As most who know me, know that I spent a great chunk of my life around medicine--allopathic medicine--you know the allopaths--they have M.D. after their name. Chances are, your family doctor is an allopath, although he/she may be an osteopathic doctor--a D.O. Bot of these groups have always considered D.C.s (Doctor of Chbirpractic) to be little more than snake oil salesmen who supposedly could make all things better by doing "spinal adjustments". By process of osmosis, I pretty much felt the same way--that is until this week.
For the last seven years, I have suffered from severe lower back pain, numbness of most of my right foot and "drop foot" involving my right foot. All of this came about from a herniated disc in my lower back. The pain has waxed and waned over the years but has gotten progressively worse in the past few months. Not only have I suffered but others around me have also because all of this has made me extremely grumpy and a whole lot more cantankerous than I usually am.
A week or so ago, I read an advertisement in our local fish wrap about a chiropractor who has a new treatment he claimed would solve herniated disc problems without any surgery. This treatment is called Spinal Decompression. He offered a free examination, to include X-rays and a consultation and so I decided to take him up on it. The X-rays revealed that I had a lot of arthritis in my lower (lumbar) spine along with a severe misalignment of all five lumbar vertebrae. It was so severe that even I was able to point all of it out to my wife Carrie. The doctor confirmed what I had told Carrie and recommended a series of 20 treatments, which would include Spinal Decompression, Spinal Adjustments and Electrical Muscle Stimulation (much like TENS Therapy--Transcuntaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation) to relax the muscles surrounding my spine. If all of this sounds like hocus pocus, I gotta tell you that it ain't.
The Spinal Decompression treatments are done by putting you in a harness that is hooked up to a computer controlled traction device that works using tension and relaxation cycles for about 25 minutes. The Spinal Adjustments are just that--he manipulates my spine to put the vertebrae back into their normal anatomical position.
I have had two treaments so far and I have to say, that I can notice a distinct difference. My back is more relaxed, my gait is getting back to normal and I don't have near as much pain. I sincerely believe that if I continue to make as much progress over the next 18 treatments I will regain much of the use of my right leg and foot, the pain will be gone and life will be more normal. These are the things the doctor tells me will happen and it seems to be going that way.
Is this for everyone? I don't know since most medical insurance dies not cover chiropractic treaments. But if you have chronic back pain and you have been told you need surgery to make it all better, I recommend you find a chiropractor who is trained in Spinal Decompression and give it a try or at least talk to him/her.
I will keep you posted.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Some things I believe in
It has been some time since I have written anything here so I suppose that does not make me a very good "blogger", but it is my blog and so I can write when I feel like it. My daughter Kate who lives in Austin, Texas with her great husband Alvin Youngblood and their two super kids, Winona and James sent me a piece that the late John Updike wrote for National Public Radio on things he believed. The webiste for this piece is here:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4600600
I wrote back to Kate and here is what I said:
Dear Katie--
Although I will never be a John Updike, I think I believe in some of the same things he believed in.
I believe in my children--they are a part of me and all those who have gone before me. They are my connection to the future.
I believe in love and the need to be loved.
I believe in miracles because I have seen them.
I believe science and God can co-exist but that one does not explain the other
I believe that this country offers every person the opportunity to succeed--but it takes the will to do so.
I believe people are basically good, but circumstances can make them do terrible things.
I believe that a government of the people has a duty to do for the people what they cannot do for themselves.
I believe that we have a duty to serve others in some way--to share our talents to the betterment of those who do not have those same talents.
I believe that laughter is tonic for the soul.
I believe in planting a tree in whose shade you will never sit.
I believe there is no such place as Hell--but without a belief, your life may end and that is all there will be--that alone would be Hell.
I believe I have rambled far too long.
Much love,
Dad
And so for today, that is what I am thinking about.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4600600
I wrote back to Kate and here is what I said:
Dear Katie--
Although I will never be a John Updike, I think I believe in some of the same things he believed in.
I believe in my children--they are a part of me and all those who have gone before me. They are my connection to the future.
I believe in love and the need to be loved.
I believe in miracles because I have seen them.
I believe science and God can co-exist but that one does not explain the other
I believe that this country offers every person the opportunity to succeed--but it takes the will to do so.
I believe people are basically good, but circumstances can make them do terrible things.
I believe that a government of the people has a duty to do for the people what they cannot do for themselves.
I believe that we have a duty to serve others in some way--to share our talents to the betterment of those who do not have those same talents.
I believe that laughter is tonic for the soul.
I believe in planting a tree in whose shade you will never sit.
I believe there is no such place as Hell--but without a belief, your life may end and that is all there will be--that alone would be Hell.
I believe I have rambled far too long.
Much love,
Dad
And so for today, that is what I am thinking about.
Friday, January 9, 2009
Images--Magical Images
Images—Magical Images
Yesterday, my wife Carrie and I were talking about photography and what has happened with the art of capturing images. The more we talked, the more I thought about all the changes I have seen in the past 75 years.
The desire to capture images is as old as early humans. Most of us are familiar with the cave drawings Lascaux, France. These paintings are about 10,000 years old. Even older drawings have been found in Chauvet Cave, near Vallon-Pont-d'Arc, France. These images may be as much as 32,000 years old. Most of these paintings are large wild animals, such as bison, horses, aurochs, and deer, and tracings of human hands as well as abstract patterns. Drawings of humans are not often found and those that do exist are more cartoon-like than actual depictions of a person. These are our earliest evidence of the human desire to capture images of the things surrounding them.
Photography, as we know it, began with curosity about light and how we could possibly capture it. The Chinese were the first to describe the concept of pinhole cameras which came before the camera obscura. The Chinese philosopher Mozi/Mo-Ti/Mo-Tzu/Mo Jing (470BC-390BC) mentioned upside down images that resulted from light coming through a pinhole. Aristotle wrote about a similar phenomonon, but Ibyn al-Haytham, a 10th-century Arab physicist, astronomer and mathematician wrote about the concept in his Book of Optics in 1021 AD. He also was the inventor of the camera obscura.
The camera obscura is still around today and can be found in many places in the world. Carrie and I have been to the one in Edinburgh, Scotland and enjoyed the view of downtown Edinburgh. These cameras were not designed to permanently capture an image—that was to come later when Joseph Nicéphore Niépce produced the world's first permanent images in 1827. Others, notably Louis Daguerre (the Daguerreotype) and William Fox Talbot improved on the process. Talbot eventually developed a process for making negatives which would allow repeated reproduction of a captured image.
Mathew Brady brought photography to the battlefield during the Civil War. His photographs of war dead shocked Americans as to the reality of war. With the exception of William Henry Harrison, Brady managed to photograph all the presidents from John Quincy Adams to William McKinley. One of his photographs of Abraham Lincoln found its way onto the five dollar bill.
But it was George Eastman, founder of Kodak, who took photography out of the hands of professionals and put it into the hands of everyday Americans. His development of “roll film” did away with the cumbersome process of producing plates to capture images. Inexpensive cameras became available with the introduction of the Brownie camera in 1900. The camera sold for $1.00 and a roll of film was fifteen cents. For many years, Kodak not only sold film, but the price included its development, a set of prints and a new roll of film. My earliest recollections are of these “box” cameras—only one speed with a fixed focus. You had to load and unload the film in a dark room. When all the pictures had been taken, the film was sent off to Kodak.
The next major evolution in photography was the introduction of “instant cameras” that satisfied our craving to see the photographs now—not wait for a week or so before they were available. Edwin Land, founder of Polaroid, developed this camera in 1947. Just over 60 years later, Polaroid stopped producing film. But the push for “instant” photography had its impetus with Land’s invention.
Although Kodak and others toyed with digital photography, commercially available cameras didn’t come along until 1990. And in 1991, Kodak brought out a digital camera that cost an amaxing $13,000. In less than two decades, film cameras have become the photography dinosaurs. Today, digital cameras are ubiquitous and come in all shapes, sizes and colors. Pictures are “instant” and generally can be viewed on a small liquid crystal display (LCD) screen that is an integral part of the camera and may often be used as ther “view finder”. The new “film” is a digital card that can be removed from the camera, plugged into a computer and pictures can be downloaded, edited, printed and sent around the world electronically via the internet. Cameras may also be plugged directly into a computer to download photographs. Instead of storing paper based photographs in books, it is now possible to store them on small digital cards or on mass storage devices that are only slightly larger than a deck of playing cards. These external “hard drives” come in many sizes—measured in “bytes”. A 500 megabyte (that’s 500,000,000 bytes) drive can store approximately 140,000 photographs. An affordable 1 terabyte (1,000,000,000,000 bytes) external hard is available and takes up little more space that that same deck of playing cards. It is hard to imagine how much can be stored on something this size, but a 10 terabyte drive would hold all the printed material now available in the Library of Congress.
Where does it end? I have no idea. I believe that some day we will be able to capture images that left this earth millions of years ago. Theoretically, these images still exist, travelling out from the earth in to the great void of the universe. Of course, this means we will have to be able to move faster than the speed of light, but that may well be possible if we don’t destroy ourselves before then. If this does happen, we finally will be able to see how we evolved, why the dinosaurs died out, where all the great religious leaders, Christ, Buddah, Mohammed lived and taught. We will be able to view all the great philosphers teaching. The great warriors will spring to life and we will witness the death of Julius Caesar. We can watch the great pyramids being built stone by stone and follow Moses and the Jews as they wander in the wilderness. We will follow the Wise men as they follow the star to Bethlehem. We will see Christ throw the money changers out of the temple, his temptations and sufferings in the garden, Judas's betrayal and the nails driven into Christ. The mystery of the resurrections will be answered and Thomas will be seen feeling Christ's wounds.
The best is yet to come.
I could not have done this without the help of Wikipedia and many sites on the internet. The power of all of this is amazing.
Yesterday, my wife Carrie and I were talking about photography and what has happened with the art of capturing images. The more we talked, the more I thought about all the changes I have seen in the past 75 years.
The desire to capture images is as old as early humans. Most of us are familiar with the cave drawings Lascaux, France. These paintings are about 10,000 years old. Even older drawings have been found in Chauvet Cave, near Vallon-Pont-d'Arc, France. These images may be as much as 32,000 years old. Most of these paintings are large wild animals, such as bison, horses, aurochs, and deer, and tracings of human hands as well as abstract patterns. Drawings of humans are not often found and those that do exist are more cartoon-like than actual depictions of a person. These are our earliest evidence of the human desire to capture images of the things surrounding them.
Photography, as we know it, began with curosity about light and how we could possibly capture it. The Chinese were the first to describe the concept of pinhole cameras which came before the camera obscura. The Chinese philosopher Mozi/Mo-Ti/Mo-Tzu/Mo Jing (470BC-390BC) mentioned upside down images that resulted from light coming through a pinhole. Aristotle wrote about a similar phenomonon, but Ibyn al-Haytham, a 10th-century Arab physicist, astronomer and mathematician wrote about the concept in his Book of Optics in 1021 AD. He also was the inventor of the camera obscura.
The camera obscura is still around today and can be found in many places in the world. Carrie and I have been to the one in Edinburgh, Scotland and enjoyed the view of downtown Edinburgh. These cameras were not designed to permanently capture an image—that was to come later when Joseph Nicéphore Niépce produced the world's first permanent images in 1827. Others, notably Louis Daguerre (the Daguerreotype) and William Fox Talbot improved on the process. Talbot eventually developed a process for making negatives which would allow repeated reproduction of a captured image.
Mathew Brady brought photography to the battlefield during the Civil War. His photographs of war dead shocked Americans as to the reality of war. With the exception of William Henry Harrison, Brady managed to photograph all the presidents from John Quincy Adams to William McKinley. One of his photographs of Abraham Lincoln found its way onto the five dollar bill.
But it was George Eastman, founder of Kodak, who took photography out of the hands of professionals and put it into the hands of everyday Americans. His development of “roll film” did away with the cumbersome process of producing plates to capture images. Inexpensive cameras became available with the introduction of the Brownie camera in 1900. The camera sold for $1.00 and a roll of film was fifteen cents. For many years, Kodak not only sold film, but the price included its development, a set of prints and a new roll of film. My earliest recollections are of these “box” cameras—only one speed with a fixed focus. You had to load and unload the film in a dark room. When all the pictures had been taken, the film was sent off to Kodak.
The next major evolution in photography was the introduction of “instant cameras” that satisfied our craving to see the photographs now—not wait for a week or so before they were available. Edwin Land, founder of Polaroid, developed this camera in 1947. Just over 60 years later, Polaroid stopped producing film. But the push for “instant” photography had its impetus with Land’s invention.
Although Kodak and others toyed with digital photography, commercially available cameras didn’t come along until 1990. And in 1991, Kodak brought out a digital camera that cost an amaxing $13,000. In less than two decades, film cameras have become the photography dinosaurs. Today, digital cameras are ubiquitous and come in all shapes, sizes and colors. Pictures are “instant” and generally can be viewed on a small liquid crystal display (LCD) screen that is an integral part of the camera and may often be used as ther “view finder”. The new “film” is a digital card that can be removed from the camera, plugged into a computer and pictures can be downloaded, edited, printed and sent around the world electronically via the internet. Cameras may also be plugged directly into a computer to download photographs. Instead of storing paper based photographs in books, it is now possible to store them on small digital cards or on mass storage devices that are only slightly larger than a deck of playing cards. These external “hard drives” come in many sizes—measured in “bytes”. A 500 megabyte (that’s 500,000,000 bytes) drive can store approximately 140,000 photographs. An affordable 1 terabyte (1,000,000,000,000 bytes) external hard is available and takes up little more space that that same deck of playing cards. It is hard to imagine how much can be stored on something this size, but a 10 terabyte drive would hold all the printed material now available in the Library of Congress.
Where does it end? I have no idea. I believe that some day we will be able to capture images that left this earth millions of years ago. Theoretically, these images still exist, travelling out from the earth in to the great void of the universe. Of course, this means we will have to be able to move faster than the speed of light, but that may well be possible if we don’t destroy ourselves before then. If this does happen, we finally will be able to see how we evolved, why the dinosaurs died out, where all the great religious leaders, Christ, Buddah, Mohammed lived and taught. We will be able to view all the great philosphers teaching. The great warriors will spring to life and we will witness the death of Julius Caesar. We can watch the great pyramids being built stone by stone and follow Moses and the Jews as they wander in the wilderness. We will follow the Wise men as they follow the star to Bethlehem. We will see Christ throw the money changers out of the temple, his temptations and sufferings in the garden, Judas's betrayal and the nails driven into Christ. The mystery of the resurrections will be answered and Thomas will be seen feeling Christ's wounds.
The best is yet to come.
I could not have done this without the help of Wikipedia and many sites on the internet. The power of all of this is amazing.
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
A Tree in the Road
A Tree in the Road
This morning around eight o’clock, my old dog Jake and I went out for our morning “constitutional” which normal consists of a walk along Kahns Road and some of the other streets in our neighborhood. The area we live in was covered in trees just a few years ago and there are still many in the neighborhood. As you might imagine, these trees die off and some are cut down while other simply fall over. The latter was the case this morning. Sometime early this morning or late last night, a dead pine tree fell onto Kahns Road. While it did not completely block the road, it did deposit a lot of debris in the roadway. Apparently several cars had driven past and some had even crushed some of the debris, but none of it had been removed from the roadway. Rather than leave this mess in the road, I picked up a branch and began to sweep the debris to the side of the road. Meanwhile, the rain was pouring down and Jake and I were getting soaked. Perhaps as many as six or eight cars drove by us and through the debris, but not one person stopped to inquire if they could help. Apparently it was easier to ignore the whole thing and let an old man and his dog do the job.
Our neighborhood is not a large one—perhaps a 100 homes in all. Many of us have lived her for 20 or more years and informally know each other although we don’t often socialize. Everyone is busy—many of the families here are two income families and so most of our neighbors are gone during the day and hunker down on the weekends. There are some new folks who moved into homes that were built just five years ago and they don’t seem to be interested in getting to know any of us who have lived here for many years. We don’t have a homeowners’ association and many of us live here because we don’t have one. However, this does have its drawbacks. People leave trash in their yards and it is rare when someone stops to pick up trash that others have thrown out along the roadside.
I realize this is a long way from making my point and that is this. People are all so busy today that they no longer have time to stop an just inquire if they can help someone doing a task that benefits the neighborhood. It is easier to ignore the problem and drive around it. A “It’s not my job” attitude has crept into our lives and made us less than nice neighbors.
I’ll keep doing the things I do, that’s just my nature, but I would also welcome help.
This morning around eight o’clock, my old dog Jake and I went out for our morning “constitutional” which normal consists of a walk along Kahns Road and some of the other streets in our neighborhood. The area we live in was covered in trees just a few years ago and there are still many in the neighborhood. As you might imagine, these trees die off and some are cut down while other simply fall over. The latter was the case this morning. Sometime early this morning or late last night, a dead pine tree fell onto Kahns Road. While it did not completely block the road, it did deposit a lot of debris in the roadway. Apparently several cars had driven past and some had even crushed some of the debris, but none of it had been removed from the roadway. Rather than leave this mess in the road, I picked up a branch and began to sweep the debris to the side of the road. Meanwhile, the rain was pouring down and Jake and I were getting soaked. Perhaps as many as six or eight cars drove by us and through the debris, but not one person stopped to inquire if they could help. Apparently it was easier to ignore the whole thing and let an old man and his dog do the job.
Our neighborhood is not a large one—perhaps a 100 homes in all. Many of us have lived her for 20 or more years and informally know each other although we don’t often socialize. Everyone is busy—many of the families here are two income families and so most of our neighbors are gone during the day and hunker down on the weekends. There are some new folks who moved into homes that were built just five years ago and they don’t seem to be interested in getting to know any of us who have lived here for many years. We don’t have a homeowners’ association and many of us live here because we don’t have one. However, this does have its drawbacks. People leave trash in their yards and it is rare when someone stops to pick up trash that others have thrown out along the roadside.
I realize this is a long way from making my point and that is this. People are all so busy today that they no longer have time to stop an just inquire if they can help someone doing a task that benefits the neighborhood. It is easier to ignore the problem and drive around it. A “It’s not my job” attitude has crept into our lives and made us less than nice neighbors.
I’ll keep doing the things I do, that’s just my nature, but I would also welcome help.
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Red Shouldered Hawk and Sunday brunch
28 December 2008
Today was a beautiful day here--temperature in the 60s and many critters were out, including one venturesome vole. This beautiful hawk flew into our yard today, spotted the vole and invited it to brunch! Of course the vole didn't realize he/she was going to be the main course!
The hawk stayed around for about half an hour sitting in a nearby tree, all fluffed up and looking around for another snack. No such luck. Off it went and we hope it returns!
If you double click on the picture, you will get a much better look at this gorgeous bird.
Some Haiku
Evening Haiku
Sunset is nigh.
Vapor trails leaving
Orange slashes in a
Pale blue sky.
Early Morning Haiku
Jake and I
Out for an early walk.
Sunshine glowing through
The fall leaves.
Haiku for an Old Man
Soft summer sun
Shining on soft white hair.
An old man
A rocking chair.
Haiku of Memories
First day of school
Learning ABCs
First Kiss
Graduation
Wedding.
Haiku for Fall
Dogwoods are red
Holly berries are bright
Stars shining
In the cold night.
Haiku for Falling Leaves
Autumn leaves
Tumbling down.
Shades of red, gold and brown.
Lying on the ground.
Haiku for the Dying
A vision of Death
Standing in the door.
Life’s ending.
Time is no more.
Sunset is nigh.
Vapor trails leaving
Orange slashes in a
Pale blue sky.
Early Morning Haiku
Jake and I
Out for an early walk.
Sunshine glowing through
The fall leaves.
Haiku for an Old Man
Soft summer sun
Shining on soft white hair.
An old man
A rocking chair.
Haiku of Memories
First day of school
Learning ABCs
First Kiss
Graduation
Wedding.
Haiku for Fall
Dogwoods are red
Holly berries are bright
Stars shining
In the cold night.
Haiku for Falling Leaves
Autumn leaves
Tumbling down.
Shades of red, gold and brown.
Lying on the ground.
Haiku for the Dying
A vision of Death
Standing in the door.
Life’s ending.
Time is no more.
Christmas after Christmas-2008
Yesterday, December 27, we had family Christmas at our home. There were 24 of us and that didn't inlcude daughter, Kate and son-in-law Alvin and their children Winona and James. They are far off in Austin, TX. Our youngest son Kyle and daughter-in-law Stacy plus their two children, Emma Kate and Nathan, split Christmas--Stacy and the kids with Stacy's family and Kyle with us. Two of Shannon's children, Rene and Megan were visiting their grandmother in Florida. But we still had a houseful of boistrous, fun loving kinfolks including some significant others who may be foolish enough to join this bunch. Appetizers were brought by family and Carrie and I did the main course--ham, gremolata mashed potatoes, tomatoes and artichoke hearts and green beans almondine. Mike brought an apple pie and my favorite--pecan! Wine, soft drinks, beer and some excellent whiskies were available and enjoyed.
Gifts were exchanged--gift cards to the "grands" plus each got a share of a gift to someone less fortunate through Heifer International. These included bees, trees, rabbits, and chicks. What has now become our traditional gift to the adults is the annual White House Christmas ornament. This year's was exceptional in its detail of a decorated Christmas tree to honor our 23rd president Benjamin Harrison. President Harrison started the tradition of a Christmas tree in the White House in 1889.
As we approach the the new year of 2009, Carrie and I want to wish each of you a Happy New Year and we hope that the new year brings you all things good.
George and Carrie
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