MY WRITING JOURNAL

Monday, June 13

Not Completely Ready to Go

I thought I would be a lot more mobile quicker than I have actually become... It was not that the surgery was more intense because none of that changed... it is just taking longer for my body to bounce back this time...

It feels like my incision is about 2 feet in length and there is a lot more discomfort than I thought I would experience. I have also spent more time in bed than anticipated.

I have not eaten a complete meal since last Tuesday and only just today had my first full cup of coffee that prompted me to want more.

My recovery in the hospital was non-existent except for the 15 minutes I spent with two different therapists. And, this was by far the worst hospital food I have ever had...

On the day of my discharge, I was in the lobby waiting for my wife because they had kicked me out of the room by 8:30... so when they are done with you they are down with you.

I only started taking my pain pills when I got home because my blood pressure was low. My desire to eat and move around increased with those pills.

As always some nurses were incredibly competent and skilled while others must have been teachers.

My urination returned to normal after returning home and I have yet to have a bowel movement but I have not eaten much either.

The most difficult part for me is getting in and out of bed and trying to get on one or the other side. Cannot lie on my back and it is a NO-NO to lay on my stomach.

My hand-eye coordination has deteriorated and my sight is remaining fuzzy for most of ther day... making it really difficult to any form of legitimate opinion piece... I thought I would be back in the saddle after a week, but today I don't think that is going to happen...

I'm working on 1-2 pieces a day but I again am asking for your patience...

Remember, my L2-L3-L4-L5-S1 vertebrae were fused together with 2 screws each and two rods on either.. and I ain't no spring chicken anymore. The pain alone has thrown me for a loop, always being told to expect a lot and end up hardly experiencing any at all.

I am wearing no brace but cannot drive for 6 weeks. I cannot lift anything over 5 lbs for 6 weeks and cannot do any kind of physical therapy other than walking for 3-6 months...

This too shall pass quickly.

My PLIF surgery (Posterior Lumbar Interwoven Fusion) will undertake to fuse together L2 - L3 - L4 - L5 - S1 with 2 screws in each vertebrae and 2 rods on either side.

The surgery itself will take 4-6 hours and my surgeon has 27 years experience in this field and has done over 1,000 of these surgeries. The infection rate at the hospital where the procedure is to take place is 2.5% and because of my current treatment for Lymphoma and Melanoma, the potential infection rate will double which is still good odds.

I will remain in the hospital a minimum of 1 night, maybe two depending upon how my body responds. The first couple of days will be critical in terms of adjust to the pain and the new equipment in my body but I should force myself to start walking as soon as possible.

I will have limited abilities for the first 4-6 weeks which means no lifting over a container of milk and I will not be able to drive. I should try and walk for 30 minutes twice a day and they rest of the time, I should sleep or watch television, or perhaps write on my blogs.

I will not be able to start any physical therapy until after 3 months... and, it will take anywhere from 12-18 months before I am back to normal whatever that means as far as this infusion is concerned. I am sure that some of my back movements will be limited but I am not sure by how much.

I appreciate your patience and hope that you will return to this blog when I resume my writing and posting on June 20.

Tuesday, June 7

Gun Culture in America

As a result of our Second Amendment right, Americans have spent the last several decades acquiring guns like some acquire clothes, furniture, cars, and smart devices. Most of the gun owners are law-abiding citizens and want to take advantage of the second amendment or simply have other uses for owning guns, like target practice and hunting. These people, I suppose, do have a right to purchase and/or collect guns although I really cannot imagine why they want to do so... as many of them have never fired a gun and never want to.

In contrast, we have criminals and those who want to break the law, who purchase guns and do so for the sole purpose of committing a crime believing that few people will stop them if they show these people that are carrying a gun and give them the impression that they are going to use it.

Most if not all of the people (those who commit crimes with guns) are mentally handicapped or mentally imbalanced or suffer from some sort of mental illness as killing others is not necessarily part of our survival skills. Although, all living creatures see survival as the key to life and should only be done under a certain set of circumstances... like kill or be killed.

Since this is our human nature, the second amendment seems rather pointless to our survival in the decade in which we currently live or will live and was probably not necessary in numerous decades of our past.

We should make owning a gun very difficult and we should increase the age to 25... although using guns for other purposes such as target practice and hunting could be accomplished under the age of 25 and with the supervision of someone over 25.

We should also make the punishment for using a gun while committing a crime very steep so as to discourage people from using guns for that purpose.

Civilized societies do not need guns as they have a police department for protection internally and a military for protection externally...

However, each society should be able to use guns for recreational purposes.

Of course, this is just my opinion... if I had my way, I would remove the second amendment except for reaction unless you want to remove that part out of the constitution as well...

The Day Before Surgery

It took me 4 months to get to this day from the time that my inability to walk properly first began... My surgery was first scheduled for the middle of July but for whatever reason(s), I was offered an opportunity to move it to tomorrow which I jumped on immediately.

I had to not only get released for surgery from my primary care physician but I also had to get released from my Onocologist as well who suspended my daily and monthly cancer treatments for 3 weeks. One week before and two weeks after.

In preparation for my surgery, I walked for 30 minutes several weeks prior to my surgery with the last couple of days spent on making sure all the yard work was completed... this was done because of the rain that arrived today, leaving me with very little to do today except drink lots of liquids, eat light, and do stuff to pass away the time.

My wife's hip replacement surgery left us with all the items that I will need for my surgery like a cane, walker, walking stick, and a device to pick up items that have fallen to the floor. Since my surgery will be on my lower back, I am pretty sure that I will not be allowed to bend over much for the first couple of weeks.

I have very few apprehensions regarding the surgery other than what I might experience after the surgery but I really won't know that until I get there as each person and each body is different. My movements will be limited because I will have 2 screws in each of 5 vertebrae that will be attached to two rods and a scar down the middle of my lower back for about 6 inches.

My concern is that for the first couple of days maybe a week, I will be required to spend most of my time lying on my back or on my side rather than sitting up... if that happens then I know there is very little that one can do in that position except look at the ceiling or sleep. And, while there will be a lot of sleeping as a result of the trauma to my body... laying in bed can get rather boring very quickly.

Other than than these thoughts, my last day before surgery is relatively calm... I hope that later in the day when it is time to sleep, I will be able to fall asleep quickly and not wake up until I have to...

I have had heart surgery, foot surgery, neck surgery, and hernia surgery and never really worried about any of those surgeries other than what the hell was going to happen to me during surgery and afterwards... those fears never happened the way I thought they might happen other than my nervousness as I lay on the table in the OR getting prepped for the surgery and no one was talking to you...

If you have been there, you know the feeling... everything else is simply downhill from there... however, the healing/recovery process is always slow and boring and tedious, but necessary.

AGE & DEATH

Each morning, I wake up around 7:30 and check my weight after peeing, then give a treat to our three cats, take my thyroid pill, fill up the cat bowls with morning food, make coffee, and then sit down on the couch to watch FOX News. This routine is not just one or two days but every day... This morning as I watch the news, it is raining in the valley and will continue to rain for the next two days after today. Yard work was completed yesterday, so the rain will cause everything to grow. It is also obviously humid outside.

As far as the News is concerned, it is SOS and the same news that I have been hearing for days...

increased gas prices
increased food prices
increased crime and violence
increased illegal immigration

This consistent news is of no concern to the wealthy in the country or the foolish who don't really care how much they spend, but it is a problem to blue-collar workers who are oftentimes living from paycheck to paycheck... it is these blue-collar workers that the wealthy look down their noses on as many of the wealthy don't really consider as being human worth living... they deserve to have what they have because they are lazy and have to motivation to improve themselves and become as wealthy as they are.

If you aren't trying to get wealthy then you don't really deserve to live...

All or most Americans, whether educated or not, only care about:

Food
Sex
Alcohol
Marijuana
Music
Driving fast
Buying clothes

One issue that we all have in common is that we will all get old and eventually die... no matter how much money we have or how poor we are... Age and Death... we all have in common... and when we get old and decide to look back, there is nothing to do to change how we lived our lives.

WHEN WILL WE EVER REALIZE HOW WE LIVE OUR LIVES IS IMPORTANT...

US Death Statistics 2020/2021

IN RANK ORDER

Heart Disease
Cancer
Covid-19
Unintentional Injuries
Stroke
Respiratory Disease
Alzheimer's
Diabetes
Pneumonia
Kidney Disease

Total Deaths in USA: 2,854,838

Total population: 300,000,000+

Total births: 3,600,000

Population Gain/(Loss): 745,162

Illegal Immigration: 1,600,000

We have a unique situation here... in our country with more births than deaths... so, our population is growing especially with illegal immigration... but, our problem are the issues that are killing us and what if anything can we do to stop all these deaths...

While cancer is not always preventable due to the ways that it attacks the body, heart disease and COVID-19 are preventable with proper diet, exercise, and good medical practices... in fact, I would be willing to bet that most disease from which we die is preventable with proper medical practices... diet... and exercise...

What I don't understand is why are most Americans so stupid that they do not want to take care of their bodies???

Why do we still smoke?
Why do we need to take illegal drugs?
Why do we need to drink alcohol?
Why do we need to eat so much daily?
Why are we not willing to exercise?
Why are we not will to eat healthy?
Why do we still drive our cars fast?
Why are we this stupid?

Hey... I've Got An Idea...

LET's DRIVE THE SPEED LIMIT...

There were 42,915 killed last year on US highways... and, most people believe that this was caused by driving faster than the posted speed limits. While we have a vast system of highway patrol officers patrolling our highways to keep drivers from speeding, there are simply not enough of them...

BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY, today's drivers don't give a rat's ass or a damn about following the posted speed limit signs.

These speeders are not just the young inexperienced drivers, but drivers who are middle-aged as well as senior citizens. These speeders are female as well as male, married as well as single, and are driving alone as well as with others including young, impressionable children.

In fact, it is not uncommon at all, the see a family in a van, SUV, or station wagon on vacation where the driver of the vehicle, male or female, is driving in excess of the speed limit to get to their destination as quick as they can.

People who are late for work or for a doctor's appointment try to make up time by speeding during rush hour. Actually, if you blend in with rush hour traffic most everyone is exceeding the posted speed limits in the morning as well as in the afternoon.

THE AMERICAN DRIVER WILL NOT REGULATE THEMSELVES...

Grooming

Unknown Structure in Galaxy

Artist's impression of a giant galaxy with a high-energy jet.
Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)

As a result of achieving high imaging dynamic range, a team of astronomers in Japan has discovered for the first time a faint radio emission covering a giant galaxy with an energetic black hole at its center.

The radio emission is released from gas created directly by the central black hole. The team expects to understand how a black hole interacts with its host galaxy by applying the same technique to other quasars.

3C273, which lies at a distance of 2.4 billion light-years from Earth, is a quasar. A quasar is the nucleus of a galaxy believed to house a massive black hole at its center, which swallows its surrounding material, giving off enormous radiation.

Contrary to its bland name, 3C273 is the first quasar ever discovered, the brightest, and the best studied. It is one of the most frequently observed sources with telescopes because it can be used as a standard of position in the sky: in other words, 3C273 is a radio lighthouse.

When you see a car's headlight, the dazzling brightness makes it challenging to see the darker surroundings. The same thing happens to telescopes when you observe bright objects. Dynamic range is the contrast between the most brilliant and darkest tones in an image.

You need a high dynamic range to reveal both the bright and dark parts in a telescope's single shot. ALMA can regularly attain imaging dynamic ranges up to around 100, but commercially available digital cameras would typically have a dynamic range of several thousands. Radio telescopes aren't very good at seeing objects with significant contrast. READ MORE...

Relaxing

Seafood Reverses Signs of Aging

Researchers discovered that supplementing a diet with the sea organisms Ascidiacea, also known as sea squirts, reverses some of the main signs of aging in an animal model.

Supplementing your diet with the sea organisms Ascidiacea, also known as sea squirts, reverses some of the main signs of aging, according to a new study using an animal model.

While the Fountain of Youth, the mythical spring that restores youth to anyone who bathes in it or drinks its waters, is clearly fantasy, scientists are hard at work looking for ways to combat aging. Some of these scientists just had a breakthrough: they discovered that supplementing a diet with sea squirts, reverses some of the main signs of aging.

Help prevent seasonal flu
See benefits, risks, & safety information of an enhanced flu vaccine for 65+ at flu360.com Boost the immune response this flu season for adults 65+. While more research is needed to verify the effect in humans, as the study was conducted using mice, the findings are very promising.

If you’ve ever glanced in the mirror and seen greying hair and wrinkles, or if you’ve forgotten the name of a close friend, you may desire a medication that might halt or even reverse the effects of aging.

According to a new study, this may not be such a silly idea. Researchers from Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Stanford University, Shanghai Jiao tong University, and the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences discovered that supplementing a diet with the sea organism Ascidiacea, also known as sea squirts, reverses some of the main signs of aging in an animal model. READ MORE...

Cat Tease

Economic Inequality

June 5, 2022

By David Leonhardt

Good morning. We look at why economic inequality began soaring in the U.S. four decades ago.

Jack Welch before his retirement in 2001.Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times

Net losses
If you look at historical data on the U.S. economy, you often notice that something changed in the late 1970s or early ’80s. Incomes started growing more slowly for most workers, and inequality surged.

David Gelles — a Times reporter who has been interviewing C.E.O.s for years — argues that corporate America helped cause these trends. Specifically, David points to Jack Welch, the leader of General Electric who became the model for many other executives. I spoke to David about these ideas, which are central to his new book on Welch (and to a Times story based on it).

How do you think corporate America has changed since the 1980s in ways that helped cause incomes to grow so slowly?

For decades after World War II, big American companies bent over backward to distribute their profits widely. In General Electric’s 1953 annual report, the company proudly talked about how much it was paying its workers, how its suppliers were benefiting and even how much it paid the government in taxes.

That changed with the ascendance of men like Jack Welch, who took over as chief executive of G.E. in 1981 and ran the company for the next two decades. Under Welch, G.E. unleashed a wave of mass layoffs and factory closures that other companies followed. The trend helped destabilize the American middle class. Profits began flowing not back to workers in the form of higher wages, but to big investors in the form of stock buybacks. And G.E. began doing everything it could to pay as little in taxes as possible.

You make clear that many other C.E.O.s came to see Welch as a model and emulated him. So why wasn’t there already a Jack Welch before Jack Welch, given the wealth and fame that flowed to him as a result of his tenure?

This was one of those moments when an exceptional individual at a critical moment really goes on to shape the world.

Welch was ferociously ambitious and competitive, with a ruthlessness that corporate America just hadn’t seen. In G.E., he had control of a large conglomerate with a history of setting the standards by which other companies operated. And Welch arrived at the moment that there was a reassessment of the role of business underway. The shift in thinking was captured by the economist Milton Friedman, who wrote in The Times Magazine that “the social responsibility of business is to increase its profits.”

Was Welch’s approach good for corporate profits and bad for workers — or ultimately bad for the company, too? You lean toward the second answer, based on G.E.’s post-Welch struggles. Some other writers point out that many companies have thrived with Welch-like strategies. I’m left wondering whether Welchism is a zero-sum gain for shareholders or bad for everyone.

Welch transformed G.E. from an industrial company with a loyal employee base into a corporation that made much of its money from its finance division and had a much more transactional relationship with its workers. That served him well during his run as C.E.O., and G.E. did become the most valuable company in the world for a time.

But in the long run, that approach doomed G.E. to failure. The company underinvested in research and development, got hooked on buying other companies to fuel its growth, and its finance division was badly exposed when the financial crisis hit. Things began to unravel almost as soon as Welch retired, and G.E. announced last year it would break itself up.

Similar stories played out at dozens of other companies where Welch disciples tried to replicate his playbook, such as Home Depot and Albertsons. So while Welchism can increase profits in the short-term, the long-term consequences are almost always disastrous for workers, investors and the company itself.

Welch was responding to real problems at G.E. and the American economy in the 1970s and early ’80s. If his cure created even bigger problems, what might be a better alternative?

An important first step is rebalancing the distribution of the wealth that our biggest companies create. For the past 40-plus years we’ve been living in this era of shareholder primacy that Friedman and Welch unleashed. Meanwhile, the federal minimum wage remained low and is still just $7.25, and the gap between worker pay and productivity kept growing wider.

There are some tentative signs of change. The labor crisis and pressure from activists has led many companies to increase pay for frontline workers. Some companies, such as PayPal, are handing out stock to everyday employees.

But it’s going to take more than a few magnanimous C.E.O.s to fix these problems. And though I know it’s risky to place our faith in the government these days, there is a role for policy here: finding ways to get companies to pay a living wage, invest in their people and stop this race to the bottom with corporate taxes.

American companies can be competitive and profitable while also taking great care of their workers. They’ve been that way before, and I believe they can be that way again.

More about David Gelles: He was born in New York and got his first full-time job in journalism working for the Financial Times, where he interviewed Bernie Madoff in prison. His book about Welch is called “The Man Who Broke Capitalism.” He recently spoke about the media’s role in celebrating Welchism.

Dog in Water

Monday, June 6

Open the Door

Are you willing to open the door to your future?

Are you willing to do whatever it takes?

Are you willing to step through the door to the other side?

Are you willing to explore the unknown?

The Doors were an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1965. The band took its name from the title of Aldous Huxley's book The Doors of Perception, itself a reference to a quote by William Blake. "If the doors of perception were cleansed everything would appear to man as it is, infinite."

Do we simply see the world with our own perception in that we see whatever we want life to be? Or, do we see life through the perception of others who have influenced us?

How much do we influence ourselves and how much do others actually influence us?

When young we were influenced by our parents and our siblings. As we aged, by other students and after a few more years we were influenced by professors and still later by employers and/or the various social groups to which we belonged...

But whose doors of perception did we actually walk through... ours or theirs?

We hear the word infinity but we do not really understand it... just as we do not understand death and what happens to us afterward.... as it seems rather pointless to live 80-100 years and then it all be over when life and our universe are infinite...

Perhaps, we don't even want to open the door to perception... afraid to see what we might find...

ONE THING IS FOR SURE... THIS IS OUR LIFE AND NO ONE ELSES...

Pages

Monday, June 13

Sunday, June 12

Saturday, June 11

Friday, June 10

Thursday, June 9

Wednesday, June 8

Tuesday, June 7

Monday, June 6