This morning I finally got an answer to one of the questions I had about a site in China: a huge construction just outside of Famen Si. Michael L. left a comment explaining that this massive construction was a stupa and would be the new home of a relic of the Buddha.
Read about it and see a picture of the finished construction here.
I am going to become an expert on technology for diagnosing heart disease. Last month I wore a Holter monitor for 24 hours to see if my heart was behaving properly. It was not. After a stress test I was put on a double dose of the beta blocker, which seemed to take care of the problem until two nights ago. Now I have an event monitor to wear for 30 days. Fortunately it's much smaller than the Holter monitor, although after only three hours with it, I can tell it's not going to be easy to deal with.
The Holter monitor, which records your heart beat (activity) for the entire 24 hours, was huge. You wear it hanging from your neck with straps or clipped on to your bra. I wanted to go out the night I wore it so I wore a long scarf around my neck that covered what looked like my huge, third breast. Fortunately, it was cold out and no one noticed.
This new monitor is the size of a beeper, clips on to my waistband and connects with only two electrodes instead of the five used on the Holter. It records continuously but only keeps the recording when you recognize a problem and hold down the record button. At least, that's what I was told. After recording two events I am supposed to call an 800 number and send the information over the phone.
Evidently it also recognizes arrhythmias that I don't notice and then rings like a telephone. It's rung three times so far, really startling me. I called the number and the tech told me that it's doing it because of my irregular heartbeat. But the recording didn't come through properly. It hasn't rung since so I wonder what is going on. I think I should ask if I'm supposed to press the record button when it rings. I did not do that, but maybe that's why the recording didn't come through properly; there wasn't any.
The Osher term has begun again and I have this terrible feeling about it ringing when I sit in classes. I'll deal with that when it happens.
I saw the last two
runners in the Pittsburgh Marathon at 11:30 this morning. They were
walking separately, each with an ambulance, a police vehicle and a
truck or two achingly, slowly, riding behind. I intended to get out
early to see the front runners, running just a block away.
But I forgot all about it until I heard the winners announced on the
news. I can't imagine walking a marathon, let alone running, so I
really admired those last two women. I was walking one mile to meet
Robin over at the Center for the Arts. I almost never walk on Penn
Avenue near my apartment—too much traffic. The street was
blocked off this morning; I took the opportunity to walk the two
blocks I never see.
There always seems to
be something strange or interesting or wonderful as I walk in
different areas. This was just inside a gate in a high fence. Since I never walk on that block I don't know whether the gate is always open or this was special for the marathon.
When I walk to class
this tree appears just as I round a corner. It's a flowering crab
with wonderful pruning. I've been looking at it for weeks now
thinking I ought to take its picture when it was full of blossoms.
Somehow I actually like this better.
This is one of those awful public housing projects that were built in the early days of urban renewal. They are getting ready to implode it; you can see where some of the facade has been removed. I wish I knew when they were going to do it. I'd like to be there to watch. This is on my way to Whole Foods and other good places and will be replaced by a Target.
UPMC, my medigap insurer, sponsors zoo walks twice a month during spring and summer. You can get in at 8:00, well before the crowds come. I love walking in these kinds of public spaces when they are empty.
The queen of beasts, lounging around while the king loudly announces his presence. Another male, housed separately, answers him, like an echo.
Mama is getting a shower while baby tries to steal the treats given to Mama as a reward. Baby did not want to participate in the shower.
The guy with the burlap bag was carrying it around just like Linus with his blanket.
Wild turkey in the children's zoo. There are lots of wild turkeys around Pittsburgh but I've never seen one strutting quite like this.
I am still working on the China book. I had to get more printing paper. I want to try reprinting some of the photos that did not make me happy, and I still have to finish printing the book. All this time I've been mulling over the binding. I began by thinking of some Chinese silk scraps I've had for a long time; 
finally decided it was too fancy.
I thought about using some olive green binding cloth, first wrinkling it, then coating it with lacquer with graphite or ink mixed it to give it some dark areas. This didn't please me either. I keep thinking about China as dusty and a little grimy. Xian, being near to the loess plateau gets a lot of dust blown in. And the sky always seems to have some gray in it, even on sunny days. There were always people cleaning, but the dust was ground into all of the crevices and never seemed to go away. Making the book too fancy or elegant seemed contrary to all of my feelings about China.
As I thought about it more I decided to try to use the bag I carried with me all through China and Japan. It had the dirt of China (and Japan) on it and I hadn't used it since I returned home.
I'm the one with the large bag. It was big enough to carry all of my usual necessities along with that folding cane I used for stairs. I bought it in Target for $15 or maybe $19; I don't remember. Of course, it was made in China–very appropriate. It was very well made, and except for the dirt, held up very well and not easy to take apart. Here is the front with all of the pockets. 
Unfortunately, it's too large. The large pocket would fold around the binding board and I don't want that. It would be very clumsy. I've removed all of the pockets and will sew the smaller covered one back on and put some things in it.
It has a green lining that I'll use for the inside of the covers and do some decorative stuff in the empty spots.
That hard won medication seems to be working well. I won't get back to the cardiologist until July, but I'm comfortable, happily taking those long walks and trying to do other healthful things. The root canal problems awaits a consultation with an endodontist. My dentist described too many scenarios so I want another opinion. Next week I go to my primary care doc, who will probably want to put me on Lipitor, or some such. I've been resisting this for years. We'll see…
I'm about to get ready for another long walk. I have more to write so I promise to come back here this afternoon after my driving refresher course.
As part of my blogging class I found I had to clarify my ideas about why I blog and make it part of my fourth class lecture. I began blogging almost four years ago in Live Journal, when I found I was going to move from New Jersey to Pittsburgh. It is a record of my feelings and the events leading up to my move. After I was settled in Pittsburgh I began this blog to record my adjustment to and exploration of the city. I saw the blog as a way to express myself and to combat the feeling I am invisible that I've had since I was in my fifties. Today I see the blog as a way to show what it's like to be 70 something. Next month I will be 75.
I want to be on record as someone who remains active, curious and interested in the world around me. I also want, to some extent, to write about the problems that have come with age, not as a qvetch, but as a matter of fact. What I did not write about all week is the echo cardiogram.
I was doing fine with the stress test until the last full minute when they increased the speed and elevation of the treadmill and got my heart rate over 120 or maybe it was 140. Dr. G said my heart rate recovered quickly, was back down to 100 by the time they got me back on the machine. He thinks the pictures showed a possible blockage. This is a separate problem from the tachycardia part of the reason for my pacemaker. So we're back to the medication my insurance didn't want to cover. The substituted medication wasn't controlling my heart rate. Dr. G thought the original stuff would also be be useful for the blockage.
It seems that the generic version of this stuff has been back ordered for several months. I had a three month supply before I went to Asia and was able to renew it in January, so hadn't realized it wasn't available. We finally got the insurance to cover the name brand stuff. It's an old drug, not very expensive. I was ready to pay for it myself if necessary.
I'm not happy about the idea of getting a stent, the next step, and I'd like to see if I can have a cat scan or some other non-invasive test to find out what's really going on. My next appointment will be in June, time to see if the meds do anything.
My hard won medication is doing well: I haven't had another bout of tachycardia since I began taking it. I had three or four episodes in the ten days I took the other stuff. But getting older you fall apart bit by bit. Now it's a tooth. I've been very lucky with my teeth: they are still all my own, even though drilled, filled, filled again and a few root canaled. There is something wrong with the last root canal and my dentist suggested gum surgery would be the easiest option. I am appalled.
I took Charna to Oberlin for a college visit on Friday. She went to a couple of classes and spent the night there with a friend; Robin and Steve picked her up Saturday. I went to see a show of Japanese prints at the Allen Museum. The show didn't live up to the promotional email I got about it, but it was OK. More interesting was a show I found out about accidentally: wonderful kimonos by Itchiku Kubota. The show is in Canton Ohio, about an hour and a half from Oberlin, on my way home. I was really awed by the show. Each kimono was an astonishing work of art. I think there were 15 individual pieces and an installation of 30 placed in a semi-circle, each kimono relating in a unique manner to the piece next to it. The designs were created by a kind of stitched tie dye process and embellished in some areas by direct brush painting.
I took an audio book with me for my return trip from Oberlln: The Painted Drum by Louise Erdrich, one of my favorite authors. To my amazement there is a story about a woman, MLB, who kept handkerchiefs with tears carefully marked with the occasion for the tears. The first time I heard about this was in the Wintersong blog, which talks about it here; more bits of information about this strange custom.
I finally uploaded everything from my camera. Pictures from New York, from almost 2 weeks ago, are in the album, NYC April 2009.
Sunshine of the early morning rapidly moved into the gray tunnel of Pittsburgh’s usual sky. The sun lured me out of the house; walking was easier under the gray sky and I went to Phipps for the last day of the spring flower show. Pittsburgh is beautiful at this time of year. Trees are in bloom; tulips and daffodils bring blazing color to the pink and white of magnolias, Bradford pears, weeping cherries and flowering crab apples.
I don't know if this is supposed to be sculpture or a child's installation, but it really caught my fancy.
Some of the landscaping here makes wonderful use of the hillsides the houses are built on. I so much prefer this to grass. And it's very Japanese.
I was happy to sit down to lunch when I got to Phipps, resting up to be able to walk around the conservatory. It was pretty crowded but big enough that I was able to enjoy walking around.
Some of the spring flowers.
The Red Hat Society was also visiting. I love the purple boots.
This is a huge fern. The fronds uncurl just like the smaller ones.
This is a cycad, and it's huge. Supposedly something like that is inside the wrappings in this picture I took in the botanic garden in Kyoto, but I have some trouble imagining it.
I've been tutoring a Somali refugee.
He's been in Pittsburgh four years. His spoken English is pretty
good, but he wanted help with reading. He's taking classes at a
community college, both ESL and preparation for the citizenship exam.
We have been going over a printout (from a Powerpoint) of 100
questions that might be on the exam, such things as “What are the
three branches of government?” “Who do we pledge allegiance to?”
Evidently they repeat these in class without explaining the meaning.
So we read, repeat, and I explain. I still remember the pledge of
allegiance, which irritates me. I'm sure my brain could be put to
better use. I am loyal to this country, but to a flag? That's just
nonsense.
I found a mistake in one of the
answers. “Name one of the states that borders on Canada.” They
included Pennsylvania. Unless we've ceded all of Lake Erie to Canada
there is no way PA borders it. New York is in the way. There may be
other mistakes. Some of the answers are fairly obscure, such as,
which amendment to the Constitution does what. I don't want to make a
research project out of this, that's the government's job.
This Somali family lives in an
apartment they have decorated by hanging fabrics and rugs on the
walls and fabrics from the ceilings. It's quite marvelous. Last week
when I went there everything had been removed, and it looked pretty
bad. They are preparing to move. I think they will be in a new place
when I return next week. I hope it will look as good. Maybe I can ask
to take pictures.
100 Books Before I Die 