Back to normal

Posted on March 10, 2006 by ruthek

Back to the doctor this morning. Everything is fine and I can continue all of my normal activities, including driving and visits to the fitness center. I wouldn’t have minded taking a week off from the health club.

Speaking of health, I was reading an article in the AARP Bulletin about state legislators wanting to force pharmaceutical companies to disclose spending on marketing to doctors. I would like to see them forced to disclose spending, or better to stop spending, on TV advertising. We become more and more of a drug culture as these ads proliferate. Because of my recent relocation I have had to find new doctors. They are universally astounded when I tell them I take no meds. I can’t believe I am so unusual. I won’t take any drugs unless I am certain they are necessary and the benefits will outweigh the side effects. I have had several doctors who tried to push drugs on me. As a result I have seen a number of doctors since I left Chicago eight years ago. None of these doctor visits were for ailments; just trying to find someone in case of emergency.

Hospitals scare me

Posted on March 9, 2006 by ruthek

This was probably a good one, but hospitals still scare me. I was told to arrive at 6:45 am. Since retiring I consider that an obscene hour. Especially if it is still dark out. I drove myself to the hospital. They make it very easy: drive into the ambulatory patient parking lot, walk into the hospital. Like the army this is hurry up and wait. If I had arrived an hour later, it would have been fine.

They took me in, finally, had me undress completely (for eye surgery), and put on those wonderful hospital gowns. Then they started putting drops into my eye. Along with the drops came lots of paperwork. I signed my name, over and over. Since they had already taken my contact lenses away I couldn’t read any of the papers, even if they had given me time to do it. After much probing of my left hand, they finally attached an IV to my right hand. By the time they took me down to the surgery room I was panicky. I don’t panic easily. I’m one of those idiots who seldom fear anything ahead of time.

The actual surgery took much less time than all the pre-op. Within a short time Steve came to get me and drove me home. I have four bottles of eye drops to put in on an interesting schedule: twice a day for one; three times for two of them; four times for one and shake it well. Good thing I still have most of my marbles.

I’ve had no pain, but I have a big concern. I’m not able to see much out of that eye. I don’t know how quickly vision is supposed to recover, but this feels a little like the last time. I was hoping this one would be easier. I go back to the doctor at 8 am tomorrow. I’ll ask a lot of questions.

Home Again

Posted on March 8, 2006 by ruthek

This time I got through security without any special treatment. I guess they are so used to fat old ladies in Florida they know we’re not terrorists. I had to spend two hours in Atlanta to get my connecting flight. One of the drawbacks of living in Pittsburgh: there aren’t so many places you can get to non-stop. I’ve been spoiled living in Chicago or NY/NJ most of my life.

I took a lot of pictures in the Morikami Gardens. What a great place. I’ll post another picture album soon.

Tomorrow I’m having cataract surgery on my left eye. The right one was done several years ago. I’m hoping for an easier recovery this time. It took more than a year before I was able to see well with the right eye. None of my doctors could figure out what was wrong and it got better without any outside help. So much for medical science.

Posted on March 7, 2006 by ruthek

Today is my last full day in Florida. It’s another beautiful day, lots of sunshine, not too hot. Pittsburgh was 33 degrees yesterday.

Carol and I are planning to go to the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens to see The Faithful Samurai: Woodblock Prints by Utagawa Kuniyoshi (1797 – 1861), another busman’s holiday thing on my part and Carol humors me. This exhibition presents Kuniyoshi’s print designs of the 1830s and ’40s devoted to the attack by forty-seven retainers of the disgraced lord Asano Naganori on the mansion of their lord’s enemy, Kira Yoshinaka, an act which produced a steady outpouring of theatrical productions, woodblock prints, books and movies.

Still More Japanese Art

Posted on March 5, 2006 by ruthek

I feel like I’m on a busman’s holiday. Carol and I went to the Boca Raton Museum of Art to see an exhibit of Ukiyoe prints by Utagawa Toyokuni I (1769-1825), Utagawa Kunisada, also known as Toyokuni III (1786-1865), and Ando Hiroshige (1797-1858). These were shown in connection with a large exhibit of Whistler from the Hunterian Art Gallery of Glasgow, Scotland. Both shows were excellent. It was really nice to get a chance to see more of these prints. Although I have long been familiar with the work of Hiroshige, the Utagawa Kunisada was new to me.

Security

Posted on March 4, 2006 by ruthek

My trip yesterday was a good example of why I no longer look forward to traveling. The flights were OK but I spent a lot of time waiting for them. But before I got started there was "security." I guess little old fat me looks like a terrorist; I was patted down. This is the second time I have come in for special scrutiny, in spite of the fact I’ve only been flying once or twice a year for the last few years. What really bothered me was the realization that I could have been carrying a weapon and they would not have found it. So, what’s the point of all the nonsense?

On the go

Posted on March 2, 2006 by ruthek

I’m on spring break now. My classes have adjourned for a week, so like all the college students, I’m off to Florida for a few days. Truth is I don’t much like Florida; I’m going to visit my sister-in-law. We have spent a lot of time on the phone since my brother died, and I want to spend some face time with her. I’ve had four sisters-in-law; she is the only one I’ve had a real relationship with. So we’ll spend lots of time talking, we’ll go to visit one of my cousins and some friends of mine from high school, and I will not come back with a suntan.

I spend a lot of time thinking about traveling. I have been fortunate to be able to go to most of the United States, Western Europe, parts of Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Egypt and Israel. I would love to go back to China and Japan, particularly after taking my Japanese art class. I think about it and talk about it. Somehow, I can’t bring myself to make actual travel plans. Even this trip to Florida seems problematic. I was able to make the arrangements, but I wasn’t able to think about packing until about an hour ago. I think my brain and my body are not working together on this.

Writing fiction

Posted on February 26, 2006 by ruthek

My family is very big on memoir writing. My grandmother wrote in Yiddish, and privately published her memoir. Aunt Flo wrote a wonderful memoir, and my father filled 18 composition books with a combination of memories and paranoid ravings. I was, for awhile, a technical writer. I learned my craft so well I became crippled. Much of what I am writing today is an attempt to erase the technical writer from my being. To further that goal I am taking a class in fiction writing. I wrote one story years ago, and I have been polishing it ever since. So I turned it in and got some very interesting feedback from the professor. The story is about two sisters who live together and, when one of them marries they all continue living together, a veritable menage a trois. The story, in its bare bones, is true. The sisters were distant relatives of mine whom I met as they were aging and dying and I was still relatively young. The story originally interested me because of the possible sleeping arrangements of the three of them. As the story and I have aged, I have become much more interested in the caregiving and responsibility aspects of the relationships. The married sister dies leaving the much older husband with the younger sister. My instructor said I have to answer the question of why the younger sister remained unmarried, and why the husband chose the older sister. The husband courted both of them and never seemed to have a preference. I had to develop a conflict. I worked on the story last night and went to bed thinking about all of the possible reasons for what happened ranging from older sister stole the husband to younger sister was a lesbian. I did not like any of it. I finally settled on a possible solution and hoped I would remember it in the morning. My conflict was with family customs and demands, notably, the older sister has to get married first. This morning I realized that in some ways this was the story of my life. I was always in conflict with my family’s demands. They say you should write what you know. This is the only thing that feels comfortable to me.

Darcy

Posted on February 25, 2006 by ruthek

I finally got a good picture of Darcy. This was taken right after we got back from the groomer. Darcy is not much of a lady and doesn’t like being groomed. She would much rather roll in garbage and really stink.

Torn cloud