This was a strange month. I expected to undergo open-heart surgery on July 22, but it was postponed when I injured my leg. Still waiting on that to heal so the surgery can be rescheduled. But the leg injury has hurt my movements and kept me from working at my writing as much as I’d hoped. Nevertheless, I did have accomplishments.
Blog twice a week on Mondays and Fridays. Got this done, with the help of scheduled posts.
Make as much progress as possible on Volume 2 of A Walk Through Holy Week. It would be nice to have the first draft done before July 22. Completed the first draft on July 27!
Attend one writing group meeting. The two other meetings are cancelled due to venue problems during the summer. Did this. The other two meetings stayed cancelled
Complete the Introduction and occasional commentary of the Saudi letters book. I got the Introduction done in the last few days. The commentary is started but not yet done.
Possibly complete and publish a short story I’ve been working on, the next in the Danny Tompkins series. I worked on this some more, so that it’s more or less done. Some comments from my critique group are not yet fully addressed.
Setting goals going forward is difficult, because I don’t know how my healing will go—not only with my leg but with a new shoulder/arm injury. I might have heart surgery late in the month, or, more likely, it will slip into September. So how do I plan for writing tasks with such uncertainty?
Blog twice a week, on Mondays and Fridays. I may use scheduled posts again.
I’m not making a goal of attending any writers meetings, partly from not knowing how my surgery and illnesses will lay me up, and partly because one meeting may be cancelled due to lack of a venue.
Complete two editorial passes through A Walk Through Holy Week, Vol 2. I should be able to get this done even with uncertainty of schedule.
Figure out any final changes to the latest Danny Tompkins story, then finish and publish it.
Complete the commentary between letters. If I can get that done, begin selection of photos and insert them in the book.
And, one more for good measure: Make a start at outlining Vol 3 of A Walk Through Holy Week.
That’s enough. I’ll be lucky to get this much done.
Dateline: 8 July 2024, 06:10 a.m., for posting on 29 July 2024
Saw eight deer the morning of this post. They are regular visitors this time of year.
This morning the temperature was lower, in the upper 60s instead of the upper 70s. The remnants of Hurricane Beryl will hit us later today and tomorrow. The relative coolness is nice.
The first thing I see when I reach the street from the driveway are,,,two deer, one a buck that looks full grown, not forty feet from me. They came out from behind my first row of my blackberries bushes, making me wonder if they’ve been eating them. We stared at each other as I kept walking to them, then they quickly dashed off.
Up the hill I went, to the next road and then the next, where I saw a group of four deer dash across the road and into the woods. I turned right and went up the next hill, a gentle one, from which I could see the dam and the large lake it impounds. Over the hill just a little way to the loop at the first side road. Off to my right was yet one more deer. Around the loop, a short turnout on another side road, and then retrace my steps. This leg is mostly downhill, but gradual.
I continued on, in the other direction from out street, up another fairly gentle slope. A third of a mile in this other direction is another loop, downhill then uphill. Once again retrace my steps, turn at the right place and I’m home.
A week ago, in preparation for my surgery, I resumed walking. I’ve never totally quit walking, but last year, when I experienced angina every time I walked uphill (and it’s impossible to walk near our house without going uphill), I had to cut back on frequency, distance, and exertion. Then, during our two trips, regular walking was difficult to achieve due to the fullness of activities and responsibilities.
But I figured I’d better do something to improve my muscle tone and stamina pre-surgery. I began with one mile on Monday and increased the distance a tenth of two every day until I went 1.8 miles on Saturday. The goal today was 2 miles, which would then be the distance for the rest of my prep period. And I made the 2 miles, pushing myself to do so with a good time.
By the time you read this, I will have had my surgery. Hopefully I’ll still be alive and kicking, with a new, properly configured valve in place and working well. With a new physical life ahead of me, and a heart that is still strong.
The view from my woodland reading chair. Our house is to the left. Well in the distance is where the sound of the limb falling came from.
A few years back, we bought the unbuilt lot next to us, on the uphill side of our house. We got it for a good price and, based on current prices for lots in Bella Vista, it’s perhaps the most profitable investment we’ve ever made.
I’ve done some improvements on this lot, cutting down dead trees, cutting underbrush, clearing leaves from the edges to allow some grass to get a start. We have our compost pile on the lot (actually had it there before we bought it) and a well-worn path from the garage to the pile.
The woods directly in front of me. I’m keeping this are free of new trees and brush, though there are enough mature trees around it that the shade canopy is complete.
Along that path is my reading place. I don’t go out there to read often. Usually, I take my noon reading break in our sunroom. But it isn’t airconditioned, and this time of year it’s really too hot to read in. So on these days, I either read in the basement or out in the woods. I think I’ve gone to the woods most days this week (see the dateline), usually right around noon.
Isn’t it hot then, you ask? Yes, probably around 92°. But it’s shady. The oaks cover the path. I have a chair out at a level spot. A cut log set on end serves as a small table, leveled up with a wedge piece from a tree felling, to set my phone and cup of coffee on. By 1:00 p.m., the sun will have moved around further south and higher, and gaps in the canopy caused by the death of a couple of oaks due to a blight maybe three years ago. At that point I’ll have to move my chair or go inside.
Another view from my reading chair, looking more to the south and past our lot. Sunshine occasionally finds its way to the ground here.
Today I followed this procedure, but the temperature was a little cooler than recently due to rain yesterday evening. It was 92° with a nice breeze. In the shade of the oaks, I felt quite cool. I had a book and a magazine (an old one) with me. I decided to read the mag and try to get through it. Since it was from 2009, many of the articles were dated and not worth reading. Despite the distractions of woodland reading, I was able to read all I wanted in the hour and put it in the recycling bin afterwards.
What distractions, you ask? Just the sights and sounds of the woodland. And yes, even though our house is well within sight, when I’m sitting on our lot I’m in the woodlands. But most of the sounds are of human civilization. Take today. At first it seemed dead quiet, except for the sound the wind was making with the leaves. Then I heard a car door close, then another. Soon, I heard a lawnmower start and start to move. It sounded like it was coming from down the street at one of the two new houses. Then I could faintly hear a voice; probably one of the mowers.
Before the mower sound came, I watched a small lizard play near the edge of the driveway. A butterfly came by but didn’t stay. A fly somehow got in my coffee, but I fished it out and went right on drinking. I heard a mosquito near ear and swept it away. A vehicle made its way up the steep road across the hollow, somewhat faintly, around a thousand feet away or a little more. In winter, when the oaks are devoid of leaves, we can hear vehicle much clearer.
As the mowing continued, a vehicle came up the hill and passed by me, most likely without seeing me in the shadows. The view from the road into the woods is partly obscured by the first row of trees, some underbrush, and my blackberry vines. I looked back down the hill, into the woods. A bird flew silently across the lot thirty feet away from me.
Then I heard a crashing sound. Shifting my gaze to the north, I saw leaves and branches moving in the direction of the crash. It seems a branch fell from a tree behind our backyard. Maybe tomorrow I’ll go down there and see if I have new deadfall just off the property.
I continued reading in this distracted state. The magazine, the monthly publication of our Rural Electrical Cooperative, had a good article on one woman’s historic preservation work in Arkansas. That was quite interesting. Another article covered things that the State Legislature would be dealing with in the session about to start. But I kept looking up from the mag to see what was going on around me. I heard the sound of a squirrel but didn’t see it.
I looked around for WTBD—work to be done. Some underbrush needed more cutting. Leaves need to be pushed back a few feet more from the house, to widen the grass strip that’s coming up naturally there. Three trees, 6 to 8 inches diameter, fell near the south border of the lot. Someday, perhaps, I’ll saw them up and put them on one of my brush piles.
The sun was moving around to the point where I would soon lose my shade, then thin clouds partly obscured the sun. I decided I’d read all in the mag that was important, laid it on my log table, and took up my coffee. Perhaps you think it strange to take hot coffee out to woods to drink on a hot day, but I like the taste, and in the woods it’s not too hot to drink.
But my time was soon up. I:00 p.m. neared, and lunch beckoned me. The sights and sounds of the woods faded as I traversed the rocky path the 50 feet to the garage. Possibly I’ll return to my reading spot tomorrow for another hour with another mag or a book, and once again read distractedly but enjoyably. Cooler weather and the sunroom are not far away. Any place to read is a good place.
At over 900 pages, this promises to be an interesting book that I can digest in small junks during hospitalization.
About a week ago, when I thought my heart surgery would be today, I began going through books that I would want to take to read. It may be a pipe dream to think I can read much while in the hospital, but I want to be prepared. I’ve picked out one book on prayer and two books of letters. These are print books. I have a fair number of e-books I can easily pull up on my phone.
One book of letters is The Letters of Virginia Woolf. Vol. 3, 1923-1928. I picked this up used quite a few years ago and kept it on a basement shelf, waiting for the right time to read. Well, that seems to be now. It’s a thick paperback to be holding in bed. But the letters are, for the most part, short. I’ve read 40 or 50 pages into it to make sure it’s a suitable volume to read in my circumstances. So far I find it is.
I read a couple letters yesterday, and found an interesting item.
Importunate old gentlemen who have been struck daily by ideas on leaving their baths, which they have copied out in the most beautiful, and at the same time illegible handwriting, dump these manuscripts at the office, and say, what is no doubt true that they can keep it up or years, once a week, if the Nation will pay £3.3 a column. And there are governesses, and poetesses, and miserable hacks of all kinds who keep on calling—So for God’s sake write us something that we can print.
I need to add a little context. Virginia Woolf and her husband, Leonard, were part of a literary group known as the Bloomsbury Circle, or Bloomsbury Set, who had great political and literary influence in the first two or three decades of the 20th century. Leonard had just been appointed literary editor of The Nation and Athenaeum a magazine that dealt with British politics and English Literature. Virginia was, at that time, heavily involved in the Hogarth Press, print a variety of books. Leonard was also involved in that.
Thus, they were busy people. Virginia wrote a letter to Robert Fry on 18 May 1923. Leonard had been less then a month in the editorship, and the couple had just returned from a month-long holiday in Spain and France. Leonard’s plate was full, with coming up to speed at the magazine and dealing with book publishing. Complicating this appears to be a glut of unsolicited submissions to The Nation, submissions that Virginia, in her letter to Fry, considered as from “miserable hacks”. And she begged Fry to “write us something we can print.”
I find it funny almost that this is the same complaint editors have today. Too many submissions from unqualified writers crowding the mail and e-mail inboxes. Given the universality of typing now, they don’t have a lot of “illegible handwriting” to decipher, but reading those many submissions is not easy. Nor is it a good use of time. So most of those submissions go unread, or get shoved off to an intern with instructions such as, “If you’re still reading it after one page, put it in my inbox; if you’re still reading after three pages, bring it to my office right away.”
This should make all authors take some time before they make unsolicited submittals. The editors probably put you in the category of know-nothing writer, and expect nothing of publishable value from them. You’ve wasted your time submitting like that. Instead, take a long time to hone your writing skills, study the market, study the publishing outlets, study the realm of literary agents. Then, after however many years that takes, start submitting in a smart way.
I found it interesting that, in 1923, the problem editors faced was that same as they face today—with illegible handwriting thrown in. Technology makes the process easier, but the problem remains.
As I’ve mentioned before, it won’t be long until I have heart valve replacement surgery. I’ve been expecting it to happen the week of July 22nd.
But I got a twist suddenly. While lifting a heavy box I threw out my back. Except it wasn’t my back. It’s the muscles in my right leg, especially the groin. It’s at the point where I can’t stand fully upright, for pain in the groin prevents it. I’m walking hunched over, using a walker.
I saw the surgeon on Tuesday. He put the heart operation off until July 29 to give my leg time to heal, saying he doesn’t want me fighting two traumas at once. Then later that day I saw my PCP. She ordered x-rays, CT scan, and ultra sound to rule out a skeletal cause of my pain. All is done except the ultra sound.
Meanwhile, I’m in bad pain that is getting worse, with back pain added due to being hunched over. Right now, with no improvement in my leg muscles or relief of pain, I’m wondering if the heart surgery will be put off longer than that. I’ll keep people posted from a combination of this blog and Facebook.
An attack was made against ex-president Donald Trump this afternoon, maybe around 5 p.m. my time. We had a game warden program on the TV so the first I heard of it was when a good friend on Facebook posted about it. We finished the program we were watching then turned over to a news station. It was obvious the president was injured.
I checked news sites on-line, but monitored Facebook off and on. The same friend had another post or two as information began to trickle out. Then I saw a post by a woman I went to elementary school with. It was:
He doesn’t deserve a bandaid..
That was quickly followed by this post by a man I went to elementary school with.
That was all a set-up by his people!.
I was stunned. That same man went on to post:
How come nobody else was hurt and where are the bullets. That cut on his ear was self inflicted. They’ll never find the people who fired the shots because it was his people. [sic]
I replied to that with the following.
[name redacted]: Please wait for full reports to come in. They are now saying one rally attendee was killed. Too early to know for sure.
One man who I don’t know had his own reply:
[name redacted] you sire [sic] look like an idiot..get your hate in check…people died today because of this kind of hate,,
Such strange hatred against the former president, and by one commenter against his fellow man. Trump is not my candidate; I won’t vote for him, as I didn’t the last two times. But the posts by those three people are just sick. One post accuses the president of being an accessory to murder. Does this man’s hate not allow him to see what it is he’s saying? Apparently so. I wouldn’t want to be him when the Secret Service comes around reviewing relevant posts.
How terrible a thing hate is. It clouds judgment, send us off on tangents, makes us irrational, and can eventually destroy us. I hope I can avoid it in my own life. I see lots of hate on both sides this election year. I pray that it doesn’t destroy our nation.
For several years I’ve been keeping a journal. I’m not very regular with it. My typical time to write is in the evenings, after everything else is done and we are watching TV.
Up at 5:50 a.m. Weight 202.0; blood sugar 117.
Walked 2 miles, my fourth straight day to walk that distance, and my tenth day of morning walking in an effort to improve strength and stamina ahead of my surgery.
To The Dungeon, without coffee. Devotional reading (currently in a book on prayer) and prayer.
Begin work on the Bible study I’m writing. My goal was to write one section, about 600 words. I was able to do that. Had time left, so began work on the next section. It was a good time of writing.
No book sales when I checked early.
Reviewed the stock market and made one trade.
Upstairs for breakfast of sausage-onions-peppers-eggs-cheese on pita bread, then outside to do some light yardwork.
Checked on two home improvement items. Our propane company did change out the hardware on the propane takes as I asked. Someone called me about it a couple of weeks ago but the reception was so bad that I couldn’t understand him. And, I called the plumbing supply store about the replacement toilet seats I wanted to buy. They had never called me. I learned they couldn’t find one of the right size, material, and color that I need. So I researched and found one on Amazon and ordered it. Let’s hope the color matches.
Worked on scanning documents to save electronically and then discard the papers. I got rid of three stray genealogy papers and a number of writing site papers. I only need two more days at that pace to get rid of one more notebook.
Read in the sunroom. Cloud cover made it easy to do today. May have napped a little out there.
Lunch of leftover pizza, crackers, and blackberries.
Made a blackberry cobbler to give away.
Back to The Dungeon for a few more computer tasks, including managing correspondence.
Looked through some books to choose a couple to take to the hospital with me.
Rested upstairs in my reading/TV watching chair. Worked on crossword puzzles but fell asleep.
Read three letters in the Carlyle Letters Online.
Had supper of leftover taco salad, still quite good on the fourth day. Dessert for me was, you guessed it, blackberries with a little sugar sprinkled on them.
Wrote a letter to my second grandson, which I’ll mail tomorrow.
Remembered I needed to write a blog post for tomorrow, and so started writing this.
Well, that seems to describe a full day. Maybe I’ll actually find time to write this in my journal.
I found lots of illustrations on-line for the type of valve I have.
A little late getting today’s post up, but here it is. In several recent posts I’ve alluded to surgery that I’m going to have soon, but haven’t given specific info. It will be open-heart surgery.
Now, before everyone freaks out, they surgeon and others tell me this is the least risky, least invasive type of open-heart surgery you could have. That sounds strange, I know. but here are the details.
I was born with an abnormal aortic valve. A normal heart valve has three leaves that move together, opening to allow flow and closing to block flow. My aortic valve, however, has only two leaves (cusps is the medics call them). I normally say genetically defective valve, but that’s probably unfair to the valve. It has served me well for 72+ years, but my cardiologist thinks it’s time to replace the two-cusp wonder, and the surgeons who normally do this kind of surgery agree.
The valve has a condition that’s called stenosis, a build-up of calcium (and maybe other stuff) on it. It’s opening and closing fine, and not leaking, but with the degree of buildup on it, it’s only a matter of time until it won’t work properly, or some of the calcium will slough off and cause a problem in my lungs or elsewhere. So the doc says it’s time to replace it, while I’m still “young” and not a very big risk for surgery. Based on tests, they say I’m low risk.
They aren’t saying the valve was the cause of my mini-stroke in January—it most likely wasn’t. But with that health scare, and with their knowledge of how these things go as a man ages, they strongly recommended I have the procedure done now. That was back in mid-February. The surgery will be, most likely, the week of July 22.
Why so long a wait? Well, it isn’t an emergency. My heart is strong. Tests show my arteries are not blocked (“widely patent” is medical speak for a clear artery, and tests show almost all mine are “widely patent”). I have a good ejection fraction, a measure of the squeezing function of the heart. I have no symptoms of heart disease—no angina (thought I did have some last year) and no shortness of breath. Everything is fine except for my genetically defective valve, which is stenotic, calcifies, and perhaps ossified, petrified, and mummified.
With the wonders of modern medicine, most of these valve replacements, maybe 80 percent of them, are done through the groin. That requires one or two days in the hospital and a seven-to-ten-day recovery period. Back in February they thought mine would be done through-the-groin, and they began running the tests needed to know for sure. Well, it turns out that my two-cusp wonder is quite elongated rather than circular. The two manufacturers of the through-the-groin valves cannot guarantee that their valves will fit and lodge properly, with no leakage or looseness.
Hence, they gotta do mine the old-fashioned way. Put me to sleep; switch my breathing to a heart-lung machine; stop my heart; open my chest to expose the heart; detach the aorta; cut out the bad valve; possibly reshape the valve opening; insert and stabilize the new valve; sew me back up; restart the heart; and wake me up. I’ll then have a week or maybe ten days in the hospital, followed by two months of at home recovery. Easy-peasy. Seems almost ridiculous seeing as I have no symptoms. But the tests don’t lie.
One good thing about doing this via open heart is that in ten years, when my replacement valve wears out and I need another valve, presumably I’ll be less strong to withstand another surgery but they will be able to do it through the groin. To every cloud there is a silver lining, even if you have to wait ten years to see it.
But, with every surgery there are risks. What is my heart doesn’t want to re-start when it’s over? What if some calcium decides to slough off during the surgery? What if the anesthesia is at the wrong level? What if my otherwise strong heart is damaged during the surgery?
I’ll have some posts written ahead of time for when I’m in the hospital. Meanwhile, if you’re interested in this kind of condition, you can find quite a few reputable websites that discuss it.
Elijah enjoyed this as I read it to him. I enjoyed reading it again. Found a few typos I’ll have to fix.
I’m always reading something: a book, a magazine, whatever holds my interest. At least once a month I try to make a dent in my magazine pile, and I’ll take a couple of days to read three or four magazines.
But books are my main reading. A print book is nice, but I’m not against e-books. In fact, at some times I prefer an e-book. On a trip, or with a large book, having an e-book on my phone is definitely easier to read.
I’m usually working on two or three books at a time, which I read in different places, with one of those books being the main one. I’ll have another one I’m beginning to read to see if I’ll like it. I’m also reading a book more for research than for entertainment. And, I’ll have an e-book or two at the ready on my phone, to read in odd moments, such as in a doctor’s waiting room.
But as of late, I’ve had difficulty finding a book that I like. Here’s what I read or started lately, and a little about them.
C.S. Lewis’s The Allegory of Love. I just started it, and within five pages I found it very difficult to understand. This is one of Lewis’s scholarly works, and it reads like one. I suppose I’ll find a way to read it, but with great difficulty.
Jack London’s White Fang. I brought this book on our recent trip to Texas, planning to read it to our youngest grandson, Elijah. I had never read it. But I got through only one chapter, and Elijah wasn’t interested. I also found it a bit difficult. So I set that aside. for the rest of the trip, and plan to read it on my own sometime in the next year.
I just finished two similar books: XIII Men, and The Master’s Men. They were among the books that belonged to my mother-in-law that we recently liberated from a box or shelf in the basement. The books were similar. The first read almost as creative non-fiction and the second as a Bible study. Two different treatments of the same subject, the apostles appointed by Jesus. They probably aren’t worth reviewing on the blog, though I’m thinking about it.
My own book, There’s No Such Thing As Time Travel. Elijah wanted me to read it to him, so I did. He hadn’t read it before, and he seemed to like it.
The second book in the series, The Key To Time Travel. Elijah and I got about 2/3rds of the way through it when our child/pet-watching gig was up.
The Letters ofCicero. Readers of the blog will know I love reading letter collections. I’ve had this one as an e-book for a long time, and I’ve been slowly reading it in those odd moments. I’m around 33 percent through with it. I’ve found it uninteresting, and have laid it aside for now. I plan on making a presentation of this letter collection at the September meeting of the NW Arkansas Letter Writers Society.
None of these books have been what I would call great reads. They aren’t the sort of book, for example, that I would take to the hospital for a week-long stay. I needed something else.
A few days ago, knowing I needed a book or two to take to the hospital, I started scanning my bookshelves. On a bookshelf tucked away in the basement storeroom are my literature and poetry books. I found several that looked promising. One was The Grasmere and Alfoxden Journals of Dorothy Wordsworth. I picked this up new many years ago, but put it on the shelf. Now, I pulled it out and began reading it.
A journal is kind of like a letter collection. The passages are short. The book is easily picked up at any point for a short read or, if time and interest allow, a longer read. So this looks like a good read for the days in the hospital. This will not be enough reading material, however. I have a few things on my phone, but will be looking for one more book.
How about you? What does your reading pile/list look like?
The changing of the month, once again. Time to see how I did on last months goals and to set some new goals for July, First, the progress.
Blog twice a week on Mondays and Fridays. That’s starting to sound monotonous. Done, with a little help of scheduling posts ahead of time.
Make good progress on A Walk Through Holy Weeks, Vol 2: Temple Teaching. I’ll have to see if time will materialize for writing. If I had to set a goal, I’d like to be at least 70 percent done. No, did not make this goal. I was unable to write much on our trip to Texas—too much turmoil and too many responsibilities. I did get some done, and the books stands at around 60 percent complete. I had a problem with the structure of the book and took a couple of days working through the outline and changing the order of the chapters.
Continue with my scanning/formatting/e-filing of old poetry critiques project. This task is bigger than I thought, and will take a lot of perseverance to get it done. I think it will take three more months to finish. I got some of this done before we left for Texas, but none after we got back, so I would have to say I didn’t meet this goal. Not sure I’m even at the point where I can say I’m X% done with it
Begin to put together my book of our letters from Saudi Arabia. The letters are transcribed and saved, the travel diary is only a day or two away from full transcription. I’d like to have the book mostly done by mid-July (for reasons that will be revealed in a future post). That means I need to be 2/3 done by the end of June. All transcribing is done, including a little proofreading. The letters and travel diary is assembled in a book file. I’m ready to write the introduction and commentary. I would have to say I slightly ahead of where I’d hoped to be at month’s end.
As with last month, I want to spend some time reading for the next Documenting America book, but it will have to be different material than I read in May. I have a book picked out to take with me and read on our next trip. May also get some in before that. No, I didn’t do any of this. My reading took me in different directions. Plus, I don’t really know which volume I’m going to do next.
So as you can see, it was not a great month for making progress.
Now, some July goals.
Blog twice a week on Mondays and Fridays. That may not be possible due to some surgery scheduled in July, but I’ll make it a goal and hope to write and schedule some posts ahead of time.
Make as much progress as possible on Volume 2 of A Walk Through Holy Week. It would be nice to have the first draft done before July 22.
Attend one writing group meeting. The two other meetings are cancelled due to venue problems during the summer.
Complete the Introduction and occasional commentary of the Saudi letters book.
Possibly complete and publish a short story I’ve been working on, the next in the Danny Tompkins series.
That’s all. Maybe this is achievable, maybe not. I’ll see if circumstances allow me to post progress and goals when July rolls into August.
