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THE WEISS CHRONICLES
Chronological Account of the Weiss family with contextual remarks, some weather, sports and other news.
You can write to me at: mhw20854@yahoo.com
The people in the Weiss family are: Martin, Ann, Beth and George. I also sometimes write about other people or our pet.
Tuesday, September 27, 2016
How Many Red Cross Officials Does it take to count Platelets
About two weeks ago I went to the local Red Cross Blood Center in Rockville to donate platelets and plasma (the first image shows platelets and blood cells together). I had made an appointment to do this with the Red Cross Regional Office in Baltimore.
By the way, blood plasma is yellowish, even though blood looks red because cells that have oxygen are red.
When I got to the Rockville Center, they showed me a piece of paper that indicated that my platelet count from the previous visit was low and that they would have to have advice from the Regional Office Medical Staff before taking a blood sample and seeing if my platelet count had gone back up. I went back home.
The normal count of platelets is 150,000 ,000,000 to 400,000,000,000 per litre (as seen in image #1, platelets are small). If you don't have enough platelets, you get internal bleeding (as in image #2).
Two days after the event at the Rockville Center, someone from the Baltimore Office called and wanted to know if I changed my mind about giving blood platelets and said they really needed my platelets.
I told them (the Baltimore Office) about the events at the Rockville Center and they (Balt) said their records showed that my platelet count was fine. I told them (Balt) to check with the Center and find out what caused the problem because I didn't want to go again and have the same thing happen. Today, the Balt office called and said the problem was a 'glitch' that they couldn't explain but didn't think it would happen again. So I made another appointment. We'll see.
Sunday, September 25, 2016
Chicken Fried Steak for the sabbath
I made chicken fried steak on Friday (but not sauce, instead I did a lot of fried onions to go with it).
The previous time I did this was about 20 years ago. It tastes delicious but is trouble to make because the oil has to been kept at a very hot temperature which means occasional splattering. Also, to do it right takes up a lot of room in the kitchen. I first read about this about 40 or 50 years ago in, I think, Sports Illustrated. Some player was giving an interview and said something like he wouldn't mind being sent to the minor league if it was in a city with a restaurant that had chicken fried steak.
I used beef stew meat because the chunks are relatively easy to coat with the breading. I reminded myself that my grandmother made veal schnitzel, which is sort of an upper class version of chicken fried steak. It is also nearly impossible to find a restaurant that makes veal schnitzel although some make a chicken schnitzel that's not too bad.
Friday, September 23, 2016
Flowers for sabbath again
This week I cut the roses so they would have longer stems and they are thus at the top.
The Crepe Myrtles are still produces flowers, though the panicles are smaller.
At the lip of the vase are the flowers of the Liriope which are blooming now.
Rev Lev (Davidovitch Bronstein) is to the left of the vase. Rev Lev, who we annoy sometimes by calling him Trotsky, is of course still studying Tractate Machos. Last Sabbath, we read Ki Teitzei and in the 7th aliyah, there are several sentences (the first 3 verses of Deut Chapter 25) devoted to Machos (lashes). In this weeks reading, Ki Savo, there is a references to lashes (28:59) as one of the punishments God will give people if they worship idols (or possibly other sins) but these are probably metaphorical lashes and sometimes translated as plagues or great blows.
The prayer book on the left has a metal cover and was a wedding gift to Ann and me. I use this to say Kiddush on Friday night.
Wednesday, September 21, 2016
Nice Sunset to end Summer
A guy named David Giambarresi took this picture from the Restaurant at the top of the newly opened Watergate Hotel.
It is really spectacular if you expand it by clicking on it twice.
The bridge in the center is the Key Bridge.
The tops of the towers of the National Cathedral are on the right. I love the way the river caught the color of the sky.
He sent his picture to the Weather Gang at the Washington Post.
Back a year or so ago, I was at the Watergate Hotel as they were celebrating a construction milestone with a Kosher affair.
Monday, September 19, 2016
My Work Ethic in Dreamland isn't very good
I had a dream in which I was giving people a ride to a work site (I think for catering) in a large vehicle that was not my own. I realized that some of my work items (e.g., tape, scissors) were in my car so I got out of the big vehicle and walked to my car. Somehow I got lost on the way and also fell down. Then I woke up. Then I fell asleep and the dream continued. I found my car and it had a comic book (I'm not sure if it was Marvel but I liked that image). I started reading the comic then realized I was supposed to give people a ride. Then I woke up again.
Saturday, September 17, 2016
Harvest Moon
I didn't see it.
However, a fellow named Kevin Ambrose took images of the moon Sept 17 rising over some of Washington DC's famous monument.
He also did a time lapse. On the time lapse you can see the horizon effect disappear and the moon change color.
The moon was red because of the horizon effect plus the moon was in the penumbra of the earth's shadow.
Friday, September 16, 2016
Sept 16 Flowers
The crape myrtles are in great shape again this week. Also, the late blooming of the pink rose bush in underway.
Also, just above the rim of the vase are some more tall phlox.
Pictured this week is Hard Rock Bear. I think we got him from Ann's mom. He used to have a small certificate that said he was #55 in the Atlanta Hard Rock line. Our stuffed animals/characters have character flaws. Hard Rock's flaw is that he constantly bragged that he was was very unique or even 'extremely unique' (one of my father's least favorite things was when people incorrectly used a phrase like that)..
Friday, September 09, 2016
Aggressive Marketing of Health Care
Today, my father, who died over 25 years ago, received an offer thru the USPS, for a low introductory rate ($25/month for the first 6 months) health care (after that 6 month the rate would be adjusted).
It was from Kaiser Permanente (an HMO).
Kaiser Permanente gets about $60B a year in revenue and employs almost 200,000 people. I wonder how many specialize in diseases of the deceased.
flowers 9-9
While we still have crape myrtles flowers available, I decided to use others this week. This is partly due to the fact that the crape myrtles dominate the other flowers and partly to the fact that they shed berries and have to be cleaned up.
This week we have some pink roses, some hybrid asters and some of the tall phlox (the latter is just above the lid of the vase).
In the background is our pumpkin farmer who is celebrating the fact that the week after Labor Day is the unofficial start of the pumpkin spiced latte season at Starbucks and possibly elsewhere.
Click on the image a few times to enlarge.
Tuesday, September 06, 2016
Trip to Western MD and Northern Panhandle of WV
Ann and I took a trip to Western Md and the northern panhandle of West Virginia. We left on Sept 4 and got back on Sept 6.
It was about 600 miles of driving.
One of the things we did was visit Irwin and Cheryl at their place on Deep Creek Lake (image 1).
We also saw the Cumberland Historic Rail Station in Maryland.
In West Virginia, we saw Cooper's Rock and the Cheat River Gorge (the only place we ran into a huge crowd of people) the Morgantown Brewery, the Palace of Gold (near Moundsville), the Grave Creek Mound (in Moundsville) and the West Virginia Moundsville Penitentiary (image 2).
Click a few times on images to enlarge them.
Lots of images and narrative from this trip are at a new blog.
.
Friday, September 02, 2016
Sabbath Flowers again
Once again there are plenty of crape myrtle flowers. I could have filled up two dozen vases if I had wanted to (and had the vases).
The tall phlox are also doing well and haven't suffered a deer attack lately.Thus I put one pink and one purple phlox in the vase.
There are also plenty of roses and plenty of the hybrid asters but I'll save those for later in the month.
Rev Lev got into the image again. He's happy to be able to go back to studying BT Tractate Makkos (lashings).
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