Technology challenges..

It has been an interesting two days. 

The last few days, there has been a problem at work where a duct spews out bursts of cold air directly above my head. My office has been trying to figure out the root cause and come up with fixes for it by blocking the vent with cardboard, building paper dampers to direct it away from my head etc.. In the meantime, I got a nice cold, thanks to that and the highly changing bay area weather. 

As most of you know, my solution to all ailments is to try doing Yoga in the hot room first before going to the doctor or resorting to any pills. So after scheduling a bunch of late night calls post 11PM, I decided to go do Yoga at 8:30 in the night. It was mildly drizzing when I went into the class and things were, lets say "pleasant".

When the class ended and we came out, there was cold winds and water coming down in intervals in sheets! I am guessing these were more than the 20 mph gusts. This was way stronger. At several points on the way home thought the Leaf was going to fly off the road. There was also a lot of palm leaves falling off the trees and flying around. 

In all of this I did not realize that there was no power in the neighborhood. I drive to the garage and the thing is not opening. I called my wife and she goes "there is no power in the house and the entire area". 

So there I am in my yoga shorts, all sweaty, with cold rain and winds trying to manually open the garage door and park my car inside.. and a gust of wind litterally sends a wave of water into the garage! 

Finally I parked the car and closed the garage door. By now any residual body heat from the yoga class is gone and I am shivering. Then I tell my dear wife "I will go take a quick shower and eat what you have made. good thing we have the flashlights". 

A few minutes later, I realize that the flashlights are the least of the problems. Turns out that the water heater we have installed as part of the new construction which is tankless, energy efficient, reduces our gas bills etc. etc. doesn't work when there is no electricity! It didn't matter anyway. It was not going to be worse than the rain. So that was the shortest coldest shower I have taken after a hot yoga class. 

Then came the dinner part. Wife says "I made stuff for you, but it is all cold. Maybe you can reheat it on the stove because you cannot microwave?"

By now I am conditioned to try everything manual have a low expectation for any gadget. So I know the pilot lamp won't work (it didn't) and use a matchstick to try and light this stove. Turns out that only the back burner turns on without a pilot. These guys have some interlock on the other stoves! 

Finally managed to reheat some stuff and eat with the flashlight and look at my phone... it has <20% charge! 

Went to the battery pack that was given as a company souvenier which is always in my travel bag and that had no charge! 

We both drive a Nissan Leaf. That means if you don't have power all night, we have to fight for the car with the most charge left.. It is a new interesting dynamic in our house.

It was a hard lesson on how dependent we are and how much we take for granted! I managed to muddle through the day and keep my thoughts going. Deifnitely feel better now, thanks to another yoga class, no manual door openings, a nice hot shower, hot tea.. and more importantly a house that is back to 68F instead of 56F!

This afternoon I was thinking about the folks in war zones. People in first world countries have no clue what those folks are going through. We are making it all worse for them by our every day thoughts and actions and what we support knowingly or unknowingly. We also take a lot for granted. The biggest rights we seem to cherish are our rights to stupidity and our right to be irresponsible when it comes to the rest of the world and the planet. At least that is my feeling right now.

A bad vent, a storm for a few hours and an all night power cut are able to make a dent in my life. That is just sad.

Time to spend more time with nature and improve my immunity to cold weather. Also time to do something about all this guilt for everything that is happening in the world! 

The C word

** This post was written two years ago. I forgot to publish it. Kept searching the site for the post as I was so sure it was written... and realized that there was a reason the publish button was not hit at the time** Have done a rewrite of sorts..

Two years ago, when the India trip was coming to a close, my MIL was told by doctors in India that she most likely had Lympohoma. This was literally the day of her flight back. She decided to come here as planned and go through treatment here. The good news was that she had something but it was not lymphoma. The bad news was that she was poked and prodded for a good two weeks with bone marrow tests, repeated scans of every kind etc. and we were in the hospital a lot. 

This photograph was taken two years ago at Kaiser's Oncology ward when MIL and me were waiting (think it was first or second week of August). "They have nice wall colors"  is what I remember thinking while staring at the walls.

I was very busy with a presentation due for the Memory summit and we were taking turns with hospital visits. San does not like needles, and that translated to me going with MIL for all the tests. The night before the bone marrow test, I had gone to bed at 2AM, and the next morning had not shaved. The stress of the previous week (including that engine failure event on Cathay Pacific, a fight to Asia in the middle of a storm, work work and more work pressure)  was showing on my face. Had dark circles around my eyes. The MIL on the other hand was going through a "I am going to live like every day is my last day" phase. She got up, dressed nicely, wore her diamond earings, put on some makeup.. you get the idea.

We are sitting here waiting to be called in. A really nice nurse (think her name was Isabella..  still remember her name after 2 years. she was a really sweet person. I remember thinking "one has to have exceptional people skills to deal with the folks in this waiting room") walks out and goes "Suguna?" and we look at her. She walks to us, grabs me by the hand and goes "let's get this test done with sweetie. It will hurt, but we will try to be as quick as possible". 

My MIL and me were both laughing. She didn't get it first. Don't think she is used to folks smiling and laughing as a response to what she said. Then I told her "I am not the one for the test. She is!" and she said "I would not have guessed!"

After that test and more PET scans, they decided that she had enlarged lymph nodes but we have to go to a "wait and watch" strategy and there was no sign of Cancer in her bone marrow test. 

Then it did not stop there. The scan showed nodules everywhere in her body. So it was zeored down to three things. Tuberculosis, some other disease that affects farm workers in central valley caused by a fungus in the air or some such thing, a thrid unprounceable disease which had no proper detection or cure (I am not making this up).

That brings up the second incident within that same week. So we were sent to the lung infection disease department. As soon as we check in there, the nurse gave a single mask to the MIL. I thought "okay, they are taking a precaution because they don't want to get what she might have". Then I thought "but we are living with her and we are not wearing masks". So we go to the waiting room and the nurse is wearing a mask! 

I was asking the nurse, how come you are wearing a mask and she is wearing one and I am the only one without a mask. She did not even answe me.. mumbled something and said "doc will be in soon". The "doc" was also wearing a mask. I remember telling the MIL how scary it was to be the only maskless person in that office! She was laughing and I clicked this. By then she was happier that the Cancer diagnosis had given way to more complex things which were either curable or she was unlikely to have!

Eventually after two weeks of tests and follow ups, she has been going through a once in six month's scan to check the nodules. Apparently it is like a chess game. If they grow, the docs will attack it. If they attack first, the nodules might retalliate. This thing has become something of a background issue now as the MIL just goes about her routine. 

This taught us a lot of lessons on how anyone anytime is susceptible to cancer. 

My way of overcoming extreme stress was to see a lighter side in things.. Sometimes it is appropriate, other times, timing might not be right and I end up digging out an old unpublished post from two years ago..

We are all grateful that MIL ended up okay after those two weeks! We are also more conscious of one thing.. It is more important to do things you want to do and not procrastinate.. if there is a choice between eating healthy, exercising, praying, watching for your health and living in constant vigil vs. just focussing on things that make you happy... you pick the latter. Why? because no matter how healthy you eat or exercise or pray, the C word can get you. At least if you live happy, you have less regrets!

That was a persective change!

A symbolic victory?

It has been a rocky three weeks. Lots of ups and downs.. both literally and figuratively. Figuratively because we made a trip to the east coast with family for four days and visited Pittsburgh and had a really great time with family. 

Kids got a detailed education on the family tree from the fathers side during this trip. We did three road trips in three days and visited Heritage sites, national/ state parks, the temple, not to mention Niagra falls. That was the up. The down was that I had multiple international trips and was sick for the most part and flying, even with a biz class upgrade was not a pleasant experience when your ear and entire face hurts at every takeoff and landing. 

The literal part of course was the number of flights in a 20 day period. Have not had a crazier travel schedule in the last two years. 

This intense schedule has made my yoga attendance near zero. Have gone to yoga class twice in 15 days. Many times I have wanted to drag my butt to the hot room inspite of multiple systems failing but decided against it. Today was different. Decided to go and give it a shot anyways. 

You see, this is not new. Most of my friends think that I am crazy to go do Hot Yoga when I have a sinus infection, sore throat or a 101 fever. Let me tell you something though. It actually works! As long as you are confident that you won't pass out in the room and are hydrated enough before class, you come out in better shape than you went in! 

This morning I was pitting multicolored phlegm, couldn't talk above a whisper and the place behind my cheekbones felt numb after repeated attempts to clear my sinus. My ears were hurting as well since the last flight and would pop on and off for no reason. 

While I got a few weird looks from the fellow yogis in the room for repeated coughing during the initial breathing exercise, the rest of the class got better and better. In sequence :

First your lungs clear during the breathing exercise. 

Second, your sinuses drain on to your mat (which is kind of gross but totally relieving) when you do hands to feet pose and get out of the pose. 

Third and this is the best part.. you break into a sweat by the time you are doing the third pose (Eagle pose). Now this is the best part because I think (cannot prove it) that the virus or bacteria that are fighting the body kind of give up when the body breaks into a sweat. Kind of like war time where one party hoists their flag up the fort and the other guys see that as an indication and just give up. Given the body goes into a sweat when it wins the fight against intruding bacteria or virus, this is probably a fake move.. but I will take it! 

The minute you break into a sweat and shiver a little bit in a hot room, magically you feel alright! (Not sure if others have observed this, but I have at least five times so far). 

By the time you do the stretching pose with your head to the floor, anything else left in my sinus is gone! I can breathe again and for a few seconds my body tries to grapple with what just happened. In another 10-15 minutes we are on the floor and I ace this part of the class and come out of the room practically feeling like every other class! 

I have managed to yell at Jr. once for not coming to eat lunch with us and the little one for picking up silly fights with her sister. They are both happy that daddy is getting back to normal and is yelling at them as usual. That also means that daddy is now responding when they try to push my buttons as opposed to "I don't care anymore as I am sick". Girls can be cruel that way. They cannot handle it when  you leave them alone. 

Anyways, now that I am getting my voice back and my breathing is back, going to start working again and process the hundreds of photographs still to be downloaded! 

One has to be blessed to be able to go do Yoga.. for those of you who have the luxury of a fixed time job with no travel, you have no idea how much I envy you! 

On a side note, a friend asked "how come you do yoga so regularly and yet you fall sick?"

My response ? "Sure my immunity is better but I am constantly traveling and picking up germs. If I had a routine between work, yoga and home, I do much better!" and that is true. 

Have you ever tried to wipe the tray table, arm rest, window and monitor with a wet wipe before the flight takes off? It will become black! That is how much crap is there on planes and they don't clean them anymore. 

Enough with the rant. On with life. Photoshop and powerpoint beckon...as do the kids!