Proton Action and Other Bits

Finally got the word yesterday—my planning session for protoniazation is set for next Thursday at 10AM. This is when the mold will be made of the area that’ll be irradiated—my thoracic spine. 

The beaming will commence a couple weeks post planning session. I’ll be proton-ed five days a week for seven weeks, finishing up in late May. At least it’ll be spring so, after the fatigue tsunami hits, I can sit out on the porch watch the waves, breathe in the ocean air and read.

This song is now, naturally, in my head.

She's a Killer Queen
Gunpowder, gelatine
Dynamite with a laser beam
Guaranteed to blow your mind
Anytime
Killer Queen—Queen

Ya know what’s a good way to distract me from my med fears? I’ll tell ya—the NASA site. The Image of the Day tab is especially fun!

An energetic outburst from an infant star streaks across
this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.

The Pilbara in northwestern Australia (above right) exposes some of the oldest rocks on Earth, over 3.6 billion years old. The iron-rich rocks formed before the presence of atmospheric oxygen, and life itself. Found upon these rocks are 3.45 billion-year-old fossil stromatolites, colonies of microbial cyanobacteria. The image, acquired in October 2004, is a composite of ASTER (Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer) bands 4-2-1 displayed in RGB. (source)

Looks like an abstract expressionist painting, no? Jackson Pollack by way of Hans Hofmann anyone?

Meanwhile in plague news:

Just as Americans start taking off their masks, the Omicron sub-variant BA.2 is quickly spreading across the United States, making up nearly a quarter of new COVID-19 infections, health officials estimate. (source)

A couple days ago, Jen and I stopped by Saint Fratelli’s for mini chocolate dipped cannolis. I waited in the car while she dashed in. Good thing too—she said that none of the customers OR bakery workers were wearing masks. While Massachusetts is much safer than Idaho, Alaska or Kentucky I’m disinclined to take my chances. Totally not keen on banjaxing all the hard recovery work I’ve been doing over the last couple of years.

Another fabulous Rabbit Hole that I’ve been wallowing in:
Randall Munroe’s book What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions.

Mister Munroe thoughtfully addresses deep important questions (using science and shit) such as:

• What if there was a robot apocalypse? How long would humanity last?
• What would the world be like if the land masses were spread out the same way as now - only rotated by an angle of 90 degrees?
• What if everyone actually had only one soul mate, a random person somewhere in the world?
• What if I took a swim in a typical spent nuclear fuel pool? Would I need to dive to actually experience a fatal amount of radiation? How long could I stay safely at the surface?

Yeah sure, these questions might sound utterly frivolous BUT Munroe’s answers—his logic and reasonings—are totally intriguing. I might actually need to buy (versus library borrow) this one so’s I can dive in deep during my upcoming proton-ing prep waiting times.