By this time tomorrow, I should be getting ready to go home.  Surgery is scheduled for 11:45, which means I must be at Frankford Bucks by 9:45, or leave just past 9 AM.

It's been twentyeight years since the podiatrist fixed the nail on my right hallux.  July seems to be the month for surgeries, each one more serious than the previous one.

Back in 1999, I had all four of my wisdom teeth pulled, and the top two had never erupted.  I was out on Thursday and Friday, 8-9 July.  I suppose each is a birthday present

 

Thu 5 Jul 16:43

Tuesday became a blur.  I arrived a little early, and the actual surgery began just past eleven, instead of 11:45

18:43

I just had a second nap today, and I awoke with the chills.  In any case, it's been warm over the past three days, and I've done as well as the Mets in Denver.  Both times I walked around the yard twice in the back and once in the front.

 

Fri 6 Jul  Schrub is 61.

I had my first defecation since the surgery, in which I gave birth to Reaganomics on Schrub's birthday.  I needed some instant coffee to push it out, and my brother needed the same in addition to the suppository.  I still ache around the area, and I had to nap this afternoon.  Nonetheless, I am trying to get some other things done.

Liberty Resources referred me to another serivce, which may take some time.  My brother stayed in bed all day.

 

Going back to Tuesday, I felt very strange but not apprehensive during the process.  Riding in a gurney was part of the strangeness, along with the ride in the wheelchair out.  The operating room was quite cool when I arrived at 11 AM.  They placed a warm blanket on me as I moved to the table and unconsciousness.

I awoke around 1:30 past recovery.  Because of the pain, they kept me another halfhour.  I arrived homne by 4 PM.  Over the past few days, I've been flushing my system with liquids.  I've walked much around the backyard, trying to circulate my recovery.

 

Sun 8 Jul 12:10

Over the weekend I've made little progress as I move around the house more.  The garbage I scoop up doesn't amount to what I should be disposing. 

Furthermore, I continue to have swollen area of the places of incision against the hernia.  I think they shouldn't be so sore by now!  I'm not sure that I'm on the timetable for returning on Thursday.

 

I finally finished the last of the six books on Alex Rider, although it was the fourth in the series.  I can only wonder whether Alex has suicidal tendencies, or does he do difficult things only because he can and only he can?  Eagle Strike lacked any sanction from military intelligence.  I still will read Snake Head eventually.  Maybe Harry Potter is more of my kind of adventure.

 

Tue 17 Jul  Phyllis Diller is 90!  15:15

I awoke at 1:30 and tossed and turned for two hours.  Mom was asleep in the chair in the livingroom.  Unlike the previous night, my brother was not involved.  We had a shouting match Sunday night before midnight, because Mom came in my room twice, then tried to get my brother up!

I decided to have Mom pay the monthly extra to the principal of the mortgage in payment to what she owes me.  It still doesn't solve the problem of getting the money without a debit card.

19:50

I have almost caught up with my regular work, as I clear the backlog.  Yesterday I took a half day to go to the surgeon.  The large bandages are off, leaving tape over the stitiches and sores still on my scrota.  I am still limited to little lifting for another three weeks.  Supposedly all comes together on 6 August.

When I returned to work on Thursday, I had used six working days for the operation.  Despite the lack of supposrt, I caught up rather quickly, with unpaid overtime and the extra hour I did not use to take out the mail!

 

Phyllis Diller hurt her back again, so she could not celebrate her birthday publicly.  Meanwhile David Broder had quite a column about George McGovern.  The influx of so many into the Democratic Party in 1972 appears to have lasted well over the past 35 years.  Broder even compared it to the débâcle the Republicans had with Barry Goldwater in 1964.

So far, the week has dragged with little progress.  I spent time with French Instant Immersion last night.  However, I continue to neglect my other projects.

I had a bad night.  I was only productive in pushing a start for my speech next wek.  Once again, I had to get my brother out of bed myself.

 

Fri 20 Jul  8:08

Slowly I am realizing what I should be doing -- the pleasure of learning.  I spent past of last night on German, especially pronounciation.  How can I get it all integrated?  I want to use up as many books as I can, in other words, to finish what I start.

 

Mon 23 Jul

Mom finally found her wallet Sunday morning, so we went to PathMark around noon.  I pocketed the checkcard into a safe place.  I actually ran out of money, and it was close had Mom not found her money at the checkout.

This morning I went for gasoline and to use the three cards.  I used my own to deposit the copayment I'd given for the operation a few weeks ago.  Meanwhile, the effects linger as a swollen groin nearly three weeks later and sore on my right scrotum.  I've another two weeks until I get another evaluation.

 

Tue 24 Jul  14:50

Ugh!  I must throw a speech together by THursday in continued indecision.  Lee sent me a belated birthday card.  I may answer the accompanying letter for their anniversary on 21 August, four weeks from today.  1982 remains a summer of long nights --" Talking Back to the Night" by Steve  Winwood comes to mind/  It was also the last summer of my innocence.

Penn State's MBA destroyed my obsolete view of the world.  Reaganomics finished the job.

I was looking to the Schaum Outline Serices on statistics and econometrics.  The econometrics flashed me back to the summer of 1978, when I once again tried to avoid history while conceding French/Business was not for me.  MY CONCLUSION ASTOUNDED ME IN THAT I REALIZED THAT EACH TIME I MADE A DECISION, IT OPTIMIZED THE SITUATION -- THERE WAS NO OTHER BETTER CHOICE.

Of course, the trick is to be prepared to make the optimal decision, because the future will not be able to change the present.

Therefore, the thought of going into economics and econometrics would have been the wrong decision in 1978.  Despite the problems later, I would NOT have had a wonderful 1981 had I NOT gone into history.  Anyway, I have something to add to my speech on Thursday at Toastmasters.

 

Fri 27 Jul  15:15

Once again I had problems with Verizon internet.  Supposedly someone  came to fix it.  I can't understand why my connection flops once a month.  This weekend I am busier than usual, because I have an insurance agent coming tonight for longterm care, and tomorrow morning I visit the dentist.

 

Sun 29 Jul  10:22

So far, I've had no internet at all, and the technician did not return my calls.  I am seriously considering to drop Verison and hook up with Comcast.

I plunged into longterm care insurance with Gentech.  I expect to have assets to protect and to retain control of which kind of care.  It costs over two thousand a year.

The dentist merely cleaned my teeth.  I can have problems with breakage, but otherwise I had no cavities.

 

I finally looked at the letters I wrote from Camp Saint Andrew this week in 1965.  I've though of reframing the whole incident.  What would it have taken to change the experience?  The frightening play of Friday night was the only time I enjoyed being there.  Why couldn't they have taught us to swim, rather than push me into the water?  Is it holding me back two score later?

 

Mon 30 Jul 8:25

As I heard "You Make Lovin' Fun", I thought of how naïve I was in 1977.  Then it hit me.  At least I made intellectual progress back then.  I have not over the past decade.

I fell asleep last night with "Lord of the Rings".  After a weekend of "Cody Banks 2", "Harry Potter" and "Bedtime for Bonzo", I think I'm confusing fantasies.

14:42

Once agin, it comes back to me.  I am in charge, and I choose to execute.  I called Verizon, and supposedly there is an explanation why I'm still offline.

Harry Potter -- the first on called the "Sorcer's Stone" -- was very delightful for $10 a disc.  How did J K Rowing conceive of this series?  Then again, how did Anthony Horowitz do so with Alex Rider?  I still haven't finished with George "Buddy" Król.  I finished my August calendar and advanced along French, German, and  Spanish.  However, I did nothing else -- especially along the lines of accounting or taxes.

Piece of history forty years ago today:

We went on a trip to Cape May on the weekend in late July.  On this date, we were coming back, and I had such a headache from having slept a mere three hours in the car.  Why did we suffer from the incopmpetence of a selfish interloper?

I remember we left at 3:30 Saturday afternoon of 29 July 1967, and we arrived at Cape May at 7:30.  How were wwe supposed to spend the night?  $16 for a motel room was not so unreasonable.  It was the first time ever I saw the Atlantic Ocean.

 

 

When I waited all day to go home in 1965, I was miserable as Lyndon Johnson was making my future brighter.  I had nothing to do with it.

As I continue to absorb "Unforgettable Person", I continue to reexamine and reframe my past.  I have anxiety about Block and my future.  However, Block and Bodek have nothing to do with my decision.  Existentially I am in mauvaise foi!

I was downstairs this morning, and I realized how much I must clean up before Comcast sends someone to network my computer.  When Tom was not available after I had rushed home last night, I had it.  I am dumping Verizon.  I don't think Earthlink had such poor service.