Home again, home again...

Monday was our travel home day, but we spent much of it with John as our plane didn't leave until 5:30. We decided to check out a place described in the book "Weird New Jersey" that wasn't too far away. Out on Pleasant Valley road is a place known as Gravity Hill. We followed the directions in the book, but couldn't find the place where the car would supposedly roll uphill. Apparently the markers have been removed or paved over. We asked a young man working outside at "Gravity Hill Farm" and he tried to guide us, but every place we tried the car simply rolled back down the hill. Nevertheless, it was a mildly entertaining outing.

The flight back was one of the most pleasant I have experienced in a long time, as when I checked in from the house that morning I was able to change our seats to an exit row! It was really nice to be able to enjoy the flight without my knees jammed into the seat back in front of me.

The bulk of the country was hazy, but the sunset from 35,000 feet was pretty.

Make that x 3!

Sunday was the big day. John graciously provided me with a digital projector and portable DVD player for the occasion, and we even went out and bought some wireless amplified speakers so that the sound would be good. His church provided us with an old screen, and so we were set. My wife and I attended the Episcopal service at St. Matthew's in Pennington, and then drove down to Trenton.

The dinner was a lot of fun, and I talked with scads of people (and probable relations!) My presentation went well, and lots of the folks want copies of the DVD. The mayor of Hamilton Square was present, as was a Freeholder (county supervisor) of Mercer County, both of whom have Monteleone roots. There was lots of memorabilia around, including layoff notices from Roebling Steel for some of the former members. The interesting thing about those notices was that there was an actual category for describing the person's nose! Eyes: Brown, Hair: Black, Nose: Roman. I wonder what the other categories would have been...

Chambersburg x 2

That evening we had dinner at the Roman Hall in Trenton. That was probably the last time, as I've been told that it is for sale and almost certainly will not continue to be an Italian restaurant. It is very sad - most of the Italian population has moved out of Chambersburg, which was the Italian neighborhood of Trenton.

The meal was wonderful as always, even if the place was mostly empty.

Saturday morning my wife and I made our way to Hopewell to have breakfast with my cousin Ron and his wife MaryEllen. They are wonderful folks, and they brought us up to date on all the local happenings. We were there a good two hours.

Leaving my wife back at the homestead to rest and get a break from too many relatives, John and I met up with Judy, the granddaughter of the sister of my great-uncle John's wife. (That confusing enough for you?) I have just recently encountered Judy on the internet, and we have exchanged bits of genealogical information. It was nice to meet her in real life.

We took it easy for the rest of the afternoon, and I spent most of the time talking with John. For dinner, the four of us drove back down to Chambersburg for a couple of real tomato pies at DeLorenzo's on Hudson. The pizzas were wonderful - just can't get anything like it in California.

New Jersey, here we come!

Just got back from our whirlwind expedition to New Jersey for the 100th anniversary of the Monteleone Society. I was the featured speaker and presented a slideshow on DVD of my photos from the trip to Monteleone last year. I even made the Trenton Times! The author of the story was seated next to me. Nice young woman with some sort of atrophying condition that confines her to an electric wheelchair.

After taking the redeye from San Jose to Newark, we took our traditional route south along I-78, I-287 and SR-202 to Flemington, where we had our first pork roll and egg sandwich of the trip at the Shaker Cafe in Flemington. Then on down route 31 to Pennington, where we stayed with our friends John and Cary. After chatting the morning away, we drove up the Delaware River to Stockton, and had a most delightful lunch at Colligan's in the historic Stockton Inn. For those of you who remember the songs of Rodgers and Hart, that is the "small hotel with a wishing well."

Oh Beautiful!

The concert with Camerata went very well this past weekend. It consisted entirely of Americana, from the silly to sublime, and the audiences were absolutely delighted. My setting of "Idumea" was very well receieved, and several people told me it was there favorite work on the program.

My youngest daughter had just finished her second year at Berkeley, and she stayed the weekend with us, assisting at all three concerts. My eldest daughter came down for a few minutes on Friday afternoon with her fiance, mostly to be able to see my mother. She had flown out from Ohio to be with him for his graduation from Hastings on Sunday, and they had several business items to attend to with regard to their upcoming nuptials in June. Everything seems to be coming together for that.

Our oldest son flew in on Sunday, and he'll be with us for the week. He just recently returned from several months in Germany. Our younger son will graduate from San Francisco State this weekend. Unfortunately, we cannot go because we already had another commitment out of state by the time he told us the date!

Busy times...

Rehearsing

Our final concert of the season with the Camerata Singers is this weekend. The program consists of all American music, and is called "Oh Beautiful For Spacious Skies." We are singing a variety of things, many in a comic vein. This will be the closest to a pop concert we have ever been. The exciting part for me is that our leader graciously agreed to include an arrangement I made of the Sacred Harp tune "Idumea," and it is sounding very good. I'll have a recording of it by the end of the weekend, and that will help in my endeavors to get it published.

We've also been doing some rehearsing with the madrigal group for a house concert in June. In addition to traditional madrigal repertoire, we are going to perform a short cantata by Michael Praetorius on the chorale "Herr Christ der Einig Gottes Sohn." Stay tuned for further developments...

Recovery

My mother has been on the upswing all week. In fact, she's up almost 20 pounds from her low about a month ago! She is in excellent spirits, and has been walking downtown every day. The visiting nurses really hate that, as they are concerned she is going to fall. No stopping her, though, and I think she would not be doing as well if she felt confined to the apartment.

The hospice nurse came today to do an evaluation. She is doing so well that she does not qualify for hospice services at this time. They are putting her in an intermediate category and maintaining a file on her. We are looking forward to working with hospice, as they will come to the house to address most of her needs.

Gobsmacked...

Last Wednesday was not a good day. My volume study to map out my prostate for the seed implantation was scheduled for 8:30 AM, so I showed up at the doctor's office at about twenty after. The door was locked, but there was activity inside, so I figured their practice was to not open the door early. My wife took the day off, so we just chatted outside - it was a lovely morning. 8:35 rolled around, and noone had opened the door yet. I tried it just to make sure, but it was still locked. Five more minutes, and nothing. I jiggled it very strongly so that it would be heard, and the receptionist came to the door.

Turns out it was the wrong doctor! I was supposed to be at the hospital with the radiation oncologist, not in the office with the urologist. What a putz! They graciously called for me to let the doctor know I was on the way, and we zoomed up to the hospital, which luckily isn't far. The doctor was still willing to see me, so I put on my robe, put my feet up in the stirrups and thought of the empire, trying to calm myself down.

When the test was done, the doctor quipped that that had just been the trial run, and that the real test would start shortly with the big probe! I meekly said "OK" while my wife started laughing.

Unfortunately, the test showed that my prostate is very slightly masked by the pubic bone, which means it would be very difficult to correctly place the implants. Consequently, the doctor told me I would need to start hormone therapy to shrink the prostate a bit so that the bone would no longer be in the way. I asked if there would be any permanent effects, and he replied "not usually."

As I thought about this during the course of the day, I started to get more and more upset. After all, hormone therapy (and its associated impotence and loss of libido) was something I had been trying to avoid. Perhaps I wanted to reconsider my course of treatment.

The appointment for the injection was the next morning, but I didn't want anything to happen without talking to the urologist first. I had not been thinking clearly enough the day before, and had come up with several questions in the meantime. The doctor graciously took me into his office, and addressed all my concerns. With a sense of relief, I got my shot of anti-testosterone. I get another one next month, and a repeat volume study in July.

Much ado...

Yesterday, the visiting nurse came late in the day, and called me over because my mom appeared to have a raging infection at the site of her IV from the stay at the hospital last week. The thermometer indicated that she had a fever of 103.4! She insisted I rush her to the emergency room. I questioned this, because it was pretty late and I didn't think she looked that bad. Nope, we had to go. It was 5 PM when we got there, and she had no fever at all. (Turns out the nurse's thermometer was broken!) Still, she had a new bump at the IV site, so they wanted to see her. After two hours in the waiting room, my wife and I couldn't take it anymore and left to get something to eat.

When we returned, she was in one of the ER rooms. They confirmed there was no fever, but wanted to run all sorts of tests, including an ultrasound. By this point it was 9 PM, and we knew it would still be hours before anything would happen. They agreed to keep her overnight, and we came home and got some sleep.

I went back this morning, and the ultrasound still hadn't been done, and she hadn't been given anything to eat yet. After talking to the doctor, I left to do some errands because it was clear this was going to be a lengthy process. Upon my return, she was undergoing the ultrasound. Her breakfast was there at her bed - it came just before they took her away, so all she got was one bite of banana. After the test, they called for someone to bring her back to her room. They put her in the hall. After half an hour and still noone had come, the tech took pity on her and brought her back. Of course, by then, all of her food was cold.

I talked with her regular doctor, who had come by when she was undergoing her test, and it was agreed that she should come home. She did have an infection, and had had an antibiotic drip, but he felt it could be controlled with pills and coming into his office for shots.

All this on a day I have to fast because I undergo my volume study on the prostate tomorrow!

Going with the flow...

On the prostate cancer front, I underwent testing this week to make sure there were no obstructions in my urinary flow. Everything was just fine, so I will be going in next week to have the measurements taken of the prostate so that a map of where to place the radioactive beads can be developed. That is done in Seattle, and once the results are back I can undergo the procedure. I don't know the time line on that, yet.

At least it is moving forward!

...but the service is terrible!

My mom has been having a real problem with swelling in her legs and arms. So much so that they have been leaking serum. It got so bad we had to put her in the hospital for a few days. Turns out she has also been having blood in the stool, and so when we got there she was quite anemic. They did a transfusion, and tried to do a colonoscopy and a GI endoscopy. She has a couple of small ulcers in the stomach, but nothing particularly significant. Unfortunately, she has a narrowing in her lower colon which prevents them from going very deep. As a result, they still don't know what is causing the internal bleeding. It seems to come and go, but they want to monitor her blood count from here on out.

She was in the new "West" wing of the hospital, and it was just gorgeous. There was faux wood paneling everywhere, the highest tech in hospital beds, a flat screen TV, and a view of the forest right outside her window. She liked that aspect of it, but complained about the "service." Basically, she wanted them to bring things for her that she wasn't allowed to have, and the hospital didn't want her walking around without assistance, so she got frustrated. We reminded her that it wasn't a hotel.

After four days, she was doing much better and was able to come home. She has finally agreed to allow helpers to come in, and they are coming every day now. Her legs are still swollen, so she hasn't been able to take her walks as she couldn't get her shoes on. This has been very frustrating for her, and she appears to be suffering a bit from depression. The doctor has prescribed medication for her in this regard, and I am hopeful it will help. She has been talking about wanting to "give up" and wanting to die. This is a bit distressing for us, as you can imagine. Still, she is going with the program. It is not in her nature to give up, despite being tired of living within her limitations.

Another blow...

Don't get hurt at work in California! That's the message from the state supreme court in Brodie v. WCAB, issued today. It is just the latest in a line of decisions that in effect say that the legislative intent of the poorly drafted, strong armed legislation put forth by the incredibly ignorant Gov. Schwarzenegger was to prevent insurance companies for having to pay the benefits they are charging premiums to provide.

The effects have been devastating to the average person who has had the misfortune to sustain any sort of serious injury while helping his employer make money.

Among the changes: if the injury is really serious, and you have to be off work for more than two years - too bad. Go collect social security. If you can get it. Otherwise it's time to apply for welfare. And the governor calls himself a Republican. I don't understand why shifting an insured interest in the private sector to the public dole is considered to be in line with conservative ideals. At a time when most folks are talking about trying to reduce entitlements, the governor with one stroke of his pen has put a tremendous increase on the taxpayers burden.

Next - when you get hurt, don't even think about trying to go to your own doctor. You must go to the company doctor. But the insurance company does not have to do what its own doctor recommends. A new system of oversight was instituted that has resulted in the delay of medical treatment to most people in the system. Remember - this is a denial of treatment recommended by the insurance company's doctor, not someone who might be biased in favor of the worker. If a doctor goes against the desires of the claims examiner, that doctor gets dropped from the list of approved doctors.

If you are hurt to the degree where you have a work restriction that prevents you from doing your job - oh well. Vocational rehabilitation is a thing of the past, and the new permanent disability system does not take work restrictions into consideration. The employer can fire someone that the doctor says cannot return to work. Sometimes that person has a permanent disability rating of 0 under the governor's system. They've lost their livelihood with no compensation, and it is perfectly legal. There's nothing a judge can do.

If you have something in your past that in any way contributes to your level of disability, even if it was dormant and was not disabling in any way until the injury lit it up, your award is discounted. Prior pregnancies have been held to make women more susceptible to abdominal injuries, and in some cases the compensation has been reduced by significantly more than 50%.

This new decision says that if you had a prior injury that rated 15% permanent disability, and now your new injury takes you up to a rating of 50% permanent disability you are not entitled to receive as much money combining the awards from the two injuries as you would if you simply had one injury at 50%. It is a windfall to the insurance company. Understand, I am not talking about double payments - I am talking about combining the money received from the original injury with the money the insurance company has to pay for the new injury. Because of a graduated system of payment, the worker ends up with a lot less for having had two injuries than he or she would have had if there had only been one.

Buy stock in insurance companies that write workers' compensation policies in California. They are rolling in exorbitant profits while people lose their homes.

Lasagne!

Easter dinner was a treat this year, with our friends Kitty and Bob joining my mom and the three of us at our place. I made my signature lasagne, complemented by roast rack of lamb, risotto milanese and a few other side dishes. I prepare lasagne from an algorithm rather than a strict recipe. In a nutshell, (well, actually in a deep lasagne pan...) the idea is to use a different sauce, a different cheese and a different meat on each layer. For example, on the bottom there was ground beef, fontina cheese and an Alfredo sauce. Next up was Italian sausage, Gruyere cheese and pesto. I also incorporated sun dried tomatoes on this level. Continuing the ascent, a layer of sopresatta salami sliced thin with a fennel/red wine red sauce, asiago cheese and chopped miniature plum tomatoes. The whole thing was topped off with parmesan and more red sauce. It was delicious!

Afterwards, we took our youngest back to Berkeley, and then we decided to avoid the two hour drive home by staying overnight in San Francisco. We had reservations at the 15 room European style Hotel Boheme on Columbus, right in the heart of North Beach. It was a delightful room, with a bay window that opened and looked down on the sidewalk cafes of that part of the city. It was like being in Italy. We sat a our small table and sipped our complementary sherry as we watched the world go by.

As we were still full from our big afternoon repast, we simply had some appetizers at Ristorante Figaro, just down stairs. I was delighted to learn they had some Aperol, the aperetivo we had discovered in Venice but had been unable to find in the states. We sipped at our drinks and just enjoyed the ambience as we consumed our carpaccio and various cheeses. Our table was just inside the large open windows, so we got the advantages of sitting outside but the good fortune of being out of the wind.

It was a wonderful way to unwind from our very hectic week.

We survived!

Holy week seems a distant memory now, and it appears we did survive it! We attended a "symbolic" seder at St. Mary's on Thursday. Being symbolic, it wasn't a real dinner, and even though we had been advised of that many times, a good number of people hadn't eaten ahead of time. There was just enough food on the plate to get the juices flowing, and we ended up hungrier at the end of it than we had been when we sat down, despite having had our dinner. Funny how those pavlovian responses work...

The dinner segued directly into the Maundy Thursday service. We sang Tchaikovsky's "Crown of Roses" a cappella. It was a bit of a surprise, as we had never actually practiced it without accompaniment. Still, it went reasonably well, and the service was lovely. No washing of the feet at our church, but they do strip the altar and wash it at the end of the service.

On Friday we picked up my daughter from Berkeley and then participated in the Tenebrae service on Good Friday at Bethlehem Lutheran. We just barely made it because of the traffic, and did not have a chance to eat. We picked up a pizza on the way, and managed to scarf it down between rehearsal and the service. The choir offering was a lovely little anthem called "And No Bird Sang." I have to say I was taken aback when the pastor commented on the line "his blood be on us and on our children" from Matthew. He opined that it was one of the most "honest" moments in the Bible when the Jews admitted their responsibility for killing Jesus. That is certainly not my theology, and I don't believe it is the theology of any of the mainline Christian churches. It ruined the service for me.

Saturday was the Easter Vigil at St. Mary's. I read the Abraham/Isaac lesson, which is always a fun one. The service was very long, as we performed a musical tableau under the Creation reading, and there was a baptism as well. The service was nice, but 2 hours is a lot, especially with everything else that happens that week.

For Easter morning we were at Bethlehem. The choir sang 4 pieces, starting the whole service with a choral acclamation from Handel's "Israel in Egypt" ("Sing ye to the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously!) to which I wrote an appropriate contrafactum, followed directly by the "Gloria Patri" from the Magnificat Quinti Toni by Hieronymus Praetorius.

We also sang a choral version of "Jesus Christ is Risen Today" and the anthem "Christ is now arisen" which is set to the tune Personent Hodie. My daughter played flute, and we had a clarinet and a piccolo trumpet as well. The only downside was an organ cipher which occasionally intruded into the silences, but it was very festive and the offerings were well received.