It's been eight months since my last entry about my focal aware seizures. You might think that would be because I got better. You would be wrong. Actually, in some ways I am better. The focal aware seizures continue to diminish in frequency and severity. But now, we are in the early days of a … Continue reading Down the Healthcare Rabbit Hole: Part Five

There was a Facebook thing going around a while ago where people were "challenged" to post for seven straight days the cover of a book they have loved, with no commentary, just the cover. I was challenged by Thomas A. Ollendorff. I have found the process of going back through my book lists and identifying … Continue reading Reading and Loving It

Looking back, a lot has happened in a very short time. That is very weird because months have passed since the events I described in the last entry in this absurdist drama. And it seems like a lifetime. But in May after the last blow up from the Keppra, I asked Dr. Chile to send … Continue reading Down the Healthcare Rabbit Hole: Part 4, The Vanderbilt Era

April 7, 2019, was the one-year anniversary of my trip to the emergency room with vertigo and strange hallucinatory visions. The previous two parts of this saga are on this site. Now I am one year and four months into this nightmare and most days (90 percent) I still have one, rarely more, of what … Continue reading Down the Healthcare Rabbit Hole: Part 3

Last year, 2018, was a difficult one for the reasons laid out in the previous two posts. One aspect of my life that was affected was the ability to just lie in bed and read for hours, though that would have been more wholesome than obsessing on puzzles and other mindless occupations. However, here is … Continue reading Dibby Hill Awards 2019

What follows is a series of events that clearly shows the disintegration of our healthcare system. In my lifetime I have gone from having one of my best friends' father come to my bedside with his stethoscope to a series of bumbling interactions with healthcare providers who barely know you and care even less. Why … Continue reading A Trip Down the Healthcare Rabbit Hole: Part I

Foolishly perhaps, nine years ago Jeff and I decided to plant bamboo along the west side of our house that faces the windows of a triplex next door, at most 10 feet away. The precious little things grew quickly and screened beautifully. Now however? And in back? For perspective these are about ten feet higher … Continue reading Wrestling Bamboo

April 4, 2018 I have not posted in more than a year. It's partly WordPress. Partly some breakdown in mind. An identifiable breakdown in body leading to a knee replacement in October 2017. Now it's 2018, April 4. Martin Luther King was shot in Memphis on this day in 1968. It is also the date … Continue reading Driving My Stake in the Earth

Since I retired in July 2015, I have been kind of at a loss to say what it is I'm doing.  I am a freelance writer and a novelist, but neither of those provide me with any concrete justification for my existence, especially the latter. My reviews for Chapter 16 are the sole exception. People … Continue reading Protest as a Way of Life