Dog And Cat Sitting For Gabe and Eleanor This Weekend

Animals, they be fun! But hard work guiding unruly Molly and Blue on their walk!

Preparing For Trip to New Mexico

After two Covid years of no contact with Tierra Encantado, I want to check "Breaking Bad" and "Better Call Saul" filming locations, see how Albuquerque is doing, visit my sisters, see some old friends, and show Rachel the town (she's supposed to arrive Thursday). It will be fun (I'm hoping)! 

I will be attending the Southwest Popular/American Culture Association 43rd Annual Conference, February 23–26, 2022, Albuquerque, New Mexico.  I will be presenting at the session named Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul 1, Saturday 02/26/2022 - 1:15 pm - 2:45 pm, Room Enchantment A & B, Moderator: Nick Gerlich, West Texas A&M University.

The presentations will be:

"The Impact of Michel Foucault, Plus Various Surrealists, on Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul," Marc Valdez, Independent Scholar;

"The Ruins of Home, Hearth, Kingdom, and Man in Breaking Bad: Ruins, Ruination and Ruin Porn in The ABQ," Michael Stock, Southern California Institute of Architecture; and,

"The Lives of Troubled Public Educators: A Breaking Bad Story," James Irby, Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

Chris May Have Suffered a Stroke

Erlynda's Chris began stumbling around Thursday evening after dinner. Diagnosis isn't complete yet, but a small stroke seems most likely as explanation. He's using a walker now. I'll try to help out at the margins, if I can.

Covid Means Heart Problems

Avoid getting Covid at any cost:

What Al-Aly and his colleagues found was even a mild COVID-19 infection increased a person's risk of having cardiovascular problems — including heart rhythm irregularities, potentially deadly clots in the legs and lungs, heart failure, heart attack and stroke, within a year after being infected. 

"That means it's likely that for every 100 people with COVID, there are four people who will develop some major cardiovascular event as a result of COVID up to a year out of the infection," Al-Aly said. "People say 'oh 4 percent, what's the big deal?' Well, many millions of people in the US have had COVID and that translates into many people in the U.S. who are either having or will have serious heart problems, and I think that's really that's really profound."

Still Shaky On The Cardiac Front

I've been worried about my cardiac health lately, especially after getting a cardioversion for my racing heart at the Sutter Hospital ER on Sunday morning, 1/30. Since then, I've noticed a slight feeling of impairment - almost as if I've had a beer. Every so often, I notice a slight dizziness, and a slight shortness of breath too. On Monday afternoon, 2/14, about 3:15 p.m., I noticed that my heart was racing again. My heartbeat was between 120 and 140 bpm - high, but not quite as high as the 155-158 bpm on 1/30. Still, nearly as high as a heart should beat safely. So, I administered myself half of a metoprolol tablet (which is designed to slow down heartbeat). After ten minutes passed, and no change occurred, I took the other half of the tablet. And the heartbeat finally did slow down (something that didn't happen when I did the same thing on 1/30). So, I wasn't quite so far gone. By 4 p.m., all was well. The cardiologist is apparently prescribing a different, faster-acting version of metoprolol, in the event this continues happening. Tomorrow, I'm going to go in to the cardiologists's office for an echocardiogram of the heart and to put on a Holter monitor for 48 hours worth of heart monitoring. Then, the current plan is, I'm traveling to New Mexico for the following week. The week after that, the cardiologist will check on the monitor's results and design a longer-term program of care. Whether that involves better drugs, a pacemaker, or ablation surgery, I'll find out soon enough.

Redistricting and Gerrymandering

It looks like the Democrats did all right against the Republicans, with all the recent redistricting and gerrymandering. It's a pretty ugly business, stripping elections of competition and meaning, but since the GOP did not want to cooperate with creating a better system, that's what we get:

Democrats have fared better for a number of reasons. Victories in competitive 2018 gubernatorial races gave Democrats veto pens in some states, such as Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, where Republicans control the legislature. Democrats also began laying the groundwork for the redistricting fight years in advance with the formation of groups like the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, launched by former Attorney General Eric Holder with the support of former President Barack Obama. In GOP-controlled states such as Texas and Georgia, Republicans have pursued a more defensive mapmaking strategy, seeking to consolidate their power rather than attempting a maximalist (but riskier) approach of knocking out Democratic seats. State courts have struck down more aggressive GOP gerrymanders in North Carolina and Ohio. A major factor, however, is that despite their anti-gerrymandering rhetoric, Democrats have been at least as ruthless as Republicans in the biggest states where they have unfettered power to draw new districts. In Illinois, Democrats approved a map that will likely wipe out two of the GOP’s five current congressional seats. Their haul could be twice as big in New York.

Mazars Dumps Trump

It's getting harder and harder to run the world like a Mob Boss! Trump's longtime accounting firm, Mazars, is now backing away completely from all the work they did for Trump for the entire previous decade. You can't be a modern Mob Boss without the accountants on your side. The real beginning of the end:

"We have a great company with fantastic assets that are unique, extremely valuable and, in many cases, far more valuable than what was listed in our Financial Statements," Trump said. "My company has among the best real estate and other assets anywhere in the world, has significant amounts of cash, and has relatively very little debt, which is totally current."

"The accounting firm Mazars has been threatened, harassed, and insulted like virtually no other firm has ever been," he added. "They were essentially forced to resign from a great long-term account by the prosecutorial misconduct of a highly political, but failed, gubernatorial candidate, Letitia James, and the Hillary Clinton run District Attorney's Office of Manhattan, where crime has reached levels not even thought possible ..." 

"Mazars (sic) decision to withdraw was clearly a result of the AG's and DA's vicious intimidation tactics used — also on other members of the Trump Organization," Trump said. "Mazars, who were scared beyond belief, in conversations with us made it clear that they were willing to do or say anything to stop the constant threat which has gone against them for years. They were 'broken' and just wanted it all to stop. ... "

"Scantily-Clad Dancers"

I missed seeing the Superbowl halftime show, and I wasn't surprised to hear that many people didn't like it. From the press, I understood that "scantily-clad dancers" were a primary negative focus. So, I just watched the halftime show on YouTube, and what impressed me most was how well-clad the dancers were. Form-fitting comfortable clothing, to be sure, but not scanty by any stretch. Has anyone ever watched previous Superbowl halftime shows? Methinks there were other issues at work here.

 

Is Grant Getting Bigger and Bolder? - February 9, 2022

Big hullabaloo in the neighborhood tonight (Feb. 9th). Someone climbed up a power pole, then climbed down onto a roof and set a small fire. Power is out all over (although I still have service). 21st St. is closed just south of Broadway. Cops say “It’s always the same guy,” which makes me worry that it’s local homeless guy Grant, because he’s done similar stuff in the past. So, hopefully no one gets hurt.

And in the morning, all was well.  As if nothing ever happened.