FOD

Donna’s stomach is feeling a lot better now. Took about 10 days this time as opposed to just 3 after chemo #1. She is still only going to do 5 hours days at work, because she tires easier than the last chemo too. But because she is feeling better she wanted to go back to her usual chores, one of which is mowing the lawn. I told her no, but she could help by doing the FOD walkdown prior to my mowing, picking up all the broken branches and stray pieces of paper that have ended up on the lawn.

FOD stands for Foreign Object Damage and is a left over from our Naval Aviation days. On shore duty every morning after after mustering in the whole squadron would go out on the ramp behind the hanger and walk in a wide row down the flight line picking up any detritus laying around. On the ship before flight ops the air boss would call for a FOD walkdown and everyone on the flightdeck would gather in a line on the bow and slowly walk all the way to the fantail cleaning every square inch of the deck. You would be surprised just how much damage a 1/4 long #10-32 screw can cause when ingested by a jet engine.

We were supposed to have tacos at home for supper tonight, but we ended up at Chili’s for ribs because of some FOD. Because it is only the two of us we only do half the meat of the usual dinner kit. I split a pound of hamburger in half, one part went into the freezer in a plastic bag and the other went into the pan. We had a half a pack of the powdered seasoning mix left from last time, so I used that instead of the new one. After I got everything mixed up in the pan and it was simmering nicely I noticed what looked like a big piece of red pepper. And a few pieces of green pepper or plant matter. WTF? Was it something in the meat? Something left in the 1/2 pack of seasoning mix? Nothing had gotten near the pan, so thinking better safe than sorry, we tossed it all in the trash and went out to eat.