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Mr Ornery's Corner
Thursday March 17, 2011
I'm outta here - and not a moment too soon. Just wrote a short, 2-paragraph adios with new blog address and got timed out between the writing and posting. Sure gives a guy faith that he'll be able to transfer some of his old posts to the new site, eh?
Trying again, the new home for the blog is: Mister Ornery's Corner
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Friday March 4, 2011
Mister J is now 9 years old. For the uninitiated, Mister J is Ornery's grandson. Not biological, mind, but due to the convoluted workings of modern family. Besides, his biological grandfathers are in erratic contact or no contact whatsoever. Their loss, my gain.
Yesterday, the end of his school week, he came to spend a night. We played some badminton and then he went to play with some neighborhood kids. Next thing we know, the other kids come running to tell us Mister J has stepped on something and "HE'S BLEEDING!!!"
Not sure how many exclamation points they added, but he was bleeding and he was hopping/limping to the house. Mrs. O sat him down, cleaned the wound, and established that he had stepped on a rusty nail. Yours truly called his grandmother to check on his immunizations. His last tetanus shot was a close thing so we called a toll free help line. They recommended a visit to the ER.
We went. His medical information was in the system. A nurse took him through. A doctor examined the wound as best she could and recommended a precautionary x-ray to insure that there was nothing in the wound and that no bone got chipped. The x-ray was negative for any worse damage or infectious foreign matter and Mister J got to keep a copy. The doctor prescribed an antibiotic which yours truly got filled at an after-hours pharmacy. The total elapsed time, start to finish, was maybe three hours from time of injury. (We beat the influx of drunken university students by a couple of hours.)
At the end of our adventure, the costs were as follows:
ER visit: $0
Doctor's consult: $0
X-ray: $0
Prescription cost: $3.50 filing fee
TOTAL: $3.50 out of pocket.
Blasted socialized medicine, eh?
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Tuesday February 22, 2011
Spare a thought for Christchurch, New Zealand. The
latest reports are grim. 75 people are confirmed dead, 20 of them so
far unidentified. Another 300 are trapped and/or missing. A month or so
ago, New Zealand was sending crews to assist Australia during the
Queensland floods. Now Australia is returning the favor. Singapore,
Taiwan, Great Britain, and the US are also sending crews. Many crews
worked through the night. There have been fires in some buildings that
have compounded rescue efforts. Latest reports are that 15 people have
been found alive, trapped in a pocket in one of the collapsed
buildings. And rescue/recovery efforts go on, using everything from
massive cranes to bare hands.
This quake, as I have told some already, was a magnitude 6.3. Last
September, Christchurch experienced one of a magnitude 7.1. This one
has been worse by far. The previous, larger quake struck on a weekend,
deeper and farther away from the city. This one was closer, at a much
lesser depth, and hit on a work day at the end of lunch hour. We felt
it here in Dunedin, roughly 150 kilometers south and also felt one of
the aftershocks around 3 p.m.
What many do not realize is that the earthquake itself is not the only
problem. In modern societies, communications, water, and sewage break
down. Utilities fail. For many, there is the not knowing the fate of
loved ones, of family, friends, and co-workers. Rumors flare. As one
example, my initial report that 15 people had been located alive and
trapped in one building has been discounted. No doubt there have been
others. Too, people in such circumstances have little to no chance to
react, Many escaped the devastation with literally the clothes on their
back.
Survivor guilt weighs in. When The Cathedral - a major tourist
attraction - collapsed, some walked out unscathed. Others were crushed.
One woman spent time on the roof of a collapsed building before being
rescued while coworkers died in the collapse.
Understand
something too. There have been aftershocks almost daily since the quake struck
last September. They seemed to be slowing. Life was returning to some semblance
of normal even as demolition and reconstruction began. Now this. For some, it
is a last straw. Many have been unable to return to their homes or have had no
homes since September. Business suffered. Schools have now been closed. The
effects ripple outward.
And yet …
Christchurch
will come back. Humans are a remarkably resilient lot. People will rebuild
their lives and their community. And life will resume/continue, altered in ways
both defined and undefined. So it has been and so it will be unless and until
we so screw up this planet we call home that it becomes uninhabitable for all
but weeds and cockroaches, that or until Earth/God decides, "right. Back to square one and try again."
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Monday February 21, 2011
New Zealand is living up to its nickname, "The Shaky Isles". Christchurch to our north got hit with a magnitude 6.3 earthquake just before 1 p.m. our time. And because it was shallower than the September quake, we felt it here in Dunedin. I might add that Christchurch appears to be harder hit this go round. There are reports of at least one fatality, but those have not been confirmed. By the time I get home from work tonight, my stateside friends will probably know as much as I do.
Not so incidentally, a major fault line runs down the spine, so to speak, of our South Island. When that lets go (not if) I may find myself blogging from out at sea or under water. Meanwhile, we go on.
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Friday February 18, 2011
According to Blogstream there are no members online as I write this, which means I have to go searching for me and find up what the hell I'm up to now.
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