State of Being Index: Traveler Evolutionist Quizzical Seasoned

 

The week flew by. I had early meetings on two days and late meetings or ballet practice pick-up duty the others. Although I had a great time, all of the "have to's" left little time for the "want to's".

We had dinner at Sushi Gin on Thursday because it was the easiest thing to do and we hadn't been there in a few weeks. It was great! On Friday, I had to rush Farkwar to the vet because he had been roughed up in a cat fight and was acting lethargic and had a swollen eye.

That was after I rented a truck and delivered a phone system and a computer for the business and helped move TAO from his apartment back to his mom's house.

Today, NNO and I moved some building materials that we're getting ready for Habitat for Humanity to collect this Tuesday. And we breakfasted at First Watch. I had two "Banana Nut Crunch" (granola) pancakes. Yummy. Then I went to the market to pick up our weekly bag of certified organic produce and took the rental truck back to the agency and then cooled my heels at the office until NNO picked me up after ballet practice and other errands.

Tonight? Nada. But tomorrow, we have our neighborhood picnic, which ought to be fun. We haven't met too many of the folks who live around here since moving in July.

Saturday, September 28, 2002

 

On Friday, we attended the first of this season's newEar concerts at St. Mary's in downtown K.C. Attendance was dismal. There were 50 people tops, which is too bad. Of course, lots of competing events were going on. I'm sure that ameliorated the pain for the musicians a bit.

Anyway, as usual, the work was excellent. The opening piece was a duet of wine glasses (being rubbed around the rim with a finger) moving around in the dark on either side of the church. It ended with a shattered glass. But what an eerie effect!

The other duets were performed with traditional classical instruments--alto saxophone, bass clarinet, piano. Several of the works challenged Robert Pherigo on piano.

Sunday, September 22, 2002

 

The spot on Nick's News was produced by "Little Duck" productions. The gist of the piece was uncle JJ's successful effort to get a theater to show open-captioned movies for deaf folks. A sidebar was how his kids, who can hear, deal with parents who are deaf. KJ was invited and got to explain what open captions are.

We'll let you know when the piece airs. Oh, Nickelodeon is a cable channel. We'll let you know when it cables.

Sunday, September 22, 2002

 

Big news! KJ's uncle JJ asked her to participate in a day of filming by Nickelodeon, the cable channel, at his house on Thursday. She's excited--not only because she gets a free hookey day from school. JJ and his wife are deaf and the program will focus on how "hearing" children and their friends deal with deaf parents. Oughta be a scream.

Tuesday, September 17, 2002

 

Saw "Incognito" by Michael Fosberg at the Missouri Rep tonight. It's a solo piece by the actor/director about his discoveries, at age 40, about his biological father and that whole branch of his personal family tree.

On the way home, I was telling NNO that I was somewhat offended by some of the depictions and stereotypes played for laughs, and how I wished the piece was less about "me" and more about the effects of his mother's decision on the rest of the family. I was feeling kind of bored in a few parts, too.

But now, an hour later, I realize that my sense of offense was generated by the play. I can appreciate that now.

This production is the first outside of Fosberg's native Chicago area and the largest theater he's played in. He handled it quite well, but I could see that I may have been more engaged in a smaller venue.

Tuesday, September 17, 2002

 

We took advantage of KJ's "away" slumber party to see a movie, "Mostly Martha". It's a German film about a woman chef who's something of a one-trick pony in life. All she cares about is her job as head chef at a chic Hamburg restaurant. But then, life intervenes. Her sister is killed in an automobile accident and she inherits responsibility for her 8-year-old niece.

It was enjoyable enough. No laugh-out-loud moments. A few moments of amusement. Predictable.

Sunday, September 15, 2002

 

At 3:00 AM this morning, KJ began wailing in pain. Yesterday at school, she leaned over in her desk and it fell over...on her hand. It swelled up and bruised and so I was elected to take her to the pediatrician's office this morning. It was the usual bedlam of a busy doctor's office and, since we were a walk-in, we were allowed to wait an hour. After a deliberate two-minute exam, the doc sent us over to the medical center for X-rays.

"I was in the Navy for nine years and treated those guys for just about everything. I'll be amazed if this bone isn't broken." She was pointing at the metacarpal of KJ's right hand middle finger.

We spent another hour or so in the X-ray lab. We killed time by reading and telling jokes. Finally, they handed us a big envelope with instructions to go back to the pediatrician's office. On the way, I stopped at the car and examined the X-ray. Everything looked just fine to my eye.

"Nah, nothing's broken there!" I proclaimed. "But then, what do I know?"

I apparently don't know much because after another hour, KJ walked out sporting a bright blue cast. The last cast (this spring, when KJ broke a bone in her foot) was bright green. She knows the drill by now: Don't get it wet. Elevate it from time-to-time. Wear the sling. Don't get it wet. Another X-ray in 30 days. See you.

We went out to lunch by way of consolation and then I dropped KJ at home and proceed with the work day.

Wednesday, September 11, 2002

 

In the litany of atrocities, the attacks of September 11, 2001, are recent, still raw, fresh in our minds.

But please, do not forget other atrocities.

Do not forget the Holocaust.
Do not forget the Killing Fields of Thailand.
Do not forget the Gulag Archipelago, or the ethnic "cleansings" in Bosnia.
Do not forget Rwanda, or Uganda or South Africa.
Do not forget the Kurds of Iraq.

Remember all of the victims. There are many, many more.

Tuesday, September 10, 2002

 

Last year, my blog entry for September 11 was actually written just after midnight on the 10th. We had seen Tony Bennett in concert. The morning of the 11th was hectic. NNO piled KJ into the car so she could get help with math before school started. I was reviewing the morning email. The phone rang; it was NNO: "Something terrible is happening! Turn on the TV. A plane crashed into the World Trade Building." It was 7:59 AM CDT.

Almost casually, I flicked the TV on. The scene--a long shot of Manhattan from New Jersey--was so perfect, it was almost beautiful, even given the ugly black smudge of smoke funneling from near the top of one tower. I heard no sound. Something in the house distracted me. When I returned, the other tower was burning. A confusion of voices came from the TV. I went into denial, or shock. Probably both.

The rest of the day, I went through the motions. I had a business breakfast at 9:00 AM and some other meetings. At each, we shared our views of the horrific events. By afternoon, it began to sink in and I came home. Our family, like most American families that day, said prayers for the victims, lit candles at dusk and tried to comprehend what had occurred. We tried to soothe our children and lent historical perspective to our teenagers. We all ached with trauma.

Tuesday, September 10, 2002

 

One of life's very small pleasures is finishing your liter bottle of Ozarka spring water while driving along and flinging the empty bottle over your shoulder into the back seat where it lands with a soft, echoey thunk.

Tuesday, September 10, 2002

 

"Dance in the Park" continues to be a wonderful venue for dance troupes and schools in Kansas City. It is held in Roanoke Park in early September, and involves the performance groups as well as the four neighborhood groups adjacent to the park: Volker, Roanoke, Valentine and Coleman Highlands. (The stretch of Roanoke from Valentine Road down the hill to Karnes Blvd. is one of the last remaining brick streets in the area.)

The park itself is in a wooded ravine that drops from 39th street all the way to Southwest Blvd. in what is known as "midtown", which is 3-4 miles south of downtown KC and 1-2 miles north of the Country Club Plaza more or less between Broadway and State Line Road. (For those of you not familiar with Kansas City, State Line Road runs due South along the border of Kansas and Missouri from the river to 135th Street. That's actually 270 blocks since, in K.C. each street is followed by a Terrace. 71st Street is followed by 71st Terrace, for example.)

This year, 12 groups filled the playbill. KJ's was first up. They did "Space Dance" to the music of the 1712 Overture by P.D.Q. Bach. They usually do something humorous and light. KJ was one of the "twin" planets: Uranus and Neptune.

Sunday, September 08, 2002

 

Indeed, we dropped KJ at rehearsal and ran errands. Then we went to Saigon 39, which is usually quite good but this time I found the vegetable broth too salty. NNO thought her salad wasn't quite up to par, but KJ loved the vegetable/shrimp stir fry. This place doesn't take checks or credit cards. The proprietress, a Vietnamese woman, sits behind a window, collecting the cash, smiling and scowling. She probably has a large caliber hand gun at the ready just in case. A sign at the front door cautions diners that closing time is time to leave, so I can imagine being half finished with a late dinner but scooted out the door by management anyway.

Nevertheless, we're not downgrading the place. It's still on our top 10.

And, today at the city market, I bought two bags of fresh basil. That means NNO will make Pesto soon. Whoo!

Saturday, September 07, 2002

 

Sometime in July, while this Blog was on hiatus due to our residential move, I began feeling pain in my upper arm and shoulder. It moved around and didn't seem to be related to stretching or weight-bearing. This went on for around a week. Slowly the pain began to settle in my shoulder and I began to experience pain related to extending my arm outwards, behind my back or over my head. It wasn't long before movement in that shoulder was severely restricted because of the pain, although I could go for hours keeping my hands in front of me without pain.

Two or three more weeks passed and it didn't get too much worse or better. What actually happened, of course, was that I developed a coping strategy that kept my shoulder immobile in order to avoid pain. Putting on my shirt or threading my belt around my back, or reaching out the car window to deposit mail would make me howl in anguish. So, having had enough of that, I set up an appointment with my doctor who said, "Rotator cuff" and sent me off for an MRI.

The MRI was fun. I listened to NPR, stayed perfectly still and tried not to care about all the clicking and humming going on. It took another week to get the result--bursitis.

Bursitis? I thought that was a made-for-TV ailment! I hit the 'net and found that my left bursa, which is a kind of internal shoulder pad or shock absorber, was inflamed and that restriction of movement was exactly the wrong thing to do.

Today, I visited the orthopaedist who took X-rays and confirmed that I had developed "shoulder impingement syndrome". He gave me the full treatment--a shot of cortisone in the shoulder, an anti-inflammatory drug to take daily by mouth and a prescription for physical therapy. "This is one time we want you to push yourself", he said. "You've got to stretch and swing and loosen the shoulder up or it will become completely immobile."

"Yes, doctor."

So, I write this in the warm glow of a powerful anti-inflammatory injection. Already, I feel better. It's supposed to take a month or so to clear up, if I play by the rules.

In response to my questions, the doc explained that I probably didn't actually cause the injury in a single incident or injury, that it's unlikely to re-occur, that I have "a touch" of arthritis in the shoulder but nothing to worry about (yet). So it looks as if my tennis playing days are not over and done with!

Tonight, we take KJ to the dress rehearsal of "Dance in the Park", the annual dance performance on an outdoor stage at Roanoke Park, not far from the Thomas Hart Benton home. After rehearsal, we'll dine at Saigon 39 and head home. The public performance is tomorrow.

Friday, September 06, 2002

 

So, it's actually Labor Day today. I worked all day and got a lot done since no one else was working. Nice and quiet. TAO came over for dinner tonight and showed me his Criminology book and Administration of Justice books.

For my part, I shared my view of how corrupt the FBI is.

Monday, September 02, 2002

 

On Sunday, we met our friends the McDonald's for brunch at Lidia's restaurant. Scott plays for Andy Williams at his "Moon River" theater in Branson, MO. They leave for the fall season in a couple of days so we wanted to say goodbye. Brunch was good.

Later on, NNO painted the front doors.

Monday, September 02, 2002

 

It's Labor Day, a day dedicated primarily to the 13-odd percent of the workforce that belongs to a labor union. We drove to Omaha on Friday afternoon in order to attend the opening reception for our friend, artist Mark Florance. It was fun and, before we knew it, it was 10:30 PM and we were tired after a long day at work and a three-hour drive.

The next morning, we arose and headed straight for the Henry Doorly Zoo. It's a great zoo, except for the newest and most expensive exhibit, the Desert Dome. Very disappointing. Billed as the largest indoor desert in the world, it's air conditioned! Geez. The animals are clearly unhappy and the lines are way too long. Considering it's a brand new exhibit, perhaps in a couple of years, the kinks will be worked out. I hope so.

By contrast, the Lied Jungle is a huge environment with lots of happy animals. It's been open for years and the tropical plants are healthy and huge! It also handles crowds much better.

We ended up spending over five hours walking around before leaving for a stop at the farm on the way home. Unfortunately, I couldn't find my own farm. Embarrassing. We got home around 8 PM Saturday evening.

Monday, September 02, 2002