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32 posts from November 2012

The whole world moved from our shower to our living room floor

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What do you have on your shower curtain?  Is yours just plain vanila or some color to match the decor of your bathroom?

We went educational with our shower curtain this time with a map of the world covering the whole space.  We found it at Bed, Bath and Beyond.  The bathroom is now a great place to read the international news and to get an idea of where everything is located.

I wish we would have had it when our kids were of school age.  I can't wait to show it to our grandkids.  


Eating lunch at Penn Station East Coast Subs in Lansing, Michigan

Veggie sandwich at Penn Station East Coast Subs in Lansing, Michigan.
Super-wife and I ate this past week at the new Penn Station East Coast Subs in Lansing.
We had a half hour before Central Methodist Church in Lansing started accepting shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child, so we went out to lunch.  Driving down Saginaw Street, we turned into the new Penn Station East Coast Subs.  We tried a toasted veggie sandwich that hit our taste bud's desire for something new.  The banana peppers had a high testosterone bite that wasn't harsh but memorable.  I can't describe this fast food experience as life-changing, but it was decent.
Super-wife tries out toasted veggie sandwich at Penn Station East Coast Subs.
Trying out Penn Station East Coast Subs in Lansing.


Looking at the world from my eaves troughs

Eaves
I cleaned my eaves troughs three times this fall.

Have you checked your eaves troughs this fall?  Clean them out?  It's ritual at our house where I get out the aluminum ladder and go from one end of th eave in both the front and the back.  There's always plenty of leaves, mostly from my neighbors.  Let the rains come.  Water will go down our downspouts and not into our basement.

This is the view from my chair in the ophthalmologist's office

This is my iPhone 3 picture from my seat at Lansing Ophthalmology.
This is my view from one of my usual seats at Lansing Ophthalmology.


My ophthalmologist and his practice are a really important part of my team.  I was diagnosed with cataracts at a young age and had two lens implants about 12 years ago.  Because of extreme nearsightedness, the shape of my eye changed.  This led to one the lens losing its grip and coming lose. I saw double.  The surgery to put it back into place was successful and to sure it stays in place and stays healthy, my eye doctor has seen me frequently since the surgery.  Dr. Liu and his associates are on my Thanksgiving list.  They are really important to me.

Take a magic palate ride with this desert made with pistachios and sliced bananas

My friend Ken took me on a magic palate ride with this creation.
What wine should you drink with pistachios and sliced bananas?  Picture taken with my unlocked  iPhone 3 which I purchased from Amazon.

Over the past seven years, I have had lunch with my friend Ken Alexander just about every Monday or Tuesday.  The menu is usually pretty standard with a can of Progresso soup, some oyster crackers and maybe a cookie or two or three.  A couple of weeks ago, he shook up my palate with two delightfully competing tastes and textures, pistachios and sliced bananas.  The combo made my taste buds stand up and take notice and smile.  I'd recommend it.  


What would Barry Goldwater have said about the U.S. presidential campaign for 2012?

I had trouble getting excited about the recent presidential campaign between President Barak Obama and Mitt Romney.  
I spent much of my life getting excited about political campaigns, especially those for the presidency.  They gave my life a sense or purpose and identity.  Not anymore.  At times, the recent campaign seemed like a replay of a civil war.  
People on both sides seemed to get really nasty.  It was more than the usual political trash-talking.  There seemed to be a lack of respect for anybody who hold a different view.
One politician that I really admired was Barry Goldwater who ran for president in 1964.  He was a former U.S. Senator who had a reputation for being a player in the U.S. Congress even though he was a conservative.  Other side respected him, as he did them.
He knew the art of how to make government work.
I wonder what he would have said about the recently completed campaign and how he would have reacted to the polarization that exists.
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Check my t-shirt, a gift from my son-in-law. Pic on the shirt is Barry Goldwater.



Thank-you God for my grandson Xavier and my granddaughter Gretchen

As we move into Thanksgiving next week, what and who are you thankful for?  I need to remind myself of everything and everybody I've been given.  

What a privilege and a gift to be part of a family!  

Our's started with my wife and me.  It's now eight with the most recent members being our granddaughter Gretchen and grandson Xavier.  

If I still had a resume, I could point to a bunch of neat jobs and experiences that I've had, but one of the best is being a grandpa.  I want my grandkids to know me.  Everytime they look in the mirror, they will have a reminder of me.  Their chins come in two parts.  It's a dimple.

I thank God for them, their parents and for Face Time on our Apple lap tops which allows us to visit and for our visit to their home in Bosnia earlier this year.

Here's two shots from last Sundays Face Time visit:

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My cousin just published a critically-acclaimed children's book, "Missing: Mrs. Cornblossom"

 

Colleen
My cousin, Colleen Anderson, wrote this children's book and is coming to Lansing to share it.

I'm looking forward to my cousin Colleen Anderson's visit to the Everybody Reads bookstore at 2019 E. Michigan Ave. in Lansing.  She will talk about and read from her new children's book, "Missing: Mrs. Cornblossom."  It happens from 4-6 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 8.

My wife, a retired third-grade teacher, calls it an easy-to-read story for the classroom and a good chapter book for young students to read.  

Her book is just a continuation of a lifetime of storytelling that I grew-up with when our families lived in Bay City.  She was always writing stories, drawing pictures, writing poety in grade school and high school and it never stopped after she moved to West Virginia as a volunteer who helped an economically depressed area start Cabin Creek Quilts.

Continue reading "My cousin just published a critically-acclaimed children's book, "Missing: Mrs. Cornblossom"" »


The lens implant in my right eye is back in place after emergency surgery

My eyes have lens implants as a result of cataract surgery more than 10 years ago.  The lens in my right eye moved out of place about five years ago.  It happened again on Friday when I started seeing double.

When I first noticed this change in my vision, my gut reaction was that it would go away and it didn't.  As the morning wore on, the double images became more pronounced.  When my wife handed me a cup of coffee.  I wasn't sure if the real one was on the top or bottom.

I got in to my ophthalmology practice and the doctor said that the errant lens needed to be put back in place.  He offered to do it that night, but timing with the hospital couldn't be worked out, so it was done yesterday.

All the possibilites for outcomes were explained to me with the first and preferred one being a turning of the lens to reestablish it in the right location.  The third and most extreme would require draining the vitreous fluid from the eye and grabbling pieces of the lens and then rebuilding from that point.

The first and best choice is what happened.  I was put under a general anesthetic and within 20 minutes it was back in place.

In a few minutes, I get it checked out.  There's a bunch of new eyedrops and then, hopefully, its back to normal.

Thank God for my eye doctor, the hospital and, especially, for my wife who kept an eye on me and everything else.

And, yes, the last thing I talked about in the OR before it was lights out was my new granddaughter Gretchen Kate who was born yesterday in Bosnia.

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Eye patch is off today and I seem to be seeing well or is it good.



Leaving for the hospital to have lens implant in my eye put back in place

In a couple of hours, I'll be leaving for the hospital for an hour-and-a-half surgery to have a lens implant in my right eye put back in its right place.  After I woke-up yesterday, I noticed that I was seeing double and it didn't going away.

The same thing happened five years ago and was repaired by my ophthalmologist, Dr. Kevin Liu.  As a result, I had a hint that it was the same problem.

The lens implant was put in after I was diagnosed with cataracts about 12 years ago.  I had implants in both eyes.  The immediate result was amazing with my vision improving to the point where I almost didn't need eyeglasses after being severely nearsighted from the time I was in grade school.  

As a result of my nearsightedness, my eyeball changed shape and somehow altered the geometry of its interior which enables it to grip the new lens.  That's what is apparently causing the problem.

My surgeon today is Dr. Jospeh Wilhelm from the same Lansing Ophthalmology practice.  There are three scenarios of what could happen, all with varying degrees of complexity.  It's outpatient, but will require a general anesthetic.

Now, I go into this with a big smile on my face because of the birth of my granddaughter in eastern Europe last night our time and early this morning their time.  Her name is Gretchen Kate and joins big brother Xavier Dominick.  We are really proud of our super-daughter, Krista and our super-son-in-law Adam.

So, it's a busy weekend.  No eating or drinking this morning.  

I thank God for Gretchen Kate and her family and for ophthalmologists and particularly today, Dr. Wilhelm.

 

Cassie
This is Cassie, the surgical coordinator from the office of my eye doctor.

Gretchen
Gladys took a big sip of Riesling to celebrate Grethcen's birth.