tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-158629932024-03-21T20:35:57.638-07:00Three score and ten or moreThree Score and Ten or morehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04323013128311124905noreply@blogger.comBlogger475125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15862993.post-60791484023465134652015-05-13T19:28:00.001-07:002017-05-08T10:49:06.007-07:00Missing in (or out of) ActionAfter my serious attempt at restarting, I hav had some interruptions. On March 1, while getting ready for church, I had a stroke. Not a BIG stroke but big enough to make some interruptions. After four days in the hospital, they sent me home with a dragging left foot, a walker and a visiit every day or so with a therapist or a nurse. a day or so later the checkked out some of the stuff from the hospital and put me back in for a catherization (where they go itough an artery into the middle of the heart and take pictures.) they found a floppy valve, so I went into another hospital where they took out the floppy valve and replaced it with a used one that had been removed from a cow. I am now part cow, but have promised my wife not to moo in my sleep. I plan to post fairly oftenif I can re-teach my fingers to find the “home keys” and thus quit having to erase long sequences of gibberish which included intlligible words while they in still in my fingers but found their way into gibberishe between key board and screen. ANy way happy summer to you all.Three Score and Ten or morehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04323013128311124905noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15862993.post-45248767650045672872015-04-04T13:22:00.001-07:002015-04-04T13:22:40.518-07:00still here insspite of anyhting modern medicine can see,m to do.<p> A stroke in March , and now a heart cauterization in APRIL.  I made it through the heart test with semi-flyng colorss.  All my arteries seem to be clear in spite of everyone’s expectations.  I seem to have a serious flopping heart valve that they ting I should have repaired soon, so we’ll see how that comes outs.  am sdchedled for serous rest for the next couple of days but will get back so sesrious posting ASAP.  Wish me well. </p> Three Score and Ten or morehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04323013128311124905noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15862993.post-56106439391116276052015-04-01T21:25:00.001-07:002015-04-01T21:25:35.151-07:00Here again =sort of<p>I started the return enthusiclly, but ran into a couple of snags.  On March 1 I got up and got ready for church, and as I was tying my tie, I felt a sharp  pain in my neck that seemed to run up inot my head and down to my feet.  I shook it off and finished the tie thing. but when I turned to get my jacket, my left foot seemed stuck to the floor.   As I tried to more it I discovered that my left leg was completely paralyzed.  I askd my wife to help me get to church, and she did, but we made a semi- spectacle and I realized that I had had a stroke.   </p> <p>AFter a couple of days in the hospital where they shot me with blood thinners and told me I was stupid not to come to the hospital immediately because the three hour window in which a stroke is best treated was almost up.</p> <p>I was diapered for the first time in my memory because Icouldnt get up stop urinate, and I was miserable and scared the heck out of my family.</p> <p>I spent most of three days in the hospital. but they got my right leg to more on its own and using a walker I got home.</p> <p>Things are still a bit weird, but with a rolling walker I can stand and walk, and yesterday, I got approval to drive the car, (but not by myself).</p> <p>I will get back to the posting/blogging business as things even out, because there are some things that I wasn’t to write about while I still can.  I am pooped our right now though, so goodnight.</p> <p>.  Richard </p> Three Score and Ten or morehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04323013128311124905noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15862993.post-85962827067489500302015-02-16T19:06:00.001-08:002015-02-16T19:06:13.159-08:00NOW, FOUR SCORE and less.<p>I haven’t posted for a long time and probably those who read me frequently have moved, died-or changed their names.  I ran out of ability to post when, in my ignorance of the internet began ot use a new email address without realizing that it was a gmail address, the my password on this email became my password for blogspot (a Google business and my password to this email  became the password for my blog.  When I tried to post the posts were refused.  At the same time I began to forget all kinds of things and some of my doctors decided I was a candidate of Alzheimers or some other mental mud puddle.  I am now taking all the things you see advertised on TV.  In the midst of all this, I figured out how to post so I will begin to do so with some regularity.  One of the things that happens when you become worried about your brain is that You begin to analyse what is going on around you in a number of   different ways, and ideas crop u[p that you cant to tell somebody about.  I did this on Facebook , but discovered that sometimes when you deal with things that seem serious to you, people, with whom you would like to stay in contact with unfriend you, and you don’t get any news from them any more.</p> <p>Well, it is late and I am tired. I spent much of today with a doctor who is planning some esoteric nerve block in my left shoulder so that I can begin to shut the drivers side car door with my left hand instead of reaching across my body with my right hand.  Here’s to pain relief.</p> <p>Richard. </p> Three Score and Ten or morehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04323013128311124905noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15862993.post-90477863348769004872014-05-10T03:06:00.001-07:002014-05-10T03:06:20.035-07:00Getting Old—or Older- Or<ol> <li>I started this thing about eight or nine years ago, thinking about recording the process of getting older.  Soon after I began, my brother started a blog about the same thing, calling it something like “Reflections of a Depression Baby”.   Before it got too deep, he passed away.  My brother in law, who was a computer expert,  did most of his computer business researching genealogy, but he started  losing his health, gradually leaving the computer, and last week he died.  Sometimes I wonder that I am still around.  Strangely enough, except for shoulders that give me pain all the time (My rotator cuffs are worn out.  The doctor recommended shoulder surgery –replacement- five or six years ago, and I decided I was too old for that stuff so I didn’t do it. If I had known how much worse the pain would get, I would have done it, but when I suggested, a couple of weeks ago, that I would like to reconsider, he told me that I am now too old and frail.), but strangely enough, except for the shoulders, I feel better than I have in a long time,</li> </ol> <p>I worry a lot about my family (they in turn, worry about me).  My oldest son has passed away from lung cancer, another son is doing sell but he has the same problem with weight that I used to have (I have lost about eighty pounds in the last couple of years),  One daughter us coping with severe plantar fasciitis her delightful daughter just lost part of her leg from diabetes.  One grandson has been on a Mormon Mission for the last couple of years in Ukraine (In Donetsz  where things are very tense, so I have worried about him—I found out yesterday that he has been transferred to Mesa, Arizona, so I am less concerned about him.  I am taking care of another son’s delightful three legged dog while he fights through personal problems,  Roxy, the dog, loves to be taken on walks, but walking him is lkie walking a forty pound mosquito, he walks in every direction at the same time.  The secdnd time I  walked her she tipped me over and blacked my eye.  ( I was using my walker at the time, I have found that without the walker, I can control her for a short walk, and we are both exhausted but exhilarated when we are through,)</p> <p>At any rate, as I get older ife is still interesting—what I can remember from day to day.  I was reading the diagnostic from my cardiologist the other day, and he states that “I  deny having any chest pains”, like he doesn’t believe me.  Getting older is certainly interesting.</p> Three Score and Ten or morehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04323013128311124905noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15862993.post-60251747617280470012014-04-23T02:56:00.001-07:002014-04-23T02:56:22.403-07:00Two posts in a week --wow<p>I once was a supporter of the Patriots Act and much that it included.  Recent events in my life have made me pretty cynical.  Without being too specific I have really become worried about the Homeland Security people.  </p> <p>I am old enough to remember that there was a lot of resistance at the founding of the FBI There was a Constitutional argument about a national   police force vs local law enforcement so when the FBI was carefully limited to interstate crime, violation of Federal rather than local or state law, etc.  Any watcher of television has seen the tension arise between local law enforcement and the FBI when the FBI takes over a case that began in local jurisdiction (as well as the occasional relief felt by local law when the FBI has assumed jurisdiction when a case is going badly or when a serial killer is involved.</p> <p>Homeland Security was sold to the public as an agency designed to protect the country from terrorists, spies and that sort of thing..</p> <p>We are beginning to find Homeland Security involved with totally domestic crime and they are clearly not as careful of how they operate as are the local and state law enforcement.   Beyond Homeland Security, we see from the recent events in Nevada the Bureau of Land Management seems to have swat teams or military groups enforcing law with the appearance of military attack on US citizens.   WE have a Posse Comitatus (my spelling is down the tubes) that keeps the US army from enforcing the law within the borders of the US. but it seems  that the Federal Government is by passing the historical and constitutional basis of law enforcement and oozing toward a National Police Force of some kind or kinds.  When I think of a National Police Force it brings to mind the Gestapo or the NKVD….  Iiiiick   </p> Three Score and Ten or morehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04323013128311124905noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15862993.post-18583899875489147962014-04-18T19:46:00.001-07:002014-04-18T19:46:43.926-07:00Back again, back again jigety jigl<p>I haven’t posted for almost a year.  It isn’t that I havent’ had things to say, but I found myself doing something that I considered “whineing”, talking about my ailments and stuff like that.  I shifted over to face book and mostly commented on things that my former students and family had to say.  The other day I reflected on the reason I started the blog and remembered that it was an attempt to talk about the things that happen as one piles on the years—some of them funny some of them scary  and some, just <u>stuff. </u></p> <p>Among the things that have happened is that my typing skills have deteriorated a lot.  My hands get off the base keys and if I am not watching the screen as I type, up comes gobbledygook.  You may be faced with a decoding task.  Of course, as long as it has been since I posted, there is probably no one out there to read (which makes some of my weird thoughts safer)   </p> <p>At any rate, I will be eighty in a couple of months, and neither the body nor the mind are as frisky as they were just a little while ago .  My various doctors are medicating me and testing me to see how fast and where my body and mind are going.   Everybody has memory lapses, but when you can’t remember the name of the person you called on the phone it is scaryl  The other day, I took out my upper plate, cleaned it in hot water, put it in its little case with a cleaning disk and went to bed.  When I got up in the morning, I went in the bathroom and found that the hot water was still running and we had no hot water for showers.  That sounds funny on the face of it, but what if I had been boiling eggs instead of washing teeth.  I could have burned down the house.   Things like that bring one up short.</p> <p>I spent much of Tuesday this week up at the Medical College in Augusta having an MRI of my brain.  The neurologist is trying to find out if the problems in my brain come from atrophy, entropy, or have a physiological base. I am taking Chinese medicine pills  from my acupuncturist, and two kinds of pills from family doctor that are supposes to help the brain dead or dying.</p> <p>I feel like I am in a dangerous world (think of Crimea and Russia and remember the parallel with Germany and Czechoslovakia and one wonders how long before world war III.)  I have no more shoulder rotator cuffs so my wife had to help me put on a coat or shirt,  with my neuropathy I can’t feel my feet and my balance is crummy so I fall down if I try to do much without a walker, but I am still married to the most wonder woman in the world,  five of my six children are living, and I have seven grand children and five great grandchildren. so it aint all bad. </p> Three Score and Ten or morehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04323013128311124905noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15862993.post-79309484908286651052013-08-02T20:06:00.001-07:002013-08-02T20:06:15.356-07:00Stuff and Nonsense<p>I felt that if I don’t get back here a little, even my relatives will quit looking for me.  I have had a wonderful and also a difficult month with great joy and a lot of frustrationl</p> <p>I have developed something called a venous ulcer.  The most frustrating thing about it is that I can’t get it wet, so I can;t do water aerobics, and I have a hunch that without the water exercise, I am going to melt in a puddle.  That’s not why I wrote about the ulcer.  I wrote about it to tell you about a real experience that will make a different person of you.  If you get frustrated, depressed and worried about hanging on, you should follow my shoes for a few days.</p> <p>This    “venous ulcer” which hasn’t been a great personal trial (except maybe for Janet) but they tell me that without treatment, it is a good way to lose a leg, and I have been having to patronize a wound clinic at the hospital.  (I never knew such places existed, I thought that the whole hospital was a “wound clinic.  I have had a quadruple bypass, sat in ICU both as a patient and a visitor, etc.  But the wound clinic is for wounds that don’t heal easily.  Sit in that waiting room for an hour and you will be acquainted with  folks who REALLY have difficulties.  There are open wounds that have to be treated in a hypobaric chamber, and other injuries that have persisted for months, with intense treatment two or three times a week at two or three hours per treatment.  After four trips to the waiting room, I am never going to whine again.  I may talk about a physical problem so that people can share an experience, but no more complaining of any kind.    I used to take my students to Nursing homes to perform puppet shows and cheer up the people, and invariably the patients would cheer us up.  I am just going to pray for the people in the wound clinic.   I don’t think I am man enough to work there and I have such respect for the nurses and doctors who do. </p> Three Score and Ten or morehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04323013128311124905noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15862993.post-22987752668225184392013-06-15T04:08:00.001-07:002013-06-15T04:08:16.612-07:00New thoughts.<p>I was going to write a thing without any whining, but since the theme of the blog started out to deal with the process of aging, I will mention some elements of that process.</p> <p>My back yard is a disaster.  I have two riding lawn mowers who seem to have permanent resident status in the small engine repair shop.  When things get tall enough, the hand lawn mower is a task that neither my shoulders nor my legs handle well.  Fortunately I have a six or seven foot privacy fence around the back yard or the neighborhood association would have had my ears by now.</p> <p>I actually have been alternating between a string trimmer and a hedge trimmer to cut weeds in preparation for hand mowing.  I also have some branches growing down in inconvenient places so i got out the trusty chain saw to remove them.  Much to my disgust, my shoulders are so painful that I can’t pull the starter chain.  The chain saws (both of them) sit there and snicker as they see me coming.  I don’t know how successful it will be, but when my wife asked me what I would like for Father’s Day, I asked for an electric chain saw. </p> <p> I had a request from a local Boy Scout troop for a financial contribution, so I offered the troop a couple of hundred dollars if they would come clean out my back yard.  They came and looked at it.  I haven’t heard any word from them since, not even an offer at a higher price.</p> <p>Janet was treated some years ago for rheumatoid arthritis, but the rheumatologist said that her tests were coming up pretty well and he suggested that we save the money.  She recently has been in such pain from her leg (femur broken in several places and patched with metal plates) and the bone in her shin is just randomly painful.  Last weekend, her hands were so painful that she stayed home from church (unusual), so our family doctor rain the “rheumatic”  tests again, and they are out of sight.  She is back on methatrexate, which she hated before, and on low dose prednisone, which seems to help a  lot.  My neurologist sympathized with my shoulder pain and has giving me a dose pack of prednisone  which has really helped my back in the past,  My shoulders seem to be “shrugging it off” (note, poor attempt at pun).</p> <p>Unrelated to anything else, but one symptom of old age is that instead of having “my  doctor” one begins to have “my neurologist”, “my cardiologist”, “my nephrologist “ (which, until I got one, I never knew that they existed under that name), “my urologist”, “my orthopedist” and , I shudder to think which new kind of “ist” I will acquire next.</p> <p>I spent some time the other day thinking of wittty social commentary , but when i sit down to the computer I can’t remember what it was.  (Half witty, I guess)</p> Three Score and Ten or morehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04323013128311124905noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15862993.post-36507508242843283322013-05-22T21:40:00.001-07:002013-05-22T21:40:34.900-07:00New Series of Old Coot Ruminations<p>Again sporadic in posts.  This is really frustrating because: 1. I have plenty of time to write. 2.  When I sit at the computer, I am sorely drawn to Facebook where I find the latest word from many of my grandchildren, though I tire occasionally of the obsesssion with Harry Potter and Dr. Who.  ( I have to admit to a small obsession with Dr. Who when it was the real Doctor  with the scarf reaching his feet.) 3. My brain is so fuzzy that it prefers Spider Solitaire to anything that requires thinking.  4. Etc.</p> <p>I sometimes wonder which is more frustrating, not being able to remember the names of friends  (I get along with looking them in the eye and saying “Hi, buddy>” .  If I have to talk about my friends, I can usually describe them well enough that Janet (my wife) can fill in the blanks; or having to ask my son to unscrew the lid off the jam jar (ore even worse the Diet Mountain Dew bottle.</p> <p>I am astonished at the way physical durability diminishes.  About a year and a half ago i dug foundations and laid a combination of railroad ties and concrete blocks to lay up and level a space for a back patio, which space, with the help of my son Stuart I filled with and packed down dirt, then hauled in a trailer load of concrete pavers with which to cover the space.  The pavers still sit solemnly in stacks at the end of the patio, and  the ground to which they belong  is no longer level (Erosion and the habit of the dogs belonging to my children of digging little dens in it to cooll off have had their effect.  My back yard is such a shambles that if I didn’t have a six foot fence surrounding it, the neighborhood association vigilantes would have long since strung me up.</p> <p>With all this, the most frightening and frustrating thing in my life is the pain Janet has,(a few years ago, she came to hear me sing with a choir in a university Christmas concert and fell off a badly designed step landing which had no rail and broke her femur in three pieces, which was fastened back together strongly but not painlessly with metal patches on the bone installed by a brilliant orthopedist.  WE were advised to sue the university because of the unsafe design but the lawyer we hired surrendered because the university was declaring some kind of “eminent domain” for itself.  (The good thing was that they repaired  and put rails along the landings ---there were more than one dangerous landing -so it won’t happen again.)  Her leg still gives her terriible pain, and her health is much worse than it was,   But we keep plugging along.</p> Three Score and Ten or morehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04323013128311124905noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15862993.post-28123179721676703262013-03-16T20:34:00.001-07:002013-03-16T20:34:58.264-07:00Well, I have repented or reinvented or something.<p>My oldest daughter, who lives in Florida, recently got a new computer, and when talking to me on the phone she revealed that she had found the ‘three score” blog and is reading it starting from the archives.</p> <p>This aroused my curiosity enough that I went back and read some of the early things I posted and had a revelatory epiphany.   I can write the things that I post on FaceBook, or at least the same kinds of things.  I don’t have to get deeply into some thoughtful essay.  I think the last election, some of the things I thought about at the time, some things I even wrote about at the time but didn’t post and--- well I just got writer’s block trying to do something I really didn’t want to do.   The heck with it.</p> <p>I have had a series of adventures, not big ones, but significant ones to me and I think I will just write about some of them.  I smashed my face into the concrete again, invested in a smart phone (which convinced me that one should mess around with technical things that are smarter than he is), got , literally, ripped off by a hospital, and Janet is having physical problems that concern me.  I will try to take a moment, at least once a week and probably more often, now that I have convinced myself that I can do this again without any physical body parts falling off.</p> <p>The thing that is in my mind right now is a continuing theme for the blog.  Getting old is, literally, a pain in the butt, among other things.  It has recently been a moment of pride when Janet hands me a can of soda and asks me to pry it open for her.   For the last several months, I have had to use a coin, a pocket knife or an available piece of metal to pry open my own soda,, and am a bit humiliated when I have to do that which Janet could do as well as I.</p> <p>I have been feeling a bit smug about having lost seventy or eighty pounds in the past year or so.  I smugly gave advice to others (which is good advice, but…) on not snacking, eating smaller portions, eating organic Greek yogurt, etc. etc. etc.     About Thanksgiving time I began to sense, from symptoms that are probably not appropriate  to discuss in this post, that I had a urinary infection.  I went to the Doctor.  He gave me a prescription for Cipro, had me come back in a couple of days to give a “sample”, and called me up the next afternoon to tell me that my bacteria were having such fun partying with Cipro, that I should cast out my Cipro, and he would have to give me a much more powerful medicine, a combination of a couple of different antibiotics, that were so powerful that he also gave me a prescription for  some extra strong probiotics because this new stuff was so powerful it would kill all the organisms in my gut that digest my food.</p> <p>My regular pharmacy didn’t have the new stuff in stock so they called around and found some at Wal-Mart.  I went to Wally World and presented my prescription and waited for an eternity till they got it put together (side note:  Has any one noticed that in most Wal-Mart parking lots they now have parking places set aside for pharmacy customers specifying a fifteen minute parking limit?     What a farce?  No one who goes into a Wally world pharmacy gets out in fifteen minutes.)</p> <p>At any rate when the prescription was finished they assigned me to a “counselor” of some kind to discuss my prescription.  She apologized that I had been kept waiting for so long but the she said, “Most people who need this prescription are not able to come pick it up personally, the prescription is picked up by some one else”   If they say that  wouldn’t it make you wonder?  It did me.</p> <p>Even this stuff wasn’t completely successful.  Though I felt a lot better, and felt “symptom free’  my tests didn’t agree, and I was sent to a Urologist who gave me two other consecutive extra strong antibiotics.  It was well into January before everyone was satisfied that my infection was gone.</p> <p>The troubling thing is, that even though I am still being very careful about the foods and the amounts that I eat, since my “cure”, I have gained a little over ten pounds.  I think, and at least one of my doctors concurs, that I have had a low grade urinary infection for well over a year, and that it should get credit (or blame) for most of my weight loss.  That is really disgusting.  </p> Three Score and Ten or morehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04323013128311124905noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15862993.post-62091873488675108232012-12-30T21:17:00.001-08:002012-12-30T21:17:28.739-08:00I’m Alive<p>This might be a more significant title than I had intended.  I have no intention of making this an “organ recital”, but my failure to post in months was in part caused by ill health and in part because I had a raging angry post half written about he election and I decided not to do it, but my imagination and energy were limited.  I have made some doctors richer, and frightened both myself and my family with a series of physical maladies that began as I shopped on “black Friday the started on Thursday” and just seem to have gotten a lot better for New Years.</p> <p>I may post about politics once more but not now.  I have a lot of things to tell you (I am actually writing this because , if I have lost all my former readers with my slackness, I am ultimately writing for my progeny and their progeny to know how I have felt and reacted as I passed through the three score and more and get closer to four score.  (I wonder if I should change the name of the blog if I reach four score.)</p> <p>I have had a wonderful Holiday season in spite of some physical problems.  I have been to Columbia, SC for Thanksgiving with my daughter, one of my favorite dogs, my wife and son.  I spent a ridiculous amount of money without even getting to more than one or two of Columbia’s great restaurants.  (I swear that there aren’t many cities in the country with more fine restaurant per capita the Columbia.)  I prepared the turkey as usual. a custom that is about to cease, and did the same for family here at Christmas.  </p> <p>My daughter even coerced me into playing a board game (a favorite activity twenty years ago, but one that I rarely participate in any more.  My span of attention has become such that I don’t often win anymore, and I hate to play without at least some chance of winning.  I attended some of the best church services in my life, and feel spiritually renewed and strengthened.  I used to be a scripture reader and have let that slide, but for the last few weeks I have been reading the scriptures for a half hour or more almost every evening.</p> <p>I’ve got to talk dogs for a moment.  My daughter’s dog, Roscoe is an aging Basset hound with the most expressive  face ever, and a real desire to love and be loved by others.  My third son has two dogs.  His long time pit=bull lab cross  passed away awhile ago, and he has been rescuing dogs since.  He has  a three legged small lady dog that is a perpetual motion machine and a black dog that is just reaching puberty and while starting out as a small dog is rapidly become a big one.  All three dogs are well trained and really like to have fun with us folks.</p> <p>We betrayed the three legged one over around Thanksgiving.  Since we moved into our house about five years ago Janet has hated the blah looking green carpet that attracts dirt and dust  and. . .  I collected a decent tax return last year and we had been saving so we went to Lumber Liquidators, and a contractor  recommended by them and had most of that carpet replaced with beautiful wood.  Roxy, the little three legged dog, hates it with a passion.  With three legs (one rear leg missing when she became part of the family, she can’t get traction, and  for a perpetual motion dog that is a form of torture that we hadn’t anticipated.  She still likes to come visit us, but would rather stay in thye yard or on the back porch than come in the house.  (A total revision of attitudes, she used to prefer dashing from room to room in the house)  I have apologized to her, but I don’t think I am forgiven yet.</p> <p>Anyway I  am going to try to get some stuff on paper about the process  and activities included in getting to be three score and ten and some more before my brain totally turns to mush(seems a rapid development right how) and plan to post more often and less politically than recent posts.  Happy New Year, I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and I am going to bed right now.    </p> Three Score and Ten or morehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04323013128311124905noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15862993.post-39309444851239073682012-10-10T22:05:00.001-07:002012-10-10T22:05:16.299-07:00Silly thoughts<p>I got back to bed this morning and slept till ten thirty.  I felt like I had slept the day away, but I way thoroughly awake for a change.  I actually read several chapters of a book without dozing then we went into town and tried to get some issues tied down so that we can replace some of the carpet in our house with “engineered wood” what ever that is. </p> <p>As we drove through the Wallyworld parking lot I noticed (not for the first time) that a number of the parking spaces were reserved for Pharmacy patrons.  Fifteen minutes only.  I had to laugh out loud.  If any of you have tried to get a prescription filled in Wal-Mart, you know that NO ONE has ever received a prescription in fifteen minutes.  The time line is ignored.  It is like the ubiquitous  Vonage commercial on the TV where a number of people toss away their old bills from the telephone company and tell us about the wonderful experiences that  they have had with Vonage.  NOW they throw away their old phone bill.  It is clear that if they tell the truth they have been with Vonage long enough to have  had those experiences so why are they just NOW throwing away their old bills. (meaning they have just joined).</p> <p>We were driving to Savannah on Monday to check in with Lumber Liquidators to see if we could save some money on the new flooring.  As we left town we were passed by a black SUV and I noticed that the left rear wheel was not perpendicular to the ground.  I don’t know how the wheels are set to be square with the ground but I could tell that the SUV was going to wear out the inner side of the tire.  I drew the family’s attention to the car and stated that I was glad that wasn’t our car.  About half way to Savannah, guess what?  I blew out my left rear tire.   We pulled over as fast as we could and got the tire changed for the little do-nut spare that comes with modern cars.  Guess what else, the tire was completely worn out on the inside.   When we checked the other rear tire it was worn the same way and hade wires sticking out from under the tread.  The tires were mounted like this /—\.  These tires were perfect five thousand miles ago because , almost in the same spot on the highway, back about Mother’s day I ran over a piece of steel and broke the wheels, tires, etc. on the driver’s side.  I had to take the car to a Mazda dealer because no one else carried the replacement goodies and after two or three weeks in the garage, the car was returned to me with new tires and everything was in “perfect” alignment.  These were the tires that blew.  The car is back in the Mazda garage being re-repaired and re-tired.  Whee!!! Ain’t life fun? </p> <p>Well, it is bedtime again.   If there is nothing posted on this blog before morning, you will know that I slept all the way through.</p> Three Score and Ten or morehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04323013128311124905noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15862993.post-85006920210249783462012-10-10T02:47:00.001-07:002012-10-10T02:47:18.032-07:00One of those things!!!!!<p>Since the Presidential Debate, I have tried to ignore political situations (Easier said than done), and have begun to ruminate about some of the stuff that was the original incentive for starting this blog, that is, what happens when one reaches the stage of three score and ten and more.  I had my seventy eighth birthday last summer and the “more” than three score and ten is beginning to become more and more of a problem.  </p> <p>There are so many things that really need done around our house, and I am less and less able to accomplish them.  My shoulders, with their absent rotator cuffs are getting to be painful enough that they wake me in the middle of the night (I am writing this at 4:16 AM) and don’t want to let me go back to sleep until ------(I am good at falling asleep at random moments during the day, when I don’t want to).  I can’t successfully do anything to anything above shoulder level, including (occasionally) brushing my hair. (I do wish I could clean off the ceiling fans once in a while)</p> <p>I have remodeled every house that we have owned in the past forty years, and am getting ready to pay some contractor a fortune to remove a lot of our carpeting and put down simulated wooden floors.  A task that I could easily have done for myself just four or five years ago.</p> <p>I am hopelessly out of fashion.  I see commercials for department stores that show pretty women gamboling about in short sexy dresses that show a lot of leg wearing, what looks for all the world, like the galoshes my mother used to make me wear when it rained sixty five years ago.  </p> <p>I try tell myself that folks are “caring” for me when they insist of taking my arm whenever I come to a curb, but I wish they would wait till I think I need it.  My neurologist yells at me to use a walker more often but it often makes things  more difficult than it helps.  I think I mentioned in a post last year that when I first went to see the pain management doctor, last year, that she watched me walk around the examining room and threatened “Dr. Johnson (some people still pay attention to my PhD) if you come into this office one more time without a cane, I am going to make you stand in the corner”</p> <p>Oh well, I think one eye is closing on me so I will try going back to bed to sleep for awhile.  </p> Three Score and Ten or morehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04323013128311124905noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15862993.post-14473511971948674772012-09-29T20:39:00.001-07:002012-09-29T20:39:15.968-07:00Continuum Yuk<p>This is a supplement to my last post that I started writing in my mind  within minutes of the last post’s arrival.  I kept wondering why so many  folks cannot accept anything by an opponent as valid.  Before I hold forth on that, though, I have to apologize for my off the cuff last comment on my last post.  One of my few constant readers asked me what I thought of Harry Reid’s comment that Romney is a disgrace to Mormons, to which I replied that I think that Harry Reid is a disgrace to Mormons.  One of the things that Mormons are taught early in their years is that no one but our ultimate Judge has any right to sit in judgment of the righteousness or faith of others.  I am ashamed of my quick judgment of Senator Reid and I have spent some time on my knees asking for forgiveness, not only for  my sin (Our Lord said that he will forgive whom He will forgive, but of us it is required that we forgive all men) but asking forgiveness for the good Senator, if he feels he needs it.—or not.</p> <p>Back to the ranch:  One early things we learn in the study of Communication and Semantics is that we are all subject to the temptations of selective exposure.  That means that most of us, especially in the case of things we hold dear, tend to select those bits of information that support our current feelings and understandings.</p> <p>Supplementing this bit of info, I have been known by those who know me best as a news “Junkie”.  It is more difficult now in the era of 24 hour news exposure from multiple sources, but I have been known to watch the news  from one source while taping that from other sources to get the broadest picture from the widest points of view.  I still watch FOX News, CNN, MSNBC, (which is pretty difficult they are so inept) and all three of the major networks.  Taping is not as necessary as in the past because CNN and Fox broadcast everything multiple times so one can look at things from a variety of perspectives.  I would find myself really puzzled by my friend’s attacks on Fox News for lying or taking one point of view (frequent term is Faux News) and I admit that their commentators (Hannity especially) takes a paint of view that sometime I find uncomfortable, but even in commentaries one would rarely find on CNN, never on MSNBC, and rarely on any of the former National Networks the equivalent of opposing points of view as effective and as often as one will see such as Juan Williams, Alan Combes, Bob Bechel (I know I spelled that wrong)) and the wide variety of Democratic campaign officials and political figures.  (Many Democratic  folks are invited but never come.  O Reilly would kill to interview the President, but the President would never come for such an interview in part because no one on the O Reilly show ever gets to complete a sentence in the interview without interruption.)</p> <p>I do have to say that generally those on Fox who deal with hard news are evenhanded and incredible effective,  I found myself glued to the TV back in the time of the New Orleans  Hurricane and I think that if there was objective thinking, The Fox News  reporter (whose name my seventy eight year old brain just wont recall) should have won a Peabody for his work in New Orleans..   THe pejoratives generally hurled at FOX are classical reminders that we all are subject to the use of selective exposure, listening only (or mainly) to those who strengthen or uphold  our already held opinions and criticizing any who oppose us.</p> <p>I don’t know how intercollegiate debate is done now, but I had the good fortune to spend two years debating with a great coach and in debate at that time one had to have an affirmative case and a negative case and had to look at both sides of an issue very deeply, and to know how to take either side with passion and integrity. (there is a place for integrity or both sides of every issue.)</p> <p>I said in the beginning of the previous post that  I fail to understand how anyone with an IQ over forty can support the president.  Taking selective exposure and the passion that exists in social issues, on reflection, for one who believes strongly in the principle of socialized medicine (and any who followed my blog five or six years ago, know that I had many affirmative things to say about it)  or who was/is emotionally caught up in  the idea of the first Black President can overlook many evidentiary items in order to maintain that thought.  I am still personally frightened by the thought of what our nation will be like if he wins.</p> <p>A passion for certain social goals will lead one to oppose other good goals.  As Mormons, we are taught almost from infancy to follow the Motto “Choose the Right”.  To earn or just to buy a CTR (get it? Choose  The  Right) ring is really exciting for many young people.  Last week in church I noticed some really nice people that I love passing around bumper stickers (not to me, they know me) which said       <strong>LDS- CHOOSE THE LEFT.</strong></p> Three Score and Ten or morehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04323013128311124905noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15862993.post-31126996984813649442012-09-17T11:45:00.001-07:002012-09-17T11:45:20.619-07:00It is difficult.<p>I was away on vacation (actually a combination of dog and house sitting for my daughter so that she could go to a family reunion that we just didn't’ have the energy to go to after our trip to Washington and a few days in Hilton Head where we, mostly, vegged) and without access to the internet.  I had real ambitions to post early upon our return, and had lots of ideas, none including whining about our health, of things to write about.</p> <p>Every time I sat down to write, the turbulence and vitriol of the current political season filled my mind.  I came up with four or five political rants, and suddenly realized that political rants  were not needed.</p> <p>I am really nervous about our society right now.  Political emotions are so high that one has to be suspicious (no matter where one personally stands) that everything that is written or spoken politically is suspect.</p> <p>I don’t think that most folks sit down to make up lies about each other, but when emotions are this high, clear headed thinking becomes very rare.   The personal paradigms are so totally opposed that no-one seems to be able to rationally discuss politics.</p> <p>I am, and have been for years, a political conservative, but I have been able to engage in discussions with friends with other views, (and as a Theatre professional, communications teacher form Political Science student –almost three years- I have been in the company of a lot more liberal folks that those would agree) but this season discussion is out, unless one chooses to offend friends.</p> <p>As a conservative, but one who studies both written and televised information from most sources, I find it difficult to understand how anyone who is objective and has an IQ over forty can support Barak Obama for another term.  However, I live in a company of a great many people whom I love and appreciate at a number of levels (definitely with IQ’s over forty, many with Doctorates, Masters etc. etc. who with their paradigm cannot understand how any feeling thinking person can fail to support Obama.   The passions are so rigid on both sides that reaction is almost totally emotional. </p> <p>I am a Mormon.  Our church officially and directly will not allow politics in meetings or anywhere else.  Proclamations are frequently presented in church that the church does not take sides in elections.  (Occasionally they take a stand on what are considered moral ISSUES.</p> <p>In one of our local meetings, one speaker  said something affirmative about Mitt Romney and several people stood up and left the service.   Mitt is a Mormon, and in our congregation, I suspect a fair portion of the congregation could fit into the category “Mormons who hate Mitt”.  Actually that is a little over the top, a better category would be “Mormons who would and do emphatically oppose Mitt.” They would deny the word “hate” but the voices—well????</p> <p>What worries me is that with these two opposing paradigms so entrenched. no matter who wins the election, can anyone successfully (and Constitutionally ) govern our country.  The study of history, and my personal experience cause me to wonder, if not to doubt.   I can easily imagine mobs from both sides disruption our land for a long time.</p> Three Score and Ten or morehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04323013128311124905noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15862993.post-30976217134727976552012-08-25T15:41:00.001-07:002012-08-25T15:41:26.682-07:00No complaints here.<p>A couple of nights ago, I had just finished a late filing of my income tax (even with an automatic extension) and I collapsed into bed.  I checked the tube for a brief visit with the news and found it so depressing I flipped along until I could find something interesting.  I tuned into Public Television and they were showing Gene Kelly movies in honor of his hundredth birthday.  I fell into the middle of one of my favorite films of all time, AN AMERICAN IN PARIS, where I arrived just before my favorite part, the part I call the AMERICAN IN PARIS ballet.  I was caught up in, what has always seemed to me to be an almost flawless telling of a story and revealing a wide variety of emotions in dance.</p> <p>Most of this ballet is actually revealed as a dream sequence, or reverie that begins with Kelly discovering that his love is committed  to marry one of his best friends.  The ballet begins when Kelly, in response to his pain, decides to take a beautiful blonde who is one of his sponsors as an artist to a wild artist costume bacchanal where he encounters his love with her fiancé and says a final goodbye.   The remainder of the scene (about twenty five or thirty minutes) is his reverie about the possibilities and failures of his love life.</p> <p>I watched, enthralled, and when the film had its inevitable and somewhat illogical,  happy ending I was left in a great mood.  If not for the likelihood of assassination or at least attack by my wife (and the fact that I was totally exhausted) I would have styed awake all night to watch SINGING IN THE RAIN,  and a couple of other Kelly movies.  As I turned  of the TV,  I reflected on one of the great lessons I learned from this film.</p> <p>In the early sixties, when I was teaching theatre at Rhode Island College in  Providence R.I. I spent some time in one of my classes using this film and this scene as a great example of  American movie musicals.  I had one student in particular, a very bright and artistic young man who came to my office to discuss this in more detail.  I had a shooting script for the film in my office and we went though it in detail.  He was so taken by the ideas, that he located a showing of the film (in that  pre-computer day, I have no idea how he did so) and drove an hour or so into Connecticut to see it.  He came to my office a few days later, and revealed that he had a terrible experience in the film.  He found the shifts of character and costume in the middle of the sequence jarring and ultimately alternated between boredom and irritation as he watched.   He used specific examples and specific criticisms and was very disappointed that I had set him up for this.</p> <p>As I listened, I understood something that I had perceived , but never really crystalized in my mind before.  It is the ultimate explanation of the way thinking  people simply cannot believe  that other thinking people cannot understand  why their feelings about religious, political, or other important concepts are not shared .</p> <p>I am conservative.  I once wrote a note to Rush Limbaugh accusing him of distorting conservatism.  I am old enough and have been conservative long enough that I remember being really angry when the Republican Party chose Eisenhower over Bob Taft.  (I know, most of you don’t know what the heck I am talking about) but I have been in theatre most of my life but most of my students, like most theatre people have become wild eyed liberals.  I can’t logically understand why or how they still support Obama and as we interact on Face Book I frequently get notes asking why in the world, I don’t think as they do.</p> <p>Our interpretations of most things in our lives are colored by our paradigms.  The entire experience  of our lives colors our interpretation of almost all the important phenomena which we encounter.  That is true of my young student in Rhode Island interpreting a musical which I loved and it is true of many who support President Obama while I do not.</p> <p>I’ll be honest, I am terribly worried about the fate of our country if he is re-elected and people whom I honor and love are equally worried about the nation if he is not.   Janet and I went to a movie the other day called HOPE SPRINGS, which is a movie starring Tommy Lee Jones and Meryl Streep ( I  probably spelled that wrong)  trying, with the help of a counselor) to figure out what has happened to their thirty year marriage.  Jan and a laughed till we cried  about their adventures, and most people who have been married a long time would recognize, at least moments of their lives or those of friend.  We recommended it to most of the coots and cootesses that we know, and many of them had seen it and loved it as we did, but one lady, who had attended with her husband almost spit as she expressed her hatred of the film.  She came at it from a different paradigm than Janet and I.  As far as  “truth” is concerned, we are both right.   </p> Three Score and Ten or morehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04323013128311124905noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15862993.post-39378731086394200442012-08-11T21:04:00.001-07:002012-08-11T21:04:23.564-07:00Home Again<p>Janet and I are home again after a wonderful visit with children, grandchildren and old friends.  We had a long trip out, and were hoping for a better trip home, and it was better most of the time.  Our planes were on time and all of that ran smoothly.  I have had some bad experiences with Delta in the past but things ran  smoothly this time.  I do have one complaint, not with Delta but with general event in the airports  etc.   </p> <p>I am old.  Finally hit seventy eight years old with at least half of my mind functional (though I am a little panicked at the swiftness with which functionality is developing) and I have quite a bit of trouble  walking upright and I hobble a bit.  I stand pretty well, and I sit pretty well but the transition from sitting to standing is becoming a real problem..  (I seem to make a lot of vocal noise during that process.)</p> <p>I have been really pleased at losing some eighty pounds, but I have discovered that as I am thinner, I look more frail. (One of my grandchildren said off hand “Grandpa, sometimes when you are walking you look like you might break”)    I sometimes need help getting my carry-on luggage up into the baggage rack, and often half to ask for help, and I am grateful to get it.  That said, one of the most irritating things in the world is when I am moving a suitcase and someone grabs it out of my hand shouting “I’ll do that.”</p> <p>Unasked for help can be really intrusive.  I bought a walker while in Washington. (I have used them before, but I was having real trouble getting around with just a cane).  It is a nice little walker with four wheels and a seat so that I can turn sit and rest when necessary.  It also makes a handy little luggage cart for my “carry on” and my computer bag.  When one uses a walker in the airport, it is taken to the bottom of the ramp where you enter the plane, and they give it a “gate check” then put it with the baggage in the plane and return it as you are getting off the plane.  Some times it is necessary to get a wheel chair to go from gate to gate and you end up with the walker in your lap while the guy or gal is  pushing your chair,  but I suppose turnabout is fair play.</p> <p>When suing it to transport my carryon luggage I have a process where I put the bags “just so” and they are very secure while I am in mostion/</p> <p>On this trip, as I was stacking my two bags, on two occasions some attendant (or little old late) would take a bag out of my hand and with an “I’ll get that”start up the ramp with it, so the the other bag was unstable  and hard to push (my computers lit right on the concrete floor.).  When we got home to Savannah, I had the bags in place when a uniformed young female grabbed them off my walker, and I thought I was going to have to call a cop to get them back.</p> <p>To anyone interested I say that to offer an old coot (or cootess) help is a kind thing and is always appreciated.  To insist on “helping” if the helpee says thank you but I have got it is really irritating , in fact it is humiliating, and the next person who tries it is going to get kicked or in other way (perhaps only verbally) attacked.  Dang it, leave my stuff alone unless I am willing to let  to take your help (and , in talking with others since our arrival, I have discover that most of those like me, agree with me.</p> Three Score and Ten or morehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04323013128311124905noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15862993.post-12360515688248092722012-07-12T22:03:00.001-07:002012-07-12T22:03:38.425-07:00Well, we made our flight to Washington.<p>I have not often flown by US Air, and have, for some reason, thought negatively about it.  Last year, we flew to Boston by US Air  and I was totally impressed.  The most impressive thing was the they seemed to go really overboard at taking care of older  people with problems.  Every thing was organized so well.</p> <p>When I booked our flight to Washington through Travelocity, the flight out was scheduled on US Air and I was pleased.  I will have to say that they repeated the process of being thoughtful and  caring.  Our flight from Savannah to Charlotte went like clockwork though we arrived about fifteen minutes late and folks were really rushing to get us to our gate on time.  Just as we were arriving at the gate, the driver of the cart that was carrying us turned and said, “Well, we don’t have to hurry, you are going to make it on time but you aren’t going to be pleased.”</p> <p>She then informed us that due to some plane trouble elsewhere, the plane, which was supposed to leave for Portland at 8:10 was about three hours late, and would not load until 11:20 PM.  Thus began one of the more difficult three hours of my life.  All the benefits received through the cortisone shots in my spine seemed to evaporate.  I could sit with relative comfort was every movement was painful.  Getting to the restroom was  really difficult, as was getting anything to eat.  I tried to take a nap and, apparently my adrenaline was in high gear. because I couldn’t nap at all and even had some difficulty reading.  My concentration was in total AWOL mode. </p> <p>Finally the time came to board the plane.  Again, the people from US Air bent over backward to accommodate us, boarding us early and all of those nice things.  We were a little disappointed that the change of planes required  a change of seats.  In some ways the seats were better (much closer to the front of the plane, but we were separated.  We usually try to sit in aisle seats on either side of the aisle.  (The extra space is very good for folks with legs that don’t bend easily.)  I ended up with an aisle seat near the escape root while she sat in a window seat several rows ahead of me.</p> <p>I usually can sleep easily on planes but my legs kept twitching and bouncing up an down.   I tried to read, and finished a couple of chapters.  I was please to see that Janet was sleeping.  The flight that was supposed to arrive in Portland at 11:20 but arrived at something after 2:30 AM.  My son was waiting for us  when we arrived and we were able to get from the gate to the parking lot with little trouble.  We both had wheel chair rides from the gate to the baggage center and I was most impressed with the attendant who pushed both wheel chairs at the same time, one in each hand.   (He got a very good tip).  We finally got to  bed a little after four, after a brief stop at a drive in for a snack.  I had a milk shake which calmed my sensitive stomach (I only drank half of it, but that was enough)</p> <p>We finally got to bed about fourish and I was finally able to get to sleep, and I had no trouble sleeping in till every one in the family, grandkids, children and all had been awake for some time.    I am looking forward to the rest of the week, and am not all looking forward to the return trip.</p> Three Score and Ten or morehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04323013128311124905noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15862993.post-56801702764929007712012-07-08T19:02:00.001-07:002012-07-08T19:02:21.410-07:00Things are always a little better (tomorrow)<p>I got the back shots.  It was not a totally easy thing, but the results have been a real help.   </p> <p>Before the shots were given, the pain Doc sent my to get some EMG’s.  EMG stand for Electro-something- mylogram.  The tests are given by putting (or, using a needle, inserting) an electrode on,or into one part of your body, where a nerve is, the placing an electrode on another part of the body which is where the nerve ends, then shooting electricity into the electrodes to measure the effectiveness of  the nerve in transmitting the electricity from one end of it to the other.</p> <p>Having had a neuropathy (loss of nerve function) since 1992, I have had many many EMGs over the years.  I have told friends that an EMG is about the most interesting things that can happen to you in a hospital without a dental drill inserted into a nerve.  It really isn’t as gruesome as I  make it sound, but I have been having a lot of pain in my left hip that is caused, in part, by the disintegration of the disks between my lower three lumbar vertebrae.  I have been coping with the disintegration  for a number of years, but the new pain comes from spinal arthritis in the area which has created scoliosis in this area (thus disturbing the the nerves in anew way )  The current EMG was ordered to check which nerves are doing what. </p> <p>The test itself was excruciating, well, not excruciating in itself but to take the test I had to lie on a hard flat examination bench and then had to move from place to place bending one leg, then the other and the movement stirred up nerves that had been relatively benign in the previous few days.    By the time it was over, I not only couldn’t stand up straight I had to have couple of people carry me to the car.  </p> <p>The days until the shots were given were some of the worst of my life.  I couldn’t stand  comfortably, sit comfortably or even lie down comfortably.  Without the application of pain patches I am not sure how I would have made it.  </p> <p>The day for the pain shots came, I got them, and the effect was almost magical.  Life isn’t   perfect , but I can stand up most of the time, sit comfortably most of the time, and best of all, I can sleep.</p> <p>More adventures to come.  We ;flew to Washington and that was an adventure to be sure.</p> Three Score and Ten or morehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04323013128311124905noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15862993.post-85282144444904212652012-06-27T14:29:00.001-07:002012-06-27T14:29:24.917-07:00One more dang thing done<p>It is over.  I spent most of the last two days getting my second cataract removed.  The surgery didn’t take much time, but the eye practice operating room got a little clogged.  I think half a county must have been there for eye surgery, so we spent a lot of time waiting, both on Monday and Tuesday.  We didn’t get home until pretty late in the evening on Tuesday.  </p> <p>The surgery went fine. I have no inflammation and I can see pretty well.  The eye tested at 20/20.   The only problem is getting used to it.</p> <p>I have been near-sighted as long as I knew I was sighted.  Basically I have lived in a world where, if I could touch something, if it were within arms reach, I could see it.  If it happened to be out of  my arms reach, it was blurry and I needed my glasses to see it clearly.   </p> <p>If someone has big bucks, it is possible to get a cataract removed and the lens replaced with a built in bifocal.  I don’t have big bucks so I had to have a single focus lens.  This results in a world where, I can touch it, if it is within arms reach, it is blurry.  In other words, after 77 and a half years of being near sighted, I am now far sighted.  It is wonderful to see things far away clearly, and the colors are so much brighter, but it is confusing to be in a store, and without putting on some reading glasses I don’t know the cost of anything.  Of course, if I don’t take the glasses off, things get really distorted.  When you are three score and ten or more years old, that is downright confusing.</p> <p>I will get used to it, and the vivid colors and clear vision in the distance make it worthwhile.  (Even the colors are so vivid that I invested in a good pair of sunglasses.  Seems self defeating doesn’t it?  I ought to be satisfied with the world as it comes---Right????   I neve have been before.</p> <p>Tomorrow I go into the hospital to get a shot, or two, in my spinal cord that is supposed to remove enough pain in my back and left leg that I can walk upright like the rest of the world.  I promise that if it even HALF successful, I will be thrilled, and will not complain about it even if it is different.</p> Three Score and Ten or morehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04323013128311124905noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15862993.post-87918151982602208832012-06-24T20:10:00.001-07:002012-06-24T20:10:51.965-07:00Things are looking up (maybe)<p>I go in the morning to get my other cataract removed.  It was a fairly comfortable procedure the first time and I hope it will be tomorrow.  It is about time something went well.</p> <p>I have been in –really more pain than I remember at almost any time before since I had the EMG tests last Monday.  I go for my first spinal pain shots on Thursday.  I never thought I would look forward to shots.</p> <p>It was a little embarrassing this morning at church.  Every one wanted to carry something for me, or carry me, I can’t decide, but I was really hobbling.  Janet says I looked alike a really frail old coot, and I  think I may be becoming what I look like. </p> <p>This led to a really interesting and sweet experience yesterday.  I was feeling a little better and we wandered around to a few garage sales and moving sales.  At one moving sale, the seller was a very sweet elderly woman (eighty six years old last month, just en years my senior)  She had a lovely home and a lovely yard, and I enjoyed looking at, and purchasing some outdoor items.  She noticed my movement, and volunteered that she was handicapped as well.  The she looked me right in the eye and asked me if I have Jesus in my heart.  I told her that I did, that I had committed my life to the Lord in my youth.   She asked me if I had a church home, and I told her that I am a Mormon, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.</p> <p>Things got a little cool. Sometimes those in Protestant Churches, particularly those of an evangelistic sort regard Mormons as non Christians and sometimes as absolute heathens.She started to break of the conversation, but then asked me if I had been a Mormon Missionary.  I told her that I had, and I had serve in Pastoral situations about eight times over the years.  She smiled, took my hand and said that if I would simply ask Jesus to come into my heart, He would do it.  I assured her that I had done that many years ago, and in several different situations.  I then went about purchasing some stuff, and as we were about to leave she called me over and asked if she could pray for me.  I told her that I would be honored if she did, and she quickly took my hand as and we both bowed our heads  she prayed a very strong healing and blessing prayer.  Before she could let me go, I prayed as well, asking the Lord to protect her on her journey (her son had come and was going to take her up to live near him since she was eighty six and had no local family.) and to bless her for being a blessing  to those around her.  We were both pretty tearing eyed by then.  She release my hand and told me I had a sweet spirit and I told her the same.   </p> <p>It was a very moving and encouraging experience.  I do hope her journey is a good one, and I think her prayer will help mine to be better.    </p> Three Score and Ten or morehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04323013128311124905noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15862993.post-89979355938663105772012-06-21T19:46:00.001-07:002012-06-21T19:46:49.739-07:00VISION<p>In my latest tale of woe I failed to mention that in this same period of time I went to have the cataract removed from my right eye.  (I did talk about it on facebook) </p> <p>Ir was an interesting procedure, not really painful at all and it helped improve my vision a lot.  I will have the other cataract removed  next Monday.  The experience brought something to memory that had a similar result.  </p> <p>I went through my childhood without any hint of vision problems.  I never occurred to me that any one could see better than I.  When I was a sophomore in high school, I was taking Geometry (the one Math subject that I really loved and did well in==something about the way rules are set up etc.).  About six weeks into the class I found myself changing seats each class period, sometimes asking my teacher to change my seat, because the glare from the sun in the window was making it very difficult to read what was on the chalkboard. (This is really very important in geometry>)   After severa; seat changes my teacher came to sit by me, then stated that she could read the board clearly from my seat, and she suggested that I might consider asking my parents to send me for and eye exam.</p> <p>They did, and I had my eyes checked.  The optometrist checked my eyes, told me I needed glasses and that I should come in the following  Wednesday after football practice to pick up my glasses.  (He did show me a batch of frames and allowed me to pick one that I liked)</p> <p>On Wednesday I went to his office and he put my new glasses on my head, then adjusted the frames a bit, and sent me away.   I will never forget the sensation I had upon leaving the building.  I looked across the street and could see the individual bricks in the wall of the store.  I noticed that I could see individual leaves on trees.   I had this insane urge to grab pedestrians on the street and point out to them the rows of varicolored bricks on the buildings. (fortunately I resisted that urge, realizing that these people who had been seeing these things all along would call a cop or something)   I will never forget that afternoon.  It was one of the most exciting days of my life.  I felt like Superman with x ray  vision.   It was late enough that I had missed the school bus and I fairly danced the five mile walk home.  Every intersection or block brought ne exciting things to see.</p> <p>Holding my hand over the unoperated eye, looking around with my new lens was almost as exciting.  I didn’t dance around (I no longer dance around for anything unless I have to go really bad and the restroom is a long distance away), but I was newly amazed at the improvemnt in my vision.   I can hardly wait for my second surgery nest mondayl.   (I still haven’t successfully figured out how we are going to travel in July.)  </p> Three Score and Ten or morehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04323013128311124905noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15862993.post-14859445759382298372012-06-18T21:36:00.001-07:002012-06-18T21:36:40.897-07:00Still Around<p>It has been an interesting period.  About the time I wrote the last post, I was about as miserable as i have ever been, and Janet was about in the same shape.  We still had commitments to go to a time share in Florida which we love, and we had all kinds of other medical things going on.  We went to see the acupuncturist in Savannah and began some of our really crumby adventures.  </p> <p>On the way to Savannah a truck ahead of us dropped a large piece of steel off the back (as an old railroad man, it looked like a three or four foot piece of rail track).  In spite of my best efforts, I ran over the dang thing with my “drivers side” wheels and knew immediately that we had blown two tires.  I pulled off the road to the center of the expressway, and stopped till I had enough break in traffic to thump across the road when we could be on the shoulder of the road.  I then noticed another car pulling off behind us, and discovered that they too had hit the steel.</p> <p>I called AAA and waited for about two hours before the tow truck came (I don’t know what happened to the other car, but it was still sitting by the side of the road when we departed.)  The tow truck driver asked where I would like the car towed, and I said, “probably to your shop, I presume you will have tires”.</p> <p>He replied that tires were not enough, that the front driver’s side wheel had been broken in half and we would need to go somewhere where they could get new wheels as well.  I had him take me to the Savannah Mazda dealer (we were riding in a 2005 Mazda, that we paid too much for)</p> <p>We got to the Mazda dealership where we discovered that new tires (darn low profile things would be 250 bucks apiece and the wheels would be about the same (we bought cheaper tires than the original Mazda times.)  After missing the acupuncture appointment, by about six PM we were headed home in a rental car (a brand new Mazda)  The ensuing month has been one of the more miserable of my life. </p> <p>My skeleton is a mess.  I have no rotator cuffs in my shoulders, (repairable with a “reverse shoulder replacement—just the kind of fun a seventy seven –going on seventy eight year old looks forward to).  No discs between the lower four lumbar vertebrae and when my hip started hurting whenever I tried to get out of a chair, I decided that a trip to our handy dandy orthopedist was in line.  I discovered that I now have arthritis in the rest of the spine creating scoliosis  (My hip x-rays were “pristine”) and I have been placed in the hands of a pain management specialist who, after some more tests, is going to shoot my spinal column with “heaven knows what” that will make my spine and hip quit hurting.  A couple of cortisone shots in the shoulders has fixe the shoulders enough that I can put on my shirt by myself, but in large it hasn’t been a fun month.  (They did get the car fixed and realigned after only two  and a half weeks and almost three thousand dollars (Thank Heaven for insurance)</p> <p>We have committed to go to Washington for the farewell of my grandson who is going on a Mormon Mission to the Ukraine, and too a high school sixtieth reunion and to a family reunion (all of these out west in Washington, Idaho, and Utah)  We have also pre-paid for a cruise and a couple of bonus time share weeks in the next eight months.  I am feeling a little better and Janets thumb replacement is less painful but she is in pain everywhere.  It is really something that shakes us both up when only two months ago, after acupuncture etc,.we both were feeling better than we had felt in a couple of years.</p> <p>Right now, we are trying to figure out if we can do any of those things.  One shouldn’t commit to things very far in the future when you get to the three score and ten, and more stage.  We are praying about it, checking  airline prices (We have mutually decided that if we tried to drve to these places, we would have to pack our orthopedist and some other doctors in a trailer and haul them with us, to survive.)</p> <p>I am digging though my historical notes to try to fine something entertaining for my next post.  I think it may involve my son’s new  (well, newish) three legged dog which is a delight, especially if she comes to visit when Roscoe, my daughter’s basset hound is here for a few days.</p> <p>I will avoid writing about my new kidney doctor, who went almost out of his office window when he discovered that, for my shoulders, I have been taking five hundred milligrams of Naproxen each morning and each night for over twenty years.  OH well, nobody is perfect.</p> Three Score and Ten or morehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04323013128311124905noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15862993.post-34975034648440336952012-05-25T21:33:00.001-07:002012-05-25T21:33:51.416-07:00Hangin in, but just.<p>I am sick of posts that are whiny,  but I have real trouble not doing it.  I began this blog years ago with the idea of tracing the aging process as it gets into the seventies  (three score and ten or more, you know), and I shouldn’t have anything to complain about.   I have adequate finances for my needs (not for all of my “wants”, but ???)  I have a wonderful wife who loves me, and has a lot more cause to complain than I,   I have wonderful children who worry appropriately about me, but don’t stick their noses in  when not asked.    </p> <p>I went through a real lousy sick time for the past two or three weeks, and I cant even legitimately name anything that I am sick about except that I can’t seem to successfully do anything but sleep.    I don’t’ have the energy or strength to do anything.   Just sitting to post this is a chore, when for years it has been a real pleasure to try to give my point of view.   For those few readers who have followed me through the doldrums of this last year, don’t completely give up on me.   If I reach the real end of my string, I will post the tag end of it.  I wish I were fighting some terrible illness so I could get  angry and fight it, but I am just decay8ing a bit.  </p> <p>I justified the lack of posts in this blog by reminding myself that I am posting on facebook regularly.  Now, all I do on facebook is read the adventures of old friends (and occasionally get angry at their politics.</p> <p>Any way, I will try to do better.  (My spoken vocabulary has gone to pot.  I think that if the anglo-saxons hadn’t come up with a four letter word for animal excrement, I wouldn’t have a speaking vocabulary at all.</p> Three Score and Ten or morehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04323013128311124905noreply@blogger.com2