Cheryl Morris - Weblogs

This morning, after more ivy pulling, I headed to my favorite nursery, Roger Reynolds, to dream and enjoy the plants. As I was wandering, what did I find but a plant with blue-green leaves with neon orange spines top and bottom. These same orange spines covered the stalk as well. Purple flowers, too, when blooming. OK, what is it? Hum, solanum pyracanthum. From Madagascar and a member of the same family as potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, and nightshade. Only this one could have been designed by a SF writer — I’m sure some have used it as an alien plant….

Here is a picture.
Meanwhile, I’m going to enjoy mine for as long as I can keep it alive in the Bay Area. Maybe it will survive till Halloween…

They are wretchedly clever, as I have come to find. I have bird feeders on metal poles that the squirrels, so far, have not been able to climb up to raid. I knew, however, that when I put up a platform feeder that I’d not only get larger birds but also squirrels.

The bird food I stored in a lidded plastic container that my daughter had used in Vermont. For about two weeks that worked for storing bird food. Then, one morning, I found a gaping hole in its blue cover. I thought I was being clever when I placed one of our green recycling baskets over the whole container. But, I was puzzled by more seed that seemed spilled in the container bottom. This morning, I found the answer. As I walked by the covered container, there was a great ruckus. Frightened squirrel feasting…

Yup. As I lifted the green recycling basket, the squirrel sped out from under it and darted up a tree. Clever squirrel had figured how to get in to the storage bin without damaging the recycling bin.

I am rethinking my options for bird food storage but will probably go for a galvanized barrel with lid and put it in closed garage.

I loathe ivy — particularly Algerian ivy. When it takes over an area, it defines where you can walk, unless you have on sturdy boots and are surefooted. Where we now live has 40-years of ivy growth. Up trees and fences and across the landscape. I began work on ivy killing in late May and am now down to 1000 sq ft or less.

First to go was ivy on the trees. Not cool. I cut the runners going to the ground; then, if the ivy was not all around the tree, pulled it off. For major tree infestations, I’ve left the ivy to die on the tree, as pulling it off could harm the tree. It is unsightly, but I value the trees.

Then, I went for ivy on the fences. Wretched stuff contributes mightily to the rapid demise of wood fences. One part of a fence had to be replaced and I see spots on other fences that need TLC.

That done, I started manual ivy removal on the back (2100 sq ft) and side yard (1900 sq ft). Yes, I measured it. I’ve used many techniques for the removal. A folding saw knife has been one of my best friends. So has a metal rake. I’ve also used Roundup to at least set it back. And my son-in-law has dug the roots up. Note that the total removal will likely require several seasons. Luckily, the leaf mulch in many of the areas has been very thick, so ivy removal has been easier there.

The problem with ivy is its persistence. Thus, I am reluctant to try to compost the ivy runners. My solution so far has been to bag it up when freshly cut (more flexible then) and place it out for the recyclers. My neighbors have marveled at the stack of bags offered up every two weeks.

What are we going to do to replace the ivy? Well, in some areas, we have plans for some fruit trees. Loquat, lemon, cherry, and nectarine or peach are current possibilities. We have lots of wild plum trees that provide excellent fruit for jams, so will not plant another plum.

Where the ivy has grown in heavy shade, we will let the trees (26 in the back yard) continue to provide a floor of leaf mulch. Shade plants have been added in some areas for color and texture: Tasmanian and Australian Tree ferns, camellias, azaleas, and hostas. We have been able to put up a ping pong table and are leaving space for a hoped-for-spa. Much better than ivy.

The side yard has almost as many trees and a sidewalk border of oleanders. The oleanders are necessary for privacy, but do raise issues of what to do near them. With more than enough space once the ivy is gone, we can build raised veggie beds that are safely away from oleander leafs and roots. A request from my daughter for a ginko will also be honored–as soon as I can get rid of the huge pile of removed dead tree limbs and treelets. Treelets? Yup, those trees that try to grow where they should not. No chance of enough sun or nutrients. We’ve removed about six of those.

The back of the side yard will be a good place for more camellias and ferns.

All of this gardening is aerobic for me. I’m sure I’m not using all of the muscles I need to, but Yoga starts again this week.

I’ve been following the USGS Earthquake report for years and have never seen anything like this. Look at today’s listings of quakes over 2.5! There are at least 86 (perhaps 89) listed here and two over 6.0. The quakes are both deep and shallow, so there is magma and who knows what else….
and the map shows how clustered these quakes are.

Cleaning floors is necessary, but not fun; at least it wasn’t until I purchased a Scooba. Scooba satisfied two of my needs: clean floors without me doing the work and a robot. My daughter and I put it to work on the tile floor in the kitchen and then dashed outside to watch it work via the sliding glass door. Total geek pleasure, and floor was very clean. The second cleaning, my son-in-law watched Scooba and christened it “the little tyke.”

Sometimes images are so stuningly beautiful that they shift my attention to philosophical issues. In particular, this image of Saturn, its rings, and tiny Enceladus gliding in its orbit has affected me. Why do we assume ourselves to be so important — or our cars, borders, and possessions?

Yesterday, for the second time, I saw a personalized license plate that, I’m sure, has a great story. I’ve cherished the first instance for nearly 30 years. I was driving on the Ventura Freeway one sunny day when, in the fast lane, a silver Jaguar XKE convertible zipped past me. A woman, probably in her late 40s, drove it. I caught a glimpse of cropped red hair and a headscarf. My quick impression was of a dissonance between her appearance and the lines of her sleek car. Then, I saw the license plate: HE PAID.

Yesterday, returning home from shopping, my daughter and I stopped at a red light. In front of us was a gorgeous silver Ferrari. We were oohing and aahing over the car (we both express the “Southern California car gene”) when I spotted the personalized license plate: HI DEBT.

For the last few weeks, I have been reading Illuminating the Path: The Research and Development Agenda for Visual Analytics edited by James J. Thomas and Kristin A. Cook, and pondering developments in visual analytics over the last decade. This book can be downloaded for free from NVAC or purchased from IEEE for $35.

Today, I added two more books to my reading library: Information Visualization: Beyond the Horizon by Chaomei Chen and the classic Semiology of Graphics by Jacques Bertin. The latter has set me back many, many lattes, as it has long been out of print — though rumored to (eventually) be reprinted by the University of Wisconsin.

Today’s shocking news revealed that, if you believe Libby’s account, Cheney (with Bush’s approval) had authorized Libby leaking CIA National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) data to a reporter.

This act appears to be a political vendetta against Joseph C. Wilson IV for questioning one of the major “reasons” for going to war in Iraq. The leak outed Wilson’s wife, Valerie Plame, a CIA officer. Wilson was correct: Iraq was not trying to buy nuclear material in Niger. I wonder whether the members of Congress have “the right stuff” to deal with this evolving stink. Where on your scale does this rank when compared to sex with a intern or the Nixon impeachment issues. Read the Nixon Articles of Impeachment and put the current state in Washington, D.C. into perspective.

For those of you unfamiliar with the dissertation process (and it varies school-to-school), my University requires an idea paper first. The idea paper is 25 to 40 pages long and is where you sell your idea to a potential advisior. Once the advisor agrees to your idea paper (which may be after many edits), a committee is formed to keep you on track through the rest of the process.

So, I think I have an idea in information visualization. To make certain it is viable, I have been gathering technical papers and keeping track of them on a control sheet using Excel. Once I know that the paper is useful, it goes into EndNotes. Right now, the EndNotes library for my idea paper/dissertation totals 309 entries while the control sheet has 520 entries. Using the latest version of EndNotes, I can link to the PDFs of documents for fast review. Yes, I have a lot of them printed out, but sometimes it is easier to check the digital version.

I also have to deal with backups. Most everything is on several drives on my PC, removable media, and on my Mac. I also need to get offsite storage — maybe at my University or another source. Keeping track of all my papers will be challenging.

“In Paris, of a blow from the proboscis of an elephant, M. Barthelemy, a celebrated engineer and mechanist.

In New Jersey, Mr. James Wood, aged 100. He was deaf and dumb, and has left a widow in the same situation.”

From: The Green-Mountain Farmer; Date: 1816-05-20; Vol: VII; Iss: 38; Page: [3].

Note: these were found as I was hunting for some genealogy information. The Green-Mountain Farmer was published in Vermont.

Scruffy, our elder family cat, has been excessively fond of Rick, my son-in-law. Mornings found Scruffy rushing in to curl up beside Rick. That behavior was slightly modified when a mohair lap throw was added to the bed. Then Scruffy would alternate: Rick, mohair, Rick. Best of all, though, was when mohair was next to Rick. Unintentionally, I threw a loop in this happy, cozy relationship with the purchase of a very small sheepskin rug which I put on my bed. This morning Scruffy didn’t even bother to greet Rick, preferring instead to curl up on the sheepskin. Worse yet, he has been letting the other family members know of his dismay when the door to my room is closed.

I may be in trouble….

Living on a flood plain is dumb. I know, I did it. When we moved to British Columbia, our first priority was to find a home with a dock. (Don’t ask - just see my pages on boats.) We decided to live on Vancouver Island and went searching for property. We found a place on the Somass River in Port Alberni and purchased it outright (thus avoiding a mortgage which we could not have gotten for that location). We liked the place because it gave us access to the wonderful West Coast of British Columbia. I think we’d lived there a few months before we became uncomfortable about the river and high tides and possible flood implications. While we managed to sell and move inland, we kept in touch with issues about the flood plain.

Many of the issues that face the central San Joaquin/Sacramento Valley in California are distressing. The valley has two sources of water: drainage from the Sierra Nevada mountains and salt water from the San Francisco Bay. It is also an area with increasing population, and that is pushing develpment of areas susceptible to flooding from levee breaks. It is stupid to pursue further home development on the flood plains, yet that is under consideration. According to the Sacramento Bee, as many as 115,000 new homes are planned or under construction in six counties that are among the most flood-prone areas of the country.

And who will pay for the flood damage when it happens? You will. Why do we allow mortgages and homeowner insurance in areas like this? I have no problem with people willing to put up their own money and self-insure for the folly of living in dangerous areas (including some pricey beach frontages in Southern California), but such folly should not be public policy.

So, who in government has the cojones to stop this folly? Today’s program, hosted by Michael Krasney, on KQED had John Caine, director of Restoration Programs at the Natural Heritage Institute, Rod Mayer, acting chief at the State Division of Flood Management of the Department of Water Resources, and Stuart Leavenworth, editorial writer at the Sacramento Bee and author of the paper’s series, “Rising Risk,” about the flood threat from California levees. One of the participants suggested that a parcel of land currently up for sale and future development should be purchased by the state for a flood bypass. Who has the cojones to do this sensible thing?

My daughter pointed me to this clever solution. I can readily understand not wanting to kill a mouse. Over the years, I have rescued quite a few from indoors and transported them to the outside. One amusing catch happened in British Columbia where I have a home in a rural area. One particularly irritating problem was the occasional mouse finding its way into the dishwasher. Yuck. Yet, no matter how we sealed the installation with duct tape and other substances and religiously left its door locked, a mouse would — rarely — get inside. Luckily, I am not afraid of mice and am quite good at catching them barehanded. So, one morning, I caught a small mouse. I was holding it with my fingers and scolding it for being where it should not be; the mouse was squeeking at me and my renter was doubled over with laughter. After finishing the scolding, I put the mouse outside in the forest.

I did, however, speak harshly to the family cat about his duties of mouse patrol.

This week we found that Cheney has the authority to classify documents; he did not respond to the question of whether he could declassify them. Can he? Did he? The NY Times reported on February 15th:

“There is an executive order that specifies who has classification authority and obviously focuses first and foremost on the president but also includes the vice president,” Mr. Cheney said in an interview on Fox News.

He said he had participated in decisions to declassify information, but he declined to say whether he had ever declassified information on his own.

The situation is disquieting.

For too many years, I avoided Valentine’s Day. There was that dreadful homeroom experience that slowly wore away as the years passed. Then, in 1985, I had a biopsy on Valentine’s Day; the result was breast cancer (early stage) and a lumpectomy and radiation followed. I would NOT celebrate Valentine’s Day for years. Until, in 2005, I realized that it was 20 years - and that was reason to CELEBRATE. Back in 1985, I was so bound up in sickness and worry that I could not look to the future. I remember someone telling me to pull myself up by my bootstraps and recalling Indira Ghandi alleged response, “What if they have no boots?” No boots. That is how I felt, and it was an hour-by-hour, day-by-day struggle to gain normality and balance.

Back in 1985 I never thought I’d work on a Ph.D. But, I am. And now, this Valentine’s Day in 2006, I registered for Dissertation as my mandatory course work is complete! Another reason to CELEBRATE.

We have a tree along the driveway that our arborist identified as Privet (Ligustrum lucidum). It has waxy leaves, white flowers, and then purplish-black berries. I’d asked whether birds liked the berries and the arboritst thought not. As I pass it daily, I’ve noted its abundant clusters of berries. Until a few days ago, these were mostly undisturbed. Not now. Standing quietly by the tree, I could hear the berries fall like rain as little birds nibbled on the clusters. Some of the smaller birds I cannot identify without a guide, but did see robins. And then my favorites–Cedar Waxwings. Years ago, in Santa Paula, we were treated to the annual drunken flights of Cedar Waxwings as they feasted, not wisely, on toyon shubs growing next door. Flocks would descend upon the toyon and then stagger in their flight to a nearby utility line.

What makes online learning compelling? Simulations. Yet few institutions of higher education and training programs use them regularly. According to Aldrich, the author of Learning by Doing, educators should be using some, if not all, of the four types of simulations: branching stories, interactive spreadsheets, game-based models, and virtual labs/virtual products. Yet, few do. His book is thoughtful and a “good read” - here is my review (pdf). Hopefully, Aldrich’s ideas will be incorporated into more online courses; we can’t just transcribe lessons from the traditional classroom to online!

Reading various journals, I became aware of the Pioneer anomaly: the apparent sunward acceleration of the spacecraft. On a more local level, GPS exhibits an anomaly (periodic with respect to the Master Clock) that Alex Mayer says is related to the Doppler effect from Pioneer. There is a gravitational transverse red shift (GTR). Another anomaly is the measured mass of Ganymede, a moon of Jupiter; its mass did not measure the same from high latitude to low latitude. The position of the spacecraft relative to Ganymede when sending the signal to earth could explain the discrepancy, as there are no geological factors to do so. Fascinating implications. I’ve only looked through the Introduction (downloadable as PPT or PDF); Mayer also has two lectures that can be downloaded as follow-ups.

So, time may have a geometry. Very interesting!

Last Monday, after almost 10 years without a problem, the family cat, Scruffy, scratched me and the scratch led to a lymphedema incident. It was in the evening that I noticed I was cold and my left arm was itching. Upon checking, I found red striations and swelling. Damn. I knew those signs only too well. I was getting colder and shivering, yet running a fever. Off to the emergency room to get an IV and a course of antibiotics. Today my left arm is better but my right arm is sore — the first nurse missed veins in hand and then in elbow area.

Back to lymphedema. I am truly shocked at the lack of progress on treating lymphedema, particularly in the US. I was treated for breast cancer (lumpectomy and radiation) in British Columbia 20 years ago. After my doctor screwed up the axcillary node dissection, I developed lymphedema about 6 months later. I say screwed up as I had asked her if I would have a problem with lymphedema (my mother had a problem) and she said no and that she would take only a few nodes. Well, she took 21 and my arm was numb after surgery and I was told that I might not regain feeling. The surgeon and the radiation doctor blamed each other!

The Cancer Control Agency of BC took over my lymphedema treatment which included monthly trips to the Vancouver agency where I was pumped down on a lymphopress for 4 hours at 110 pounds per sq inch. Why so high and so long? It didn’t work otherwise. And, for the treatment to work, it required breaking up the tethering of the fascia with a laser. The procedure was devised by a brilliant physiotherapist at the CCABC who subsequently trained a local physiotherapist for me to work with. The laser treatment broke up the tethering (viewed as a group of wrinkles) and then the arm would drain. Rather like peeing in one’s armpit–a very odd feeling but this is the only description I can give of the experience.

In preparation for physio treatments, I had a lymphocintogram performed. A radioactive dye was injected in the webbing between fingers (I don’t recall if all, or just one) and then a picture taken about an hour later (maybe longer). What could be clearly seen was strong lymphatic channels in my left hand, and then diffuse channels in my forearm and upper arm. The elbow was a mess, as I recall, and not helped by a near life-long tennis elbow. The diffuse lymphatic channels were the problem. At one time, I was being evaluated for a lymphatic channel transplant (done as microsurgery), but that fell through. It was an experimental technique developed in Australia and done in several places, British Columbia being one.

I have been in California since 2000, and have found that few know of the lymphopress or the use of a laser to break up tethering. There were two types of lympopress used in BC, one was the 3-stage Jabsco–nearly useless– and the other was a 10-stage lymphopress. It was the latter that was used on me. A compression sleeve is sometimes recommended. I can only assume that the doctor recommending it has not likely used it! Using one, for me, caused my normally unaffected hand to swell. The doctors’ solution was that I should also wear a glove. The other problem with the compression sleeve is that it made me itch and it was ugly. My physiotherapist suggested finding a seamstres who could create some out of the colorful fabrics used by athletes. That was nearly 20 years ago and we still have yuckie hospital style sleeves. (I won’t wear mine.)

During the time I was treated monthly at the CCABC, I met many patients suffering from lymphedema. By far, the men suffered the worst; one man had a 46″circumference upper arm from lymphedema. Yes, don’t forget that men can have breast cancer!

Surely, we deserve more research, better treatment options, better compression devices and garments, and better physiotherapy!