Spent the day yesterday chasing primary care providers and specialists.  My FNP appointment was at 9 am.  She took me off Glipizide and will manage DM2 with insulin adjustments to save a little wear and tear on the kidneys.  See her in one month.  Drove to Roseburg to visit with my friend Sue and then toddled off to see Dr. K.  My labs are good, not anemic, see him in two months and he gave me a couple of candies.  He called me "Roycie" and I told him only my father was allowed to call me that but I would make an acception but that he would be a very young father.  He laughed and said he was older than me.  Nu uh! Yep, 72.  Well! Nicely preserved.  Husband stayed home being a bit under the weather.  I need more exercise just simply getting out of the danged house.  So today I shall made the arduous trip to the pharmacy and venture to the DMV to renew my driver's license.  Oy! I have to take an eye test so this could get dicey.

Cool Saturday Morning

I enjoy listening to NRP on Saturday morning, while lying in bed not quite ready to get up and face the day.  Today Scott Simon of the soulful puppy eyes and worlds greatest belly laugh was reporting on various topics.  He introduced Penn and Teller who have worked together now for 40 years.  That is longer than most marriages.  There was an interview with an author who wrote "Under Tiberius" which as near as I can tell is the story of a Roman con man who goes on the road with Jesus.  The author sounded exhausted and cynical and may have hopes of literary prizes in his future.  Another piece was a new album by a lovely young thing whose muse was Nina Simone singing Bee Gee's covers.   Strange.  Some political stuff.  And at the top of the hour I was compelled to leap from my lovely morning snooze to face the day.   No belly laugh from Mr. Simon today.  Dang it.

Haven't blogged in a while, now have new security stuff to march through and most likely forget.
Update on eyes; steady state so far, can read much better although there is a clear area in middle of left eye that compresses print, can read on each side.  This is typical of macular edema.  Hope to dry out soon.  Yesterday I woke about 2 am and the moonlight was just blasting into the neighborhood, really needed to have a fourth of July celebration going on.  It was pretty bright. So ta ta for now.

Insomnia

Dear God: Who are you? You're not Morgan Freeman are you?



I am that I am and it iz whut it iz, although I like Mr. Freeman's voice. In the interest of moving things along we will limit this interview to five question.



1. Did you create everything?




Yes, if you are paying attention that includes everything, all possibilities, and as a result all of the bad things, complaining about things is irrelevant.


2. Do I have choices?



Oh yes that is all covered in free will.



3. Do pets go to Heaven?




Refer back to created everything. Some people simply won't see pets when they go to Heaven.


4. Do you like hymn music?




My favorite is my own Heavenly Choir which has been augmented over the eons by some very talented musicians from now and then and here and there. I have always appreciated the earnest praise from all choirs and have developed selective hearing in self defense.


5. Is there one true religion? 
 

Yes and so are all of the rest.



Then God giggled and the interview was over.

Blogger won't let me import pictures.  No idea how to get around that, dang it.


So will maunder about most recent medical perplexities.  Had routine labs drawn at CVH, got hot phone call before I even got home, TAKE EXTRA POTASSIUM, recheck blood next day.  Gulped down three pills that day and three pills since.  Must be okey dokey, no panic value phone calls. Yah!!


I visit my eye doctor on the 6th. Pretty sure I will be getting a huge change in prescription if not a referral for cataract surgery.  Things are all blurry.  Takes a long time to focus.  Unfortunately I cannot enlarge my font on this particular screen, so I could by typing crap.  I have been trying to blame all my typo's on auto correct, but that will only excuse close calls.  All the walls are wavy and my parking is not straight, even when I think I am parking straight, nopey.


Oh and yesterday, was struck down by the most exquisite right ankle pain I have ever felt. Took a couple of Alleve in the hopes that is either an arthritic joint flare or an episode of gout.  On a scale of 1 to 10 yesterday was a good solid 8. Today it's down to a manageable 2.  Am keeping the cane on standby in case I have to make any sudden (for me) movement.  I sucks getting old and I am thankful it doesn't hurt as bad as yesterday. 


So, look both ways before crossing anything.

CBS SUNDAY MORNING.

SUNDAY MORNING (CBS) March 8, 2015:

There were several reports this morning and I won't cover all of them, just the ones that were particularly moving, amusing, astounding.



DOPPELGANGERS: A famous photographer (Forgot his name already) was being interviewed because he has been locating and photographing people. The piece opened with some of his pictures, all twins. Oh, so this about twins. Ok. Well the people in the photographs are not twins, not related, they just look like each other, Doppelgangers. They interviewed three or four sets; the one most striking were the two blond women who were blond, heavy set, short thick necks, same eyes, face, height and separate unrelated parents. The gentleman will be publishing this photographic project in a book soon. I really want to pre-order that on Amazon. I also got to thinking about all these look-a-likes and wondered if the entire race on earth is starting to become homogenized so that similar DNA types pop up more frequently until we have evolved to look basically like our neighbors. And I do wonder if there is another Royce somewhere. I don't know if I could stand her.



CARL REINER: He is going on 93. His career came into prominence on The Show of Shows. They aired one bit; he was interviewing Mel Brooks who was the 2,000 year old man. Carl asked him if they practiced polygamy. Mel replied, "No I was perfect". Next question was how many wives did he have. Mel replied that he had seven wives. Well how was that? Oh, it was terrible!! When I came home from work, I heard "You're late for supper, supper, supper, supper, supper, supper, supper!" I screamed in laughter, I had never heard that one before.



HAMILTON: This one was a bit astounding. An actor/author (sorry short term memory, no name) has written a play about Alexander Hamilton and the dialog is all in Rap, Hip Hop. Ugh, not my favorite song genre. However, the story is quite wonderful and after a bit I started nodding my head in time with the rapsters and it was all cool, very cool. Now the show has been off Broadway and is soon to debut ON Broadway. As I will likely never go to New York in particular for a Broadway show, I sure would like to pre-order the DVD on Amazon. 
 

DAISY A DAY: There was a piece from On The Road. Two park workers in Fond Du Lac Wisconsin had started clearing the snowy path in a park when they noticed a senior citizen sitting in his car unable to get out because of the snow bank. The park had a bench at the end of the walk way with a picture of a woman on the bench. The gentleman comes to that bench each day to leave a daisy in memory of his wife and sings her favorite song, "I'll Bring You a Daisy a Day, Dear". Big Sniff.



SELMA: President Obama gave his speech at the rally and it was quite impressive, speaking in past, present and future phrasing with his distinctive soft/hard S sound. There was none of his famous hesitation before almost every word as he thinks to say the appropriate word. Well done, my Speech class teacher would have been proud.



MONARCH BUTTERFLYS: A man in Nebraska has let 44 acres of his farm land go unplanted with the local commercial crops. He has allowed native plants, grasses and flowers to grow, especially skunk week. He has done this in response to aid the annual migration of these beautiful insects. Hooray for entomology.



The program closed with a silent picture of nature as usual. It was a Snowy Owl. Very pretty.

WEEKEND EDITION AND DAD'S THUMB, TWO COMPLETELY UNRELATED STORIES!!

Saturday March 7, 2015  



Ahhhhh Saturday the day I usually lie in bed an extra hour and listen to NPR Weekend Edition with Scott Simon.
 This morning I woke to Dame Edna being interviewed and she was telling bits and pieces and one was that "Do you know what Crow's Feet are? My mother used to say that they were the dried beds of smiles" Awwwwwwwwww. Her next story was about her cosmetic surgery. Her surgeon looked her over and recommended that she needed to have a sweet little double chin. He took out an object from the freezer wrapped in Cling wrap. She wanted to know what it was, he told her it was Elizabeth Taylor's love handle. (Hardy har har har). And if you looked carefully there are some shallow indentations which were Richard Burtons finger prints. (Hardy har har har!)



Old Mystery Solved: I was thinking about dad and his thumb. When we were kids with asked him how come his thumb got cut off. He replied, "This is what happens when you suck your thumb". Oooooooh. 


Years and years later when I worked for Walter Knox Memorial Hospital, I would occasionally have to go over to the basement of the old hospital (Mary Secor) for microfilmed records. Sounds like a Catholic hospital doesn't it? Our Lady of Mary Secor. Um no, the doctor who build the hospital named the facility after his mother. 


Anyway I began the rather tedious process of bringing the old microfilmed records to the medical record department and putting them into microfiche jackets. They were microfilmed by year in no particular order, so I had to view each record and find the name so I could record on a log in order to retrieve it more easily if the record was ever needed. 
 
Surprise! Surprise! I found an old medical record for dad. It was when he injured his thumb. He was treated and released and the cost was $37.00. I told him I had found his old medical record and he explained for the very first time, I think, that he had been working at one of the Little's homes (Prominent local family). I think he said he was up on the roof, had an accident, smashed or cut this thumb. He was taken to the hospital. When it was all done he walked to his father's house and that was the end of his day.



Additional note: The old Mary Secor hospital was built on the same grounds as the Emmett Stables. So when people snort "Were you born in a barn!?" I can reply, "Nope in a stable!".