I get over to the LPCH lobby and ask the guard if he will unlock the 4th floor, but he says he won't mess with it, if the code works OK but he won't mess with it. He doesn't know much about it and does not know me. I get in the elevator and gallantly try the code and it does nothing. I try again, nothing. At this moment an EMT team rushes in with an infant in a resuscitator and they need the elevator. I make room and we all go to the third floor.
Since the code won't work, I go back to the lobby and hang around, explaining how the day guards would just override the timer if it was just after 6pm, and it was no big deal. Now it is approaching 6am, and I think dawn must be 6:10 or so, and the guard suddenly relents and walks me over to the elevator, overrides the timer, and away I go to the rooftop garden for dawn. Thanks Joseph.
It is Sunday 9 am on the east coast, so I call Billy M. and ask him if he is on the first tee; they are next up. Good luck Bill.
I made some video of the rooftop garden and tried it here on the blog, but I took it down because it was too shaky. I need to work on my video skills. I finally finished reading The Poisonwood Bible up on the roof, and when I got back to my room at 7:30 breakfast had just arrived.
The docs came in around 10 am and said I am the man again, have a great day. Dr. M got some Marley going on the iPod, we chilled for a moment, smiled a lot, and we are on track for August 8 going home. After they left, I spent the day in various gardens reading and working the Sunday crossword, now almost done. After lunch I walked over to the Stanford University Golf practice/driving range, a big range open to the public.
When we walked by this driving range on Friday, on our way back from the golf course tour, I veered us over past the driving range area. We noticed a large separate practice area, presumably not open to the public since no public was there, the University golf team practice green and range areas. It was perfect and empty, and had a tall fence separating the area from the driving range.
So I took my putter and 3 balls and gatorade, told the nurse I was going to try the third floor carpet, and walked the mile over to this practice area after lunch today, and it was perfect. Practiced my putting for an hour on this giant perfect green, and had it to myself until a coach showed up at the chipping area. He gave me a glance and went about his prep. Perfect afternoon, just for the serenity of it all, and plenty of walking.
This is my room from the entry. Note the shrubbery.
Stanford Medical Center Press Release, Monday, August 04, 2008
ReplyDeleteMale suspect penetrates high security elevator.
Unsuspecting security personnel were hoodwinked, once again early yesterday morning, by a mystery super man, whom is believed to be posing as a sick patient at the hospital facility.
Hospital security personnel summoned their entire workforce early this morning, armed with photographs of the suspect, appearing in one of the photos to look much like a hairy construction worker with an uncoifed nappy hair style of the 70s genre. There’s another photo of the suspect wearing pants that could be described only as “foreign – even panspermian,” says Security Director, Hepamask Myass.
Once security camera records were reviewed, the intensity of the investigation was elevated to Code Red. Hospital personnel commented that the various sightings of the suspect where compared to travel times to and from each point where the suspect was recorded. It was determined that it would be impossible for a patient to walk to and from the sighting points within the time frame shots reflected in the video records.
It was also noted how unusual it was to record the suspects particular interest in certain sights within the confines of the facility. If all video records are, in fact, showing the same person (highly questionable), it would be very unlikely that one person show so much interest in the rooftop garden, the facility golf course, the facility’s prestigious collection of artwork, the children’s center, the Gates Of Hell sculpture, the many cafes, the Boo-Qwilla exhibit, the fountain, the ground level gardens, the cactus garden, virtually all live music performances, etc. One unconfirmed report has the suspect luring harpist Barbara into one of the hospital’s rooms to perform for his alleged family members. There’s also a shot of the suspect appearing to be performing some type of channeling ritual in a chair where patient Willie Mays had breakfast last week in the Bing Dining Room.
Security personnel today will attempt to determine if this incident is related to a missing pot of hospital property, specifically a container of shrubbery, including roses, various flowers and ground covers.
Please report any unusual activity or sightings of the suspect to: Vincristine Upyerbutt at the main security office.
This just in:
ReplyDeleteThe search continues for the "sunrise suspect" at SUMC today with several triple-letter score agencies called in to assist the overworked campus personnel on what many are referring to by code-name “Operation Ethelbert”.
The code name reflects the combined efforts of the security patrols more than the profile of the suspect. As most of you know, Ethelbert was rumored to be the middle name indicated by the “E.” in Wile E. Coyote.
A center of operations has been set up in the Bada Bing Dining Room where Psycho-Logical consultant Dr. I.R.Kelman, a specialist in this type of elusive and highly active itinerant, released a statement describing the disguisee in question as neither doozy bots nor meshuggenah; he warned investigators it is likely they are dealing with a highly intelligent member of the genus “acceleratti incredibilus”.
Unabashed hopes were raised at one point when a suspicious looking Acme pedometer, found at the Forrest Gump jogging track and giving off a beep-beep noise, was thought to contain clues to the identity of the mystery man. An eccentric but extremely accurate psychic consultant by the name of Madame 8Ball was called in to psychometrize the device; but—after some intial resistance to the Rambler Alert interrupting her work on a book-in-progress—she reported the strong impression that it would be more expedient and beneficial for the community at large to allow this unusually migratory iconoclast to roam unhindered than to expend the enormous amount of human and superhuman resources required to maintain him in captivity.
“This is a powerful individual with an array of shamanistic aptitudes including but not limited to the ability to relocate his own blood cells”, she warned. But she did offer some reassurance. “Here at the hospital, just as in most of your homes and businesses, everything is perfectly out of control.”
Meanwhile, as a precautionary measure, all work on construction projects at SUMC is suspended until further notice due to the prevailing belief regarding this individual’s cosmic ties to Willie Mays.
Facilities Manager Jamie Gardner explained the justification for the shut-down:
If we build it, he will come.
yeah John
ReplyDeletehere's my brilliant idea of the day.
once you get through this ordeal, and go home for christmas, fa la la la la
la la la la
why don't you just leave any diseases off the title and just run a straight out cowboy equivalent of a writing workshop?
pretty sure this blog thing tops any I've been in--kind of the educational equivalent of shooting at each other's feet yelling "dance!
dance! dance! dance! dance"
hope you have a peaceful night...sounds like the perimeter is secure for now
Since you're thinking about golf, why don't you consider coming up to Big Sur for at least a day or two next week. The golf game is Tuesday and Michael and Robin would love to have you join the group. I haven't canceled your campsite yet because I keep thinking you might like to come up. You'd just need a tent, sleeping bags and personal stuff - you can eat with us, we'll have plenty of food. Spend some time with the old grand redwoods and lots of people who are happy to be together. Whaddya say? We Sheffers would love to see you and Dana up there. You'd get to spend some time with Mikey too since he'll be our captive guest. Please let me know this worked. I've never posted before.
ReplyDeletePat has good idea--I enjoy reading your blog. It's kind of funny, not in a HA HA sense, that leukemia has pulled this blog together. So yes! Sluff off the disease, but keep on writing--I'd be an avid fan!
ReplyDelete