October | 2016 | Bill's Views on Most Everything

Monthly Archives: October 2016

New York City

Posted on October 11, 2016 by Bill Leave a comment

Carol and I are back from New York. Carol’s daughter lives in a nice high rise apartment on the West Side and has a high powered job in marketing. Carol went early and spent a few days with her before she went to the west coast and I showed up.

Central Park

The apartment looks across Central Park to the East Side and points east. I could have spent the whole time looking at the view. The cliche says visit, but don’t live there. With the apartment, I could live there. Go down to the street and Central Park and the Lincoln Center are right there, along with shopping for everything you need within a couple of blocks. Manhattan is a wonderful place with more attractions you could see in a lifetime.

The people are from everywhere on the planet and are actually nice for the most part. Except for the Gray Line people who are beyond sick of tourists. They lie or don’t know. Or both. Everyone else is nice and willing to help confused tourists trying to get around on the subway.

A Courtyard in the Cloisters

Our first excursion was up to the north end of the island to The Cloisters, a branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Built in the 1930’s by John D. Rockefeller Jr, it is a big stone edifice with several courtyard gardens surrounded by cloisters supported by columns from ancient churches and abbeys in Europe. Carol looked at the gardens and I looked at the architecture and stonework.

The many rooms on several levels are filled with medieval European art. There are paintings, tapestries, sculpture, and architectural features. The themes are consistent. The New Testament, focusing on Jesus and Mary. There are lots of saints and martyrs as well, but it is mostly the Holy Family. It is easy for me to go into overload in museums, but the cloistered gardens offered relief.

Brooklyn Bridge

At our age, one thing per day is enough, so next day we took the Gray Line tour of Brooklyn. I wanted to see Brooklyn, having read so much about the borough. Those double decker bus tours are a good way to get an overview of an area. Don’t use Gray Line, however. Take the Big Red Bus. We did most of the tour, had lunch at Junior’s, a Brooklyn tradition, and took the subway back to Manhattan rather than catching the next bus. We went to Brooklyn, but I wasn’t satisfied. Renting a car and using the guidebook and maps is what I would do next time.

The Hayden Planetarium at the Museum of Natural History

Next day was the Museum of Natural History, one of those places you could spend weeks exploring. As Neil DeGrasse Tyson fans, we saw a planetarium presentation on dark matter, going back to the Big Bang, narrated by Tyson. We walked through a number of sections, but focused on only one. Yes, you guessed it, Geology. I don’t know if I learned anything new, but a lot of things came together for me.

Our last excursion was to the High Line. Carol is an avid gardener, and the High Line is a mile long garden above the streets. It was built as an elevated railroad serving the Meatpacking District. The rail cars could be unloaded into buildings backing up to the rail line, and gravity aided the Meatpacking process. Abandoned, it was derelict for a number of years until it was redeveloped as an elevated garden.

The High Line

There are good views of the Hudson River and the city. The gardens are amazing, a hugely diverse number of plantings. It’s fun to enjoy the greenery above the noise of the city. Big problem, though. As we walked along, my eyes an nose started running and my eyes hurt. An instant allergy attack. Staff members said which grass, but I was so distressed I don’t remember the name. Here in Colorado it is Rabbit Brush doing me in every fall.

We flew United into LaGuardia and left from Newark. They sure cram a lot of people onto those planes. I had virtually no legroom. Oh, for the days when Frontier was a good airline.

We will return, there is still lots to do in New York.

Posted in Cloisters, High Line, New York, Stories, West Side

It’s Not Easy Being Green

Posted on October 11, 2016 by Bill Leave a comment

Kermit

“It’s not easy being green”. I like to use that line with people who dye their hair green. They don’t seem to mind, as they are extroverted enough to do such a thing and be seen in public. I particularly like the phrase because I have a green pickup and my totem animal is the frog. I even have a couple of stuffed frogs people have given me. I have been kissed, but, alas, never turned into a prince. I do tend to hop and croak, but draw the line at eating flies.

I have found that at my age, I can initiate conversations with strangers I wouldn’t have dared to do when I was younger. People just figure I am a silly old man. Right on. I am bald and usually wear a hat. I walk up to African-American people, men and women, with dreadlocks and tell them I have wanted

Whoopi With Dreadlocks

dreadlocks for years. Then I take my hat off. I always get a laugh and a couple of comments. It’s my way of connecting with black people. It is also a way of showing respect for how they look in a humorous way. I have had a lot of fun with it. I also have a bit of a Rastafarian streak.

Another joke I use with strangers is when I see someone with a college shirt on. With the Denver University people I ask them why Colorado College grads keep a copy of their diploma on the dash of their car. It’s so they can park in the handicapped slot. Here in Colorado, it’s often CU and Nebraska. By the way, that N on their helmets stands for nowledge.

I used the joke with Duke-North Carolina, Auburn-Alabama, Notre Dame-Penn State, Denver Metro-CU Denver, USC-UCLA, and sadly after Saturday’s game, Washington-Oregon. The combinations are endless. I have had the most fun with Texas Tech-Texas A&M. I told the joke to a couple, he with a Texas Tech T-shirt. She screamed, “I’m an Aggie!”. He couldn’t stop laughing. I used Purdue with a guy wearing an Indiana shirt. “My dad’s a Purdue grad and an engineer”. He promised to use it on his dad.

Then there are the Gingers. I tell them they should rule the world. Gingers are a downtrodden minority no one is really aware of. The pure redheads are usually able to effectively protect themselves, given their temperament. Of course many of them are Irish, which opens up a whole new area.

Lincoln Tunnel

I also have my New York joke, useful with anyone from a four-state region around the city. “Do you know why the suicide rate is so high in Manhattan?” “The light at the end of the tunnel is Jersey.” Even Jersey natives laugh at that one. Now, New Jersey truly is The Garden State, except for those ugly industrial flats across the river from Manhattan. When in the Army, I was stationed at Fort Monmouth on the Jersey shore. This child of the Colorado Plateau was overwhelmed by the lushness of that area. I had never seen so much green.

So, now you know how I make a fool of myself in public. Try it, it’s much better than expressing panic about the election.

Posted in Green, Hot Pot, My Story, Stories

The Hurt, The Itch, and The Joke

Posted on October 6, 2016 by Bill 2 comments

It’s raining today, which means it is time for miscellany. I always have a few short ideas rattling around in my head, and these days writing about them is the best way to get them out of there. First, the itch.

For years now, if it doesn’t hurt, it itches. I have arthritis in several places and it bothers me from time to time. Currently it is my left knee and my left wrist. The knee hurts and is weak for the first few steps when I get out of the chair. I get shots in the knee from time to time, usually good for six months or so. I am left handed and the wrist is intermittently a real pain, usually when gardening. I notice that my left hand is weaker than the other one (I won’t say right.) as I am the official opener and fixer around the house, this is not good.

Itch

The itch is the biggie. I itch every morning until the Allegra kicks in, and every evening until the Benadryl kicks in. I don’t know what the allergen is, and it is year around. The worst spots are on my back over my kidneys. Right now, the inside of my forearm and calf are itching. The itch doesn’t drive me nuts, I was already there.

I tried the allergy specialist with no luck. The only things that help are the antihistamines. There is a possibility the allergen is one of the medications I take. Next time I see my doctor I will talk to her about doing an allergy elimination protocol. I won’t do it myself, I take that stuff for a reason. I don’t want to have a stroke while tracking the source of the itch.

I didn’t itch when I was younger. I even felt a bit smug when others complained about their allergies. Maybe the whole thing is karma.

Now, the joke, my favorite of all time. I see a person wearing a college t-shirt or sweatshirt and ask them if they know why graduates of the school’s big rival keep a copy of their diploma on the dash of their car. They do it so they can park in the handicapped spot. Here in Denver it is usually Colorado-Nebraska or Denver University-Colorado College. Nebraska, of course, is the most appropriate. That N on their football player’s helmets stands for nowledge. Most Coloradoans know that joke, but it is fun to see the reaction when in Nebraska.

I have used it for schools all over the country. Michigan-Ohio State, Purdue-Indiana, Notre Dame-Penn State, Duke-North Carolina, Auburn-Alabama, USC-UCLA, and especially Texas-Texas A&M, as Aggies are right in there with Nebraska. I have told this to dozens of people, and only one didn’t like the joke.

Posted in Arthritis, Health Issues, Itch, My Story, Pain, Stories, Writing

Skin Cancer

Posted on October 3, 2016 by Bill Leave a comment

Squamous Cell Skin Cancer

When I noticed a little place on my cheek not healing, I made the appointment, but I thought, no big deal. When I got home from the dermatologist’s and took the band-aid off, it suddenly became a big deal. She gave me the choice of having a some stitches or just letting it heal with a scar. The stitches meant another trip to have them out, so I said leave it alone. I have lots of zit scars, so another scar was, again, no big deal.

I have a hole in my face. It is almost the size of a dime and is a deep sucker. Seeing the crater was a shock. I saw all the scars on my coworker’s face and didn’t make much of them, but they were on him, not me. This is a big deal.

My reaction to having cancer, even though it is relatively less dangerous, is colored by my experience with cancer in my circle of people. My mother died of mis-diagnosed cancer and took a long time to die. Other family members have had cancer. My sister-in-law has just recovered from stage four abdominal cancer with the help of chemo and medical marijuana. It’s pretty well documented that marijuana kills cancer cells.

I have lost some high school classmates to cancer. I was best man for one of them, and another died just a few weeks ago. The scar on my psyche is from my mother’s death. I was young, she was just in her late forties, and was an ordeal filled with denial.

In recent years trips to the dermatologist are regular, every six months or year, depending on those scaly patches on my face. My own denial is never taking enough precautions in the sun. I grew up when we didn’t really know better, and sunburn was an annual event. I drove an open sports car in the mountains, making my face red. I always had sunscreen around, but hardly ever put it on. Most of my hats cover my bald head and shade my eyes, but the rest of my face is out there. No longer.

Sunscreen and hats with a wide brim are the new cool. Well, not really, I have never viewed myself as cool. One of my rationales for not wearing good hats is because I am always losing the damn things. I take it off and walk away. Also, what am I supposed to do in winter? The sun shines here and reflects off snow, but a wide brim hat? Do I have to start wearing Stetsons?

Here I am rambling on about hats. The reality is, I’m scared. I know squamous cell cancer properly treated is seldom dangerous, but I am still dealing with my mother’s cancer fifty years later, and this little event has triggered it once more. One of my maxims is to not worry about things I have no control over. The question is, can I have control over this? I have a lot of letting go to do.

Posted in Aging, Cancer, Fear, Health Issues, Skin Cancer, Stories