Asa Jay's weblog

Sam was found to have a rare condition called “Hirschsprungs Disease”, a condition of the colon which prevents passing of stool.  The condition was named after the pediatrician who discovered it.  Sam’s case was not considered too severe, and was discovered very early, when he was born.

Within 12 hours of being born, Sam was no longer interested in breast feeding, which we thought was unusual.  Later in the day, as mom was recovering from an emergency C-section, I found Sam was throwing up a little.  Normally, a child of this age would be expected to “spit up” a little, but this was bright green, I mean almost flourecent.  Unless mom was some kind of alien, giving him green milk through her breast, something was terribly wrong.  I called the nursing staff.

They knew something was wrong too, no child should be spitting up bright green.  They told me it was bile from his stomach, but why?  The only way to find out was to take him back into the nursery and call for the doctor.

The doctor visited us some hours later, telling us she had called for a specialist.  She had a suspicion, but she needed the specialist to confirm it.  That night, sometime around midnight, we were awakened by both the doctor and the specialist, who was a pediatric surgeon.  We were told Sam had Hirschsrprungs disease, and had been taken to the pediatric ICU.  As you might imagine, we were very concerned.

Over the next couple of days, the nurses in the ICU worked on cleaning him out using saline enemas.  They cut off all food and drink by mouth.  Meanwhile, the surgeon was performing quick biopsies to confirm her suspicion.  Days later, Same went in for a pull-through procedure.  This was done entirely through his rectum, took out about seven inches of affected colon, and looked to be successful.  Unfortunately, a frozen biopsy, done after the surgery, showed she had not managed to remove all the affected colon.  She was not pleased, because the initial biopsy results were good, and these later results reversed the finding.  She decided to let it go and see how well Sam did.

Sam did fine for two years.  But in the last couple months, he has become much more bloated, and had started puking on a regular basis.  I had my suspicions, and so it was back to the surgeon who confirmed with x-rays, Sam needed more surgery.  We admitted him to the Hospital on the 15th of January, 2006. he underwent additional abdominal surgery to remove another six to seven inches of affected colon.  Now, he is in recovery, and doing very well.  Yesterday, he finally got to lose the catheter and the last IV tube.  I anticipate the doctor will let him come home today or tomorrow.

This time, the surgeon is very sure she removed the affected region; she had frozen biopsies done which are the most accurate.  She was inside his belly, so she could accurately access and see everything she needed.  She had a crack staff of other surgeons verifying her work.  And at this point, Sam seems to be passing juices a lot better than he was a couple weeks ago.  Things are looking up for him.  The best part is, he hasn’t had to have a colostomy at all.  That alone has provided a lot of relief for both mom and dad.

There you have it.  It’s been a rough road, but Sam is going to be alright.

Asa Jay

I took a trip to Los Angeles last Tuesday.  It was a simple day trip for the company I work for.  Get in, take care of business, and get out.  Simple.  Ignoring the fact I had to get up before 0400 to catch my plane, and that my stomach didn’t settle down until 1000, I had a very productive and friendly day.

It really started to get good when I was picked up at the airport by the Enterprise shuttle.  Enterprise rents cars.  You’ve probably seen their ads on television talking about pick-up and drop off, making renting a car even easier.  At an airport, it’s a little different, as the rental car companies usually pick up several people and take them to the rental lot.  Now, why I am writing about these folks?  It’s because they were sharp, friendly, and took care of me, and the other folks there, with a smile and super service.

It was a new experience for me as well.  Usually, with those other rental car companies, you sign your contract and they hand you a set of keys.  Thank you, now go find your car in the parking lot, it’s out there somewhere, and make sure you top off the tank before coming back.  Not so here.  After driving past all the other rental car companies, our shuttle took a short trip past other businesses and down what could have been mistaken for a wide alley.  There it was, a modest rental lot.  It was off the beaten path, but it was clean and had nice shiny cars.  I needed a car.

Once inside, the counter personnel were great.  Small chit-chat was on order as the agent took my information, verified my license, and typed in the contract.  When he was done, he pointed me toward the door leading to a garage, except he didn’t hand me any paperwork.  Hmm, okay, I’ll just keep following directions.

So I go through the door and find myself in a huge steel structure, that serves as the customer staging area.  Several Enterprise employees, dressed as if they were headed to a business meeting, come out one at a time with a clipboard, and a contract.  Each one is a personal aid to the customer.  They call out a name, and if it’s you, it’s your turn.  They take you through details of the contract, and find your car for you, in the garage.  If your car is not ready yet, they find out where it is, and make sure it’s coming soon.

You and the agent go over the car for any imperfections, problems, questions about how things work.  He or she makes notes on the contract, ask more questions and then hands you the clipboard with the contract on it for signatures and initials.  They make sure you have enough maps, and in my case, the agent even took the time to help with directions to find where I was going.  And it’s all done in the garage, out of the bright sunlight, rain or wind.

The whole experience was so soothing and comfortable.  The employees were well groomed, and if I might be so bold, darn good looking.  If I have to rent in LA again, I want it to be from Enterprise.  So here is an Asa Jay big Thumbs-Up to the crew at the LAX Enterprise rent-a-car. . . Great Job!

Asa Jay

Well, here we are and I’m already a day late. I had planned to start blogging on a daily basis, as of yesterday. I guess in a way, it’s a good thing it wasn’t a “New Year’s Resolution”, because I would already have broken it.

I don’t really believe in New Year’s Resolutions. Most people end up making promises they will never keep. As for me, I just resolve to keep on going the way I am. However, this new year does bring some new direction to my life.

For the first time in almost 20 years, I’m going back to school. I’ve been either putting it off, or convincing myself I wouldn’t need it. For the past 20 years I’ve been telling myself I don’t know what I want to be when I grow up, and I’ve worked enough various jobs to prove it.

I worked for U-Haul, doing everything from cleaning and maintaining trucks and trailers, to completing contracts to opening and closing the business every day.

I worked for Avis, just cleaning cars.

I got a degree in Automotive Technology.

I worked for an instant lube place, doing oil changes and tune-ups on cars, trucks, etc.

I worked as an inside sales rep for an industrial process control company.

I worked for HP as a production operator.

I worked for Itron as a technician.

I did 20 years in the Washington Air National Guard in electronics maintenance.

I’ve been a worker, a supervisor and a manager.

All that time, I’ve tried to figure out what it is I want to do. All that time I kept getting my feet wet in various jobs, but I don’t think it was until I took my last job, that I really realized where I wanted to go and what it was going to take, to get there.

Even in my very first job, during High School, working for that U-Haul, I was given a taste of management. Oh at that time it wasn’t a big taste, but it -was- a taste. Later, working at HP, I was given a little more, when I was asked to help manage part of the flexible workforce program. Then, when I started work for Itron, I had a manager that relied on me very early on, to help out with things normally taken care of by the principle electrical engineer.

I worked at Itron for nearly 10 years. I had a great desire to do more in project management, and lower level management in general, but I wasn’t getting anywhere.

I was too consumed with just “getting there”, that I wasn’t paying attention to the path. In today’s world, especially with larger companies, the path starts with that little piece of paper that says you have a degree, and I didn’t have one. I sincerely admired those people who had taken a large portion of their life and earned a degree. I also knew that experience was half the battle. Unfortunately, I eventually found out you can’t win the battle with just experience. Sad really.

So late last year, I resolved that if I wanted to get any further down this road, I had to go back to school. To that end, I took the advice of a friend, and looked into an accelerated program of education, offered by one of our local colleges.

Whitworth College has a program for adults working full time, who wish to get the same level of education and earn a degree, as those going to school full-time. The program is an “accelerated” one; structured a bit differently, and contrary to the name, taking almost as much time to complete as a full-time student. The difference is in how the classes are taught.

Instead of attending several classes a day, five days a week for an entire semester, students attend one night a week for six weeks, plus two Saturdays’. The one night each week usually consists of a four hour session. The two Saturdays are all-day. The overall credit hours end up being very close to what it would be for a regular class. The classes are taken one at a time, instead of taking several at once. The advantage here is the student can focus on one topic, one class, until it is done. Instead of studying two, three or more subjects, the student can really dig in deep on just one, get it done, and move on.

After transferring credits from The Community College of The Air Force, from my National Guard days, and from the local community colleges which I’ve attended off and on throughout the years, I am entering Whitworth as a high-level Sophomore, or an entry-level Junior. All that really means, is that most of my general credits have been taken care of. There are still a number of requirements that I will be taking, but I’m pretty much half-way there. The rest of the program is what they call a “cohort”.

When I took Automotive Technology back in 1983, it was called a “block” program. Whitworth’s cohort program is very similar. In simple terms, a student enters the program at one of two times each each year when the program is offered. Each entry point starts the same path. The student enters the program in a specific class, then progresses through each class, in sequence, until finished. In essence, once a student starts the cohort, their path through college is already mapped out and planned for the next two years. What could be simpler?

Well, already having your books and other fees paid for, up front would be simpler, and that is exactly what happens in the accelerated classes. If a person were to break down the costs, it might be a bit more or a bit less, but the tuition fees for the accelerated programs are pre-set. That pre-set fee covers the cost of class enrollment, plus any textbooks, lab fees, or other fees. A student shows up for the first day of class, and the books are already there. This is very convenient, especially for those (like me) who work during the day and would find it difficult to get to the college to buy books.

So here I am, about to embark on the next major journey of my life. My course map takes me through late 2008, that’s over two and half years. I guess if I got through the last 20, I’ll get through the next two without too much trouble. I also have a wife who is providing encouragement, and other friends who know I wish to become more. Thankfully, I have a lot of good friends, and I’m sure they will see me through it.

Currently, my course schedule can be found on my Web Calendar. I’ll be updating it as time goes on and putting a link to it in the sidebar.

Oh yes, once finished, I will have a BA degree in Organizational Management. I pray I learn a lot.

Asa Jay

Sometimes when surfing the vastness that is the internet, you stumble on something that makes you say “hey that’s neat” or “I sure could use that”.  That recently happend to me, again.  I discovered a tool called “Performancing for Firefox”, and in turn, discovered I needed to upgrade WordPress on my various blogs.

“Performancing for Firefox” is a very cool plug-in for Firefox, that allows you to edit multiple blogs, in one window.  That is to say, for example, that I open a new tab in Firefox, and fire up the plugin.  On the left is an editor window, very much like what I see when logged into one of my blogs and writing a post.  The right side has a listing of my blogs, catagories, history, notes, etc.  I simply type my post in the editor and publish it.  All very neat and clean, except that it doesn’t work with the version of WordPress I had installed.

To configure “Performancing for Firebox”, I had to point to a file called “xmlrpc.php” in the root of my WordPress installation.  Hmmm, there wasn’t one there.  Off to the WordPress web site and I find I’m a few version behind.  Well, might as well upgrade.

Following the instructions on the WordPress website, I backed up my databases, blog files, etc. and then installed the new version of WordPress on each blog site.  A bit of re-configuring, one wrong click and a database restore, and I’m back in business.  Although the look of this blog hasn’t changed, it will have to.  The new version of WordPress uses “themes”, and my old index page fails to get comments working, which I’d really like to do now.  I’ll be working that in the future.

Back to “Performancing for Firefox” and I can now point to the file, it finds my blog and populates the information.  Now I can review past postings, make new postings, and do a few other things.  Very nice.

I’ll try to post links a bit later.

Asa Jay

This entry is a quick entry to show a friend how a blog works.