Friday, March 27, 2009

The Toshiba Is Gone!

Our hospital is finally switching over to digital x-ray. This transition is bitter-sweet to me. The machine in the image above is a Toshiba DST-100A, one of the last machines that I trained on when I was an x-ray student. The Toshiba was the first x-ray machine installed when the hospital was first built back in the 80's.

It's a real workhorse. I rarely ever had to call this machine in for maintenance. But now replacement parts no longer exist for the Toshiba. I knew all the ins and outs of this x-ray machine. So many quirks came along with it. Over time parts started breaking (or were no longer available). You had to compensate for certain luxuries that were no more. That meant you had to think and be aware of everything you were doing on that unit. I liked that. I felt like I had total control over this machine. In return, it produced some of the most amazing images that will never be again in the analog world. The detail I was able to get was phenomenal. All the techs would comment. You could see the striations of bone formation in the bone, the term we techs use as trabecular patterns. It just popped off the film.

It looked old, console looked very complicated next to more modern LED lit touch screen units but we got along very well. I'll really miss the Toshiba. Farewell my friend.

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Deja Vu from Dreams: What Do They Mean?

Have you ever seen something in real life that you dreamt about prior to seeing. Sure we've all dreamed about places we've been before, but what about places we've never been before?

I guess it was sometime last year, I had a dream about something that of course now escapes me. But there was this section of landscape with benches and and I was waiting for someone, I think my children. I remember they were little in the dream (ages 3 and 6).

Anyway, I've totally forgotten the dream....until this last weekend. The family packed up and spent the weekend in Santa Barbara for my sister's wedding. We made reservations at the Sandman Inn on State Street. After checking in, we drove around the property to get up to our room location. And there it was, the exact same image that I had seen in my dreams a whole year or so ago. I stopped dead in my tracks racking my brain if this was someplace I'd been before. Nope, never been here or even stayed in this motel before. The image above is exactly what I remember from my dream, detail for detail. I didn't take a picture of the larger two story building behind me but that too was in my dream.

So what the heck is that all about? Other than my sister's wedding there was no other significant reason for this landscape recognition. But really weird, huh?

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Stew's Clues Blog Followers...

Be sure to add yourself to my "followers" column in the right upper box of my blog page. Makes me look lame to just have Calvin the only follower (btw, thanks Calvin).

Also if your an international follower of my blog, send me a comment regarding topics you'd like to hear about more. I know I have a few following my x-ray adventures as well as "all things guitar" followers.

It's like when my daughter asks me to tell her a story about something that's happened in my life. I don't know where to start so she'll give me an idea and then I can just run with it.

If you're not a Yahoo or Google member, you can always click the bubble for "Anonymous".

Hey, The Hand Is Doing Better!

After about 6 weeks, my left hand is doing a little better. My right hand is a little stiff for some reason, but that doesn't affect my guitar playing. The lighter strings have been helping as far as guitar issues. Still kind of strange using super light strings.

Hopefully I can return to playing at my church by May. Still taking anti-inflammatories though. Whatever works.