💥💩💥Explosive Diarrhea 💥💩💥

Pumping Up

Cyclosporiasis is an intestinal illness caused by a parasite. Its principal symptom is so-called “explosive diarrhea.” Other symptoms include fatigue and irritability. This microscopic parasite is usually caught by ingesting food or water that already contains it. While an outbreak of cyclosporiasis has spread to 31 states, Southeastern Michigan is currently an epicenter. No one I know has succumb as of yet, but fear of watery bowels is rampant and while we may have nothing to fear except fear itself, this too can lead to fatigue and irritability.

This morning on our way to Harry’s we stopped for gas, which was over $4, thank you Joe Biden Donald Trump. The station had those pumps that talk to you. Maybe just to distract you from their high prices. Anyway, while I was pumping gas, I swear that the voice on the pump used the f-word. Anne thought so too. She thought that there was a couple next to us who were fighting and slumped down to avoid the expected gunfire.

My WordPress service provider offers up “related” past posts. I guess using an AI reading of what I have written. Here is an example and a reminder to always wash your hands:

When I arrived at work this morning a rather unusual conversation was occurring. A women engineer had said, “After I pump gas, I always use hand sanitizer, because you never know where that nozzle has been.” An engineer suggest using gasoline to sterilize the pump handle, which sounded dangerous. Another male engineer responded, “I don’t worry about pumping gas, but I do worry about using a public restroom, because you don’t know what people have been doing in there. “What do you think that people do in a bathroom”, I thought, but did not voice. 

Dan and Britt are expected here sometime tonight. Hopefully their drive from NYC goes well.

This IS my Happy Face

Anne Channeling Her Mother

The best part of this week of eldercare is the after part. Both the hospital and now the rehab facility are fine, but I cannot wait to get out of these places. Today’s escape route ran via a washateria or should I say the Washtenaw-teria? What kind of life is that that you look forward to doing laundry. Anyway, today’s main after event is dinner at Anne + Bill’s. That should be nice. After today, I only have one more day before I head north again. Tomorrow, direct from NYC Dan + Britt arrive in town. I’ll head north with them on Monday, leaving Anne in Ann Arbor. She is always telling me how much she appreciates the help, let’s see how she feels after I’ve left. This morning she was telling me that she wanted to be in a different generation, but I couldn’t think of a better one than the one that we are living. We are living the sandwich life, with family pressing in from both sides. Sometimes we’re the pickle. Sometimes, like when there is too much mayo, we end up getting squeezed out on the floor. Anne is seen above making a face that her mother used to make. It signified that she was not amused. This morning while we were driving to see Harry, Anne wondered what Google Maps would sound like if the app adopted her voice, “You’re doing it wrong.”

Code Blue

Pictured are a couple of topical Milton Kemnitz prints that I found yesterday along “Woodward Avenue” in the hospital. One shows the original St. Joe’s hospital building, which is still standing across the street from our old parish church, St. Thomas. While the other portrays a novel parking solution, three Park Mobile structures. Each tower could hold up to 22 cars. The button-activated structures, which revolved in Ferris-wheel style, were designed to be operated by the drivers. The hospital’s current version is easily its third instance and has acres of parking lots. There was one reported malfunction, where cars were left stuck in the tower.

Harry seems to be improving. He did some rehab this morning and it looks like he will get a spot at a rehab facility soon. Maybe tomorrow? The one in Saline that Jane visited yesterday. Maybe not soon enough for him, but he is only the patient and an impatient one at that. There was a code blue announced over the PA, but other than some poor soul having a bad day, the only other bad thing to happen was a massive IT malfunction, but it got fixed later.

Jane had a great code blue story. She used to work at St. Joe’s and one day while she was in the cafeteria a code blue was sounded. A table full of people in scrubs jumped up and ran out of the cafe. All except for one, he just sat there and then mimed as it to sniff his pits and then shrugged “I don’t know.” The cafeteria broke out laughing. The code blue was not on his floor.

699 E Kingsley – Original St. Joe’s Hospital

Happy 4th!

It’s not too cold, but it is not exactly warm either. Here on the shore of Lake Superior there are only two seasons, winter and the 4th of July, and I think that the 4th this year is here in name only. While the rest of the nation swelters, I’m huddling around the space heater. Yes, the space heater! It had been warm here before yesterday’s snap cold front. I was even able to get in the lake a couple of times. Again, it is not too hot, nor too cold, certainly not cold enough for a fire, but I am wearing long underwear and sporting Polartec.

We have a party to go to today. It will be in another one of the original three log cabins. The one next door. All three of these log cabins were built by the same man, Pat Ginter, and his mule. At the time, a hundred years ago, he lived nearby. He built our cabin first and the next two on subsequent summers. It will be interesting to see the differences and similarities between the structures. A fourth log cabin was eventually built. Constructed from logs that had washed ashore, from back in the days when booms of logs were floated down to the Soo. Unfortunately, that building recently burned and has now been replaced.

Anne and Bill, mainly Bill, have been furiously re-webbing the lawn furniture. Getting into the Mister Fix-it mood, Anne and I hung the new IKEA spring-loaded desk lamp on the wall. Naturally, it took us three tries to get it right. We may not be handy and some of us are not even men. Still, it looks nice. Unfortunately, it calls for a no more than 13W lightbulb and all that we could find was a 13.8W. I hope that this does not burn down the cabin. Anne tested it and found that she could reach it to turn it off without getting out of bed. Even if it is on fire?

I have been leisurely creating this post all morning long and as the clock rises slowly to high noon, the mercury continues to wallow in the low sixties. During the IKEA lamp episode, I got warm enough that I shutoff the space heater. Afterwards, sitting has chilled me again. There is a breeze out now and splitting firewood would warm me up, but that sounds too much like work.

Piedmont 4th of July Picnic