"When I was a boy the Dead Sea was only sick." - George Burns

Somebody forgot about that latching mechanism.

The new Microsoft slogan: "Microsoft, the one experience for everything in your life."
Please tell me life isn't that bad.

We hit 107 today but it's OK; with humidity at 12% it only felt like 104.

The cab is now with Spencer. When I asked for a rough estimate on the time it will take he said, "It could be one week, it could be two."
The key is that he used the word week, not year.

As a result of the bike crash two years ago they discovered my heart sometimes just stops for no apparent reason. In retrospect that explains several events I've had throughout my life, including an unscheduled stop in Las Vegas of a flight to Seattle several years ago so that "somebody" could be carted off the plane after doing a face plant at 30,000'.

So in August of '12 they put in a pacemaker with two leads, one each to different chambers of my heart, that provide a jumpstart if my pulse falls below 50 bpm. Every six months I go to the cardiologist to see the tech from St. Jude's, the pacemaker's manufacturer, for a check of its function. He drapes a cord around my neck that has a USB connection at one end for his laptop and a 3" diameter ring at the other end that lays over the spot on my chest with the device just under my skin. He pokes a bunch of keys and can read everything that's happened for the last half year. One lead has yet to function - my lower chamber seems to be just fine - and the other kicks in about 7% of the time. He can even tell what day and time it delivered an impulse. Then he tells the pacemaker to raise my heart rate to 80 bpm just to make sure it responds as it should, a slightly weird feeling. His laptop provides a printout that goes to the cardiologist and I'm sent on my way for another six months.

Not any more. This device now sits on the nightstand by my side of the bed. It works via a 4g connection just like my cell phone. In fact, both use the T-Mobile system. Every night as I sleep it grabs data off my pacemaker and uploads it to the St. Jude servers. Every two months my cardiologist's office downloads that data, reviews it, and calls me if there's any problem.
How weird is that? And maybe just a little scary?

I asked what happens when we go on our camping trip and I'm gone for 20 days. I was afraid the gal at the cardiologist's off was going to say I had to take it with us. Not gonna happen.
"No problem. It will catch up when you get home."

I didn't think to ask if the device not only downloads data but can upload the signal to raise my pulse to 80 like the tech does. I don't think it can. That would be WAY to scary...and a great way to commit murder.
Hack into the system via the nearest cell phone tower, run a guy's pulse up to 190, and never go within miles of the scene of the crime.