Dog Dozing

Mandy joined me for a short sunning session on the deck this gorgeous Spring afternoon, after our breakfast walk w/Ken. We noticed that the Sterne Park lake is completely thawed, and shows no signs that it was frozen over for several months. Soon we'll have a few more choices for our morning walks, as the temperature begins to support comfortable outdoor seating.

Devastating News

We're feeling a little lost, after the bad news we got yesterday at Porter Hospital. Our supposed "orientation" meeting with the Doctor was really a blow-off session, during which he explained the high risks of Pancreas-Kidney transplant surgery. It's a "big" surgery, they've had two fatalities in the past five years, and she should seriously consider not doing it. He said something about Univ. of Chicago maybe shouldn't be saying they will do the surgery for her. While we were digesting all that, he explained that Porter's age policy prevents them from accepting her as a PK transplant patient, since she passed their age limit, while fighting the various foot wounds for the past few years. She's still eligible for a Kidney transplant, but Porter doesn't do those for Kaiser Permanente, so she will need to go back to Presbyterian St Luke if she still wants to do that. But thanks for coming, and have a nice day!

GOES-P Launched!

We launched D-348, a Delta IV rocket carrying the GOES-P weather satellite, after a late afternoon countdown and an unusually long 5-hour flight. See the writeup at SpaceFlightNow.