Monthly Archives: December 2013

Scalp Treatment

Have been spending a few weeks off the clock. First class accommodations at County General and a nearby skilled step down facility where a strategically placed skin graft takes hold and I become acquainted with my surgical bonus colostomy. Yay! Aaaany-hooo . . . It’d been a while — a long while, actually — sinceContinue reading “Scalp Treatment”

Stink Eye

Most days, after undergoing a very involved morning routine that begins at 7:30 AM and ends at about 9 AM, whose details will remain undescribed, I roll into my executive handicapped bathroom to brush my hair, shave with my Norelco electric razor, and brush my teeth. Having acclimated to the calibrated use of Coumadin toContinue reading “Stink Eye”

A Charles’ Dickie Christmas

He explained he wasn’t real sure how the tradition began, but over the years, while enjoying all the commercial glam of Christmas, he and his sisters took especially great pleasure in giving one mean gift at Christmas. Dianne loathed pork rinds, and Sue’s gag reflex took over at the mere mention of mushrooms. He hadContinue reading “A Charles’ Dickie Christmas”

Three Equal Parts

My sisters and I had dinner together this past Labor Day Weekend. Sue drove over from Wheaton, and Dianne drove down from Philadelphia. I was a seven-eighths bachelor. The kids – all but Caleb – were scattered out of town. Allie, the “outest” of town, was in Sweden, Chip in Mt. Airy, and both EmContinue reading “Three Equal Parts”

A Thanksgiving Re-Tale

On Thanksgiving day, 2009, they left Atlanta for home. For two weeks after “graduating” summa-cum-paralyzed from inpatient physical-and occupational-therapy, he battled a urinary tract infection with an antibiotic that unleashed his gastrointestinal nemesis, C-Diff, for the umpteenth time. She had traveled to Atlanta for what was to have been a controlled two-week outpatient program withContinue reading “A Thanksgiving Re-Tale”

Mind the Gap, Pops

He sat compactly folded in his wheelchair on the Greenbelt Metro platform — his joints rigidly articulated at knee and hip. Though seated, it was clear, were he a literal, fully-unfolded pedestrian, he would stand six feet plus. It had threatened rain earlier but was still just dry and overcast. “So far, so good,” heContinue reading “Mind the Gap, Pops”