Mundane

March 1, 2002-Same

When we go grocery shopping, it has become David’s job to go to the deli counter for cold cuts while I start my rounds of the aisles. Today, he walked up to the counter & asked for sliced turkey. The kid behind the counter said, “I didn’t think you’d be wanting ham with that shirt you have on.” David was wearing his Temple Israel shirt that has Hebrew on it. Then the kid asked him if he spoke Hebrew & they chatted for a while. It turns out that the young man was born in Israel, but grew up here. His parents speak Hebrew at home. You never know when you’ll run into a surprise here.

Whilst looking at the selection of Diet Coke, Diet Pepsi, Pepsi Max, Diet Coke Ice, etc. David noticed that the bottle he selected had an expiration date of August 3, 2032 at 6:46 AM. Could they be any more specific? I hate buying foodstuff that has a longer expiration date than I do.

At services tonight the secretary of the temple, read the announcements as she usually does. This time, when she read the upcoming events, she mentioned that on March 17th, they would farewell the rabbi. She started choking up & tears welled in her eyes. What have we done? We gave these good people a taste of what it can be like to have a real religious leader & now we’re taking it away. Who knows when they’ll get another rabbi?

March 2, 2002-Same Old

David is miffed. It seems that India was invited to CHOGM (Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting). The United States was not. Why is India still considered part of the Commonwealth? I thought they attained their independence, as did we. Perhaps it’s because they’re more recent revolutionaries than we are. Of course, their head of government is not attending CHOGM. He’s staying at home to deal with Hindu terrorists who are blowing up trains & burning shanty villages.

March 3, 2002-Yawn

Looking back on what I’ve written in the last few days, it seems as if life has taken a turn for the mundane. Mundane can be good. Just to spice things up, I went online to look at the Sydney Harbour Bridge Climb site. I’m now booked to climb the bridge on April 10 (Australian date) at 3:25pm. I have my e-ticket & am really excited. For those of you who know me well, I love to climb. This is the ultimate jungle gym. I have to keep in shape for that grand babe.

March 4, 2002-Good News, Bad News

I just got the stitches out at the doctor. I haven’t looked at it yet, but I would imagine that it’s gnarly. He said that the bump where they did the bi-fold flap will flatten out soon & the scarring will disappear in a year. The good news was that it wasn’t cancer. The bad news was that I went through surgery & it wasn’t cancer. How can I be upset that it wasn’t cancer? If they had done the procedure they use in the States, they would have known after the first biopsy during the surgery that it wasn’t cancer. They may not have needed to make such a production of it. The fact of the matter is that it was a fibroblast. That’s a bunch of cells that keep growing so it would have continued to get bigger anyway. After I first noticed it, it had gotten much larger. At some point I would have wanted it gone & the bigger it got, the larger the incision would have to be, etc. etc. This fibroblast looks just like basal cell carcinoma until you do the lab work. I had a lump removed from my back a long time ago. A lump is a lump & it was scary until the lab work said that it was a fatty tumor. I’m glad its over. It would have worried me all the way home. Now we’re trying to get the insurance to pay. We had to have the doctor stipulate that it wasn’t pre-existing. He signed the paperwork today & the insurance office faxed it into corporate. The doctor here will send the reports to my doctor in Akron whom I see every three months anyway.

And now for an addition to the great Aussie Cuisine Caper. We ate lunch at a pizza place that had been recommended by a Canadian. They said it’s the best pizza they’ve had here. They were right. Although they didn’t have any traditional pizza with a lot of tomato sauce like we’re used to, they did have a smashingly scrumptious satay chicken pizza. But, as we were walking out of the restaurant, David noticed the specials board. The featured pizza was an Eggatarian. It makes my throat close up just to write the description to you. It had a cream cheese base, crushed black pepper, eggs, sliced tomatoes, onions, & avocadoes, shredded mozzarella, & was topped with shredded lettuce & mayo. David says, Yum!”

We went to the Post & shipped the first duffel bag & a carton of books to the Temple in Akron. We're on our way! There will be more to come. We'll probably ship that last box the day we leave here, April 4th.

I just peeked at my nose. Actually, it looks better than I thought it would. Without the stitches, it’s not as ominous.

Toby