Andy Lowry @AndyLowry@qoto.org

Having recently been put on supplemental oxygen and now having to drag a tube around behind me at home. tripping and tangling with furniture, I think I see a need for WiOx-- wireless oxygen. Let's get with it, technology masters!

I was flipping though the photos on my phone to track down a photo I wanted to send somebody, and happened across this one I'd forgotten about. It's a local cicada from their last big outbreak here a couple of years ago.

It's on my front porch, hence the detritus on the surface. The standard Zippo lighter is for scale.

Handsome, colorful beasts, ain't they?

"There's some good in this world, and it's worth fighting for."
--Samwise Gamgee

A little over a week ago, I wrote a post about how much I enjoyed using Moleskine pocket notebooks for everyday jotting. I noted how much pleasure I managed to get out of such a simple, though well-designed, product.

Ms. AB, @galand2dogs, replied to ask if I'd ever tried the similar Leuchtturm 1917 notebooks, and I hadn't, so I went in search of those to see if I could get my hands on one. It turned out that I could, so I did, based on little more than her mention that it had TWO silk bookmarks. TWO, can you believe it?

So now that I've been using one for a couple of days, I can safely say that these are undoubtedly a step above even my beloved Moleskines. Not only does it have two bookmark ribbons, the pages are pre-numbered and the front contains an index to fill in. It also comes with a pen-holder loop should I choose to install it (not something I need) and label stickers for both the front and spine so that one can title the collection before putting it away on the bookshelf. That is AMAZING. The spine is nice and flat, so the sticker will attach well when I need it.

I like it well enough that I'm copying one of my existing daily records books over from a softcover Moleskine, even though it will take a couple of hours.

Thanks, Ms. AB! You have improved my life in a small way, and that's the best way. 😉

Though American, I've been listening to BBC World Service for about thirty years. Maybe more. Today, when I opened the streaming application on my phone, I was presented with an ad for some phone game, and couldn't even figure out how to make that go away. So I deleted it from my phone, which makes me a little sad. I felt like I kind of knew some of those presenters.

You would not BELIEVE the level of detail that legal regulations go into when allowing the placement of oxygen in the home. it has to be so far in distance from this and that, any concentrator must be plugged directly into a wall outlet rather than an extension, can't be near a heater of course, tanks must be stored thus and so. Our house has both a gas stove and water heater, which made for even more things to have new-to-me laws about. 90% of the oxygen man's initial setup and delivery process was spent going over all of these laws I must now learn and follow, with the rest of the time explaining the actual complicated delivery systems. I do understand why this must be so, but was a little surprised at how thoroughly the law had addressed the issue.

#cancer

I was permanently put on oxygen today. It's hard to describe, though you can probably imagine, the adaptations that are made when being at home on a 25-foot tether that's on the floor being dragged around by your face and really shouldn't be stepped on much, dragging along behind you, trying not to tie a knot as you travel from place to place.

It was really impressive how thoroughly the decision is carried out and how quickly. The doctors said very early this morning that from this time hence, it shall be thus, and so it was. I was supplied a tank on wheels to get me out to the car and home. A couple of hours later, a friendly man arrived with a home oxygen concentrator, small travel tank in shoulder bag with a half-dozen tanks, a full walkthrough of how everything works, and more hoses than an aquarium shop.

I do remove the cannula for some maneuvers that are too complicated or inconvenient to quickly perform, but other than that,
I've not been off my new breathing mixture for more than a more than five (brief) times. My new breathing mixture includes 3 liters of oxygen per minute, which is 1 liter above the average prescription of 2, so at least I remain above average. (This is still not extremely high, though, my regulator goes up to 6 and there are people who need even more than that.)

For reasons too complicated to get into, I now know that for the week before being put on oxygen, I would have been committing a crime had I driven a car, as my average blood oxygen was running about 75%. (My usual reading before that, and again now, is 95 or 96.)

It all makes me want a cigarette for the first time since 2004, which is how I got here in the first place.

#cancer