These last few weeks have been important to me because of an inguinal hernia diagnosis that required immediate surgery. That whole problem arose and disappeared astonishingly quickly. I now feel good and except for the nearly four-inch incision that still forms a spectacular wide red line across my lower abdomen, there isn’t much to report. There is still some swelling, about a half-inch high and extending about two inches all around the incision, but it doesn’t cause the slightest problem.

Of course, I am very careful not to put any pulling strain across the incision line and that must be observed for a couple of months. I have learned to avoid doing those little things that give that pain. For example, crawling into bed face down and lying out flat face down before making any bed covering adjustments. My old way was to sit on the edge of the bed and lean back to lie down, but that puts a lot of strain on the stomach and with this surgery, it might pull the incision apart. That would really hurt, and be counterproductive. Crawling into a wide open bed might seem silly at first, but it really works for me.

The rest of my day was normal. I visited my old dudes in the morning and took a quick series of standard photos along Drake Park of the Deschutes Mirror Pond before going into the Commons for coffee and profound talk. That sounds like hyperbole, but a couple of geriatric artists with a quite a bit of historical background can really get excited about discussing the way Andrew Wyeth delved into the absolute essence of a visual idea.

Debbie and I took our usual twenty minute walks, one in the morning, and one this evening in the very crunchy ice about nine pm. All of the problematic snow and ice dams have resolved themselves and the remaining snow should melt off without any problem. My next door neighbor had major ice dam leakage into his house, as did my morning conversation partner. A lot of snow with warming and freezing cycles can create a layer of ice that creeps back up the roof from the edge to form an ice dam that forces melt water to find a way thru the roof rather than flowing off of it.

House real estate prices have gone crazy, and with so many construction workers living here it can’t last and the old timers here are expecting a price crash. When the construction slows, those people will move on and there will be a sudden oversupply of homes on the market.

For us it doesn’t matter much because we have a retirement income. It’s not much, but it’s enough.