• Tag Archives Health
  • A Normal Cataract For a 60 Year Old

    37  bar falls 30.08 3mph dewpoint 29  Spring

                  Waxing Crescent Moon of Growing

    It happens to each of us from time to time.  A slap in the face, either gentle or harsh, that says you’re getting old.  Jane West, my opthamologist, whom I consider a friend, gave me one today. 

    “You have a slight cataract.”

    “Oh.”

    “Yes, I’ve been drawing it for several visits.  It’s not significant.  It’s a normal 60 years old cataract.”

    “Oh.”  Not knowing there was such a thing.  And I had one.

    “Will it progress?”

    “Yes.  But how fast depends on so many things.   General health. (good)  Diet, especially anti-oxidants. (I start my day with at least 3/4 cup of blueberries in my oatmeal.)  Diabetes. (nope) Family propensity. (Don’t think so.)  So, it’s nothing to worry about.”

    I believe her.  She’s always been straight with me, a quality I prefer.  Still, a normal 60 year olds cataract?  I’ve never wanted to be normal and definitely not in age-related phenomena.  I want to be age-defying, younger than my years, in really good shape for a guy…with the usual cataracts.  Sigh.  I know these are forlorn and at one level even harmful hopes.  In these matters I prefer a large dose of contradiction.  I wish to be younger than my years, yet aging gracefully.


  • The Only Place Our Intelligence Community Looks Good

    24  81% 23%  omph EEN bar29.94 steady windchill24  Imbolc

               Waning Crescent of the Winter Moon

    Movies move slowly across the 694 pick-up line.  I just watched Breach, the story of the capture of Robert Hanssen, the mole in the FBI.  It’s well done, written by the young agent hopeful who worked as Hanssen’s assistant and put the last pieces together to bring Hanssen down.  After reading some of Legacy of Ashes, a history of the CIA, it became clear to me the role these movies play in the national psyche.  Playing up the clever strategies and cunning skill of guys like Hanssen puffs up the image of the FBI when they finally corner him; but, consider, he worked 22 years inside the FBI and even headed the Task Force looking for the mole. 

    Legacy of Ashes shows that when it comes to matters of subterfuge, we don’t get it.  The CIA failed at most of its chaotically designed missions, blundering around in the affairs of other nations like a giant child, flailing and hiding behind parking meter posts.  The only place the intelligence community gets to look good is in movies and books.  I don’t know whether the books and movies are intentional propaganda or if the material that gets a greenlight passes a certain screening.  Or, it may be that we need, as a nation, to believe that in the world of the shadows we can play as well as anybody.  Those who’ve looked into it suggest we can’t.  Thought all the way through movies like Breach show the same conclusion.

    Demonstrating the frail line between happiness and horror our neighbor, 55 or so, went to the hospital two weeks ago.  They thought he’d had a stroke.  It would have been a better thing.  He has a demyelinating process at work in patches inside his brain.  A process at the root of M.S. demyelination strips the insulation off nerve fibers and creates electrical storms.  He has some aphasia. It’s not clear how bad the damage is, nor whether it will persist.  He’s at home now, sleeping 44 minutes at a time which keeps his wife and daughter, who just graduated from college, up as he wanders when not asleep.


  • BMI 25.1, Blood Sugar 98. Yes!

    22  82%  28%  2mph NNW bar30.06  wincdhill21  Winter

                Waxing Crescent of the Winter Moon

    These next three weeks are, on average, the coldest weeks of the year.  I’m glad to see them come.  I love the snug as a bug in a rug feeling of very cold days, work I love and a home place to do it.

    Weighed in this morning.  My BMI is now 25.1 and my blood sugar is 98.  I’ll continue on with the nutrisystem at least for the rest of this month, then I’ll have to have a good maintenance plan in place because I will head off for the Dwelling in the Woods, then 3 weeks in Hawai’i.  Hawai’i should be ok because the fish, fruit and vegetable type menu is common there.  It would not be the same if we were headed to, say, England or Austria.  I feel good about this effort so far.  The challenge now will be a healthy long term eating plan, one I strayed from too far for too long.

    Still no joy on the sound system.  I had the DVD player sending signals through the five speaker set up, so I know I have them connected and working.  When I exchanged the Toshiba HD DVD player for a Panasonic Blu-Ray player, however, I eliminated the sound success I had made.  Since I won’t get the Blu-Ray until next week, I don’t know yet whether I can convince it to communicate with the speakers.  I know, right now, that the coaxial cable I got to connect the DVR/HD box to the receiver did not produce instant results.  Sigh.  I may have to talk with the folks at Ultimate when I go in to pick up the Blu-Ray.  This is part of the learning curve, less steep now than when I opened the first box, but steep enough to block my vision so far.

    Today is more work on the Faery Tale and garden planning.  This is the work I love.t


  • Lashed to the Mast

    31  91%  29%  omph WSW bar29.75 rises windchill31  Winter

                                 New Moon

    There is something seductive about the large screen TV experience, seductive in an Ulysses lashed to the mast sense.  The visual image is close to movies in a theatre, though not the same.  Hard to describe, but it makes me want to keep watching.  I don’t like this part of it and will have to pay attention so I don’t fade into the couch and become one with the fabric.

    On the other hand the picture is fantastic.  The set has so many different bells and whistles that it can accomodate different formats with ease and its easy to use.   Well, sort of easy.  I’ve still got the manual to read.  RTFM as my cello playing significant other in law likes to say.  The HD DVD player upconverts and it does make non-HD DVD’s look great, not HD great, but crisp and clear.  Since DVD’s are my main interest in the large screen, not sports (though I do watch football if the Vikings co-operate and win games), this set will take my interest in cinema to a different level.

    I’ve gone down two belt notches since the middle of December when Kate and I started Nutrisystem.  I’m already scanning for maintenance after we finish with it at the end of January.  At the end of twenty-eight days I’ll get on the scale and take my blood glucose.  I expect both will show positive trends.  It’s the blood glucose level I really want to manage; so if it’s down, it will be a great reinforcer for maintaining a lower weight.

    The New Year has begun well: some weight loss, workouts going well, writing in the AM underway with a good story happening, the new TV, the video calls with the kids and plenty of snow.  That last, unfortunately, has melted some over the last couple of days.  I hope we get some more snow soon. 

     Asia tour work tomorrow, finish the speaker setup, work some more on the Gunflint Faeries.  Good night and good luck.

                           -30-