Elizabeth Moon's Blog, page 49
February 11, 2011
From Twitter 02-10-2011
10:22:52: Woke up at 5:15 am, about, for the usual reason, and out the bathroom window were the stars you see only on COLD clear nights.
10:23:57: Now it's a gorgeous clear day with icy draft coming through window beside computer. Should go above freezing later, they say.
10:24:36: Meanwhile, work beckons.
10:50:45: 40 days until KINGS OF THE NORTH comes out. (Am I excited? You betcha.)
12:35:38: RT @NatalieHanman: The Big Society Bail-In brings protest to your local bank - @UKuncut on its new campaign http://t.co/NxdzfRv #ukuncut
15:47:20: The propane truck has come and gone...now we can have the heater on (on more, that is. We've had it on, but cautiously.)
17:43:09: I'm only supposed to write 1000 words/day on the new book right now. So why 2133 today? Habit. It's hard to write less. #writing
21:56:42: It is possible to cast on with pencils. I'm not sure it's possible to knit with them. At least, not without less steep "points."
Tweets copied by twittinesis.com
February 10, 2011
Knitting up the Raveled Sleeve of...Casting On
My mother was an expert, inventive, and creative knitter. When I was in college and for a few years after (the peak of her knitting, before her eyes began to fail) she taught me to knit. I never reached her level, but made scarves and caps and had started a sweater when we moved to south Texas where a wool sweater defines redundancy. She knitted matching sweaters for Michael and me when he was a baby. (Turquoise with an interesting pattern in a bronzy-mixed-blend yarn over it. Loved it.)
So it's been a long, long time since I knitted. Having touched it since Michael was born, anyway, and he's 27. But a friend knits...and another writer, Robin McKinley, has friends who knit...and they got her interested too...and she started posting about her knitting lessons on her blog. With pictures. I began to remember how I'd enjoyed knitting and that I still have quite a stash of yarn, and so on and so on.
But there's this problem. The thing is, to knit you have to cast on. Casting on is the first step in taking a couple of sticks and a length of yarn and making fabric with them--something that becomes something you can wear. Casting on is not like the rest of knitting, exactly, and there are several approaches to it. My mother forgot, in her long spell of not knitting, how to cast on--when she started again, about the time I was leaving high school, it took her days to figure it out. I forgot, in the years since I had knitted. Lot of people forget and have to relearn, but we all dread it.
But the near-memory of casting on began to nag at me. My hands would sort of wave and fingers twitch, as if they could do it if they had the yarn and needles.
Finally last night I thought I remembered where one of the knitting bags was, in this house and not the other. I found it. It contained multiple skeins of Red Heart wool yarn, and one double-ended needle with some mint-green yarn being worked in a pattern. Probably by my mother, and probably for Michael, and where the other three double-ended needles are/were, I have no idea. I wasn't about to take my mother's little pattern piece off that needle, and you can't knit or cast on with just one needle anyway.
Tonight, getting up from the chill (feet finally not freezing) I came in here to try to finish what I was working on earlier in the day. Instead, after staring at the screen for awhile, I turned around, picked up the knitting bag and pulled out the first skein that had a loose end handy. Looked on my desk for knitting needle equivalents. Hm. Two pencils.
Tied the first overhand knot around one pencil. Thought. Didn't think, but let the hands mess about. And slowly--and clumsily--cast on a stitch. Almost without looking. The next one I looked at carefully. Two stitches on. Three. Four. Look again--three's not right. Pull it off and try again. Three. Four. Five. Six....and there they were, nice cast-on stitches.
I was so excited I had to take a picture and then another and another. Wow. I remembered how to cast on and I did it with pencils. My mother never did it with pencils (well, maybe she did and I just didn't know it...but not knowing it, this means I made it up myself.) Pencils! It's by no means ideal and I'll get back to real needles in a jiffy, but if I can cast on with pencils...can I knit with them?
Er...no. Getting a cast-on row off and a row of real stitches on is often a bit tricky ( I remember it being tricky) and the blunt/steep end of these pencils make it hard to get the pencil you're moving onto into the little loop that's the cast-on stitch. And besides...I'm not sure I remember how to loop the thread and which part of the loop to pick up to move it over as a new stitch, with the old one underneath. Several frustrating tries later, and in consideration of a sore throat, stuffy head, and cough, I gave up on that. But...I can cast on. With pencils!
(OK, all you expert knitters can now laugh at me.) (And everyone can ignore the dirty computer keyboard.)
E.
So it's been a long, long time since I knitted. Having touched it since Michael was born, anyway, and he's 27. But a friend knits...and another writer, Robin McKinley, has friends who knit...and they got her interested too...and she started posting about her knitting lessons on her blog. With pictures. I began to remember how I'd enjoyed knitting and that I still have quite a stash of yarn, and so on and so on.
But there's this problem. The thing is, to knit you have to cast on. Casting on is the first step in taking a couple of sticks and a length of yarn and making fabric with them--something that becomes something you can wear. Casting on is not like the rest of knitting, exactly, and there are several approaches to it. My mother forgot, in her long spell of not knitting, how to cast on--when she started again, about the time I was leaving high school, it took her days to figure it out. I forgot, in the years since I had knitted. Lot of people forget and have to relearn, but we all dread it.
But the near-memory of casting on began to nag at me. My hands would sort of wave and fingers twitch, as if they could do it if they had the yarn and needles.
Finally last night I thought I remembered where one of the knitting bags was, in this house and not the other. I found it. It contained multiple skeins of Red Heart wool yarn, and one double-ended needle with some mint-green yarn being worked in a pattern. Probably by my mother, and probably for Michael, and where the other three double-ended needles are/were, I have no idea. I wasn't about to take my mother's little pattern piece off that needle, and you can't knit or cast on with just one needle anyway.
Tonight, getting up from the chill (feet finally not freezing) I came in here to try to finish what I was working on earlier in the day. Instead, after staring at the screen for awhile, I turned around, picked up the knitting bag and pulled out the first skein that had a loose end handy. Looked on my desk for knitting needle equivalents. Hm. Two pencils.
Tied the first overhand knot around one pencil. Thought. Didn't think, but let the hands mess about. And slowly--and clumsily--cast on a stitch. Almost without looking. The next one I looked at carefully. Two stitches on. Three. Four. Look again--three's not right. Pull it off and try again. Three. Four. Five. Six....and there they were, nice cast-on stitches.
I was so excited I had to take a picture and then another and another. Wow. I remembered how to cast on and I did it with pencils. My mother never did it with pencils (well, maybe she did and I just didn't know it...but not knowing it, this means I made it up myself.) Pencils! It's by no means ideal and I'll get back to real needles in a jiffy, but if I can cast on with pencils...can I knit with them?
Er...no. Getting a cast-on row off and a row of real stitches on is often a bit tricky ( I remember it being tricky) and the blunt/steep end of these pencils make it hard to get the pencil you're moving onto into the little loop that's the cast-on stitch. And besides...I'm not sure I remember how to loop the thread and which part of the loop to pick up to move it over as a new stitch, with the old one underneath. Several frustrating tries later, and in consideration of a sore throat, stuffy head, and cough, I gave up on that. But...I can cast on. With pencils!
(OK, all you expert knitters can now laugh at me.) (And everyone can ignore the dirty computer keyboard.)
E.
From Twitter 02-09-2011
10:22:35: 15degreesF and strong wind blowing. Horses think this is not fun. I agree, but all I can do it put on blankets & feed & chop ice.
10:26:47: Correction. One blanket on one horse. Other horse exudes "I don' need no steenkin' blanket." Fine with me.
21:23:54: http://www.paksworld.com/blog/ post "New Chairs" now has a picture of the new chairs.
Tweets copied by twittinesis.com
February 9, 2011
From Twitter 02-08-2011
11:19:30: RT @NatGeoSociety: A stunning Swiss sunrise: http://on.natgeo.com/gSbpjd #photos
12:55:15: I will not watch another friend die because they could not afford health care. I support the Affordable Care Act--I vote! #HCR #ForMMHall
22:56:20: Husband's cough slowly improving. Mine's getting worse. And tomorrow, wintry mix. OTOH, new book continues to make words.
Tweets copied by twittinesis.com
February 8, 2011
From Twitter 02-07-2011
14:38:06: RT @Cecilyk: I don't know whether to weep or tear my hair out about this: epilogue to the "My Son is Gay" post by http://bit.ly/dStDyj b ...
14:39:58: Happiness today is new kitchen chairs that do not wobble, with seats that aren't giving way. 41 years of folding chairs in kitchen ended.
20:38:06: RT @AdviceToWriters: Reports of the death of books have been greatly exaggerated: http://theatln.tc/dR3HEo (via @TheAtlanticWire)
21:04:57: New post up at http://www.paksworld.com/blog/ includes a snippet from the book coming out 3/22/11.
Tweets copied by twittinesis.com
February 7, 2011
From Twitter 02-06-2011
07:51:55: Killing for Profit: new LJ post on GOP's determination to repeal health care legislation: http://e-moon60.livejournal.com/386648.html
11:11:57: RT @KSmithSF: The war we must fight http://j.mp/huBe2Y
Tweets copied by twittinesis.com
February 6, 2011
From Twitter 02-05-2011
08:14:38: RT @NASA: [Video] Volcanoes! Our satellites caught some amazing images of eruptions in Japan & Russia this week. http://cot.ag/fSzBmU
08:16:55: 10 Inca doves sitting on sill of bathroom window at dawn. One opened its eyes, looked back at me.
09:17:38: Revisions interrupted by going out to chop ice from horse trough and feed horses who have no appreciation of literary endeavors.
10:37:18: RT @RebeccaYork43: http://tinyurl.com/4w2jv4c Important and shocking health care information. Tragic death of a woman writer w/ no healt ...
10:53:06: RT @robinmckinley: Advice to writers? Read this, take deep breath and buckle down: http://helpineedapublisher.blogspot.com/2011/02/emo ...
11:07:01: Amazing how warm 30s feel after 'teens. Patches of snow shrinking. Horses working on latest mud fashions.
16:21:03: A blue jay can stuff an amazing number of nuts in its mouth & crop at once.
23:36:02: RT @KSmithSF: Idaho pharmacy board is OK with pharmacist who was OK with woman bleeding to death http://t.co/db3FxcU
Tweets copied by twittinesis.com
February 5, 2011
Killing for Profit: The GOP's Attack on the Health Care Plan
Last week another uninsured person died because she could not afford health care. Melissa Mia Hall, a Texas writer, died of an undiagnosed heart attack. Why undiagnosed? Because she didn't go to the doctor. Why didn't she go to the doctor? Because she knew she could not afford the fee of either a doctor visit or a trip to the ER. Going into debt for medical bills could lead to the loss of her home. I'm sure the GOP thinks this is fine: she's dead; she's not costing taxpayers anything.
She is not the first. She will not be the last. I have another writer friend whose health is bad, who is disabled, now unemployable, uninsured except by Medicaid. The Texas legislature has chosen to cut education and social services funding--including state funding for Medicaid. She cannot afford the health care she needs. She will not get the health care she needs. When she dies, it will be largely due to lack of medical care. (But after all, she's an adult woman--the least important group according to the GOP, who thinks the only lives worth making a fuss about are unborn and if women die giving birth, that's just fine.)
I have dear friends whose grandson has CHARGE syndrome. The child's parents both have good-paying jobs with good insurance, but even so the grandfather spends several nights a week as the night-nurse for the child (so the parents can work--they do need sleep if they're going to work all day, right?) because he must be suctioned several times a night. And the cost of the professional nurse--who must be a pediatric-ICU nurse to be familiar with a 2 yo-size tracheostomy, feeding tube, IV lines, etc--is huge on top of the copays for doctor visits, hospital visits and the necessary surgeries, and needed therapies that aren't covered. Last night his grandfather was on duty again--and spotted a sudden fever spike--so D- went in the hospital today. What will happen when his grandfather is sick...or dies? One night without nursing care and this kid could--probably would--die when his trach stopped up. Oh, well, this isn't an unborn child...this is a live child, fighting for a more normal life, so...I suppose the GOP would shrug off his death as the parents' problem. They should have managed to be born multi-millionaires.
When my husband lost his job in early 2001 (along with so many others) we lost the health insurance he'd had. The umbrella policy we carried (a $20,000 deductible) had risen over the years from $2500/year to $6000...then quickly went to $9000. We could not afford that. We went bare. We got our flu shots at grocery store clinics. We bet on our basic good health...but knew that if one of us had a serious accident or got cancer or had a heart attack, we'd have to choose between no-treatment (and the possibility of death) and the loss of our home after we'd eaten up our retirement savings. That's not a choice anyone should have to make (except Congresspersons voting against comprehensive health care: they should certainly be faced with the same choices as the rest of us.) Last year, when we became eligible for Medicare, we found that he had developed both high blood pressure (funny thing, stress...) and a chronic progressive condition, myasthenia gravis. Neither was new. We'd known something was wrong, but...we didn't go.
You sometimes hear a GOP official proclaim that the US has the best health care in the world. That's a lie. Our rank in the metrics that matter--life span, maternal and infant mortality, maternal and infant morbidity, for instance, have dropped steadily relative to the rest of the world; we are below average in important measures of health and access to health care. No other first-world country does as badly. Many so-called second-world countries don't do as badly.
Why is the GOP lying about the real cost of health care? Why are they scaring people with lies about "socialist medicine" and "death panels" and "rationing health care" and "government taking away your choices?" Why is the GOP pushing to privatize the existing government programs (except of course their own--so far Congress is unwilling to give up its cushy taxpayer-paid health care.) There's a simple answer. They're doing it for profit. For their profit. Because a one-payer system that insured everyone--that would let someone like Melissa Mia Hall see a doctor without risking losing her home or ruining her credit rating--that would not have family after family using up their retirement savings to pay bills for the aftermath of an automobile accident, any serious illness, a chronic condition, a child's disability--would not bring them the millions of dollars the for-profit insurance industry pours into the campaign chests of those politicians who dance to their piping...in other words, they're bought. They're willing to see people like Melissa, and my other friend, and yet other friends, die...because it is expedient that the poor, those who cannot afford to pay the inflated costs caused by the insurance industry, should die and get out of the way.
The truth is that medical care in this country is rationed now: by insurance companies that make a profit by raising premiums and cutting "allowed services, " by excluding individuals considered high risk and pre-existing conditions. I know of a young woman who could not get insurance at all because she had been in a bad car wreck (hers was hit by a drunk driver) and the insurance companies considered her too high a risk--uninsurable. That's rationing. As the parent of a disabled child (now a young man) who has been online and in parent support groups for years, I know that insurance companies decide--on the basis of their profits, not a child's needs--what will be paid for and what not. So many hours of therapy a year, so many visits to the doctor, so many changes of orthotics and prosthetics (never mind how fast the child grows) and soon (because disabled children have needs that go beyond company profits) the family uses up a lifetime's "allowables"...and of course can't get insurance anywhere else because of a pre-existing condition.
Choice is taken away now , by insurance companies that limit the physicians their customers can visit, the hospitals where they can be treated, the medications those physicians can prescribe. Choice is taken away from both the sick and injured--who can't choose the physicians they want, the hospitals they're closest to, the medication that works--and from the doctors who know their patients can't afford to defy the insurance companies--nor can they. The insurance companies do not care if discharging patients from the hospital too soon leads to complications and death later...and it does. When I worked in a small rural clinic, I personally saw several cases of required early discharge that led to complications. With any luck, that emergency will require an out-of-network visit which they won't have to reimburse. The insurance companies do not care if the only medication they approve for a condition is one that makes some patients sicker. For-profit companies care only about profit--it's what they learned in business school--and they can afford whole law-firms full of lawyers to deal with anyone brash enough to sue them. (They don't even have to pay for malpractice insurance, as doctors do...because although they have panels of nurses looking for reasons to refuse reimbursement and second-guess doctors, they're not officially practicing medicine, so nothing is their fault.)
People are dying now --and more will die--to line the pockets of for-profit health insurance companies and the politicians who do their bidding. One death--Melissa Mia Hall's death for instance--is too many. I don't want to grieve over any more.
I love someone who is sick but has no health insurance. I support health insurance reform, and I vote!
She is not the first. She will not be the last. I have another writer friend whose health is bad, who is disabled, now unemployable, uninsured except by Medicaid. The Texas legislature has chosen to cut education and social services funding--including state funding for Medicaid. She cannot afford the health care she needs. She will not get the health care she needs. When she dies, it will be largely due to lack of medical care. (But after all, she's an adult woman--the least important group according to the GOP, who thinks the only lives worth making a fuss about are unborn and if women die giving birth, that's just fine.)
I have dear friends whose grandson has CHARGE syndrome. The child's parents both have good-paying jobs with good insurance, but even so the grandfather spends several nights a week as the night-nurse for the child (so the parents can work--they do need sleep if they're going to work all day, right?) because he must be suctioned several times a night. And the cost of the professional nurse--who must be a pediatric-ICU nurse to be familiar with a 2 yo-size tracheostomy, feeding tube, IV lines, etc--is huge on top of the copays for doctor visits, hospital visits and the necessary surgeries, and needed therapies that aren't covered. Last night his grandfather was on duty again--and spotted a sudden fever spike--so D- went in the hospital today. What will happen when his grandfather is sick...or dies? One night without nursing care and this kid could--probably would--die when his trach stopped up. Oh, well, this isn't an unborn child...this is a live child, fighting for a more normal life, so...I suppose the GOP would shrug off his death as the parents' problem. They should have managed to be born multi-millionaires.
When my husband lost his job in early 2001 (along with so many others) we lost the health insurance he'd had. The umbrella policy we carried (a $20,000 deductible) had risen over the years from $2500/year to $6000...then quickly went to $9000. We could not afford that. We went bare. We got our flu shots at grocery store clinics. We bet on our basic good health...but knew that if one of us had a serious accident or got cancer or had a heart attack, we'd have to choose between no-treatment (and the possibility of death) and the loss of our home after we'd eaten up our retirement savings. That's not a choice anyone should have to make (except Congresspersons voting against comprehensive health care: they should certainly be faced with the same choices as the rest of us.) Last year, when we became eligible for Medicare, we found that he had developed both high blood pressure (funny thing, stress...) and a chronic progressive condition, myasthenia gravis. Neither was new. We'd known something was wrong, but...we didn't go.
You sometimes hear a GOP official proclaim that the US has the best health care in the world. That's a lie. Our rank in the metrics that matter--life span, maternal and infant mortality, maternal and infant morbidity, for instance, have dropped steadily relative to the rest of the world; we are below average in important measures of health and access to health care. No other first-world country does as badly. Many so-called second-world countries don't do as badly.
Why is the GOP lying about the real cost of health care? Why are they scaring people with lies about "socialist medicine" and "death panels" and "rationing health care" and "government taking away your choices?" Why is the GOP pushing to privatize the existing government programs (except of course their own--so far Congress is unwilling to give up its cushy taxpayer-paid health care.) There's a simple answer. They're doing it for profit. For their profit. Because a one-payer system that insured everyone--that would let someone like Melissa Mia Hall see a doctor without risking losing her home or ruining her credit rating--that would not have family after family using up their retirement savings to pay bills for the aftermath of an automobile accident, any serious illness, a chronic condition, a child's disability--would not bring them the millions of dollars the for-profit insurance industry pours into the campaign chests of those politicians who dance to their piping...in other words, they're bought. They're willing to see people like Melissa, and my other friend, and yet other friends, die...because it is expedient that the poor, those who cannot afford to pay the inflated costs caused by the insurance industry, should die and get out of the way.
The truth is that medical care in this country is rationed now: by insurance companies that make a profit by raising premiums and cutting "allowed services, " by excluding individuals considered high risk and pre-existing conditions. I know of a young woman who could not get insurance at all because she had been in a bad car wreck (hers was hit by a drunk driver) and the insurance companies considered her too high a risk--uninsurable. That's rationing. As the parent of a disabled child (now a young man) who has been online and in parent support groups for years, I know that insurance companies decide--on the basis of their profits, not a child's needs--what will be paid for and what not. So many hours of therapy a year, so many visits to the doctor, so many changes of orthotics and prosthetics (never mind how fast the child grows) and soon (because disabled children have needs that go beyond company profits) the family uses up a lifetime's "allowables"...and of course can't get insurance anywhere else because of a pre-existing condition.
Choice is taken away now , by insurance companies that limit the physicians their customers can visit, the hospitals where they can be treated, the medications those physicians can prescribe. Choice is taken away from both the sick and injured--who can't choose the physicians they want, the hospitals they're closest to, the medication that works--and from the doctors who know their patients can't afford to defy the insurance companies--nor can they. The insurance companies do not care if discharging patients from the hospital too soon leads to complications and death later...and it does. When I worked in a small rural clinic, I personally saw several cases of required early discharge that led to complications. With any luck, that emergency will require an out-of-network visit which they won't have to reimburse. The insurance companies do not care if the only medication they approve for a condition is one that makes some patients sicker. For-profit companies care only about profit--it's what they learned in business school--and they can afford whole law-firms full of lawyers to deal with anyone brash enough to sue them. (They don't even have to pay for malpractice insurance, as doctors do...because although they have panels of nurses looking for reasons to refuse reimbursement and second-guess doctors, they're not officially practicing medicine, so nothing is their fault.)
People are dying now --and more will die--to line the pockets of for-profit health insurance companies and the politicians who do their bidding. One death--Melissa Mia Hall's death for instance--is too many. I don't want to grieve over any more.
I love someone who is sick but has no health insurance. I support health insurance reform, and I vote!
From Twitter 02-04-2011
08:17:28: Nursing sick husband all week and guess whose throat feels like a sand truck just ran over it? At least power's still on.
08:19:13: Snow. Not a lot, but enough to keep us off the roads until afternoon.
08:20:06: Road conditions (including inexperienced drivers) like this add bonus points to being a writer with an internet connection.
09:44:11: How to grow a business: http://www.newsfromme.com/archives/2011_02_02.html#020163
11:05:00: RT @NASA_EO: RT @NASAonEarth: The Curious Case of Lake Superior's Shrinking Cloud Street Droplets http://bit.ly/hXIAZH #NASA
11:05:05: RT @NatureNews: Kelly likely to command shuttle mission http://ff.im/-xlWzI
12:03:46: Temp now up to 27F, brilliant sun, so snow is melting from that. Cleaned off walk to carport, shoveled out aisle in barn, fed again.
15:46:23: Broken pipe. Water's off. R's gone to nearest place to get fitting to repair it. We wrapped, we dripped...still broke.
19:04:16: RT @KSmithSF: The next anti-woman shiny object: Allowing hospitals to deny abortion care http://t.co/lWglwIC
Tweets copied by twittinesis.com
February 4, 2011
From Twitter 02-03-2011
08:46:34: The Great Invitational Writers' Handicap Race: http://teriegarrison.livejournal.com/
09:13:46: Only 15F this morning. Horses fed, ice chopped from their water, barn not yet mucked. Husband still sick.
09:53:21: RT @NatureNews: Nature's exoplanet special: Kepler's latest discoveries, all in one convenient package http://ow.ly/3Ps7j
09:54:28: RT @NASA: 'Monster Snow Storm: The Movie.' Satellite view of this week's big winter storm marching across the US. http://go.usa.gov/YpK
09:54:43: RT @NASA: [Today's Pic] The Jets of Enceladus: On Jan. 31, 2011, NASA's Cassini spacecraft passed by several of Satur... http://go.nasa. ...
11:43:41: Working alternately on revisions of one book, first-drafting another, and some publicity stuff for launch of next one out (March 22!)
12:38:06: RT @NASA_EO: The world is getting warmer. Global Temperatures by decade, 1880-2009 (animation) http://youtu.be/YglAp2mxtUg #NASA
12:39:41: RT @Ananyo: Go India! via @NatureNews Indian government competition for better skin whiteners draws fire http://bit.ly/eHeR0Q
14:20:31: RT @BacklisteBooks: The biggest #ebook issue: quality - http://bit.ly/e3OpNM
22:24:19: We had something between snow and sleet--sort of hollow soft pellets, clumps of snow flakes, I guess. Maybe more by dawn.
Tweets copied by twittinesis.com
Elizabeth Moon's Blog
- Elizabeth Moon's profile
- 2621 followers
Elizabeth Moon isn't a Goodreads Author
(yet),
but they
do have a blog,
so here are some recent posts imported from
their feed.
