"Foolery, sir, does walk about the orb like the sun; it shines everywhere." (Twelfth Night)

.....I've been engaged in this sublime activity since August 2007, along with the medication that has been accompanying it; so, at times I point my index finger out from a cloud in order to see who would reach out to touch my finger with their finger---or is this only done in bars, or in movies, or in the Sistine Chapel?  I keep hoping that the medication would work its wonders and have someone like Jane Fonda, Marilyn Monroe, or Whoopee Goldberg be at the other end of this phantasmagorical inane episodic word play.  Doesn't usually happen--actually, it doesn't happen at all.  

.....What should happen and which hasn't is that Jon  (my stepson) should be able to get a job which is steady and long lasting and which pays well for him...he is deserving. He did have such an arrangement with some airline which moved away from Norfolk and left Jon behind.  And he loved that Job.  Today is Jon's birthday and he is several years' old.  And the good news is that he is going back to school...The school is on the internet but it's still a school which gives degrees.  I believe that Jon will be going on to study business courses.  Maybe someday he will be a stockbroker after he learns how to break some stocks.


DECEMBER 16, 2011


.....Funny thing happened today.  I had received a Citizen's watch as a gift at my retirement party last 1982, and I never had to put a battery in it.  I was so proud that I went all the way to 2011 and never needed a battery.  What I didn't know as I was bragging about the longevity of that watch is that Citizen makes watches that need only light -- not batteries.  Well, it broke down, finally, and I sent it away to California to be repaired.  I received an e-mail stating that the watch did not have the proper parts to fix it--and no wonder--it was 29 years old, and I'm sure the repair guys lost all the parts by 2011.  I was offered the choice of a new watch at half price and I grabbed at the opportunity.  I bought a new watch and I watched the tracking at the UPS web site.  I learned that the watch would be delivered yesterday afternoon.  It was never delivered!  Citizen requested UPS to ship the watch back.  So I called Citizen and learned that the reason they requested that the package be returned was that the package contained my old irreparable watch--not the one that I bought!  Can you believe that?  The repairmen are not Harvard grads, I imagine.  Well, I will just have to wait for the new watch to be on its way--I don't know when--the old one is probably still on its way back to California.

"This fellow is wise enough to play the fool..." (Twelfth Night)

.....I imagine that everyone (Ha! Everyone? How many could there be? Count them on the comments--that is, if you can find the comments for the previous blog posting.  It's like a treasure hunt.)  Any hooo--I expect that all the treasure hunters (I count about five) are concerned about my recent stupid accident.  I cannot blame myself for it because I happened to see my degrees hanging on the walls (like MDs do) so I figured I was smart enough not to fall off the scooter.  So, who can I blame, if not myself?  The engineers who put that monstrosity together are to blame.  The slightest movement of the driver's body to the right or to the left would cause the scooter to flip over--along with the driver.  It's been two weeks now since that unfortunate, unexpected surprise.  Yes, a surprise.  As I lay upon the ground in the parking lot with part of the scooter resting on my ankle, I asked myself, "Why are you falling again?"  Surprise!  I had no intelligent response, therefore I had no choice but to remove all the degrees from my  walls.  So, now , instead of just pain in my left foot there is now pain in my right foot.  This time, however, it took several stitches and a few staples to bind the wound.  For this indignity I cursed Office Depot.

.....However, I was used to being stitched like an Afghan quilt because only a few weeks earlier I had stitches put in my face after the dermatologist extracted whatever little cancer happened to have taken up residence there.  But I'm bearing up under all of this painful activity, because I've had much worse "wounds" to carry around with me for much longer periods of time.  Now, I have to admit that if not for Rhoda, my life would be much more difficult now.  Unca Phil hit the nail on the head or is it "...hit the fly with the swatter"?  She is a caregiver to me, at the same time that she is having serious medical issues of her own which is taking an unfair toll upon her life in these "golden years".  I can't begin to write of the help she is to me, as Hindy is to Phil, and I am mortified at having to depend upon her for some things I cannot do for myself -- at this time.  Yes, I have to use a walker, but I hope to graduate to a cane sometime in the future.  It is much more "genteel".  And if I grow a beard on my chin, just think how professorial I would look.   Oooo Haaah!

"Who can control his fate?" (Othello)

.....Why does this happen?  Is there some mysterious force at work attempting to send me a message--which, as yet, I haven't interpreted. We were supposed to have brunch with "Eliza" and Dick, and then go on a boat ride on the Inter-Coastal along with about 30 other people from the Ping Pong Club today; but we couldn't make it.  Obviously, and predictably I fell from the scooter in the parking lot; of course the scooter fell mostly on me and the pebbles, tearing the skin from my right elbow, both knees, and my right ankle--which at the moment appeared to be fractured, or broken.  
.....Of course, since I have been taking Coumadin for A-Fib, I spewed blood all over my sandals and over the pristine ground.  Fortunately, a young lady jogger appeared and proceeded to call 911, which number I detest.  When the medics arrived in their beautiful red truck, neighbors appeared--almost like osmosis--the last thing that I wanted--to be gawked at.  Shortly thereafter I was loaded onto a gurney, then into an ambulance, and then to the ER of the local hospital where I was expeditiously bandaged like a mummy.  Both knees, right elbow, and right ankle--which took six staples and four stitches to close up.  I needed that right foot to step on and off curbs, and in and out of cars. 


.....I can't continue this for a few days--until the pain subsides to the point where I can remember what it is I want to say; but keep checking.  


     ok Just to clarify, I did not say that I broke my ankle. It was very painful and what I wrote was that it appeared to me that there was a break there, but when I got to the hospital, they cleaned the blood from my knees and my right foot & my elbow, but x-rays showed no break.  However, there was a deep gash on the foot which required stitches and staples. They will be there for a few weeks before they can be removed.  (The stitches and staples, Joel, not the ankle.)