Wednesday Wanderings

Today was a day of differences. The morning was occupied by a visit to Wells Fargo Mortgage Company. We've decided to refinance our home to take advantage of the lower mortgage rates which should save us some money. It went pretty well, although it's amazing how much paper you have to waste for something like this and this wasn't even the closing where I'm sure there will be another few inches of paper.

I remember when we bought our first house back in the mid-70's. If I recall correctly we signed an application form to get the mortgage and then signed maybe three documents at closing. Now, you sign all kinds of disclosure forms just to apply for the refinancing.

Oh well, I guess that's the world we live in - doesn't make it right - just is.

This afternoon, I got to go to Presbyterian Hospital for a pre-operative testing. Yes, I'm having an operation next Thursday, March 19. I had a double hernia operation years ago and the best guess is that scar tissue from that operation is gumming up some of my plumbing so it needs to be fixed. That's about as much detail as I'm prepared to go into and probably more than you wanted.

Compared to my good friend Max Wade's heart operation this should be walk in the park, but I'm told that I'll be in a fair amount of pain for several days. In fact, I have to be prone for 72 hours after the operation. Betty gets to be the good nurse of the East for a couple of weeks, but she'll have her hands full. I'm a terrible patient and a big baby so she'll get a good work out.

I was at the hospital for almost two hours just to get some blood taken and an EKG, but, again, I guess that's the world we live in.

Tomorrow I go to the surgeon to talk about the operation. I'm taking Betty with me as she always asks much better questions than I do.

So much for today.

Today is March 11 and if today is your Birthday then you share your day with: Thora Birch (actress, "American Beauty"), LeToya Luckett (singer, Destiny's Child), Douglas Adams (author, "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"), Bobby McFerrin (jazz composer), Sam Donaldson (ABC newsman), Rupert Murdoch (owner of man newspapers and TV channels), Ralph Abernathy (civil rights leader), and Lawrence Welk (bandleader - "And a one...").

On this day in 537 the Goths lay siege to Rome. In 1867 the volcano Mauna Loa erupted in Hawaii. In 1930 Babe Ruth signed a two-year contract with the New York Yankees for a sum of $80,000. In 1942 as Japanese forces continued to advance in the Pacific during World War Two, General Douglas MacArthur left the Philippines for Australia, vowing: "I shall return." In 1953 the first woman doctor, F. M. Adams, was commissioned in the regular Army. And in 1969 Levi starts to sell bell-bottomed jeans - and the world was never the same.