From our first born . . .

Posting in cooperation with:

At my recent annual physical with my primary care physician, I had a few agenda items to bring up.  One of these items was my painful bunions.  They have annoyed me for years, but I kept quiet.  Okay, I’ll admit it . . . I feared the possible surgery.  But suffering overcame trepidation and I talked frankly about it with my doctor.

He said his office would refer me to a podiatrist.  Sure enough, just a couple of hours later the phone rang.  It was the podiatrist’s office assistant.  We set up a time for the next week, which was last week.  I wrote the time on the calendar and thanked her.

Appointment day came and Sylvia went with me.  I walked in and at the desk was greeted with, “I expected you an hour and a half ago.”  “Why did you tell me this time then” was my response.  She made a call and assured me that everything would work out.  I thanked her and handed her the forms I had finished at home.  I had another to do there, which was quickly done.

Another assistant took me to a room and did an interview with me while typing answers into her computer.  Then we went to another room, where she took X-rays of my feet.  Then she left me in the first room to wait with Sylvia for the podiatrist.

Not my foot. Mine are worse–much worse.

A short while later, an energetic man with slightly less hair than me (though it was considerably darker than mine) walked briskly into the examining room.  He flashed a big grin, stuck out his hand and said, “Hi, I’m Dave.”

“Ahh, I’m Chuck.”  What else could I say?

The informality was a first.  I might have been tempted to take him less seriously if I hadn’t checked out his credentials online before the visit.  He is for real.  I’ve got to love that.  Right?

More talk and careful examination of the feet and a review of the X-rays.  He answered all of my questions.  Before I left, he gave me an steroid injection in each bunion.  For hours they seemed not to help, but the next few days were marked by blessed relief from the chronic pain.

No decisions last week, we’ll talk about what’s next when I see him Wednesday morning.  I’m looking forward to that visit.

But I do have a problem. 🙁   When Sylvia and I returned home, I checked the calendar.  The office assist was right.  I was an hour and a half late.  What should I do?  Should I tell the assistant that she was right and I was wrong?  Or do I pretend that something else happened?  What would you do?

After Christmas activities had passed, the time had arrived to replace Mr Coffee.  I had been growing increasingly less satisfied with him.  I wrote earlier how I detested the taste of paper filter that he deposited in my cup.  :down:

I had signed up for coffee tasting and brewing classes last fall. The tasting (cupping) class taught me how to evaluate coffee and identify flavors and subtleties in various coffees.

In brewing class, I discovered that rinsing the paper filter helped remove that terrible taste from the cup.  In the class we watched our teacher brew coffee using various methods and then evaluated the final product.

The vacuum pot looked like a high-school science project.  The results were just about that good.  We were told that this could produce the finest or the worst results and you could never be 100% sure which you’d end up with.

Then we tried a couple of pour-over methods.  They weren’t bad, but failed to impress.

Some were enamored of the French Press.  I wasn’t.

Then we tried the AeroPress.  Aha!  That produced excellent results.  Cleanup would be relatively easy.  The only catch?  How can you consistently heat water to 197 F?  All of these methods rely on that.

The answer is a cordless electric kettle with a temperature control.  I bought this:

I use it for my coffee and Sylvia uses it for her tea.  How handy that Sylvia has a birthday this week.  Happy birthday honey! :luv:   Thanks for letting me use it too. 😉

The rest of the equipment (AeroPress) looks like this:

I don’t use the paper filters.  A stainless steel filter (purchased separately) keeps the grounds out of the brew.  I only have used grounds to dispose of.  These I keep to use on the garden.  The grounds help protect root crops from bugs.  Neat, huh?

I’ll not bother you with the details, but this takes no longer (may be shorter) than brewing with Mr Coffee.  There is less waste and the coffee is incredibly better! :awe:

WARNING: Use of this method can you into a coffee snob.  Therefore, exercise discretion before purchasing anything like this. 😉

An Invitation

Won’t you consider joining me in participating in I Did It each Monday?  Please do and then register your participation with the Linky on the blog.  Have a great week.

Briana and Jake

When we had our family Christmas celebration, Briana (granddaughter) brought her friend Jake to meet us.  He’s a great guy and we were glad to meet him and talk with him.

How would you welcome a fine fellow like that into your family?  Wouldn’t you want to do something the memorable?

My thoughts went back about 55 years or so ago when another couple was in a similar process of getting to know one another better.  I was invited to Sunday dinner at Sylvia’s house.  It was the first time to sit at their family table and I was trying hard to make the best impression possible on everyone there.  Weren’t they trying to put me under the microscope to see what kind of a guy Sylvia had brought home?  I was nervous and uptight.  Then Sylvia’s dad passed me the butter dish.  In the process he greased my thumb from nail to wrist.  Once the shock had worn off, I realized what it was all about.  I had been accepted and it was okay to relax, laugh and enjoy being there with that family.  Wasn’t that a wonderful thing?

The question then became how to do something like that for Jake.  Then the opportunity came.  Briana was answering Sylvia’s questions about nursing school when she observed that it was not at all easy.  That’s when I said, “At least it’s a good field that will open opportunities for you.  It’s useful not like being a psych major.”

Jake said, “You know I’m a psych major.”

I replied, “Yes, I know.”

My question now is how long do you think it will take to realize he’d just been had?  Does he already know?  Will he ever figure it out?

Aye that’s the question.  The last 24 hours have been busy with no time for preparing a blog post.  Sylvia has returned home after her stay with her dad.  Color me happy. :dance:

I slid through my annual physical, but will do a couple of follow-up visits with specialists.  Nothing to get excited about, but maybe some help with pain issues.

I’m having some computer issues just now, so I’m going away.  I’ll try to come back tomorrow.  I hope to see you then.

Another year has come around and Secondary Rds is celebrating 4 years of blogging.  So much has happened during that time.  Change seems to be the theme that describes the experience for me.

Do you remember Entrecard?  How about Adgitize?  They only exist in memory today.

Unfortunately, new friends came and then went away.  Fortunately, some have stayed.  These are very special.  Perhaps we are the survivors? 😀

I wish you were here so I could offer you a piece of cake and a cup of coffee to help celebrate this bogaversary.  Okay we have an assortment of teas for those of you that think that coffee tastes like dirt.  You know that it is only right that coffee tastes like dirt.  After all it was ground this morning. :ha:

Thanks for visiting today.  Do come back now, okay?

Sylvia joins me in wishing you and yours a happy, healthy and prosperous 2013.

The house is quiet today.  Sylvia is with her father for a few days.  Next week, he’ll be flying to Florida to spend a couple of months with Sylvia’s youngest sister.  Until then someone will be with him each day.

Maybe I’ll watch some movies . . .  Let’s see what would be good for the New Year celebration?  At Christmas, I watched Die Hard andDie Harder, which are set in that time period.  What about New Year?  Any ideas or suggestions for me?

I’m going to try to be more active this year.  You may recall I tried Zumba and was two weeks recovering from a 45-minute workout.  I think I’ll ease into this.  Step one: Reach for coffee cup.  Two: Lift.  Three: Bring to lips.  Four: Tip.  Five: Drink.  Six: Straighten cup.  Seven: Return cup to previous position.  Eight: Relax.  Repeat this several times.  Yes, that will work for starters. 😉