Well the MetalTiger.org project is under way now. By tomorrow the site should be available on line. You have to note that this site is under construction and will be done using WordPress blogging software for site management. That’s a mouthful.

For those that are wondering what a Metal Tiger is, there is a story behind the creature. According to Chinese tradition, the Metal Tiger is a special being created when all of the stars are aligned just right; a wonderful creature capable of fabulous things. The way to know if you are in the presence of a Metal Tiger is just to ask, I am sure that he or she will tell you all about it.

I have been privileged to have met such a person and live to tell about it. This web site will tell the story.

The weather has not let up for the last couple of weeks. If this rain keeps up, the claims for drought retrictions will have to be lifted. As it is, our water table is down about fifty percent and we will need a couple of years of good rains to bring it back to normal. Drought conditions here is the soutwest have really been terrible for the last 5 or 6 years.

According to Susan Kitchens of 2020hindsight.org, the average rainfall in Los Angeles is 17.6 inches per year. Somehow I thought it was a little lower than that but its a good starting place. So far this year we have to be over that already don’t you think. By the way, Susan has a wonderful blog powered by WordPress and is worth looking at.

Now the moment you have all been waiting for. I will warm up the old vocal cords a bit first ….. mee, mee, meee, meeeeee …. aye, ee, ahh, ohh, ooooooo! I am ready now. Mistro, strike up the orchestra:

Its Raining

It’s raining, It’s pouring,
The old man is snoring;
He went to bed
And bumped his head
And couldn’t get up in the morning.

Did you enjoy that. I knew you would. Nothing like a little singing to get over the rain outside. Everything is true except the bumping the head part.

In a story posted by Reuters.com, the Japanese Lap Pillow is the next big thing. I can see why. The little misses is out of town on business and you can’t sleep. The Lap Pillow to the rescue! Or, as the ad states, the target market is for bachelors in their 20′s or 30′s before marriage. Just the thing to keep them home at nights I imagine.

The Reuters story goes on to discuss the success of the Lap Pillow this last Christmas shopping season.

The 9,429 yen ($90) pillow, which comes with one red and one black skirt, went on sale in late November and maker Trane Co Ltd says shipments have reached 3,000 in just a few weeks. “We created this item to help tired people relax,” said Makoto Igarashi, Trane’s managing director.

Well I guess I’ll settle for the real item. This looks a little creepy to me.

To be fair, there is a Man Pillow on the market, but this is old news. Ok girls, you can get an “arm pillow” on the web anytime. Now you know that we run a fair and balanced thing here. Extremism is one thing but you have to be balanced after all.

So, if the rain does not stop and you want to cuddle up for a little nap, there are no more excuses.

The Captain’s Blog by Ruben Robles at rsquarednet.net has been up and running now for a little while. In it, all things from open source software, PHP Nuke and MySQL are discussed.

Most of this is over my head but I enjoy window shopping anyway. Ruben at rsquarednet has a cool hosting service as well. Anyone looking for hosting can click to his site as above or check in on his blog.

Weather Report from the Desk of the Extremist

Johnny Mountain of ABC Channel 7
Rain, wind and cozy reading by the fireplace are in the forecast for the duration of the weekend. According to Johnny Mountain, the rain is going to keep coming.

The plans for bicycling this weekend has been somewhat put on hold. The one window of opportunity for a little ride was Thursday morning but unfortunately I had errands to run and could not get on the bike. Last night the rain woke me up somewhere at O’dark thirty. The thunder and lashing rain here in the foothills of the San Gabriel mountains has really been something these last few weeks.

The weather report, according to the National Weather Service, for Saturday is more rain with temperatures up to the mid 50′s, wind 15 to 25 mph from the southeast. You can see the entire report for the Los Angeles Valleys as a service of the National Weather Office.

This sounds like a spaghetti Western film staring some of the oldsters. Any minute now I expect to see someone strike a wooden match against their boots and light up an old half smoked crooked cigar, saunter across the dusty street and push in the swinging door of the local saloon. Marshal Mat Dillon of course would be there to straighten out any rough stuff so not to worry little chil’ens.

Well, this is not an old Western but the last day that I get to play at nursing for a while, cause you see partner, I got things to do at the County Seat and I have to be moseying along. The fact is, Anesthesia School 2nd semester starts this coming Monday at LAC-USC hospital and I AM FREAKING EXCITED about that.

CRNA Clinical Practice

The first semester of clinical practice for me as a Student Registered Nurse Anesthetist(SRNA) will be at the Big House, the Mother of all County Trauma Centers, The Los Angeles County Hospital just across the street from the USC Health Science Campus. Orientation will start on Wednesday with Jim Carey and the Gang of Four (Terry Noris, Kari Cole, Michele Gold, and Dr. Philip D. Lumb). These are all wonderful role models and excellent clinical examples; the best of the best in anesthesia. What a life I get to live.

The Board of Registered Nursing here in California just posted a Statement of Practice for CRNA’s in California. Now this IS important. It can be viewed at the California BRN’s web site or here for a slight fee. Just kidding. I encourage everyone to read the description of the scope of practice for the CRNA. This has been a hard fought battle to get this posted by the California BRN. The scope of practice of Nursing and the CRNA is only in the domain of the Board of Registered Nursing and not Medicine. Much more on this later.