THE WEISS CHRONICLES

Wednesday, August 30, 2023

Both Knees Have Been Done Once Now 

Last week I had my first injection of Supartz. It was in the left knee. Today I had my first injection in the right knee. I have injections scheduled for the next two weeks. Probably it will require 5 injections in each knee but we'll see. The injections don't hurt as they spray a pain reliever on the knee during the injection. Each injection is followed by vibration therapy and electro-stimulation. The August 10 post gives more info on the product. ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Based on customer reviews, this may need to be repeated every two or three years.

posted by Martin Weiss  # 8:45 PM

Sunday, August 27, 2023

Another Moussaka Increment 

I had some of the Moussaka left over and I decided to try to imitate the bechamel by putting mashed potatos on top of the meat/eggplant. I didn't try to make it pretty like the image I got from the internet on the previous moussaka post. ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Mashed potatos probably don't have the same thermal properties as a standard bichamel and certainly not the same taste. However, it worked pretty well. Ann was pleased and I thought the mashed potatos worked quite well with the gravy. Maybe I didn't use enough margarine this time but I'll work that out next time.

posted by Martin Weiss  # 10:24 AM

Saturday, August 26, 2023

Voting for Rain Seemed to Work 

The Flagstaff, AZ office of the Natl Weather Service put up this image showing various computer generated predictions of precipitation. They did this on their twitter-X account. They asked people to vote on whether rain would be measured at Flagstaff AZ Airport. I voted 'yes' as did about 74% of participating voters. It did rain at the airport but not at the NWS office a few miles away.''''''''''''''''' ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ The NWS office thanked the precipitation voters in this follow up tweet-X .............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................. https://twitter.com/NWSFlagstaff/status/1695417311489097865

posted by Martin Weiss  # 10:11 PM

Wednesday, August 23, 2023

My Phone GPS Mislead me 

I was looking for a place to go for a short drive. I noticed that on my map application, there was a way to get to Fort Marcy Park from Chain Bridge Road. Well, when we got to northbound Chain Bridge Road near Fort Marcy Park, the GPS told me to take a left into the park, but there wasn't a road. After some extra driving taking us into Rossyln, north on the GW Parkway (where the entrance to Fort Marcy Park was blocked by construction) and elsewhere we got back home. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I wanted to go to Fort Marcy Park as it is the site of two famous suicides. Vince Foster in 1993 and Kevin Ward, mayor of Hyattsville in 2022 (after he was charged with embezzling).

posted by Martin Weiss  # 3:40 PM

Sunday, August 20, 2023

A Modestly Successful Moussaka 

I have been trying for several years to make a tasty moussaka using a ground chicken/beef blend and without the bechamel on top and without all the spices (and wine) that recipes require. I use the chicken/beef blend because with my gout I am not supposed to eat a lot of beef. I don't do the bechamel on top because a good bechamel requires butter and milk. I also dont use a lot of tomato sauce because Ann has problems with that. One of the main fundamental problems is that ground beef these days doesn't come with much fat (and ground chicken with almost no fat) and that means the flavoring is more difficult. ................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... For this past weekend, I used a lot of MSG while cooking the beef and this seemed to do the trick of having a good flavor. I had read that MSG was on the 'bad' list years ago but has been rethought and is now not on the bad list (not that it made the good list).

posted by Martin Weiss  # 2:45 PM

Sunday, August 13, 2023

First in Line at the RR Xing 

I've been in many lines to proceed thru a RR Xing. I don't recall the previous time I was first in line. I was first in line today. I actually was close enough that the barrier device came down on the roof of my car. ......................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... Yes I did back up after that.

posted by Martin Weiss  # 11:20 AM

Florets on Crape Myrtle Again - this may be peak 

\\ This is similar to the image a week ago. . ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... The florets are even more full than back then.

posted by Martin Weiss  # 11:09 AM

Thursday, August 10, 2023

New Health Care Provider 

I am seeing a new Health Care Provider. They specialize in joint pain resolution (which should be the company's name but instead they call themselves Elite Healthcare). The treatment I am going to have will be injection with a viscosupplement jell. The jell mimics the natural fluid in the knee. I think there is considerable room for this jell in my knee because sometimes when I walk, I hear the knee crackling (which websites say is not by itself a bad thing). by the way, my knees do not suffer a bone-on-bone problem as can be seen by these x rays

-------------................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ Somewhat annoyingly, neither my arthritis or family doctor or an orthopedist that I went to seemed to know about this (perhaps because of their name).

posted by Martin Weiss  # 4:04 PM

Less Electricity - But Pay More 

For the past 7 months in a row, we have used less electricity than the same month in the previous year. This is not because we are temperature insensitive or because we are virtuously conserving energy. This is because George is no longer living here, nor was Tamar and Oz visiting here as they were last year in June and July. ----------------------------------- ;........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... However, what is interesting is that in 6 of the 7 months where we used less electricity than the same month in the previous year, we paid more to the electric company. I don't know about past months, but I noticed on our bill statement that only about 40% of the electric cost was for fuel, about 35% for the cost of transmission and the rest were made of various fees and taxes.

posted by Martin Weiss  # 3:50 PM

Monday, August 07, 2023

Physical Therapy Cancelled Because of Tornado Watch 

We were on the way to therapy today. Ann got a phone voicemail from the therapist that the therapy was cancelled. We got the message at about 400pm for a 430pm appointment. There were other measures taken today. The US Govt closed earlier (everyone had to leave by 300pm which of course cause massive traffic issues). Montgomery County closed several roads in low lying areas and Maryland closed all the State parks in the tornado watch area. Pepco advises not to report electrical outages as they think they will have all the data in real time. The radar image is from about 4:30 pm today.... ........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... This morning, I had taken down the American Flag that I put up in July but that was not in anticipation of the tornado watch.

posted by Martin Weiss  # 5:17 PM

Florets are out on the Crape Myrtle Trees 

The bloom of the crape myrtle trees is as good as ever this year despite a pretty substantial deficit of precipitation. Also, because the lily season seems to be later than usual, the two seasons overlap this year. Barely. ............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................ The image is of the sidewalk in front of our house looking west from near our driveway. On the right are some roses and lilies. Purple cone flowers are near the base of the crape myrtle.

posted by Martin Weiss  # 8:30 AM

Sunday, August 06, 2023

Hannukah Product is in early this year 

I was looking for a different product but I saw a huge amount of kosher chocolate coins in the store. I noticed that the market is big enough that at least 3 companies were represented in the store's chocolate coins (lieber, elite, manishevitz). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I went on line and it seems there are at least a half dozen more that make this product.

posted by Martin Weiss  # 12:06 PM

Friday, August 04, 2023

Flowers - the upside down lilies 

Most of the lily season is over. It wasn't a good season as the deer ate over 50% of the potential flowers. .................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................... But there was enough for some flowers for this Shabbat. It is the upside down sunburst variety. Hadassah is in the background.

posted by Martin Weiss  # 5:01 PM

Wednesday, August 02, 2023

I get an apology (or apologies) from the AI program Chat GPT 3.5 

I was trying out the Chat GPT. I asked a question I had looked into a few years ago. That effort ended without a satisfactory answer. Here is (attenuated excess material) the two questions I asked. I got the apology in an answer to the second question. ............................ My Q: What did the medieval Jewish commentators think of the similarity of the kidnapping of the Shiloh women and the rape of the Sabine women by Rome. Chat GPT: The comparison between the kidnapping of the Shiloh women (Judges 21:15-24) and the rape of the Sabine women in Roman history was occasionally noted by some medieval Jewish commentators. However, it's important to understand that medieval Jewish commentaries were primarily concerned.... My next Q: Which commentators noted the similarity of the two stories (kidnapping of Shiloh women and Rape of Sabine women) and what did they specifically say about it. Chat GPT: My apologies for any confusion in my previous response. To clarify, there is no direct evidence or specific references to medieval Jewish commentators making a direct comparison between the kidnapping of the Shiloh women in Judges and the rape of the Sabine women in Roman history....

posted by Martin Weiss  # 10:11 PM

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