IV fluid is something we tend to take for granted. After a family member was in the hospital twice this year, I became very familiar with the sight of a bag of IV fluid on its stand at the bedside -- and learned how to communicate to the nurses' station so they'd understand when the line was clogged again ( Read more... )

After any major wind event, there is going to be extensive cleanup. All told, we came off lightly, since the tree limb that came down on our roof was a softwood (an arbor vita, a kind of conifer with soft, scale-like needles) and thus bent rather than crashing through the roof. Dealing with it was just a matter of pulling it off the roof and ( Read more... )

We mourn for the six road workers who lost their lives while making sure the bridge was cleared of ordinary civilian traffic in the moments before the ship struck it ( Read more... )

Bad news from Japan: a stone believed to hold the spirit of a malicious nine-tailed fox has split open.

According to local folklore, this kitsune took the form of a beautiful woman in order to kill the emperor of the time and assume the throne. However, she was killed by a samurai and her spirit imprisoned in this hollow stone. The volcanic ( Read more... )

Various experts have their estimates of how much air the missing Titan submersible may have left -- but everyone agrees it's not going to be long before there simply is no longer any hope that the passengers will be found alive. It would be a sad irony if the banging sound that's being heard out there is actually them -- but it was discovered too ( Read more... )

Disasters seem to come out of nowhere, but when we look more closely, it often turns out that a string of seemingly small decisions made a salvageable situation fall apart. Small problems put off, concerns raised only to be brushed off, whatever -- the pattern repeats again and again in slightly different arrangements.

Lucy Easthope is a ( Read more... )

Horrific images coming in of the destruction from Ian in Florida.

Hoping our friends and customers down there are safe, and their property losses will be minimal.

Hoping the best for everyone in Florida.

In April of 2019 the world watched in horror as the roof of the famed Notre Dame Cathedral, seat of the Archbishop of Paris, was engulfed in flames. Even after the blaze was brought under control, along with fears that the entire structure would collapse into a heap of charred wreckage, many feared that the task of rebuilding would prove impossible ( Read more... )

The lights are out, and may remain out for days, even weeks. It may be a natural disaster -- a hurricane, a tornado, an earthquake, an ice storm -- or it can be the result of human actions -- war, terrorism, political malfeasance. But whatever the cause, the result is putting a crimp on your ability to prepare food without the appliances you've ( Read more... )

We'd just gotten home from a very disappointing convention when I heard the news of the fire in the historic Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. I was already bummed from the news that Gene Wolfe had passed away, and the fresh blow came as a shock ( Read more... )