Enjoying God's Gifts

Update

2011-06-21T15:11:00.000-04:00

Eighteen months or so since mt last post. I'll update this soon.

Wood I Ever!

2009-08-29T17:39:00.001-04:00

We had a lovely spring and summer in Polk County with enough rain to make up for last year’s drought. Lots of green, the fish are biting and the nights are cool. Life couldn’t be much better.
I have now lost 91 pounds since the gastric bypass surgery Oct. 6 and I feel great. My blood pressure at the last reading was 100/71, the blood sugar is in the good range every day, I have lots of energy and really enjoy giving away clothes that no longer fit. The most recent A1C test showed a blood glucose average of 5.9, which is the reading for a normal, non-diabetic human type person.
I worked for the Census Bureau for a couple of months, checking addresses as an assistant crew leader for Polk County. I was laid off when we finished the county although we were told there would be other work. It was rather fun, getting back in the work place and bouncing around all the back roads of Polk County’s mountains. I saw some interesting things.

Guns and Roses
One afternoon I was in my car at the intersection of two dirt roads talking to my boss on the cell phone while planning the rest of my day. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a figure in a black cowboy hat, boots, no shirt, jeans, with a huge pistol on his waist and a cigarette dangling from his lips. The holster was tied to his right thigh with a leather cord. Somebody right out of the old west. He watched me suspiciously, his hand on the pistol. I spoke to him, introduced myself and told him what I was doing in his territory. He calmed down and we had a right interesting conversation but he admitted to being leery of strangers.
Another day I drove up a dirt road to find three old house trailers forming a semi-circle at the end of the road. A couple of dozen adults and half that many kids milled around. They saw me and started arguing among themselves. I did not approach. After a few minutes a young man separated from the group and walked toward me sipping from a beer can. I exited the car and walked slowly toward him. He was so stoned he could hardly talk but it was clear the group had made him “spokesman” to the intruder. They had picked him I think, because he was the least wasted of the bunch. I introduced myself, handed him a flyer explaining what we were doing, and asked him the addresses of the trailers. His left hand scratched his temple. His bloodshot eyes took a puzzled look around.
“I don’t know, man, I’ve only been here a few days.”

Anniversary
The weekend of Aug. 8 we celebrated out 50th wedding anniversary with our children and grandchildren around us. The Chef and Mrs. Chef couldn’t make it because of work demands but they were here in spirit. We laughed a lot, played on the boat, drank some toasts and really enjoyed the company. It was sad to see them leave and lonesome around the Tree House after they left. Our Oregon-based daughter-in-law will spend a semester teaching in Italy and living in a Tuscany villa. Our NCIS nephew is based there now and is about to move his family into a five bedroom house. So guess where the Pappa Bear and the Mizzus will spend their next vacation?

New Vision
In July we visited Michigan and the kids/grandkids living there. They were the purpose of the trip but while there I had a cataract removed from my right eye and a super new lens installed. Similar surgery last year on the left eye set me up for renewed vision. I no longer have to use glasses, not even for reading. At 72 years of age I am glass-less for the first time since I was 14. It has taken some getting used to. I still find myself reaching for my glasses first thing in the morning, or attempting to take them off to wash my face. But it is wonderful to be able to lay on my side and watch TV without the glasses frame digging a hole in my nose. The doctor at the Kellogg Eye Center at the University of Michigan Hospital did a great job. He walked into the surgery prep area wearing a Mill Spring Volunteer Fire Department hat I gave him last year. He set up my left eye for reading and my right eye for distance. It took my brain a couple of days to adjust to that but adjust it did. Now I have 20/20 vision for the first time. I would try to be fighter pilot but I am probably too tall. And maybe too old.

Latent Genes
Sylvia asked me one day in June if I can make picture frames. She is building a nice collection of really good paintings but she can’t show them unless she gets them framed, and nice frames can be very expensive. That simple question triggered a woodworking gene that had lain dormant for years. I have yet to finish a perfect frame, ready for display. But I have had some good practice efforts. Some very expensive practice efforts. If I weigh the cost of each frame against the cost of the woodworking equipment I have purchased since June….But I better not go there. I am having great fun and slowly turning a basement storage area into my Man Cave with power tools, wood, work benches, and all the trappings of a real workshop. I got a great buy on some wood – walnut and cedar – which I will turn into Christmas and birthday gifts and picture frames and…sawdust. Speaking of sawdust, with Sylvia’s encouragement I decided to start my workshop with a dust collection system to keep all that stuff out of my lungs. It works great. The central dust sucker is connected to each bench power tool – the table saw, the router table, the drill press, the miter saw. At each location is a “blast gate” that when opened automatically turns on the dust collector.

I did some woodworking before we moved to Mexicod and bought new power tools when we moved from Mexico City to Upstate New York. The tools followed us to Michigan and found a home in the basement of the old house we bought in Ypsilanti. I traveled so much with the AP and was so busy on the weekends with ministry stuff that I didn’t get to make as much use of it as I wanted. When we moved to Miami I had to pay for the move, so I gave those heavy tools away. I never picked up the interest again during our 20 years in Miami, what with fishing, travel in Latin America, church work, and memories of lost tools. Now that my boys are grown and given away of the house I have only my self to blame if a tool is misplaced.

Almost Six Months

2009-02-10T08:49:00.003-05:00

I have had my three-month post op checkup and now I’m well on my way toward six months. The doctor said gave me a big “thumb up” after the three month check, saying my weight loss and physical condition was right on target. I go back for the six month checkup on March 9. This time there will be a big blood workup before hand to see how everything looks. So far my blood sugar numbers are good, in the 95-113 range fasting. My blood pressure averages right at 113/72 and I have lost 68 pounds. The weight lost has slowed considerably to about three pounds a week. I have found that if I do not exercise regularly now the weight loss stops completely. I went all last week without serious exercise and I didn't lose any weight at all.
The doctor nevertheless says I am on target and predicts that if I continue like this I will be down to my fighting weight of 200-205 pounds about 18 months after surgery. That would mean a weight loss of about 140 pounds. So I am about halfway there already!

Hardly a Handful

I can eat just about anything I want now, as long as it is not fatty, fried or sugared. I have been grilling like a pro—chicken breasts and seafood mostly – and liking the meals. I am still amazed at how little food fills me up and quells my hunger. This past Saturday we drove to Charlotte to visit grandson Paul at Queens University. His brother Peter was visiting for the weekend from Denison University. We had lunch at a popular biker pub. I filled up on four nachos and a third of Sylvia’s grilled chicken wrap. Of course, two hours later I was hungry again. But I have grown accustomed to eating these small meals four or five times a day. Three grilled shrimp and a half a piece of fish makes a full meal!

Ready for Repair

Paul was not too happy when we visited. He tore up his knee at lacrosse practice and is awaiting reconstructive surgery. The injury put him out for the season – a real bummer because it’s his senior year and he is team captain. He walked (limped) the sidelines Saturday at a scrimmage, looking more like a coach than a player. He is a coach, of course, having coached his high school’s varsity team in Ann Arbor last season. He is also up for a job as a lacrosse demonstration coach in England this summer. We met their girlfriends. Olivia is a communications major at Denison and has been dating Peter for several months. They drove down with Peter’s friend Antonio. Erica, Paul’s girl, has been carting him around in her car because he can’t ride his bike or walk far. Both are beautiful, personable young women.
Our volunteer fire department is flourishing. A proposal I wrote just resulted in a $235,000 grant to recruit and retain volunteer fire fighters over the coming four years. It appears we will get another $175,000 or so to buy protective gear and tools for fighting forest fires. Both grants come from FEMA.
Sylvia is awaiting her commission as a notary public. She took a course last month and, of course, aced the test. So in another week or two she can hang up her shingle and be the fire department’s in-house notary. That will be handy because some of the documents I submit in my grant proposals have to be notarized.
I am still plugging away on my second book – memoirs of a foreign correspondent. I call it “Under the Mango Tree.” I’m writing it at the insistence of my children and grandchildren who have heard my stories dozens of time but still think there is something interesting there. We’ll see.

Home Again

2008-12-09T20:54:00.002-05:00

Dec. 9, 2008 -- Our trip to Texas was nice. Good weather all the way, lower gasoline prices and loving family to visit. My Mom, who is pushing 94, is doing well. She gets tired very easily but she is still very alert and very much the sports fan.

Everyone marveled at my new look and praised my decision to go ahead with the surgery They were very pleased at the way the diabetes and blood pressure have reacted. I had no eating problems during the trip. I was very careful about what I ate but I was able to at least sample most of my favorite Texas "soul food" treats such as enchiladas, seafood, barbecue and chili. I had to say "no" a lot but it was worth it. I continue to feel very good and found this morning I had lost five more pounds on the trip.

Eating on the Go

2008-11-26T10:15:00.003-05:00

Nov. 26, 2008 -- This eating solid food is still great. I am now on Phase II of solids, which means I can eat just about what I want as long as it is chewed very well. Still no sugar and very little fat. I am limited to four ounces of food five times a day -- two ounces of protein and two ounces of either fruit, starches or vegetables. Four ounces may not seem like much but it fills me up.

We are getting ready for a trip to Texas after Thanksgiving so this is a good time to go over what I am trying to make into a habit every time I leave home. No matter how long the trip, even to the grocery store, I must take along something to eat. For a long road trip like this I have to plan ahead to avoid temptations from fast food, the snack counters at filling stations, and most of the stuff on the breakfast buffet at the hotel. Fortunately there is a lot of stuff to choose from.

I now have to have 30-40 grams of supplemental protein a day, so I can get some of that with meal-replacement bars that are high in protein and below 220 calories. They are tasty and convenient. There are several drink options that provide protein and work as meal substitutes, too.

My travel list includes a small measuring cup, bottled water, meal replacement bars, canned protein drinks, whey (which can be mixed with low fat milk or with water), vitamins and things I can toss in the cooler such as low fat cottage cheese, little containers of sugar-free Jello or pudding, or low fat cheese sticks.

On a road trip I can eat in restaurants -- even most pubs or hamburger joints -- by careful menu selection. Most places have a soup on the menu and sometimes it is a kind I can eat. So I order a cup of soup and eat about half of it. I carry a card that advises the server I had stomach surgery and need a very small special meal or need to share my wife's meal. She can order a steak and my two ounces is not missed. That, along with a couple of ounces of her baked potato or veggies, is a meal.

My health continues to improve although I had a bit of a weight setback. I actually gained six pounds over two weeks. The folks at Bariatric Solutions in Greenville, SC think it was because of too much protein and because I had stopped ALL of my blood pressure medication, including the diuretic. So I have cut down the daily protein supplement intake and gone back on one-half of the water pill every other day. My blood pressure stays around 118/72 and my blood sugar levels are now in the 80-90 range. I have cleaned up my bicycle and started trying to ride it again after 20 years. I say trying, because these mountains are hard!

Munch, Munch....

2008-11-19T08:56:00.013-05:00

Nov. 18, 2008 -- A week has passed since I moved up to real people food with the green light for solid food. This is only the first stage of the move back to solids so I still have to be very careful, making sure I chew very, very well. But it is bliss!

My first "solid" food? Part of one scrambled egg and an ounce of refried beans. Next meal was four small shrimp (grilled) and two ounces of green beans. I can eat a total of four ounces at each meal five times a day. Lots of water drinking in between. All of this is supervised by regular visits with the dietitians at Bariatric Solutions in Greenville, SC.

My one-month followup with the surgeon, Dr. Eric Bour, on Nov.6 was good. All the signs were positive and right on target. So check out today's photo to see how I am progressing.

I still feel great, more active every day. I am now off my blood pressure medication completely. This morning the pressure was 117 over 75. Blood sugar readings remain in the 92-110 range. My weight continues to decline, although not as fast as the first two or three weeks. I started a full range of workout exercises at the gym, supervised by a trainer who knows about the surgery and who worked with me some before the surgery. His help is part of a wellness program in the Mill Spring Volunteer Fire Department paid for by a FEMA grant to get volunteer firefighters in top physical condition. I continue to attend post-op support group meetings in Greenville every Tuesday even though it is a 104 mile round trip. The lower gasoline prices help that. It was down to $1.75 a gallon yesterday in Greenville.

I was trolling the Internet and came across this photo of Fidel Castro, the first in months. He is leaning on the arm of the Russian Orthodox Church's top foreign relations official, Bishop Metropolitan Kirill, last month in Havana. Fidel is showing his 82 years. He is certainly not the robust firebrand who had me in one of his jails briefly in 1969.

The Washington Post also had an interesting story about how the news media have gone bananas over Barak Obama. This story is by the Post's media critic, Howard Kurtz.

Tim Reiterman of The Associated Press wrote a recollection of the Jonestown massacre for the Nov. 18 anniversary of that tragedy. Reiterman was wounded in the attack at the Jonestown airstrip that killed Congressman Leo Ryan 30 years ago.

Squish My Food

2008-11-02T21:15:00.006-05:00

Nov 2, 2008 -- I have graduated to pureed food and have been putting my meals through the blender for five days. I can eat most foods (no sugar, no fat) just by squishing it into an unrecognizable gel. Or I can eat baby food, which is the easiest way to go. But some of that stuff -- ugh. Feeding it to a baby is child abuse!

I had some baby food turkey and it's not so bad. Bananas and pears taste like turpentine smells. And you haven't seen anything until you have seen a pureed scrambled egg. I am limited to a couple of ounces of protein and an ounce or so of fruit or vegetable at each meal. But I eat six times a day. So cream soups have become a great favorite. So have oatmeal, grits, refried beans, mashed potatoes and pudding. I have eaten a lot of pureed chicken breast. Well, not a lot in weight. But I have eaten it many times, at two ounces a whack.

I feel well. Some days are not as good as others but the off days are becoming fewer and fewer and usually they are my fault. I was very nauseous this morning after my first "feeding" but I think I ate too fast. I have been trying to get more fiber into my diet but that does not seem to be helping with irregularity. During one of the "show and tell" presentations during the pre-surgery support groups a guy who was about a year out from surgery said that stool softeners would become our good friends. I now know what he meant.

My weight continues to drop, although not as fast as I thought it would. The folks at Bariatric Solutions say I am right on target toward losing 30 pounds in the first month after surgery. I think I have lost about 28 pounds since the surgery Oct. 6 and 42 pounds since Sept. 1. My waist size has gone from a 52 to a snug 48. Sylvia hugs me every morning to see how much longer her arms are. I have the doctor's clearance to get back on the motorcycle, just so long as I don't lift it.

I have my four week follow-up with Dr. Eric Bour on Thursday, Nov. 6 and on on Tuesday, Nov. 11 I end the pureed odyssey and start on soft solids. I am keeping up with the post-surgery support group. meeting once a week for 45 minutes or so even though it is a 104 mile round-trip. I exercise every day by walking. I hope I get clearance Thursday for some other type of exercise. I would like to get back into the swimming pool.

The Election

Only the rest of Sunday and all day Monday to go before the election. I cannot recall being so tired of a political campaign. Then I realize that this has actually been going on for two years! Sylvia and I pray daily that God's will, not man's, be done.

As an old school reporter I am appalled at the press coverage of the campaign. I thought this kind of press partisanship went out with the 1920s. The cable news channels are especially bad. MSNBC and Fox News provide completely different takes on the same event. Even the New York Times has noticed. You don't see many Obama signs on the yards and byways of Polk County. McCain won the hearts and minds of my neighbors when he selected Sarah Palin as his running mate. She is very popular around these parts.

Free At Last

2008-10-27T08:41:00.006-04:00

Oct. 27, 2008 -- I am free at last of the rubber drain hanging out of my side. It was removed last Thursday when the doctor's assistant simply pulled it out. No pain involved. But the following day I felt as if I had the flu -- headache, sore muscles, lethargy. That only lasted about 24 hours.

I am now off the Diovan blood pressure medication, off the metformin diabetes medication, and sleeping without the CPAP (and showing no signs of sleep apnea or excessive snoring). I have lost about 20 pounds since the surgery three weeks ago. The goal is 30 pounds in the first month.

On Sunday I reached the 300 pound mark on my home scale which showed I weighed 341 pounds when I was at my heaviest. This picture of me during a firefighter training session shows what the guy looked like in August.

I am exercising more every day. Some days it is just a short walk but other days I walk a lot more. We take the dogs to Harmon Field and walk them (and me) there. That is usually a stroll of from one to two miles. On Tuesday and Thursday nights we join others from the fire department for physical training at a local gym. So far I am cleared only for light exercise so I use the treadmill and the recumbent elliptical trainer.

My diet is still very bland. I eat six meals a day, each one two to three ounces of cottage cheese, yogurt, cream soup or pudding. All fat-free and sugar-free, of course. This is supplemented by drinking about 80 grams of protein a day and a total of at least 62 ounces of water. But on Tuesday I get to step it up a notch, going to pureed foods. Stuff the consistency of baby food.

I am staying full and feel better every day. My back no longer aches with every step, my knees feel better and I think I am sleeping better, too. Best of all is the reduction in medication!

So far -- All is Great.

On the Way to health

2008-10-12T13:20:00.007-04:00

Sunday, Oct. 12, 2008 -- My surgery last Monday (Oct. 6) went off without any serious hitches. I actually was up and walking that afternoon. I got to go home Wednesday afternoon and spent the rest of the week taking short walks, long naps and drinking protein supplements. But here is the best news of all:
My blood glucose readings are way, way low. Dr. Bour sent me home without one of the diabetes drugs (metformin) because my readings had been so good in the hospital. Since coming home they have ranged from 89 to 113. Before, while taking 1,500 MG of metformin a day, it was a great day when I had a reading as low as 113. The average for all samples I took before surgery was 118 with medication. My fasting readings were always above 110. So it appears to me the main reason for the surgery -- diabetes -- will be met. I will continue to monitor the glucose readings closely and remain on Actos until advised otherwise by Dr. Bour. I am still on blood pressure medication with readings around 115/60 but as the weight drops the need for blood pressure medication may drop as well.
Speaking of weight: the scale tells me this morning I have lost 17 pounds since the day before I went into the hospital. That is 17 pounds in the first week. Of course, I have had very little to eat other than protein supplements but this is a good start. My only complication is one I experienced after throat surgery in 2006 -- urine retention. I left the hospital with a catheter and will see my urologist tomorrow. It took a couple of weeks for my bladder to wake up and work on its own last time. I pray this one will be shorter. No pain, just an inconvenience.
The hardest part of that first day was probably the dry mouth. Nothing to drink -- not even ice chips -- until the following morning to make sure there was no stomach acid churned up that might cause damage. About 9 Tuesday morning I was rolled down to X-ray for a gulp of a barium solution so Dr. Bour could be sure there were no leaks. Thankfully, there were none. Back in the room I got my first ice chips, soaked in blue food coloring so that if any leaks out the drain they put in my left side it will show up clearly. No leaks there, either.
I am very impressed with the staff at Hillcrest Memorial Hospital. They went out of their way to make certain I was as comfortable as possible and that my wife and daughter had all the support they needed. I had at least one, and sometimes two, RNs taking care of me. They treated me like the only patient in the hospital.
I spent Tuesday walking the corridors of the hospital and punching my pain medication pump. It flowed enough to keep me happy. Since returning home I have been walking regularly. First, it was just the length of the driveway, about 150 feet. Now it is down the driveway and halfway up the hill. Next: the top of the hill. Tueday I go back to Greenville for my first post-op support group meeting and Thursday meet with the nutritionist and the doctor.
This would have been impossible without great support from my family. My daughter Cathy flew in for the surgery and early post-op. Son Tim relieved her when I got home so he could spell Sylvia of some of the chores. I had daily calls and messages from my other two sons, our grandkids and friends.
Wednesday brought a huge surprise. My friend Kevin Hall drove up from Miami to visit me in the hospital and then spent a several hours watching me doze off in my favorite chair at home. What a thoughtful thing to do.
Art Heise, another old friend, brought Kevin to the hospital and gave great support to Sylvia. Art and I have a regular appointment for lunch every Wednesday at a spot in Hendersonville that has Harp beer on sale on that day. Art and Kevin drank a pint or two in my honor Wednesday and Jessica, who manages the place, sent them off with a gift for me: A shot glass labeled "Harp", a child's menu and a T-shirt.

The Time is Near

2008-10-05T12:40:00.003-04:00

Oct. 5, 2008 -- My surgery is still on schedule for Monday Oct. 6 at 8 a.m. We have to show up at Hillcrest Memorial Hospital t 6:30 a.m. so we will spend the night in a hotel near the hospital. My wife and daughter will stay there until I can go home Wednesday in order to avoid the 110 mile roundtrip from the house to the hospital.

I am not nervous but I do look forward to getting it over with. The folks at Bariatric Solutions in Greenville, SC have prepared me well. I know what to expect and what will be expected of me.

So this is my last post until I get back home from the hospital.

I have spent the day on a diet of clear liquids. No problems with that. I can have beef or chicken broth, sugar-free jello and such. Everything is cut off at midnight. No even water, except for a sip to take required medication. They say I won't get a drink again until the second day after surgery. Makes my mouth dry just thinking about that.

On The Road...

2008-10-01T17:00:00.003-04:00

Oct. 1, 2008 -- Finally, I know what time the surgery is to start! We drove down to Hillcrest Memorial Hospital in Simpsonville, SC early this morning for the pre-surgical assessment and meeting with the anesthesiologist. Again we both were impressed with the thoroughness and attention to detail of all those involved in this process. The whole deal, from start with the business office to final details took about 1 1/2 hours -- most of it answering health questions.

The biggest thing of the morning: Surgery is set for 8 a.m. Monday, Oct. 6. I have to be in the lobby of the hospital at 6:30 a.m. Surgery will take about two hours, then I go to the recovery room for an hour or so before moving into my room for my two night stay. Nothing to eat or drink -- not even water or ice chips -- the first day.

Hillcrest is small teaching hospital south of Greenville. It is part of the Greenville Hospital System and the center for bariatric surgery. Everyone we met with is part of the regular crew that specializes in gastric bypass surgery.

I feel very confident and reassured. The support group sessions, special diet classes and all the other preparation has been fantastic.

When Dr. Bour did the EGD he took a biopsy looking for a particular kind of bacteria, which he found. So his assistant called this afternoon with a prescription for antibiotics I have to start tonight.

Sept. 30, 2008 -- Met with the pre-surgery diet group for the last time today. I made my weight goal, or rather came very close to it, by losing 10 pounds over these past three weeks. I should be a few pounds under the goal by Oct 5, the day before surgery, when I go on a clear liquid diet. Nothing at all after midnight the night before surgery.

Sept. 25, 2008 -- Gadzooks! An 8 a.m. meeting in Greenville, an hour's drive away meant an early morning for us. But it was worth it. All of those scheduled for surgery around my Oct. 5 surgery date met with Dr. Eric Bour, the bariatric surgeon, and his assistant Katie M. Meyer. They went over a lot of ground we had covered in the various support group and diet group meetings but this was a very intense review. We went over all the things that can go wrong, what to expect in the recovery room and so forth. Once again we both left convinced I came to the right place for this surgery.

Sept.23, 2008 -- My third diet class this morning. I feel fine and have lost six pounds. The Optifast 800 is not as bad as I expected. In fact, it tastes pretty good and it certainly takes away the hunger. Or most of the hunger. The real meal I eat once a day is very welcome. We weigh everything. No more than four ounces of protein. But dill pickles are "free" and I have already gone through a whole jar.

Sept. 17, 2008 -- This is the second week of the crash diet before gastric bypass surgery. It is still going well.
On Monday I had the EGD procedure and Dr. Eric Bour said my innerds look fine except for a small lesion. He took a biopsy but said he sees a lot like that. I don't remember any of this, of course, so it is second hand from Sylvia.

On the Bariatric Road

2008-09-11T11:06:00.015-04:00

Sept. 11, 2008 -- The seventh anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. How life has changed for us since then!
This is Day Three and all is going well. I feel very good today and I am sure I will make my goal of six fewer pounds by Sept. 16. On Monday, Sept. 15, I am scheduled for the EGD.
I had the five Optifast shakes yesterday and a real meal.

Solid Food

Felt good to chew something. Sylvia fixed four ounces of steak, fresh green beans with a cucumber and tomato salad. A juicy peach served as dessert. I awoke this morning feeling refreshed and energized.

Hurricane Awareness

Our prayers today are for those in the path of Hurricane Ike. My sister and my mother live just south of Houston. Mom, who is 94, lives in League City, Texas, while my sister and her husband live a bit further south in La Marque. They will be evacuating although I don't know yet where they will go.

Similar Storms

Ike is very similar to Hurricane Carla, which hit South Texas on Sept. 11, 1961. Both Dan Rather of CBS-TV fame and I got our big breaks during that storm. Rather was assigned to the Galveston weather bureau by his TV station in Houston and made dramatic, live reports as the water rose around him. He was in the weather bureau because he could show radar images of the storm -- a novelty then -- and because the bureau had back-up electrical power. I was on the night desk in the AP bureau in Houston and got the first eye-witness views of the flooding and devastation by renting a plane and flying over the area at first light. The plane had to be towed from the hangar into take-off position because the wind was strong enough to turn it over if the pilot tried to taxi. We took off into the wind in what seemed like about 100 feet. That little plane was tossed around like a leaf. Fortunately we had put a waste basket aboard because even the pilot got air sick. After landing and filing my story I drove as far into the damage as I could get for more first-hand reporting.
We both got promotions. So I guess we are responsible for the silly way TV reporters stand outside in hurricanes now.
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Day Two on the Bariatric Road

2008-09-09T15:17:00.000-04:00

Sept. 10, 2008 -- The meeting of the pre-surgery diet group yesterday was a good orientation. I must lose six pounds by next Tuesday, Sept. 16. That should be a piece of cake. Except I can't eat cake.
I am starting out with the Optifast diet. This means drinking five of the Optifast shakes a day and eating one small meal -- a diet of about 1,500 calories a day. I may switch to drinking Muscle Milk Light because it is a little cheaper at $1.25 a serving while Optifast costs $3.50 a serving if I buy it already mixed. Mixing it myself reduces the cost a little. I think these kind of diets are not very successful over the long run because I have always gained back most of what I lost when I stopped the diet. But I will only be on it for four weeks and then -- on to the surgery.
I start the day with a drink, followed by another every three hours until dinner time around 6 p.m. or so when I can have four ounces of protein and some veggies. I finish the day with a final drink about 9 p.m. I must drink lots of water, which is easy because the Optifast seems to make me thirsty.

An Assist from the Wife

Sylvia is helping me in the diet phase. She joined Bariatic Solutions' non-surgical weight loss program. That is true togetherness!
This will work better for me if I don't look ahead toward how much total weight I have to lose in these four weeks but rather focus on how much I should weigh at my next diet class. That makes the "bites" smaller and easier to digest if I look forward to next Tuesday rather than to Oct. 4.
So far I notice little change in how I feel. Except I seem hungry a lot. Water helps ease that. I find I look at my watch a lot, trying to speed up the clock to the next drink.

A New Me

My daughter said she didn't like the picture I posted on Monday. I picked it to show how bad I look but here is another one. The dog is Grace, our new Corgi mix, who pals around with Buddy, another Corgi mix. Both are rescue dogs.
Lacey at Bariatric Solutions asked if they can put a link to this blog on their web page, so welcome to anyone who wandered in from over there.

Weird News

Back in the days when I slogged around the world as a foreign correspondent I was always on the outlook for the foibles and humor in life. Now I use the Internet instead. Here is a story from Britain about a young lady who found a bat in the bra she was wearing. And my contribution to political commentary can be summed up by "all things Sarah" by the BBC.

Ready for the Next Phase

2008-09-08T13:53:00.007-04:00

The date has been set and I am ready. My Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery is scheduled for Oct. 6 after a long and interesting wait. I will try to log the coming days here, mainly so family members can keep up with what is going on -- if they are interested. Nothing makes a person's eyes glaze faster than listening to someone talk about their surgery. So this way those who want to know can keep up while others won't be bored.
September is going to be full of appointments, starting Tuesday Sept. 9 and at least one a week after that until Oct. 6. I start a closely supervised diet Tuesday to lose 10 percent of my excess body weight or about 15 pounds before surgery. I weighed 341 this morning.

Two Goals

This diet has a dual purpose -- to show that I am serious about this and to reduce the fat around the intestines while reducing the size of the liver to make the surgery easier.
I decided to start this journey in January 2008 and the following month enrolled in the pre-surgery program at Bariatric Solutions in Greenville, SC. This is a part of the University Medical Group in Greenville and a Center of Excellence whose methods are in compliance with the standards set by the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery.
My reason for the surgery is not cosmetic -- although a slimmer me will be a great side benefit -- but rather to alleviate some of the medical problems I have. I expect the surgery to help my fight with Type 2 Diabetes, high blood pressure and sleep apnea. All three usually improve with weight loss and one study shows diabetes often disappears immediately with gastric bypass surgery.
Dr. Eric Bour is the surgeon at Bariatric Solutions. He does four to five gastric bypass surgeries a week and is booked several months in advance. I had to wait eight months. If I kiss off the diet or miss any of my upcoming appointments my surgery date will be canceled and I will be back on the waiting list again.

Here are my appointments:

1. Sept. 9, 16, 23, and 30 -- Pre-surgical Diet classes
2. Sept. 15 -- Upper GI Endoscopy so Dr. Bour can take a look at things
2. Sept. 25 -- Pre-surgery group (those four scheduled for surgery on Oct. 6)
3. Oct. 1 -- Anesthesia pre-assessment and advising surgery day arrival time
4. Oct. 5 -- Start fasting
5. Oct. 6 -- Surgery
6. Oct. 16 -- First post-op appointment followed by 15 other follow-up appointments into 2009. Dates and times for these are already set, including the dates for lab work.
So far I have attended 23 pre-surgery support group meetings and will have a support group meeting after each of the diet classes. Post-surgery support group meetings start the first week after surgery. Along the way I have met with and been cleared by the staff psychologist, the surgeon, his scheduling assistant and the two staff dietitians. I have talked with at least a dozen people who had this surgery or the lap band surgery at this center so I think I have a pretty clear idea of what to expect.
The surgery itself will be at the Hillcrest Hospital, part of the Greenville Hospital System.
If you want to see a video of bypass surgery you can click here but be prepared -- it is kinda gross.

2008-06-19T10:13:00.000-04:00

My Future Expectations

Based on God’s Promises

Isaiah 54:17 –I expect no weapon formed against me shall prosper.
Isaiah 54:14—I expect to be far from oppression and terror shall not come near me.
2 Corinthians 2:14—I expect to triumph in all things in Christ Jesus
Philippians 4:15-19— I expect all my needs to be met according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
Proverbs 11:25- I expect my finances to increase, my bank account to be made fat, and my soul to be anointed.
Galatians 6: 6-10—I expect to reap financial blessings regardless of the world’s economy.
Malachi 3:10-12—I expect to be blessed and the windows of heaven to be opened and the devourer to be rebuked.
Luke 6:38—I expect to be given to.
3 John 1:3—I expect to prosper and be in good health and I expect my soul to prosper.
Ephesians 2:18—I expect to regularly stand in the presence of God.
Psalms 16:11—I expect my house to be filled with joy.
Acts 16:31—I expect all my family to be saved, set apart, healed and made whole.
Hebrews 7:9-10—I expect my children to be blessed and to live a blessed life.
Psalm 23:6: I expect to dwell in the House of the Lord forever.

Welcome Rain

2008-03-07T14:26:00.003-05:00

Our drought appears to be over, or at least slackened. We had almost two inches of rain on Tuesday and another good soaker Friday so things look better. The lake is up and the daffodils are in bloom!
Here is a good game to test your geography skills. The contest appears to be over but you can still try to land in the right spot. Click on "Beat My Score" and then on "Play the Game."

I have been busy writing grants for the volunteer fire department so this was a welcome diversion.

Snow! Ice! Sleet!

2008-01-17T12:47:00.000-05:00

We had our first storm of the winter last night and early today. We got about 4 inches of snow here, plus a little bit of freezing rain and some tiny amount of sleet. It was nowhere near as bad as the weather readers on TV would have you believe.
Here is a video about it.

Yeah, Rain!

2007-12-28T11:49:00.001-05:00

We are finally getting some good rain. The forecasters predict maybe more than an inch over this coming weekend. Thank God!

We are still in a severe drought that one weekend of rain won't cure. The deficit for the year is still right at 14 inches. Farmers and horse owners are having to import hay from Texas and other points with the price per square bale up to almost $10. It normally sells for between $3 and $5 a square bale. The big round bales, which are not as nutritious anyway, can't be purchased at any price locally. Those who have them are saving them for their own horses or cows. The governor has declared a hay emergency in our county so the feds will pay owners up to $1,500 to offset the cost of trucking in hay from other states. You can read some of the pleas for hay here. The drought is having its effect on other prices, too. Dairy farms are hurting and milk is up to more than $4 a gallon in some stores. Cheaper to drink gasoline.
The French Broad River, one of the major rivers in this area, is hurting. This is a picture of the river just across the state line in Tennessee. The French Broad flows on down into Asheville and is one of the great kayaking and rafting rivers in the area when it has enough water. Our lake, fed by the Green River, is holding its own. The power station at the dam is not generating much these days so the lake level stays normal.

Big News
The big news in our household is the addition of Buddy, a 2-year-old Corgi we adopted Dec. 21 from the Hendersonville Humane Society, where his previous owner had left him. That owner named him "bling-bling" but neither the dog nor I liked that name so now he is Buddy. He is housebroken and very smart. He's learning to sit, stay and those good things. He is also learning that his crate is a nice place to sleep.

Smaller News

Quad Goat Arrive at Polk High School
That was the headline in our little local paper earlier this month. Our high school has an educational farm, and on that farm are goats. The four baby boy goats -- called bucks --- were born to a doe earlier this month. That is unusual. Normally only two baby goats are in a litter (if litter is the right word). Students bottle-fed the bucks until they were strong enough to nurse. Last word is that they are going fine. Is this a great place to live, or what?

Cows in the Yard

2007-12-13T10:10:00.001-05:00

I had a telephone call from the Polk County Agriculture Extension office asking me to join the Board of Directors of the county 4-H Foundation.
My mother, who used to have to chase me with a broom to get me to mow the lawn, laughed at that one. "Now you'll have to get a cow or a hog," she said. The 4-H Youth Development Program is the youth outreach from the Land Grant Universities, Cooperative Extension Services, and the US Department of Agriculture. The four Hs stand for Head, Heart, Hands, and Health. You've probably seen the four leaf clover symbol of 4-H. Sylvia taught a sewing class for 4-H last year. I'm told that I was recommended by John Vining, the county extension agent, and another board member who lives in Lake Adger and rides to the hounds. First meeting: Jan. 14.

Follows her Husband

A woman whose husband had the highest approval rating of any recent president enters politics on her own. Her husband cannot run again. So she runs for president. And wins. Hillary Clinton? Nope. She is Cristina Fernández de Kirchner who just took office as president of Argentina.
Read about it here. She joins a fairly long list of women who have been elected president in Latin American countries, a fact that surprises many who know only of machismo in Latin America. Most Americans don't realize that Latin American societies are very often matriarchal societies.

Bolivian update

2007-12-10T21:58:00.000-05:00

Here is a good update on the Bolivian constitutional crisis.

EARTHQUAKE!

2007-12-08T11:15:00.000-05:00

We had a small earthquake at 6:07 a.m. Friday. It only measured 3.1 and for that we are grateful because the US Geological Service says it was centered at 35.32N 82.19W. which would put it 1.41 miles from our front door. They said it was 8.1 kilometers or 5.03 miles down. We had no damage but we sure felt and heard it.
Earthquakes are not as common here as they are in some parts of California, or as common as we knew them to be in Mexico City and Caracas.

Big Award

The Mill Spring Volunteer Fire Department had is annual awards dinner Friday night and it was full of surprises. The biggest surprise was my selection as the department's Firefighter of the Year! Bobby Wise, the new assistant chief, was selected Officer of the Year. The members voted on the officer of the year, and the officers selected the Firefighter of the Year. I got a beautiful plaque to hang on my wall, next to the one I received as president of the Round Lake Hose Company when we left Round Lake, NY in 1981. Bill Cunningham, who has been in the department almost since it was founded, was given the title of honorary chief for life, and the call number 2400. We are station 24 so we all have 24xx call signs, ours being 2414 and 2415. The regular chief is 2401. We are now the only department in the county with a 2400.

It's News to Me...

2007-12-03T17:10:00.001-05:00

Almost 70 assembled and assorted tubas serenaded us Saturday at the Polk High School auditorium. This is one of about 20 "Tuba Christmases" that appear around the nation in December. The best-known was in Rockefeller Center in New York City, where they all started in 1974.
This was the 10th year for a Tuba Christmas in Polk County. The music was good, we all sang along on some of the carols , and we learned something about different kinds of tubas-- such as the Serpent at left. There were three guys playing serpents in the group. Some of the bells on the tubas face the front for recording or projecting to an audience while some face to the rear for leading a parade.The ages of the tuba players ranged from 12 to 86. This video shows some of the kinds of tubas.Listen to the tuba fans ooh and awh over the types.We'll go again next year.

Moonshine

While we were musing about the music the County Sheriff's guys made a domestic dispute call and found Phillip Pierce with 144 pints of moonshine at a house out on Henderson Road. The deputies decided that was more than he was likely to consume in one sittin' so they took him to jail. No word about where the still is located.Oh, and by the way, the last line in the story in our local paper says the sheriff's office plans to destroy the 'shine.
There was an "old time moonshiners reunion" down Highway No. 9 at New Prospect, SC in October but we missed it. There were a lot of bluegrass bands pickin' and singin' and, I guess, talking about moonshine. Surely they wouldn't be drinking it.

Winter Sun

2007-12-01T11:33:00.000-05:00

We are still dry -- there is still a statewide ban on outdoor fires, including campfires. Our rain deficit for the year is almost 20 inches now. Add that to the shortage last year and it's clear why Polk County is so dry. The drought has, however, got our county commissioners off their leather chairs and into water supply discussions. The Green River flows through the county and there has been talk among some forward-looking people for years to tap into the river for future water supply. Now the commissioners have realized someone else -- such as Greenville or Spartanburg, SC just to the south, might get the same idea. The Comish is also talking about restricting lot size in future developments to seven acres in order to preserve the rural nature of the county and to save water. No decision on any of this stuff yet.

Bolivian Tango

My friend John Virtue is just back from Bolivia, where he was doing seminars and workshops on journalism ethics. He says friends there say the country is on the edge of civil war. We are so inwardly focused in the United States that you don't see that kind of stuff on the evening news until the civil war is in full bloom. What's going on with President Evo Morales and his opponents is a true social struggle, pitting class against class and society against society, all fired by fuel shortages in a country floating on petroleum and gas reserves.
Morales is from Bolivia's indigenous population, the historically oppressed Indian culture.

Morales, who has the solid support of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is shown in traditional dress in this picture.
The class struggle was heightened by the draft version of a new constitution which would allow Morales to be reelected permanently. And to add more confusion: Bolivia has two capitol cities, Sucre and La Paz. Most of the governing is actually done from La Paz. Sucre has the Supreme Court and justice department. But Sucre is the site of the constituent assembly convened to draft the new constitution. Sucre once had all the Bolivian government. Some of those who live in Sucre want that again, so they barricaded the people drafting the constitution. Pretty soon people were fighting in the streets all over the country.

A good place to read about this kind of on-going Bolivian drama is at the Democracy Center blog. The BBC also keeps a good eye on Bolivia, such as this story about the death of British reporter en route to cover the latest events in Sucre. Other journalists in Bolivia have run into trouble recently. The Committee to Protect Journalists keeps pretty close tabs on that situation.

Fallen Leaves

2007-11-18T14:16:00.002-05:00

I have had no takers on my offer to sell freshly-fallen leaves to any and all. So now I am giving them away. Just drop by and take all the leaves you want.

I saw this video and think you all might be moved by it.

Thanksgiving this year has lost a bit of its joy for us because of the death of Amy Greenstadt's mother. Amy is Sean's friend who planned on joining him to share Thanksgiving with us in Michigan. Her mother Inez died unexpectedly last Thursday evening as Sean and Amy prepared to fly from Oregon to Michigan. Our sympathy and prayers are with Amy in this difficult time. The guest book is here for those who wish to send their condolences.

Great Weekend

2007-11-12T10:15:00.000-05:00

We had a wonderful weekend visit from Grandson Paul, taking a break from conquering Queens University in Charlotte. We fished Sunday but had no luck. A couple of strikes but no fish in the boat. He fished 'till dark on the dock using night crawlers. They got nibbled by little guys but again he had no luck.

The Red Hot Fire Sale on Saturday for the Mill Spring Volunteer Fire Department was a roaring success. The day raised right at $3,000 to put toward the purchase of "Jaws of Life" rescue tools. A full set of these tools costs about $25,000. So far the department has raised about $17,000 through fund raisers and with a $12,000 grant from the Polk County Community Foundation. The fire sale was the brainchild of Carolyn Cobb, president of the Lake Adger Garden Club. A nice side benefit was seeing the people from the larger community meeting and talking with folks from the Lake Adger community. Jamie Davidson, another Lake Adger neighbor who heads the fire department auxiliary, handled the organizational details.

A Lost Friend

2007-11-09T16:45:00.000-05:00

I just learned of the loss of a dear friend and mentor. Morris W. Rosenberg died in September at the age of 87.
Morrie was The Associated Press chief of bureau for Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean when I joined the bureau in 1966 as an eager young reporter still rough around the edges. Years later we were reunited when Morrie became a member of the Advisory Council to the Latin American Journalism Program I was managing at Florida International University. Morrie was a man of gentle good humor and great integrity who made a profound mark on my life. You can read a little about this good man here.
What makes me sad is that Morrie and Lucie were living in Chapel Hill, NC, less than 250 miles away and I did not know it. I had lost touch with him while winding down my time at FIU and relocating in North Carolina and thought he still lived in Washington, DC.

Happier Note

On a lighter scale, Grandson Paul had taken the weekend off from his studies at Queens University of Charlotte to spend time with us. We'll fish, eat well, talk about Hemingway and just enjoy his company.

Fishing in the Freezer

2007-11-08T11:07:00.000-05:00

Even though the temperature was below freezing -- 27 degrees -- I had to get a few casts in this morning. Result: Numb fingers and one bass. A little bass, but a bass nevetheless. About half a pound. Hit a silver weedless spoon in about three feet of water. Not the muskie I was looking for but a fish is a fish. I returned her to the lake to grow into a record.
The water temperature was 57 degrees.

Leaf Update

Because I have had no takers on my offer to sell leaves to the leaf-deprived of this world I will have to handle them some other way. So I have ordered a leaf mulcher which, if all goes as advertised, will provide plenty of cover for all of our plants and flower beds. It may also be fun to chop up all those weeds. A man cannot have too many tools.

Our fire department's "Red Hot Fire Sale" made our local paper again. The story was written by The One Whose Voice Must Be Obeyed.

Journalism professor murdered

2007-11-03T10:12:00.001-04:00

There have been about 50 college professors murdered in Guatemala in the past two years. The latest taught in the school of communication sciences. You can read the story at Journalism professor murdered in Guatemala .

Guatemala has been a very violent place as long as I have known it. My first trip to Guatemala City was in 1968. The U.S. ambassador had been assassinated in one of the first acts of terrorism against an American ambassador in modern time. Helga Ruge, the wife of the embassy consul who was there at the time, has written about those days in AmericanDiplomacy.org. It is a good read. She talks about the assassination on Page 2. I had good contacts in Guatemala City in those days and heard of the killing very quickly. A fortunate Pan American flight got me from Mexico City to Guatemala City in time to be the first foreign correspondent on the scene. I had never heard the story about the reporter calling Ambassador Mein's wife but if it is true I suspect it was Alfonzo Anzueto, a very agressive, accurate reporter who worked as an AP stringer. Alfonso died in 2000 so I can't verify that suspicion. If he did call the residence he would have done so because someone at the embassy told him the ambassador had gone home for lunch.

Red Hot Fire Sale

2007-10-31T15:06:00.000-04:00

We are excited at the Mill Spring Volunteer Fire Department because of the grant we got from the Polk County Community Foundation to help purchase vehicle extraction tools. These tools, commonly called "Jaws of Life" after those made by the Hurst company, are used to tear cars and trucks apart to extricate trapped victims after a traffic accident. They can also be used in other rescue situations.

The tools are costly -- about $25,000 for what we need -- and the foundation contributed $12,000 toward that goal. We have raised about $2,000 in door-to-door requests.

Now the Lake Adger Garden Club has stepped forward to help. They are organizing a "Red Hot Fire Sale" at the main station in Mill Spring Nov. 10. This is to be a huge garage/yard sale with people from throughout Polk County contributing items for sale. The Garden Clubbers have also arranged to sell tables to those who want to offer craft items and stuff like that.

Some people are donating nice furniture, slightly used appliances and other household items. Members of the department's auxiliary will sell baked goods.

A social event last week brought in donations of more than $600 from the Lake Adger Friends, who have adopted the Mill Spring and Sunny View Volunteer departments. Their pot-luck evening included a silent auction of such things as a truck load of firewood cut and split by one of the Friends, rare wine from the cellars of another, and a beautiful dogwood tree from a third.

We don't see much in the papers these days about Haiti, except when there is a storm. So here is an update on what is going on there -- or what is not going on. We tried several times to get a project going in Haiti to help the journalists there cope. But we were never successful.

Fall Bargain

2007-10-27T15:16:00.000-04:00

For Sale: Beautiful hardwood leaves, fresh from the trees!

Order Yours Today!

Live in the desert?
Miss the Fall of your childhood?
Make your neighbors envious!

I will very soon have a fresh supply of newly fallen leaves from mature oak, maple, dogwood and other genuine Western North Carolina trees.
They are untouched by human hands.
The very first leaves have already fallen and a much-needed rain has made them soggy and not very pretty.
But a fresh batch is almost ready. Order yours now and get 'em in time for Thanksgiving!
Your leaves will be shipped directly to your doorstep in 20-pound lots. And that is lots of leaves.
Spread them on your lawn, patio and driveway for that "mountain fall" feeling.

At $5 a pound they are cheaper than coffee. Orders can be placed by e-mailing barrabas01@gmail.com. Minimum order: 2o pounds.
(Note: leaves may arrive broken because of shipping traumas.)

Home Again

We returned this weekend from two weeks near salt water -- in Miami for a pastors' conference at Voice for Jesus Church and then in La Marque, TX. A wonderful visit with my mother and sister but it is also wonderful to be home.

We had a huge stack of mail piled up at our local post office. Amy, our postal person, welcomed us home by delivering it personally in a big basket rather than trying to stuff it in the mail box. She could hardly carry it because there were so many catalogs. Only a couple of real letters but a huge stack of junk. The lake is still here, and I will check to see if the fish are, too, real soon.

Joy of Giving

2007-09-30T11:39:00.000-04:00

Science catches up with the Jesus once again, proving what He said. Acts 20:35 says, "I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive."

Ulrich Mayr, a psychology professor at the University of Oregon, has experiments and brain scans that show people get a kind of thrill from giving money to charity. You can read a Reuter's story about the experiments here. And you can read Dr. Mayr's abstract here.

Tithes and offerings have been a part of our lives for so long this seems natural. I don't notice any special feeling of euphoria but I do feel deeply that giving is right. I feel uncomfortable and get an internal nag when I don't give. But I have a question or two about the study. They gave the subjects $100 to start with and then studied their reactions to parting with that money. Would it not have been more realistic to use their own money? John Tierney, a New York Times science columnist, writes about the study and asks some provocative questions. It is a blog so you can see what his readers think.

An article in Time magazine says:
It is not just the fabulously wealthy and the entrepreneurial elite who are giving. Average Americans continue to step up, whether by volunteering at their local schools or contributing through churches, mosques and synagogues....For every Bill Gates there are literally a million Morris Popes. The 81-year-old retired train engineer has given at least $500 to the Atlanta Food Bank every year since 1982. One year he gave $1,200. And this on a retirement income of about $1,700 a month. He is almost too shy to mention the $3,000 he annually tithes to his First Corinth Missionary Baptist Church. "I look at how God has blessed me during my working years and raising my family, and I can't tell you how many times I've come to these homeless shelters and heard people say, 'My children haven't had a bite to eat today,'" says Pope. "Everyone should feel the pleasure of giving to others. If they knew that, they would give too."

We have had no more serious rain since that of Friday a week ago. But the weather has changed for the better -- the heat broke and now we have nights in the upper 40s and days in the 70s. No big change in the leaves yet but that is coming, too. We took in the "Wings Over the Smokies" motorcycle rally in Fletcher, NC, last week. Our Goldwing chapter worked the entrance gates on Thursday and then I hung out in the vendors area Friday and Saturday. Sylvia joined me at the closing ceremonies Saturday night, but we didn't win the drawing -- a 2007 Goldwing and trailer. This is one of the largest rallies for Goldwing riders in this part of the country and was the first that we attended (2004) after we starting riding again.

Finally Some Rain

2007-09-15T17:55:00.000-04:00

Thank God! We finally had rain Friday. Maybe an inch but it was great. It rained off and on all day, pretty hard in some spots, and tapered off Friday night. Saturday dawned clear but the flora and fauna were just as happy as we were.
One of my neighbors brought her little girl into our front yard to play. You can see the fawn's legs in the right of the picture, and then a closeup of the little one. Sylvia no longer likes Bambi as much as she used to -- they eat her flowers. She gets out every other week to spray foul-smelling Liquid Fence but they still get the unprotected plants. Neighbors who raved about cute little deer when they lived in the city now have names for them, and they are not pet names.

Celebrating Green

2007-09-07T13:54:00.000-04:00

Green Creek Festival

We spent part of Saturday enjoying the Green Creek Heritage Festival down Highway 9 a ways. Lots of pickin' and singin', a kid's tractor pull, a Fireman's Barrel Roll, and lots of food and crafts.
Several volunteer fire departments participated in the barrel roll, aiming their high pressure hoses at an empty barrel in an effort to push it across the other department's goal line. We stayed dry.
There was a sandbox full of corn for the kids to play in, a car show, farm equipment displays and lots of other stuff. My little camera didn't record the music but you can hear the Boys her e. They play regularly at the City Grill in Saluda which is more commonly known as the Truck Stop. They are one of dozens of Gospel Blue Grass groups around here. Almost any week one of the 83 churches in Polk County will have a signing. A group comes in to perform for the folks.

Green Creek used to be called Green's Creek because it was named after the creek that ran through the property of William Henry Green. Uncle Billy came to Polk County before it was a county, in 1760. Now the little phone books in Polk and Rutherford County towns and across the line in South Carolina have dozens and dozens of Greens or Greenes. Some people in the same family spell that last name one way while other family members spell it the other. The cemeteries here are mostly on church grounds and there's many a Green planted in them.

Suffering Nicaragua

Nicaragua has played a large role in my life. So it is sad to read about how the Nicas are suffering again. I spent many, many weeks there over the years, reporting on Nicaraguan politics, disasters, triumphs and dreams. I opened an office there while director of the Latin American Journalism Program, spent four years training Nicaraguan journalists after the first Sandinista government was voted out of office. I baby-sat Howard Hughes when he was ensconced on the top floor of the Intercontinental Hotel, the pyramid shaped hostel that was a temporary home to hundreds of foreign correspondents, diplomats, spies and assorted other ner'do-wells a three decades ago.

So I know a lot about the country, really like its people and recall fondly my Nicaraguan friends. It always makes me sad when bad things happen to the Nicas. And bad things seem to happen to them often. The latest is Hurricane Felix.
The hurricane hit the Miskito coast, an area called the RAAN or the North Atlantic Autonomous Region, where poverty is extreme, infrastructure is weak and communication is difficult. La Prensa in Managua was reporting 168 deaths. The paper said the death toll may be much higher but authorities won't know until they contact all the small fishing villages on the coast.

Managua itself was destroyed and thousands killed in an earthquake in 1972. The epicenter was right under the city. Howard Hughes scooted out of the Intercontinental Hotel to the airport and despite the fact it was closed ordered his plane into the air. Howard wanted out of there as fast as possible.

Then came the Sandinista government of Daniel Ortega, which ruined what was left of the country's economy. Now Ortega has been reelected. In a speech celebrating the 28th anniversary of the army the Sandinistas founded he called Nicaraguan reporters "children of Goebbels" and accused them of spreading lies about his government abroad. Sounds like the 1980s all over again.

Sergio Ramirez served as vice president in Ortega's first government, then split with him and formed another wing of the Sandinista party. Ramirez was one of the "group of 12" Nicaraguan inellectuals, clerics and businessmen who broke with Anastasio Somoza to support the Sandinistas when they were trying to overthrow Somoza. Ramirez writes about the party's current status in this article.

Hurricane Felix calls to mind Hurricane Fifi about this same time 33 years ago. Fifi killed at least 8,000 people in Honduras Sept. 18-19, 1974. Most were drowned or buried in mud slides. It took Honduras several years to recover. The storm destroyed 80 percent of the 1974 banana crop. Most of the Honduran fishing fleet and the main facilities of Puerto Cortes, the most important port, were destroyed. Flooding from the storm drowned two-fifths of the country's cattle. The total damage, estimated to be about $900 million, was horrible for Honduras.

American Plot

There are people in Central America even today who are convinced the United States made Fifi a deadly storm. Their theory is that Storm Fury -- American experiments in seeding hurricanes -- made Fifi increase in strength and forward speed so that it hit Central America an unexpected blow. The United States experimented with dropping silver iodide into the storms on the theory this would shrink the eye. Cuba and Mexico complained. Here is text from a Nov. 4, 2001 CNN broadcast in which Correspondent John Zarrella interviewed Max Sheets, then director of Storm Fury. Sheets later became director of the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

ZARRELLA: But Storm Fury also had critics. The government of Mexico charged that tempering with hurricanes would deprive Mexican agriculture of rain. Fidel Castro fueled anti-American sentiment with accusations that Storm Fury would divert hurricanes into Cuba. And when Hurricane Fifi hit Honduras, there was immediate suspicion that American research was to blame, a charge that was laid to rest.

SHEETS: Fortunately for us, in 1974, when Fifi occurred, we did no flying into hurricanes, period. "

That full broadcast, which had some very interesting predictions about New Orleans flooding, is here .

Fishing is Godly

2007-09-02T13:39:00.000-04:00

Long ago I decided that if God put water on more than 75 percent of the earth's surface He means for us to fish at least 75 percent of our time.
But as I prepared for our Sunday night service I noticed how much God really cares about fish.
This has been in the Bible all along. I have read it many times. But not until this reading did it sink in. I was reading in the New International Version but the King James and other translations say the same thing.
In Genesis 1 God is creating the earth and populating it. In verse 20 it says: "And God said, 'Let the water teem with living creatures....'" That would be fish.
Then in verse 22 says, "God blessed them and said, 'Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas....'"
The very first thing God blessed -- the very first time the word Blessed is used -- was for fish!
A few verses later in that same chapter God creates man and then blesses him. In fact, the first words man hears from God is the blessing. Most of the Bible commentaries emphasize the "be frutiful and multiply" part of that blessing. But the word used there for blessed really means more than simply have a bunch of kids. It means man is to have authority, to prosper, to have access to all the world's riches -- as long as he is using those riches in the service of God and man and not for selfish reasons.
So I won't be selfish. I'll share some of the fish with you. I long ago became 100 percent dedicated to catch and release. Let them multiply.

Still dry but not so hot

We have had about half an inch of rain in the past four days and the heat wave broke. The high this weekend has been 79 and it rained for about 10 minutes Saturday night. Cooled down to 67 last night. We are still under extreme drought conditions with water rationing and all that kind of stuff. The entire state is under a ban on outdoor fires. That includes camp fires and backyard trash barrels. We had a half dozen fire calls in the past four days where homeowners out in the country were burning trash the way they have always burned trash. We ask them to put it out and if they don't agree we call in the forestry service. They have authority to issue tickets and in extreme cases can put 'em in jail.

A Job for Me?

We saw an employment ad in our local paper that at first read sounded like just the job for me. It said "Butt Pickers Wanted. Full or Part Time. Ideal job for Seniors." It turned out they are hiring people to pull apart barbecue. I almost applied, just so I could have that job title on my resume.
I once worked as butt kicker but I've never been a butt picker in public.

This is waay dry!

2007-08-24T15:38:00.000-04:00

We are in the midst of a severe drought.

It is so dry in Polk County that the fish have left. They must have left because I can't catch any.
It is so dry the state has forbidden outdoor fires, including campfires, yet we have still had almost 600 wildland fires in August alone.
It is so dry that the Baptists are starting to baptize by sprinkling.
It is so dry the Methodists are giving out wet-wipes.
It is so dry the Presbyterians are giving out rain checks
It is so dry the Catholics are praying for the wine to turn back into water.

The temperatures have been near 100 almost every day for three weeks and we haven't had an inch of rain in that time. We have had some thunderstorms but they are quick and don't leave behind much water.

This has all meant a lot of activity for the volunteer fire department. We had a brush fire on Chocolate Drop Mountain last night that lasted until the early morning hours, a power line down at dawn and another brush fire right after that. Everybody is just praying for a nice gentle rain. Anything else is likely to bring lightning and we certainly don't need that.

My blog program now lets me add video as well as still pictures, so here is a little test.

It doesn't let me load much. This tanker explodes in a huge ball of flame. But no one was seriously injured.

We are hearing afternoon thunder so we may get a drop or two of rain. All the towns have put severe water restrictions in place. We are on a well and so far no problems but we are watching what we use because the water table is getting very low.

Summer Fun in the Mountains

2007-06-23T13:28:00.001-04:00

This is a wonderful time in the mountains -- but I say that every season. We get daytime temperatures near 90 and last night the low at our house was 59. Great sleeping weather and great weather for outdoor activities. Some nighttime storms, too. Late afternoons and early evenings are great for sitting beside the waterfall.

My friend Art came over from his mountain early Friday so we could drown some worms and toss some lures in my lake. No much luck but he had three strikes from what were probably pretty nice size bass. The fire chief and a couple of his friends fished from my boat last week and caught -- among other things -- a 36-inch muskie. The guy at the bait store has a picture of a 42-pound muskie he says came out of our lake on June 1. It would have weighed more -- and maybe have been a state record -- but the guy waited too long to weigh it.

We've been having a series of summer thunderstorms the past couple of days -- bringing some rain to a very parched Polk County. One night the thunder was so strong our log cabin shook a couple of times.

Another Journey

We are back at home once again after a journey to Michigan, where we watched grandson Peter graduate from high school. He is also set for Denison University in Granville, Ohio, where he has an academic scholarship. Peter is a top-quality lacrosse player -- one of all-state caliber -- but when we last talked he wasn't sure he would play college lacrosse.

His older brother Paul is captain of the lacrosse team at Queens University of Charlotte, where he is a junior.

Bobby, the oldest, is about to graduate from the University of Michigan before he sets off on a stage and/or screen career that will make good use of his musical and acting talent.

A magazine in Greenville, SC, down the road about 50 miles, had a article about living in the mountains, on a lake, or both. The article doesn't mention Lake Adger although it does say, “While the surrounding counties have seen a steady rate of development, Polk County has remained fairly untouched"

We have a great home here in Polk County. But some of the places on the lake are just amazing in their size. This is one of my favorites: It has a great lake view and a mountain view from that amazing porch.

Property values around here seem to keep climbing. After we moved in this house was sold for $1.1 million. It is on the market again --less than 18 month later -- for almost $600,000 more!

Rough Religion

In April, Bishop Michael Babin, for 25 years a leader of Genesis Ministries International in Oceanside, Calif., was charged (along with his son) with beating a golfer unconscious after accusing the man of stealing his ball at a local course. (Two years ago, Babin was nominated for a Martin Luther King Jr. Civic Award.) [San Diego Union-Tribune, 4-3-07]

Where have they gone?

2007-04-13T16:25:00.000-04:00

I have my sister to thank for keeping me on track with this blog. She may be the only person reading it, but she is a loyal reader and gets on my case when I fall down on the blog job.

We have taken in new residents at our lakeside cabin in the mountains. They live in the condos we set up in the garage.
We now have a colony of earth worms and thousands of meal worms. I have 1,000 red wigglers and started with 3,000 mealies. Before you call the men in white coats check out this website to read about people seeking state or federal grants to take worms to school.

The mealie population gets reduced by a couple of dozen every two or three days when Sylvia puts them out to attract blue birds. The garage stays fairly warm so they should be okay there. The earthworms eat table scraps, paper and coffee grounds. The meal worms eat, well, meal. Chick meal, that is. The bird store charges $7.50 for about 20 of the meal worms, and I got 3,000 for $12 bucks or so. They are both good for fishing, and the earthworms make compost for the garden and bait for the fish.

We had a few days of really cold weather that killed off most of the apple crop around here and the peach crop across the South Carolina border. Three nights in a row where it got below 24 degrees. Our worms survived. But it was hard work getting those little fleeces on them in time.

We are back up to normal now but expecting some stormy weather over the weekend. We plan on watching Paul play lacrosse against Mars Hill College on Saturday and then driving on up to Ann Arbor. I have surgery there Monday morning to remove a cataract from the left eye and get a new lens. The surgery will take about 15 minutes at the Kellogg Eye Center at the University of Michigan hospital. I wanted the new lens to be a Superman Special with x-ray vision but they will only give me a lens that will provide 20/20 vision. Or maybe it's 20/40 because they say I will still need reading glasses.

I was glad the state attorney general had some sense and dismissed all charges against the Duke lacrosse players. I don't know who I am more displeased with -- the district attorney who rushed to judgement, the Duke administration that cancelled the lacrosse season and forced out the coach, or the news media that fanned the flames. It was not a sterling moment in our history of jurisprudence.

Have you heard Jessie Jackson or Al Sharpton aplogize yet for what they said about the case? I haven't either.

CBS fired Don Imus, which is okay by me. But the slopppy news media forgets that BET -- Black Entertainment TV, a late night source of a lot of televised gangsta rap which denigrates women worse than Imus -- is owned by Viacom. Which owns CBS.

Where have all the reporters gone?

Gone to retire every one

When will they ever learn?

Cuban censorship

2007-02-23T22:53:00.000-05:00

The Cuban government has told three foreign correspondents that they must stop "inconvenient" reporting. AP Wire 02/23/2007 Cuba declines to renew credentials for 3 Havana correspondents

So long to a noble profession

2007-02-19T13:27:00.000-05:00

Pam Constable writes in the Washington Post about the decline in the number of American foreign correspondents. She calls it a dying breed. She makes some good points. When we left Mexico City in 1979 the numbers had already started to decline. There were about 35 full time American foreign correspondents based in Mexico City in 1970. That had dropped to 15 by 1979. I have no idea how many are there now but I am sure they are few. Big name capitals in Europe -- especially Paris, London and Rome -- had more.

This is a big loss for followers of American print and broadcast news at a time when it is more important than ever before to know what is happening around the world.

Missed us

2007-02-03T17:04:00.000-05:00

The really bad weather missed us. We got a little ice and a dusting of snow but nothing else except cold. Down into the teens. Had a warming trend this morning, up to 27 degrees when we left for our Saturday HazMat class. Interesting stuff rolling up and down the Interstates. What we call ethylmethylbadstuff. You can see a video of one such incident.

Found a blogger inside Cuba. Read about him. The BBC led me to him.

Click on the name El Cubano de la Isla for a direct link to the blog, if you read Spanish. Another gutsy Cuban, unless he is a government plant. I am real goosey about that after it turned out that one of the most prominent independent journalists in Cuba was really a government spy.

This Just In...

2007-02-01T14:32:00.000-05:00

The magazine "Progressive Farmer" has picked Polk County -- our county -- as one of the top 10 Best Places to Live in Rural America. Gillespie County in the Hill County of Texas was No. 4 but we prefer the mountains. Read all about it here.

Ice and Snow

2007-02-01T11:11:00.000-05:00

We have a light dusting of snow and now we're getting sleet. The emergency radio is full of calls on "1050s" -- auto accidents in Polk County emergency talk. Our job at the volunteer fire department usually defaults to traffic control on these calls unless there is a fire involved. We are not certified as a rescue unit yet so we have no extraction tools. I am sure there will be more calls as the day progresses because the forecast is for nasty weather until Friday morning.

I found this interesting story about one of the wars I covered.
Former Salvadoran Foes Share Doubts on War - washingtonpost.com

Sen Joe Biden used his mouth to shoot himself in the foot with some comments about the other Democratic presidential candidates. He said Sen. Barak Obama is "the first mainstream African American [presidential candidate] who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy."

Busy Days

2007-01-29T13:31:00.000-05:00

The temperature was 15 degrees on our back deck this morning -- six degrees with the wind chill. But it is a clear, sunny day now with no wind and the temperature has climbed into the 40s.

Here is a note from the local Tryon Daily Bulletin, reporting cases in the Polk County District Court:

"Karen Olivia Jones was convicted of unsafe movement. Jones was fined $25 and court costs."

No indication if this was a hip, colon or automobile problem.

Speaking of autos, we were re-ended in Greenville last week. Got the insurance adjuster's estimate today -- $2,800 in damage to my Ford Freestyle. A guy stopped to make a left turn across two lanes of oncoming traffic. I stopped. The F-150 pickup behind me stopped. The Chrysler behind him did not stop. No one hurt but the driver of the Chrysler was ticketed for unsafe driving, driving with a learner's permit and no licensed driver in the car, and failure to use a proper child restraint system. She faces almost $1,000 in fines.

I had a nice 70th birthday Saturday the 27th. Sylvia spoiled me all day and friends took us to dinner Saturday night.

We worked the Master Gardener's Desk at the Polk County extension office this morning. On Wednesday night we have the second session in the HazMat training for our fire department certification. That will be followed by an all day session Saturday.

I like coffee and donuts. There is a guy over in Raleigh, NC who has combined caffeine with donuts (and bagels) so you can get your coffee jolt while you eat. Saves time, I guess.

It Missed!

2007-01-22T11:28:00.000-05:00

The ice storm predicted over the weekend by the weather folks missed us. We had the rain but the thermometer stayed above freezing at our place.

While staying indoors and only reading about outside activities I came across a couple of interesting stories in the New Times of Miami. Both are about Cuba and are written by "Our Woman in Havana" whose name is not disclosed because she snuck in as a tourist without a journalists' visa. Some do that because it is so difficult for an American reporter to get a journalists' visa. If the Cuban authorities decide they want the person out of the country they simply pick the person up at the hotel and provide free transportation to the airport for the next flight out. All of my efforts to get a visa since I was last in Cuba in 1979 have been fruitless.

One story deals with Cubans on the street and the other with independent journalists.

Water and Ice and Procrastination

2007-01-18T11:12:00.000-05:00

It has been too long since I updated this blog. No excuse, no reason except procrastination.

We are in the midst of a mild winter storm, some ice on the roads. A Department of Transportation truck carrying sand to be used to fight the ice instead slid on the ice and turned over north of us. We had ice on our deck rails and a light coating of ice on the drive this morning but it is gone. However, the roads out of here, which go up before they go down, are still icy in spots.

But we have a nice fire in the fireplace, a load of wood handy, and the generator ready just in case.

There has been a lot of news since the last posting. We had a huge, wonderful, joy-filled reunion at Christmastime with all of our children and grandchildren coming to the mountains to be with us. It was really a blessing for Sylvia and for me. It was especially nice for me because the kids cooked up a surprise birthday party for me as an early celebration of my 70th birthday. They brought in a lot of my favorite food -- including a huge supply of tamales from my favorite Mexican restaurant in Detroit -- and then sat around the dinner table telling me how I had blessed their lives.

It is really an honor to beloved by such wonderful people!

Sean brought his friend Amy so we had a total of 15 people spread around our little mountain cabin. Sleeping bags and pallets on the floor, constant smells of delicious food from the kitchen, many, many hugs. It was great.

Sean got us a radio controlled airplane to play with but unfortunately the prop was broken in shipment and because of the holiday we could not get a replacement before he left. It arrived the day after he left. So I have the plane now, waiting for a nice day. I promised him video.

Shortly before Christmas we joined a health club in Forest City, a nearby town east of us, that has a nice pool and -- best of all -- a nice steam room. We started exercising on our own in the pool. Sylvia was working on therapy for her sprained ankle and I was working on getting my strength back up somewhere near normal. That progressed pretty well and I started swimming laps. Now we go three times a week for water aerobics, a time in the whirlpool and a nice steaming.

The fire department has been busy. Not many fires but we were called for rescue and traffic control on several wrecks. The only fire we have had in the past couple of weeks was in the median of Highway 74 -- a small grass fire that was out by the time we got there. We start training in dealing with hazardous materials Jan. 24. The HazMat training is necessary because of all the weird stuff being transported along the interstates and highways around here.

Art Buchwald, who so often made me smile, died Wednesday. The New York Times has a wonderful video obit, "The Last Word." You have to register for the Times but that is free and you should be checking it out once in a while anyway. Richard Severo, who shared office space with us in Mexico City, has a nice written obit in the Times.

Journalists in trouble

2006-12-13T11:17:00.000-05:00

I though we had problems when I was a foreign correspondent but the difficulties some face now make those of the '60s, '70s and '80s seem pale. We dealt with death in Central America, imprisonment in Cuba, beatings in Mexico. Our communications were state-of-the-art but the art then was rudimentary in comparison.

Mexico, where we spent 15 years, has become a very dangerous place for journalists. Some parts have just flat become dangerous for everyone.

It was a rarity for journalist to be killed in those days although some were. Some of us were injured or traumatized covering coups, wars in Central America and some terrible natural disasters. Vietnam could be a dangerous place for reporters. But consider this:

In the past 15 years from 1992 through 2006 there have been 580 journalists killed around the world. Only a few cases have been fully investigated and in even fewer cases has there been punishment for those who murdered the journalists. And most of them have been murder. The typical slaying is at the journalist's home, or on a commute to work, or while at the desk. The Committee to Protect Journalists -- which didn't exist when I was a foreign correspondent -- reports that seven out of 10 were targeted in retaliation for their reporting and hunted down to be murdered. Even in war zones murder is the leading cause of death.

You can read CPJ's report, a country-by-country death toll, and other important facts about dangerous reporting at the CPJ home page, http://www.cpj.org/index.html.

Shiver me timbers...

2006-12-09T11:00:00.000-05:00

We are definitely into winter here in Western North Carolina. No serious snow or ice but the thermometer fell to 18 degrees. And we are in the "moderate" isothermal belt where it is supposed to be warmer. The temperature got into the single digits in some parts of the state.

Winter is here, though.

The beautiful leaves of October are now almost all on the ground. One or two trees did not lose their leaves. The leaves turned brown but hang on to the tree anyway. This is what early winter looks like from our front porch.

I am thinking about going into the leaf business next fall. Set me up a "store" on E-Bay to sell leaves by the pound to those poor souls in the Southwest who don't get to rake. Genuine Smoky Mountain leaves! Never touched asphalt! Spread 'em on your lawn and driveway! Be the envy of your desert neighbors!

We're going through firewood rapidly but a warm fireplace and a cozy room are sure nice in the evening. The house is getting all spruced up for Christmas. All of our children and grandchildren will be with us starting Dec. 23. We'll have at least 15 people around the Christmas table. What a blessing for us!

Dr. Sean got things rolling by shipping a case of his favorite Oregon wines, all now tucked away safely in the wine rack. We have ordered a smoked turkey and a pork loin from a restaurant in Columbus. A turkey from the place was on our plate at a friend's house for thanksgiving and it was mighty tasty. That will save Sylvia some work in the kitchen. She suggested Chef Charles might want to cook for us but I think that would be a busman's holiday. Why should he take time off from his chefing career to chef for us? Maybe desserts?

On another note

Cuba celebrated Fidel Castro's birthday last week, while we were in Texas visiting my Mom, my sister and my brother-in-law (who had even fewer side effects from the radiation therapy than I did). The celebration that Castro did not attend because of his poor health reminded me of my trips to Cuba, our work with independent journalists in Cuba, and our Cuban-American friends.

Read this story about a poor guy who is only a journalist wanna-be but still got tossed into a Castro jail. The course mentioned in that story was a distance learning project I developed while I was still teaching. I get impatient with people who try to ignore the abuse of basic human rights in Cuba.

Bonnie Anderson is a journalist I have known since our days in Mexico City. Bonnie now runs a charter fishing deal in Puerto Rico. But read this moving piece she wrote about what Castro did to her. She used to be a big time exec with CNN but she got crosswise with management over the dumbing down of news.

Leaves and Vistas

2006-10-30T08:07:00.000-05:00

This is the magnificent time of the year in Western North Carolina when the mountains and valleys combine to show off God's artistry in splendid color.

The views from the Blue Ridge Parkway are breathtaking and the view from the front porch ain't bad, either.

New Friends, New Places, Frozen Faces

2006-10-27T14:32:00.000-04:00

We joined the Chariots of Light Carolina Tour on Tuesday and stayed with them until Thursday, when we had to return home. It was wonderful seeing some old friends and meeting new members of this Christian bikers club. The big news was announced at dinner on Tuesday night -- Bill and Ginger Horn, who had been running the East Coast Chapter, will become the national directors of Chariots. They will get to stay in North Carolina even though national headquarters have been at Jerry Savelle Ministries International in Texas. This picture shows Ginger and Bill flanking Dr. Savelle at a scenic overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina. The temperature at the time was about 30 degrees.

Sylvia's sprained ankle kept us from riding the bike on the tour but we enjoyed the fellowship anyway. Here is Sylvia with Shelley Cochran of Miami. Shelley's husband, Pastor Chris Cochran, is on the right. They are good friends from Voice for Jesus Church in Miami. Chris is the chapter director there.

Fall and early winter are definitely here. We had sub-freezing temperatures on the tour and got home to lower 50s. The foliage is beautiful. It is such a treat to be able to simply look out the window and see all these beautiful colors.

Glorious Weather, Beautiful Views

2006-10-21T13:26:00.000-04:00

We have moved into Fall full speed now. Beautiful sunny days, cool and crisp nights. The leaves are in their fall colors in the mountains. Our trees are half-and-half, prettier each morning.

However ... they do shed leaves and acorns. I felt well enough to undertake some yard work but as I told my sister Bettye -- it is hard to determine if I am still suffering from fatigue or if I am suffering from laziness. Probably the latter because I did the yard work without much trouble once I convinced myself to get started.

Sylvia fell while on a walk last Sunday and sprained her left ankle. She is on crutches. The x-rays showed it to be a soft tissue injury but often that is worse than a break. She will see the orthopedist for a follow-up Monday.

The word from Texas is that my brother-in-law Pete is still doing good with his radiation treatments. He has finished three weeks and is on the downhill side of the therapy now. His doctor says all signs are good.

I think that I will commandeer Sylvia's Mini Cooper on Sunday and take her and the car for a cruise on the Blue Ridge Parkway. It is really beautiful this time of year. The Chariots of Light Christian bikers' club starts is Carolina tour Sunday. We will join the group in Maggie Valley on Tuesday, go with them to Greenville, SC, and then return home Thursday. We will take the car instead of the bike because of Sylvia's ankle.

Hallelujah!

2006-10-06T13:42:00.000-04:00

At 1:17 p.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2006, my radiation oncologist peered through his laryngoscope up my right nostril and down my throat to the vocal cords and said, ""It looks good. This looks good!"

Thirty-three days earlier I received the last of 28 radiation treatments on what this doctor and two others had diagnosed as squamous cell carcinoma on my right vocal cord. Radiation therapy came after three attempts to remove it surgically. Two doctors had tried but found the structure of my throat prevented them from removing it completely.

I have completely recovered my voice but -- alas -- I do not sing any better than I did before the therapy.

You can imagine the joy we felt when we got the "all clear" even though we had been expecting a good report. Statistically this kind of treatment is successful about 95 percent of the time. But we also believe God heals. I had the support not only of the prayers of my family but also the prayers of friends and strangers scattered in a dozen different countries. So we felt before driving up to Ann Arbor that the report would be good.

We had lunch after the exam and then started driving back to North Carolina. The great news spread quickly. Sylvia fielded cell phone calls all the way across the state of Ohio and into Kentucky. It was an amazing and humbling feeling as I heard those calls come in. So many people had been praying for me or thinking of me. Wayne Cochran, pastor of Voice for Jesus Church in Miami, told the congregation Wednesday night. They responded with shouts of joy and a standing ovation for God's healing love. Pastor Wayne was also able to tell the pastors affiliated with Voice for Jesus because they were in conference in Miami when we got the news. They, and their congregations, had been praying for us for months.

Friends and family I had not heard from in years called or messaged. It is truly a time of joy.

I still get tired pretty easily but each day I am stronger and more eager to get on with enjoying this wonderful life. The leaves are just about ready to turn in our part of North Carolina. Fall is always a spectacular time here. This fall will be especially beatiful.

Our prayers are with my brother-in-law Pete who has exactly the same diagnosis I had. He started his radiation therapy on Monday, Oct. 2.

Getting Well

2006-09-25T11:02:00.000-04:00

Things are better every day. My voice is almost back to normal. Those who heard me a week ago marvel at how much stronger my voice sounds now.

I could not break a whisper until about Sept. 20 when I started to get a little bit of timber back into my voice in the mornings. By nightfall it was back to ony a whisper. Now it is strong almost all day.

The coughing still comes and goes and I cannot find any connection. Perhaps it is caused by alergies as one ENT suggested. I will be doing fine and suddenly get a throat tickle that leads to a cough that leads to harder coughing that leads to gut-wrenching coughing. It soon goes away and will not bother me again for hours -- sometimes 12 or 14 hours, sometimes just five or six.

But under any token I am feeling stronger each day. I have a followup with my radiation oncologist on Oct. 4. Can't wait to get the all-clear from him as further testimony to God's healing love.

Gaining Strength

2006-09-18T10:15:00.000-04:00

I am getting stronger little by little. My voice is still very weak and my throat still hurst when I swallow. But the pain is less each day, and I feel stronger each day. Or almost each day. If I overdo the activity one day I am under the weather a bit the next day. So far I have ventured into Tryon for a haircut and to some friends' home in Hendersonville for dinner. The dinner trip really wore me out.

I still have coughing spells that start with a tickle in the throat, then progress into gut wrenching coughs. Medication helps but I use it only when absolutely necessary because I don't want too get addicted. It sure is good stuff, though.

Home again

2006-09-05T10:03:00.000-04:00

As planned we started home Saturday morning Sept. 2 after a very nice breakfast with the kids and grandkids. We stopped for the night, again as planned, in Caryville, TN and went on home the next morning.

My thoat hurts and I can only speak in a whisper. My voice has no timber at all. I was able to drive about five hours on Saturday and all the way home, four hours, on Sunday.

It is really wonderful to be back hom in my very own bed.

ALL DONE!

2006-09-01T10:00:00.000-04:00

The last treatment was at 4:45 p.m. today, Sept. 1. After it was over the ladies at the lab gave me diploma they had all signed. Very sweet of them. We start home tomorrow.
I am glad this is finally over but I will be even happier when the pain is gone, my voice is back and I have the "all-clear" from the doctors.

Two left

2006-08-31T11:36:00.000-04:00

Awoke today with throat even very sore, even more so than in the past. Cannot speak above a whisper. It does not hurt any worse if I talk or don't talk but my voice has gone past the sexy bedroom sound down to a bare whisper. People have to really pay attention to understand me.

I gave the ladies in the therapy section two boxes of choclate truffles as a thank-you for taking such good care of me.

A treatment this afternoon, then pack up tomorrow, get the last zap, and head for home on Saturday.

Countin' Down!

2006-08-30T10:28:00.000-04:00

Only three days -- inlcuding today -- to go before the treatment is over. My neck looks very sunburned. But the cream provided by the nurse helps a lot. I have almost no voice -- a very soft, very hushed bedroom whisper is about all I can muster. The doctor says the voice will return, although it may take a month or so.

He also said the sore throat will ease up in a few weeks. The sore throat has been one of the strongest side effects. It really hurts. The cough is less now because of the narcotic cough medication. That, and the "radiation mixture" cocktail I wrote about earlier ease the pain. But the narcotics also can cause constipation and great discomfort. Drinking lots of prune juice and plenty of water. Overall, the doctor says he is happy with my progress. I will return to Ann Arbor a month after we leave so he can check me, and then return again in three months.

So I have today's treatment, then Thursday and finally, finish up Friday afternoon. We plan on driving toward North Carolina Saturday. I am really looking forward to seeing Lake Adger!

Backers suspect political motive - Hendersonville Times-News

2006-08-30T09:53:00.000-04:00

The police chief, who is from Peru originally, was in our fire training class in Columbus. We like him.
Backers suspect political motive - Hendersonville Times-News

Double dose

2006-08-28T11:26:00.000-04:00

I had a double dose of radiation therapy today to make up for the day the machine was down last week. No problem -- except that of getting out of bed early enough to be at the hospital by 7 a.m. The second treatment was at the regular 4:45 p.m. slot.

Thank God!

2006-08-25T18:21:00.000-04:00

We got the good news Thursday -- we can make up the missed day of radiation and keep to our plan to return home on Saturday, Sept. 2, rather than staying over for one more treatment on the Tuesday after Labor Day.
A bad motherboard in the radiation machinery caused a cancellation last Monday but we pleaded for a makeup. They will do it at 7:15 a.m. Monday, and then I will get that day's regular treatment at 4:45 p.m.

So only five more treatment days -- six actual treatments -- to go!

Some more examples of the blessings from all this:

We have heard from cousins I had lost contact with through my own negligence and their encouragement and love has been a great boost. Cousin Marty fought her own battle against breast cancer and won it with good humor and prayer. She wrote about her experimental treatment that had everyone in the hospital -- maybe even the cleaning lady -- checking out her breast. She also wrote that when she needed an answer she lay in her bed and said: "God, I need your help with this one! Turned over and went to sleep, woke up and got my answer in the evening newspaper. Helped me through a really tough time." The answer she saw in the paper was the Prayer of the Day, from Joshua 1:19.

"Be strong, and very courageous! Do not tremble or be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go"

Marty wrote:
"I cut that little prayer out of the paper, and at this moment, it is taped securely in the middle of my monitor here on my desk. It's turned yellow, almost grey green and looks yucky. But I am one of the lucky ones who can see that my prayer is answered, literally, every day."

Cousin Doug wrote that he and his wife are praying for a quick recovery "And we will do that in spite of my intense envy over your taking up a wonderful life of retirement in a beautiful place." Doug followed me into a career with The Associated Press. Yet he is still speaking to me.

Why cable news pursues the JonBenet Ramsey case | csmonitor.com

2006-08-22T15:59:00.000-04:00

Click on the title to see a good analysis of why the cable news programs pay so much attention to the JonBenet story. It all goes back to the OJ trial, when they got the feed from the courtroom free and CNN was able to fill hours of space at very little cost.

Bummer

2006-08-22T15:24:00.000-04:00

A line in the book of Proverbs says that disappointment makes the heart sick. Yesterday, the radiation team called Chuck to tell him that the machine was broken. Therefore, he wouldn't have a session that day.

For an instant, we were bummed out.

We have been faithfully marking off the days on the calendar until the treatment is over. An extra day off must have been what Chuck needed. He had a long sound sleep.

His molecules got a needed boost.

After the primary session, I asked him how the treatment felt. He said, " I feel like my molecules are dancing. And it's a dance I don't know."

Today he will ask the doctor about the finish date because we don't want to stay over the Labor Day weekend for one session.

Mistaken Identity

2006-08-18T16:22:00.000-04:00

In Oaxaca, two reporters were badly beaten. The crowd thought they were policemen.
Viernes 18 de Agosto de 2006 / Miembros de la APPO golpean a reporteros

Halfway There!

2006-08-16T12:35:00.000-04:00

I had my 14th treatment on Tuesday -- only 14 more to go before this is over. My throat has been very sore since Sunday and the coughing has only become stronger. On Tuesday the doctor prescribed a potent narcotic cough syrup that seemed to work Tuesday night. I was also given a "radiation mixture" of Lidocaine, Benadryl and Malox to soothe and coat my throat at mealtimes and bedtime. It works pretty good but doesn't last very long. I took a shot last night and then had a hamburger and onion rings.

I was pretty miserable over the weekend and on Monday and Tuesday because my throat hurt so bad. It is just a dull ache until I swallow and then becomes the worst sore throat I have ever had. The doctor said this is to be expected and might get worse before it gets better as the radiation therapy continues. But it is still a "good" sign.

Sylvia and I have been together so long we thing alike. I stopped at the Soups restaurant and bought an extra-large container of cheese and broccoli soup. She had stopped at the grocery store earlier and bought the ingredients to make cheese and broccoli soup.

So we will be souped-up for a while.

We heard last night of the death of Joe Vidi, a long-time friend, brother in Christ and member of Voice for Jesus Church in Miami. He had a heart attack.

The Weekend!

2006-08-12T11:21:00.000-04:00

More beautiful weather in Washtenaw County. My Friday treatment was uncomplicated. I hope this weekend respite --no more rays until Friday afternoon -- will give my throat a chance to cool off a bit.

The constant sore throat reminds me every time I swallow that I should have never picked up my grandfather's Camel cigarettes. But if the worst of this is just the discomfort of a sore throat I will really be blessed. My energy level is pretty good today but I can't swallow much but smoothies, oatmeal and soup. Warm tea is soothing, too.

We are thinking about heading into Ann Arbor to hang out downtown for a while. I think I feel up to it.

Ups and Downs

2006-08-11T11:30:00.000-04:00

My therapy Thursday was again quick and easy. I saw a substitute doctor after the treatment -- my regular doctor is on vacation -- and described my sore throat and coughing symptoms. She said the sore throat was an expected result of the treatment, said nothing about the cough, and said the regular doctor will be back next week. She gave me a cream for the slight burning of the skin on my throat. So I will stay with the over-the-counter throat and cough medications I am taking until my doctor is back next Tuesday.

I spent a pretty rough night with the cough and raw throat. The throat only hurts when I swallow. It feels raw and some liquids and foods are harder to swallow than others. I had a couple of cups of weak coffee -- no cream or sugar -- and some watermelon for breakfast. That soothed the throat for a while. We slept with the windows closed and the AC on last night with the thought that I may be experiencing some allergy problems with the windows open. Over-the-counter allergy medication seems to help the runny nose and sneezing.

This is a beautiful Michigan summer morning - about 70 degrees and sunny. The forecast is for a low tonight in the 50s. The windows will be open for sure.

I reach the halfway mark -- treatment No. 14 -- next Tuesday.

Gain Through Pain

2006-08-10T11:05:00.000-04:00

We had a wonderful day Wednesday. A good night's sleep Tuesday night made the difference for me. And a good day for me made the difference for Sylvia.

No coughing during the night. A solid eight hours of nocturnal bliss made for a very comfortable day Wednesday. It was topped by a very quick in-and-out treatment in less than 15 minutes. I was at the hospital a total of 22 minutes. That's the fast-pitch record so far. The session included two x-rays, a weekly procedure to make certain the bony structure has remained the same and no treatment adjustments are necessary. Apparently the bony structure changes with variations in weight.

The only draw back in an otherwise great day was the onset of a sore throat -- promised as one of the more certain side effects of throat radiation therapy. If started Wednesday evening and progressed during the night so that it is "hurtin' pritty good" this afternoon.

This is actually a good sign even if it is uncomfortable. The "acutely responding" normal tissues in my throat react to the radiation pretty much the same way the tumor cells respond. So if I have a sore throat that means something good is happening in there and tumor cells are getting killed -- No Pain, No Gain.

The pain has not gone beyond the "my throat is sore" phase. Some patients have reported pain so severe it limits the ability to swallow food.

While all this is going on I have kept up with the rest of the world, of course. There was a little flury of excitement when Fidel Castro turned over the Cuban government controls to his brother Raul. One of my favorite sites for news from within Cuba is www.cubanet.org. This site has stories from the independent (dissident) journalists as well as links to Cuba's official, controlled press. Where else could I learn that thieves robbed the farm of Antonio Alonso, a leader in the anti-government farmers organization, and left him only with the pants he wore?

And the big news today -- the arrest of the terrorists in London and the increased airport security -- make me very glad I no longer fly around for a living.

And finally a bit of South Florida news:

Eugene Salvage, the police chief at Fort Pierce, has been arrested for forging his ex-wife's name on a $5,800 check. His ex-wife is Gwendolyn Boyd, police chief in North Miami. She's the one who did away with the swimming requirement for police officers in order to make it easier to recruit Haitian-American officers.

Weekend Recovery

2006-08-08T11:06:00.000-04:00

Today, Aug. 8, 2006, is our wedding anniversary. Sylvia and I were married 47 years ago today in Denton, Texas. I can only barely remember not being married. She is such a part of me now that I cannot begin to imagine what life would have been like without her.

It is good that there are no therapy sessions on Saturday or Sunday. That gives me a chance for some R&R and on Monday -- yesterday-- I felt rested enough to make a pilgrimage. Sylvia and I drove down to Cabela's super outdoors store south of Ann Arbor. I had purchased some rod holders for our pontoon boat on our last trip up here but the brackets were the wrong size so they had to be exchanged.

It was good I was rested. It really hard to get in and out of Cabela's in less than half a day. The place is huge -- full or fishing stuff you never know you need until you see it, and stuff you didn't know existed.

I got the exchange done. I bought Sylvia a sweater and a jacket. She picked them out, then hesitated until I insisted I wanted her to have them. I am happy that I am financially and physically able to buy stuff for her. We had a burger at the Longhorn steak house nearby, then bought gift candy at a candy outlet store. Factory second chocolates.

The Monday afternoon treatment was quick and smooth. But Monday night I began to develop a sore throat and the cough was back in force. Kept me awake a lot Monday night. I will see the doctor Tuesday afternoon and see what he recommends. The cough kept me awake a lot and disturbed Sylvia's sleep, too.

Twenty to go

2006-08-06T10:20:00.000-04:00

I have now completed eight radiation treatments and have only 20 more to go. The third week of treatment starts tomorrow. The Friday session was a good one, in and out very quickly.

I felt very good Friday and Friday evening. We had dinner and a movie at Cathy's house. But Saturday was a very sluggish day. I felt as if I was walking through molasses until about 3 p.m., when the world got rosier. Some trouble sleeping nights -- very unusual for me -- and that must contribute to the fatigue.

So far I could have remained in Mill Spring and driven to Asheville or Spartanburg for the therapy without any problem. But our presence here has been a great relief for our kids and for Sylvia. For me, too. It is wonderful having such a support group of loving family members around me. They put up with my moods without complaint. Or at least without complaining to me.

I am sure glad I didn't make them hate me when they were growing up.

I have been asked for some reference links for others preparing for radiation therapy on the neck. I posted a couple earlier so here goes:

http://www.medicinenet.com/radiation_therapy/article.htm

http://www.cancerbackup.org.uk/Cancertype/Larynx

http://www.med.umich.edu/radonc/index.htm

http://www.rdoc.org.uk/patientthroat.html

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/radiation-therapy/CA00031

I will post more links as I find them.

What's it like?

2006-08-04T14:39:00.000-04:00

Sylvia asked me what I think about during the radiation therapy. I think about how tight the mask is. But mostly I pray in the Holy Spirit and praise God.

It is God who gives men the intelligence to invent the kind of machinery we are using.

It is God who put this kind of work in the hearts of my doctor, his nurse and the technicians.

It is God who is guiding the hands of those who treat me.

It is God who is consoling those I love.

The technicians -- all are female -- are very considerate. My appointment is for 4:45 p.m. Monday thorough Friday but they tipped me that if I get there a little early they can probably get me in early. Once they had to come out to advise me they were running behind but usually the system works pretty good. The receptionist reads a bar code on my hospital card, which tells the computer I am there. Within few minutes I am called into the treatment room.

Some days are faster than others. Yesterday I was in and out of the place in less than 15 minutes!

The treatment leaves me kinda groggy and a little disoriented but so far that has passed in a short time. I think I feel that way because of the mask, not because of the radiation. My skin feels warm where the radiation enters but that is not uncomfortable. The doctor says that as the treatment progresses I might develop what looks like a sunburn on my neck at about the level of my Adams apple. Some patients also develop severe fatigue. I reject that.

My days have settled into a routine of sorts, built of course around the afternoon appointment. Sylvia and I have our prayer time together first thing in the morning. I want to walk but the heat has been so severe these past few days that we only walked on two mornings. After breakfast I try to get in some writing. I am working on a novel about Barrabas.

I may run an errand or two or just relax and read o watch a movie in the afternoon. About 4:15 I head for the hospital.

So far I have felt only minor fatigue but I still have a persistent cough -- one of the symptoms. Some times it feels like I am coughing up my toes.

I have a calendar with the treatments number, starting with 28 and going down to 1. Each evening I cross off another treatment.

The REAL First Session

2006-07-26T14:25:00.000-04:00

Today was the real deal. My first radiation treatment for the squamous cell carcinoma on my right vocal cord -- throat cancer most likely caused by at least three decades of smoking. I quit on March 16, 2000 which is good because it would really be tough to quit while this is going on.

My advice to all smokers who read this: Quit now. This minute. If not for yourself then for those who love you. I am getting wonderful support from Sylvia and from my children and grandchildren but I really feel ashamed when I think about what my folly is putting them through.

The first session took about 45 minutes. There was some trouble adjusting the mask. The mask is plastic mesh that was molded to my face and head. It is fastened to the back board to keep my head immobile during the treatment. I am on my back. My shoulders have to be lowered so they will be out of range. So I have a platform under my feet with ropes around my wrists. When I push down with my legs it pulls my shoulders down out of the way.

The treatment itself is quick. I counted to 30 on one side and 40 on the other. But I am told they don't go by seconds but rather by doses of radiation.

I felt a little disoriented after the treatment but that went away in about 30 minutes. Cathy and Marty met us at the hospital, in a pouring rain, to take us to an Italian restaurant for dinner.

First Session

2006-07-25T14:10:00.000-04:00

I had my first session in the Radiation Oncology department of St. Joseph's Mercy Hospital in Ann Arbor Tuesday. But I didn't get zapped.

The first session was dedicated to putting me in the proper position, putting on the newly minted mask and bolting it down to the table, and taking scans, x-rays and other pictures. This was done so they will have a baseline reference if there are any physical changes during the treatment.

I met with the doctor after the session. He said he had prescribed 28 treatments. They are done five days a week, Monday through Friday. So that means the last one would be on Sept. 1.

We have settled into the vacation house after a weekend with Pastor Wayne Cochran. Wayne and his son, Pastor Chris Cochran, were in Michigan for a series of teachings at several churches affiliated with Voice for Jesus church in Miami. That is the church where Sylvia and I were pastors -- and members for 20 years. We met up with them at Pastor Wayne's invitation in Owosso. He was preaching at Pastor Rick Story's church in nearby Corunna. It was wonderful to see them again and the entire congregation at Pastor Rick's church prayed for me Sunday.

On the Road Again

2006-07-20T13:51:00.000-04:00

That's us -- on the road again and back in Mill Spring. We will return to Ann Arbor on July 21. I had the "simulation" for the radiation therapy before we left Ann Arbor and they set the date for my first treatment: Tuesday July 25. They made a mask I will wear at each session to align my throat at the same spot every time.

We will spend these days getting ready to be away from the lovely lake and the beautiful mountains. Our plan is to drive to Ann Arbor and stay in the home being loaned us by a wonderful couple from St. Luke's church in Ann Arbor http://www.stlukeaa.org/.

Sylvia and I responded to a couple of alarms for the Mill Spring Volunteer Fire Department this week -- giving me a chance to use the emergency lights installed on my Freestyle while we were in Ann Arbor. They worked great!

Bag it -- or Floating Through the World Cup

2006-07-07T13:11:00.000-04:00

Son Sean has joined us for a few days, leaving his Portland practice in other hands. It is great having him here. His wisdom and advice are much appreciated.

The attempted surgery was five days ago, just before the 4th of July weekend. My throat felt fine because nothing had been cut or scraped. But I had a reaction to the anesthetic that was most unpleasant: urinary retention.

By midnight the day of the surgery I was a hurtin' pup. So Cathy and her husband Martin hauled me off to the emergency room of St. Joseph's Mercy Hospital, where a catheter was inserted and a bag strapped to my thigh. There was great relief! Friday morning Tim and I visited a urologist who said I should keep the catheter and the bag until Monday. I was able to find some humor in all this. And it made it much easier to watch the World Cup without missing any action caused by bathroom breaks. Sean went to the urologist with me on Monday. I got rid of the bag but had to insert a catheter myself thrice daily until my bladder returned to normal.

Meanwhile, son Tim Green had made an appointment for me with Dr. George Henning, a radiation oncologist at St. Joseph's. We all trooped over to the hospital from Cathy's house on July 6 for a preliminary visit with the oncologist. After much internal debate and family discussion I decided to have the radiation therapy in Ann Arbor rather than in North Carolina. If we have this done while at home in Mill Spring it will mean an hour drive each way for Sylvia. It will also mean she will be without the support of our great kids. The therapy will begin July 24 and will be concluded around Labor Day. That's a long spell to be away from home.

We arranged to rent a furnished apartment in Ann Arbor but Cathy had notified the people at St. Luke's Lutheran Church of our situation. A wonderful couple loaned us the use of their home -- they are out of the country until Labor Day -- so we can avoid the expense of renting the furnished apartment. The leasing agent at the apartment complex graciously agreed to cancel our agreement.

Deeply Disappointed

2006-07-02T16:23:00.000-04:00

The surgery to remove the cancer on my right vocal cord happened on June 29 -- but it didn't happen, too.

I was put under -- a difficult task for me and for the anesthesiologist. See why at http://www.asahq.org/publicationsAndServices/Difficult%20Airway.pdf.

The anesthesiologist wanted to prepare me for an "awake intubation" which is much more difficult for the patient and the doctor than for an intubation while asleep. The danger was that if they put me to sleep and could not intubate they might not be able to wake me up. So we did this before entering the surgical suite:

1. A nasal spray to deaden that airway.

2. Gargle and swallow increasingly thicker doses of Lidocaine. This is a local anesthetic. The purpose was to deaden the tongue, throat, mouth and all that makes up the airway. This would allow the intubation with relatively less discomfort.

3. Pray that all would work. Pastor Rick Story, a pastor affiliated with Voice for Jesus Church, was at the bedside as I gargled. So were Sylvia and Cathy.

4. After another examination in surgery the aneshesiologist decided to try a regular intubation. "We can breathe for you, I am certain," he said.

So all that nasty Lidocaine was not necessary, after all.

I went to sleep hearing the surgeon and the anesthesiologist discussing what they would do. I woke up alone in the recovery room. Sylvia and Cathy were quickly summoned. I was okay. I had survived. But I could see in their eyes that something was amiss.

It was Cathy who told me. Sylvia said later she would not have been able to hold back the tears.

The surgery was not successful.

Dr. Hogikyan had not been able to reach all of the tumor, either. So he decided to remove none of it rather than just get a piece. The disappointment was like a blow to the stomach. But upon reflection I felt confident that God's hand was still in this and I am just along for the ride. He has the controls.

My main reactions were anger and shame. Anger at myself for thinking I was bullet-proof and that all those warnings against smoking were meant for other people, not for me. Shame because of what I was putting Sylvia, the kids and all those who love me through. It took some serious prayer before I could forgive myself een though Sylvia had already said I was forgiven.

I will have to have radiation therapy. And I will praise God that this was caught early enough!

We'll try again

2006-06-06T14:54:00.000-04:00

My examination at the UM Medical Center today was good. Dr. Norman Hogikyan was very thorough and used the latest technology for the exam. Sylvia, Cathy and our son Tim were with me. The doctor said that the UM pathologists agreed that the tissue samples from the second surgery showed squamous cell carcinoma "in situ." He showed us the cancer on a big screen TV. During the exam Sylvia and the kids could see the vocal cords "live" but I didn't see them until he called the film up on his computer.

Dr. Hogikyan feels confident he can remove the cancer with laser surgery and get enough margin around it to remove it completely. So we scheduled the third surgery for June 29. The preparatory exams are scheduled for June 27 although we were able to do some of them today.
I shared the anesthesiologist's letter with him.

Sylvia and I will return to Mill Spring for a few days, then return to Ann Arbor on June 26. Cathy has worked her magic to get me an appointment with the cataract specialist at the Kellogg Eye Center the morning of June 27 to see if my cataracts are ready for removal. I will finish up the pre-surgical exam that afternoon.

God has put me in the hands of a very experienced surgeon who definitely knows his business. I look forward to getting this surgery to be rid of the tumor and to avoid the radiation therapy. I thought the radiation would be done over a three or four day period and that would be it. But the reality is it would take at least six weeks of daily doses. Another out-patient surgery is much better than going through that.

We'll look again

2006-05-27T01:09:00.000-04:00

We have decided to get a second opinion. It just doesn't seem plausible that modern medicine does not have instruments that can get down my throat far enough to remove this thing. Pathology has determined it is laryngeal cancer, a squamous cell carcinoma "in situ" on the right vocal cord. It is in the cells of the lining of the vocal cord and has not penetrated or spread.

The anesthesiologist had difficulty getting an airway inserted during the surgery -- so much so that he wrote a letter for me to use in any future surgery to alert those anesthesiologists. The pathway was so narrow and curved they had a real problem getting a ventilation tube inserted.
The recovery period from this second surgery was a lot longer than from the first. My throat healed fairly quickly but they had knocked my throat and mouth around a good bit so that I had some really sore spots. It took almost two weeks to get my strength back from the anesthesia.

Through the good work of our daughter, Cathy Huebner, I am hooked up with Dr. Norman Hogikyan of the University of Michigan Neck and Head Cancer center. http://www.cancer.med.umich.edu/cancertreat/headandneck/the_clinic.shtml

Dr. Hogikyan has had a lot of experience removing this kind of cancer. I have an appointment with him on June 6.

Everything I have read and everything the doctors have told me points to tobacco as the most likely cause of this problem. I smoked cigarettes, cigars and pipes for at least 30 years before I quit permanently on March 16, 2000.

I go to Ann Arbor confident in God's love and in the skills of the folks at the UM hospital. Cathy works in the university's Kellog Eye Center and I know the quality of doctors and staff there. I am sure those at the Cancer Clinic will be good, too.

A New Experience

2006-04-18T10:54:00.000-04:00

On March 29 I had throat surgery to remove a sqaumous cell carcinoma on my right vocal cord. This out-patient surgery was the second to remove what the medicos originally thought was a polyp or callous-like growth often called teacher's or preacher's or singer's throat. The first surgery in August, 2005 was called successful and the pathology report looked okay. But the hoarseness returned. The polyp had returned. The doctor had warned that this often happened and that the type of polyp I had often turned into cancer.

The doctor was unable to remove it completely during this second surgery because a quirk in my anatomy made it impossible for him to get his instruments deep enough. The doctor recommended radiation therapy as the next step. That sounds very scary. Everyone had said this would be such a simple thing to get rid of and now we're talking radiation.

Sylvia and I have decided to get a second opinion, probably at the University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor. Meanwhile, my spirits are high. I know I am in God's hands and that He loves me. No matter how this develops I truly believe that God can bring good from it if I just keep focused on Him.

Back to Normal

2005-12-20T09:09:00.000-05:00

We caught a large part of the Dec. 14-15 ice storm -- the first ice storm we've seen since we left Michigan for Florida in 1986.

This is what it looked like about 10 a.m. The weather warmed during the day then fell below freezing again that night, creating a real mess.

Click here to read what the local newspaper had to say about the storm.

We were without power at Green Homestead from 7:30 a.m. Dec. 15 until about 6 p.m. Dec. 17. Fortunately we have a fireplace and plenty of firewood. But this made the decision to buy a permanently installed generator out here much easier. The vendor promises installation by the end of December. We toughed it out in a motel, checking out each morning and returning home for the day, praying for electricity.

Here are some more views. Click on the image for a larger view.

Green River

2005-12-07T12:28:00.000-05:00

A dam on the Green River formed Lake Adger in the previous century but the fishing remains good.

These Green River scenes are at a public access spot a few miles from the Green family homestead. The fish are trout and the rules are catch and release.

We used fish this size as bait when trolling for sailfish in the Atlantic but judging from the action these two young men were making up size with numbers. Their lures brought in five fish in about 15 minutes.

A creek flows into the Green River at this point.

The river is stocked by the state every year.

Only the Start

2005-12-06T17:38:00.000-05:00

Sylvia points at the starting point of her thousand foot hike. Four hours and weary toes later she was back on moderately level ground.

Frost on the Pumpkin

2005-11-19T11:24:00.000-05:00

Jack Frost has finally arrived here. We have frosty patterns on everything except ourselves!
Big, comfy living room furniture arrived yesterday. Anybody that comes to visit us will enjoy sitting on the sofa or easy chairs. We did realize though that the furniture show room is much larger than our living room.
We are in the midst of Thanksgiving preparations and giving thanks while we do it.

News from Lake Adger

2005-11-17T10:35:00.000-05:00

Cathy at Christmas, 1965

Buck Fever
As I sat at my desk this morning I saw a white-tail buck cross the mid-reaches of our property, between the house and the road. He walked with a limp, favoring his right foreleg. No outward sign of injury and hunting season has not opened yet so I assume he was grazed by a car.

I saw a buck and three does while I was driving in from town on Wednesday. We see deer beside the road or crossing it almost every time we venture out.

We await the first real cold snap of the winter. The weather people predict a low of 27 for Thursday night-Friday morning.

But that is not the big news. I have buried the lead. That's what professionals say when they bury the most important part of a story somewhere down around the sixth paragraph.

We have been told that our living room furniture will be delivered Friday, Nov. 18, Tomorrow! That is 115 days after we placed the order at the Hickory Furniture Mart. After it arrives and we determine it is perfect I will post pictures of the beautiful hand-rubbed leather chairs and sleeper sofa. I will not post pictures of my happy butt after it is freed from the hard wood bottom of my current chair.

Fall leaves

2005-11-12T14:37:00.000-05:00

Where do all these leaves come from? And why don't they stay on the trees where they belong, instead of on my driveway and deck? Four hours spent cleaning and mulching leaves, only to see twice as many gathering again. Lots of work but they sure are pretty.

This has been an easy Saturday -- about 33 degrees at dawn, warming up to 68 this afternoon. Sylvia went to a meeting of her hiking club while I continued work in the garage. One of these days I will have the house squared away, the garage organized, the basement finished and then will wonder what to do with my time. I know. I can write.

Fall in the Mountains

2005-11-08T13:52:00.000-05:00

Fall in the Blue Ridge Mountains is just glorious.

Sunrise on Lake Adger

2005-10-30T17:31:00.000-05:00

Sunrise over the lake on Oct. 25, 2005 -- the first cold fall morning. Temperature 35 degrees. Snow and ice close the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Diving Paul

2005-08-30T17:34:00.000-04:00

Paul Huebner takes a terrifying August plunge from the exteme height of Frog Rock on Lake Adger near Mill Spring, NC. He is followed by Goalie Tyler Rausch.

States in which we have ridden.

2005-03-10T14:53:00.000-05:00

We have been on a motorcycle in almost all the red states. Soon we will cover them all.

Countries we have visited

2005-03-10T14:46:00.000-05:00

We have ridden a motorcycle in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Panama. The other countries in red we have visited for work or for pleasure.

Lake Adger

2005-01-14T18:05:00.000-05:00

Chuck and Sylvia at the headwaters of the Mississippi River during the 2004 magical tour of the United States.

2005-01-13T16:48:00.000-05:00

The Pacific Coast Highway

2005-01-13T16:46:00.000-05:00

Self Portrait

2005-01-13T16:43:00.000-05:00

Preparing to Leave Portland, OR for Miami

Miles and Smiles on God's Gift

2005-01-13T16:00:00.000-05:00

It amazes us all the time. Where ever we go -- and we have ridden God's Gift more than 32,000 miles -- people want to talk about the motorcycle. Old people. Young people. Male people and female people. Maybe it is seeing two senior citizens having so much fun on a motorcycle. Or, more likely, they are drawn to it by the Holy Spirit.This 2003 Honda GL1800 Gold Wing is a tool used by Shalav Ministries to tell people how much God loves them. That's why we ride it. To tell people about God's love.And just because riding it is great fun.

In the Beginning

Wayne Cochran, senior pastor at Voice for Jesus Church in Miami, bought a Harley Davidson in 2002 with author's royalties from his hit song "Last Kiss." Seeing him on that bike brought back memories of Sylvia and I riding a Honda and then a Harley all over Mexico and Central America when I was a foreign correspondent in Mexico City.
The urge to ride again was strong. I started saving toward a motorcycle.

I saved $12,000. And had to put a new roof on the house. Cost: $13,000.
I saved some more. Got it up to $10,000. And had to replace a sewer line that backed up into the house. Cost: $9,200.
I started again. I had $6,500 set aside but another emergency took away that.

In February 2003 Jerry Savelle brought his Chariots of Light Christian Bikers Club to Voice for Jesus Church in Miami as part of the Chariots' first Florida tour. The sight of all those motorcycles parked outside our church was almost more than I could take.
Sylvia and I firmly believe in the Biblical principle of sowing and reaping. As we left for church a Sunday not long after the Chariots’ visit I told Sylvia that I wished I could sow motorcycles into people’s lives.
“So do it,” she said. “Just sow as much as you can to people who are praying for motorcycles.” The first $100 – all I could afford – went to a guy at church I knew was standing for a motorcycle. Then another $50 went to someone else. Then another $100. Now the die was cast. I started fixating on motorcycles, the way guys do when they are bitten by the new vehicle bug. I dreamed motorcycles. I talked motorcycles. I went to the end of the Internet looking at motorcycles. It began to seem to me (wishful thinking?) that God would use us and a motorcycle as a tool to show people how much He loves them.
“If that’s true then you better join Chariots right away,” Sylvia said. I scoffed. Join a motorcycle club without a motorcycle? She insisted. I joined Chariots of Light even though I had no chariot.

Within days money started coming in from strange sources. Writing I had done months before brought some. New unexpected assignmnets brought some. I didn’t think much about it at first. But then I realized that this was unexplained money coming to us for some specific reason. It was God responding, the reaping that comes after the sowing. Within two months I could see in my mind’s eye a new bike sitting in my driveway. I drug Sylvia to every motorcycle shop in South Florida. She saw so many motorcycles she, too, decided to get her license. Now she is waiting for God to let her know if she will ride her own bike.

I bought my first bike for $50, a Simplex ServiCycle, in 1952 and rode other bikes many miles as a younger man. But I was an older guy now and it was probably not a good idea for guy 65 to start riding motorcycles. Could I still ride? There was only one safe way to find out. I enrolled in a Motorcycle Safety Foundation basic rider course. A paunchy grey haired guy among people half his age. Some young enough to be his grandchildren. But I did it. I could still ride. And that course got my motorcycle endorsement. The next day I tested a Gold Wing. What a huge bike! A week later I paid cash for a new 2003 GL1800 Gold Wing with ABS and $1,500 worth of accessories. Not a nickel came from our household budget. It was God's Gift.

2005-01-13T15:02:00.000-05:00

Servicycle -- Chuck's first motorcycle

2005-01-10T15:02:00.000-05:00

GL1800 -- Our Current Bike

Furniture and Friends

2004-08-16T15:55:00.000-04:00

Met Pastors Wayne Cochran and Chris Cochran for breakfast. They are en route home from preaching in Michigan. They used our Expedition to haul their bikes in Joe Dykes' trailer. First stop was Thomasville, full of beautiful civil war era homes. Prayed for Jim on Broad Street (main street) who said he he had not eaten in several days. Thinish, badly gapped teeth, mouth with a dark brown edge and has strange brown eyes. He was carrying a bolt cutter. He asked for money for food. We offered to buy him dinner but he said he had a special diet. So we prayed he would find work and that his stomach problems would be healed. Chuck gave him $5 even though he declined our offer to buy him something to eat at the restaurant next door. We overnight in Macon, GA. We dine with Mike McQueen, editor of the Macon Telegraph and a former colleague at FIU. Good conversation, good times. Mike is very happy at the paper although his family is still in Miami.

We had a tour of the city in Mike's Beemer. Interesting place. Macon is either on the verge of total collapse or on the verge of blossoming into one of the great undiscovered cities in the U.S. Downtown redevelopment seems poised to explode but the city has some serious financial problems.

The Adventure Starts

2004-08-15T20:54:00.000-04:00

Sunday, Aug. 15 -- We make a delayed departure from Miami enroute to North Carolina, Michigan, Oregon, Texas and back to Miami on the Great Motorcyle Adventure. We planned on leaving on Friday, Aug. 12 but the approach of Hurricane Charley changed our minds. The hurricane hit Punta Gorda between Fort Meyers and Port Charolotte on the East Coast of Florida. We saw some damage in Central Florida but not a whole lot. We did see many, many, 18-wheelers heading to Georgia to pick up relief supplies or going south from Georgia with aid for the hurricane victims.

We have been planning this trip for months. I have a professional development leave from Florida International University and want to use the semester-long leave to see what young journalists think about their university education, especially as it relates to their work in converged newsrooms. I calculate we will be on the road for at least two months, with longer stops in North Carolina, Michigan, Oregon and Texas to visit family or friends. The map shows it to be about 9,000 miles. I plan on posting to this blog frequently as we ride to Portland.

We rode only to Valdosta this day, 440 miles. Pastor Wayne and Chris Cochran met us at the motel late in the evening en route to Miami from Michigan.