise. This figure in and of itself doesn’t mean anything. Time away from the White House doesn’t necessarily equate with goof-off time. But it is interesting to note that Bush is going on vacation just as the situation in Iraq is deteriorating at an alarming rate.
Meanwhile, in some forgotten land in possession of actual weapons of mass destruction, nuclear brinkmanship is being played. North Korea probably doesn’t pose an imminent threat, but it’s disconcerting that this story has fallen off the radar of the American media.
Passover somehow slipped past me this year. I have a couple Jewish friends who try to bring me back into the fold by inviting me to their respective seders, but we didn’t connect this year. Of course, according to the Orthodox and Conservative branches of Judaism, I was never really in the fold. My mom isn’t Jewish, so the rulebook says neither am I. Of all the religious holidays I don’t observe, I have a special fondness for Passover. You can interpret the story of Moses leading the Hebrews out of Egypt as a strong commentary on social justice and our obligation to each other as human beings to strive for a world where noone is bound by political, economic, or religious shackles. Whatever your belief or lack thereof, that’s something worth remembering.