Category Archives: Politics

assisted Living, Commentary on the news, Family, Fourth Phase, Health, Politics, Shadow Mountain

Sad News

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Gloria Steinman. Dead. She taught me so much. Through her writing and organizing, but more through the women she inspired. The ones I knew well.

It’s been a sad couple of weeks: Dolly Parton, Tim Curry, and the actor who voiced Optimus Prime. Figures who stood out: music, quirky acting, Transformer movies, and now feminist organizing. Even the idols of our youth are mortal.

I have, since early seminary days, considered myself a feminist. Gratitude to Gloria Steinman, Betty Friedan, and others who pushed second wave feminism onto the national stage. The personal is political.

 

More sad news. When Carol, my p.t. person from Mount Evans Home Health Care, came yesterday, she told me they were being shut down as of September 30th. That leaves us mountain folk with no access to in home physical or occupational therapy. Would have made my recovery much slower, especially when I was just out of rehab and very weak.

There is still physical therapy up here, but getting to it requires a car, a driver, and sufficient mobility. Many cannot meet those criteria. A rural life problem. Not unique to us, rather shared by people who live far from urban centers. Health care for any who live in spots where economy of scale works against them. A tragedy. At the most personal level.

 

Robin and Connie spent three hours packing books yesterday. Move preparation. Had a guy come up yesterday to inspect my roof, too. More sad news, I’ve got to replace my roof on the house and garage. Making it worse. Not enough hail damage. Meaning this will be an out of pocket expense. Yikes.

Ruth and Gabe will finish pulling books on Friday. They’re coming up to be with me on the anniversary of Jon’s death in 2022. This is the hard date for them. Ruth in particular since she found her dad dead on his basement couch.

I’ve not gotten word on when his yahrzeit will be remembered at Beth Evergreen, but they will probably come up then, too. Say kaddish with the worshippers.

 

Melissa now makes me a hot meal every weekday evening. A real treat. Last night. Hot sausage with baked beans and coleslaw followed by a baked apple dessert. Until a week from Friday.

Gutters get cleaned today. All windows washed on Monday. With new roofs? What a fine sight to see.

 

Fourth Phase, Health, Politics, Shadow Mountain

Such a fine sight to see

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Tired of dealing with an uncooperative gut. Constipation. Hard to get regular. Water torture. Never lets up. Always I need to go. I need to not go. Only comfortable position lying down. Since April with occasional break throughs of normalcy. Don’t understand why I can’t resolve it.

Affects sleep. Get up to deal. Head to bathroom, back to bed. Maybe not returning to sleep right away. The two together? A recipe for feeling down. World is too much with me, late and soon.

When it came time yesterday for my Buphati appointment, I couldn’t do it. Realized I have not been on the stairs since returning home. Also, transition from car to office. By walker. Oxygen levels held steady by my new Inogen, Portable oxygen concentrator. Which I have yet to use. Too much. Canceled. New appointment with Christina two weeks from now.

Cancer. Bah, humbug.

Robin comes today to get started on clearing out the house for the final time. We’ll discuss what goes with me. Her long experience will prove useful.

Talked with Matt Bachus yesterday. (realtor) We agreed I need to have a clear understanding about Elk Run costs over against my available income and other resources. Nothing with him can advance without it. After next week’s annual review.

Dopy Don and the Islamic Republic of Iran. What a fine sight to see. Golden wig. Golden toilets. Prayer mats and mosques. Oh, my Allah!

 

Family, Fourth Phase, Health, Politics, Shadow Mountain, Weather +Climate

Heat

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Final entry from my bed in room 103. Back into the stream of daily life without periodic checking of my vital signs, room service meals, and therapy with Margaret, Jenny, and Britinni. Though I’ve had a good experience I’m ready to leave rehab.

Still boggles my mind that I was at home on June 30th, then in the E.R. on July 1. In this hospital bed or that one until today, twenty seven days later. Must have been serious.

Joe and Mary worked hard over the weekend getting things ready for me. I’m excited to see what they’ve done.

We’re making a to go order from the Lazy Butcher for a homecoming meal. Barbecue, burgers, lots of Southern side dishes. Conveniently close to my doctors where I have to go for a bone strengthening shot after I leave here.

Joe has also arranged a tour of Elk Run assisted living at 3 pm. It will be my first time there. Elk Run is not far from the Life Care Center and is behind the synagogue. Their location in a place I know well matters to me.

 

Elsewhere the world is on fire. Wildfires make regular front page news. Trump gets mad at Canadian smoke and slaps on tariffs just because he can. Spain and France have major fires approaching Madrid and Bordeaux. Heat. Hotter.

Dopy Donald can’t find a path out of the Chinese finger puzzle he’s created for himself in Iran. I hope he finds something because this war is a plague on all of our houses.

 

Far Right, Health, Politics, Shadow Mountain, Weather +Climate

Quiet Days

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A slow day. As Saturdays can be. Moderate temperature, slight breeze, sun. I like quiet days. Especially after the excitement of my self-engaged head gashing.

This Sunday, and most of the next week, has similar possibilities. Only out of house: Tuesday 9 am CT scan and Friday’s 11:30 suture removal.

Beginning to have serious conversations about my future on Shadow Mountain. My goal? Stay right here. There are various ways to get there, not sure what makes the most sense yet.

 

Oh. George. Orwell. Trump’s Religious Liberty Commission which proposes that the separation of church and state is “…a legal error…” (W.P. June 26, 2026)

Look on his works, ye mighty, and despair.

Family, Health, Jefferson County, Politics, Shadow Mountain, Weather +Climate

Through the Looking Glass

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Day three post fall and gash. Wound gets cleaned today. Not sure how I’d do it by myself. Maybe Ginny.

Reverberations. Can I handle myself alone? Just me and my life alert medallion? I think so, but some doubt now. Don’t like that.

Melissa provides a cushion I needed and still need. Mary, too, but she’s leaving late July, going back to winter in Melbourne. Tara and Arjean will be here right after until late August. After that, back to the old ways.

Investigating.

Flash flood. Bear Creek, Evergreen and Kittredge. Wednesday night. There are state installed flash flood warning signs in Kittredge: climb to higher ground. Took out private bridges, sent logs rushing downstream, flooded basements. Hwy. 74 closed overnight.

Like Minnesota the West has weather that can kill you, too. Flash floods. Wildfire.

Texas to require bible reading in public schools. Trump’s inaptly named Religious Liberty Commission plans to work against the separation of Church and State. Vance compares himself to Nixon. Iran and U.S. trade strikes after peace document signed.

We have fallen through the looking glass. Red-pilled and angry.

Health, Politics, Shadow Mountain

Shameless

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Chose not to go down the hill for a CT scan of my head. To check for a brain bleed. Too many scans of late. No problematics. Could have been otherwise.  An emotional rather than a rational decision.

Surrounded by love. Ruth held me in her lap, holding a towel against my gash. Bled profusely as head wounds do. Mary and David helped me (lifted me) to my feet. Ruth and Mary called my clinic which got me in right away. 10 minutes from home.

Wound cleaned, hair around it clipped. Waited until Anna, a p.a. came in. She did a thorough exam for neurological effects. Head wound = possible brain bleed.

The lidocaine would feel like “stinging bees,” she said. Ha, I thought. I know what they feel like from my beekeeping years.  Pretty close, except for one which exceeded expectations. Mary says she, Ruth, and David watched Anna work. At the back of my head and numbed. I waited. No real pain afterward. Later the other parts of my body that hit the tile hard declared themselves. Achy. Some low level pain.

I crawled into bed and went to sleep.

More appreciative now of my Life Alert medallion which would have come to my aid had I been alone.

Old age can be tough. Keep yourself in shape.

Looking forward to three medical intervention free days.

I see Vance trying to rehabilitate Nixon! The deep state took him down. Yeah, right. If by deep state you mean: independent journalism (ironically the Washington Post of yesteryear), the FBI, Congress, and the courts.

Shameless. All of them. Enemies of truth, justice, and the American way. Villains of Superman Comic equivalence.

Quiet summer days. What I want.

 

Health, Politics

Plans

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Mary and I have a plan. When I’m able to get back to my exercise routine, cardio and resistance, and when that shows I can drive, be independent again (keeping Melissa), it will be time for her to head south. Way south. Melbourne.

How long will that take? Unclear right now. We’re going to talk with Carol, physical therapist, this morning, see what she thinks.

I have improved, gotten better. I can walk, unaided. I feel stronger, more able. Still a long way to go, but the trajectory is up. More food. M & M. Mary and Melissa. Regular walks. A changed inner weather.

Tomorrow. Actinium 225. Coursing through my veins. Delivering alpha radiation to my tumor cells. One of the nurses will open a lead lined box. The thimbleful of liquid contained there delivers enough radiation to kill or shrink many tumors.

Wait an hour as a precaution, then head back into the Front Range. Up to Shadow Mountain Home. Stay two feet away from other mammals. Police anything that might be radioactive. One week. Powerful stuff.

Continuing to treat my stage 4 cancer.

 

The cage match has finished. Something got signed by the U.S. and Iran. Dopy turned 80. 250 years of the U.S.A. A big Washington week. The ironies and paradoxes have come too fast. Improbable. Inconceivable as Wallace Shaw once said.

Meanwhile oil has many pressure points. Opening the Straits. Shuttered refineries going through the expensive process of restarting. Ships confined to ports. Oil in long transit. Various reserves need refilling. Unfulfilled contracts. Jet fuel use high in busy summer travel season. It’ll be a while before prices return to pre-war levels. Maybe late in 2027.

This war has staying power.

Fourth Phase, Health, Politics

Peace?

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BJ looked at a lot of houses yesterday. She and Pammy working through the web of matters that create an interstate move. Good luck to them. Not easy.

Feeling better each day. Still need the improvement that comes only with regular exercise. My walking ability, sharpened on our driveway, proves I have the capacity. Mary, I think, may be the key here.

Cool again this morning. Slept very well.

A peace framework which puts the Straits of Hormuz back to the status they held pre-war. So, no gain there. Nuclear program of Iran to be considered in future talks. So, no gain there. A 60 day cease fire. We already had one. So, no gain there.

With these kind of victories we’ll soon be a colony of Great Britain again.

Did you watch the cage match?  No, not the mighty Dopy against the Iranian crusher. I mean the literal cage match that will be better remembered as a footnote to a ruinous administration. Nope? I didn’t either.

Shadow Mountain out.

 

Family, Health, Politics, US History

MMA

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Low 40’s last night. I slept well. Sunny and cool this am when BJ, who came last night, set out to look at 6 more houses.

Mary has had an allergy flare-up. No fun. A cough, too.

I’m feeling incrementally better. I’m told I look better which makes me wonder how I looked before. PSA still high. Guess the petscan two weeks from now will tell the tale.

Still very weak, but a bit of improvement from more moving around.

On June 14th, 1777 the second Continental Congress passed a resolution defining a national flag. The design has lasted.

I can’t even. I mean, come on. Where’s Jackie and her rose garden? Or, Lady Bird Johnson beautifying America? In their place: boorish thuggery. MMA=Miss My America.

Cooking, Health, Politics

Ready to rumble. On the White House lawn?

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Two days post-4 hour infusion. Tara thought I looked better. Didn’t feel much different. After a call to have my potassium chloride prescription sent, Melissa retrieved it. Any horse would choke on them. I mean, big.

Melissa made chili. Real good chili. Made me feel like it was fall. Pom-poms. Tail gating. Cornbread muffins, too.

Next week Wednesday my second infusion. I’m in much better shape this time around. Not looking forward to the post-infusion protocols. Who wants to be an agent of potential harm to loved ones?

This is the J. Alfred Prufrock way of life. Instead of coffee spoons, my life measures itself through infusions, scans while nurses come and go, haunted by Michelangelo.

Flag day tomorrow. The Toad Prince’s birth celebrated by violence and mayhem. I’d go with prison orange and chains, but that’s me.

A peace treaty or a ceasefire or an agreement on the steps necessary to get or renew either of them. Yes, says mayhem man. Maybe says agent of Iran.

Weather delightful on Shadow Mountain.