It’s been an eventful summer, and one of the most eventful things was having to deal with a detached retina and the series of operations that has entailed.

The first operation was on June 21st, after having returned from my sojourn in Alberobello, Italy. The doctors lectured me for not having come to see them sooner, but being in Italy made a consultation somewhat problematic. I woke up one morning noticing that the vision in my left eye was not right, but had no idea what was the problem. (Google counseled me that I might have had a stroke; fortunately that wasn’t the case.) Far from home and with no doctor at hand, and, since I could see well enough to get around, I decided to wait.

Once I got home, I made an immediate appointment with my eye doctor; she quickly diagnosed a detached retina and sent me post haste to the Anschulz University Eye Clinic. After a thorough examination, the eye surgeon, Dr. Manoharan, scheduled me for a repair procedure the following day.

This photo is from the first operation–the others pretty much followed the same process–no eating or drinking after midnight on the evening before the operation; checkin and waiting; completing the same forms over and over again; meetings with all of the doctors and staff; and waking up during the procedure, sometimes to tell the surgical team that I needed a little bit more “happy juice” as I could feel what they were doing. (You are never fully anesthetized, but only given medication which makes you drowsy and totally relaxed.)

The first repair stayed in place for 14 days; then I noticed that the vision in my left eye was askew. A return visit to the clinic confirmed that the retina had once again detached. The second operation followed quickly; that one lasted all of five days before tearing. Going back to consult with the surgeon, he told me that scar tissue had developed and allowed the retina to pull aways yet again. The third operation took place on August 16. This time they first cut away the scar tissue, lasered the area before suturing the retina to the eyeball, and then injected oil into the eyeball, instead of gas, to put pressure on the retina and hold it in place…and so far so good.

Of course, this all also impacted Sue heavily. She had to accompany me to every visit & checkup and then wile away hours in a freezing cold room for the surgeon to come tell her all was well. Driving to the Eye Clinic located in Aurora is a minimum hour round trip–and we have made a lot of those trips. Neither of us enjoys driving these days, but Sue has had to do more than her fair share these last couple of months. Even when I am permitted to drive, my depth perception is for crap so you really don’t want to be riding with me.

One of the standard instructions after each operation is to try to stay face down as much as possible (55 minutes out of every hour) during the first week of recovery; using a massage chair during the day was recommended as well as sleeping on my right side. All easier said than done. I was never the best of patients, completely lacking in pacience, but the doctor has assured me that my inability to stay totally quiet and prone did not cause any of the repair operations to fail.

Charlie and his best friend, Dylan demonstrated how I might want to use some of the other face-down medical equipment.

Fortunately I never had to resort to that…

Sue and I were riding home from our latest visit with my eye surgeon–that’s another story. After stopping for lunch at 7 Leguas, a local Mexican restaurant which we decided to try today. A great option for lunch.

it was pretty late, after 3:00. The radio came on automatically and was tuned to NPR’s broadcast of the Market Report. The story was on terramation or human composting; I have read stories and heard reports on this a number of times in the recent past, but this time it really hit home.

Terramation is a name for human composting. The website Wikimpedia says “Although the natural decomposition of human corpses into soil is a long-standing practice, a more rapid process that was developed in the early 21st century by Katrina Spade, entails encasing human corpses in wood chips, straw, and alfalfa until thermophile microbes decompose the body. In this manner, the transformation can be sped up to as little as 1–2 months.^[2] The accelerated process is based in part on techniques developed for the composting of livestock.”

For.a long time now, I have known that I didn’t want my family subjected to the traditional body disposal that we have long been subjected to. Clearly, there are many people just like me who no longer think that embalming and burying the body in a sealed casket in a graveyard is the ideal option.

Colorado is one of the very few states now permitting the option of terramation. Sue and I are certainly going to look into it.

This wasn’t our ship–but one just as big and obnoxious as ours, coming into the Santorini harbor; fours hours were soon to follow. The following morning, there were six ships, with something like 20,000 passengers, all of whom had to take a tender from their ship to the shoreside dock, then wait for a spot on the funicular to take them up to the village on the hilltop. I don’t know how many people actually succeeded in seeing anything on the island of Santorini, but I know a lot of people never made it off the dock. Fortunately, we had decided against even trying as we had see Santorini before.

In the last decade, cruising has became a nightmare–there are just far too many people just like us–with time and money enough to afford a Mediterranean cruise, but there are just so many places you can visit. The next stop was Athens. We thought that it wouldn’t be too hard to get into town from the harbor at Piraeus. So did all the other people in line with us.

Don’t get me wrong. Sue and I have taken some cruises that we have enjoyed. Our favorite are the TransAtlantic repositioning cruises that leave from Florida, perhaps stop by a Caribbean island or two and then sail for six or seven days without touching land. Sure the food, drinks, and entertainment can get boring, but it’s usually peaceful and serene sailing from the Caribbean to the Mediterranean. We might even do that again, but not sure now if we can bring ourselves to try it. You still have to contend with your three to four thousand fellow passengers, all striving to get fed or into the nightly theater production.

The saving grace on this trip was being with John and Bonnie, Sue’s brother and sister in law. We do enjoy being with them and sharing some of the experiences.

On this cruise, we enjoyed seeing Mykonos with them:

Olympus:

The Amalfi Coast and Sorrento:

And most especially the stop in Malta and the visit with their granddaughter, Betsy, who was there for her semester abroad:

In June I embarked on a solo two week adventure in the Puglia region of Italy, an area I had never visited before, despite many visits to Italy over the past forty years. I am so glad I did.

Alberobello is a small city, located in the heart of Puglia, famous for its Trulli architecture. and orecchiette pasta.

I chose it because of the Trulli Italian Language School and the opportunity both to refresh my Italian and to get to know and explore a new part of Italy.

I thoroughly enjoyed my two week stay, the school and opportunity to see a lot of the Puglia region. The weather during the first two weeks of June was great–some very warm and sunny days, interspersed with some more temperate, blue sky days.

The Trulli Language School offered a two week Italian course. Twenty-five of us showed up on the first days of class when we were divided up into three groups, based on our level of Italian proficiency.

Classes, consisting of five to seven students, were taught every morning from 9:00 to 1:00 by talented and friendly faculty.

Afternoons were devoted to excursions to nearby towns as well as wine tasting, an olive oil tasting, a cooking lesson and excursions to several nearby towns.

Most of the towns were just an hour or so away; many of them on the Adriatic; all of them beautiful and fun to explore. There was always an opportunity to shopped/or sample the local wines or cuisine. My favorite town was Polignano a Mare where our tour included a boat ride that took us into some of the caves that honeycomb the cliffs under the city.

And, of course, there was always gelato–why is always so much better when combined with a ramble through an Italian village or town?

I was surprised to learn that I was the only man in the summer program, along with some 23 woman who came from all over the world–the US, Egypt, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Argentina and throughout Europe and the Americas.

The teachers and the owner/director, Andrea, were friendly and helpful. My classmates and I really enjoyed our teacher, Angelica, who had a degree in teaching, could speak French, Spanish, and Arabic and was a very intuitive and creative instructor (pictured above on the far right).

Two of my classmates, Chris & Holly, were great dinner companions. Over a bottle or two of Negroamaro wine, we enjoyed talking about our different backgrounds and experiences–Holly is from New Zealand and a mountain hiking guide, Chris is from Australian and a retired teacher; sharing family stories; and laughing at our mutual struggles with mastering Italian.

I really hope to return soon to Alberobello and to get Sue to accompany me!

Delta County, CO is one of our favorite places. We love visiting there and love sharing it with others. This past week we spent a wonderful week there with some longtime friends.

This was the view from the back deck, where we met most mornings and evenings to talk, laugh, covetch and enjoy good food and wine. We were often entertained by hummingbirds bickering to control access the feeders. The view changed with each day depending on the time of day and the weather

Our group included longtime friends–we all met in 1970 in New Orleans when some of us were enrolled in a Masters Degree Program in Latin American Studies at Tulane University–that was 54 years ago.

We have kept in touch and visited with each other during these years and gotten to know their partners, welcoming their children, and sharing good news and bad.

This week we made our headquarters in a lovely Airbnb home, perched on ten acres outside of Hotchkiss, CO. Highlights of our trip included a visit to the North Rim of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison, the Orchard Winery near Paonia, Pioneer Town in Cedaredge and the nearby Grand Mesa.

Martin & Lois Simpson, Ben & Lauriece Aguirre, John Cunningham, and Sue.

Lois, John and I enjoyed morning walks along Mesa Stuckey Road. The Black Canyon is always worth another visit. August is a good time for wildflower viewing.