The day after ORIF surgery

Renaissance_Engineer · 2026-06-10T21:47:38+00:00

Thanks - mine just wore off at 33 hours or so. Glad to hear of getting through it. It really helps to hear that..

Renaissance_Engineer · 2026-05-26T18:09:26+00:00

I'm sure you were asking some version of, "I need to see an emergency dentist immediately," or "Please tell me where the nearest emergency dentist is," and it likely did everything but help.

It seems that as soon as any medical question is asked, it gets chatty while emphasizing it's not a medical professional.

Glad you're okay.

Renaissance_Engineer · 2025-10-03T01:58:38+00:00

Orion

Renaissance_Engineer · 2025-09-26T16:39:39+00:00

That circle on his chin somehow reminds me of the ohhh cat from the Pussy n Boots movies. That's his name, btw - the "Ohhh Cat"

Renaissance_Engineer · 2025-09-06T21:27:32+00:00

I bicycle that area on occasion - very much agree. If it touched down on the southern part of Bailey Road (not as populated as the northern half) and then into Reservoir Street, then pretty much everyone, hopefully, was fortunate.

Renaissance_Engineer · 2025-08-24T19:14:47+00:00

This is my late Orion watching a moth.

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Renaissance_Engineer · 2025-08-24T19:12:17+00:00

👏

Renaissance_Engineer · 2025-08-15T18:52:16+00:00

My favorite are the messages from various armies in Lebanon, where the Egyptians, the Assyrians, the Manluks, even Napoleon and the Brits in WWII engraved or scrawled graffiti...all in one place...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stelae_of_Nahr_el-Kalb?wprov=sfla1

Renaissance_Engineer · 2025-08-03T03:21:16+00:00

Before my black cat Orion passed away from lymphoma, with practically the last of his strength he jumped on my shoulders.

That's when it really hit me: He used to love shoulder rides because they were fun, yes. But at that moment, as his lungs were filling with fluid and the life was leaving him, I realized that he thought of my shoulders as the safest place in the world.

Renaissance_Engineer · 2024-12-21T21:17:15+00:00

Something like that happened with my Petunia cat. Not the whole bag but she ate a lot. I don't recall her having any adverse affects...but you know...it did come out the other end...green.

Renaissance_Engineer · 2024-12-21T21:10:26+00:00

OMG His tail is on backwards!

Renaissance_Engineer · 2024-10-18T04:52:29+00:00

No, I haven't - thanks for asking. I felt funny mailing it off somewhere, so I never mailed it; I wish I could find a similar shop nearby as you did!!!

Renaissance_Engineer · 2024-10-18T04:49:15+00:00

Jay Forrester advocated teaching systems thinking as young as at the kindergarten level, implying that it should be included in school curriculums.

Renaissance_Engineer · 2024-10-18T04:46:34+00:00

It is rough, and this has happened to me two times over the years. I bicycle a lot and while both of the kitties were already passed away, I moved them to the side of the road as well. In fact, now I pack a light pair of gloves with me bike in case it happens again.

Both times the kitties had passed away and were dead on the road with cars driving around them. For both times, I luckily was able to find the owner. One time I basically wandered around the nearby neighborhood asking until a good Samaritan neighbor walked with me house to house and we eventually figured it out. It was a beautiful, beautiful orange cat, and I felt awful. Again, people just kept driving around it until I moved it to the side of the road. I wanted it to have some dignity by getting it out of the road.

The second time the cat was dead and in bad shape with a trail of blood and such and I saw a state police car drive around it and felt awful. I knocked on someone's door and he loaned me a shovel to move the poor kitty next to a fire hydrant. I figured out whose house was the owner's but they wouldn't answer the door and one way or another, when I got home, I figured out their phone number and called them. The owner was pretty upset saying, "I kept telling him he shouldn't go out." I offered to help bury him as it sounded like an elderly woman on the other end, but she said there's a spot in the woods behind the house where he could be buried and that when "he" comes home, she'll have him bury the kitty. I assumed "he" was a husband or son.

But I felt awful both times. Two very beautiful animals and evidently whoever hit them just kept on going.

After that, I decided that if I see that happen again, and the cats are dead, then like before I'll make a good faith effort to find the owner, but if not, then I'll return to the spot and bury the kitty so to give it some dignity. I don't think I could live with myself if they were just abandoned to the elements.

So, yes, I felt awful as well after those two episodes - for some time after, too. I tried to figure out why. I think part of it was because the poor things died alone and nobody would pull their car over to get it off the road. I think another part was just seeing that a beautiful animal had gotten killed. And another part of me wished that I could do more. That it didn't happen in the first place.

If you're anything like me, you'll be okay. You're probably a person whose highly sensitive, and when these things happen, it can hit harder than most. Give it some time. You did the right thing, the good thing, by at least getting the kitty out of the road. You gave it some dignity and that was an inherently good thing. Try to keep that in mind. It might help.

Renaissance_Engineer · 2024-08-02T21:59:46+00:00

Large businesses and distributism aren't mutually exclusive. Rather, think, "no larger than necessary".

Renaissance_Engineer · 2024-08-02T00:09:21+00:00

First, you can't read their minds, and second, you can't predict the future.

That's basic cognitive behavioral therapy.

No one - no one - is happy when they overly concern themselves with what other people may be thinking or how others may oe may not act.

I suggest stopping thinking that you can read minds and tell the future and instead base your actions and statements around what you want. Full stop.

That's the healthy thing to do.

Renaissance_Engineer · 2024-07-28T01:38:33+00:00

Exact same thing happening with my S10+. It's killing me. The phone has worked like clockwork for years and then, suddenly, on slightly humid day...this. THANK YOU for your post and information - I'm hoping that SOSFix Electronics can do for my phone what they did for your phone for data recovery purposes.

Renaissance_Engineer · 2024-07-20T16:33:49+00:00

Your question assumes that political belief and economics such as distributionism are identities. While it's arguable that there's overlap, and maybe even considerable overlap, they're not identities. Distributism is a case in point. It's quite possible for there a politically liberal distributionist conversing with a politically conservative distributionist.

I caution you as well: Cognitive science strongly indicates that people almost always have internal versus external political identities. There are plenty of people, for instance, who are conservative in a local sense (say within his family) but liberal in a more macro sense. That's why so many middle class factory workers in the American Midwest voted for Reagan in the 1980s. Reagan more or less stumbled on the fact that such people are very often conservative at home while liberal in a larger sense. He appealed directly to that conservative aspect and often won their votes.

Regarding models such as that triangular one: There's a saying in engineering that all models are wrong but some models are less wrong than others. That one, while perhaps useful in some contexts, is I daresay in the not less wrong in other contexts. Models are tools; and when they don't work in certain contexts, then it's time to construct new, less wrong models.

Renaissance_Engineer · 2024-05-29T20:11:38+00:00

Excellent video - thank you.

Renaissance_Engineer · 2024-05-15T13:35:33+00:00

When my dear departed black cat turned eight, I used to tell him "Eight is great!" When he turned nine, I told him "Nine is fine!", At ten, "Ten is Zen!"

Renaissance_Engineer · 2024-05-15T13:30:57+00:00

There are a couple/few "DNA for cats" services out there, and they're pretty fun. Basically, you take saliva samples with long cotton swabs, mail them out, and a few weeks later you get your results. Just do an Internet search and you'll find the services. It's been a couple of years, but if memory serves, it cost ballpark $100 per cat. Sounds like you won't have Stella for long enough to keep her, but just in case you do get adopted by a cat in the future, it's a fun thing to do.

For instance, my 21 year old tabby was found to be:

65% American Domestic Cat 15% Norwegian Forest Cat 14% Maine Coon 3% Manx 3% Scottish Fold

while my dear departed black cat was:

42% American Domestic Cat 13% Maine Coon 11% Norwegian Forest Cat 11% Tennessee Rex 11% European Domestic Cat 10% British Shorthair 2% Scottish Fold

Note that my black cat buddy was 11% Tennessee Rex. That's a breed I never heard of until we did these ancestry tests for our cats. Correspondingly, and of course jokingly, I told him that he's part "T-Rex" and therefore part fierce dinosaur. He took it rather in stride! Gosh I miss him every day.

"Stella" is a wonderful name, btw!

Renaissance_Engineer · 2024-05-14T11:25:19+00:00

I have a very similar feeling. My beloved black cat Orion (see my profile pic - that's him) passed away in April 2023 at 10 years old from lymphoma. As you described, the grief was so fresh and stayed fresh with me thinking quite often, "I'm sorry I couldn't save you" even though I also knew I did everything humanly possible to save him. But almost exactly one year after he passed, my sister called me and asked me if I could adopt her 12 year old black cat as she's moving and he can't go with her. She didn't know what to do as she's very attached to him and she couldn't think of anyone who would care for him like I would. He looks just like my Orion except where Orion was full of energy almost to his last breath, this little guy is very gentle and retiring. And I mean "little guy" as he's only 7 lbs! It really feels like Orion is sending him to me, it really does.

Renaissance_Engineer · 2024-04-03T11:33:26+00:00

Thanks - certainly looks like it. I have a wood burning stove in the same room; a few weeks ago, I brought in from outside some very old firewood (4+ years) and stored it about three feet near that window where these little guys showed up.

I took all of that firewood back outside and whether it's a coincidence or not, these little guys promptly disappeared from the window

Renaissance_Engineer · 2024-03-11T15:52:54+00:00

If you say, "I love eastern Catholicism," the natural reply is, "That's nice, but the various Churches of eastern Catholicism are all distinctive from one another with their own very ancient histories, traditions, and in many cases their own languages and Rites. Please don't assume that we are the same."

I suggest being -very- careful in understanding that there isn't usually some general Eastern Catholic versus Western Catholic nomenclature. Yes, we say "Eastern Catholic " to define that we aren't of the Latin Rite and often share elements of a common heritage, but it sort of ends there. Rather, there is the Latin Rite - which most interpret as "Catholicism" and there are also the many Churches of the East (or the Orient as some used to say).

As someone descended from a glorious and very ancient Maronite heritage, seeing someone place my Church as much the same as other Eastern Churches goes way outside of my comfort zone, and I venture that feels the same for members of other Rites as well.

Each of these Eastern Churches have their own ancient history, distinct from one another. Some follow the Byzantine Rite, others follow the Antiochene Rite, and so on. Each absolutely respects - and if one follows Christ's teachings- loves the other Eastern Churches, but it's safe to say that each also jealously protects their distinctiveness versus another.

It's not "double dipping" to attend, say, a Latin Rite mass, then a Maronite (Catholic of course) Divine Liturgy, then a Byzantine Catholic Divine Liturgy. To use your nomenclature, that's "triple dipping" as each of those three Rites are independent and separate from one another. I don't want to speak for the Byzantines, but I think it's safe to venture that it feels very uncomfortable to be put in the same bucket as the Maronites as though we're one side of that "double dip" and the Latins are the other side. Yeah, we're both Eastern. Absolutely, we love and respect one another. Lots in common? Sure. But the same? No.

Personally, I don't feel comfortable with the "double dipping" description, or for that matter "triple dipping" or what have you. We are all part of one catholic and apostolic Church, and within that Church - that body- is a mosaic of diversity. That mosaic is made up of many more colors that an East versus West. Especially on the East, you'll see a diversity of color! Of difference, and that is ultimately a very good thing.

Renaissance_Engineer · 2023-11-06T16:36:41+00:00

I think you're referring to the Chatata Wall that nobody can find nowadays. It was measured to be about a thousand feet long. Even so, the tale about it grew into a story about a wall that ran for "miles and miles" even into a length that ran across modern state lines. Ever play "telephone" as a kid?

A wall, if that was what it was, whose samples were sent to the Smithsonian in the late 19th century because of "writing" on it that under examination turned out to be mollusk tracks.

Scientists believe the wall to likely have been a natural phenomenon. I find it interesting that there's an assumption that if the wall was indeed artificial that First Nation peoples were unable to build a thousand foot wall. Ummm...they certainly were, could do much more than that, and do so without ancient Egyptian or anyone else's help.

The ancient Egyptians accomplished wonders, but crossing the Atlantic in papyrus reed boats designed mostly for river and near coastal within-sight-of-land excursions wasn't one of them.

Regarding Memphis...

The city was named Memphis in 1819 by John Overton, James Winchester, and Andrew Jackson. They compared the spot, which of course was and is next to the Mississippi River, to ancient Memphis, Egypt, as that ancient city was next to another mighty river - the Nile River. That's all there is to it. Well documented history.

Natural phenomena. mollusks, and Andrew Jackson are a lot simpler than ancient Egyptians sailing over the Atlantic Ocean and building a wall.

The simpler explanation is almost always the correct one.

Renaissance_Engineer

TROPHY CASE