My son Xander is here visiting, and in this house, he is about the most eminent guest possible. Human and canines are all delighted. Tomorrow he'll drive me to the Eye Center for my checkup (the first in 18 days), upon which a lot is riding. I have no sense of how I'm doing. I'm hoping for good news.
During my convalescence I've been listening to Ron Chernow's Washington, and I thought this little factoid was funny: George Washington's mother never approved of him. She never bragged about or complimented him on his accomplishments, and she complained persistently about his lack of attentiveness and support. As far as Chernow reports, she never offered him the slightest morsel of encouragement, esteem, or respect, even when he was understandably preoccupied with little things like, you know, keeping his ragtag army together at Valley Forge or pounding Cornwallis into submission at Yorktown.
What does a guy have to do to impress Mom, anyway? Apparently being the Father of your Country and the first President of the United States just didn't quite measure up. After the Revolution, Washington was arguably the biggest celebrity in the Western world—truly the man of the age—even British aristocrats pestered Benjamin Franklin for letters of introduction. But Mary Washington still wasn't a fan.
More news when I know it, but in the meantime, I sincerely apologize for the lack of original content and discussion here lately. I guess it's remarkable that I managed to keep the blog going for thirteen and a half years without any long content outages, but that doesn't make this long dry spell any easier to bear. I'm very sorry. I hope to return soon, but I'm at the mercy of necessities beyond my control.
Mike
Hope the checkup brings good news!
Posted by: Cathy Lewis | Wednesday, 26 June 2019 at 02:49 PM
You can fool all of the people some of the time, and you can fool some of the people all the time, but you can't fool Mom.
Posted by: J. Tubman | Wednesday, 26 June 2019 at 06:54 PM
Take your time, Mike, and rest assured that we will still be here waiting for you to recover in due time. Your writing is the reason why. Not how often you post. Frequent posting does not hurt, but your writing is funny ant quirky.
Stress is not going to be of any help at all. I spent months walking around with sunglasses and even a patch covering the eye that wasn’t doing well every year for ten years. I believe that you are going to be fine, but it takes time to recover. Waiting for it to happen is not easy! In my case the dominant eye is fine. And the other eye is mostly fine now.
When you have recovered, I do recommend the movie “Rocketman” about Elton John and “Tolkien” about, you guessed it J. R. R. Tolkien. Both are excellent. All the best!
Posted by: Jean | Wednesday, 26 June 2019 at 08:32 PM
Mike, you know you've made it when you can fill lack of content by recycling your own classics! I've been reading TOP since 2006, a time frame driven home as I slowly recall that I read the posts the first time. Get well soon.
Posted by: Bear. | Friday, 28 June 2019 at 01:20 AM