The Old Prof

My wife, afflicted with anterograde amnesia and increasingly subject to strange whims ( oh I know. those of you who know her will argue that she always was) has decided that she wants to eat all meals out.

I, noticing that she seems to order three meals every time and run a bill of about 20 to 25 dollars per outing, have begun cooking in again.

Last week it was French Onion Soup. I cheated and used canned consume this time. Then I made beef stew. I threw the last of that out today. Cooking for two is different than cooking for nine.

This week I made Pork chops baked in french Onion soup with a little dijon mustard mixed in, and poured over them. Seemed to be acceptable.

Today took chicken tenders and flattened and tenderized them, browned them in butter, spread marinated artichoke hearts over them, roughly chopped.

Laid swiss cheese over that.

baked in 350 degree oven for 30 min till tender (and it was!)

served to yo momma (And you know who yo momma is, you kids who read this)

and she said,” and I quote, ” why in the world would you serve something that looks like its wrapped in a dirty dish cloth?” un quote.

Still smiling. i pretty much expected it. At least she took it out of the front room and the recliner where i served it and put the whole thing in the sink. i was pretty pleased with that.

I used to cook a lot. I found that if the thing cooked had an unacceptable name it wouldn’t be eaten. I began calling everything I cooked “Ick Soup”. Might as well get it over with quick

Next time I think I will use more marinated artichoke heart. Nice taste. i wonder who figured that out.

Posted by Old Prof at 06:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Wed 20 August 2008

He is pretty doped up but awake and aware.

The nurse said “His Numbers all all good” His doctor seemed pleased.

They seemed to have the impression that I was his brother, which is why I guess they were so forthcoming.

Sue says they may have him up and walking tomorrow. Pretty remarkable considering how out of it he is today. they have that little transparent oxygen/hydration? mask on him and told him to work on his breathing. that would have been good for a five minute skit is he had been feeling well. The fact that his monitor says he is on dopeamine would be a good take off place for merriment too, but another time another place. When i was taking pictures to document the heavily sedated lad, and laughingly asked him to smile he actually opened his eyes and gave me a grin.

8 pm sue says they have now moved him from intensive care into some more like pretty careful care. Ok, i cant remember what “scientific” term she used but thats about it. i think it started with … what? an R? rigorous; or perhaps a P. Pretty concentrated but not intensive?

Posted by Old Prof at 12:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

they have moved the operation up to noon tuesday. probably a four and half hour process.

tuesday

Triple By-Pass. He is in I/C. Everything looks good

Posted by Old Prof at 09:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

august 15, about 2:20PM

the list

Steve and I have worked down our list and enjoyed the hell out of it. We didn’t quite make it all. Sky diving, floating on the propeller driven cushion of air and riding horseback fast are still hanging out there. September is the month. Yesterday Steve called to say he is on the edge of having another heart attack and there isn’t much they can do if they can do anything. He has had the stents. He goes in soon for a catheter to see just what is going on. Its been a good run. … As it is I look back and revel in “aerial combat” with the Top Dog Program, Arizona Dude Ranching, Canyoneering in Costa Rica, Horseback riding in the rain and mist over the continental…

Ah hell! Sue just now called .

Steve is now in the hospital. with a heart attack. It doesn’t look good. She was so overcome when she called me that she said, “Oh… sob…Steve is ….[long, long silence while I thought, “Oh no. He has died!] And then the news that he was having a heart attack. I am going over to Kaiser now. 2:27 PM

5:48 P.M. Just got back from Kaiser. Yes he was having a heart attack but is ok for the moment. he looks good but isn’’t. Scotty and I gave him a blessing. Ran into Shannon, his daughter, as I was headed in. she said that as she was driving him in he got so short of breath he was sucking on the air conditioner trying to get enough air.

Sat with him for several hours. At one point he made a call to his work to let them know he wouldn’t be in tomorrow. He told the guy he was talking to that they told him that when he was admitted it was just a matter of minutes and it would have been over. He had actually gone in to work today.

Steve will be transported to Kaiser in Sunset [?] for a catheter and perhaps stent(s) or whatever is needed, up to open heart surgery, in the morning. He is in good spirits and his kids have been there. Sue is flying in from Dallas, probably arriving at 8 or 8:30 tonight.

I just got home and can’t find Sandy. {sandy is my wife and as you probably know has anterograde amnesia from a bout of valley fever that the doctors said would kill her] Had tried to call from the hospital and if I could have gotten her I would have stayed till sue got there but when I kept getting a busy signal I decided she had used the phone to call a cab to take her to a restaurant to eat and had not hung it up properly and would probably forget how she got there and be wandering around scared so I left and came home.

The phone was off the hook. Going over to Millies [her favorite restaurant] to see if she went there.

Found her.

Ok, She apparently did take a cab to go out to Millies All American Restaurant and after eating forgot how she got there and when I wasn’t there walked to Steve’s and just sat there confused on the wall by his place. I thought she would and its a good thing because she would otherwise still be there.

Posted by Old Prof at 06:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Danger…. Oil Glut Looms

Los Angeles Times

Sunday, May 16, 1982

Noting:

Oil Glut

the Depressed Real Estate Market

Airline Bankruptcy

I ran across this newspaper piece while cleaning out my office the other day. Notice that in 1982 the:

“Oil Glut, Recession Prove Even California’s Top Firms Are Vulnerable”

The article by Paul Richter says:

“California’s largest industrial companies, which have proven durable in some past recessions, found 1981 a trying year as the U.S. economic slowdown increasingly took hold on the West Coast and world overproduction depressed the states all-important oil industry.” …. “The Times Roster of the state’s 100 largest publicly traded industrial firms shows an abrupt reversal in the fortunes of the states five giant oil companies which stood out from the pack in 1980 with their seam-bursting growth.”

“in addition, the annual roster’s 1981 revenue and income figures for the leading California companies show the effects of a languishing real estate market….”

on the same page the times commented directly on the Real estate problem in an article
titled:

Making Money Work Time Is Ripe for Real Estate Bargain Hunters By Doris A. Byron

“One mans misfortune can be another’s windfall, and the current depressed real estate market is a graphic case in point.”

“With home sales at a near-standstill and the prices of many houses declining, bargain-hunters have their best chance in years to round up real estate at below-market prices.”

“It”s definitely a buyer’s market,” says Alan Crittenden, a real estate industry analyst who publishes the weekly Crittenden Report on real estate trends. “The bargains run the gamut from ordinary tract homes to big ticket office buildings, but the key in most good buys are cash, quickness and tenacity, say the experts.”

….

Eerie if a bit backwards on the oil thing. So do we now have to worry about over correcting and throwing ourselves into a recession by once more getting more oil than we need.

Oh, the final article, number three of three laments the “bankruptcy filing last week “ of Braniff Airways’s which “was generally seen as good news for the nations surviving airlines, which no longer have to contend with the fare-cutting competitor.”

Just odd

Posted by Old Prof at 08:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)