skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Norm's follow up visit to his eye surgeon today brought a very good report. He can now see well enough with his right eye to not need glasses for driving! The doctor gave him a card to prove it. He still has three more weeks of eye drops, but no signs of inflammation and the visual corrections are very good, almost perfect. Norm does still have a bothersome floater that he is trying to get used to. We'd appreciate everyone's "floater diminisher" thoughts. Norm will have another checkup on May 13, and if all is in order, cataract surgery on his left eye on May 19. We expect him to be in good seeing form for the Linville reunion in Colby in June!
Speaking of the reunion, we made our reservations at the hotel we usually stay at in Colby last night. When we checked on our accumulated points, we found out we have enough to cover all four nights of our stay! That news just about made our week. We can't wait to see everyone. Thanks, family, for checking in and hopefully we are giving you something worth reading.
Two of the blogs in my list on the right side rail have recently been updated. Norm's niece Debbie B has redesigned her blog, Updates from Debbie and it has gorgeous photos taken at the nature center in her town. Check it out. Meanwhile, my cousin's wife, Debi B., writes hilariously about her adventures in cooking an egg casserole for Secretary's Day while trying to keep her sanity as a teacher of high school seniors. Debide's View is where you'll find her.
This spring has been a feast for flowering tree lovers! First the Bradford Pears, then the star magnolias (or tulip trees) and now the redbuds and also the dogwoods. It's not so great for those of us with spring pollen allergies, but the sight almost makes up for it.
The old fashioned lilac in the back border (above) is way taller than I am now. It was a mere two feet tall and a collection of sprigs when Norm dug it up in the spring of 2001 so we could transplant it to this yard. It has bloomed the past 3 years, but this year, it is covered with light, lilac flowers that smell so sweet. Lilacs always remind me of Walt Whitman's poem in tribute to president Abraham Lincoln, When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloomed. PBS aired a wonderful portrait of Whitman on The American Experience about a week ago.
I don't think there are any famous poems about redbud trees. I just know they have always been a part of my life. One graced the yard of the house in Tulsa where I grew up, and my parents' yard after they moved when I was grown. The house Norm and I had in Ferguson was eventually shaded by a transplanted redbud we named Muriel, after the wife of the man who gave it to us. When we moved to our Bel Nor house, there was already a redbud in the front yard (above, right) that Lois' children had given her for Mother's day a few years back. It is glorious this year. We brought with us a tiny sprig, a sprout of Muriel, and planted it on the other side of the front walk. (Above, left) Too young to bloom, Little Muriel suffered a blow a year after our move when a dead branch fell out of the mighty oak above and broke off its leader. We staked the tree and started training a side branch to become the leader. This year, Little Muriel bloomed for the first time! We treasure this because the people who bought our Ferguson house chopped the original Muriel down.
Norm and I are still feeling the effects of recent bouts of respiratory illness. We take turns with coughing fits...but we don't have fevers or any other symptoms so we assume this is part of the healing process. It's just inconvenient when we want to be outside weeding the garden or taking a walk and we have bronchial spasms instead. Norm is following his eyedrop regimen and is still working on eye coordination between the "new" one and the one that awaits surgery. He is still reporting a fairly large floater in the eye that had surgery, and we just hope it fades in time. Today was cool and sunny, and we went to the opening of the Ferguson Farmer's Market, about which I wrote last year. We came home with some local Missouri honey (hopefully to desensitize my spring allergies), some whole grain bread, and a cilantro plant. The market will be our regular Saturday foray from now until late October. We are glad it is open. It's another sign of spring, and of hope. Even if we are supposed to get a late frost tomorrow night.
Today was one of those days when nothing on the to-do list got done. When managing the interruptions was the accomplishment. But as the night falls, the lilac perfumes the back yard and the mockingbird sings in my neighbor's holly tree, all seems well.
Norm is noting improved vision every hour, almost. But yesterday and today, he has been bothered by a "floater" that seemed a little too large, so we made an unscheduled visit to his doctor in the middle of the afternoon. No sign of retinal damage, which is reassuring. But we'll just have to be watchful for a while. Tonight Norm thinks the floater is receding somewhat.
Sorry to disappoint our Garden City and other faithful readers by posting this so late, but thanks for looking in on us often, anyway. At one point this afternoon I though my new computer had died. I'm still not sure why it started up tonight after staring blankly at me two times in a row this afternoon. But hey, I'll take it. Tomorrow I'll have photos and updates on Home Stories from Bel Nor. That is God willing, the creek don't rise and the earth don't shake.
At last it has stopped raining, and I can take a few pictures of flowers before they shatter or fade. Yesterday was Earth Day, and I had plans to write about it. But we had an appointment with Norm's eye surgeon and then I spent 4 hours last night and early this morning marking a quilt top that will go to a quilting group, the Spanish Lake Quilters, for hand quilting today.
Norm is doing well. His doctor checked his vision in the operated eye and with the new implant he was reading the chart at 20/30, very good progress for one day after surgery. We will go back for another checkup in a week. Part of Norm's wonder and delight is seeing colors with his "new" eye. The tulips above are color-changing; they start out yellow or pink or white and then additional colors appear in the petals. They practically glow from within. The little "butter and egg" jonquils were transplanted in the 1980s from my parents' garden in Tulsa to our yard in Ferguson. We brought some with us to this yard when we moved. Seeing them provides a precious link to the past and joy in the present. Thanks to friends and family who check the blog and who have been saying prayers for Norm's healing from the surgery.
Norm had cataract surgery on his right eye today. He is home and comfortable and we are doing the eyedrops drill. He will have a post-op visit with his surgeon tomorrow. Thanks for all the prayers and good thoughts. I'll update more soon.
Earthquake update: still getting aftershocks. One at 12:40 a.m. (I was still awake) shook the bed again. I went to sleep. Figured the house has been dealing with these longer than I have--87 years. Found out this morning it was a 4.0. There were some smaller aftershocks, too. I think I felt one ripple through the floor earlier this evening when I was surfing the web. That little Wabash Fault is getting frisky. Hope its big brother the New Madrid doesn't follow suit.
HTML update: I'm proud of myself. I signed up for SiteMeter to see how many visits this blog gets, since people e-mail me all the time saying "I read your blog but didn't have time to comment." Don't worry, I didn't get the deluxe version that tells me who you are. Just that someone (Kilroy, maybe?) was here. And I added the JavaScript HTML code to the sidebar all by myself. (Well, it was a copy and paste operation, but I did have to figure out WHERE to paste it in a forest of the template's HTML. And I got it right the first time!) Hooray for that Summer 1990 basic html course. Who knew I would still be able to use it? The logo is below the Archives in the Sidebar if you want to look at it.
Yes, I realize that is hardly an original title. But what else can I say about the shaking of the bed in the second floor bedroom in a full brick house that woke us up at 4:38 a.m.? Although earthquakes are felt periodically in this area, this was the first one we have noticed since moving to this house in 2001. We quickly realized that yes, it WAS an earthquake. One that had the house swaying. After 30 seconds or so it stopped and I jumped out of bed and turned on trusty KMOX-AM. Yes, callers were calling in. In about 10 minutes they had the preliminary magnitude: 5.4 centered in southeastern Illinois.
As the morning progressed, we learned it was a 5.2 and centered just a few miles from where friends Amos and LInda live. I emailed them and they are in Virginia this week, grandchild sitting, but relatives were checking on their house. As I was reading Amos' e-mail reply about 10:15 a.m., the house swayed again: windows rattled and all of the plants in the dining room were dancing. This aftershock was a 4.6, we heard later. It was a reminder that yes, we do live in an earthquake zone; the New Madrid fault is "overdue" for a magnitude 6.0 or greater, the geologists say. And as we lay in bed this morning in the dark, after it stopped rocking, we vowed to upgrade our preparedness plan and gave thanks that our homeowners policy does include earthquake insurance, which is becoming hard to get in these parts.
Frankly I prefer our Midwest storms, even tornadoes, I think. At least you have some forecast or warning. Californians may get used to this unannounced shaking, but it's uncommon enough in the Midwest. By the way, as I was writing that last sentence, I think I felt another little tremor, one that just rippled through the floor and the seat of my chair.
Wednesday, April 16--The annual Mirthday carnival at the university was today, and for the first time in several years, students enjoyed warm, sunny weather. Student organizations have booths and offer games for prizes. The Current staff had several giveaways, including movie passes and gear related to various entertainment venues. They also had staff T-shirts for everyone. Here, former staffer Sarah joins photographers Matt (in staff T-shirt) and Danny (in green Stagnant parody edition shirt) in heckling staff members trying to hold down the booth, literally. The wind was gusting over 30 mph. I got free popcorn, a free snow cone, took photos of some former students and talked to colleagues with whom I used to work. A very nice spring day, one that required sunscreen and a hat!
For the second year in a row, The Current at the University of Missouri-St. Louis has been named Best Overall Newspaper in their division, and Best College Newspaper in the state, in the Missouri College Media Association's annual contest. The staff received a total of eighteen awards at tonight's awards banquet. Congratulations to a hard-working and talented group of journalists!
Paul Hackbarth, editor, will graduate in May. He has held positions of staff writer, news editor, production manager and editor. He has written stories for every section, and has many individual MCMA awards to his credit.
Carrie Fasiska has served as managing editor this year, and has also been a staff photographer and assistant photo editor. She'll be back. Carrie was thrilled to win a first place award in photography this year.
Other individual winners this year were Sarah O'Brien, Shannon McManus, Danny Riese, LaGuan Fuse, Adam Wiseman and Rudy Scoggins. The design staff and the editorial board also won awards. Since this is my last MCMA convention (I'm retiring at the end of this year) it was a great finale. Although every year of the last 16 that I have advised The Current has been a winner. It is the best job anyone could have and I am grateful to have had it. Good luck to all of them in the future.
All weekend I've been trying to post to my blogs, but couldn't sign in. Finally this afternoon, I got on. The mysteries of cyberspace. This past week, our daffodils that line the back driveway have been out in full force. They are much prettier now that the ramshackle chain link fence is gone!
On Saturday, we took the morning off and drove up to the Riverlands bird sanctuary on the Mississippi River at Alton. The water levels seemed unusually low, especially since we were having floods a couple of weeks ago. There were lots of white pelicans flying in formation, swimming, flying solo, and probably preparing for a move further north. That's what the speck in the sky in this photo is, a white pelican coming in for a landing on Ellis Bay.
We were thrilled to see many great blue herons lining the edges of the bay, stalking their fish dinner. But we saw only one lone egret, this one, wading in some of the backwater off the bay. I stalked it for several minutes, hoping to get a good profile of it as it also stalked its prey. We had not been out in the sunshine in months and it felt so good.
On the way home from the Riverlands, we stopped at Thies Farm and green- house, which was finally open for the season. This is where we get most of our plants, potting soil, fertilizer and later in the season, locally grown fruits and vegetables. The biggest greenhouse felt like tropical Florida inside, and was lined with flats of summer annuals such as marigolds, impatiens, begonias and coleus. Too early to buy any of these but it was a treat to just look at them.
We did buy two packs of old fashioned pink pansies and one of violet violas and came home and Norm planted two porch boxes for the front of the house. At last it feels like spring.
And I was excused from the jury in the capital murder case, so maybe I'll get to do my civic duty sometime in the future. There's plenty of other projects to keep us busy!
Norm's follow up visit to his eye surgeon today brought a very good report. He can now see well enough with his right eye to not need glasses for driving! The doctor gave him a card to prove it. He still has three more weeks of eye drops, but no signs of inflammation and the visual corrections are very good, almost perfect. Norm does still have a bothersome floater that he is trying to get used to. We'd appreciate everyone's "floater diminisher" thoughts. Norm will have another checkup on May 13, and if all is in order, cataract surgery on his left eye on May 19. We expect him to be in good seeing form for the Linville reunion in Colby in June!
