99 Days Without Facebook: August 23 Day 23

Alex went into work today from 9 am to about 2 pm. So we went and ate lunch and then decided to drive into Seattle to see a quirky, sort of funny and clever movie called The One I Love starring Elisabeth Moss and Mark Duplass. It is sort of a comedy because we laughed a fair amount. But it is also a strange movie with an interesting premise filmed in my dream house. Then we ran over to eat the most wonderful meal at Luc. The heirloom tomatoes were the best ones I've ever had. Ever. The whole world has heard me rant about the lack of taste of tomatoes these days. I'll even BUY an heirloom tomato so that I can taste some semblance of a tomato. I guess the great tomato growers have incentives to sell to restaurants rather than Safeway.
On the way back, the 520 bridge was opening to let one scrawny looking sailboat through. It was a great chance to get out of the car on the 520, over Lake Washington for you non-Seattle folks, and take some pictures. Alex, being 5 years old at heart, had to hop over the median and run up and down the other side. I sure hope he is keeping a bucket list.
Here's the video:

It isn't your imagination- someone got out of their car and played a bagpipe. People did laugh.

Today's topic of interest comes from the city of Santa Barbara, Ca. Seems they are on the lookout for a guy with multidrug resistant tuberculosis who refuses to take his medicine. So this brings me to a story about being a student nurse in college. When I was a student nurse, we had to work in the local TB hospital in Lafayette. A small, depressing, dark place full of people who were bored out of their minds. For the first time EVER in the history of the hospital, they decided the students didn't need to wear masks. Call it a PC thinking mistake. Why no mask in a ward of people who had a COMMUNICABLE disease spread through the AIR (the stuff we all breathe)? Seems that it made the patients feel isolated from us if we wore a mask. So off came the masks. I was paranoid as all get out because, to me, that was a pretty stupid idea. I still feel that way and should have refused to be their guinea pig. I survived (mostly by trying NOT to breathe)(it wasn't easy), but one of my classmates did NOT get through unscathed- well, she lived, but wound up being a PATIENT in the TB hospital. Story number 2 involves my senior year again. Same class in public health nursing and was assigned 4 home care patients: a diabetic- she lost her leg while under my care; a newborn- who died of failure to thrive while under my care; some post op patient who did okay because she was all ready well when I visited her, so we just chatted for a half hour every visit; AND a TB patient who lived far out in the Louisiana countryside. I hopped in my car and followed the directions to his house- things like go 0.2 miles and turn at the stump, go 1.1 miles and turn at the cow gate onto the other dirt road, etc. I pulled up into his yard where he met me with a double barreled shotgun pointed at my chest. Could have been my head, I'm short and was hoping his aim was bad. So I got out, wearing my darling student nurse blue pinstripe dress, carrying my official "I have bottles for you to spit in" bag. And I yelled, "I'm your nurse from the public health division. You haven't come in for your spit test to see if you are doing okay. I will leave the jars here (sets down jar) and you can come spit in them, then go back inside and I'll drive them to the hospital". Whereupon he leveled his shot gun at me and said "Get the fuck off of my property or I will blow your head off". I yell "Can I pick up the bag with the bottles in it first? My grade really will suffer if I return empty handed". He says "Nope, I'm counting to 5". And I say "Okay- I am leaving. Don't shoot me, I was forced to come here by the nursing department at USL that doesn't seem to much care if I die here or not". He yells "ONE...." and I drove away hoping I could remember which fence post was the one I used for directions. Needless to say, I would never, ever have gone into public health nursing.

So there you have it- a story about tuberculosis. None of it good.

Today's photos are from the 520 bridge at sunset while the bridge traffic is stopped.