I omitted to mention something yesterday. Since the TAVR I’ve been taking Plavix so basically my blood doesn’t clot, or clots slowly and reluctantly. Which means every tiny nick is an annoyance that needs a bandaid. Also as I learned a couple years ago that a nosebleed when you can’t clot is a bad thing (Day 1.345 for gory details). So Tuesday morning, half an hour before I was to go down and give my grant pitch, I blew my nose and got blood from the right nostril. How very unfortunate, I said although not in those words. I made a small pad of toilet paper and soaked it in styptic fluid and pushed it up there. But it would take a while to work and I didn’t have a while, I needed to go give my pitch. Oh wait! We will all be wearing masks! I’m saved! So I gave my pitch with one nostril blocked by a toilet paper plug, and nobody knew because I was wearing a mask! Thank you, Covid!
The wad of styptic-soaked tissue did the job, clotting me up nicely and the bleed never developed.
Wednesday 06/22/2022
This morning I was to take the Prius to the dealer for service. I had foolishly selected the first, 7am service appointment. Oh well. That meant leaving without reading the paper or drinking but a sip of coffee. From the Toyota place I walked 1.5 miles back to Philz Coffee, which I haven’t been in since at least 2017, and had a nice sit on their patio with coffee and an almond croissant.
During the mid-day, waiting for Toyota to call, I knocked off several items on the t-bird punch list. When they hadn’t called by 2pm I called them, and the service writer said he’d call back, and didn’t blah blah. So it was almost 4 before I called a Lyft to go down there, and then the Lyft did that crazy thing I’ve seen before, where they have picked the driver and he is on his way, and two minutes before he’s due, they suddenly re-book the ride with a different driver who’s 15 minutes away. I canceled the ride and used Uber instead which wasn’t really any faster but I felt better. Anyway, Prius is back home and in great shape and ready for a road trip.
In between, we had a speaker at 3pm, Don Peterson, who was a partner in the engineering firm that performed the Channing House Seismic Upgrade. This was done between 1998 and 2002, a massive job. I knew it had been done; in fact it was the determining factor in my choosing Channing House. That they would spend $18 million (I learned the amount today) for seismic safety, told me the place was run by a Board that was truly focused on the well-being of the organization and residents, and not on profits.
But I had not realized the scope of the work. The 11-story building had existed over 30 years when they started. They got under it and sank pilings 60 feet down to anchor massive beams. Then the whole building sits on flexible cushions on that beam, except for some outer walls that sit on “sliders”. The whole building is surrounded by a 38-inch wide “moat” and in principle the entire building is free to move 17 inches in any direction. (That means that every pipe and conduit that crosses the moat has to have a flexible U-joint in it to allow movement without breaking.) The building originally stood on 30 or 40 thick cement pillars. Each one of those had a section cut out with a huge diamond saw and a flexible pad inserted into it. It was an awesome job.
Codgerville 