Happy Halloween!

Flyover Part II - Cockpit Footage

This short video clip has some simply excellent cockpit footage from Saturday's F-18 flyover of Bobby Dodd Stadium: view from the cockpit

Another flyover

There was another flyover before the Tech-Miami game last Saturday. This time they had cameras in the cockpits and showed the pilots (both GT alums) on the big screen in the stadium as they approached. And because they did this, I was ready and didn't miss it this time! If you haven't seen one, well, flyovers are extremely cool. And fast. And loud.

I'm late! Only not. And everything's different.

I finally had a couple of weekends that were about 10% as busy as one of trinamick's. Weekend before last, PDM and I painted a couple of rooms and he did some drywall repair while I raked the entire yard and bagged all the leaves. This weekend, the Tech vs. Miami game took up our whole Saturday. We had friends over for dinner on Friday, and on Sunday PDM painted another room and reseeded our lawn while I did my usual chore of once again removing all the dead leaves. I also stripped the ivy from some trees, except a few vines that were as big around as my forearm! I'm gonna need a hacksaw for those.

I couldn't get over the feeling that I was late for work this morning. It was hard to convince myself not to rush. Before we switched back to standard time, I was driving to work in the dark. Today, the sun was up and shining, and it felt all wrong.

And in another disruption of my usual routine, today is when my new work schedule takes effect. Not only was it light and not dark driving in, I also had to go somewhere different. I'm still settling in to the place I will be spending 2-3 days a week for the forseeable future. I've filled in here before, so it isn't completely unfamiliar. The people are great, and they are slowly upgrading their equipment and procedures. But I don't like having two different work places. I always feel behind at both, and it will take a long time (if ever) for this second place to feel like home. I'm going to try to make the best of it, since this is how it is now and there isn't anything I can do to change it.

My Definition of a "Good Football Weekend"

Any weekend in which Georgia Tech wins and University of Georgia loses. Like this one. Ha! [Beating the thugs from Miami two years in a row is an added bonus. Letting all those suspended players come back after their one game (against winless Duke) suspension didn't do it for the 'Canes. And takes away any excuse they might have had for the loss to Tech.]

If you don't understand college football rivalries, don't worry about it. There are areas of the country where pro football is a much bigger deal (I lived in one of them for a long time and had trouble finding out about college scores for teams that were not in the top 20, until the internet came along and made it easy). I have plenty of friends (and family, for that matter) who are UGA people and we treat each other with respect. But where the games are concerned, it is "clean, old-fashioned hate". We do it well down here in the south, where college football is a religion.

Medical Miracles

I was in the OR this morning because we were doing a prostate implant procedure (implanting radioactive seeds in the prostate gland as a treatment for prostate cancer), and I am just getting started learning the physics end of how this is done. After we were finished, the senior physicist and I visited another operating room, because the doctor in there is a neighbor of hers and we saw him on our way in. He was doing a heart transplant. We got there right as they were unpacking the donor heart from the bucket they transport it in. It was really amazing to see in person (as opposed to the times I've seen this on TV), and also very sobering (knowing that someone had to die for that donor heart to become available). We had an excellent view of the two doctors preparing the donor heart for the procedure (cleaning up the artery and vein connections). Then they let us peek over the surgical drapes at the patient's open chest as they got ready to take the diseased heart out. We were standing where the anesthesia cart is, near the patient's head. You could look in to the surgical site and see his heart beating as the doctors worked on the nearby great blood vessels. It was a unique experience, and I am thankful that these doctors let us take such a detailed look. The mood in the OR was different than what I am used to -- no chatter, lots of respect for the donor heart, and confident precision on the part of the medical staff. (For less life-threatening procedures, the mood in the OR is more lively.) I didn't stick around for the rest of the procedure. I wanted to get out of their way, plus I was tired from standing up for hours and very hungry. Seeing the opened chest was not as gory as I imagined it could be, and I felt more respectful than grossed out. But... wow. How many workdays include something like this?

My Dad

Today would have been my Dad's 70th birthday if he had lived this long. He's been gone almost thirteen years and I miss him every day. I was 27 when he died, and not ready to be without a father. There are still a lot of things I wish I could talk to him about. I wish we had had more time together as adults. I hadn't been out of grad school a year when he died, and had not established my adult "completely out on my own and self sufficient" self. I probably would have made fewer mistakes if he had been there through the years.

I think he would be pleased with how things eventually turned out for me. A lot of the things I have been able to accomplish are due to qualities that he encouraged when I was younger, and some of it is because he set a great example for me to follow. He would have been happy that I established my independence on my own, sad to see some of the mistakes I made, felt better when I turned things around and "cleaned up my own mess" unassisted, and glad when I moved back home to Georgia. He would have liked my current husband and enjoyed spending time with him. He would have approved of my going back to school two years ago, and definitely would have been proud of my grades this time around. I wish I could trade all of these "would haves" and still have my Dad here with me.