Monthly Archives: April 2008

Motorcycles, Eyes, and Birds

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The motorcycle finally was put back together last Saturday. The entire project was to install a 12v accessory plug (aka cigarette lighter). I had to take the front end apart to get to where I could tap into a 12v power supply that was turned on with the ignition switch. It turns out there are several ways the front end can be taken apart, but only one sequence in which it can be re-assembled. I got down to the last item (speaker cover) and found that I had to disassemble everything because that needed to go on as the first thing. As it was, I dropped one of the screws down into the engine area somewhere and it hasn’t resurfaced. But, everything works as expected and the job is done.

Dad came over to see the ophthalmologist today for treatment of his macular degeneration that has changed from “dry” in his left eye to “wet”. During the examination the Dr. took a number of pictures of the eye which were very interesting. It is clear that he has a “wet” problem. In some cases they can use a laser to cauterize the errant blood vessels, but in dad’s case his problem is where a laser would make matters worse. The other treatment is to have medication injected directly into the eyeball (I’m cringing as I write this). The Dr. used a cocktail of anesthetics to deaden the eyeball and the went to the side of the cornea directly into the eyeball to deposit the medication. Dad gets three more of these injections over the next three months. Nina says he didn’t even flinch. Good for him!

bird feeder trayToday I built the tray below the bird feeders. The birds are quite picky about the seeds and toss about half of them to the side. Over the past few years the seeds tossed to the side have ended up on the ground as a feast for all the neighborhood mice. The tray should catch most of the seeds tossed aside and provide another place for the birds to feed. Hopefully this will significantly cut down on the mouse population in our yard.

I’ve also been putting poison down the mouse holes and collecting the dead mice to put them in the garbage for disposal. The poison has yielded a dozen mice (that I’ve found). That means there must be quite a colony underground. It won’t be there long, though. Next week the rototiller goes to work along that whole area and that should be the end of all the mouse holes. They won’t be missed!

Stake Conference

E-Mail Musings

Today is the General Session of Stake Conference. The majority will be a satellite broadcast from Salt Lake, along with some 67 other Stakes in the Region.

The session is available in two buildings here in our Pocatello Stake (plus out in Arbon Valley … About 45 minutes south of here). One is at the Stake Center and the other at a chapel close to the house. So I decided to go to the closer building. I was very surprised to find the building quite full!! I ended up sitting on a folding chair in the overflow area. The buillding is full, including the stage. It’s amazing. I should have gone to the Stake Center which looks, on TV, to have seats available in the chapel.

It’s a lovely day today. Nina’s at the prison this morning (as usual). After our respective meetings, we’ll take a drive and see what pictures we might be able to take.

The broadcast from Salt Lake will start in about three minutes. People are still coming in. I’ll never understand being late in the Church. Time to pay attention, I guess.

Prisms and Glasses

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My mother had cataract surgery last month and needed to get her glasses prescription changed. We also take them once a month to the Temple so that mother doesn’t have to drive there. We decided to do this all at once. Her appointment with the eye doctor was on Tuesday, so I drove over to Soda Springs and brought them back here for that. She had her appointment with the eye doctor while I took dad shopping … to the usual places: Harbor Freight, Lowes, and Home Depot.

They spent the night here and Wednesday we drove to Idaho Falls to take them with us to the temple. After that, and some shopping at Sams Club, I drove them back home to Soda Springs, getting back to Pocatello in time for some dinner before going to the Performing Arts Center for the Idaho State Civic Symphony concert.

It was a couple of busy days, for sure. We had a lot of fun. Mother has been seeing double since her surgery and has to drive with one eye closed (!!). The optometrist told her that she would have been seeing double before the surgery, but because she wasn’t able to see through the cataract, she just didn’t know. Her new glasses will have prisms in them to correct her vision:

Q: I have double vision and would like to know how prism in glasses helps to cure this. Also, is there any way I can wear contacts to correct this? — Tina, Florida

A: A prism bends light. Prism in glasses can kind of fool your eyes into thinking they are working together without strain. Prism can also help with double vision by aligning the two images into one. I prescribe a lot of prism for my patients, with excellent results (allaboutvision.com).

The new glasses will come to her in the mail, so she won’t have to come once again to Pocatello with one eye shut….

Wednesday, as promised, was cold and windy. We never-the-less had a good drive to Idaho Falls and an enjoyable session in the Temple. We had lunch in the Temple cafeteria, which has to be one of the best Temple cafeterias in the Church. We did some shopping at Sams Club and came back to Pocatello.

Sometime this fall a Costco will open in Pocatello … a welcome addition to the sparse shopping in town. A couple of days after Costco made their official announcement, Dillards announced that they would be closing their store in the mall here in town, leaving about 75 people without a job. The new Costco will employ more than that, but the store has just started construction and won’t be open for several more months. We’ve had a Sams Club card for more than ten years but won’t be renewing it next time. Costco will now have our business.

Wednesday evening we went to the Idaho State Civic Symphony concert at the Performing Arts Center. The program included Four Norwegian Dances by Edward Grieg, Piano Concerto #1 by Chopin, and Beethovan’s Symphony #1. The guest artist for the piano concerto was Peter Frankl and his capability at the keyboard was definitely amazing. The orchestra sounded wonderful. It was definitely their best performance of the year. Next year features a new Music Director and we’ve bought our season tickets.

That brings me to today … a cold, windy, wet day. We’ve had occasional rain, occasional snow, lots of wind, and a high of about 44°. I’ve gotten caught up on most things, except for 331 unread emails. I’ve still got four bolts and one fairing piece to finish up on the motorcycle. Maybe tomorrow?

Springtime in Pocatello

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When I was growing up in Soda Springs, Idaho, we subscribed to the Salt Lake Tribune newspaper (which is no longer available in Soda Springs). On the front page of the second section of the newspaper, columnist Dan Valentine wrote a daily column on things happening in and around Utah. Sometime each spring he would have a column with the same heading: “Spring is sprung, the grass is ‘riz. I wonder where the flowers is?” (I’ve written about this before….)

The significant characteristic of Springtime in the high desert area of Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming is how fast the weather changes from one day to the next. We’re in one of those weather patterns right now. It was 65° and sunny on Friday, 50° and very windy on Saturday, and today was 40° with rain and snow. The cold, wet weather will continue through most of the coming week.

Since riding a motorcycle isn’t fun when the weather is cold and wet, I tore into the front of my motorcycle on Saturday to install a 12v accessory plug. In order to do so I had to take most of the fairing off as well as the headlight. Behind all of that are the electrical wires that I’ll tap into to provide power to the accessory plug. I’m now ready to wire in the accessory plug and put everything back together.

I ran out of time on Saturday to finish the job. This is the time of year for Ward Conferences in our Stake here in Pocatello and the next set of Ward Conferences was today for the three wards meeting in the Grant Building. The ward conference starts with a session at the Idaho Falls Temple on Saturday afternoon. Nina and I needed to leave at 3:30 p.m. to drive up to Idaho Falls.

We had dinner at the Temple, then dressed in our white clothing for the session, which was nearly full. We left the Temple about 8:30 p.m. and got home last night, very tired, about 9:30 p.m. We enjoyed the session and it’s good to be in the Temple with people we know.

During this year’s set of Ward Conferences, my assignment is to conduct the Sunday School portion of the conference and give a short history of temples and temple ordinances in the Church. Today I had this assignment at 10 a.m., noon, and 2 p.m., one time for each of the three wards meeting in the building. That meant being in Church from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. and taking a very short break from 1:00 – 1:45 p.m. for lunch. It’s a long, but very enjoyable day.

It’s also a day soon coming to an end. Driving home from the Temple last night, I drank a bottle of water. Not a good idea that late at night. I was up twice during the night because of the water! The general rule at my age is nothing to drink after 7 p.m. to give my system enough time to move the water out before going to bed. I shall sleep well tonight, for sure … dreaming (possibly, as I never remember my dreams) of a nice, warm spring day riding the motorcycle across the countryside….

Catching Up

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Ashlyn Stops By For A Couple Of days

Ashlyn finished her school break and flew back out west to begin her next term at BYU-Idaho in Rexburg. She stopped here for a couple of days to “chill out” (her words) before diving into the hectic life of a coed living with a bunch of girls. Today we drove her to Rexburg, had lunch with her (where this picture was taken), dropped her off, and came back home. She plans to now go straight through until she graduates in July, 2009.

BYU-Idaho has a kind of a tri-mester system where a third of the students are on their break each trimester and the other two-thirds are in classes. Ashlyn’s term starts in mid-April and goes through mid-December. We had a fun visit while she was here and she got plenty of sleep (I think that’s the definition of “chill”). Notice the new hair do … she’s trying out being blond for a while.

Butchered English Grammar?

While we were in Rexburg we had lunch at a sandwich kind of an eatery. While paying the bill I noticed this sign next to the cash register saying, “No bills higher than $20 thank you!” My first thought was, “How high is a twenty dollar bill? Would that height be measured in inches, feet, or miles?” That got me thinking about language skills and whether or not this wording was correct. I certainly would have said, “… bills larger than $20…” and put a period between “20” and “Thank”. I spent about an hour trying to find online a reference to substantiate the way I would have worded the sign. I found some oblique references, but nothing really substantial. I’ll probably give up the search and declare my wording as being the correct English grammar!

Rider Up!

Last Saturday was our first really nice Spring day. After doing some work outside in the yard, I pulled the motorcycle out of the garage, gave it a good washing, and then took a short hour-and-a-half ride. Very enjoyable, but when I got ready for bed, I had some muscles complaining. I definitely need to do some more riding to get back in shape…. (big grin). Today the weather went back to winter with huge winds and a high temperature of 43 degrees. Today was also the day to take the bike in for service … it’s annual spring cleaning. Naturally, the day would be cold and windy for the ride over and this afternoon for the ride back. I’m definitely a fair-weather rider!

All of these pictures are using a new WordPress Blog feature for pictures. If you click on the picture, a new window / tab will open with the picture and some words specifically about the picture. Click on that picture to see a full-sized picture.

Winter Keeps Hanging In There

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more snowAs we went to bed last night Nina told me that she thought it was snowing. When I went out to get the newspaper this morning, this is the scene that greeted me. A light covering of snow on the grass, clear walks, driveway, and road, and bright, sunny, clear skies. By 10 a.m. the temperatures were closing in on 45° and the high today was 52°. The new snow was all gone by noon. There’s still a little bit of snow left in the back yard up against the south fence where the sun doesn’t quite shine at this time of the year. In another few weeks the sun will be far enough north that the whole yard will get sun during some part of the day.

The problem is, of course, no yard work is getting done. I think that’ll be my task tomorrow morning. The front yard needs to be completely raked and I’ve only got about a third of it finished. It’s supposed to get up to 60° — so a ride on the motorcycle may also be in the agenda. We’ll see. NIna’s niece Ashlyn will be here sometime tomorrow and will stay through the weekend. We’ll take her up to Rexburg next Tuesday for her to start her next term at college. It’ll be fun to have her here for a few days while she reacclimatizes to our cool, dry air after being in Ohio for the past four months. Spring must be close if the Spring Term is starting at BYU-Idaho!

Another Tooth Reamed … What’s Next?

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I got one of those forwarded … forwarded … forwarded emails the other day that actually has some interesting quotes in it. The list was titled “Literary Taunts … A Graceful Taunt Is Worth A Thousand Insults”. Two that I found particularly delicious were:

“He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary.” (William Faulkner about Ernest Hemingway)

To which Hemingway replied:

“Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words?”

Today most people just use profanity rather than really thinking about what could be said that would put new light on the subject. It’s so easy to just be foul-mouthed, I guess.

tooth pillowI’ve been having problems with a tooth (#31) in my lower right jaw. I went in to see the dentist who determined that a cavity needed to be filled. The only problem was, this tooth was the back anchor of a bridge spanning a gap from a tooth that was taken out some thirty-six years ago. Getting to the cavity was going to be tricky.

The difficult part turned out to be something different than getting to the cavity. The dentist couldn’t get the tooth numb! In most people’s mouth, the nerve comes down the back of the jaw and enters a channel under the jaw. In my case, it must follow a different route because lots of anesthetic later, almost everything is numb except my teeth. Too much anesthetic makes me sick, raises my blood pressure, and gives me shaky hands. It took the dentist two tries on two different days to finally get the tooth numb enough to try to fill the cavity. When he was done, he told me he had gotten quite close to the nerve and if the tooth gave me any more problems, it would need a root canal.

That is indeed what happened. The tooth didn’t get better, but got worse and I had to begin taking ibuprofen kind of like candy. The next trip to the dentist had a familiar outcome … the tongue got numb. The lip got numb. The cheek got numb. The side of my nose got numb. But the tooth did not get numb. So my dentist referred me to a specialist to do the job.

The Sutton family practically owns the dentistry business in Pocatello. I think every son in that family is some kind of a dentist. The family who’s yard abuts ours on the west is a Sutton and he is in dental practice with his father. His brother was the Endodontist to whom I was referred to have the root canal done.

He had the same problem … the tooth wouldn’t get numb. He told me I had a couple of choices. He could bring an anesthesiologist in at some future date and put me completely to sleep or, because the tooth was somewhat numb, he could open it up down to the nerve and put the anesthetic directly on the nerve. When he actually got to the nerve, I would feel it in some dramatic fashion. Further, when he then put the anesthetic on the nerve, for a second or so I would definitely feel it. I told him that I’d take the second option. I wanted this done!

It proceeded as he told me it would. He got to the nerve, scraped me off the ceiling (symbolically, of course), put the anesthetic on the tooth, put me back in the chair a second time, and from then on all went smoothly with no more injections and no more pain. The job got finished.

While all of this was going on I noticed something else interesting. The endodontist and his assistant worked together very smoothly. As he needed each instrument, she had it ready. He didn’t have to ask. He didn’t have to remind her about anything. She was right in step with him the entire way. When I remarked on that, she said they have been working together for seven years and that’s why things went so smoothly and quickly.

There are many, many companies that haven’t learned this lesson. Working together as a team over a longer period of time makes a very real difference. In the case of my root canal, my guess is that their teamwork allows them to see as many as 25% more patients in a year than other practices. Once he had my tooth ready to be worked on, we were done in less than a half-hour. In his business, time is money and a good team makes much more money that it costs.

So what’s next in my mouth? I’m back to my regular dentist on April 29th for him to put the permanent filling in for the root canal. Then he has to inspect the bridge to make sure it doesn’t have to be replaced after the endodontist drilled through the crown. I expect several more visits this year. It’s a never ending saga, I’m afraid.