Month: June 2024

Big Mo Pod Show: “Absorbing Influences”

I listened to the Big Mo Blues Show last Friday night on June 21, 2024 and wouldn’t you know, he was recorded. He wasn’t there live that night but as usual he put on a great show of blues music.

And I listened to the Big Mo Pod Show a few days later, and the theme was Absorbing Influences. Very thought provoking. The choice of tunes was interesting and Big Mo pretty much got them all identified. He usually does.

I can’t remember all the tunes he played on June 21st, but as usual, I had a different perspective about the selection for the podcast. I think I heard a Catfish Keith number on the Big Mo Blues Show, which I can’t remember too well and furthermore, don’t quite understand. It was “I Don’t Know Right from Wrong.”

And I’ll throw you another curve. That’s not the number I want to talk about in terms of the absorbing influence theme. Briefly, it just means that many blues artists get influenced by a musician they really like, pick up on what they learn from a song and gradually make it their own.

I think Catfish Keith was influenced by Son House, who sang a song called “A True Friend is Hard to Find.” Catfish Keith absorbed the music, and did his own version which I recently heard. I think it’s a gospel number. Memorable lines include:

“Bear this in mind, a true friend is hard to find.”

It’s true. You have a real treasure if you ever find one.

Take Out Wrenched Ankle

Early this month, I was reminded of the old Operation game (some of us remember the TV commercial) when I wrenched my left ankle. It was the lateral malleolus, to be anatomically correct about it.

I was dismantling a bedstead. It’s kind of an old-fashioned piece and the headboard was pretty heavy. I was removing the side rails. I thought they were hooked to slots in the headboard and footboard and the parts would stay together after I unscrewed the side rails.

They weren’t and they didn’t.

I was facing the footboard removing the last screw from the side rail. I didn’t see the headboard falling when it struck the outer aspect of my left ankle with a loud bang on the joint flexed in sort of a sprinter’s starting posture. Surprise!

I was able to walk with a slight limp. It was swollen and bruised, but I could still put my shoes and socks on. I could even do a left one leg stand for a few seconds.

The swelling is down but still noticeable. It’s much less painful. I thought I could go without seeing a doctor because I could walk on it without limping. I eventually saw a web article about this kind of injury which pointed out that in some cases you can still walk on a broken ankle.

I may be in denial, but I’m betting it’s sprained. The moral of the story is that you should always have a spotter with you to hang onto potentially unstable heavy objects like headboards.

CDC ACIP Recommendations for Covid 19 Vaccine for 2024

The CDC ACIP recommended implementation of the 2024 Covid-19 vaccine and the timeline is in the implementation slide set. CDC plans to use CDC Everything messages. Insurance plans, including Medicare, will cover the cost.

Annual Kickball Challenge Tonight: Psychiatry Residents vs Faculty

I almost forgot to announce the annual KickBall Challenge, which is tonight! This used to be called Matball, but is now called Kickball.

It starts with pizza at 6 pm and then the barfing starts at 7 pm. Just kidding! Usually this event is marked by extreme heat and humidity, but I gather it may be almost balmy by comparison tonight-around 78 degrees.

What’s the difference between matball and kickball? I think it’s the use of large mats for bases and that is usually played indoors. The size of the bases during the first match was like the one in the photo below. It rained briefly, but then it cleared off so the humidity only felt like it was raining.

I never actually played in a game of matball/kickball. In fact, I took it easy because the temperature was usually in the mid-90s at least.

The faculty team losers in the first matball/kickball match were accused of suspending the resident team trophy in Jello. I refuse to answer any questions about the issue on the grounds it may incriminate me.

Other special rules apply as usual, at least I assume:

For every point the residents score, faculty automatically score 5.

Faculty may tackle the base runner at any time.

If it rains, faculty win by 10 points.

The games are fun to watch. Residents jumping over faculty; Faculty collapsing from pizza overload or heat stroke.

Just win, baby.

CDC Advisory Committee Makes New Recommendations for RSV Vaccine

I looked at one slide set for the Respiratory Syncitial Virus (RSV) vaccine. I didn’t watch the meeting. The ACIP Adult RSV Work Group Clinical Considerations powerpoint presentation recommend transitioning away from the shared clinical decision-making (SCDM) component for getting the RSV vaccine.

Slide 4 seems clear:

“All adults aged 75 years and older should get a single dose of RSV vaccination.

All adults aged 60-74 years and with certain chronic medical conditions or other factors that increase the risk of severe RSV disease should receive a single dose of RSV vaccination.

These recommendations would replace the SCDM recommendation, meaning that adults aged 60-74 years without risk factors for severe RSV vaccine, are no longer recommended to receive RSV vaccination.”

Stat News has a report which includes comments on the unanimous vote in favor of the above.

Go Fly a Kite Right Now!

We got a couple of those ready-made kites the other day, took them out to Terry Trueblood Park and man did they fly! We used to fly kites you had to spend a little time and effort putting together back in the day. It was close to 90 degrees but we barely noticed.

I remember the first time we ever flew a kite. I was in medical school and we lived out in one of the cinder block apartment houses on Hawkeye Drive in Iowa City. They don’t exist anymore. The kite flew like a dream—and got stuck in a tree.

The next time we flew a kite was well after I graduated from residency. We got a kite that I couldn’t stop flying. I flew it in the nearby park, and afterward flew it in our driveway for hours.

There’s nothing like flying a kite.

Reminder: CDC ACIP Meeting June 26-28 on Vaccines Including Covid-19 and RSV

Just a reminder about the upcoming CDC ACIP meeting on vaccines, including RSV and Covid-19.

Learning to Use ClipChamp While Recording Cribbage Game on Cribbage Pro

I’m learning how to use the video editor ClipChamp, the free version on the new laptop. So, I muddled through a screen recording of playing what’s called the Daily Cribbage Scrimmage on Cribbage Pro, a feature-rich computer Cribbage game on which you can different skill levels of computer players from easy to impossible as well as online with other live players.

I’m used to using an old version of PowerDirector for my video editing. I would have to expend a fair amount of energy and a little more money to install it on the laptop. I can deal with the webcam on the laptop, but using ClipChamp takes some getting used to.

Donating Furniture to ReStore and the Five Minute Rule

Recently, we donated some furniture to Habitats for Humanity ReStore in Iowa City. We got the idea from seeing our neighbors doing the same thing a few years ago.

ReStore requires you to put the items in your garage or driveway. The request for pickup is an easy on-line form. You have to upload photos of your items. I forgot to take a photo of the stone table top, so I had to use an old photo I took of it after a Cribbage game.

The story of the contrast between how long it took us to get the stuff out to the garage and how long it took the pick-up guy to get it into his truck is an example of what I’ll call the five-minute rule. If it takes the average person 5 hours to get heavy furniture from inside the house into the garage, it will take the pick-up guy 5 minutes to load it into his truck.

I took a photo of the table upside down because we had to take the legs off. Otherwise, we would never have gotten it through the doorway. It weighed a ton. We laid the table top upside down on a rug in the garage. I screwed the legs back on after we got it in the garage and left it upside down.

Getting a couple of sofas and a very heavy dining room table with a stone top out of the house was no easy task. It took us hours. I don’t know how the movers originally got them in the house. This was one of those “you really had to be there” episodes to appreciate.

We had to remove the feet from the sofas to get them through the doorway. They twist off, but they’re also attached with hex head screws. Oh, and those stick-on pads you apply to the bottoms of the feet so your floors don’t get scratched? You have to scrape those off to get to the screws. Just sayin’. Lucky, we had a hex head wrench that was long enough to reach through the hole in the foot. And even after we removed the feet, the sofas had to be turned just right to get it through the doorway. We’re talking less than a half-inch to spare on both sides.

It took most of the morning to get the items into the garage. I never want to do anything like that again.

Now here’s the kicker. The guy who came to pick up the furniture was a tall, wiry, friendly guy who had a hand truck and nobody else with him. The truck had a ramp. It took him about 5 minutes to hustle everything into the truck. Miraculous. I never thought of getting a hand truck. I probably could have rented one from U-Haul.

On the other hand, I doubt we’d have done much better if we’d had a hand truck. The pick-up guy was not just strong. He used Ninja physical maneuvers which made the whole job look easy. Five minutes.

By comparison, several hours after we finally got the stuff into the garage, it took me five minutes just to limp back into the house and collapse.

But Habitats for Humanity really appreciates your donations.

Great Cribbage Tutorial for Beginners!

I’ve seen a couple of Cribbage videos on Huddle Around Games, which is a YouTube site dedicated to Cribbage as well as other games.

This one is a tutorial on how to play Cribbage for beginners. He calls himself Zulwarn, which is his name when he plays the online form of a computer Cribbage game called Cribbage Pro. I play (well, mainly lose) on Cribbage Pro, but not on line. I just play the computer, on Brutal level. I guess I like punishment because Brutal doesn’t make mistakes.

Zulwarn is funny and smart. He likes coffee.