Point Made

Someone on Facebook asked their readers what was the most memorable book they read when they were young. I answered with little hesitance with "The Black Stallion" series by Walter Farley. I No doubt Farley was influenced by the worldwide success of Anna Sewels, "Black Beauty". She, unfortunately, passed away five months after she published.  At the age of ten, Farley's tales of his protagonist, Black Beauty's adventures of hardship and triumph influenced me in ways that persist even today. His stories took place when horses were the major form of transportation. Black Beauty and his protege were used and abused in many roles from racing to cart pulling, in city and country and in peace and war. By reading these books, I acquired a love for horses that has stayed with me. No horse could have lived through all of the situations Farly put his through. But I like so many others, loved that horse and couldn't wait until the next book came ou...

I was admitted to The Recovery Inn on October 27th. I was allowed to go home on December 6th. During that period I experienced the finest care one could hope for. The professional staff of nurses and assitents were outstanding. The food, from a varied menu, was excellent. The rehab treatments from both physical and occupational therapy were rigorous but helpful. In other words, if you need to go to rehab post operation, this is the place you want to end up. It was pure luck I got admitted. On the day I was to be released from the hospital there happened to be an opening at The Recovery Inn. This facility services a group of orthopedic doctors who own the hospital and the rehab unit. Many of their patients are replacement knee and hip procedures. Normally patients are in rehab for about three days. With only twelve rooms in the rehab unit, their census goes up and down at a rapid pace. At one point, for one night only, I was the only patient in...

Some of you may be wondering why you you haven’t received my weekly blog post. A funny thing happened to me on my way through life. On a follow up appointment with my orthopedic doctor, I got blindsided big time. I was experiencing some pain in my left knee and the lower leg was swollen. He took one look at my leg, ran off, then returned with a needle that looked like a super soaker and proceeded to draw off what looked like a half gallon of fluid from my knee. A negative wag of his head followed by a few clucks propelled me into the hospital that evening and surgery the next day. I had a form of staph infection in my leg. To fight and prevent spreading, I needed to have the artificial knee replacement, installed in 2013, removed, a “spacer” inplanted, and submit to rounds and rounds of interviense antibiotic treatments. After six weeks of this treatment they will check to see that i’m clear of the bug. There will be a twro week suspension of antibiotics. If I still test clear of the...

I know I'm moved into the castle on the hill because not only have I waved at my neighbors, which they returned by using all of their fingers, but I know the school crossing guard, Dennis. Dennis is a ten-year veteran of the Appleton School District crossing guard organization. He volunteered that his wife is also a crossing guard. Dennis also expressed his happiness in that our house was occupied. He was watching it lay empty for the last two years. He knew the lady that occupied the house before. She was taking care of her invalid mother when the bank finally foreclosed on her. Ouch! that kind of hurts.  He was a little surprised when he discovered that I didn't come out of the house to introduce myself to him, but I was actually waiting for the bus. I had an interview downtown for my restaurant column in Appleton Monthly. I've mentioned before in this space my enjoyment in meeting the people who run restaurants in the Fox Valley. Man...

No, not the fitness course at Xperience, my gym of choice. I've now become, after 5 moves in five years, an expert at packing boxes. I thought I was doing well when I worked in Bob Va Asten's Halloween Pop Up store, Spirit . The merchandise we had was on consignment. At the end of the season, we closed down the store which entailed boxing all of the leftover product for shipment back to the consigner. Trust me, we had to be careful how we packed all of the product since we were probably going to get it all back next season. Packing for a personal relocation is not much different. There is a difference in moving across the country as we did when we moved to and then back from Louisiana. First of all, you try to balance the weight of the loads. You do not fill, even a small box, with books.  You wrap (Yes I'm a Wrapper, Watch out Snoop Dog) all breakables with bubble wrap and you secure all boxes with good carton sealing tape, one strip to close the flaps a...

We are not frozen yet, but we got a bite of Jack Frost the other day. You know the days are getting colder when you observe the person waiting for a bus that has a parka on, back to the wind and gloved hands. Confusion could result because walking past him is the high school student in shorts, flip-flops, and a T-shirt. Never judge the weather by what young people wear. They have all of those raging hormones keeping them warm. It felt really cold. How cold was it Oh Great One? It was cold enough to end the invasion of mosquitos. The biggest downside to this was that nobody had anything to complain about until they realized it was cold. It was so cold I had to pull on a jacket when I took the dog out for her tour of the yard. She didn't need to put on her coat of course. Lucy makes me so mad. She never flushes, puts the lid down, or washes her paws. It felt so cold that the day we took the air conditioner out of our bedroom window, Maria put the...

Maria and I had finished our traditional Saturday morning trip to Mary's Restaurant for breakfast and were on our way to look a gas fireplace insert for Maria's new house. It was on this journey we met the nicest lady. I'm glad to say we didn't run into her but sad to say she did run into us. As we approached the intersection of County Road CE and Railroad St in Darboy, the light turned yellow. Maria remarked afterward that she checked the rearview to make sure no one following her was counting on her running the caution. Seeing no one, she stopped. Seconds later, we were hit in the rear. According to the police report, the woman was distracted by devices (phone, GPS). She wasn't aware she was approaching an intersection at an estimated speed of 40 MPH. Upon seeing us, she attempted to avoid the collision by pulling to the left. To little to late, but she did prevent full front on rear contact. Interesting fact, rear-end collisions don't trig...