Tag: a personal note

Back From the Nursing Home

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The ambulance finally appeared, and my aunt was transported to the nursing home and installed in a semi-private room where the other patient had a great big TV set which was playing Spanish soap operas.

We’re all upset, we prayed it wouldn’t come to this: but it has, and there was nothing we could do avert it. Poor Aunt Joan. For most of her life–she never married–she and her sisters traveled to almost every country on the planet, back in the 1950s and 60s when people didn’t just hop on a jet plane and go wherever they pleased. You had to have a lot of get-up-and-go, to be a world traveler back then.

There is something wrong with the way our civilization today handles the closing chapter of a life.

Well, there’s nothing for it but to trust in God, who tells us nothing  but what is altogether true, and who will keep His promises. Whatever may afflict us now, it’s temporary. When we wake in God’s Kingdom, in His house of many mansions, we’ll be hard-put to remember what was hurting us.

But for the time being, it’s a rough ride.

 

How to Ride No-handed, Lesson 2

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If this kid can do it, you can do it. Please notice that he’s leaning backward all the time, never forward.

While I’m waiting for the ambulance to emerge from Pellucidar, or wherever it’s got to, let me try to write something.

Here we are: How to ride your bike without using your hands, next lesson.

Remember Lesson 1: work up to it gradually. After a while, you should be able to go half a block without holding onto the handlebars.

So for Lesson 2, some fine points.

*Don’t lean forward like you’re in the Tour de France or something. Riding no-handed is done best when you’re sitting up straight.  Very slightly leaning backward works well, too.

*Keep your knees and thighs as close to the bike frame as you can. This helps the bike remain upright. Later on, when you’re a real wiz at this, you can prop your feet on the handlebars or whatever. Much later on.

*Now take your hands away from the handlebars and let your arms hang down at your sides, or rest your hands on your hips. You will still have time to save yourself if you start to wobble.

And that’s enough for Lesson 2.

Holding Pattern

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Well, we’ve been to the nursing home and now we’re back home because we have to find out where my aunt and the ambulance have got to. They weren’t at the nursing home when they were supposed to be. Sometime today we also have to buy groceries. Then we’ll have to go back to the nursing home.

It seems the ambulance simply failed to show up when it was supposed to. It was scheduled for 10 a.m. and now it’s 11:30 and no one has seen the bloody thing yet.

I hate these hellzapoppin days in which you run back and forth and all around and nothing happens, nothing gets accomplished.

Hopefully I will be back this afternoon with everything done.

I’m Back (in One Piece)

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It’s hard to find a photo that truly captures the Ben-Hur aspect of driving on the Garden State Parkway.

Okay, we made it back and forth to my sister’s house, 110 miles on the Garden State Parkway, without getting killed or injured.

Next hurdle: tomorrow morning, installing my aunt in the nursing home. We have grounds for hoping it might not be as bad as we feared–might even turn out to be good for her.

And so sometime early Friday afternoon, things will be back to normal around here, or as near to normal as they get.

I think maybe Joe Collidge will want to check in tomorrow to tell you about his interllectural Thanksgiving.

Stick With Me, Please

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I’ve been distracted, lately (to put it mildly), by one of those unavoidable tribulations of life.

Without getting too much into private details, I’ve had to have my last surviving aunt transferred to a nursing home. This is something we prayed would never happen, but now it has.

She is the last of my family in her generation. When she goes, I’ll be the oldest one left–and who ever thinks he’s going to be that?

My mother had five sisters, so I was richly blessed with aunts. Two married, one became a nun, and three stayed together at their father’s house, where they were born. One by one they died. The house had to be sold. It has since been torn down. My aunt received the best care available for as long as possible. But now it’s no longer possible to take care of her outside of a nursing home.

We could not live without God’s grace. But then without God’s grace we never would have been created in the first place.

Normalcy is a good thing. Writing is the work I asked the Lord to give me to do, and He granted my prayer. So I will do it, to the best of my ability, every day if possible, for as long as I can.

God goes with us into the Valley of the Shadow. And one way or another, He will bring us out of it, and into the light.

Readers, please bear with me: normal service will soon be restored. If the next few posts aren’t up to snuff, don’t go away–there’s plenty in the Archives.

Gotta Re-visit ‘Tristram Shandy’!

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That catchy tune in the video, to which the redcoats marched in Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon, is an old Irish melody called Lillibulero. First published in 1661, Lillibulero gained a kind of immortality thanks to author and  clergyman, and proto-Abolitionist, Laurence Sterne.

In his utterly wild and wacky novel, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, whenever things get confusing, which is most of the time, two of his characters, Uncle Toby and Corporal Trim, have a habit of whistling Lillibulero.

I had to read this book in college. I enjoyed it, but I was young then and I strongly suspect I would enjoy it even more if I read it now. Maybe I will get a copy of it for Christmas. I’m just dying to read it again. It was first published in 1759, but don’t let that throw you. This book is just plain funny!

All those years, though, I had no idea what Lillibulero sounded like. I realize now that I must have heard that melody dozens of times without knowing it was Lillibulero.

And here’s something else that’s funny. My wife found me listening to the tune on the computer, and asked me what it was. She has never read Tristram Shandy, and so never heard of Lillibulero.

And then, just before bedtime, she was leafing through a Daphne DuMaurier story when a reference to Lillibulero jumped out at her. “That’s twice tonight!” she said. “You know what? That’s weird!”

It’s with real pleasure that I look back on those ineffectual, benign, and profoundly harmless characters, Uncle Toby and his faithful batman, Corporal Trim–not to mention Tristram’s hopeless and constantly losing battle to organize the story of his life.

Yes, I’ve got to get back to Shandy Hall. But in the meantime, at least I can now whistle Lillibulero.

My Blood Pressure’s Down

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Identities have been concealed to protect the guilty.

I’ve been riding my bike most every day for a month, and have made some modifications in my diet, and lost a few pounds. So yesterday I went to Rite-Aid and had my blood pressure taken: and it was 120/80, which I’m told is just about perfect.

When the dentist measured it, my BP was 158/98, which he said was too high to allow me to receive any dental treatment. By cracky, I was only there for a cleaning–but them’s the rules, says he. I wonder if being at the dentist’s had anything to do with my pressure being so high.

Anyhow, it looks like once again I’m going to avoid having to be on any blood pressure medication, which was the main reason why I bought the bike. If you’re out there with a similar problem, you might want to try exercising more and eating less (and eating less salt) before you steer yourself onto the medication highway. If it works for me, it just might work for you.

This morning Huffy–that’s my bike’s name–and I managed our first right-hand turn riding no-handed. It’s a bit harder than a left-hand turn. Then we tackled the Oak Avenue hill, which made me pretty huffy. And after that I almost fell off, but righted myself before tipping all the way over.

My legs feel like  balloons with the air let out of them, but at least my blood pressure’s down.

Some Small Achievements

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For those of you who may be curious about what I do when I’m not writing, researching, blogging, or catering to my cats–

I’ve just finished reading my new book, The Temple, and I was amazed to find not a single typo in it. I’m a whiz when it comes to spotting errors after the book is published and it’s too late to do anything about them. Once the train leaves the station, I can really see it! But the proofreading staff at Storehouse Press is just about the best in all the world.

I’ve been riding my bike just about every day since I got it a few weeks ago, and this morning I was able to execute my first turn… no-handed. When I was a kid, it took me months and months to master the art of riding without using my hands. The mastery of that esoteric art has come back to me in just about no time.

Well, back to work.

3,000–We Did It!

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Derek Jeter finished his career last year with more than 3,000 hits–but look how long it took him to get them.

Thanks to everybody who helped me get 3,000 hits this month, my second 3,000-hit month in a row.

This blog has been growing by about 6,000 hits per year.

Now relax and enjoy your Sunday!

Only 51 to Go!

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Yes, I need just 51 more hits on this blog to get 3,000 for the month.

I try every day to post things that you’ll want to read. True, I do alert you to a lot of stories that are not exactly edifying. I believe I have a duty to sound the trumpet of alarm. Don’t take my word for it: ask the prophet Ezekiel (Chapter 3, v. 21).

But I hope the menu here is varied enough to persuade you to drop in for a bite of this or that, most days.

So, 51 more–onward!