Quote of the Day

Love’s like the measles - all the worse when it comes late in life.
- Douglas Jerrold

Quote of the Day

To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive, and the true success is to labor.
- Robert Louis Stevenson

Quote of the Day

No question is ever settled until it is settled right.
- Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Quote of the Day

A conservative is one who admires radicals centuries after they’re dead.
- Leo C. Rosten

Quote of the Day

Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.
- Philip K. Dick

Quote of the Day

A man is accepted into church for what he believes - and turned out for what he knows.
- Mark Twain

Quote of the Day

There is hardly anything in the world that some man can't make a little worse and sell a little cheaper, and the people who consider price only are this man's lawful prey.
- John Ruskin

Kidney stones - aka "my balls are blue"

I've had kidney stones before, something like 7-8 years back - and I swear it hurts like hell. I started feeling some symptoms while still in the air over the US, but when I finally got to my hotel there was no mistaking it anymore. So I called the front desk and they called 911 for me.

Now, just like in a movie it was a fire truck that rolled up five minutes later. The two guys in it put me on a stretcher and asked me some questions, the answers to which they reported in to the hospital while we were en route. I was curious and asked about the combination of fire dept and what in Norway is an ambulance service, and they told me this could vary from place to place, but that in most of southern California it was a fire thing. They apparently had fire fighting equipment in their truck too.

Now, this may be because I'm a complete ignoramus when it comes to most technical stuff, but when I was rolled in to the hospital they did something to my stretcher which caused it to transform into a wheelchair. I was flabbergasted, and for a brief while I was more inclined to go "wheeeeee" than to moan about my pain. I don't know if this is now standard stuff even in Norwegian hospitals, but I'm old enough that I find such technology almost inseparable from magic, or indeed like being in a Transformers movie. Except there was no Megan Fox. Meh.

I spent the next few hours in the very good and competent care of the Sharp Grossmont hospital in La Mesa. They gave me some painkillers on IV, asked tons of questions about medical history, medication etc. A guy came to take some administrative details, including insurance, and I had several conversations with the yanks working there; all very nice people doing important jobs.

When the doctor came he wanted to check for hernia or testicular problems, so he put on some gloves and "went to town" down there. I told him "they'd dropped", but he checked anyway.

Long story short, I got a CT-scan which showed the stone had already passed and was now resting peacefully in my spacious bladder instead of brutally forcing its way down the all too narrow tubes leading down from the kidneys. If this isn't a designing fault proving the existence of a malevolent God, I don't know what is. The doc told me I had elevated kidney values and gave me some papers to take home to my Norwegian primary physician, as he couldn't be certain whether it was caused by the stone or if it was a permanent thing.

I was given a prescription drug for any pain that might be caused by the stone making its way down into the penis (yet another design fault!) and sent on my merry way back to the motel in a taxi.

Now, I wouldn't go so far as to say that getting a kidney stone was a good thing, no more than losing my passport in December. But in having this misfortune I at least got a useful glimpse into a part of American society most tourists (fortunately) won't get to witness. I encountered top professionals from the emergency responders to the nurses to the doctor. Everybody was polite, friendly and just plain nice.

I talked winter olympics with the nurses and confirmed that the number one reason why people lived in SoCal was the sweet, sweet climate. Engaging in a little banter, cracking jokes and just talking to Americans is always one of my favorite things to do while over here, and the good people at the ER in Grossmont were no exception. A heartfelt thanks to them all!

Quote of the Day

Just as a cautious businessman avoids investing all his capital in one concern, so wisdom would probably admonish us also not to anticipate all our happiness from one quarter alone.
- Sigmund Freud

Quote of the Day

Most human beings have an almost infinite capacity for taking things for granted.
- Aldous Huxley

Quote of the Day

Many highly intelligent people are poor thinkers. Many people of average intelligence are skilled thinkers. The power of a car is separate from the way the car is driven.
- Edward de Bono

Quote of the Day

School days are the unhappiest in the whole span of human existence. They are full of dull, unintelligible tasks, new and unpleasant ordinances, with brutal violations of common sense and common decency.
- H. L. Mencken

Quote of the Day

Everyone lives by selling something.
- Robert Louis Stevenson

Quote of the Day

If the lord had meant us to have faith, he’d have given us lobotomies.
- Zlatko

Quote of the Day

It's practically impossible to look at a penguin and feel angry.
- Joe Moore

Quote of the Day

Exhilaration is that feeling you get just after a great idea hits you, and just before you realize what's wrong with it.
- Joe Moore

Quote of the Day

Childhood is that wonderful time when all you need to do to lose weight is take a bath.
- Joe Moore

Quote of the Day

A simple fact that is hard to learn is that the time to save money is when you have some.
- Joe Moore

Quote of the Day

Only grown-ups have difficulty with childproof bottles.
- Joe Moore

Quote of the Day

A politician is a person who thinks twice before he says nothing.
- Joe Moore

Quote of the Day

If heaven is guilt, no sex and no show
Then I’m not sure if I really wanna go.
- The Rainmakers, from the song "The Wages of Sin"

Quote of the Day

Everything is funny as long as it is happening to someone else.
- Will Rogers

Quote of the Day

Diplomacy is the art of saying "nice doggy" until you can find a rock.
- Will Rogers

Quote of the Day

The income tax has made more liars out of the American people than golf has.
- Will Rogers

Quote of the Day

The minute you read something you can't understand, you can almost be sure it was drawn up by a lawyer.
- Will Rogers

Back to California

I've swapped classes with colleagues and just handed in an application for a new passport (I fear I looked like a jumpy hedgehog in my new pic). I'm flying to San Diego Wednesday Feb. 19 and back again on the morning of Saturday March 1. Ten nine full days of warm, sunny, blissful southern California!

So far I've planned a trip to Death Valley and to the Nixon presidential library. I might possibly take a quick look at Joshua Tree National Park again too. Other than that, my agenda is open. Wheeeeeeeeeee!

Quote of the Day

If stupidity got us into this mess, then why can't it get us out?
- Will Rogers

Quote of the Day

A conference is just an admission that you want somebody to join you in your troubles.
- Will Rogers

Funny stuff from the US

Some assorted funny stuff I encountered in the US in December...

We'll start off with some humorous road signs from Texas. I did not know Comfort was to be found here.


Nor Welfare.


I saw this shirt at the LBJ museum in Austin.


Motel 6 in Cedar Park had another one of those passive-aggressive notes.


These firemen in San Diego had their work cut out for them. At least is was a warm and sunny day.


This cafe in Utah has been there since before the War. Back in the day, wood was hard to come by in these parts, so when they made a sign they put ho-made as an abbreviation for home made. Only later was the "ho" part associated with... ahem... women of negotiable affection. The owners decided the name could be used to create a little stir and draw customers. It worked on us; then again we're stupid.




Finally, the picture Albie forced me to pose for in San Diego. What does the fox say? Nothing that could, or at least should, be put in print.

Quote of the Day

It is as respectable to be modified monkey as modified dirt.
- Thomas H. Huxley

Quote of the Day

The real sadness of fifty is not that you change so much but that you change so little.
- Max Lerner