Aging, Health, Literature, Our Land and Home, Third Phase

Books and Docs

September 21, 2015 Charles Leave a comment

Lughnasa Elk Rut Moon

Have begun to shelve books. Will discover whether the crude tool of measuring book stacks has produced enough shelving.

A place to work, a place to be the person you want to and can be. Necessary. Kate’s sewing studio. Jon’s ski manufacturing space. The whole backyard for the dogs. And this place, this loft, for me.

Over the course of this week I’ll fill all the empty shelves, then begin to unload all the art now stored in plastic bins. Our art, up here, and in the house, is still packed away. The house will not feel like it’s ours until the art is hung.

We have yet more medical tasks this week, too. The crown that chipped when put on will be replaced today. Kate and I have separate appointments at Arapahoe Internal Medicine. Me for the elbow, shoulder pain and her for elevated potassium. On Friday is the last scheduled appointment following up on my surgery. The super sensitive PSA test for which I had the blood drawn last Tuesday will be done. Looking for a low number. If it is low, it suggest that none of the cancer cells escaped into the rest of the body.

We want to get past this constant medicalization of our lives, but…

Humor

On A Lighter Note

September 20, 2015 Charles Leave a comment

Lughnasa Elk Rut Moon

Corpus Christi couple were treated for minor injuries at the Doctors Center on Saratoga after their Smart Car hit a squirrel on Chapman Ranch Road. (Note. I think this is a Texas myth of what happens if you go small. But, you never know.)

Colorado, Jefferson County, Shadow Mountain, The West, Third Phase

A Harem

September 20, 2015 Charles Leave a comment

Lughnasa Elk Rut Moon

Coming home from an appliance purchasing excursion we saw a herd of approximately 20 elk does with one large racked bull standing just off to their side. This was along Shadow Mountain Drive about a half a mile from our house. A couple of hundred feet away, looking at the herd from a slight rise, was another bull, also with a large rack. Probably the loser.

We stopped in Morrison, the town next to the Red Rocks Amphitheater, for dinner at the Cafe Prague. It was 70 degrees, sunny, but headed toward evening. A lone guitar player strummed and sang pop tunes. Orange roughie and Weiner schnitzel.

The move to Colorado has been a good one for us: smaller grounds, smaller house, living in the mountains close enough to the grandkids, out west. Every day has an element of vacation attached to it.

Yes, the medical issues seem to just keep on coming, but that would have happened in Minnesota, too. The health care here is excellent. We should know. We’ve met more healthcare professionals than anybody else since our move here.

Our third phase has become a Colorado event. Kate’s removed from her former work environment and I’m removed from the context of my Minnesota life. We’re developing our third phase life in a place that nurtures us both and where we can also be nurturers.

Colorado, GeekWorld, Great Work, Science, Travel

Martian Meteorites, Dinosaur Skeletons and Peyote

September 18, 2015 Charles Leave a comment

Lughnasa Elk Rut Moon

The Denver Gem and Mineral Show. “Largest in the nation.” I believe it. Vendor upon vendor occupying all the audience circulation area around the seating in the Denver Coliseum (where the hot dogs and beer get sold. And big on its own.) The coliseum floor and the circulation area around it, plus tents in the rear parking lot. We ran low on energy before we could get outside.

Spoke with three vendors, each unique. One wore a t-shirt that said Save Our Sacrament. He’s part of a church in Arizona that considers peyote its sacramental substance. His church welcomes all races, so they’re not covered like the native americans though he claims using peyote as a sacrament is legal in five states (actually 6 according to the churches website): Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Oregon, Nevada and, drumroll please, Minnesota.

Second guy was a Colorado rockhound who clearly loves rocks. He told us about geodes with water inside (think how old that water is), how to tell jade from other rocks that look similar (put your hands on it. if it’s heavier and cooler than its neighbors, probably jade) and showed us his personal pendant, a space owl, a piece of agate (I think.).

Meteorites were the domain of the third guy. eegooblago meteorites. I asked him what an ungrouped meteorite was since a row of small pieces were labeled that way. He started slow, but got excited as he moved into his explanation. It involves an organization that is the only official meteorite naming authority. They have lists of meteorites by type, a sort of “canonical taxonomy”, great phrase. If, after a lot of checking a chunk doesn’t fall with the canonical taxonomy, then it’s ungrouped.

He went on to show us the Martian meteorite, the only one certified and named by the authority. (see picture) Not cheap. But, to own a piece of Mars? Wow.

I learned from him that deserts are great places to find meteorites and the Maghreb is one of the best. “Morocco,” he said, “has a very sophisticated meteorite market. The Maghreb itself not so much.” He and his partner do occasionally hunt on their own, but mostly they go to rooms in which many collected rocks have been gathered.

In the Maghreb they rely on the folks who travel the desert regularly. They pick up various rocks and bring them back to a collecting spot. Then, using a handheld device that can “read” elements, he and his partner decide which ones to buy.

There were things I wanted to buy. The Dinosaur Brokers had a very nice fossilized skeleton of a small meat eating dinosaur for only $4,200. Another outfit had a huge Woolly Mammoth tusk, gorgeous. $14,000 plus but they were willing to wheel and deal. Their words. Fossilized fish, Woolly Mammoth teeth and vertebrae. Dinosaur tracks. Most well out of my price range. Didn’t buy anything though Kate got a number of things for grandchildren gifts, including some coprolite, fossilized poop. For Gabe, of course.

Colorado, Mountains, Shadow Mountain, Weather +Climate

September 18, 2015 Charles Leave a comment

Lughnasa Elk Rut Moon

Gold is in the hills and mountains. Black mountain has a streak of gold running to its peak, like punk rocker with a taste for precious metal. The temperature has dropped. It was 46 when I got up this morning and will get to 39 tonight. Fall has arrived. Our realtor said fall in the mountains is brief and doesn’t have the variation in color of a Minnesota, but “…has its own beauty.” She’s right.

(Black Mountain Gold. Taken from loft balcony.)

This is a minimalist color change. One tree, the aspen, goes from green, making it blend it with its conifer neighbors, to gold, making it complement them. The effect is stylish. You might expect those blocky black leather couches and chairs set out to view the green and gold mountainscapes.

Aging, Health, Third Phase

A Come to My Senses Day

September 18, 2015 Charles Leave a comment

Lughnasa Elk Rut Moon

Into the booth yesterday, a come to my senses day. Brandi, a bright and cheerful doctor of audiology (a new degree to me), found significant hearing loss in the middle and high pitches. That was my right ear. She tested the left ear, as all audiologists feel obligated to do. The little boxes on the report which record results at the various frequencies all had a downward arrow from the left corner. That downward arrow connotes no response. I did hear the 115 decibel sound. Through bone conduction in my right ear.

So, a hearing aid. Many of you who read this made this decision long ago. But, I only need one! That cuts the cost in half. A sort of good thing.

An hour later I was over at Corneal Consultants playing space invaders. The ophthalmologists (boy is that a hard word to spell) insist on calling it a visual field test. It uses little points of light (think G. Bush I) to evaulate peripheral vision. Aced it. Pressures good, too. Got that glaucoma under control for now.

As long as I’m on this medical note, I’m also experiencing the return of a shoulder/elbow problem I had three or four years ago. A lot of pain, most right now focused on the elbow and the upper arm of my left arm. The shoulder has less pain this time around. I got rid of it with P.T. last time, choosing not to have an MRI to diagnose it. This time I’m going to find out what it is.

Memories

Antiques

September 17, 2015 Charles Leave a comment

Lughnasa Elk Rut Moon

Orion continues to greet me as I go to the garage to let the dogs out in the early morning, usually around 5:15 am. While in Indiana, I drove past what I think was the factory where I worked as a security guard and first became on intimate terms with him. It was 45+ years ago and the corporation for which I worked has gone bankrupt. They made cookware. Those long nights in the guard shack, 11-7, punctuated by hourly walks with the leather clock which recorded visits to each station with a key, gave me plenty of time to look at the night sky in wonder.

(Just to make me feel even older, I found this picture under the heading antique security guard timeclocks.)

Sure, I studied some, but reading philosophy while sleep deprived was not easy. The weekend stirred a lot of memories, not least seeing the factory where Orion and I quietly kept watch.

Beyond the Boundaries, Commentary on Religion, Faith and Spirituality, News of the Strange, Reimagine. Reconstruct. Reenchant.