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Post by dilbert3333 on Jun 6, 2018 20:25:55 GMT -5
Another triple completed tonight, dedicating this one to the Allied Forces at Normandy, June 6, 1944.
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Post by sneakers (Metro Houston) on Jun 14, 2018 16:15:06 GMT -5
Happy World Blood Donor Day! I would have gone and donated but I'm deferred to next week. Too many donations in the past year. "Inside Edition" had a story about declining numbers of blood donors and increasing demand for blood products.
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Post by sneakers (Metro Houston) on Jun 15, 2018 15:21:16 GMT -5
My house caretaker's (we have an agreement: for fixing what he can around the house, I give him room and board) girlfriend has a blood disorder. She had to have a transfusion of packed reds today.
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Post by sneakers (Metro Houston) on Jun 16, 2018 19:14:46 GMT -5
My house caretaker's girlfriend got another two units of packed red cells and a unit of plasma. Up to now, she's been in the ICU.
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Post by sneakers (Metro Houston) on Jun 19, 2018 11:21:56 GMT -5
I had an appointment to donate Wednesday, but my stockbroker is doing a Webcast Wednesday afternoon during the time I'd be either donating or driving back from the blood bank. So, I wanted to do my donation earlier in the week.
Yesterday's noon newscast had the weather guessers saying we were going to have rain through Thursday, but we had a break Monday afternoon (we had rain in the morning). I decided to go donate after lunch yesterday.
I had to drive through light to moderate rain coming and going, but it was dry at both home and the blood bank. Wore a pair of sneakerboots but I didn't get to test them out with rain:
I did another platelet triple in 102 minutes on the Trima Accel:
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Post by bluwahoo (FL/AL Coast) on Jun 19, 2018 23:38:56 GMT -5
TRIED to donate blood once, and they told me to not come back. My veins were too small and they would blow every time.
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Post by sneakers (Metro Houston) on Jun 25, 2018 15:38:48 GMT -5
One third done with another juicy platelet triple. No pictures here, but one has been posted on Facebook with the hashtag #commitforlife
My avatar picture was taken one year and two days ago. A lot has happened since then!
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Post by sneakers (Metro Houston) on Jun 25, 2018 19:39:51 GMT -5
Here's a picture of me pumping out juicy tan platelets this afternoon:
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Post by sneakers (Metro Houston) on Jun 25, 2018 19:52:46 GMT -5
Scheduled my next appointment for July 16th (a three-week rest and recuperate session). Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center gives out smoothie coupons in June and ice cream coupons in August. I'd rather have August's perk than July's. So, I'm only going to give one time in July and four times in August. Although, the last week of August 2017, we had Hurricane Harvey to deal with here.
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Post by dilbert3333 on Jun 26, 2018 7:01:59 GMT -5
Platelet donation tomorrow at my usual New Jersey site.
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Post by sneakers (Metro Houston) on Jun 26, 2018 18:27:56 GMT -5
Speaking of platelet donation, I got to look at a Trima Accel that was booting up. The software on it is built around the Wind River Systems VxWorks real time operating system. I used to use a VxWorks based system before I retired. It was part of the development equipment for the International Space Station software. Although the on-orbit computers were programmed on the bare metal.
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Post by dilbert3333 on Jun 28, 2018 7:04:19 GMT -5
I wasn't feeling well after lunch so I cancelled yesterday's appointment. I have another appointment for New York Blood Center on July 7. Between July 1-8 they're giving an additional 75 bonus points for "critical period" donations. And they have another promotion. Make 3 platelet donations from July 1- September 30, 2018 and receive a lightweight fall vest OR 800 BONUS Donor Advantage Points. If I'm good for another triple that would be 125 (single platelet) + 125 (triple platelet bonus) + 100 (Saturday donation bonus) + 75 (Critical Period bonus) = 425 points. That leaves me 325 short of the TV I have my eyes on as a bonus gift, as easy as one more Saturday triple after that. D-Series 32"-Class HD LED TV
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Post by sneakers (Metro Houston) on Jun 28, 2018 14:23:00 GMT -5
Speaking of platelet donation, I got to look at a Trima Accel that was booting up. The software on it is built around the Wind River Systems VxWorks real time operating system. I used to use a VxWorks based system before I retired. It was part of the development equipment for the International Space Station software. And we had a company cafeteria. The local credit union has one of their ATMs there. Their ATM ran Windows. One time, I was wanting to use the ATM but it was displaying a Blue Screen of Death. That wouldn't do on a Trima Accel... At least I could get lunch, the cafeteria took credit and debit cards!
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Post by sneakers (Metro Houston) on Jun 28, 2018 15:03:37 GMT -5
That leaves me 325 short of the TV I have my eyes on as a bonus gift, as easy as one more Saturday triple after that. D-Series 32"-Class HD LED TV I basically had to rebuild my home video devices from scratch after Hurricane Harvey. We only had one TV set above the flood, but the stand it was on was soaked and corroded. Also, we had to get a new remote control for it.
The unflooded TV set is now being used for video games. All the other TV sets in the house are ROKU Smart TVs (there are seven TV brands out there that use the ROKU OS). It's optimized for streaming video. We're in a Comcast area, and we have Comcast Instant TV (their streaming service). Instant TV is interesting because it goes over the cable TV data stream until it reaches your cable modem; then, it's converted to a Wi-Fi signal. You can move your TV sets all over the house. We have a ROKU STB for the non-ROKU TV, but my house caretaker's kids moved it off of the TV stand so they could put their PlayStation there. Pre-Harvey, we had DirecTV but I got tired of not being able to see a weather report every time you want to see a weather report.
My house caretaker broke up with his girlfriend, and she took one of the ROKU TVs with her. (We still have plenty of places in the house to watch TV.) I told her that she could watch Houston over-the-air TV if she got an antenna. She told me, "All that's good for is the news!" but she wasn't aware that nearly all of the TV stations in Houston broadcast multiple video streams on their one digital channel.
I never counted how many they have in Houston (the #4 TV market in the country) but my Mom could get 49 channels in Kansas City (the #31 TV market in the country). When I'd go up there, after the switchover to digital TV but before she went in a senior living facility, I could pretty much watch TV solid when I was up there.
My caretaker's girlfriend said, "You do the same thing on vacation you do at home! You watch TV and surf the Web!" I said, "And I also eat in front of the TV! So does my Mom!"
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Post by dilbert3333 on Jul 9, 2018 8:43:49 GMT -5
Saturday I managed another triple platelet donation to NYBC.
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