Hangin in, but just.

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.   

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. 

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.

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.

New Stuff for Old

Janet had surgery on her hand (thumb joint replacement) and was in a lot of pain.  We went to our time-share on Hilton Head Island where she wouldn’t have do do anything except take the appropriate pain killers and iinfection fighters and, for the most part, she did just that.  We were not able to do our usual water aerobics, in fact a shower was a bit of a challenge, and we went somewhere (to dinner, to a shop, etc. every day for about an hour.   We got home Sunday and , in spite of doing almost nothing we were both so exhausted that we slept in late on Monday.  I was concerned that some of our plants had dried out a little and was going to water them when the skies cut loose with a real gulley washer (Idaho term).    

I had an apointment today to see the eye doctor at Medical College of Georgia.  My retina specialist had shown concern that my glaucoma was beginning to be a problem and that my cataracts (I didn’t know till then that I had such) were getting larger fast., so he made an appointment with one of the other doctors in the eye practice site to have these checked out.

I am now waiting to be told when to report to  surgery to have my cataracts removed.  My vision has really been getting crappy for the last year or two and I have been blaming it on bad prescription glasses, but it seems to be cataracts. 

Jan had her’s removed two or three years ago, and it made a wonderful difference in her life.  Hope it does the same for me.  I will post in advance when this will happen.  Think good thoughts.  My shiingles are much improved though my prescription for prednisone has expired  and I have waiting for them to let me know that I am no loner in control.

That’s all the personal stuff you will get from me, and in my nest post I will try to talk bout something of general interst. 

Vacation is almost over.

We have been here on Hilton Head Island since Sunday.  I have several friends here that we intended to call, and visit or take to dinner, but we really have just “vegged out”.  We haven’t been to the pool at all (Last time we were here we did and hour of water aerobics every day),  We have shopped at the discount malls,  wandered around, and parked in front of books and of the TVs in every room (except the bathrooms).  We really couldn’t swim, because Janet just had surgery on her hand and the Dr.forbid her from getting her cast wet. 

We bought a cover up for the cast, but the one time we tried it is was not successful in keeping the cast dry.  Oh well.

I discovered just before we left home that I have shingles on my legs and some very sensitive parts of my anatomy, but a dose pack of Prednisone has kept it from being a serious problem.  (The Prednisone dose runs out tomorrow and I am a little nervous about the following few days.  We agreed to listen to some time share pitches while we are here and got a wonderful meal at the Skull Creek Boathouse out of one of them.  The saleslady was a little disgusted  at our obvious lack of intent to buy anything and suggested that the next time we are contacted so see a resort we should say no.   This,  in spite of the fact that she stated three times in her initial presentation that most of her prospects  had stated that they had no intention of buying anything, and usually did so anyway.   The fact is, that we have gone  to a lot of such pitches and have spent more money in this business than is wise.  (We just put joint will power into force.

We really needed the no pressure relaxation that we have had most of the time, and we will get back into the exercise routine after we get home Sunday.   (Monday will be tiring and probably a little painful.)  I have been ruminating about a few serious topics for blog posts, though I confess that my readership has shrink so much that it sometimes feels futile.  I really am writing for those in my family who may still be interested in what I have to say/

Thinking about it makes me tired

What can I say right now except that this getting old business is getting old.  I am sure that I would rather, since my awareness paradigm of the alternative is still based on faith, not experience, but there have been moments since I last posted that I have wondered about the advantages of just giving up and not worrying about getting old anymore.

The week started interestingly.  My wife, due to intense pain at the time, had the lower joints of her thumbs replaced about twenty years ago.  The replacements were metal and looked a little like golf tees, and  in the last few years, they wore out.  As a result, Janet's use of her hands has been limited.  This week we had scheduled the first replacement.  Monday we drove to Savannah, to St. Joseph’s hospital where they did all the preliminary blood tests, after which we went to a nice Italian restaurant and had a nice dinner.  It was a good day, except that we were scheduled to return to the hospital the next day.   We received a communication on our arrival home that our return  was scheduled a six AM. but we should be there by five thirty to get the final paperwork completed.  The Savannah hospital is  (by odometer check) sixty three miles from our house which meant that we had to leave by about four fifteen, which meant that we had to get up by—Oh heck, you get the picture.  I got us up on time, fortifying myself by some of this five hour energy stuff you see advertised on TV to make sure I would stay awake till we arrived.  We got there on time, to find a whole bunch of folks in the waiting room for out patient surgery.  We got dirty looks from most of them when the called Janet in ahead of everyone else, but we presume that her surgeon has clout there.  I sat and read the paper while Janet was doing, or having done whatever was done back there. 

The surgery was  actually performed at eight AM precisely and they called me in to watch her recover from the block, etc. that they used for surgery.  They were not able to use a complete “put to sleep” thing because her aorta is dissected and --- well.  She finally was released a little after noon.   One of the ladies in the waiting room stated that she had finished in really short time.  I smiled and said, we have been here since five thirty, to which she replied “I have been here since five”.

We had seriously under-rated that amount of pain she would be in, so we didn’t fool around in Savannah a moment, we just headed home post haste.  I got her home, went to pick up her prescriptions  immediately, brought them home and got her narcotized and in bed as fast as possible, with her arm propped up, etc.

In the meantime, I had been working in the yard almost every day to try to get the tomatoes planted the herb garden going, etc.  Last Friday I developed a sore on the back of my leg that was really irritating.  I assumed that it was a fire-ant bite, treated it with some hydrocortisone and tried to ignore it.  By the time we got home from Savannah it was really irritating.  The one thing I did with Janet before I put her to sleep was to drop my pants and show her the sore, asking if it looked like a boil was forming.  She thought not, though she expressed real concern at the inflammation. 

The nest morning, as I got out of the shower, it felt even more sore, and I had acquire some sores a little higher up, in the most sensitive of places.  I showed it to Jan again (not the sensitive places) and she observe that she though I had shingles.  I should call the Dr.  I did, and after narrating a description of the problem she got me an appointment that afternoon.  I have been just about worthless since that time.  Shingles, particularly in some of the places I have shingles, is not a pleasant experience, and if one more person says to me “Why didn;t you get the shots?”  There may be an instant assassination or attempt thereof.

We are scheduled to go into our timeshare at Hilton Head Sunday evening and part of me is rejoicing that there is little to do there but sit in the balcony and look at the Inland Waterway, or loll in the couch or the bed watching the forty six inch flat panel TV’s that litter the place.  The other part of me is worried about being away from home in a lot of pain and frustration,  (I am wondering if I can use the swimming pool etc, the way I am, and though Janet has a neat little blow-up envelope that she is supposed to be able to take into the pool, will she still be in such pain that she can’t.)

Life gets tegus some times, don’t it?

Earth Day??

Well, the forty somthingth Earth Day has drawn to a close.  I remember the first one.  I had designed the setting for a   play  for which the opening was fast approaching and we had hired an outside director to come in and direct the show.  It was a major work day to get the setting finished, but  students were released from all activities that day and I was working on the stage by myself, starting at about 7:30 AM.  I was much discouraged and disgusted, but I kept at it because it was my  first year at Georgia Southern.

( When I was a student at Idaho State College students had invented a  parody “fight song” with the words “Far above the Portneuf  River standing here are we, In an old abandoned outhouse known as ISC”)

As I finished hauling a bunch scenery in place I found myself parodying the parody and singing loudly “Far above Ogechee’s waters  slaving here are we, In an Old abandoned outhouse known as GSC”.  I heard from out in the auditorium a scream of “What did you say?”  One of the old institutionally famous faculty members had wandered into McCroan Auditorium and overheard my serenade.  He rushed to the stage and berated me thoroughly , not pausing to listen to a work of my explanation/apology and he then rushed to the College President’s office to reports me.

I began to wonder if I should call Janet and advise he to  start packing when the College President (Whose office  was next to the Auditorium lobby).  He gently asked me what I had sung and why, that irritated  my colleague form the Math Department so much.

I explained that, due to  Earth Day, I had been working without student help all day (it was about 4:30 in the afternoon) and that my deadline was  almost up, and I sang him the song.   He chuckled, told me to be careful around the “old landmarks” of the college, and told me not to worry about it.  He had sometimes felt the same way.

I will remember that Earth Day for a long time. 

Silly ruminations

This is a country that drives on the right side of the street.  In many of our activities the right side is dominant, including the spot where one can make a turn on a red light after a complete stop.  Has any one but me ever thought about the reasoning at Wal-Mart, many supermarkets and malls etc. that have you enter on the left side and exit on the right side?  It sort of walks against a natural imperative.  (One of my sons is left handed.  He probably thinks that it is about time he got the right of way—can the left hand side be the right of way or should we call it the left of way?)

Have you ever wished, as I do, that companies would adopt some standard of size and power of battery chargers and power supplies for electronic gizmos.  I have a cardboard box full of battery chargers and power supplies, and every time I decide I am going to  take the darn things either to the dump or to GoodWill, something happens that I have to root through the box through the box to compare connectors battery sizes, voltage and milliamps to find something that is absolutely crucial.

I had four or five other silly things I wanted to write about but, having sat down at the computer my old coot brain won’t remember what they were until I have finished to post and posted it.  

Getting older all the time (Which, I guess, is probably a good thing).

One of the reasons I started this blog was to trace (and tell about) some of the experiences that happen on the way to Coothood.  One thing that is irritating right now is the persistence of Song tunes and lyric (in little bits)

When I was younger I used to have the advantage of singing a lot.  I sang solos in church (I even made a little money singing in some other churches), I have had singing/speaking roles in a few dozen musical plays operetta and operas as well as choirs church choirs, Community choirs, college choirs, you name it.  I even sang with a band for a little while, and have been the chorister and/or choir director for several different Mormon congregations.

In all of this, I have learned (and partially forgotten) a myriad of tunes and lyrics.  My complaint now, is that they run through my head constantly.  Today I have been humming and thinking a hymn (I believe, but am not sure that its title is THE HOLY CITY.)  

The phrases that have been running through my mind “Jerusalem Jerusalem, lift up your voice and sing.  Hosanna to the Highest, Hosanna to your king”  ( and a lot more, but I won’t bore you with printed lyrics)  then suddenly I was singing (under my breath) “The itsy bitsy spider ran up the water spout, down came the rain and washed the spider out. Up came the sun and dried up all the rain, and the itsy bitsy spider, ran up the spout again.”

Last night while I was trying to go to sleep I couldn’t get rid of “You dig sixteen tons, and what do you get? A little bit older and deeper in debt.”  I even remember most of the lyrics to that one.  Spirituals “ DEEP RIVER, JOSHUA FIT THE BATTLE OF JERICO, EZEKIAL SAW THE WHEEL.

The most frustrating thin is that I usually can remember about half or less of every thing.  It is often a lot less classical.   A quartet, that I was in, in high school used to go round to  men’s organizations and sing.  We usually concluded  with about twenty  limericks with less than clean lyrics tied together with a connecting chorus “That was a very fine song, sing us another one, voom tiddly voom tiddley, voom tiddly voom.”  Unfortunately I can remember most of them word for word,

Other tunes that plague my are the ones we sang on busses as we traveled to “football games” , choir concerts, etch.  I remember all the words of TWENTY ONE BOTTLES OF BEER ON THE WALL.

For a while, when I would sing a phrase or two of a song that I didn’t’ remember I would Google the phrase and usually come up with a complete lyric, and sometimes a UTUBE performance  but that took up too much time.

I wonder how many old coots remember songs like that (One of my teachers used to call them “Ear wigs).  If not , they probably come up with other half remembers experiences from their past.

What is most frustrating is that I remember so many thing (as least in patches) and frequently can’t remember the name of friend (which is most irritating when you are talking to the friend.