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I was so excited that I even noticed this Asterisk Spider, Ocrepeira ectypa, sitting on a railing along a trail in the Parkville Nature Sanctuary in Missouri, USA. I had been wanting to find one, and almost dismissed this one as a seed stuck to the wood beam....The common name refers to the web, which is apparently just spokes radiating from a hub, no spiral like in other orbweavers.
No. 5 Tea time, from 2016. Another set for the Sanrio store. Pompompurrin has an asterisk for a...um....rectum. There is an asterisk in the tea...'nuff said. Anyway, the teabag is really amazing.
soranews24.com/2020/01/19/mcdonalds-japans-cute-sanrio-to...
Recently i bought a Zeiss Ikon Ikonta 521/16 (6x6 format) and noticed that there was a 5 pointed star (also called asterisk) behind the serial number on the body (see red arrow).
I have read about that Star before but this was the first time i actually saw it on a camera.
Mr. Bernd K.Otto writes about that Star in part 2 of his article "Die Entwicklung der Ikonta/Super Ikonta".
You can find that Star on folders (yes, only on folders) which were produced by Zeiss Ikon in Stuttgart (Contessa Werk) in the first years (1945 to 1949) after the second world war AND were partly made of parts from pre May 1945 production which were still lying in storage.
btw The serial number starts with an "O" . this indicates the production of the body somewhere between the years 1943 and 1945. However its Tessar lens has a red T on the name ring, indicating a lens with (early) coating. Coated lenses on cameras for the public appeared after WW2.
made using orphan asterisk blocks from a quilt that never got finished.
It was a bit too big for a pillow so I made it into an 'oxford' style and now it fits perfectly. Hoorah!
Something strange was happening in the skies over Stanage today. An invasion of the punctuation marks as contrails formed an asterisk.
Anna's Hummingbird
Calypte anna
Another one of the shots I took on that long hot day at Martin Ray Winery. Hope you enjoy.
Thank you for your views, faves and comments. Deeply appreciated.
I've been through a lot in the last 2 months and actually for an unknown while before that that I and no one else realized the seriousness of. This image doesn't really reflect my situation, other than perhaps some Freudian stuff about doors and windows, but it is the first picture I could figure out how to upload today.
In between the row of asterisks I'll be writing a tiny true story about me and what has happened.
If you give this an extra second or two to load it will be more clear.
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From about the first half of 2019, I had been occasionally tilting to my starboard side (right side) and once in awhile actually falling down. I thought it was some sort of Vertigo, which I had experienced in the past, but didn't really know, and I didn't break any bones, and it wasn't very often. I was also getting more confused about written instructions particularly, again not thinking too much about it, as I'm smart, but have never been a whiz at written instructions. I dropped my medications and couldn't get them all sorted back. I'm 71 years old and just thought part of this was aging. Unbeknownst to me, some neighbors said I was talking sort of disconnectedly. I finally called my primary care doctor's office and said I wasn't "functioning on all my cylinders." We talked on the phone. She said to go to the ER at a local hospital. The ambulance driver wouldn't take me, because I was standing upright at the time, and he felt I just wanted a free ride to the hospital. He criticized me for it, and he and two assistants chimed in about there were only 14 ambulances in Springfield, and what if there was a fire or a big car wreck, etc.? I told him my doctor said to call the ambulance and to go there. He wouldn't budge. That was the first time in my life I was refused. Meanwhile, another first. I got a call from my doctor, and she wanted to know how it was going at the emergency room. That has never happened before. I said it wasn't *going at all* because the ambulance driver refused me. She was very upset and called them and I presume gave them a piece of her mind on my behalf, and I did get a ride with different medics (thankfully) later. I went to ER, but not much definitive was found that I can recall.
Meanwhile, for several months of this year (2019) I had excruciating pain in my right armpit all the way down my arm to every finger on my hand. I had a number of medical appointments about it, and I had agreed to spinal surgery. It was supposed to open up two pinched places that probably were causing the pain. I'm not afraid of surgery, but I am afraid of pain. After months of jumping through the medical hoops, I got a date for surgery. It was the second half of May. No one had really connected my falls, etc. with anything. It is fortuitous that they didn't, because had I not voluntarily and very willingly gone to the hospital for spinal surgery, this other thing that I'm about to tell may not have happened.
Apparently, and I was so out of it that I don't recall much at all of my hospital stay, I was not recovering in a normal manner from the spinal surgery. I only found out after some persistence on the telephone, just a few days ago (July 2, 2019), that I could not sit up, nor stand, nor walk and my cognitive functions were suffering. I imagine that was pretty bad. I guess they couldn't tell me at the time, as I would likely not have understood, but it seems like they could have told me later or scheduled a follow-up appointment. Maybe they don't do those for "emergency" surgery. They called my son and told him they had done a scan of my brain and found hydrocephalus (commonly called water on the brain, though not really just water). He approved the surgery (back in late May 2019) and thought I might die. I was clueless. I was in the hospital 16 or 17 days weeks and then 9 days at a rehab center. My son moved up here to help me recover. That was almost a month of being away from home for medical care, and I have been recovering since then. I've been told I could have died, but I am making a very good (maybe even great) recovery. My son likes to tell people "remarkable" recovery. I think that word is a little over the top, but find it nice that he thinks so. I haven't fallen down in about 2 months. My thinking is better.
My arm is only about 30% improved so far, and that much suddenly only after about 6 weeks of no apparent improvement at all. I naively thought it would be better right after surgery. I was wrong! My spinal surgeon told me a few days ago it could take 3 to 9 months to improve. I wish he would have told me that in the beginning. I would be less disappointed and more realistic.
Anyway, thanks for the prayers and encouraging comments . They help more than you know.
~~ Delina (pronounced with a long *i* sound)
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"First Upload in Almost 2 Months ~ I Nearly Died ~ True Story"
Cloud-shadowed view from the Appalachian Trail at Wolf Rocks, Monroe County.
Wolf Rocks form a narrow, north-facing ledge of boulders deposited during the last ice age. The ledge commands a fine view of Pleasant Valley and the Pocono Plateau escarpment.
better view by pressing the button "L"
i am pleased with your visit and your comments and fav., many thanks friends
Ruby came to pick her cousin Canada up from the bus stop.
Here you can see now how he compares to an M sized girl after the hybridizing with the L girl legs and arms. He's a good bit taller than Ruby now and looking exactly like I wished he would. Yay! :D
Tiny True Story will be between the rows of asterisks.
"P" is for Peanuts in the ABCs & 123s group.
I used Flickr's Creative Commons for the image of a serving bowl of peanuts. Terms and conditions: mark me (Christian Schnettelker) as the creator and set a link to www.manoftaste.de in return.
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It was the 1960s, I believe. My parents had been invited to a cocktail party at Chiang Kai-shek's granddaughter's home in the part of the San Francisco, California Peninsula area known as possibly Atherton, Menlo Park or Palo Alto. My parents were both interior designers and frequently got invited to some of the homes they had worked on. She lived in that area at the time, and I don't want to get bogged down whether it was exactly the 1960s nor which town, nor did I ever learn her name. The vast majority of my Tiny True Stories are things that happened to me, and I know them to be true. This event happened to my father, and the true part is what he told me happened. I was not there, but I love what she said to him. It is a remark I have never forgotten.
She had asked my father if he would like to try Chinese peanuts. He said, "Sure!" She served him some in a bowl, and he took a tiny handful. He remarked to her that they tasted just like American peanuts. She laughed and said, "Peanuts like hiccups and laughter...same all over world!"
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Well...the top is done. What I want to do quiltingwise will have to wait until the wintertime because it's toooooo hot right now to have a quilt in my lap!:o Phew!:)
Kona coal and lovely grey and brown batiks!!:)
I have so many things I need to be doing, but had to take a stress relief break and make a funky asterisk. This idea had been brewing for a while, it was time to let it out :)
arrived : December 21, 2016
the workroom received all 22 colour of the Asterisks collection. Full Metre, Half Metre and Fat Quarter bundles are available while they last.
The Aster is September's flower of the month. The name comes from the Greek word for Stars. The violet, pink and white shades are most popular.
The Aster symbolizes afterthought, daintiness and love of variety. They are also called Star flowers or Frost flowers (probably because they are one of the last to bloom before the autumn frosts).
The butterflies can't get enough of their tasty nectar that's hidden in the tiny yellow flowers clustered around the flower's center. This row of flowers separates them from the chrysanthemum family.
In my story about my bad fall where I couldn't get up for two hours, this is where I scooted to in order to have some leverage that might help me get up off the ground. This is where Rose thought it was play time on the ground, and the chickens thought I was lunch. I'll mark some notes on some of the things in the picture. I'll be adding a copy of my true story here in a short while. It is with each photo in this set; so no matter which picture you click on you can read the story.
A longer true story than my usual ones is below the row of asterisks.
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FALL OCCURRED IN THE SPRING
That’s right; fall occurred in the spring of 2012. Not the kind of fall like a beautiful autumn, but the kind of fall like Humpty Dumpty. The “splat” type of fall, which must have been painful for him. Mine was surely painful for me.
Let me digress a bit. I already have severe arthritis in both of my knees. I was very close to having the Orthopedic Physician’s Assistant refer me to the Orthopedist for knee replacements. The assistant had already seen me for seven to nine visits or so, and a series of Orthovisc® shots, which did not help me. I understand they are a great help to some people, but I wasn‘t one of them. He told me something I was completely unaware of. He said my teeth were bad, which is true. I have upper dentures and only one real tooth in my mouth. The bottom teeth except the one I just mentioned are all rotted away. They didn’t rot completely away; there are still parts of them in and below the gum line. He said they would all have to be surgically extracted before I could have knee replacements done. I asked him, “What do my teeth have to do with my knees?” He said infection can easily set in the rotten teeth and go to the knee or cause problems with my heart, major problems like death. Thus the reader can understand how I arrived at the title for my photo set about my hospital stay…The Knee Bone’s Connected to the Jaw Bone, Huh?
I have been walking around with very painful knees for quite awhile now, and I cannot afford the $1,600 to $2,000 to have my teeth surgically extracted. I already paid a dentist $180 for an appointment and a Panaray® X-Ray, over a year ago, just thinking it would be nice to finally get some lower dentures too. I never did get them. He split town, taking or disposing of his equipment and his files and x-rays. That $180 is long gone for me. I cannot even recover that old x-ray. Even if I did recover it, some new dentist would probably say it was out of date.
Medicare, which I am on, will pay for the two knee replacements, but here is the rub. They will not pay for dental. I have been in a surgical limbo with all the free pain I can stand.
That is the background information probably needed for this little story to be understood. There will be some OMG moments and some laughter. If it were a TV show, they would probably advertise, “You’ll Laugh; You’ll Cry; You’ll Sell Your Chickens; You’ll Call Your Congressman, and You’ll No Doubt Charge Your Cell Phone!”
That brings us to Thursday the 15th of March, 2012. (Beware the Ides of March). My daughter called to see if I could and would watch Rose all day Friday the 16th , as she had forgotten that she had signed up to be chaperone for her daughter, Anna Leigh’s, school field trip. It was going to be quite a bit out of town, the other direction from where I live. It was to be a special day. I wanted to be their hero; so I said sure. Some of you have seen Rose, the Hungarian Vizsla puppy among my photos. Rose is beautiful and young, and strong, and undisciplined and should probably be named Wild Rose. I love her, but she is a major handful. I had already watched her for 8 days while they went on a trip out of state, got one day off and then volunteered to do Friday the 16th.
Rose isn’t housebroken yet; so I took her out several times to encourage her to go outside. I was alone as far as other humans, and my daughter and granddaughter were about 60 miles away, on a school bus and then museum field trip. I live about 60 miles the other way from their home. It had been raining off and on and the ground and grass and driveway and mud were all pretty wet. My other trips outside with Rose that morning had been fine. I only had a thin shirt on, no extra shirt or jacket. I did not think I would be out in the yard very long.
Rose pulled on the leash too exuberantly, as she does often (she is five and a half months old, and has had puppy obedience training, but is in dire need of more of it). I slipped on a muddy and grassy slope. My right leg went out in front of me, and I fell on my rear end. My left leg folded underneath my thigh and toward my rear, and my weight, which is a lot, crunched it. It was bent backward way further than a knee is supposed to bend. I screamed bloody murder. I was afraid to even try to get up, as I thought I had probably torn a ligament or two.
Rose thought it was play time and was all over me. There was not a thing in sight that would give me any leverage to hold me up or to help me get up. I sat and I pondered what to do. My daughter and Anna Leigh would not be home for nearly 6 more hours. I thought, well I’ll just call 911 (the emergency number where we live). Wrong! No cell phone with me. It was inside their house, being charged up; ironically so it would be ready when I needed it.
I tried yelling for help. Nothing! A neighbor about a half an acre away, was mowing, and every time the mower cut off, I tried screaming for help. He must have had headphones on or something. Cars would drive by on the road way down the driveway, and I would yell, but no one had their windows down on that day. Did you know that when you have upper dentures and no lower ones, and you yell really hard, that it blows the upper dentures right out of your mouth? When I tried to hang onto them to keep them in my mouth, I was unable to cry out very loudly. I just thought I would throw that little trivia in. I didn’t know until that day.
I knew I couldn’t make it back in the house. There were too many upward slopes and an exposed aggregate patio and a few stairs. The front of the house was even worse, as it had more stairs. I looked down the driveway and saw a vehicle which had some metal protrusions, on the order of spare tire holder or something like that. I decided to try to scoot on my rear down to that metal thing. I thought perhaps it would give me leverage to get up. Rose thought that it was great fun to romp on and around me.
I thought the four chickens would be afraid to come around Rose. No, they are not very intelligent. They came right up to me and Rose and started pecking on me. I had never been pecked on by chickens before, and there I was on the ground with no help and Rose alternating between trying to attack the chickens and trying to play with me. Rose’s playfulness sort of resembles an attack, anyway. I scooted faster, much faster.
There was a light rain, but it was getting a little heavier. There was also a dusting of snow mixed with the rain. I was wondering how long it would take to get Exposure. I was wondering about Shock also. Can a person who has Exposure or Shock know that they have it? Ominous looking clouds were blowing quickly toward me. It was 1:30 P. M. when I fell. I didn’t have my phone, but I had my watch.
I scooted methodically toward the vehicle closest to me. I think it was about 100 feet. I got to it, and thought if worse came to worse with the weather, I could roll under the back of it. I did not relish thought of cold dark ground and spiders, but thought it might be better to risk them than the weather. I saw some wide strapping tape on the spare tire, which was loose. I didn’t want to risk hoisting myself up on the spare and its frame, as it was quite loose. But I took the tape and wrapped it around the metal thing that was separate from the spare tire things, and made it softer for my arm to lean on. I tried to prop myself up. No use; I fell back down. Not enough leverage. I put Rose’s leash handle on the trailer hitch. I didn’t want to just let her run free and maybe get hit by a car.
I tried again to get up and made it to both knees. It hurt so badly I went back down again. I noticed the license plate on the vehicle renewed on the ninth month of 2011. That said 911. I thought, “Oh yeah right, you inanimate license plate. Go ahead and taunt me! You know I can’t call 911.” I got a chuckle out of my own joke, and gave myself a figurative pat on the back for being resourceful about trying to get up.
I tried again. I got on both knees but the right one was in gravel that really hurt. Then I thought which knee should I put forward and which one should I try to rise on. I tried one, and it didn’t seem as if it would work so I tried the other way. That wasn’t the right way either. Finally I tried the first way again. I told myself on the count of three I would stand up, even if it hurt excruciatingly, I would scream but I would still get up. False start! Down again! I tried again and got up. I was standing!
Now was the problem of how to go anywhere, not knowing if my left knee would buckle at any time. I thought I had to try. I spotted my own truck further down the driveway, and decided to try to make it to it. I walked between two vehicles very carefully and slowly and got to my truck. I unlocked it with the remote key which I had in my pocket. After 11 years of driving it, the seat is pretty well conformed to me; so I didn’t have to bend my knees to sit down in it. I just leaned into the seat and put my relatively good right leg in. It was painful to bend my left knee to get it in the truck, but I did. Rose was still tied to a trailer hitch further back in the yard, but she was safe.
I looked at my watch. It was 3:30 P. M. It took me two hours to stand up and to get to some degree of safety and warmth. I could drive, as my truck is automatic. I drove down the road to a house that Anna had pointed out was where a schoolmate lived. I thought I could ask them to go in my daughter’s house and get my cell phone for me. There was a very large barking dog in the driveway, and no sign of humans, and the mother of the schoolmate has never even met me. I decided to go back to Jennifer’s home.
I found a cane in my truck that a charity, a different one than the one later in my story, had given me a few months ago. It is not a very sturdy one, but better than nothing. I did not use it on a regular basis. I used the hook end of it to fetch a large stick lying near the driveway (larger than a normal hiking stick). I pulled it to me, and stood back up out of the truck and used the big stick and the cane and balanced against two vehicles, and decided to try to get back in the house. I did. I got in the recliner and pulled a blanket up over me and slept until they got home.
After they got home, we all decided to go to the nearest Emergency room. It was a Friday night by then, and no normal doctor’s hours. We went to one closest to them, but it was still about 27 miles or so. They checked me out and did an x-ray. I told the Physician’s assistant nurse type lady about my knee history. She was fun and nice and caring and a little bit of a comedienne. She said that my left knee was really “ratty” looking on the x-ray. I laughed, because I’m sure it was. I have just never, in all my doctor visits ever had a nurse refer to one of my body parts as “ratty”. I suspect it is not a medical term. They said I sprained my knee, and gave me some medical records to take up to the emergency room (or my doctor) closer to where I live, seventeen miles from my home, the other direction from Jen & Anna. I wanted to be closer to the doctors and hospital that I know. I was given a prescription similar to Vicodin. Someone kindly pointed out that Walgreen’s was visible about a block away and their drive-thru was open. At that point I was still getting around by hobbling and by leaning on Jennifer. So I sat in a chair and she and Anna and Rose drove over to Walgreen’s . It seems as if it took a long time for them get the prescription filled.
While I was sitting there waiting, a employee came out to the lobby with clipboard in hand and asked if I were the lady with an injured knee. I replied that I was. She said, OK, come with me and we’ll have you see a triage. I thought it odd that I had already been seen and now they wanted to start all over again. I told her I had already been seen and x-rayed and all. It turned out there was another lady in the waiting room with an injured knee. It probably would have blown the Physician’s Assistant’s mind if I had played dumb and gone through everything again, and then told her when she looked shocked, “I’m coming through again; and this time don’t call my knee “ratty! Funny to imagine, but not a good idea.
Finally, my daughter and granddaughter returned to the hospital waiting room. Jennifer had forgotten her checkbook. So back they went and then it turned out, Jennifer couldn’t sign for my prescription, and she didn‘t have my insurance information. Thus, we all drove back over there. I was in line ahead of Jen‘s car. I told the pharmacist that my window did not go down well on the driver’s side, and I could not reach the pills in the drawer. So I would give him paperwork and cards he needed, but to please leave the pills themselves in the slide-out drawer. I said my daughter was right behind me and her window worked; and she would pick them up with my permission. Walgreen’s closed at 10 P. M. and it was about 9:57 P. M. Finally she got the pain pills in the drawer, but when we got out of Walgreen’s I flagged her down to stop and be sure to give me the pills to have with me before we forgot. Jennifer got them and handed them over to me. We laughed about how, at that time of night, it looked for the entire world like some sort of illegal drug deal.
We tried to go out for dinner, and the restaurant we chose put the closed sign in their front window as we were approaching. That always makes one feel so welcome, not!
Saturday, I rested, and then Sunday they took me to Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center. I had called my normal doctor, and he was out of the country (probably on some Doctors without Borders type thing). He participates in many good will efforts. The doctor filling in for him said to go to the Emergency Room. So I did, and they did an MRI, and I had torn the meniscus in my left knee. I ended up in the hospital for 8 days. No surgery was done to repair anything, because of the dental situation. But I got a walker, and some really nice nurses and physical therapy. I saw all kinds of doctors, and Home Health care people, and Senior and Disabled specialists. They must have taken my blood pressure 100 times, it seems. They always seem surprised that it is very good.
Anna Leigh, who is seven years old, threw a coin in the Hospital Fountain and made good wishes for me. She is such a sweetie. My daughter helped to clean up my place so when I went home the walker would fit through the rooms. I don’t know what I do without Jen and Anna. The first few days out of the hospital, I taught Anna how to play Monopoly, and she and Jennifer and I also did puzzles. There were some quality family moments. At one point I was eating a chip or cracker of some kind with my right hand, and trying to place a puzzle piece with my left hand. I got absentminded and stuck the puzzle piece in my mouth. I realized what I had done because the food tasted like cardboard. I took it out of my mouth. Anna about went into hysterics over it. I was laughing too. Anna’s Daddy called Jen about that time, and wanted to know what the laughter was all about. Anna wrote a note to show her Mom so her Mom could tell her Dad what happened. She spelled it phonetically, as she is only in first grade. I think she does really well, but Jen and I cracked up over how much Anna was laughing and over what she wrote. She wrote, “My grandmuther ate a pussel pees.” It looked substantially nastier than it was. Jen and I were cracking up about the note. Anna thought we were still laughing about the event itself, not the note. In any case, we all had some great belly laughs. Since the belly bone is no doubt connected to the brain bone and the knee bone, I think it was very healthy for us.
At first a physical therapist helped me in the hospital with a walker and with some small steps. After a few days, I could roam around the hallways on my own with the walker. At that point I took my camera. As I was practicing with my walker I took a number of pictures. I tried very hard to only shoot artsy type things and nothing about any patients or doctors that would invade their privacy. I had a bulletin board in my room just about me. I wrote “Exemplary Patient Award” on the comments. I wanted to see if it would make the nurses laugh. I thought it was funny to give myself an award. I enjoy making people laugh. I was curious if they would erase it, but it was still there when I was discharged.
I graduated from the walker to a cane yesterday. A home health physical therapist came to see how I was doing, and brought me a very colorful cane. I like it. It suits me, and it is brand new. There is a charity in my area called Love, Inc. I don’t know if it is just local or nationwide. Anyway, they gave him the cane to bring to me. Really super! Of course, I need to take a photo of it, and add it to this set. I’ll probably do that in the daylight.
I am still in surgical limbo, but a charity is going to come out and install grab bars on my shower, and still another charity will build up my recliner (which I sleep in) with a platform so it will be easier to get in and out of. It was suggested that I donate enough to cover the cost of the supplies but not the labor. I will probably make a donation, but I haven’t decided how much yet. I’m going to call my Congressman to see if something can be done about covering some dental procedures. I know him personally. He collects vintage cars, and has at least one Dodge and well over 10 Buicks. When I had a hubcap store, he would drop by and buy hubcaps for some of them. We would chat about politics, and automobiles, and high rent, etc. He probably won‘t be able to help, but I feel I have to try. Not just for me, but for a multitude of people.
I’ll close with a quote, although I don’t know who said it, “Be True to your Teeth and they will Never be False to You.” and “That is the Tooth, the whole Tooth, and Nothing but the Tooth.”
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