RECYCLE STYROFOAM? NOT SO FAST! Holiday season is often filled with gifts in cardboard boxes, packed with styrofoam to protect the contents.
Time to look into what to do with styrofoam packaging. Result? So frustrating. Indeed, 25% of our land fill is styrofoam - is that really possible? Is that acceptable to you? It's not to me! It appears that it is almost impossible to recycle the stuff (see article). Your best best is to "store it and re-use it when you ship stuff" - huh? That is a ridiculous suggestion, IMHO (as in - where am I going to store it all?).
https://www.hunker.com/12002950/how-to-recycle-styrofoam-in-california
Tuesday, December 31, 2019
Tuesday, November 26, 2019
Rich Old White People! Can't We Just Hate Them All?
Update 3/2/2021: Now that the "Standard Bearer" for the left is none other than "old white man" Joe Biden, isn't it funny how you no longer hear the libs complaining about it. As always, ridiculous and hypocritical. My personal approach is simple: support the best candidate, independent of race, gender or age. I only care about ability. "The only way to end racism is to end racism". I am too simple-minded to see it any other way - sorry.
Original Article: Hysterical how liberals have continuously bashed the "old white men" who crafted our amazing Constitution, particularly that stupid electoral college thing. The American Revolution started in 1776, and the Constitutional Convention took place in the summer of 1787. There were 39 signers of the constitution, with an average age of 44. The youngest was 26, and the oldest was senior statesman Ben Franklin, at age 81.
https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/signers-factsheet
Contrast that with the "old white men" and one "old white woman" running for President on the Democrat side. Where's the criticism about "old white people" now? Not a word...not a word. How ironic. Age at inauguration for 2020 Presidential Race (January 20, 2021): - Bernie Sanders 79 - Michael Bloomberg 78 years, 11.2 months - Joe Biden 78 - Trump 74 - Elizabeth Warren 71 https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-sanders-and-warren-pressed-in-debate-on-age-health On his first inauguration day January 2017, Trump was 70 years old - younger than all the leading democrats will be when they are inaugurated when they win! Former President Jimmy Carter recently called for an “age limit” to the presidency. And 80, Carter said, is too old. Democrats insist that asking their "old white candidates" about their health has now become "out-of-bounds". It used to be that only asking about minor children of presidential candidates was out of bounds - my, how times have changed! Not for the better, IMO.
Contrast that with the "old white men" and one "old white woman" running for President on the Democrat side. Where's the criticism about "old white people" now? Not a word...not a word. How ironic. Age at inauguration for 2020 Presidential Race (January 20, 2021): - Bernie Sanders 79 - Michael Bloomberg 78 years, 11.2 months - Joe Biden 78 - Trump 74 - Elizabeth Warren 71 https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-sanders-and-warren-pressed-in-debate-on-age-health On his first inauguration day January 2017, Trump was 70 years old - younger than all the leading democrats will be when they are inaugurated when they win! Former President Jimmy Carter recently called for an “age limit” to the presidency. And 80, Carter said, is too old. Democrats insist that asking their "old white candidates" about their health has now become "out-of-bounds". It used to be that only asking about minor children of presidential candidates was out of bounds - my, how times have changed! Not for the better, IMO.
Wednesday, November 20, 2019
Tuesday, November 5, 2019
SLO "Blue Bag" Trash Pickup Pilot Program
**********
"Blue Bag Partnership" Link to Final Report
https://www.slocounty.ca.gov/Departments/Public-Works/Forms-Documents/Press-Releases/Blue-Bag-Partnership-Pilot-Final-Report.aspx
**********
"Blue Bag Partnership" Tim's "Mark-Ups" of the Final Report
"Blue Bag Partnership" Link to Final Report
https://www.slocounty.ca.gov/Departments/Public-Works/Forms-Documents/Press-Releases/Blue-Bag-Partnership-Pilot-Final-Report.aspx
**********
"Blue Bag Partnership" Tim's "Mark-Ups" of the Final Report
Ann.
I don’t expect any of this to be incorporated into the document, and all of it
is at your discretion (of course) and those of the “partners”. However, I
believe my comments to be accurate, and I believe you and I have discussed all
these points before. I do want to put this information out there for your
consumption (at least). Thanks!
Comment
Proposed Text Edit
********************
County of San Luis Obispo P a g e | 1
BLUE BAG PARTNERSHIP
PILOT EFFORT
N O V E M B E R
2 0 , 2 0 1 9
C O U N T Y O
F S A N L U I S O B I S P O
Results from the 2019 Inter-Agency “Blue
Bag Partnership Pilot” Effort to Both Improved Stormwater Run-Off Quality and Increased
Sanitation at the Homeless Camps
Sunday, October 20, 2019
Mission Well & Water Works Discovery at La Purisima Concepcion in Lompoc?
Author's Note: Future article for Las Noticias, the newsletter of the Docents of Mission La Purisima State Historic Park - Prelado de los Tesoros de la Purisima - loosely translated, means "Keepers of the Treasures of La Purisima."
Written in what I call my "Casual Conversational Style"!
Word Count: 1,474. Enjoy...
All Photos: Click to Enlarge.
PHOTO ABOVE: Tim (left) with the esteemed Dr. Glenn Farris, Senior California State Archaeologist (Retired) https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=23309
Cultural Resources Division. Read his warehouse paper many (too many?) times, and wrote my lowly article for Las Noticias (elsewhere on this site) based on his 28 page summary of his California State Park team's 1965 excavation. First time I have met him.
Funny that Dr. Farris and I look a lot alike - I think (except I don't have any hair up top - but perfect for my role at La Purisima where I portray a Franciscan!). Interestingly, my older brother came up with the correct term for this: tonsure (I hate that he is so much smarter than me, darn you - Will Waag!). Definition Tonsure: the Roman Catholic or Eastern rite of admission to the clerical state by the clipping or shaving of a portion of the head.
Thursday, October 17, 2019
La Purisima’s Mysterious Warehouse (almacen) - UPDATE: By Tim Waag
UPDATE AFTER 10/19/2019 MISSION WAREHOUSE PRESENTATION GIVEN BY DR. FARRIS AT LA PURISIMA STATE HISTORIC PARK:
The complete article (including these updates) can be found at:
https://timwaagblog.blogspot.com/2019/10/la-purisimas-mysterious-warehouse.html
You can find Dr. Farris' 28-page paper in PDF format here:
http://pcas.org/Vol33N4/334farrs.pdf
Dr. Farris gave a 1 hour presentation based on his 1965 - 1966 excavation of the Warehouse at La Purisima State Historic Park. I was able to ask many questions and get facts confirmed and questions answered. Here is my "shopping list" of information acquired or confirmed from that date. In addition, Dr. Farris sent me an email afterwards with 2 additional corrections, which are below. Many thanks to Dr. Farris for his tolerance of my many questions to him.
- (DR. FARRIS directed correction). Esteemed archaeologist Professor James Deetz of UCSB Archaeology / Anthropology was responsible for the 1960's excavation of the Warehouse, and Dr. Farris was involved in the 1965 - 1966 work.
- (DR. FARRIS directed correction). The warehouse structure was approximately 200 feet long and 58 feet wide - in contrast wit the larger La Purisimax Chapel and Residence adobe buildings, which were about the same width, but 300 feet long. The warehouse footprint was roughly 2/3 the length and the same width as the Chapel and Residence.
- There are no mission era records of Los Berros Canyon Warehouse construction. However, given the vagueness of communication back in that era, there is mention of a "Rancho San Antonio" Warehouse that was not far from the Purisima warehouse location. Dr. Farris believes it was possible that the Los Berros warehouse was misidentified as the Rancho San Antonio warehouse, though that seems unlikely. He showed a map of the Purisimax mission holdings that showed the Rancho San Antonio.
- Fr. Mariano Payeras, OFM did mention the warehouse in his correspondence during 1816.
- Fortunately for us that an 1850's surveyor actually took measurements of the Warehouse Foundation, so we have superbly accurate dimensions of the footprint of the building.
- The CCC may not have restored the warehouse along with the other major buildings at La Purisima because the warehouse was located on a different piece of property that was not retained for reconstruction by the CCC.
- A few other good Mission Warehouse examples survived long enough to be photographed or sketched. Buildings of similar functions at nearby missions often did not differ in design and execution. Examples of warehouse include: Temecula (Mission San Diego Assistencia), Mission San Francisco (William Dougal 1949 - Off For California: The letters, log and sketches of William H. Dougal, Gold Rush Artist. Edited by Frank M. Stanger with a forword by Joseph A. Sullivan)
- Confirmed that warehouse likely "stepped down" as there is a 9' foot drop from North to South along the long side of the warehouse.
- Warehouse rock foundation is 4.2 feet deep and much wider than the adobe walls at 4.5 - 5 feet wide.
- Few artifacts found at the warehouse during the various digs. For instance, only "one trade bead" found.
- "Cannon Bone" of a horse found at warehouse. Below the knee of a horse is the cannon bone which is also known as the 3rd metacarpal.
- "Matanza" (threshing floor?) found adjacent to the warehouse (see "Artist rendition" drawing which shows a threshing floor ). La era means "threshing floor" today. Today, Matanza means "slaughtering".
- Mission San Antonio and Santa Ines has a large circular stone "threshing floor" extant. 160 horses ran around threshing the flour! Indian's called out "yegua" (mares), "cambia" (turn) - it has been reported (somewhere in the historic record).
- Confirmed: There were no "cross walls" in the warehouse, which is unusual. Other warehouses had them, and it contributed to the stability of such a large adobe structure.
- Three infirmaries at La Purisima (many sick). 10 sets of rooms. Open rooms like a "field hospital". Should we know more about these structures.
- "Underreported structures" at La Purisima: Married Indian Housing, Warehouse, Infirmaries.
- Discussed leaving sites untouched for future exploration with "better methods" and perhaps (hopefully) "better funding". La Purisima has many such sites in these "under-reported structures".
END OF UPDATES. These updates have been incorporated into the article below.
ORIGINAL "LAS NOTICAS" (DOCENT NEWSLETTER) ARTICLE: After the massive earthquakes and flooding in 1812 destroyed the original La Purisima Concepcion site, the new mission across the Santa Ines river received a massive amount of building and growth under the dynamic leadership of Fr. Payeras. One of the first structures built at a new mission site is typically a storage building, as there is immediate need for securing food and property. Plus, in the early days, such a mission building often doubled as the church and shelter.
The complete article (including these updates) can be found at:
https://timwaagblog.blogspot.com/2019/10/la-purisimas-mysterious-warehouse.html
You can find Dr. Farris' 28-page paper in PDF format here:
http://pcas.org/Vol33N4/334farrs.pdf
Dr. Farris gave a 1 hour presentation based on his 1965 - 1966 excavation of the Warehouse at La Purisima State Historic Park. I was able to ask many questions and get facts confirmed and questions answered. Here is my "shopping list" of information acquired or confirmed from that date. In addition, Dr. Farris sent me an email afterwards with 2 additional corrections, which are below. Many thanks to Dr. Farris for his tolerance of my many questions to him.
- (DR. FARRIS directed correction). Esteemed archaeologist Professor James Deetz of UCSB Archaeology / Anthropology was responsible for the 1960's excavation of the Warehouse, and Dr. Farris was involved in the 1965 - 1966 work.
- (DR. FARRIS directed correction). The warehouse structure was approximately 200 feet long and 58 feet wide - in contrast wit the larger La Purisimax Chapel and Residence adobe buildings, which were about the same width, but 300 feet long. The warehouse footprint was roughly 2/3 the length and the same width as the Chapel and Residence.
- There are no mission era records of Los Berros Canyon Warehouse construction. However, given the vagueness of communication back in that era, there is mention of a "Rancho San Antonio" Warehouse that was not far from the Purisima warehouse location. Dr. Farris believes it was possible that the Los Berros warehouse was misidentified as the Rancho San Antonio warehouse, though that seems unlikely. He showed a map of the Purisimax mission holdings that showed the Rancho San Antonio.
- Fr. Mariano Payeras, OFM did mention the warehouse in his correspondence during 1816.
- Fortunately for us that an 1850's surveyor actually took measurements of the Warehouse Foundation, so we have superbly accurate dimensions of the footprint of the building.
- The CCC may not have restored the warehouse along with the other major buildings at La Purisima because the warehouse was located on a different piece of property that was not retained for reconstruction by the CCC.
- A few other good Mission Warehouse examples survived long enough to be photographed or sketched. Buildings of similar functions at nearby missions often did not differ in design and execution. Examples of warehouse include: Temecula (Mission San Diego Assistencia), Mission San Francisco (William Dougal 1949 - Off For California: The letters, log and sketches of William H. Dougal, Gold Rush Artist. Edited by Frank M. Stanger with a forword by Joseph A. Sullivan)
- Confirmed that warehouse likely "stepped down" as there is a 9' foot drop from North to South along the long side of the warehouse.
- Warehouse rock foundation is 4.2 feet deep and much wider than the adobe walls at 4.5 - 5 feet wide.
- Few artifacts found at the warehouse during the various digs. For instance, only "one trade bead" found.
- "Cannon Bone" of a horse found at warehouse. Below the knee of a horse is the cannon bone which is also known as the 3rd metacarpal.
- "Matanza" (threshing floor?) found adjacent to the warehouse (see "Artist rendition" drawing which shows a threshing floor ). La era means "threshing floor" today. Today, Matanza means "slaughtering".
- Mission San Antonio and Santa Ines has a large circular stone "threshing floor" extant. 160 horses ran around threshing the flour! Indian's called out "yegua" (mares), "cambia" (turn) - it has been reported (somewhere in the historic record).
- Confirmed: There were no "cross walls" in the warehouse, which is unusual. Other warehouses had them, and it contributed to the stability of such a large adobe structure.
- Three infirmaries at La Purisima (many sick). 10 sets of rooms. Open rooms like a "field hospital". Should we know more about these structures.
- "Underreported structures" at La Purisima: Married Indian Housing, Warehouse, Infirmaries.
- Discussed leaving sites untouched for future exploration with "better methods" and perhaps (hopefully) "better funding". La Purisima has many such sites in these "under-reported structures".
END OF UPDATES. These updates have been incorporated into the article below.
ORIGINAL "LAS NOTICAS" (DOCENT NEWSLETTER) ARTICLE: After the massive earthquakes and flooding in 1812 destroyed the original La Purisima Concepcion site, the new mission across the Santa Ines river received a massive amount of building and growth under the dynamic leadership of Fr. Payeras. One of the first structures built at a new mission site is typically a storage building, as there is immediate need for securing food and property. Plus, in the early days, such a mission building often doubled as the church and shelter.
Wednesday, October 9, 2019
My Adventures in Pain and Life - 2019
My hideously ugly back. Now with railroad tracks. This is the only photo that I intentionally tried to save, because it is indicative (to me) of the whole experience. Also, I have permanent scars from my first back infection, where I put ice directly onto my back to ease the pain, causing my skin to be permanently burned and scarred! Stupid move, Tim!
The mountain bike ride that started it all. ABOVE: This is a photo of my friend on the mountain bike ride on the very day in the Irish Hills of SLO where I crashed (flew right over the handle bars - because unbeknownst to me, all the air had leaked out of my front shock), and the doctors believed the infected cut on my elbow got the staff infection started in my bloodstream, which necessitated my emergency back surgery, and started my "6 weeks of Adventures in Pain". From now on, I will buy and wear elbow pads when I mountain bike ride. F*** that staff infection.
INTRODUCTION: I'll confess. I spent most of the last 6 weeks in the hospital (back and forth between Sierra and French) with 2 of those weeks in intensive care. The medical staff indicated too many times to count that I might not make it through the day.
In my blood test today 10/8/2019, my hemoglobin shot up from 7 to a 10, which is HUGE, and in my joy, I decided to let the story out onto FB, where I still had many friends left to inform of this alternate world which I lived in for 6 weeks.
Anyways, looks like I may live. Thank G*D. New lease on life. Lost 25 pounds in the process, which I'll take. Thanks for everyone's support which I can NEVER repay. Larger-than-life thanks to my wife Sue and Dr. Ron, as well as the 100's of plasma donors across the country, plus the amazing doctors and nurses who diligently kept me alive at all hours of the day and night. Its not over yet, but its going in the right direction. BTW, I am now at home - no more hospitals for me!
Thanks to everyone in advance for your kind words, assuming you are glad I'm still alive. MY LONG AND WINDING MEDICAL ROAD: The pharmacist appeared to completely miss an undetected contraindication between 2 medications I was taking (never take these 2 medications together if you want to live). I always thought the pharmacists were supposed to catch these things, but we may have just signed the thing where we declined to be counseled - I just have no idea. The new prescription occurred about 1 month before my Adventures in Pain began. The culprits? Zoloft (depression medication) and Imitrex (migraine medication). Their combination created "heart attack" like symptoms that caused me to go to the ER at French (specializing in their coronary treatment center) several times with what appeared to be a massive heart attack. Nope. The contraindication of the 2 medications created massive chest pains, and profuse sweating, but no heart attack (you could have fooled me). A stress test brought my heart beat to the max for my age (162 beats per minutes) and imaging showed a flawless heart function with no blockages whatsoever - good news. Still scared the F out of me.
A few days later, I had an emerging back pain that turned excruciating over the next few days, and required me to be put under to deal with the uncontainable pain. The 2 best back surgeons in SLO county determined that I had a staff infection in my spine, and performed emergency back surgery to save my life (in the middle of the night). They told the staff that nobody was going home tonight, and that they had to operate on me now because I would be dead tomorrow. The back surgeons had to crack open every infected vertebra in my spine, and flush out the staff infection, performing a laminectormy on each one. The doctor noted that I have massive vertebra that required the largest spinal bone tools in their arsenal. While they were in there, they performed spinal stenosis treatment on my lower lumber L1-L5, and for that I was grateful. I no longer have any lower back pain whatsoever. Yay! A twofer there. Due to the extensive nature of the surgery, I stayed at Sierra Vista hospital for 9 days in recovery from my back surgery (see photo of beautiful new scar - I converted the image to black and white because the photo was so hideous). Turns out my "Adventures in Pain" was just beginning. While at Sierra Vista, I had a "PIC LINE" installed in my right arm in order for Sue to give my an anti-biotic IV drip 3 times a day at home to combat the staff inspection, and I finally got to go home after 9 days of fun at Sierra Vista Hospital. For the first week, the staff infection anti-biotic appeared to be working against the infection, and I experienced a slow and painful but steady recovery. Until I didn't. Apparently, the antibiotic that was doing such a great job on the staff infection, within the course of 4 or 5 days, turned on me and destroyed all my internal organs, causing my kidney and liver to fail. In addition, my red blood cells and white blood cells dropped to zero, my hemoglobin dropped to zero, and my platelets went from 300 to 4 in a matter of days. This is what death looks like, several of the doctors all told me. Thank G*D for our dear friend and local SLO General Practitioner and dear friend, who we reached out to during this crisis when our other doctors would not take our phone calls. She took immediate action, gave me a blood test, and at 11pm at night got the test back, told me I was about to die and we should go immediately to the Emergency Room. We went to Sierra Vista because they had all my lab data from my recent back surgery (we should have gone directly to French Hospital, as it turns out - what do we know?).
We may really know for sure what precipitated what. By this time, too many things were crashing all at once to understand all the interactions. As an example, when I was dropped into the Sierra Vista ER in the middle of the night after I was told that I was about to die, the staff took 17 samples of my blood from my left forearm in the first hour I was there (I had the PICC line in my right arm so that could not be used for clean blood samples). They wanted 17 separate "sticks" from 17 separate sources, so they could get accurate blood samples for the blood tests. How is it that there were 17 different things in my blood to test - I have no idea!
In the middle of that night Sierra Vista called French Hospital, and told them to get their their dialysis team out of bed and into the hospital immediately, as I was about to die without an immediate concentrated red blood cell dump, and plasma infusion. They initially wanted to wait until the next day, and I overheard the folks at Sierra screaming that was not an option, and to get on the phone and get your team into the hospital now. To their credit, they did. It turned out that getting enough plasma for a transfusion took several hours, as it had to be collected from storage around the county and the state. They installed a type of PIC line that went from my shoulder and into my carotid artery and directly into my heart. My first transfusion started at about 4am, lasted five hours, and saved my life.
French Hospital has special transfusion equipment that, thanks to the amazing, committed, and skilled transfusion team of Lee, Ben, and Mike, as well as my dedicated nurse for that evening, Ryan. I LOVE YOU GUYS - YOU DID AMAZING WORK WITH GREAT HUMOR AND COMFORT - I WISH YOU WERE MY FRIENDS FOR LIFE, BECAUSE I OWE YOU MY LIFE. In fact, by the time Ben had finished my first plasma transfusion, he was well past 24 hours into his shift - far beyond the call of duty, IMHO. He humbly shrugged it off. Turns out that night was the first of 9 days of transfusions, which were long, painful, and unpleasant in more ways than I can count. Profuse shaking, insane red rash over my entire body and a bit of psychological torture as well. A 6 inch pile of blankets over my body did not diminish the shaking one iota. The process consisted of pumping all the liquid out of my body, removing all the "bad" plasma from my blood and throwing it away, and inserting the plasma from dozens of anonymous donors into my body - like a night of Dawn of the Dead. Each transfusion consisted of me receiving 4.5 to 7 liters of the plasma from strangers who cared enough to donate so that people like me would live. Amazing. I owe these plasma donors a debt of gratitude that I will never be able to pay back, but I will try. You my friends, will be hit up by me for plasma donations for the rest of my natural life - no complaining please. I will make it my personal life's goal that the next person that needs plasma like me or they will die is DAMN WELL GOING TO GET IT - JUST LIKE I DID. This, my friends, is what makes America great. We care about each other, even though we don't even know the people we are saving.
ABOVE: In intensive care, you have your own private room, and at French that means you can have your dog for company. Go figure. Theo spent the better part of 3 days with me. Then I dispatched him home, the the IC is a miserable place for dogs as well as humans.
During 2 weeks in Intensive Care at French Hospital, we tapped out all of the plasma in California in my first 3 infusions, and the subsequent 6 infusions were done with plasma first collected from the western United States, and by the end, we were receiving Plasma from the east coast, including New Jersey in one instance. One night it looked like I would miss my treatment, until we got an airlift of plasma at 8pm that apparently came in from the Airport. That was long night of fun! Am I grateful for these anonymous donors - you bet I am!
During each day at French Hospital, the dedicated team or nurses and doctors were huddling every day in my room, trying to figure out how to keep me alive for another day. We described it like a game of JENGA - you have to pull the pieces out in the right order or the tower (that's me) collapses. The doctors were calling on their colleagues all around the state and country to get advise for how to proceed with the medical conditions I had that THAT THEY HAD NEVER SEEN IN THIS COMBINATION BEFORE - they had never had so many organ, tissue, and blood poisoning failures all at the same time.
The French Hospital staff doctors commitment was complete. I can't tell you how many times, in the middle of the night, my hematologist, or infectious dissease specialist, or hospitogist or other doctors that were working my case or even doctors we had never even met or heard of before - would wander into my room, and start to discuss new ideas they were considering for treating the many conditions that were all wrong in me at the same time. Bizarrely, sometimes they were examining me into the early hours of the morning.
ABOVE: Man's best friend.
On 5 separate days (Sue believes), I was told I was unlikely to live to the next day. The doctors believed the only reason I did not die was because I happened to be very fit. I was in the middle of "balls to the wall" training for another shot at the Lonesome Miner Trail / Beverage Death March backpack in the Inyo Mountains in November 2019 (5,000 feet of elevation gain on average per day for a week, including 2 days over 6,000 feet of elevation gain with full packs), plus a 2 week diving and hiking trip to Catalina on our boat, plus a week with my dive buddies for my 60th birthday to the Turks and Caicos. All cancelled, of course. But I was swimming with Scuba fins at the pool, breath-hold diving at Kennedy Salt Water pool, mountain biking, weight lifting, and hustling a 60 pound pack up Bishop Peak. All good survival conditions for me, apparently. As an interesting side note, I got to spend my 60th birthday in intensive care (September 26, 1959), as well as our 31st anniversary, also in intensive care (October 2, 1988). Some fun. Not much of a celebration - we barely noted it, though the nursing staffing kindly helped us celebrate. A special note to my wife Sue, who stayed on top of every aspect of my treatment, and never let any of the doctors off the hook, or slip into ambiguity (or move on to other patients, not that they were going to). Her legal skills served her well, as she brilliantly researched and understood every aspect of my treatment (which I STILL don't understand, and don't really want to!). Several times, the doctors curtly inquired about her medical background, as she kept up with them in every aspect of every twist and turn the strategy of my treatment. In each case, she coyly replied that she read it on the internet (I don't think they were pleased with that answer, but I laughed quietly to myself every time!). Our lifelong friend and pediatric oncologist Dr. Ron was in Washington DC on the other end of our cell phone, available at a moments notice to keep up with my diagnosis and treatment. Some people are just brilliant, and having them in your court is no small miracle. Every time we called Dr. Ron, he dropped what he was doing, sometimes for hours, and analyzed my case, spending hours looking at our various test results, consulting with his brilliant fellow medical researchers in DC, and sending back his recommendations. In all cases, Dr. Ron's recommendations were spot on and eventually adopted by the hospital staff as the "final decision" for that hour or that day. Sue would coyly float Ron's suggestions to the staff doctors (never revealing that we were getting fed this information from another Doctor on the east coast), and they would slowly over the course of a few hours come to a consensus and in all cases adopted Dr. Rons hours earlier recommendations during the critical first few days of my treatment. My favorite quote of this ordeal. When we thanked Ron profusely for his commitment to my case, he replied: "I WANT TO KEEP MY FRIEND TIM ALIVE". Oh to be someone who can save lives - I wonder what that feels like. This statement humbles me and makes me cry - now I know how the homeless people feel when somebody cares about them when they could just "move on" (I don't have the highest self esteem!). Ron is so humble and will never take credit for any of this, but I am quite sure I would not be alive today without him and his massive medical brain that kept me alive. Its good to know that there are people out there that are so much smarter than me (Sue's smarter than me and could probably even give Dr. Ron a run for his money!).
MORE FUN: During the middle of my transfusion period, I appeared to have a stroke. That's certainly what I thought it was, and what the medical staff thought it was. But after much brain testing and scanning, it was determined not to be a stroke, but something VERY similar in appearance (Sue knows what it is called - I'm happy to just know that it was not a stroke!). For about 3 days, my pseudo-stroke symptoms consisted of not being able to speak, read, type, write, email, or watch TV (due to my eyesight going to shit all at once). Yes, that was a little disturbing too. I am still suffering from some of the cognitive disfunction of this condition, though they tell me this "should" resolve itself as well.
After 9 days of infusions, I was moved out of intensive care and was moved into in a regular hospital room for observation before release. I had the random surprise honor of sharing a room with longtime friend Ed T., who is having his own medical challenges. We pray daily for Ed and his wonderful family that he find solutions to his current medical conditions. We shared a room for 4 days with Ed, and Sue and I went to great lengths to be there for Ed at all hours of the day and night, as by then he was having an even harder time than I was. During this period, I was tested every day for 3 or 4 days to make sure my blood test results stabilized before they sent me home.
I'm not out of the woods yet. I am still on new and different antibiotics (and the fear that they could turn on me again!), as well as a massive host of drugs that I would rather not be taking. After departure from the hospital, we insisted on comprehensive monitoring, and I am getting a daily blood test for the next month, so we can detect another crash before it begins to kill me. As I started this post, I can gleefully report that my hemoglobin fortuitously skyrocketed from level 7 to level 10.2 on 10/8/2019 (level 11 is normal for me) in 1 day, so I am hopeful.
My other numbers are in the low end of "normal" range, although we know my normal range is about double what they are now. Example: normally (prior to this medical disaster), my platelet count is around 300. Right now my platelet count is about 150, which is in a normal range for an average person, just not for me. Praying that over the next few months, my blood test results revert to my normal range, so that I can go back to "normal activities" - time will tell.
By the way, this experience changed me in fundamental ways, definitely for the better, and hopefully for the rest of my life. I describe it as a "greater clarity of thought and a purity of purpose" than I had before, and I hope it lasts for the rest of my lifetime. I'm sure it comes as no surprise that I am grateful for the support of so many people, who I found out believe in me, and somehow think I am somebody special (I'm too humble to think such things - I'm not special). God-affirming thanks to the Mission SLO Docents who provided so much spiritual support to me throughout this ordeal, and whom I cannot thank enough. Plus, my special friends, and you know who you are. Nobody towers above my wife Sue, who I have no doubt was the ultimate power for keeping me alive. Somehow, she didn't crack, watching multiple times when she expected that I would die in front of her eyes.
Interestingly, while on the verge of death, I never panicked, I never felt sad, I just looked death in the face with a bit of amusement. I figured if it was my time to go, I had 60 good years (exactly, as it turns out), though I wanted more, of course (looks like I'll get some more). Where did I find such courage? It didn't come from within me that's for sure. I felt ready to meet death because I had my wife Sue, the love of my life (MRFL), continuously by my side, as she has been since we met when she was 19 years old as a student government rep and Poly Sci major at UCLA so long ago. We have been through so much together, and we continue to be as one forever.
Tim out. Note that I have left out most of the medical jargon of my condition and treatment. I'll leave it to my doctors to write up the technical report on this one-in-a-million (their words) combination of medical conditions that they rose to the challenge to treat and keep me alive.
CAUTION: Sue and I are "tag teamers' in raising our kids, work around the house, our law firm etc. If one of us is good at it, the other person does something else. This is the case here. I was struggling through some fairly brutal experiences in pain, trying to keep my wits about me and survive. Sue took on all the doctors and nurses and medications and treatments. As a first notch lawyer, Sue's legal skills matched perfectly with her skill as an advocate to monitor the medical treatment I received. Note also that I intentionally left many horrific details of this story out.
During this whole ordeal, Sue spent almost every night in my hospital room. On many nights, I would have her sleep in my hospital bed for a few hours while I sat up in a chair, then we switched and she spent the rest of the night sitting in the uncomfortable folding chair next to the bed while I tried to sleep in the hospital bed. Yes, the intensive care does not want spouses sleeping there, as no bed or even a comfortable chair was ever an option for us. I'm sure Sue was even more tired than me through this whole ordeal - she sure looked that way!
As of 6/30/2020, I was officially"cured", and I do not want to remember any of these horrific and painful experiences. Sadly, Sue may not be able to say good bye to them as efficiently as I will be. I cannot imagine what it must have been like to be told that your husband was likely to die right in front of your eyes. The first 2 times it happened, they just told me that I was likely to die "today". The next two times, the doctors looked us in the eye, and said there was only a small chance (20% if I recall correctly) that I would be alive tomorrow. Sue insists that same conversation also occurred a 3rd time on 9/26/2019, my 60th birthday, though I do not remember that one (Happy Birthday to me - maybe they slipped me some morphine or some other "wonder drug" so I wouldn't remember?).
As of 6/30/2020, I was officially"cured", and I do not want to remember any of these horrific and painful experiences. Sadly, Sue may not be able to say good bye to them as efficiently as I will be. I cannot imagine what it must have been like to be told that your husband was likely to die right in front of your eyes. The first 2 times it happened, they just told me that I was likely to die "today". The next two times, the doctors looked us in the eye, and said there was only a small chance (20% if I recall correctly) that I would be alive tomorrow. Sue insists that same conversation also occurred a 3rd time on 9/26/2019, my 60th birthday, though I do not remember that one (Happy Birthday to me - maybe they slipped me some morphine or some other "wonder drug" so I wouldn't remember?).
Anyways, looks like I may live. Thank G*D. New lease on life. Lost 25 pounds in the process, which I'll take. Thanks for everyone's support which I can NEVER repay. Larger-than-life thanks to my wife Sue and Dr. Ron, as well as the 100's of plasma donors across the country, plus the amazing doctors and nurses who diligently kept me alive at all hours of the day and night. Its not over yet, but its going in the right direction. BTW, I am now at home - no more hospitals for me!
Thanks to everyone in advance for your kind words, assuming you are glad I'm still alive. MY LONG AND WINDING MEDICAL ROAD: The pharmacist appeared to completely miss an undetected contraindication between 2 medications I was taking (never take these 2 medications together if you want to live). I always thought the pharmacists were supposed to catch these things, but we may have just signed the thing where we declined to be counseled - I just have no idea. The new prescription occurred about 1 month before my Adventures in Pain began. The culprits? Zoloft (depression medication) and Imitrex (migraine medication). Their combination created "heart attack" like symptoms that caused me to go to the ER at French (specializing in their coronary treatment center) several times with what appeared to be a massive heart attack. Nope. The contraindication of the 2 medications created massive chest pains, and profuse sweating, but no heart attack (you could have fooled me). A stress test brought my heart beat to the max for my age (162 beats per minutes) and imaging showed a flawless heart function with no blockages whatsoever - good news. Still scared the F out of me.
A few days later, I had an emerging back pain that turned excruciating over the next few days, and required me to be put under to deal with the uncontainable pain. The 2 best back surgeons in SLO county determined that I had a staff infection in my spine, and performed emergency back surgery to save my life (in the middle of the night). They told the staff that nobody was going home tonight, and that they had to operate on me now because I would be dead tomorrow. The back surgeons had to crack open every infected vertebra in my spine, and flush out the staff infection, performing a laminectormy on each one. The doctor noted that I have massive vertebra that required the largest spinal bone tools in their arsenal. While they were in there, they performed spinal stenosis treatment on my lower lumber L1-L5, and for that I was grateful. I no longer have any lower back pain whatsoever. Yay! A twofer there. Due to the extensive nature of the surgery, I stayed at Sierra Vista hospital for 9 days in recovery from my back surgery (see photo of beautiful new scar - I converted the image to black and white because the photo was so hideous). Turns out my "Adventures in Pain" was just beginning. While at Sierra Vista, I had a "PIC LINE" installed in my right arm in order for Sue to give my an anti-biotic IV drip 3 times a day at home to combat the staff inspection, and I finally got to go home after 9 days of fun at Sierra Vista Hospital. For the first week, the staff infection anti-biotic appeared to be working against the infection, and I experienced a slow and painful but steady recovery. Until I didn't. Apparently, the antibiotic that was doing such a great job on the staff infection, within the course of 4 or 5 days, turned on me and destroyed all my internal organs, causing my kidney and liver to fail. In addition, my red blood cells and white blood cells dropped to zero, my hemoglobin dropped to zero, and my platelets went from 300 to 4 in a matter of days. This is what death looks like, several of the doctors all told me. Thank G*D for our dear friend and local SLO General Practitioner and dear friend, who we reached out to during this crisis when our other doctors would not take our phone calls. She took immediate action, gave me a blood test, and at 11pm at night got the test back, told me I was about to die and we should go immediately to the Emergency Room. We went to Sierra Vista because they had all my lab data from my recent back surgery (we should have gone directly to French Hospital, as it turns out - what do we know?).
We may really know for sure what precipitated what. By this time, too many things were crashing all at once to understand all the interactions. As an example, when I was dropped into the Sierra Vista ER in the middle of the night after I was told that I was about to die, the staff took 17 samples of my blood from my left forearm in the first hour I was there (I had the PICC line in my right arm so that could not be used for clean blood samples). They wanted 17 separate "sticks" from 17 separate sources, so they could get accurate blood samples for the blood tests. How is it that there were 17 different things in my blood to test - I have no idea!
In the middle of that night Sierra Vista called French Hospital, and told them to get their their dialysis team out of bed and into the hospital immediately, as I was about to die without an immediate concentrated red blood cell dump, and plasma infusion. They initially wanted to wait until the next day, and I overheard the folks at Sierra screaming that was not an option, and to get on the phone and get your team into the hospital now. To their credit, they did. It turned out that getting enough plasma for a transfusion took several hours, as it had to be collected from storage around the county and the state. They installed a type of PIC line that went from my shoulder and into my carotid artery and directly into my heart. My first transfusion started at about 4am, lasted five hours, and saved my life.
French Hospital has special transfusion equipment that, thanks to the amazing, committed, and skilled transfusion team of Lee, Ben, and Mike, as well as my dedicated nurse for that evening, Ryan. I LOVE YOU GUYS - YOU DID AMAZING WORK WITH GREAT HUMOR AND COMFORT - I WISH YOU WERE MY FRIENDS FOR LIFE, BECAUSE I OWE YOU MY LIFE. In fact, by the time Ben had finished my first plasma transfusion, he was well past 24 hours into his shift - far beyond the call of duty, IMHO. He humbly shrugged it off. Turns out that night was the first of 9 days of transfusions, which were long, painful, and unpleasant in more ways than I can count. Profuse shaking, insane red rash over my entire body and a bit of psychological torture as well. A 6 inch pile of blankets over my body did not diminish the shaking one iota. The process consisted of pumping all the liquid out of my body, removing all the "bad" plasma from my blood and throwing it away, and inserting the plasma from dozens of anonymous donors into my body - like a night of Dawn of the Dead. Each transfusion consisted of me receiving 4.5 to 7 liters of the plasma from strangers who cared enough to donate so that people like me would live. Amazing. I owe these plasma donors a debt of gratitude that I will never be able to pay back, but I will try. You my friends, will be hit up by me for plasma donations for the rest of my natural life - no complaining please. I will make it my personal life's goal that the next person that needs plasma like me or they will die is DAMN WELL GOING TO GET IT - JUST LIKE I DID. This, my friends, is what makes America great. We care about each other, even though we don't even know the people we are saving.
During 2 weeks in Intensive Care at French Hospital, we tapped out all of the plasma in California in my first 3 infusions, and the subsequent 6 infusions were done with plasma first collected from the western United States, and by the end, we were receiving Plasma from the east coast, including New Jersey in one instance. One night it looked like I would miss my treatment, until we got an airlift of plasma at 8pm that apparently came in from the Airport. That was long night of fun! Am I grateful for these anonymous donors - you bet I am!
During each day at French Hospital, the dedicated team or nurses and doctors were huddling every day in my room, trying to figure out how to keep me alive for another day. We described it like a game of JENGA - you have to pull the pieces out in the right order or the tower (that's me) collapses. The doctors were calling on their colleagues all around the state and country to get advise for how to proceed with the medical conditions I had that THAT THEY HAD NEVER SEEN IN THIS COMBINATION BEFORE - they had never had so many organ, tissue, and blood poisoning failures all at the same time.
The French Hospital staff doctors commitment was complete. I can't tell you how many times, in the middle of the night, my hematologist, or infectious dissease specialist, or hospitogist or other doctors that were working my case or even doctors we had never even met or heard of before - would wander into my room, and start to discuss new ideas they were considering for treating the many conditions that were all wrong in me at the same time. Bizarrely, sometimes they were examining me into the early hours of the morning.
On 5 separate days (Sue believes), I was told I was unlikely to live to the next day. The doctors believed the only reason I did not die was because I happened to be very fit. I was in the middle of "balls to the wall" training for another shot at the Lonesome Miner Trail / Beverage Death March backpack in the Inyo Mountains in November 2019 (5,000 feet of elevation gain on average per day for a week, including 2 days over 6,000 feet of elevation gain with full packs), plus a 2 week diving and hiking trip to Catalina on our boat, plus a week with my dive buddies for my 60th birthday to the Turks and Caicos. All cancelled, of course. But I was swimming with Scuba fins at the pool, breath-hold diving at Kennedy Salt Water pool, mountain biking, weight lifting, and hustling a 60 pound pack up Bishop Peak. All good survival conditions for me, apparently. As an interesting side note, I got to spend my 60th birthday in intensive care (September 26, 1959), as well as our 31st anniversary, also in intensive care (October 2, 1988). Some fun. Not much of a celebration - we barely noted it, though the nursing staffing kindly helped us celebrate. A special note to my wife Sue, who stayed on top of every aspect of my treatment, and never let any of the doctors off the hook, or slip into ambiguity (or move on to other patients, not that they were going to). Her legal skills served her well, as she brilliantly researched and understood every aspect of my treatment (which I STILL don't understand, and don't really want to!). Several times, the doctors curtly inquired about her medical background, as she kept up with them in every aspect of every twist and turn the strategy of my treatment. In each case, she coyly replied that she read it on the internet (I don't think they were pleased with that answer, but I laughed quietly to myself every time!). Our lifelong friend and pediatric oncologist Dr. Ron was in Washington DC on the other end of our cell phone, available at a moments notice to keep up with my diagnosis and treatment. Some people are just brilliant, and having them in your court is no small miracle. Every time we called Dr. Ron, he dropped what he was doing, sometimes for hours, and analyzed my case, spending hours looking at our various test results, consulting with his brilliant fellow medical researchers in DC, and sending back his recommendations. In all cases, Dr. Ron's recommendations were spot on and eventually adopted by the hospital staff as the "final decision" for that hour or that day. Sue would coyly float Ron's suggestions to the staff doctors (never revealing that we were getting fed this information from another Doctor on the east coast), and they would slowly over the course of a few hours come to a consensus and in all cases adopted Dr. Rons hours earlier recommendations during the critical first few days of my treatment. My favorite quote of this ordeal. When we thanked Ron profusely for his commitment to my case, he replied: "I WANT TO KEEP MY FRIEND TIM ALIVE". Oh to be someone who can save lives - I wonder what that feels like. This statement humbles me and makes me cry - now I know how the homeless people feel when somebody cares about them when they could just "move on" (I don't have the highest self esteem!). Ron is so humble and will never take credit for any of this, but I am quite sure I would not be alive today without him and his massive medical brain that kept me alive. Its good to know that there are people out there that are so much smarter than me (Sue's smarter than me and could probably even give Dr. Ron a run for his money!).
MORE FUN: During the middle of my transfusion period, I appeared to have a stroke. That's certainly what I thought it was, and what the medical staff thought it was. But after much brain testing and scanning, it was determined not to be a stroke, but something VERY similar in appearance (Sue knows what it is called - I'm happy to just know that it was not a stroke!). For about 3 days, my pseudo-stroke symptoms consisted of not being able to speak, read, type, write, email, or watch TV (due to my eyesight going to shit all at once). Yes, that was a little disturbing too. I am still suffering from some of the cognitive disfunction of this condition, though they tell me this "should" resolve itself as well.
After 9 days of infusions, I was moved out of intensive care and was moved into in a regular hospital room for observation before release. I had the random surprise honor of sharing a room with longtime friend Ed T., who is having his own medical challenges. We pray daily for Ed and his wonderful family that he find solutions to his current medical conditions. We shared a room for 4 days with Ed, and Sue and I went to great lengths to be there for Ed at all hours of the day and night, as by then he was having an even harder time than I was. During this period, I was tested every day for 3 or 4 days to make sure my blood test results stabilized before they sent me home.
I'm not out of the woods yet. I am still on new and different antibiotics (and the fear that they could turn on me again!), as well as a massive host of drugs that I would rather not be taking. After departure from the hospital, we insisted on comprehensive monitoring, and I am getting a daily blood test for the next month, so we can detect another crash before it begins to kill me. As I started this post, I can gleefully report that my hemoglobin fortuitously skyrocketed from level 7 to level 10.2 on 10/8/2019 (level 11 is normal for me) in 1 day, so I am hopeful.
My other numbers are in the low end of "normal" range, although we know my normal range is about double what they are now. Example: normally (prior to this medical disaster), my platelet count is around 300. Right now my platelet count is about 150, which is in a normal range for an average person, just not for me. Praying that over the next few months, my blood test results revert to my normal range, so that I can go back to "normal activities" - time will tell.
By the way, this experience changed me in fundamental ways, definitely for the better, and hopefully for the rest of my life. I describe it as a "greater clarity of thought and a purity of purpose" than I had before, and I hope it lasts for the rest of my lifetime. I'm sure it comes as no surprise that I am grateful for the support of so many people, who I found out believe in me, and somehow think I am somebody special (I'm too humble to think such things - I'm not special). God-affirming thanks to the Mission SLO Docents who provided so much spiritual support to me throughout this ordeal, and whom I cannot thank enough. Plus, my special friends, and you know who you are. Nobody towers above my wife Sue, who I have no doubt was the ultimate power for keeping me alive. Somehow, she didn't crack, watching multiple times when she expected that I would die in front of her eyes.
Interestingly, while on the verge of death, I never panicked, I never felt sad, I just looked death in the face with a bit of amusement. I figured if it was my time to go, I had 60 good years (exactly, as it turns out), though I wanted more, of course (looks like I'll get some more). Where did I find such courage? It didn't come from within me that's for sure. I felt ready to meet death because I had my wife Sue, the love of my life (MRFL), continuously by my side, as she has been since we met when she was 19 years old as a student government rep and Poly Sci major at UCLA so long ago. We have been through so much together, and we continue to be as one forever.
Tim out. Note that I have left out most of the medical jargon of my condition and treatment. I'll leave it to my doctors to write up the technical report on this one-in-a-million (their words) combination of medical conditions that they rose to the challenge to treat and keep me alive.
Monday, October 7, 2019
Final Build: 2006 Dodge Cummins 2500 G56 6 Speed Manual Transmission Standard Cab Long Bed
LUBRICANT FOR G56 TRANSMISSION:
There has been much controversy regarding lubricant selection, with many owners and industry experts arguing that using ATF+4 to lubricate the transmission, as Chrysler recommends, can cause it to fail prematurely. Mercedes-Benz recommends a thicker 75W or 90W gear oil in their trucks that are equipped with the G56. It is debatable whether anything is gained by switching to a 75W/90W gear oil, but many owners choose to do so. A tooth was removed from the input shaft gear for the 2007.5 model year, resulting in a ratio change for the 6.7L Cummins version. When equipped in 6.7L applications, torque was derated to 610 lb-ft for 2007.5 to 2012 model years, and has been derated to 660 lb-ft for 2013 to current model years. Meanwhile, the Cummins Turbodiesel is available with up to 900 lb-ft equipped with an automatic transmission.
Wednesday, August 14, 2019
UCSB Anthropology Dig at Mission La Purisima Concepcion's Indian Apartments
This article appeared in the publication "Las Noticias", the newsletter for the docents of Mission La Purisima Concepcion de Maria Santisima. http://www.lapurisimamission.org
Also, check out this KEYT Coverage of Kaitlin Brown's dig at La Purisima Concepcion by clicking here.
By Tim Waag
Because of the long drive from San Luis Obispo (where I live)
to La Purisima, I often bring my mountain bike and go for a ride after my
docent duties are done for the day. The July 20, 2019, “Children’s Mission Life
Days” was just such a day. Heading out for a quick ride before the park closed,
I came upon PhD Candidate Kaitlin Brown and her anthropology crew literally up
to their necks in an archaeological dig!
They all looked rather busy, but I was so excited I couldn’t resist – I
identified myself as a docent, and began a barrage of polite questions to
anyone who was willing to talk to me.
Kaitlyn and her crew of 12 UCSB undergraduate students gave
me a briefing on the field work they were performing before my very own eyes. I
was hoping for an interview with Kate right then and there for an article in
Las Noticias – but clearly, there was way too much going on for her to step
away for even a minute! It turns out that Kate was finishing one of only six
days of excavation and exploration she would have at this site. She gave me her
card, and I was able to catch up with her later to fill in the information I
needed for this article.
While at the excavation that day, I quickly gathered some
photos. Kate informed me that her work required digging through about 4 feet of
“fill” used to cover up the site after its most recent excavation in the
1960’s. The site is believed to be the location of a 10 unit apartment building
for “married Indian families”, each unit with 2 rooms. Records indicated that a
7 square meter section of Apartment Unit No. 8 had not previously been
examined. Using her mapping and siting skills, her team was able to accurately
identify the untouched 7 meter area on their first try – amazing!
As a PhD candidate, Kate has spent 90% of the time on her
project examining archives and artifact collections. Her excavation was
minimally intrusive, and selectively identified and examined 6 distinct “units”
of the site (doorway, interior, “backyard” area, “frontyard” area, etc.). These
“units” only covered about 25% of the 7 square meter area, leaving the majority
of her site untouched for future scholars to explore.
As part of her preparation for site work, she forged
relationships with the local Indian authorities, presented her plans, and
modified them with suggestions she received. She understands that our history
is an ongoing continuum of life itself, and that we are all connected to the
events of the mission era in ways that continue to influence us today.
Kate insisted that a paid tribal monitor be present for every day they were excavating, even though that may not have been required. She
invited the Chumash to be present and participate, and that goal was achieved
with the participation of a Chumash youth group. As one would expect from an
unexplored site, interesting artifacts populated the small area she examined,
including but not limited to: abalone shells, large pestle and grinding stone,
glass (Spanish) beads, shell (Indian) beads, and various expected detritus.
What was unexpected was the discovery of a musket ball in the floor — an
artifact whose significance is unclear at this time.
Finally, Kate indicated the desire for a unique, thoughtful
and detailed public interpretive display of this Indian dwelling site —
something our docents should be excited to see when it becomes available. Many believe that the
public would benefit from a more complete American Indian perspective of the
mission era, and filling that need at this married Indian family apartment
would be a laudable achievement.
Wednesday, August 7, 2019
2019 Homeless Count for the County of San Luis Obispo, California
All charts and text graphics are from the SLO County Homeless Census & Survey - Comprehensive Report 2019. A PDF of this report is available at:
https://www.slocounty.ca.gov/getattachment/f1b2caef-10c6-4415-b0ad-1396eeb97a0b/2019-Homeless-Census-Survey-Report.aspx
I highly recommend that you download it and read it - though at 56 pages long, it is quite a tedious read - part of the reason I am breaking it down for you here.
Click on any images to enlarge and read. Start by clicking on this one, which provides some critical information on the survey's tendency to "undercount".
INTRODUCTION: Every 2 years, every county in America counts their homeless population, in a sweeping action known as the "Homeless Blitz Count"! In SLO County, that took place on January 28, 2019, from roughly 6am to 10am.
I was again a participant in the 2019 count. I was teamed up with 2 homeless people and 1 other homeless advocate like myself. Together, our team covered one of the most challenging and dangerous areas for counting the homeless. This area includes a popular homeless haunt known as "The Circle", plus the bottom of San Luis Obispo Creek in an overgrown jungle-like area between Prado Road and Los Osos Valley Road along Higuera and west to the Freeway. This survey area also included the Sewer Treatment Plant, the Strawberry Fields, the Catholic Cemetery, the San Luis Cemetery and the Elks Lodge.
A photo of our "high performance" team is shown below (GREAT job, guys - truly an honor to be part of our team):
In August 2019, a report on the so-called Point-In-Time (PIT) count came out, with a link to the entire 56-page report (above). This post summarizes some of the more important data points in the report, from my perspective as a long time homeless advocate. As necessary, I'll include snippets from the report that support a disturbing trend or statistics.
THE YOUNG AND THE OLD: The observations and data points of the report have been divided into a homeless "youth" population (age 25 and below), contrasted with plain old homeless "adults" (over 25 years of age). It was reported that these 2 groups seldom overlap in location or interaction, so they were counted using different methodologies for purposes of this census. You can read the details in the "PIT Report".
FOLLOW-UP SURVEY: Following the all-in-one-day PIT count, which identified about 1,500 homeless people in SLO County (an increase of 32% from 2 years ago), there was a separate "in-depth" post-census survey of 481 homeless people on the street, to extract details about the nature of homelessness in SLO County.
FOUR SUBCATEGORIES: Four homeless subdivisions were given special attention in the report:
(1) Chronically Homeless;
(2) Homeless Military Veterans;
(3) Homeless Families with Children;
(4) Homeless "Youth" (age 25 and under).
Separate statistics and data points are given for these 4 subcategories. Since my interest is focused primarily (though not exclusively) on the Chronically Homeless, I will leave it to you to read the report if you are interested in the other 3 groups.
CONFUSION FACTOR: One aspect of the report's structure initially confused me, as it distinguishes between "Government Assistance" (GA) - also known as "benefits" - and "Services Currently Accessing" (SCA). Upon further scrutiny, it became clear that GA consists of Food Stamps, Medical / Medicare, General Assistance / Relief (whatever that is), SSI / SSDI Disability, etc., whereas SCA are provided by the community generally through nonprofits (often funded in whole or part by the government), and consist of homeless support services provided by nonprofits such as ECHO, Food Bank, Shower the People, People's Kitchen, Prado Day Center, T-MHA, etc.
DEFINITE UNDERCOUNT: The PIT Report underscores what we all intuitively know: by definition, the survey undercounted the homeless. By its very nature, the PIT count is only an estimate, and given the hidden nature of the homeless population, an undercount almost certainly occurred.
From here on out, I'll give my "play-by-play" on the report, noting unusual, surprising or illuminating results, citing the page number in the report so you can access it for additional information.
Page 8 "Sexual Orientation": 22% of respondents identified their Sexual Orientation as being "not straight" (bisexual, gay, lesbian or "other"), leaving 78% self-identifying as "straight". This number is far higher than the population at large. This is a concerning though not unexpected statistic, and should be considered in efforts to prevent those at risk from becoming homeless. I will be taking that number into account when I interact with the homeless in the future.
Page 8 "Employment": Also on page 8 were employment statistics, but I found them to be misleading and / or confusing (I'm not sure which! - stay tuned for clarification from the "powers that be"). There are really 3 categories when understanding homeless employment numbers:
(1) Employed;
(2) Unemployed but looking for work;
(3) Not looking for work, which could be due to being UNABLE to work.
I COULD BE WRONG, but these 3 categories should add up to 100%.
Based on the report, here are the numbers that may be correct (note: I will be looking for clarification from the report writers on this point):
(1) 3% Full-time employment
(2) 29% Unemployed but looking for work
(3) 70% Either not looking for work or unable to work
Yes, this does not add up to 100%! Additionally, the report says that 9% were part-time or seasonably employed - not sure where this 9% category should reside, either. Let's just say I'm confused. I'm pretty confident in stating that 3% of the homeless surveyed work full time, which is a lower number than I expected. However, when you add back in the 9%, you get to 12% employed full or part-time.
Not surprisingly, while living on the streets, creek beds, or at the homeless shelter, it is difficult to hold a job of any kind, or pursue higher education, for a variety of obvious reasons. Given this fact, 12% is a higher employment rate than I would expect.
Page 12: There are 2 major shelters in SLO County: "40 Prado" in San Luis Obispo, and "ECHO" in Atascadero. In those 2 areas, a large percentage of homeless are in shelters, which is better than living out in the open. In the other areas, the majority are living on the street, as shown in this graphic. Clearly, PASO ROBLES IS IN DESPERATE NEED OF AN EMERGENCY SHELTER.
Page 13 "Homeless by Sleeping Accommodation": For those interested, these statistics related to "where the homeless rest their heads at night". No surprises here, except for how well spread out the homeless are, hiding "in plain sight" all over the place. They live in every nook and cranny of space available to them, from vehicles to overpasses to abandoned buildings.
I was surprised to see such a high percentage of homeless sleeping in their vehicles. I've observed that the homeless struggle keep their motor vehicles operational, plus coming up with the cash to maintain their registration and insurance. Getting ticket repeatedly by law enforcement does not help this "Car / Van / RV" group (isn't a Van a Car?) preserve their mobile shelters in full compliance with the law.
OUTREACH NOTE: In doing homeless outreach, approaching a vehicle that appears to be occupied by a homeless person is one of the riskiest activities that I take. When approaching any vehicle, I am always hesitant to wave or knock on the window, knowing that the occupant may not be homeless or may resent the intrusion. However, given that 26% of our homeless live in their cars or RVs, I will focus more often on vehicles I suspect to be occupied by the homeless.
This statistic shows that their dubious justification for turning away the homeless as not being "one of ours" is rapidly becoming hard to defend. I always find it ironic that adjacent counties of a similar demographic to those of SLO County, such as Monterey - Santa Barbara - Ventura - make similar complaints, yet we can't all be correct. As this number of SLO County residents becoming homeless goes up, the argument that we should not be "too nice" to the homeless goes away.
Personally, I've never cared about this statistic: if there is a person in need, then I want to help. However, in meetings and conversations over the years, it is clear that local law enforcement and politicians have cited the need to keep "homeless outsiders" from wanting to come here. Given the trend shown in the 2019 survey, we are attracting less outside homeless people, but instead, are "growing our own".
Page 23 "Services Currently Accessing" (SCA): The numbers are self-explanatory. The most common government service received is Food Stamps at 55%.
Page 26 "Health": Surprise! The homeless report the following types of health conditions in frequency far greater than that of the public at large:
- Drug and Alcohol abuse
- Mental Health conditions
- PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder)
- Chronic Health problems
- Physical Disabilities
- Brain Injury
- HIV / AIDs
However, since a homeless person can have more than one of these conditions, its not clear how many homeless are free from any of these health conditions. In other words, how many are merely "homeless" without serious or recurring health conditions?
Page 28 "Incarceration": Our homeless have a high rate of incarceration, as illustrated by the percentage that have spent a night in jail in the previous 12 months.
Page 29 "Chronic Homelessness (CH)": Now we get to my specialty - the chronically homeless. Besides CH, there are 3 other special subcategories identified in the 2019 PIT Survey Report, and I invite you to download a copy of the 2019 PIT Survey and dive into those other categories. I will be focusing here on the "Chronically Homeless", or CH.
Page 30 PLEASE READ: This extraordinarily meaningful section of the report below (its not very long, so go ahead and CLICK ON IT!). It smacks the nail on the head, and drives home the point of the effectiveness of the "Housing First" approach to reducing homelessness.
Page 33 "Health Conditions of the CH": Once again, the numbers speak for themselves. The CH self-report Drug or Alcohol Abuse at a 72% rate, with additional health conditions scoring remarkably high as well (see chart below). This helps explain why the CH continue to be unhoused. This also illustrates why it is such an uphill battle we are fighting, to get the CH into housing that many claim they do not want!
CONCLUSION: There are a select few areas of the report in which I have a desire to call "BS", but I shall not. Also, there may be a tiny error or 2 in the statistics, but it does not detract from the report as a whole, so they shall go un-flagged as well. For a homeless "blitz" census, these statistics are pretty much as good as it gets. Our homeless population continues to grow, and our leaders are hesitant to tackle it head on, so it continues to fester.
The homeless population in SLO County is not going away, and appears to be growing. Failure to deal with it in a meaningful way is most likely to lead to greater suffering among the unhoused, growing conflicts between the housed and the unhoused, and greater costs for the taxpayers and the nonprofits that serve the homeless.
If you have read this far - well, that is an amazing thing and kudos to you. If you want to discuss any aspect of homelessness in SLO county with me, please feel free to contact me at:
timwaag@gmail.com
805-440-9144 cell phone
Thanks go out to those who know and love our local homeless people created by G*d, see them as the beautiful (if flawed) human beings they really are, and want to make a difference in their lives.
Peace and Blessings to you and yours.
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