Master Gardeners introduction

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Choices can sometimes be funny things. You make the best choice you can at any given moment, weighing all the options and possible outcomes, and choose. Sometimes the choices can be hard, sometimes they can be easy, but it seems like you always need to make a choice. As the Rush song goes, "Even if you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice."

Take today, for instance.

Today was the second of two introductory meetings for the Santa Clara County Master Gardeners program. The program accepts around 65 applicants every two years, from around 150 applicants. Attendance at one of the two meetings is mandatory, so I had to choose between attending last Friday's morning meeting at 10 am or this afternoon at 1:00 pm.

Last week, Mike was stressed about a project and the timing of some house inspections, so said going to the Friday morning meeting would be less desirable than today's Tuesday afternoon meeting. Okay, no problem.

Until flights were cancelled, inspections postponed, project delayed and work wasn't done. Push came to shove and, what do you know, the Friday morning demo that prevented me from going to the first intro meeting is scheduled for this afternoon. What? I'm still going to the meeting?

On the drive over to the meeting, I couldn't help but think that the choices for immediate gratification are so often not the best choices to make. The worry of the moment became a non-worry as the demo was postponed.

Perhaps it would be better to schedule the inflexible events that can't/won't change than to try to hit a moving target. But, even then which choice is better is unclear because each one happens during a local stress maximum.

The only thought I could think was, the best choice would be to do what needs to be done, as soon as it can be done, instead of postponing it.

How many times during school would I have benefitted from that advice? The answer would surely boggle the mind.

E!

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Went up to the City on Thursday night. I had intended to be in the City for the second day of the Future of Web Apps Summit, but had too much work to do. Instead, I missed Day 2, worked all day, then trained up to the City to have dinner with Elina.

A fabulous idea.

She met me at the train station, and we wandered to the bookstore close by (the Borders near the ballpark), to find a San Francisco Magazine. The goal was to find the food section, pick out a restaurant from the review section and head over. Somehow, I think the copies I receive from my subscription are different than the ones in stores, as there weren't any restaurant reviews, and we ended up using another magazine.

I don't recall where we ended up for dinner, but the entire evening was absolutely wonderful. We had dinner, walked back to her place, and headed to the hot tub in her condo complex. Totally awesome time.

Next week is her term finals, but the week after, well, maybe more late night hot-tubbing is in order.

8:37 to job

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On Wednesday, Kris had a job interview. Two days in a row he had to get up in the morning too early for the two of us with natural sleep-until-noon tendencies. Good thing I convinced him to get up early the day before, to practice.

Always pragmatic, Kris timed the drive into to interview. He was leaving early enough to catch the carpool lane, and the office would be closer than previous work places, so he was hopeful for an easier commute. He also planned to time the drive back, to compare the two.

After the interview, which he felt went pretty well, Kris started the timer on his watch, and started his drive home. He received a phone call as soon as he started drivingand immediately thought, "What the? Does Kitt have a webcam in my car?"

Oh, the suggestions that man makes to me... Time to find a mobile webcam system...

The call was, indeed, not from me. Instead, the company he just interviewed at was calling to let him know they wanted give him a job offer.

Surprised, he looked at his watch.

8 minutes, 37 seconds to job.

Top that.

Future of Web Apps Summit

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Mike and I went to the Future of Web Apps Summit, put on by Carson Systems yesterday. We arrived with enough time to find good seats, but too late for breakfast. I saw Cal almost immediately, and went up to say hello to him. Tom, who was speaking yesterday, was with him. The two of them are always so funny together: like two schoolboys at recess.

Elina showed up later, and we caught up on tons of stuff. Fabulous to see her and Cal again.

At one point during the day, I had to go outside to talk to Will about progress with task items. I took the opportunity to walk around the Palace of Fine Arts, (lovely walk) and happened upon Messina and Matt talking outside during the break. As I passed them, I said hello, and commented to Messina he looked upset. He mentioned that he was concerned that all the speakers were male. All of them but one were white.

I admittedly hadn't thought about it until that point, but realized that he was completely correct. The white male domination of my industry has become so widespread I don't notice it anymore.

How sad.

And how I wish I had something to say to a crowd, that I might present at a conference.

I convinced him

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I finally convinced Kris to go to a dermatologist to have various spots on his body checked out. by convincing, I mean, I made a doctor appointment for him, reminded him about it, woke him up in the morning, and went to the appointment with him. He had a couple spot on his chest and one on his back that I was a bit concerned about, so I went to point them out to the doctor. Doyle and Mike suggested I circle the suspious spots in permanent marker, add a note, and send Kris to the doctor by himself, so that I could save time. I ignored them.

We arrived at 9:05 am, five minutes late for his appointment, only to discover that his appointment was at 9:30 am. D'oh. "I could have slept another thirty minutes, Kris complained. Yeah, yeah.

The doctor looked all over Kris, at his various moles and freckles, from his hair to his feet, before she asked which spots I was concerned about. I pointed them out, one at a time: one she said was scar tissue, one was a cyst, and one was just a large freckle-mole with hairs growing out of it. She expressed concern about a particular mole on his thigh, but it was one that was there for as long as I've been seeing Kris naked, so she wasn't concerned much.

When she left, I commented to Kris that I really didn't believe her, that I wanted to take pictures of the spots for later comparison, and maybe have them removed, just in case. He was a little surprised and asked why I didn't believe her. "Because the dermatologist who originally looked at mine told me it was just a skin tag."

Just a skin tag.

I went in to have the spot next to my eye, which was growing slowly, and annoyed me. She told me it was just a skin tag, and that I would probably have to pay for its removal out of pocket. She said the removal would include a biopsy, and my insurance company probably wouldn't pay for that either, was I really sure I wanted to have it removed?

I'm a huge fan of fixing things that bother me. I paid for orthodontia when I was 29, to have braces for the second time in my life, because one tooth was out of place.

One tooth.

No one could see the out-of-place tooth, but I could feel it and it bothered me. So, I had it fixed. Same thing with this skin tag. It bothered me. It hurt when I pressed on it. I thought it was a wart next to my eye, caused by rubbing my eyes after dealing with a wart on my foot years ago. Reasonable thinking? Probably not. But the supposed skin tag annoyed me, and I wanted it gone.

Two weeks later, I was receiving voice mail messages from my doctor, would I please call her back. I called her back, sat down, and found out I had skin cancer. A small localized tumour, but because of the location, I needed surgery to have it removed.

Insurance ended up covering the removal of that "skin tag," and I became suspicious of every bump on my body. And Kris'.

Given the initial mis-diagnosis of my growth (I need to give it a name so that I can refer to it more easily, suggestions?), I was suspicious of Kris' glowing diagnosis. Part of me wants to accept the scar tissue as just scar tissue from some internal injury that has surfaced. It's the same part of me that thought my eye bump was a wart.

The other part of me screams HE HAS NEVER HAD AN INJURY IN THAT SPOT, much less an open, scar causing injury THAT KEEPS GROWING. That's the part that says, I don't care about the $700 cost, cut it off now.

I know that I'm more paranoid than I should be. I know that Kris isn't paranoid at all. Somehow, between the two of us, we'll find a middle we can both live with.

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