Columbus OH

Started this entry on the 19th, was interrupted by a phone call, and this is the first time Lew has been able to get back.

MEDICAL NEWS:
Aches and pains are a bore for the writer, just as they must be for most readers. But for those who do ask us for a medical report, here it is:

Lew continues about the same - for two weeks he improved so much he could stand throughout an entire mass, but of course he overdid it and for the past week has been back to where he started.

Bobbi too is about the same. Her weakness in extending her left hip interferes with her stair-climbing and getting into cars, plus limits her ability to climb stairs.

After pneumonia, heart failure, a dissecting aneurysm, and a stroke, the husband of Bobbi's half-sister died exactly one week ago. The half-sister herself is tolerating her chemo poorly, the same for Bobbi's sister.

At the other extreme, the husband of Bobbi's friend, who never once in his life has followed a physician's advice and coded twice on the table during a hip replacement, recovered well not only from that surgery but also from the triple bypass at the beginning of this month. There is at least one message here, but I'm not sure of what it is. Meditate upon it for me, please.

Her friend's son with the metastatic melanoma now is on chemo. At least the friend with herself with all her chronic ills remains stable.

Now that is as short as I could make it.

FAMILY NEWS:

Paul continues on uneventfully with his nursing training. He is beginning to get into his clinicals and enjoys them. But they give him additional opportunity for his macabre sense of humor.

Scott's family too plods on uneventfully but very successfully. The two grandchildren, currently in the last stages of HS, are starting to look forward to college. Indeed, the youngest is toying with the idea of living with us and going to OSU. We'd kind of like that, but suspect that his principle motivation is to get away from his mother's strict supervision.

Lew's sister Linda continues on in her completely unremarkable stay at Kruse Retirement Center in Brenham TX. But "little" brother Luther has announced his retirement at the end of this month. Where has all the time gone? Luther's wife, children, and grandchildren remain status quo.

Lew's cousin Michael sent word that his family and Aggie's remain unchanged. However, he remarked on the damage that the drought was inflicting on the vegetation at grandmomma Holm's little house. It was necessary to remove one of the victims, a pecan tree.

Lew's aunt Irene sent a rundown on all of her large clan. They all seem to be doing well, healthwise and other. But that is her story, and anyone wanting details should send her an email.

OTHER:
Due to their limited mobility, both Bobbi and Lew have tended to amuse themselve primarily through the internet. Bobbi devotes her time to email, including Facebook.

Lew on the other hand continues to watch and listen to NHK. This month they presented a 16 part series they entitled "August Chronicles", dissecting the events that made the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs inevitable, and the aftermath of nuclear energy. Lew remembers WWII and the bombs well, thus reflected upon the fact that in barely 3 short years (from summer 1942-1945/08/15), the Churchill Warlords (Winston and FDR) and the Soviet Warlord (Stalin) had reduced the German and Japanese Empires from control of all of Europe from the channel islands to the Volga, and all of Asia from Assam to Midway - to where the German and Japanese Empires were smoking ruins inhabited by starving millions, while the English (including the USA) and to a lesser extent the Russian Empires controlled the entire world.

Of course NHK also continued to report on developments in the Fukushima-Daiichi disaster. One could hardly listen to and watch these programs without concluding that humanity and nuclear energy are completely incompatible, and mankind's only hope for survival lies in getting rid of it completely. Br-r-r. (Of course, even if mankind succeeds at this one task, it still must avoid overheating the planet, deforesting and desertifying it, and other consequences of over-population).

OK, I'm depressed, tired, and it's getting late. Signing off for now.