JAN-A-7
MY BIRTHDAY,
CELEBRATED AS A NATIONAL
--TAKE THE
DAY OFF ON ME!
OR, WAS IT ROBERT E. LEE?
It has been cold sleety and
blustery; in a word, winter. This is the
time of year that we can celebrate illustrious leaders of the past by
commemorating their birthdays. Such was
the reason for our great Civil War General Robert E. Lee, who was born on January
19, and is buried in his own college, Washington and Lee in
And, then, there is I.
BIRTHDAY COMMEMORATIONS
I have not yet been struck down, and I do not believe they have hung a plaque over the Bassinette in Butterworth Hospital (now Spectrum, Downtown) in Grand Rapids, Michigan, but I share the front half events of the date January 19 with each of these other two folks who worked a fair amount around these parts, in a common birthday. Because it is a national holiday, and the US Post Office shares in this day off, I am not sure of anyone else commemorating this event either, and probably will not be aware of any efforts anyone made to remember until after the event. That is true not only for another day’s delay in the mail, but also a resounding crash that knocked down my desk top computer as an “update” of the Windows program was being installed to make it faster and more convenient. Right! This means that for a period of one week, at minimum, and probably the busiest week when I need it most, the computer is down, since I am supposed to field the requests sent to me during my last week’s absence in Cumberland and then make all the rearrangements for an extensive trip coming up just two weeks from today, all of this without mail or email. So, if I seem like I am not acknowledging your efforts to wish me a “Happy 19th” –I am not! This goes especially for those who have never bothered when both mail and email were up and running, so considers this time an excuse that covers the past missed messages!
LIFE COMMEMORATION
What these new plans being incubated in a radio vacuum may entail as I am struggling to pull all the complex pieces together for an extensive surgical safari in just two weeks away, you may read about in Jan-B-2, the chapter that begins the second series in January, before the Feb-A-series begins on February 1, and includes medical missions to Somaliland (look that up on your African Atlas) and Ethiopian highlands, in a rapidly arranged excursion to the Horn of Africa.
This is a fast-breaking development
for several reasons: one involves my painful waiting game in a real telephone
vacuum as I had hoped for a healing interval. I cannot be licking wounds that
are not my own, and I must consider what I can do with this precious part of
life which is not “on hold,” and should be put to use for others’ benefit. So, I have assembled a team and surgical supplies,
and seven tickets on Air
LEAVING THE FINISHING HOUSE BEHIND IN
COLD FEBRUARY AS I LEAVE FOR EQUATORIAL COASTAL AND HIGHLAND
If the daily decisions of the accelerating completion of the Derwood interior work were a reason not to go, the right time might be to go now. The book on “Surgery and Healing in the Developing World” has been sat on by the publisher for three and a half years, and I have abruptly got a hurry-up signal that it should be edited in its galley proofs during February. But, I have paid my dues in a continuous wait, and this seems to be an irretrievable opportunity to benefit multiple students of mine, and several institutions and lots of patients in three venues in Somaliland and two in Ethiopia, so there is never a really good time to go, but now should be as good as ever. Besides, I might need my own healing time out, and that works best by concentrating on people who have far worse problems to be addressed.
I met with the tree service people whom I had written explaining that I simply could not give them more than my annual take home income to pay the second of their unitemized bills for more than the price of a good luxury car. They came over to tell me about how expensive crane rentals were—which was not very compelling, since I paid for that service on the last check for more than $18,000, and no cranes or their rental were involved in this partial “clean-up.” But, they had very high labor costs, with swarms of their employees involved in picking up the wood from the woods. Well, by my calculations, if there were ten illegal aliens involved, and they got the supreme salary I expect—near the minimum wage—which is why a number of them from Guatemala have come to ask me for free medical care—then they have been working day and night for well over a month to support a lump sum of $20,500 for which I have been additionally billed. After the negotiation, they went home and discussed it, and have decided they cannot come down as much as ten percent on the inflated bills that have been submitted more recently after cashing the previous check for full billing value. It now turns out that included in my previous payment were the fees for the removal of the neighbors’ tree, which not only fell on their lawn, but originated on their lot—so, they suggest I go negotiate with them to reimburse me for the bills they were eager that I be liable for in the first place. Right! The house and its remodeling have been an investment fortune, but the unexpected hit of the forestry work is an uninsured disaster.
When I asked if I could add the leaf guards on the new gutters that were going in soon, I was told that the surcharge for the screens over the already paid-for gutters would be an additional $3,950. Enough is enough. No one probably needs leaf guards as much as someone who lives in the middle of a deep forest, but I have been ripped enough by unconscionable overcharges and I decline this one, saying that I will get an aftermarket addition to the new gutters once they are installed (whereas the reasonable time to do that would be before they have been put up) but not at a 300% mark-up. To date, no one has come to me with a change order that will result in a refund of overpayment!
So, whatever more of these “additional charges” may be pending for decision, I am going to be making life-changing decisions on another continent soon, and the newly scheduled walk-through, furniture move-in and major moves for upstairs finishing can await my return.
MY BIRTHDAY—A FULL DAY WITH JOE AND FAMILY
AND A TOUR OF DERWOOD, BEFORE A CHINESE
CARRYOUT DINNER
I got up early on my birthday, and picked up Joe who also had the day off, complements of birthdays, and we went for a cold hour-long run, through the somewhat icy trails and mainly street running. Joe and I did, by his request, a “fartlek” (a Swedish term for child’s speed play) with a twenty minute run, and then twenty minutes of alternating flat out speed and a minute of jogging pace, repeated ten times for the twenty middle minutes, then eased off to our usual distance run pace for a final twenty minutes. This brought us back home wet and cold, but with a better workout than just picking up a number of miles we could go as our usual eight or twelve. “After all,” Joe says, “We have already established that you can run all day long!” He is using speed work to prepare for the ParaOlympics.
With the kids home from school, and
Maria’s ballet lessons canceled, and Betty still home on bereavement leave
following her Mother’s funeral on Monday, I suggested what they had been eager
to do since the day last July when we all got together and had the “final
picnic” in the woods and at the house before the “demo” began. The day after our evening picnic on the
picnic table in front of the house, the wrecking crews came in and demolished
the interior. It was at the end of our
picnic that I emptied the refrigerator and freezer into boxes to go home with
them, and Lee Dutton spent the night as we prepared to go the following day to
First, Joe had a dental appointment, so I took him there and waited as Betty packed the kids back home. When the dental hygiene cleaning was over, we went back to his house, and packed up two cars and drove up to Derwood. The kids and Joe and Betty could go around with me, Joe listening in each room to see how the dimensions had changed, with the biggest change being in the Great Room. The interior trim carpenters were busy working there, and had hung the doors and their frames in the walk-in closet and master bathroom, and hall closets upstairs. They are busily distributing the interior doors and window trim. As I had the kids swing on the tire swing, a neighbor Lois came by to run with her “rescued” spayed Golden Retriever (I’m jealous) and I went back to tour her through also. There will be a big Open House party for those in the neighborhood to let them know about the completion of the project and the last of the big trucks coming to tear up the drive and the woods.
I drove back to Bethesda and suggested to Joe and Betty that we might invite Diane Downing who was at work, and I could go off with Joe and pick up a phoned in order for multiple Chinese dinners, and enjoy them at home. This we did in a celebration of my birthday in which the kids sang for me and we had a good feast. I also saw and heard a dubbed film on video,” It’s a Wonderful Life” the Jimmy Stewart Christmas classic in “Audible Action” for the visually impaired. In the intervals between dialogs, a narrator describes what is happening on the screen, telling the movements of actors and scenes. It is a neat way to make these classics accessible.
I received calls from each of the
folk who had been with me at
I got calls and best wishes from a
number of people, but not from one, whom I had expected. It had been a special time of year the last
four years when visits were arranged around my birthday to celebrate in a
special way with the most special person in my life. These included a trip to the
This day marks a very long and painful month
from Christmas Day’s invited and then declined call, in which she reports that
she is enjoying her very beneficial time alone to reflect and heal. This report is according to a one sentence
email apologizing for being so uncommunicative, but suggesting we talk after my
return from
So, I am another year older. At least I have made a very interesting day for Joe and family, pushing each of the kids on my tire swing and putting in some time to help in the transition for Betty from her mother’s funeral on Monday. And, I am making myself as busy as I can trying to arrange some help to a destitute African wannabe nation. So, I hope I may still have some usefulness in this precious irretrievable life moment that should not be wasted in simply waiting nor to be focused on pain of any personal losses.
Happy Birthday to me.
THE BIRTHDAY
HIGH POINT:
A CHORUS OF
“HAPPY BIRTHDAY” SUNG
BY DUALING
TWINS PERFORMERS!
I had signed off this note on the
somber paragraph above, and had field it away, uncertain if it should be sent,
when a very wonderful thing happened subsequently. I got a phone call, and a very coherent solo
came through with Devin singing lead, and
They each talked with me, which was
not as happening an event on the previous call I had made since they were
overdue for putting to bed, but we surely got them in prime time tonight! So, if all is not necessarily right with the
world, this singing service by phone—probably the first recognizable telephone
conversation with either of the boys and they were both very much in the act
tonight—has certainly corrected a good deal of my perception of it! It is indeed a Happier Birthday, even (or,
especially,) with a little extension of this event!