CATCHING UP

So first I want to apologize for the lack of a Foodie Friday last week. On Thursday night around 20:10 hours (8:10 pm) the electricity went out in our area due to a rather severe storm. Many towns lost their power. We were lucky in that it was restored after 23 hours. However at that time our internet, cable television and landline phone were still out due to downed trees and tumbled line poles for another day. Even today as I write this (Sunday) there are still crews cleaning up the debris and every hour or so a truck goes by loaded with logs from the storm. 

Please note that the two photos below were taken the afternoon following the storm and are on a main road that got cleared first. However this type of trees moved to the side of the road scene can be seen all over the place. 

Tumbled Tree As A Result Of Storm

More Tumbled Tree 

The biggest problem I had with this storm was that I suffer from fairly severe sleep apnea and being without my bi-pap machine for even a single night can wreck havoc with my sleeping and well-being especially when the air is as humid and thick as it was during the storms.  Ironically there is a positive lesson to be learned from the experience and I now have an inverter for my car that I will leave in it.

In addition whenever there is a storm warning going forward I will make sure the car is filled to the top with gasoline so that if there is a re-occurrence and the weather is that bad I can go to the car and set up my bi-pap. Perhaps not the most environmentally friendly thing to do but as a diabetic I have to take care of myself and I simply cannot deal with another night like the one I just had. I am still finding that my thinking is a bit foggy and I feel very out of it 3 days after the fact. Besides – if I’m not in good shape then I cannot take proper care of Mom.

Yesterday I did attend a day-long conference held by Taking Control of Your Diabetes in Albany NY. This is one of several conferences they are holding around the United States this year. While some of the presentations were a basic refresher of things I already knew, there was some new stuff as well. As for the refresher information it is always good to have a review of things like that as one gets a bit sloppy when they’ve been doing something for a long time. As a diabetic this type of refresher is probably a very smart thing to do (as for anyone with some sort of chronic condition or disease.) So if you have diabetes or even just know someone with diabetes you might want to check out their website and consider going to one of their conferences.

Today I got Mom out of the house for a few hours. I took her to brunch and then to get her hair done.

Tomorrow I’ll be going down to New York City for a few days. Wednesday and Thursday is the 140 Characters Conference which is put together by my good friend Jeff Pulver. This conference is a wonderful opportunity for people to exchange ideas and network with each other as well as learn about the multitude of different ways that people can use social media these days. To learn a bit more about this event as envisioned by Jeff watch this video by another friend of mine, Geo Geller.

(Geo is quite the personality and has several websites worth visiting. I'll probably do a blog post on him at one point if he agrees to be a subject.)

You can learn more about the event and get your tickets at 140Conf.com  

I hope to see/meet some of you there if you can attend. If you cannot attend because you are too far away you will be able to view it here on Ustream. Having had the opportunity to experience several of the 140 Conferences live as well as via Ustream I can only say that while it is great to watch the speakers via Ustream there is a very special feeling about being there in person for the conference. So if you can go to one you should. 

For those of you in education, there will be a special 140 Conference - Education focusing in New York City on August 2nd and 3rd. By the way – these 140 Conferences and their associated meet-ups as well as 140Local have happened all over the world. So there are plenty of opportunities to get to one.

Through the 140 Conference experience I have made many new friends. By now I have met some of them in real life while others I have only spoken to via Skype or by tweets.  However the shared experience has created a special bond that goes beyond Facebook or Twitter.

My Mom will be coming down to NY with me. While she probably won’t be attending the 140 Conference, she is looking forward to seeing some friends and family while we are there.  I am also hoping to see some friends that I haven’t seen in well over 30 years.

We are also planning on visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan. Mom has not been back in New York City in over 10 years so she is really getting a bit excited. 

While the trip will probably exhaust her quite a bit, this time it will be a good exhaustion and she will be happy when we return home.

OK – I am a bit tired and tomorrow (actually later today at this point) is going to be a long day. So I’ll say good night. I don’t know how often or even if I’ll be blogging while down in New York as I will be rather busy in my so-called free time getting together with friends but we’ll see. (By the way - if any of you reading this are in the NYC area - drop me a line with contact information and maybe we can also meet for a cuppa.)

Hey – ever wonder why it is called “free” time if one is so busy doing stuff? Just saying!