How I See It: Reflections on spirituality, technology, and the art of everyday life

   Weekly Update 06/13/26 – 06/19/26 (Medical Uncertainty, Home Equity Approval, Recording Privacy Debate) This has been a very eventful week. Unfortunately, I cannot go into details about everything that happened. I can say that it involved a medical problem affecting someone else who does not want me to discuss it publicly. The problem was very serious and required four days of hospitalization, many tests, several suspected diagnoses that proved to be wrong, and little that could be called closure, as the problem cleared without determining what was causing it, how to prevent it, or whether it will recur. At one point it was even considered infectious, and I had to be tested. On the whole, it was very frustrating. In the rest of my life this week, I finally found myself in a modest line at the new In-N-Out here in Vancouver. It was very good, and the fries, while not great, were good. I wish they would raise the temperature of the oil to make them crispier. I hea...

This week's update is part of my ongoing Weekly Update series and covers a major electrical project at the house, along with a few developments at work. Sometimes things move quickly. Dawn raises geckos. Frankly, I have lost count of how many geckos she has, somewhere between 40 and 80. She had 20 back in December, I know because I took care of them while she visited her son for Christmas. In any case, the geckos all need light, and some need heaters. Most of them are in her bedroom. With the extra load that puts on the electrical circuit, Dawn was worried they might be a fire danger. So she called an electrician to inspect what she had set up and make recommendations. I also had concerns about the electrical system in the house. We had several outlets that were not working. I needed another circuit in my office, and the electrical panel in the house was from the 1980s and likely needed replacement. In addition, Dawn wanted a quote to see how much it would cost to run power to a sh...

 Weekly Update 05/30/26 – 06/05/26 (Morning Walk Recovery, Dental Crown, Space News)   This week's Weekly Update covers my return to morning walks after recovering from a calf hematoma, a visit to the dentist for a new crown, developments involving SpaceX, Blue Origin, and the International Space Station, along with a few observations from everyday life.   My biggest news from last week must be that I have started doing my morning walks again. I had to take a few weeks off while I recovered from my hematoma, but it's mostly gone and I am back to walking. I'm starting off slowly at about 0.8 miles at a time. Next week I plan to increase that back up to 1 mile, and next weekend hopefully I'll be back to my usual 1.5-mile walk. I also had my crown installed this week. It feels so weird, much smoother than my natural teeth. In two weeks I'm going to be fitted for another crown and have a tooth removed. I was saddened to hear about the loss of the New Glenn space...

This week's update covers progress at work, upcoming dental treatment, and a significant development regarding my ongoing urinary issues. Things at work are going well. I'm making real progress on the project I'm currently working on, and it is encouraging to see things moving forward. My dentist contacted me this week to let me know that my new crown is ready to be installed. Unfortunately, my appointment is not until Thursday, so I'll have to wait a little longer before that work is completed. For several years I have been experiencing urinary difficulties, including frequent urination, occasional bladder control issues, and problems initiating urine flow. In 2022, I saw a urologist and tried several medications to treat the problem. At that time, my urologist wanted to perform a cystoscopy, an examination in which a small camera is inserted through the urinary tract to determine what is causing the symptoms. I decided to hold off on that procedure until the pro...

  Weekly Update 05/16/26 – 05/23/26 (Medical Week, Dog Fight, Hematoma Recovery) This week’s Weekly Update was dominated by medical appointments, an unexpected dog fight, and continuing problems with my right leg. Despite all of that, work is going well and there were at least a few reassuring medical results along the way. This has definitely been a medical week, but I managed to get through it. While I was in Irvine I was walking about four miles a day without pain. I returned to Vancouver on May 6th after a 2.5-hour flight. I did not notice anything immediately, but sometime during the following week, around May 10th–15th, I started noticing pain in my right calf. At first it felt somewhat like shin splints along the ridge of my leg below the knee. Since I thought it was a shin splint, I decided to take a day off from my usual one-mile morning walk to give the leg a chance to heal, but that same day the pain started getting worse. I checked with Astra (ChatGPT), and she sug...

 Well, the big news this week has all been around the arrival of the new puppy. I do not yet know the puppy’s name, as Dawn likes to give her dogs “special names,” like Boudica, Gurta, and Bouraged, and I cannot promise I will either remember or spell the name of this dog correctly. We picked the puppy up on 05/10 in The Dalles and drove her home to Vancouver. The puppy is what Dawn calls “dapple,” which apparently means having dappled spots on her coat. She is a nice little puppy and very affectionate. This brings the number of dogs we have up to seven, I think, not including the two puppies from Carolyn, who are now about four weeks old and growing fast. Unfortunately, on the evening of the 10th, Dawn noticed that the new little puppy was coughing a lot. It looks like the poor little thing has kennel cough, a highly contagious condition. So now we have the dogs broken up around the house and are quarantining the new little girl. Otherwise, it was a normal week of going to w...