Home in Salina, KS

The trek home was by modern Plny express or stage coach route. John drove us to Bethany, Mo and the "Old folks" changed at the McDonalds "stage stop" and Phil drove and delivered us in Salina in time to see the youngest Grandchild and he friendds in their Junior-Senior Prom finery. I will not go into the "old days" when tuxes, limos etc were not part of the "scene". However it was fun to see the yong ladies and young men and of course there were doting parents and grandparents. The city and parents make quite a deal--all the high schools (3) have their parom on the same night and after their dinner they have a "lock in" at the mall with dancing, games, prizes etc. until morning hours--a safe and sane celebration! Finally, we are un-packed and the mail sorted and we are about ready to resume our life here; including mundane things like laundry, mowing, spraying dandelions etc. Our cat "Cleo" has had a lot to tell us and we agree with her but do not know what we are agreeing to. Mary has started on her new medicines and is soing ok. This is enough for this posting. More later Happy Doc aka SENIORGEEK aflanders_98@yahoo.com haflanders@gmail.com

Mayo Experience

The Mayo clinic covers a large part of the downtown of Rochester, Mn. The 2 major buildings are some 20 stories high and there are other smaller buildings and hospital which are all connected by subway corridors or by skyways so that people can move from on building to another. People come from all over to have their health p;roblems evaluated and for tretment.

This made me think of Hippocrates, the father of medicine, on the Greek island of Kos in the 400's BC. There, people came to be evaluated and treated. Much of the treatment then was only with simple measures and a certain amount of mysticism. The modern evaluations and treatment is p;erformed by doctors, nurses and technicians with the use of complicated machines using w-rays, ultra-sound waves and the "magic of 1's and 0'sof digitization. All the records and results of the tests are fed into the computer system. Every examining and consultation room has sits computer. The patient's record can be brought up and checked from any location.

"Pilgrim" Mary was checked by doctors, nurses and technicians and all of the mocern machins were used to evaluate her health. The end result is that she is doing ok except the high blood presssure needs to be brought under better control and to wear compression stockings for her varicose veins.

So, we are going home relieved and planning on enjoying and "keep on keeping on". We are returning home Saturday, Ap;ril 16.

For myself, I have had a relaxing time and able to do some interestsing reading and finding some new interesting books to follow up on. Also, I have been thinking about some special interests courses we could get together for the Senior Computer Lab.

Hope is all is well with all HAPPY DOC aka Alden

SPRING

Hi all
Spring is breaking out here in the North Country. The grass is getting green and the trees are budding. I have not seen any flowers blooming yet but undoughtably they will be very soon. We had jonquils blooming in Salina when we left so I suspect that more flowers and trees are blooming by now.
I am glad to get some responses from the SENIORGEEK blog. I am learning more about the process. Apparantly with this program you have to register and have ID and password to enter comments on the blog.
Mayo Clinic is really an amazing place. Thursday and Friday we were there all day. Between seeing a couple of doctors and getting all kinds of tests, both Mary and I were pooped and glad to have Sat and Sun to catch up. This coming week we are scheduled thru Thursday and of course there may be some additional changes that may come up. We should really have the answers when we get through. Mary got up to go to BR Wed night and fell and sprained her knee some so we are using a wheel chair to go from one place to another. Everyone is so very helpfull and it is amazing that they can keep everything organized and on schedule for the appointments etc. They really have a great system and it is all done with computers. We did cause the Nephrologist Dr to be concerned when Mary told him in the history that she had been at Mayos in 1996, he looked at her clinic number and said that her number did not jibe so he went the computer and punched some and found that she had been issued a new number because she was Mary Elizabeth in 1996 and Mary E. in 2005 but he said they should have caught that and it would be corrected. They are proud of their system.
John brought home Thomas Friedman's new book "The World is Flat". It is very interesting. He to be the guest on May 1 "In Depth" program on Cspan 2. I think that we have not seen anything yet as to what the technology changes will be made in the next few years.
Ezra sent me this Url address which I thought was good enought to pass along-- there is good music with it so turn on the speakers.
http://www.andiesisle.com/Flowers.html

Until the next time, enjoy and smell the roses HAPPYDOC aka Alden

M minus 2

Hi
I have just finished the book "American Soldier: General Tommy Franks". So, I have taken on some of the military lingo. M minus 2--2 days until Mary checks into the Mayo Clinic and perhaps we start to get some answers to some questions. In the meantime we have a relaxing and non-stressful time.
I mentioned the book reviews on CSpan "The end of Poverty" by Jeffery Sachs. I thought I would include some of the review which was in the Barnes and Noble Page.
Taking issue with international-development economists concerned mostly with capital and credit formation, Sachs urges an account of poverty that takes a multifaceted view of the kinds of capital the poor lack (health, nutrition, infrastructure, biodiversity, an impartial judiciary, access to knowledge, and so forth). While agreeing with those economists that private initiatives are generally more effective than state programs, Sachs also proposes amany-pronged, needs-based attack on the worst extremes of poverty that requires, yes, the rich to help the poor, but that is eminently practical and minimally pipe-dreamy-and that, he notes in passing, would help restore the reputation of the US and the usefulness of the UN in the world. A solid, reasonable argument in which the dismal science offers a brightening
prospect for the world's poor.
He maintains it is possible and we should have the goal of a world without war.

Another book which I want to read is "Collapse:how some societies choose to fail or succeed" by Jared Diamond

This past week-end the "indepth" session on C-Span was with Robert Kaplan He is a reporter and has traveled widely in parts of the world where there are troubles and has written 10 books--it was very good.
Until next time, probably next week, the best to all Happy doc HAF

SNOW

Greetings from Minnesota
Last Friday we arrived in Rochester without any problems. The week before they had had one of the biggest single snow-falls; 20 inches. So, we were greeted with snow on the ground and cooler weather than we were used to.
We had a nice Easter. Nick and Sean came home from Mankato State University for the week-end. They are doing well and adapting to college life. It was good to see them and to visit with them.
Mary does not see the Dr for her first evaluation until April 7. In the meantime we are having a relaxing time with visiting, reading, TVing. John and Gail have ESPN etc which we do not subscribe to in Salina, so we have been able to catch up on some of the current tennis as the NASDEC 100 tournament is on this week. Most of the names have changed since we used to follow the tennis world. However Andre Agessi is still going and winning. He is a great example of "keep on keeping on" as at one point he had to start over with entering the qualifying rounds. We always enjoy the Cspan program on the week-ends as they have interviews and authors etc. One gets a lot of information about books to look into or at least to know about. 2 such this past weekend was "Mr. China ,a memoir" by Tim Clissold and "The End of Poverty, economic possibilities for our time" by Jeffery Sachs. Currently, I am reading "American Soldier, generan Tommy Franks".
It is great to have some email responses to my blog posting. I am learning more about blogs. We may try to have a special interest session on blogging in the Senior Computer program when we get back to Salina. Keeping all posted --- happy doc

Times of Change

These are times of change; globally--seeds of representive governance sprouting,climatically--winter passing and jonquils blooming, and perhaps change in life-style and activity. Friday of this week, son JOhn is coming to Salina and taking the "old folks" back to Rochester, MN. for a visit. Originally this was planned to be just an Easter visit, but as my best friend has been having some health issues which have not been completely explained it is thought to be a good time to be checked at the Mayo Clinic. Especially concerning the significance of the patent foramen ovale and her cardiac dynamics and the "little strokes". There are also some other problems to be checked out. Our return and our activity in Salina is in limbo at present. I plan to communicate with the blog. A. Geek

GLOBAL FLYER

Steve Fossett left Salina in the Global flyer aircraft Tues evening and returned to the Salina Airport Thursday at about 1:30. He had traveled around the world solo and without refueling for22,867 Miles and he had 1500 pounds of fuel left. It was an amazing effort and Salina was anxiously holding its collective breath until he landed. He was helped by a strong wind current, especially from Japan to Hawaii. see the Guardian reporters Blog.

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/news/archives/cat_globalflyer.html

great link

exceptional link

http://www.thomaspmbarnett.com/weblog/archives2/001518.html Also, check his article on the new rule set availabel on the home page of www.thomaspmbarnett.com Thomas Barnett is an orginal thinker and his book "The Pentagons New Map" is very worthwhile.

HAPPY DOC AND BRIDE
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seniorgeek

Feb 17, 05 First posting . Spring is coming to Kansas, the crocus is blooming! Sure signs of Spring!