Daily Grit by Wes Thorp

What have I learned from my "eye-journey" over the past seven months?

 

This is Gladys at my last eye appointment while waiting for the doc. She was checking her eyelids for holes.

I had days this winter when I wondered if this day would ever come where my eyes felt normal and my vision seemed almost perfect.  I got the answer this past Thursday when Gladys and I went for my appointment with Dr. Wolfe from Beaumont hospital who holds office hours in our town every other week.

He did the latest surgery on my errant right eye where the lens implant kept falling out of place and would lay on the bottom of the eye.  The surgery was complicated and it involved draining the vitreous out of my right eye and attaching the implant to the schlera of the eye.  This followed surgery a month before for a detached retina.  And I had two more surgeries before that.

My vision seemed really compromised and I was starting to wonder if it would ever come back.  I felt like I was in the wilderness and I wondered if I would ever cross the Jordan.  Well, I have.

The good news from the doctor's lips

Dr. Wolfe confirmed what I was already experiencing.  The lens implant was still in place, my vision was improving steadily and there still was no pain from the last surgery.  He said it was time to get a new prescription for my glasses.  

I felt almost in shock that this chapter in my heath experience was almost over.  Whether this lasts for a short or long time, I'm ready.

What lessons can we learn for today from the 1971 release of the Pentagon Papers

How many of you are familiar with the Pentagon Papers that were leaked by Daniel Ellsberg?  They showed in bold relief how the federal government lied about Vietnam and what it was doing there?

I'm not sure I understand how that's different than the fellow who leaked the information about the NSA tracking program.  Ellsberg is venerated as a hero and this new guy will probably at the very least be a fugitive for the rest of his life.  Check this YouTube video:

 

Can anybody explain why the popular Ford Fusion is being manufactured in Mexico?

Buy a Honda or a Toyota in this part of the country and it's easy to be a target for some pretty harsh criticism for not buying American.  And this happpens even if your car is made just down the road in Indiana.

Now take Ford and it's new Fusion model which is so popular that dealers have a hard time keeping them in stock.  The Detroit News writes about the car in today's edition where about halfway down in the story it reveals that most of the Fusions are made in Mexico.

Why wouldn't Ford make them all here?  The company has to have the manufacturing capacity.  The UAW and other unions seem to be completely silent on this.  Why?  I don't get it.  Can anybody help me understand?

This is from today's Detroit News:

Ford manufactures the Fusion at its three-shift assembly plant in Hermosillo, Mexico, and this year will add a shift of production at the Flat Rock Assembly Plant.

“Clearly, it's a matter of getting more stock out to those regions of the country and that's what we plan to do in the fall when we get Flat Rock on line,” he said.

The Hermosillo plant can produce about 300,000 Fusions annually; the new Flat Rock shift will be able to make another 100,000, or more than 8,000 per month.

From The Detroit News: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20130614/AUTO0102/306140029#ixzz2WBrhh0bH

 

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Ford Adding 200000 to Capacity as Fusion, F-Series Gain - Bloomberg

Is God an imaginary friend not based in reality?

When I open my computer, the first site I usually go to in the morning is Radio Bible Class and their Our Daily Bread devotional.  I try to use it in the same way that one uses a flint to make a fire.  There's a spark that grows into a fire.

Today's devotion raises the question of whether God is real or just a figment of our imagination, a pretend friend.  Then the author of the devotion goes on to defend the reality of God.

The reality of God is something that I need to remind myself of everyday.  It's easy to glide right on by this most important part of life.