4. January 2009 by Gene.

One of the more welcome changes for me in 2009 is improved energy and stamina. A few weeks ago I landed in a deep trough and felt weak and out of it. Some blood work showed I had a low hemoglobin count.

Iron tablets to the rescue. It’s been about three or four weeks since I started the iron prescription and I’ve started to notice a change for the better.

I also feel, unless I’m deluded, that my heart is stronger too. On yesterday’s photoshoot I walked farther than any Toronto outing I’ve tried since my bypass surgery. It was the first time I didn’t tire, as in boom! flat! and I still felt good by the time I left for home, and I felt fine all evening.

In fact, last night I got out my much-neglected six-string and played and sang for about an hour or so, until my poor fingers hollered “enough already!” I need to build calluses all over again. But, my, it felt good to be in a music-making space again. I was attempting Bob Dylan’s “Visions of Johanna.” It’s a stretch for me because the song bounces between octaves and when it comes to singing, I’m a prairie, not a mountain.

This morning I got up feeling well and headed out for a morning walk right after a bit of breakfast. On the way to Starbucks, I finished off the roll of 36-exp Reala 100 I had loaded in the Bessa R3A. While imbibing a couple of Grande Milds, I wrote another 1000+ word entry in my journal and began this posting.

From there I did my longer, cardio-intensive, walk on the way home. The sun was disappearing behind a cloud cover, but I snapped a shot of the Ridgetown from the pavillion at St Lawrence Park that made a good B&W. When I walked up to Lakeshore Road, I noticed that Planet Organic was open, so I popped in for some oat and stoneground wholewheat flours. Got home and started making wholewheat-oat bread. The dough is rising.

Marion cooked a nice-looking tofu lasagna. It smelled great. While the yeast was doing its multiply and conquer routine in the bread dough, I cooked some onions to the clearing point, added two cloves of garlic, then filled the pan with fresh kale, steaming it with the onions and garlic and an added tin of navy beans.

For Trev’s sake I’ll also stir fry some chicken strips to go with it. I’m looking forward to tonight’s dinner.

A good day.

Posted in Health & Wellness | 1 Comment »

17. August 2008 by Gene.

There’s nothing like a bypass operation to put some perspective into your life. You taste mortality and realize the fragility of being alive. With it comes an appreciation of life and all living things. As I’ve recuperated over the summer, I’ve enjoyed the outdoors as never before. In addition it’s been an extraordinary summer.

Record amounts of rainfall have kept lawns green and blossoms in bloom longer than normal. By August our lawns are usually scorched and the late-blooming summer flowers pose against a dry backbround. Not this year. Everything is verdant.

I started the summer with very short walks that taxed the limit of my endurance. As my strength increased, I began carrying extremely lightweight cameras, gradually working up to the Nikon D40 that I bought especially for the rehab period. The length of my walks increased and as I developed more strength I bought a bicycle to add variety to my exercise regimen and to increase the radius of my travels. Both the D40 and the bicycle were great additions and I’ve developed a relatively safe method of packing the D40 into a padded bag that fits on the rack over the back wheel. With this I’ve been able to get shots of new places like the lakeshore view in front of the Adamson Estate and the mouth of the harbour where the Mississauga Sailing Club is located.

One side effect of my recovery surprised me a little. I find I have less interest in owning several types of camera than I did previously. My new impulse is to simplify and thin my gear collection. As a result I sold my Hasselblad kit — probably the nicest bit of gear I’ve ever owned, but gear I wasn’t using much. I used the proceeds to upgrade my Nikon D200 to a Nikon D300. I wasn’t able to carry around a heavy DSLR like the Nikon D300 until recently. Now it’s my main camera for walks on most days. I like using different lenses with it, mainly older Nikon AIS lenses that I also use on my Nikon film bodies. I particularly like using my Nikkor AF 24mm f/2.8 on the D300, as in this photo of early morning sunshine and haze outside our front door.

But most of all, I’m enjoying the summer itself — its sunny days and rainy days, hot days and cool days. And all the creatures, including humankind, enjoying the summer’s bounty.

I’m not a religious person, but I remain in awe of the evolution of life on this planet and I’m thankful to be a conscious being able to appreciate its beauty. A planet that can produce beings who can contemplate, and magnificent birds like ospreys to inspire those beings, is a very special place, and this summer has been a special chapter in its long story.

Posted in Philosophy, Health & Wellness, Photography | 8 Comments »

22. July 2008 by Gene.

When is the last time you memorized a poem or a speech? Even something modest like Lewis Carrol’s “Jabberwocky” or e.e. cummings’ “Buffalo Bill”? If you’re like me, it’s been a long, long time. The last time I was required to memorize something for school was in the seventh grade, when each student in the class had to memorize and recite Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. As an undergraduate at university I would sometimes memorize poems simply because it was fun.

That was a different age. I wonder what a modern student would think if you were to suggest they memorize a poem. I suspect you’d just get one of those funny looks that says more eloquently than words how out of touch you are. Why memorize anything when you can look it up on Google in seconds?

Forget memorization then. When was the last time you read a long, important novel, say like Joyce’s Ulysses? If recently, good for you! Or how about a lengthy essay on a subject of interest. These are things I used to do but find I can’t do anymore. Memorization, lengthy reading of serious material — I find it too difficult to concentrate on anything for that long. I thought it was old age creeping up on me until I read the Atlantic essay, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” by Nicholas Carr. When he described what was happening to him, I felt I’d met a kinsman:

I can feel it, too. Over the past few years I’ve had an uncomfortable sense that someone, or something, has been tinkering with my brain, remapping the neural circuitry, reprogramming the memory. My mind isn’t going—so far as I can tell—but it’s changing. I’m not thinking the way I used to think. I can feel it most strongly when I’m reading. Immersing myself in a book or a lengthy article used to be easy. My mind would get caught up in the narrative or the turns of the argument, and I’d spend hours strolling through long stretches of prose. That’s rarely the case anymore. Now my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages. I get fidgety, lose the thread, begin looking for something else to do. I feel as if I’m always dragging my wayward brain back to the text. The deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle.

After referring to some anecdotes about others who have confessed to similar states, including a blogger who admitted he had quit reading books altogether, Carr then cites Maryanne Wolf, a developmental psychologist at Tufts University and the author of Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain. Wolf says “We are how we read.” Worried about the style of reading promoted by the Net, she says that when we read online we tend to become “mere decoders of information.” Our ability to interpret text, to make the rich mental connections that form when we read deeply and without distraction, remains largely disengaged. (see Carr above for additional material on Wolf)

This theme was highlighted again a couple of days ago in a Times Online article by Bryan Appleyard, “Stoooopid …. why the Google generation isn’t as smart as it thinks:
The digital age is destroying us by ruining our ability to concentrate”, that begins with a caution from David Meyer.

David Meyer is professor of psychology at the University of Michigan. In 1995 his son was killed by a distracted driver who ran a red light. Meyer’s speciality was attention: how we focus on one thing rather than another. Attention is the golden key to the mystery of human consciousness; it might one day tell us how we make the world in our heads. Attention comes naturally to us; attending to what matters is how we survive and define ourselves.

The opposite of attention is distraction, an unnatural condition and one that, as Meyer discovered in 1995, kills. Now he is convinced that chronic, long-term distraction is as dangerous as cigarette smoking. In particular, there is the great myth of multitasking. No human being, he says, can effectively write an e-mail and speak on the telephone. Both activities use language and the language channel in the brain can’t cope. Multitaskers fool themselves by rapidly switching attention and, as a result, their output deteriorates.

The article then lists a chorus of writers who are articulating concerns and fears about what is happening to our brains and our culture through widespread chronic distraction.

Some of this is likely hyperbole or outright fear mongering. Whenever a topic like this starts to become a swell, my skepticism kicks in. Nonetheless, there’s something in this I feel inside myself and that I don’t dismiss outright. I’m particularly concerned when neuroscientists can demonstrate the effects of distraction in the brain. Using a cell phone while driving, they’ve observed in lab tests, is on a par with driving impaired with alcohol.

Fortunately it’s not all doom and gloom. The brain is malleable. Just as it can be conditioned to be distracted, it can be trained to pay attention. We can be taught how to focus and concentrate. We can even learn to ignore the ring of a cell phone.

I don’t know about reading Ulysses, but I think I’m going to go off and memorize a short poem, or a favourite song lyric.

Jennifer Anderson. “Neurology Study: Brain Too Slow For Cell Phone Use While Driving”, Ergonomics Today.

Mark Bauerlein. The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future (Or, Don’t Trust Anyone Under 30). Tarcher, 2008.

Maggie Jackson. Distracted: The Erosion of Attention and the Coming Dark Age, Prometheus, 2008.

Sharon O’Brien. “Improve Your Concentration with Brain Fitness Activities”, About.com: Senior Living.

Posted in Health & Wellness, Reading, Technology | 8 Comments »

30. June 2008 by Gene.

This week I took my longest bike ride yet. According to my cycle computer I rode a total of 18 km. I started early in the morning after waking at 5:30, looking out the window, and seeing a clear sky after several rainy days. I dressed quickly, toasted a slice of multigrain bread, smeared it with peanut butter and strawberry jam, gobbled it down, grabbed my helmet, filled my water bottle, and started out.

The night before I’d thought of trying my first ride to Jack Darling Park and the Rattray Marsh, just to the west of Port Credit in Lorne Park, or maybe it’s Clarkson. The old townships in the southern end of Mississauga blend together without any distinct boundary markers. But when I started out from our driveway, I decided to ride straight down Hurontario to Lake Ontario and catch the Waterfront Trail going east.

I wanted to ride at least as far as the Adamson Estate and maybe as far as RK McMillan Park, the western edge of the Lakeshore Promenade series of parks. The Adamson Estate appeared before I even seem to get started. I stopped there a took a couple of early-morning shots of the estate. Then I headed for the Promenade.

There are some nice little bridges along the route, crossing streams and creeks, all flowing into Lake Ontario. I arrived at McMillan, the farthest east I’d been along the Mississauga lakeshore trail. The sun was rising and I headed for a spot I remembered might be good for photographing the light. I almost stopped there, but noticed a photographer already set up with camera on a tripod. I didn’t wish to disturb him, so I rode on. A photographer up at the crack of dawn, enjoying the solitude of nature, hoping to catch a great sunrise shot should not be disturbed.

Instead I kept on riding. Already I was into new territory. As the sun rose I found myself riding directly into it. I fiddled my sunglasses and got them on my face but still had to watch carefully. It was blinding at times. I followed the path as it wound through parks, then cut northward where it hugged Lakeshore Road. Passing over railway tracks and through an industrial area, the path veered south again, cutting into a wooded area. Along the way I’d been seeing lots of birds, including a green heron flying overhead and an excitable number of redwings. A mockingbird mimicked in full song.

As I emerged from the woodlot, into another park structure, I passed by some baby cottontails nibbling on plants. A vole scooted across the road in front of me. As I rounded a corner, I watched a doe walk casually from the parkland into the woods.

Soon I crossed another bridge, this time over a more substantial stream — almost a small river. I was in a very large park and when I rode down to the beach I saw a cannon sitting on the sand. I couldn’t tell if the Waterfront Trail continued at this point or not. The signage was poor. Besides, knowing I had to return, I figured for a cardio rehab patient I’d gone far enough for one outing.

I didn’t know what park I was in, but I guessed that the large stream was Etobicoke Creek. Later, at home, I studied an Internet map and confirmed that my guess was correct. It was indeed Etobicoke Creek and I had been in Marie Curtis Park.

The trip back was pleasant, especially since I no longer had to face directly into the sun. I felt like celebrating so when I arrived back in Port Credit, I rode to the harbour and across the bridge to Starbucks where I had a Tall Bold and a big glass of water. Then home, where everyone was still asleep.

Posted in Health & Wellness | 2 Comments »

20. June 2008 by Gene.

Photo of Gene on his new bike by Liz O’Neill

My 63rd birthday on June 10 came and went but despite my intentions I didn’t write a blog entry on that day. It sometimes bothers me when I’m not writing every day, even if it consists of nothing but a few notes in my Moleskine notebook, but this hiatus in my writing is different. I needed some time off from writing and photography. Some time to think about things and to assess priorities. Exercise certainly makes it to the top of the priority list. It’s now two months since my bypass op, and I’m gaining in strength and energy. Besides the natural healing process, the main driver is cardiac exercise — primarily walking. Starting with little five-minute walklets that tired me out, I’m now capable of walking up to thirty minutes or so at a stretch. Marion and I have taken to having morning and evening walks through our neighbourhood. She’s a fast walker and I have to remind her occasionally to set a slightly slower pace.

In addition to walking, I’ve taken up bike riding. My main birthday present was a new Giant Cyprus DX hybrid bicycle. I haven’t owned a decent bike since the late 70’s and the few times I’ve tried riding bikes in the past couple of years angina pains cut my rides short. Fortunately the bypass seems to have fixed that problem and I’m taking modest rides in the neighbourhood and along the Port Credit lakeshore bike path.

I’ve been casual about photography during this period. Mostly I take photos of flowers in our garden and now that I’m walking greater distances I often carry an ultracompact P&S digital, taking a few shots around the harbour. I’m beginning to combine bike riding with a bit of photography too. I’m eager to get back to shooting B&W film, but I’ve been holding off until I was strong enough to develop film again. I’m just about there.

I can scarcely say enough about the support I’ve had from family and friends. I’ve had lots of visits, phone calls, emails, and local meetups. These kindnesses really bolster the spirits.

On the relaxation and entertainment side of things, my second birthday present was DVD disc set of the entire Buffy, the Vampire Slayer TV series. Marion and I had not seen the series when it was live, so we’re new to it but we’re already Buffy junkies. It’s a series of surprising depth and the dialogue frequently has us laughing out loud. It’s as creative as anything I’ve seen produced for television and each of us has our favourite characters.

The weather during my recovery period has been spectacular. Except for one week of hot, humid weather, the days have been cooler than normal for this time of year, with mixed sun and rain. It’s our favourite kind of weather and we’ve been outside as often as we’re able.

In some ways, I feel like it’s a New Year — that time when you resolve to do certain things in the near future. I’m unresolved about my writing. I tried some fiction writing last fall and although I learned a lot of things that will make me a better and more appreciative reader, I confirmed that fiction is not my strength.

I like writing essays, but I’m not certain what kind of essay-writing project I’d like to do. I no longer write articles for technology magazines, or do so rarely, but my interest in science and technology remains strong. I think that I’ll start including more on these topics in my blog writing.

There will undoubtedly be more blog entries about photography,  technology, gardening, riding, and walking. And the various thoughts that arise from reading and observing.

In closing this entry, I’ll simply say I’m grateful to be alive, to be recovering my health, to be surrounded by family and friends, and to be continuing my lifelong learning.

My deep thanks to all of you who have taken the time to read my blog entries. I’ll try to keep them interesting, and I really appreciate your comments.

Posted in Health & Wellness | 3 Comments »

10. May 2008 by starbuckguy.

I’m sitting on the front deck, sipping green tea, on the warmest day we’ve had so far (around 18C or 65F). It’s a delightful temperature for walking, sitting, and, I suppose, photography, though I’m not doing much of that. It’s been two and a half weeks since my surgery (double-bypass), and I couldn’t have picked a nicer time of year to recover, even though it wasn’t planned.

The sky has changed. Until today, the sky had an April look to it with its deep blue and not quite fluffy clouds. Today the sky is a little paler and fluffy cumulus clouds predominate, looking very Mayish. The trees are pushing out leaves and our bleeding hearts are in bloom. I’ve seen quite a few migrating warblers, kinglets, thrushes, sparrows, a pair of towhees, and yesterday, a Baltimore oriole. The robins are already nesting with the male robins singing to mark territory and, I suspect, for the sheer joy of singing. What a lovely time of year.

My recovery is going well. My ribcage is healing and I’ve had minimal soreness and pain from it. My walklets have now extended to 8-9 minutes each, 3 or 4 times a day. I put my back out today and had to call the cardiac ward to find out if I could take any muscle relaxants. The nurse on duty reviewed my meds and didn’t see any problems so I’ve taken a couple. Bad timing, but it hasn’t prevented me from walking, even if I walk with a pronounced stoop.

My friend Marty stopped by for a visit today, and I’ve had visits in the past few days from Richard and Dave as well. It’s fun to see them and catch up on their news. I tire a little, but not as much as I thought I would. I think that’s a good sign.

Marion has been doing a super job of looking after me. She makes all the meals and does all the cleanup, except for the little bits I can now do. I dislike it that she has all the responsibilities, but our roles were reversed when she had her hip replacement a bit over a year ago now. Perhaps it evens out.

Our son Trevor, who decided to learn to ride a bike just a few weeks back, at age 23, is now taking healthy bike rides almost daily. He bought a bike that we intended to share, but when I tried riding before my op, I had strong angina pains whenever I rode up any grades, even gentle ones. My goal is to be riding a bike by mid summer and taking longer bike rides along the lakeshore by autumn. With luck, the angina will no longer be with me.

I’ve not done as much reading as I thought I might but I’ve been watching some new lectures. We purchased two more courses from the Teaching Company: The Nature of Earth: An Introduction to Geology, by Professor John Renton, and Understanding Genetics: DNA, Genes and Their Real-World Applications, by Professor David Sadava. I’ve started with the geology course, to help fill some gaps in my understanding and appreciation of that side of natural history. It’s very interesting, though I doubt I’ll be very good at remembering many of the mineral names. The reintroduction to chemistry is a stretch as well. Good brain food, this.

I have Skype working fine on my Dell portable, using my new headset, on the Windows partition anyway. I’ve been unable so far to get the mic working in Ubuntu Linux. I’m not up for a challenging troubleshoot right now, so I’m booting into Windows more often than I like. Yesterday I had a 30-minute conversation with my friend Tim in the UK, using Skype. My brother Jim and I use it regularly. He lives in Russellville, Arkansas.

As always I’m enjoying my technologies. The iPod remains a favourite, especially for podcasts. We finally upgraded our TV to a digital LCD and we’ve enjoyed some movies and TV shows on it, though we find little to watch on live TV. My Dell portable in wireless mode allows me to avoid climbing the stairs to my office where my desktop computer resides. For photography I’ve installed the Windows version of The GIMP to match the version I use in Linux. I’m not certain whether or not my Photoshop CS3 license allows me to use it on two machines. Fortunately I’d already taken the time to learn The GIMP fairly well and I enjoy using it.

And of course there’s my little lightweight Alphasmart Neo, the little text machine I’m using to type this. It runs something like 700 hours on a set of AA batteries. It’s not fancy, but it has a great keyboard and is a writer’s dream.

I’m a lucky person. My health will be restored and modern medicines will keep me operative for a number of years to come, barring accidents and other complications. A century ago I’d probably be dead by now from my cardiac problems. I never take life for granted.

This has become a ramble but sitting out on the deck in this lovely weather as I’m healing has made me want to write. I hope you don’t mind.

Posted in Health & Wellness, Technology | 4 Comments »

29. April 2008 by Gene.

One week ago today I had open-heart surgery — a double bypass. Today is my third day home. I’m still amazed at how quickly the recovery begins. Years ago people were kept in hospital, then in bed, for weeks. Now they have you up and moving the day after surgery.

I’ve been assigned several tasks: deep breathing, foot wiggling, and what I call ‘walklets’ — little five-minute walks during the day. The deep breathing part is to help re-inflate the lungs, which partially collapse during the surgery. The foot wiggling helps pump blood back towards the heart. For the first time in my life I have swollen ankles, but I understand it’s de rigeur for bypass patients.

The walklets are my favourite. I was provided with a chart to follow that starts out by working my way up to six walklets a day, totalling 30 mins. Today I’ve already taken four walklets and it’s only dinner time. That was my personal minimal goal for the day. I should be able to do at least one more walklet today.

Eventually the walklets get longer in duration and the number of them gets smaller until the walklets have smoothed out into a single 30-min walk per day. At that point I will be ready to begin rehab.

It’s interesting to be in a situation where I have to learn patience, howevermuch it goes against my nature.

Posted in Health & Wellness | 5 Comments »

18. April 2008 by starbuckguy.

I’ve been away

Originally uploaded by StarbuckGuy

I’m writing this blog entry on my Linux laptop while sitting up in my hospital bed. I’d been getting a little bored during my stay, but once we heard that the hospital had a wireless Internet service, Marion brought me my laptop and I gave it a try. Bingo. Connected. A modest fee paid for a few days of service and here I am.

It all started a week ago, Friday, 11-April-2008, when an increased amount of angina pain that had gone on for a few days looked like a change from the milder pains to which I was accustomed. Marion and I agreed that a call to 911 was in order. Right after I had a chance to shower and enjoy a fine home-food meal. So, we casually called 911 and the big fire engine arrived shortly followed by the paramedics with an ambulance. They’re trained to take chest pains very seriously so I was bound onto a gurney and scooted up to Trillium hospital, a short five minutes or so away.

There I was stacked in the hallway with all the other patients waiting admission into an emergency room. The place was full up, as usual. But after about seven sprays of nitro with no subsiding of the pain and a steadily low BP reading, I was given a room. Blood work was done and an x-ray was taken. Both indicated that I hadn’t had a heart attack. I was relieved of course, and due to crowded hospital conditions, I expected to be sent home with a Popsicle or ice cream cone. Instead, I was admitted for further testing and observation.

Fridays aren’t good days to pick for having an emergency. Make a note to yourself about that. It was decided, based on my past history of a heart attack, and two stent procedures, that I should have an angiogram. I quite agreed this would be a capital idea, but the cardio cath labs are shut down on the weekend. On Monday my case was put forward to see if I could be fit in. Feeling a bit like a stand-by passenger on a holiday weekend I had three different appointments set for Tuesday, and each one was cancelled. I didn’t really mind, knowing there were people in more urgent need. I’d been stabilized and was resting comfortably — or as comfortably as one can in a ward with four patients, one bathroom, and an Italian guy whose snores could probably be heard two floors down at Tim Hortons.

They then gave me a “for sure” Wednesday morning appointment for 7:30am. I was awakened at 6, fed my heart pills, and reminded that I could have no breakfast. At around 10:30 I was told that my appointment would take place sometime in the afternoon. The nurse reminded me that I had to fast so I couldn’t have lunch. Uh huh. I think I got in around 2:00pm. My poor surgeon, Dr. Singh, had performed both of my previous angioplasty/stent ops and looked discouraged. “How was it this time?” I asked. “Blocked again!” He looked personally insulted. “How blocked?” I asked. “95%” he said. “Well,” said I, “at least it wasn’t my imagination that I was experiencing this.” “No,” he laughed, patting me on my shoulder, “you weren’t imagining.”

I can’t say I was greatly surprised. Despite the excellent work Dr. Singh performed, I’d already re-blocked once and if your body is prone to this kind of thing, I’d read it’s not unusual for it to happen again. For most people stents are excellent — the least obtrusive heart fixes going.

The hospital cardiologists reviewed my films and decided that it was time for an open-heart, bypass operation. Again no surprise. Of course the weekend is upon us again so I’ll be marking time for a few days more. I’m tentatively scheduled for noon, Tuesday, 22-April-2008, but I’ve already learned that schedules can evaporate quickly. And once again, if a new patient turns up who urgently needs the surgery in order to survive, that patient should obviously be treated first.

In the meantime I’ll trade emails with my friends, check out my favourite photo forums, listen to podcasts, and read the hospital menu carefully to identify what I’ve just eaten.

Posted in Health & Wellness | 9 Comments »