The daily chronicle 2023

Glad to hear things are going good for her, Brad!

My experience with Drs has been good and bad, had to grab a cardeoligist by the arm in the hall and read him the riot act, he apologized and we got an understanding. I learned they aren’t all knowing and you have to be aggressive, not disrespectful but affirmative. The ER I have used and was satisfied, Charlie that first Dr was inexcusable, a foot in his arse would have been right. My wife’s eye Dr is tops in his field, just lucky I guess to have him. Wife’s procedure was expensive because after cataracts they do a procedure so you don’t have to wear glasses. I told the wife it’s only money for you to have the best vision they can give you. I would do the same for me.

Home from my first trip. Body still 15 hours ahead and suffering a serious jet lag. Having said that, it’s good to be home.
Next trip in three weeks. Long enough to sort out some personal administration, see family and regroup for my six month trek. 🤗👋

I'm glad to hear that, Mike. The slow return home will be good for your Mom. Best wishes.

That’s good news. I figger you just like hanging around all those pretty young nurses.

Our Urgent Care Clinic has no pain meds of any kind including ointment. Having had stitches without numbing is not fun. Hospitals have problems with meds it seems. A friend had toes amputated with no pain meds after the surgery. Ditto his knee replacement. It took several days following the operation for his personal PCP to prescribe pain meds. The hospital could not manage it.

Anybody heard from turbocat recently?

That was some years back.

Another time while my wife was in the hospital, their practices put her on death’s doorstep, I wrote a detailed letter describing what happened by their failures. They apologized, and told me there was no charge for her stay and they re-examined their policy with changes to be made.

I had them by the cajones, and they knew it.

But they admitted they were at fault.

I should have time to post some smokes for the next couple days and then I’m off to Sillycon Valley on a work trip packed with large meetings and group dinners i.e. a planning off-site being held on-site at the corporate hq campus. First work trip in four years. Hopefully, the hotel that I’m staying at still has the really nice area to smoke a pipe: dual setups of two chairs, a small table, and a smoker's post. It’s not as relaxing when I stay at a hotel where I have to stand around to have my evening pipe. A chair or bench is much more relaxing.

Just reposting.

I stay at Sheraton San Jose which is actually in Milpitas on Barber Lane.
www.marriott.com/en-us/hotels/sjcsa-sheraton-san-jose-hotel/overview/?scid=f2ae0541-1279-4f24-b197-a979c79310b0
It's near the intersection of I-880 and Montague Expwy.  So, east end of Silicon Valley and Sunnyvale is on the west.  I like this location as it is very near our corporate campus which stretches along Tasman and I don’t have to deal with traffic in the morning.

Avoid the Courtyard on Holger Way near North First.  It’s too close to the south end of the Bay and there’s always wind to deal with outside.

I don’t know how the rates at the Sheraton compare as I am staying at company expense using a corporate discount.  I pretty much only stay at Marriott owned places as I am Lifetime Titanium Elite there.

Went to small country clinic for bloodwork, seeing Dr next Tuesday for Reg checkup. It's been a year since last bloodwork time just slips away.

I play, but I don't remember the last time I played a game in person.  Years ago, I used to play in small local tournaments and once in the Michigan open.  However, playing three games of chess across an entire day got to be quite tiring.  Also, my relatively low rating of 1100 to 1200 used to see me mostly playing up and coming 9 year olds drinking from their juice box as they beat me.

These days, I play on chess.com.  However, I do not play "live" games or speed chess.  I play what they call "daily" games which is just another word for correspondence chess.  In daily games, you have a certain number of days in which to login and make your moves.  The most common clock setting is 3 days per move.  You and your opponent can move faster than that, but you can take up to 3 days thinking if you so wish.

You can set up a free account on chess.com.  I have a paid account as I wanted more features than what the free account provides.  If you decide to check it out and want to play a daily game with a 3 day clock, send a challenge to the user id "Stalcho".  I'm not sure if the system will let you though as I think I a setting of only receiving challenges from players within 200 rating points of me.  If you are interested and that happens, message me and I can send a challenge to you.

chess.com can be used either from a web browser or from the chess.com app on a phone or tablet.  I find the web browser version usable on my iPhone and iPad.

There are other chess sites on the Internet, but chess.com is the one that I know.  In addition to being able to play live or daily games, the site hosts tournaments and team matches, clubs, lots of learning materials both written and video, etc.  What you get access to depends on whether you have a free account or if your a member at one of the three paid levels.
 

If you haven't read Michael Chabon's novel "The Yiddish Policemen's Union" yet, this would be an opportune moment. Capablanca gets a shoutout. Emmanuel Lasker puts in an appearance. Assorted others get namechecked. The game is integral to the plot, but not in any heavy, technical way. It's a hoot of a book.