What I'm Making

After a recent rush of creative energy -- and an attendant slap-up-side-the-head of problems and disasters, things seem to be evening out. Still feeling energetic but am making myself slow down and pay the attention to detail that I know I must do. In an opulent mood, as below:

Lt Amber Irid Pocket Vase w/dichro accent, copper handle

Fractured Irid on Black

What I'm Reading

“How We Do Harm: A Doctor Breaks Ranks About Being Sick in America,” Otis Webb Brawley, M.D., with Paul Goldberg. Don’t read this one at night because if, like me, you tend to bring the last-read-of-the-day with you into sleep, this book will bring you nightmares. Brawley (“Call me Otis”), an oncologist, is chief medical and scientific officer of the American Cancer Society. He has worked longtime in Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, the largest public hospital in the U.S.

What propels you through his stories of real people in America are his anger, his humor, and his passion for giving every person the best possible care. I took away three things Brawley knows will improve those possibilities: 1. Insist that everyone in the position of giving medical care makes decisions based on the available science -- not on tradition, what-my-mentor-said, cost, or the best and newest drug pharmaceutical companies are pushing this week; 2. Make certain that methods and products of care selected will do the most good and the least harm – which sometimes means refusing to provide treatment that a patient wants but which the provider knows is inappropriate, useless, or even dangerous; 3. Eradicate the U.S. bifurcated healthcare system – one tier for the insured, another for the uninsured/or under-insured.

Brawley’s first story is of a middle-aged woman in Atlanta who, because she did not have access to screening, insurance, or good medical counsel, showed up in the Grady ER with her breast in a bag; it had fallen off her chest as her breast cancer advanced. See # 3 above.

I’m encouraged by the recent news of physicians who have publicized their concerns about unnecessary (and, sometimes harmful) medical tests; this is something Brawley would find hopeful.

What I'm Making

{and, see previous post on 'mistakes'} Got a burst of creative glass-making energy recently, and fired up the kiln. Doesn't hurt that it's almost 100 degrees outside in the daytime -- my preference is to take advantage of that and do a lot of glass projects in these hotter months: less time to get up to temp in the garage and the kiln ...

I've tried several new techniques and, to a technique, there've been problems with the results. I'm going to try to save each project and what I'll learn doing that is worth it in and of itself.

Frustrating and disappointing to open the kiln and -- what the hey is that?? Or, more likely; I see that my Attention-To-Detail module wasn't working when I did this; if only I'd paid closer attention to ... Etc. So, there will be photos of before- and after-projects as they progress. In the meantime, this is excellent practice in: practicing!

The Weather

103 today.

I propose a new moon-name for this kind of weather: "Toad Burrowing for the Cool" Moon.

This big boy (or, big girl) is making itself at home in a microcosm of the backyard without the danger of dogs, birds, or cats.