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Diary for 2007
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Jan 6. Up to GB to see how my brother is getting along after his illness. Seems much better,
- Jan 20. On the coldest day of the year we visited the Sean Kelly gallery in Chelsea. Looked over
the show Primitism Revisited, an exhibition curated by 18 grad students from Columbia. Interesting comparisons between African
pieces and modern Western art. Politically correct to a fault. Sample prose: "the exoticizing and demeaning implications of
Primitism have made it untenable."
- Feb 2. Blood in stools. Damn. On Friday Dr Eng checked out my stomach with an endoscope. Everything OK. Now
on to the other end--colonoscopy.
- Mar 6. Colon resection on Thursday at Sloan-Kettering. Presiding surgeon Jose Guillem. Very friendly and
well-trained nurses and administrators. Coffee and snacks available on several floors. How to lose weight in that hospital?
Bad memories of my last resection twenty years ago in Philadelphia at the Thomas Jefferson. Further bulletins later, I hope.
- Apr 11. Out of Sloan-Kettering, now recuperating from my operation in our small NY apt. General impressions
of Sloan-Kettering: Their pain management team must be the best in the business. Came out of a 4-hour extensive surgery (42
stitches down my belly) without a twinge of pain. After the operation the pain killer was introduced into an epidural inserted
into my spine. So unlike my experience at Thomas Jefferson 20 years ago, where you had to beg for pain relief and they responded
only after a two hours or so. Most of the nurses are extremely helpful and friendly and full of advice. In our colorectal
ward, there seemed to be more nurses than patients. So different from most NY hospitals, where I have heard of up to 60 patients
per nurse and you are advised to hire your own private nurse if you want any attention. More later. A CAT scan showed that
the cancer had not spread from my colon to any other organ and examination of the lymph nodes showed that they were clean.
No chemotherapy planned, just quarterly checkups at S-K.
- Apr. 22. Still loafing about in our NY apartment, feeling weak
and lazy. Expect to head down to Princeton in about a week, just in time to hear a talk on the Atacama Cosmology Telescope
Project by Suzanne Staggs, physics prof at Princetn. o
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What's New?
Here I might add an entry whenever I make an update to my web site. Where appropriate, I'll include a link to the change.
For example:
11/1/01 - Added new photos to Vacation Album page.
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Diary Continued ...
| Festspielhaus in Bayreuth |
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| Wagner's Opera House |
- Apr 22. Discovered a physical therapy group just across 79th street from our apt. A few days ago I signed
up for exercises to strengthen my abdominal muscles. The incision seems to be healing OK.
- May 8. Film at the Princeton Library: Dizzy Gillespie in Cuba. Madcap visit by Dizzy to Havana, culminating
in a long Afro-Cuban jazz session with the best Cuban musicians. The Cuban trumpeteer gave the best performance I've ever
heard in my life.
- June 27. Marian out of Princeton hospital after gall bladder surgery. Got rid of rocks in bladder and common
bile duct. Raring to go with the Wagner enthusiasts.
- July 16. Hectic week for Marian with the Wagnerites. On Friday and Saturday just past, she viewed Wagner's
Rheingold and Walkure, then on Sunday we sailed up the Hudson with some of the group members, listening to old Wagner records
and munching dinner. Three more evenings for her to survive, including her talk on Wagner in Russia.
- July 20. Marian's talk on Wagner's influence on Russian art at the William's Club went over like a bombshell.
Requests for an encore and publication surfaced. Siegfried and Gotterdamerung went off flawlessly at the Met, with my seconding
Marian for the third act, when she tired. General feeling for the Ring Cycle: great music and voices, but poor production.
Where was Valhalla? When it fell, all that happened on stage was the flickering of red color and the toppling of the three
giant dummies. I wanted to see the castle burning down.
- July 23. Hydroscience expect to arrive tomorrow to begin excavations to remove the underground oil from our
driveway. Hope the rain stays away; otherwise there will be an ungodly mess from the excavating machinery and dump trucks.
Will not have access to the driveway and garage for about a week.
- July 30. Hydroscience finally arrived today. Their excavating equipment is really too large for the confined
space of our driveway. The smaller shovel dug a trench around one side of the chimney about 7' deep without getting through
the oil layer, so they had to dismiss the cement truck that waited most of the day on Hamilton Avenue. Will be unable to use
our driveway for the week (?) it will take to get rid of the oil contaminated soil.
- Aug 12. Oil remediation finished in a week and a half. Final pit size was 12'X10'X9' depth. 22 tons of contaminated
soil removed. Two new pillars underneath the basement now stretch down to the base rock. Future actions? Drill a hole down
to bedrock to monitor contamination of surface water; Replace tarmac in the driveway now filled in with clean dirt.
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