26 April …

Well, here we are … again on a wednesday … short blog week …only four days and a whopper of an infection in my right palm which makes typing (and a lot of other things) painful. 

I am taking an antibiotic with lots of water (had to get up three times last night) and yogurt.

Oh well …

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This spring is filling up with medical appointments.  In May I go for a follow-up with my hand, George goes for his semi-annual check-up at the VA, he goes for his monthly stab in the eyeball, and he goes for a cardiac check-up.

I seem to be obsessed with appointments, right?

Closing in on 90 is      …

Oh well …

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We recently watched the three part titled “The Great War” on PBS.  It was well done.  I think it should be part of high school history classes.

I learned from it. 

One thing which caught my attention was information about chlorine gas which was used extensively in WW I.  It seems it doesn’t just disappear.  It settles into (onto) the ground and soldiers running across a field which had been gassed stir it up in the dust and it is then like a new gassing.  It made me wonder about Sarin.  Does it hang around?  If so, how long? 

The other thing which caught my attention was the use of Choctaw “codetalkers” during that war.  Seems the Navajo codetalkers weren’t the first native Americans to serve.  In that earlier war they were recruited along with whites, unlike “negroes” who were recruited but segregated.

At one time the Germans were monitoring all allied communication so surprise was impossible until some savvy officer asked one of the Choctaw soldiers if he spoke Choctaw.  That did it and changed the path of war in France.

There was a difference between the codetalkers.  It seems the Choctaw just spoke their own language and that was enough to confuse the Germans.  The Navajo in WW II spoke Navajo but added code names such as the Navajo word for turtle to indicate tanks.

Clever …

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No pictures this week other than the lead-off.  Holding the camera is difficult (George took the hand picture).

It’s been raining, sometimes pretty good, sometimes simply showers.  It is supposed to clear tomorrow for a week or so.  We shall see.

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And so …  

The inevitable sad truth is that time is marching on for all of us, whether we like it or not, and we’re getting pushed to the front of the line.

That may seem as if I’m depressed.  Not so.  I realize most of the people I knew in my youth weren’t given the opportunity to fret over late life appointments and I am grateful.

So … ’til next week …