David > Recent Status Updates

Good thoughts about making the cues for habits obvious, like placing a book on your pillow when you get up if you want to read when you go to bed (I don't want this, it's the idea), or placing pills next to the sink so you remember to take them before bed. Also, to break a habit you can change the environment: e.g. shopping at a different grocery store can make it easier to avoid cues for junk food.

Got to the first chapter talking about the 'how' of habits after a lot of material that could be described as motivational. Somewhat obvious, but 'you need to be aware of your habits before you can change them.'

So far not finding it as delightful as I recall Silverstein being.

They got to see HeLa under a microscope and later they found sister Elsie's records from the home where she'd been 'cared for,' only to seemed like there wasn't much caring that took place.

Haying, tractors, drought, fishing after a wet night. He has such a philosophical way of describing life on the farm, makes me wistful for those growing-up days.

The author got to meet the out-of-control youngest son of Henrietta, Zakariyya (Zuh-CAR-ee-ah, evidently). He's living in an assisted living facility, nearly blind without glasses and with other health issues, angry about how others have profited from his mother's 'stolen' cells while he and his siblings can't afford healthcare for their many needs. Despite the author's worries, she's going to survive the visit.

Author Rebecca has finally made progress with the family. So many crazy events happened to them, like the con-job lawyer that said he would represent them but turned out to be a litigious fraud specialist. And now that daughter Deborah started opening up for a few days, it just took one wrong reach for Henrietta's medical file to make her pack it all in and flee.

Oh, summer, with whipoorwills signaling when shoes can be ditched, birds fascinating with their gathering, people sharing their jello dishes at gatherings. And the big tree in the yard anchoring the family, at least if mom is able to keep dad from cutting it down!

Quite a dramatic story to draw in a reader: being struck in the face with a baseball bat and coming close to death as a result, then fighting back over the following half dozen years through the help of solid habits.

Wow. Research on human subjects in the 50s was like the wild west- don't tell the subjects what's being done to them but just do it! Inject cancer cells, watch for reactions, do it again. Use inmates and invalids unable to understand the possible consequences. Horrible.

Egg hiding for Easter leads to crazy hijinks. Whodda thunk? And this ends the spring section.

So she gets agreement from the family that they'll meet with her, but then they stand her up! Guess she was determined, since I'm reading a book about her experience.