April Agonies

THE LONELY GOOSE

We have a lot of geese from our friends in Canada.  But the white goose in our immediate neighborhood is a bit unique.  Rebecca has penned a short story about it.  The editor has more comments about health below.

Goosey Goosey Gander

Whither shall I wander

Upstairs downstairs

Or in my lady's chamber

There met an old man

Who wouldn't say his prayers

So I took him by the left leg

And threw him down the stairs 

They say that geese mate for life.  So I was not much surprised when we saw a  pair wandering  around together in a field near us inspecting mud puddles.  I supposed that they were looking for a likely nesting site.  But after a few days one of them disappeared.  Oh dear!  The other goose wandered about disconsolately for several days.  But then she found a friend - sort of.  This goose found a cement goose that has been hanging around decorating a pond for years.   In a strange case of unrequited love the goose hangs hopefully around its lifeless friend, honking at it and even cuddling with it.  Heaven only knows what it might be thinking.  The cement goose could be having odd thoughts too for that matter! A couple of times I saw the goose waddling slowly up the road, looking, I suppose for a life mate.  But the next day she is back again hoping for the best! (We don't  know if it is the female or male. -dt)

When we have not been watching geese we have been entertaining doctors.  Dan especially has been providing various symptoms that the medical staff here abouts seem unwilling or unable to figure out.  After talking funny for quite a while, the final diagnosis seems to be thyroid cancer. (Actually a paralyzed vocal cord. -dt) Did I say final, I should have said semifinal. We are still waiting for a stress test,  And some kind of scan. I think he has had every part of his anatomy either scanned or scoped or tested. All the tests seem to wait on other tests.  If all goes as planned this may result in surgery in August.  So keep your fingers crossed and pray.  I wish Dan would stop showing off and just have an ordinary gallbladder operation.(I apparently have a gallstone. -dt)  I had a few medical issues myself but compared to Dan I am a piker.  After the thyroid we still have the two arthritic knees, the sciatica, and the anemic blood. Not to mention myasthenia gravis. Not to mention chronic grumpiness. I guess when you see all this the grumpiness is understandable but so is my depression.

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This is the editor; I am going to amplify and fill in the remarks by Mrs.T.  This is all rather personal and we do not know if you care. But we know many of you are interested in what is going on with us.  April started a bad summer of health issues.  Not only for the Editor but also for the Muse.  She has had some mobility issues of her own.  She has been going to rehab and that is slowly helping.  She has been a major help around the house with the daily chores.

One or two of the health items that Mrs.T mentioned would have been sufficient to derail normal activities for the Editor.  Having so many things at the same time has been the challenge: severely arthritic knees, anemia, paralyzed vocal cord, sciatica, general weakness, and finally thyroid cancer.  This newsletter has been slightly delayed in order to bring you the latest news as of the beginning of August. So here goes.

The myasthenia gravis is stable and has not advanced beyond ocular. The cause of the anemia has not been determined but a couple of infusions of iron improved my blood enough to allow a stress test which is necessary for any operation.  The paralyzed vocal cord - which may or may not be the result of the thyroid condition - quite probably will stay that way.  Hence, my new voice.  I was scheduled for a knee replacement but that has been put on hold pending resolution of the thyroid problem.  I did receive a shot in each knee that helped a bit.  But walking is painful and difficult.  Still working on the sciatica.  Resolution of the thyroid cancer is pending more tests and another biopsy.  Thyroid cancer is generally not as deadly as most and is usually cured by surgery.  However, the location of mine precludes surgery and another method will be used.  I am working with the JAMES at OSU, one of the best places in the country for cancer treatment.  That is about it as of the start of August.

Only one photo this month.  Can you tell which is real?

https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjBC9au

Many thanks to our neighbor HLM who has been a big help.  And her girls are cute.

Hope all of you are staying cool and hydrated.

Dan and Rebecca

www.casa-de-terrible.blogspot.com

Sent from Outlook

Back in Philo

HOME AND HEALTH

We knew we would have some problems with our heating when wee returned to Philo.  Our wonderful neighbors who had been watching the house for us had been informing us that the heating was not up-to-par.   Fortunately our house is well-built and there was no worry of freezing.  But it was not quite warm.  Our kind neighbors provided us with some space heaters to make the place habitable.

We did not realize the cause would be the gas well going dry.  That cascaded into a whole series of repairs.  As our appliances were too old to convert from natural gas to propane, all new ones were in order, including a heat pump and furnace.  Perhaps we could have converted to all-electric instead of propane, but our previous experience told us that would be expensive operationally, especially in the winter.  We will need to see how much propane costs, but we have a 500 gallon tank in the back now that should be more than sufficient.

Here is Mrs.T's take on things:

We came home earlier than usual so that I could see the eclipse.  And it was a very nice eclipse and did not disappoint.  My brother Drew and his wife Sharon live in Cleveland which was a place with full viewing so we got to do two very nice things at once.  We ate one of Sharon's lovely home cooked meals and then we watched the eclipse.  I admit it is slightly brazen to call someone up and say, "We are coming to your house to watch the eclipse, okay?"  But you know  me and so do they and we all had a wonderful time. (Thanks Brenda for getting us glasses. -dt)

Unfortunately,  we came home to some very bad news.  My little gas well, which I made fun of a lot, was running dry.  I used to mock my fortune when I would get checks for $27 or $32 for a quarter. (Our royalty checks. -dt)  Little did I know.  The thing was,  we got free gas for the furnace, the stove, the hot water heater, and the clothes dryer.  Now I have to go out back and pull out a little thingy with pliers and if mother nature is kind we will get enough gas to run one of our appliances for a while.  So we are in the process of getting all new appliances, rewiring electrics, and plumbing for propane.  Not to mention getting a big fat propane tank.  (And a new HVAC system. -dt) I was using the Royal We.  Really Dan had to do all this because I am not good at telephoning.  All of this as you can imagine was a great pain and further complicated by the fact that many service people are wimps and are afraid to come down our hill with their trucks.  (It is a sizable hill. -dt)

This is in addition a great expense for all this stuff at once and it was not even broken!  Needless to say Dan and I are extremely annoyed.   And neither one of us is that patient to start with.  I am firmly convinced the companies involved could make this all work smoothly and efficiently at very low cost if they wanted to.  I also wonder what happens to our old appliances.  I asked if we could donate them but was told "no" we had to pay a fee to have them removed.  Seems fishy to me! (Mrs.T does not understand corporate America very well. -dt)

So we have the new appliances picked out and delivered. (That was an ordeal of incompetent delivery people. -dt) And now we are ready to get electric and  propane.  (Finally installed. -dt)  At which point we will have three weeks worth of laundry to do (more actually. -dt) and can finally begin eating normally.  Now having a functional washer and dryer,  we are much relieved not to worry about diminishing piles of clean underwear.

When we came home I made a few orders from my favorite catalogs.  When I was modeling a new dress Dan said it looked like a nightgown.  I was quite concerned and disappointed.  I have never had much faith in Dan's fashion sense but then I never had much faith in mine either.  What to do?  I bravely wore it to an art opening.  It was a triumph!   At least half of the people I ran into, both acquaintances and strangers complimented me on my new dress.   I decided that Dan might know more than I about every subject under the sun - just ask him - but I knew more about women's clothes.  I also bought some new shoes.  If I tried a bit I could get into clothes shopping.  (Heaven forbid. -dt)

In addition to all of our householders' woes, we have our regular old people doctor problems. (And some new ones. -dt)  I swear between us, Dan and I have specialist doctors for all of our body parts.  We do not have a leg doctor; we have a knee doctor and an ankle doctor.  How silly is that? (The US healthcare system is not designed for maximum efficiency. -dt) In fact we have discovered parts that we did not know we had let alone what they are good for.  For example, I found out that I am low in magnesium.  I did not know I had any!  Well evidently I don't have enough.  Next week I have a stress test.  I think I should pass that, I have lots of stress. (She did get a passing score; her heart is okay. -dt)  We now have done about ½ of our doctor's appointments. But as each appointment yields two more we are no further ahead.   In fact we will probably keep on making appointments until we molder in dust.

Dan is getting a pretend right knee in July.  (Probably get the left one next April; mobility is currently impaired. -dt)  I have two.  They hurt a lot when I got them but then I felt better.  This is because of arthritis.  (The editor's arthritis is worse. -dt)  I try to hold firm on two things:  1) No more strokes;  2) No more cancer.  I do not feel real strongly about dying one way or the other.

I would like to clean up my office first which does make me practically immortal.  In fact I would like to give away a lot of my useless junk.  There is some of my useless junk I need to keep for no particular reason. So if anyone needs junk see me maybe we can work something out. (We will meet you at the top of the hill. -dt)

Dan plans to stay alive to take care of me because for one thing I am a trifle forgetful and would probably have our bank accounts messed up without him.  (Understatements. -dt) That is fine but I wish he was not so grumpy!

Now I have to concentrate on reclaiming Serena the Mermaid for possible performances and trying to locate a big friendly horse.  

The Muse neglected to mention the other major celestial event: the aurora borealis or Northern Lights.  Rarely have they been visible in Ohio as we are rather too far south.  Many of you probably heard about the extreme sun activity which made them visible to the far south of the US.  And we did have a show here.  Of course we were asleep.  We probably could not have seen much as our trees obscure our sky view.  But our neighbors who live well above us took some great pictures, some over our house.  In fact, due to some unknown technical glitches, they are the only photos this month.  Thank you, C and H.  Great people!  https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjBrcha

Hope you all are planning a great summer.

Dan and Rebecca

www.casa-de-terrible.blogspot.com

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Everyday

ROUTINE LIFE

As we have said many times, we are not on vacation.  Our winter life in Mexico is just a relocation to sunnier, warmer weather - normally.  It takes several days to edit the newsletter but today is not one of those sunnier, warmer ones.  It is a rainy, cold - for us - dreary day.  It happens once or twice during the winter; we will not complain much.

Our life here is essentially the same as in Philo - routine.  Some special activities now and then, e.g., chalk art on the street next week.  But mostly just the normal enjoyment of life.  So sometimes there is not a lot of interesting material for a newsletter.  The Muse has done well to describe a bit of the day, although she may have exaggerated some.

We did have one event of note.  I had some small surgery on my eyelids.  It was to help the drooping caused by my ocular myasthenia gravis .  The medication I have been taking has been less and less effective.  It seems that my eyes are a little better; we need to wait several weeks for complete healing.  And I will continue with the same meds.  It looks like my glasses will cover most scars.  My well-known bump was also removed.  The operation was done at Clinica Santa Rosa; Dr. Victor and his staff did a great job as usual.  Thank you!

Over our many issues we have avoided any political commentary.  It is not because we do not have our own ideas and opinions.  But we have not wanted to upset our readers who come from many backgrounds with their own slants on things in that arena. Nonetheless, Mrs.T slipped a bit of commentary in this issue.  The editor is certain you will understand. 

Our days are concentrated (Too strong a word; too much for sure. -dt) on television.  In the morning I watch the news and shout, "You are an idiot", to pictures of Donald Trump.  I personally will be glad when this election is over.  Later in the day Dan spends hours shouting advice or insults at various sports athletes and coaches.  It matters not the sport or the team, Dan has a strong opinion and expresses it loudly. (The Editor is interested in many sports. -dt)  You might wonder if two supposedly intelligent adults could not find a better way to spend their time.  In actual fact you might wonder if someone who shouts at an inanimate box of technology is an idiot.  But that is neither here nor there.  Evidently not!  My friend, Judy, tells her husband, "They cannot hear you!" This behavior seems to occur especially often in husbands.  Evidently it is endemic in Canadian husbands also.  

Dan has been watching chess tournaments on TV.  Sometimes he gets mad at me because I don't know who's winning or losing, not to mention why.(Not true, just annoyed perhaps. -dt)  I like the one commentator named Peter (Peter Leko -dt) who says things like, "He moved his knight, which was quite annoying."  Or, "The player missed a cheapoleeto". (Peter has his own vocabulary -dt)  Years ago I did know a little about chess but now they are doing it a lot differently.(Just using technology. -dt)  Not only that, but a lot of the players have very long names so they use nicknames and I have no idea who they are talking about. (Foreign languages are not Mrs.T's strong point. -dt) I try to keep track of a little bit of Dan's many interests.  Chess is hard for me.  I hate it when he treats me like a fool. (NO! Not true. Rebecca actually follows things fairly well. -dt) Sigh! The world champion is Chinese and his name is Ding (Ding Liren -dt); that is easy to remember.

There have been several small earthquakes in our neighborhood recently.  But I did not feel them.  Judy saw their swimming pool swishing back and forth but she did not feel it either.   

I have personally seen whales jumping in the bay twice.  There are reports many mothers (Cows -dt) calved in the bay this year.  (Undoubtedly the main reason the bay is important to the humpbacks. -dt)

So we are enjoying our usual peaceful winter.  Reading in the shade of our courtyard and working together with our friends on 1000 piece puzzles. (The puzzle crew has been putting them together quite rapidly this season. -dt)

I have been collecting little woven animals (Willow? -dt) that open on their backs or tummies (or back ends -dt) to become purses.  One Sunday I dumped out my discrete little leather purse and carried a plump, jolly, striped piggy to church.  I did get a couple of compliments not to mention several looks.  I told Dan it was 'carry-your-piggy-to-church' day.  I would have loaned him a nice conservative piggy but he did not seem inclined to participate.

I, alas, have stopped SCUBA diving.  My breathing was badly affected when I got COVID.  And I am very low on energy.  I am still able to ride Johnny for a couple of hours every Thursday. (Our neighbor Serah has begun to ride with Mrs.T -dt) After a couple of people shove me up onto the Mexican saddle I am good to go.  Sometimes Johnny turns his head around and looks at me as if to say, "Quit messing around and sit down!" My right side still doesn't work right because of the strokes. (COVID accentuated the effects of her strokes.  -dt)

My Aunt Winkie has died.  She was 98 and was the last of that generation   of the MacDonalds. (Or McDonald -dt)  She told me several years ago that she was ready to go.  An ardent Christian, she died quite confidently.  I figured that God had all the angels sweeping under all the beds in heaven, cleaning the celestial dust bunnies in preparation for her ascent.

A few representative pictures:  https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjBeeFj

Thanks to George for a couple of pictures.

We hope you are well and enjoying the winter.

Best wishes.

Dan and Rebecca

www.casa-de-terrible.blogspot.com

Sent from Outlook