Fall 2013 November 18 Monday

55 degrees, may have seemed a little cooler.  Glad the bad weather is over.

Another Monday, busy week ahead.  Meetings three nights this week. Agenda for next Monday, so will be a very busy week.

My sister (Eleanor) basically made the same observation I did about what would have been my Dad's 107th birthday.  It is definitely a sign we are getting old even if we don't feel like it!

Waiting for the completion of the "tooth" (actually teeth since two are involved). implant process.  If I am counting right, I will have the "poles" installed in January, and then I'm not sure how long before the process is finished with the permanent implants (basically a crown) installed.  I really like my Dentist (actually an Oral Surgeon) who is working on this, but it still has not been a fun endeavor.  I expect I will like it much better than the alternative (another and more costly/longer bridge every 7 years or so.

Finished John Grisham's "Sycamore Row" yesterday.  It was a good read.  He is very uneven on many of his books, and this is one of his good ones.  He always is an interesting writer, he just gets too contrived sometimes.  

Finishing listening to "A Brief History of Time", my "walk" book.  I enjoyed it, not sure how much I actually learned.  He started on the "Conclusion" this morning, so I should finish by Tuesday or Wednesday.  

The week starts.

Fall 2013 October 23

52 degrees this morning, clear.

I am both surprised and pleased that two of my iPod Shuffles (the old chewing gum stick size) still have battery and appear to be healthy.  They are at least six years old.  

Watched "Jarhead" last night on Netflex.  It was a lot better movie than it was a book, at least when we listened to the book, we weren't impressed.  The movie is ok.  We don't watch a lot of movies (due to time).  I have probably watched less than 10 movies in the past 12 years.  I enjoy movies, but haven't got the time, either at home or at the theatre.  We didn't really even intend to watch "Jarhead", I just happened to see it and turn it on.

Amazon raised their price for free shipping, in an apparent attempt to persuade people to use the $79 plan.  Actually, except for the no sales tax, I have never cared for Amazon that much.  Their customer service is horrible and I can normally match their prices, if it wasn't for the sales tax break.  Or like yesterday, I was looking for a "Fitt One" and found one on Amazon for $69, everywhere else at $99.  I thought, I'll grab that and then found there was a $30 "Shipping and handling" charge!  Kind of what I have come to expect from Amazon.

I heard yesterday that "of all the persons in history who have even lived to 65 or over, 50% of them are alive today".   I'm not quite sure how they know that, but it is an interesting statistic.

Dental appointment today, hopefully it will find that the area of the dental surgery is healing well (for two teeth to be implanted) and the implant procedure can proceed, although he next step ("planting the poles for the implanted teeth) won't happen for at least 3 more months.  

Summer 2013 September 7, 2013

71/73 degrees this morning.  Relatively cool.  Third day after dental surgery (for implant). Jaw still feels somewhat numb, oddly enough.  Most uncomfortable where the bone was grafted from for the tooth to be implanted (or teeth, since there are two of them).  I am surprised at how many people I know that have had or going through the implant procedure.  I have quit taking any pain medicine, but am still taking antibiotics.  Still have difficulty eating, especially anything but "soft" food, but that is ok for right now.

E-mails really piled up while I was out of the office, in spite of the fact I tried to keep up at home.  I don't think I ever fully realize just how much time it takes to read and respond to an e-mail.  

Birds are noisily this morning for some reason.  Maybe they are seeing the snake I saw the other morning, or maybe it is a cat playing with them.  The birds are making a "cawing" noise, a lot of them. 

The poem today, from "The World Without End is Ending" is "My Day of Gray".  This is probably one of my more favorite of the poems.  While it illustrates a day at the office, when I read it, I am reminded of when I was in the first to fourth grade in a Country, old fashioned one-room school that actually had one teacher (Miss Porterfield) who taught all eight grades.  I remember looking out the windows of the school onto a beautiful scene day after day of trees and grass.  It was wonderful.  I'm not sure where the idea for the "blue buffalo" came.

MY DAY OF GRAY

Blue Buffalo scatter in the green grass

Outside my window

 Brightening an otherwise cloudy gray day

 While I,

 Hearing the sound of duty

 Eventually

 Return to

 Reading the dry reports

 Yellowing on my desk