Where were I ??

Folks may wonder what I have been doing that has kept me from the business of keeping up with blogging for the last three months. Well, my 85th birthday sort of got me thinking that I didn’t have a lot of time left and I should be using what time there was in “doing” instead of writing about things I had done. I love to read and I hadn’t done much of that recently and the “NOOK” was sitting right there ready to help me do it. So below is a list of books (not literature) that I have read since May 18, 2010.

“The Promise” by Jonathan Alter
“Point of Origin” by Patricia Cornwell
“The Cove” by Catherine Coulter
"A Dangerous Fortune” by Ken Follett
“The Surgeon” by Tess Gerritsen
"The Apprentice” by Tess Gerritsen
“K is for Killer” by Sue Graftin
“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” by Stieg Larsson
“The Girl who Played with Fire” by Stieg Larsson
“The Naked Viscount” by Sally MacKenzie
“Think of a Number” by John Verdon
“Loitering with Intent” by Stuart Woods


In addition, I have nibbled at, but not completely read:

“The Federalist” by Alexander Hamilton and friends
The Invention of Air by Steven Johnson
Poems by Vachel Lindsay
The King James Version Holy Bible Edited by God
Essential Tales and Poems by Edgar Allen Poe by Same

Barnes and Noble say they have well over a million ebooks available so I think I can stay with reading as long as need be.

Scattered Thoughts for August

I love the story of the flight attendant that blew his stack at the passenger who thought the rules didn’t apply to him/her. When I was very young, I got furious at my boss. I went to the locker room, got my coat, and went home – at 2 in the afternoon. Next day I came to work wondering if I still had a job. My boss did the most hurtful thing he could have done to me. He never said a word about my disappearing act that I thought of as a big grandstand play, It made me mad at him all over again.

[Can anyone tell me why my computer will not print an apostrophe? I get a [ instead. Also, I cannot put quotation marks in front of the letter O. When I try, I get Ö. It sort of reminds me of the Geico TV commercial. The two little eyes peeking over the O. ]

Sally has recovered from the nasty cat bite she got a couple of weeks ago. She now needs to recover from two trips to the ER, Two potent antibiotics, one hefty shot of one antibiotic, and multiple OTC pills of antihistamine.

Florida Politics

After a brief (?) pause, I hope I am back for some more blogging. While I have been off, I've had the misfortune of having to watch a lot of commercials for the various candidates for governor and US Senator. This year there was no fooling around. They jumped right in with the negative ads and just kept getting more negative. What disturbs me the most is the use of the phrase "career politician" as a pejorative, suggesting that politicians that have devoted their lives to public service are somehow dishonest or, at least, tainted in some way. I know that may sometimes be true, but I believe that, in general, public service is an honorable pursuit. By the same token, I do not believe that an "outsider" is by definition more qualified or more honest than a career politician to participate in government.

We have a fellow running for governor who readily confesses that while he was collecting multi-millions of dollars from the company he was CEO of, the company received record sized fines from the the US Government for defrauding Medicare. Now he says he has learned his lesson and that is probably true, but should he be disparaging politicians just because they have spent their careers as a part of government?

We have another fellow who also makes his claim to fame as a successful businessman with lots and lots of money. Turns out his wealth was made bigger by his use of credit swaps (what ever they are) to bet against the economy when the recent recession was getting started. The more the economy suffered, the more money he made. And this guy also makes the career politician his whipping boy. No thanks. He'll not get my vote.

I was already to write a rave review of the Barnes and Noble Nook e-reader when Monday, B&N dropped the price from $253 to $199. Guess which price we paid. I’ve cooled off a little and decided that if I was happy before the price came down, I shouldn’t be bitter about someone else’s good fortune.

The Nook is quite fabulous and I love it. I have read four books since we got it. Also, I have downloaded the “Poems of Vachael Lindsay” and a collection of Edgar Allan Poe poems and stories.( I have a confession: I enjoy reading poems out-loud – to myself alone and late at night.) Someone asked me Sunday why I liked the Nook. I answered that that was the question I had been asking myself. Not having an answer ready was what had delayed my writing a blog about it. Today, I will try. First I can enlarge the font and I do not have to fool around with a magnifying glass. People with decent vision would discount that. A feature I like so much that I may never go back to a book–book is that it always knows where I stopped reading. With a book, I never got used to using a bookmark and always had to read several pages to find my place. Books to read are easy to find and download. I search through B&N’s website on my Mac until I find a book I am interested in. Then I go to “Shop”on the Nook and search by author and buy the book. It is downloaded to my Nook in seconds. (The gal at telephone “help” walked me through configuring the Nook to use my own router.)

I suppose I should mention the lower price for books plus there are a bunch of “Free” books available. Whatever the reason, I am addicted.

The corporation that includes the CCRC (Continuing Care Retirement Community) in which we live, and over a dozen others, was named “Classic Residence by Hyatt” until last week.. Last week they took a bold step and renamed themselves. The new name, announced with champagne parties across the country in every one of their communities, is Vi (pronounced vee). It landed among current residents like a lead balloon.

Reportedly, two years of market research and name development went into the decision to change and the search for an appropriate name. The results indicated that the baby boomers coming along want a more active lifestyle in their retirement years than currently offered by retirement facilities. But one analysis of the results suggests that while current residents traditionally have moved in at ages averaging in the mid-eighties, the new strategy would target a younger entrance into retirement community living. One can visualize an advertising campaign aimed at sixty year olds that stresses the advantages of using a CCRC as a base for the lifestyle of travel and sports they desire. Current residents may not like some of the change in emphasis needed to make the new positioning a reality, but if done right it should make life more interesting for every generation.


In my personal experience, I resisted moving into this place when I was in my early seventies. I thought I was too young. I thought that moving here was some sort of surrender. Like many others, I soon realized I was wrong and that I retained the freedom to do pretty much what I wanted. I even wished I had made the move sooner.

The name ”Vi” is more than a little bizarre but demonstrates that management is willing to take chances with big change. I think the new positioning will succeed and lead to a shift in the whole industry.

Calling All Inventors!!!

Do you have any idea how many old folks are standing back on the boardwalk wishing they could walk down to the water and out a few yards?

Can't some clever fellow develop a "sand cane" based along the lines of a ski pole which could assist walking in soft sand. A regular cane is no use at all. It sinks in the sand down to china and is a devil to pull out for the next step The right design and you could make billions --- or many just cover your costs and make a lot of people happy. Simply find a good lawyer to write a waiver for buyers to sign agreeing it is the buyers fault if he falls down and drowns.

Beach Day

While talking food and all the current emphasis on eating healthy the other day with a friend, he said that he had no objection to eating “healthy” at home; but by golly, when he went out to eat, he wanted to eat "UNhealthy" and enjoy it! The picture above is just to show that I think he has a useful and valid philosophy. A group of us went over to the beach yesterday for breakfast at John G’s. For Sally and I, it was a reward for a rotten week of hospital tests, tension, and fatigue, Believe me I finished every morsel on that plate.
After breakfast, Sally and I went out to the end of the long fishing pier located right there. It was hot, but beautiful. The ocean was calm and sparklingly clear, contrary to the fears of many. No sign of the Gulf coast’s tar. We both got mild sunburns and Vitamin D to last a week. I slept all afternoon.

One Tiny Corner of the Immigration Flap

There, of late, has been a lot of negative noise made about immigration, immigrants, and illegal immigrants. I’ve had a spell of less that sparkling health lately and I got thinking about the team of doctors that have pulled me through. My cardiologist is from Israel. My oncologist has two unpronounceable names that I have never explored the origin of. My rheumatologist came from the United Kingdom. His wife is from Iran and he makes frequent visits to Iran to give medical assistance to the poor. My vascular surgeon was born and raised in Cuba. It is amazing to hear him switch from English to Spanish without a pause as he changes patients. My urologist is plain old All-American Jewish. Finally, I suspect that our family doctor and the heart surgeon who fixed me up are both preceded my enough generations in this country to have dropped any racial or nationality hypens from just American.

Where would I be without immigration? (Buried back in jolly old England).

The Golden Years

GOLDEN YEARS, my A**! Ooops! Sorry, every once in a while that thought just bubbles up and out. We just went to the super market and it hurt going, there, and back. The driver that takes us is very nice. He lets everyone else out at the entrance, then drives me the 75 feet to the exit where the electric carts with the big baskets are parked. We get there at twenty to the hour and the bus is back for us at fifteen after the hour. That is less than forty five minutes to get a week’s worth of shopping done. Rush, rush. I admit we can stay for two or even three runs of the bus, but our choice seems to be to do the one-run rush.

We had a lot of fun over the last couple of weeks. It doesn’t seem to hurt as much when pure pleasure is the objective. We went out to dinner innumerable times with all kinds of excuses and several times with a real purpose, ie., birthdays, Mothers’Day, graduation celebrations, and a bunch of times just because we felt like it. Last Saturday, Sally rode up to Orlando with daughter Mary to attend Ann’s graduation ceremony (two more Masters’ degrees). For the last week we rented a car and did the accumulated chores and errands. You know, important stuff like replacing some dead fish and getting fresh batteries in wrist watches. You can’t do that sort of thing on scheduled transportation.

O. K. now we return to our normal social life – doctor visits and physical therapy sessions. The GoldenYears.

For those of you that don't recognize this fellow, he is a purple gallinule. This particular one had quite a sense of humor. He used to jump (fly) up on to the dock when I rode my bicycle out onto it. Believe it or not, in this picture he is on his way to untie my shoe laces. (He may have thought they were food, but I like the sense of humor premise.)

I seldom get down to the dock any more, but I doubt that the gallinules are still around, there has been a lot of development since this picture. But I am sure that they are still building nests somewhere in the wetlands of Florida. I just wanted to post the picture to remind us how many beautiful creatures we will lose if the Oil Spill gets caught in the Gulf stream and makes its way onto the coast of Florida and seeps a little further in-land. Man shouldn't really have the right to destroy such peace loving beauty.

OUTRAGEOUS !

$106,000! That’s one hundred and six thousand dollars!! That’s how much the hospital charged for the simple little angioplasty I had last month. That doesn’t include the surgeon who did it nor the anesthesiologists that put me to sleep. Needless to say, Medicare sliced that down by orders of magnitude.. After Medicare and my insurance paid their share of a much smaller number, I have only to pay $211, which isn’t bad. But consider the poor guy that has no insurance. He simply couldn’t have the procedure. Now I understand the why of Obama’s Healthcare bill. Let’s get it cranked up in a hurry.

These hospitals say they have to overcharge to pay for all the charity work they do. I know my hospital has handled a bunch of patients from the Haiti earthquake, but don’t put the onus of paying for them on poor Americans. This is just plain ridiculous!

$106,000! Cheez!!

I Did a Bad Thing

My conscience never kicked in. It was overpowered by laughter. I flat-out stole the following from Kenju's blog IMAGINE...(Always a source of Joy.)


1. I think part of a best friend's job should be to immediately clear your computer history if you die.
2. Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you
realize you're wrong.
3. I totally take back all those times I didn't want to nap when I was
younger.
4. There is great need for a sarcasm font.
5. How the heck are you supposed to fold a fitted sheet?
6. Was learning cursive really necessary?
7. Map Quest really needs to start their directions on #5. I'm pretty
sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.
8. Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the
Person died.
9. I can't remember the last time I wasn't at least kind of tired.
10. Bad decisions make good stories.
11. You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work
when you know that you just aren't going to do anything productive for
the rest of the day.
12. Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after Blue Ray? I
don't want to have to restart my collection...again.
13. I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me
if I want to save any changes to my ten-page research paper that I swear
I did not make any changes to.
14. "Do not machine wash or tumble dry" means I will never wash
this - ever.
15. I hate when I just miss a call by the last ring (Hello? Hello?), but
when I immediately call back, it rings nine times and goes to voice
mail . What did you do after I didn't answer? Drop the phone and run
way?
16. I hate leaving my house confident and looking good and then not
seeing anyone of importance the entire day. What a waste.
17. I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to
answer when they call.
19. I disagree with Kay Jewelers . I would bet on any given Friday or
Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Lite than Kay.
20. I wish Google Maps had an "Avoid Ghetto" routing option
21. Sometimes, I'll watch a movie that I watched when I was younger and
suddenly realize I had no idea what the heck was going on when I first
saw it.
22. I would rather try to carry 10 plastic grocery bags in each hand
than take 2 trips to bring my groceries in.
24. I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and
hunger.
25. How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod
and smile because you still didn't hear or understand a word they said?
26. I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars team up
to prevent a jerk from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers
and sisters!
27. Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get
dirty, and you can wear them forever.
28. Is it just me or do high school kids get dumber & dumber every year?
29. There's no worse feeling than that millisecond you're sure you are
going to die after leaning your chair back a little too far.
30. As a driver I hate pedestrians, and as a pedestrian I hate drivers,
but no matter what the mode of transportation, I always hate cyclists.
31. Sometimes I'll look down at my watch 3 consecutive times and still
not know what time it is.
32. Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car
keys in a pocket, finding their cell phone, and Pinning the Tail on the
Donkey - but I'd bet everyone can find and push the snooze button from
3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time, every time!

When Approaching Old Age

The other day I was reading an article, I think it was on ThirdAge.com, about how to age gracefully and happily. It made several points, but the one that struck me was about being foregiving. It quoted the old saw that holding a grudge is like drinking a glass of poison and hoping the other guy will die.

I thought that over and decided that I really no longer hold any grudges. I do remember a few I held for quite a while, but I have long since decided that they were silly. I guess that is sort of the equivalent of forgiving. There was the company clerk in the Army that fixed the books so that he got to return home a month before I did – even though we should have gone home at the same time. But he was just getting even. I had caught him stealing a pair of gloves from the supply room. Are you listening, Lester? I forgive you.

That high school English teacher who gave me a “C” and kept me off the honor roll my last semester makes the list. Really, it was my mother that stayed angry about that. If the teacher hadn’t got mad at me, I would have been on the honor roll every semester in high school. I heard she wept when she found out what she had done. Heck, all I did was stand up and walk out of her class without permission. Did any of this change the course of my life? Naw!

Speaking of grades – There were two of us in our freshman year of college with the same first and last names. His middle initial was G and mine was S. At the end of the first semester, he got my grades and I got his. I didn’t realize what happened , but I appealed those I was given and got them corrected. They let him keep mine, but I never knew if he appreciated that my hard work saved his butt. Just a memory, not a grudge.

I think the article was right. You will have a happier time as you age if you forgive the insults and dislikes of your life and concentrate on the good people and events that have enriched your travels through life.

OK, I know it is foolish, but I was reading last night about how the big fad now is to photograph everything one eats , so I decided to try it. -- for one day
.
I missed picturing my appetizer for dinner. It was a saucerful of about a dozen mussels sauteed in a bunch of exotic sounding stuff which I forget. Good.
In case my unexcellent photograph disguises the identity of my menu-- breakfast was an english muffin with whipped cream cheese, grapes, a banana, orange juice and 14 pills. Lunch was pickle and pimento loaf on white, yogurt, two sugar wafers, one left-over Easter chocolate and a diet Coke. Dinner consisted of the aforementioned mussels, roast chicken with cranberry sauce, creamed spinach, beets, cranberry juice and dessert of soft-serve swirl (vanilla and chocolate)

Now if anyone gives an old clay tinker's dam about my nutrition I'll be mighty surprised. About the only thing I learned is that my wife was shocked when I whipped out my camera at the dinner table and that the camera time-stamp is still set on EST.

I hear that next month the U S Postal Service will honor with a stamp the greatest cartoonist of the great generation. Hooray for him and for those who honor Bill Mauldin. I was a combat infantryman many moons ago. I remember laughing at his cartoons even as I was feeling like his characters looked.

From the time the war was over until this day, every time I have seen Willie and Joe, I have felt a moment of pride that I carried a rifle into combat with those two. There were times that we will never forget. But as years has gone by. the awful parts of the memories have faded somewhat and the comic moments have become more distinct. Bill Mauldin had the talent to collapse that transition time and make us see the humor while the ugliness was still with us. He amused the world while he represented all riflemen in the Army.

Thoughts of the Day

Oh Gosh! We elect a guy from Chicago and what should we expect? He opens the whole Atlantic coast line for oil drilling! Those mid-westerners have no appreciation or love of beaches!

There is something that puzzles me. We catch law-breakers, put them in jail, and it costs the tax-payers a fortune to keep them there. So what is wrong with the tax-payers making a few dollars from the wrong-doers? People write into the local newspapers and say, “You are not installing red light cameras for safety, you are doing it to raise money!” OK, I am the guy that said the state could solve their budget problems by sending troops of state police down to Route I 95 and give tickets to every speeder on the road. The state would make a bundle every day until the word got out.


The “helical” (spiral), long life bulb in my desk lamp burned out the other day. It was practically new. So much for trying to be a “green” citizen. It cost twice as much as the incandescent bulb it replaced and lasted half as long. I’m back to nice, round incandescent. I like the light from the old-fashioned bulbs better anyway.

I wonder how long it will be before all buildings will be made cell phone friendly and the line phones will join the dinosaurs. Then, if someone would please invent a way to send electricity wirelessly, we could get rid of all those ugly telephone poles and their ugly wires.

Apple Magic Mouse

This is just a brief product endorsement. Several weeks ago I indulged myself and purchased an Apple Magic Mouse. I love it! You can find a list of the great features of this product at the Apple Store online. Believe what you read. I had tried it several times in their local retail store and was somewhat afraid it might be too small for my hand. Quite the contrary my hand, without thought, found a natural fit. My arthritic fingers are delighted. Scrolling is a breeze. Wireless and slim, I can always find a space to use it on my messy, crowded desk. It shuts itself down when not in use, so it is easy on batteries. Try it, youll like it.

Solutions for D.C.

Here I am, back from a short hospital and nursing home visit. This morning I had my post-op visit to the surgeon that did the carving. He is very happy about the outcome of this latest procedure. If he is happy, I guess I am too.

A visit to the nursing home is always a chance to watch too much (to the saturation point) television. But the problem was that TV was non-stop chatter about the Obama Healthcare bill. I am a Republican. Always have been, but getting antsy lately. As a frequent consumer of health care I am well aware that something needs fixing in a hurry or we are going to see a crisis. All the members of Congress must know that too. So why the obstructionist approach by my party? I also know that the bill put forth by the democrats isn’t perfect, but it is not nearly the disaster that the hysterical naysayers would have the public believe. Just a little calm negotiating on the part of the Republicans could have turned it into a piece of legislature that everyone could have been proud of. And turning those pathetic rabble-rousers loose in the Capitol streets was not a good way to strengthen the Republican Party for the future.

Now Mr. President, let’s get busy creating JOBS.

Second Chance

One of the good things about being old is that you can reread old mystery books knowing full well that you have read them before but without the faintest clue as to who-done-it. A corollary to that is that you can stay up all night finishing the book and sleep in the next morning no matter what day of the week it happens to be. Old age and retirement have their good points.

I went back in time the other day to 1982 when Sue Grafton published her first of her alphabet series, “A is for Alibi”. Her powers of description and ability to create a mental image were astonishing even then. As I got deeper into the book, I had little flashes of memory, but never complete enough to prevent the ending from blowing me away. ( That’s a joke in case you haven’t read “A” in decades.) Now I have to get the latest. My first question will be, “Has Kinsey got herself a cell phone yet?”

I have read most of Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories several times and most of Tony Hillerman more than once. I think that Hillerman was the best craftsman, but he allowed himself the largest palette. I plan to continue reading mysteries over and over as long as I can. They seem to, like so many things, get better with age.

Tiger Woods’ little speech yesterday was certainly way down the list of the most important events of the week, but it sure got a lot of talk-talk. What annoys me about him is his whine about the photographers bothering his wife and kids. Sure, that is not nice, but whose fault is it? I don’t sense that Tiger realizes that the intrusive photographers wouldn’t be anywhere in sight if he, Tiger, hadn’t been such a jerk. (Can you tell that I can’t spell the word that means intrusive photographers? And it isn’t in my dictionary.)
Tiger owes his billion dollars to the attention the press paid him. Don’t blame them for his fourteen overnight pals.

Enough about him. I read that the big banks are very unhappy that the proposed new regulations (that they may have to live by) may cost them 221 billion dollars in profits. Do I care? No, not when I wonder how much they cost the little Joes and Janes that have lost their jobs and savings as a result of the banks gambling and losing, but then getting bailed out like us folks weren’t.

Bayh probably cooked his own goose as far as his presidential hopes went. But I would have been ashamed to be in the current do-nothing Congress too. Those folks get a nifty salaries to participate in the governing of the United States. They don’t do that. They live high off the hog and do nothing but tend to their own party business. Let’s unelect the whole bunch in November.

This has been National Cardiac Rehabilitation Week. Did you do right by your heart?