Yesterday, we had the second surgery to correct the cataract in the right eye. This was a bit more complicated than the first surgery (which was a simple lens replacement) in that there were additional measurements and a second laser process involved to fix the astigmatism in the right eye cornea. There was yet another measurement made during the surgery to determine which of four possible lens implants would be selected. I regret to say that the cause of all the additional processes could have been circumvented had I not had LASIK surgery on the right eye 22 years ago.

I went to the day-after follow-up this morning and the results pleased the surgeon (who kept patting himself on the back) as well as they pleased me since he had me reading the fine print on the eye chart even though the dilation in the eye was still set at F 0.6 or so (wide open). The eye will be considered completely healed and functional in a few days although the eye drop regimen will persist for about three weeks. I thank the Lord that all this is behind me and seems to have worked out.

A few weeks ago, I upgraded Damsel’s AR-15 with a forward vertical grip. I watched a video on the ‘Tube where some dude installed a vertical grip on the standard hand guard by using a rail section and a compatible grip. I did the modification to her rifle by following the advice I saw and when it was complete, I was not satisfied. The grip still had some wobble even though it seemed to be securely fastened. It was a workable kluge.

I previously reported on the hand guard upgrade on my rifle with a quad rail and a vertical grip. That worked out very well and I am still happy with it. I was going to apply that same upgrade to Damsel’s rifle but we got distracted a bit since she indicated that she wanted to get pink furniture for her gun. So, we abandoned the quad rail upgrade. Now, the pink furniture seems to be sold out everywhere. I am on waiting lists but nobody can seem to say when they will be back in stock.

Well, I didn’t want to wait to get her gun fixed and get rid of the foregrip wobble, so I ordered a Magpul MOE Hand Guard (which is the same manufacturer of the pink stuff) as an interim solution while waiting for the ultimate pinkness to show up.

Today, the hand guard arrived and I completed the mod to her rifle. The before and after pictures are below. The kluged verical grip on the standard hand guard (left) and the Magpul hand guard and vertical grip (right). Click on either image to enlarge.

The last year seems to have gone by in a whirlwind despite the social and biological plagues of 2020. Since our Retirement Post Last Year, we have been busy with our everyday routines accompanied by some occasional deviations from the norm. We find things to keep us busy, I guess, as most retirees do, and that seems to make the time pass quickly.

Because of the overblown COVID-19 pandemic (or should I say DEM panic?), we have postponed any excursions in the RV to next spring and/or fall. We had planed a couple of trips for 2020, but stuff happened.

IMAGE: Numeral Eleven textured by the red rock gravel around our house where many people would have a lawn. We have to pull weeds once in a while, but no mowing in retirement!

During the past year, on two occasions, we have entertained overnight visitors in our home. The first visit was from a couple that we have known since the early 1960’s. They stayed a couple of nights with us and had a reunion dinner at our place with another couple who, like us, relocated to Arizona from Kalifornistan. The second visitor, also an old friend and former workplace associate, stayed with us a couple of nights in August while on his way from Colorado Springs back home to the Los Angeles area. Those were both nice visits that we enjoyed immensely.

October is going to be an eventful month. I have my second cataract surgery scheduled mid-month with pre- and post-surgery visits with the ophthalmologist plus visit scheduled with the proctologist for an exam and to schedule the next colonoscopy. I also have some more dermatology work to be done sometime in October. I also plan on seeing the orthopedic surgeon next week regarding knees, shoulders and hips. There’s nothing drastically wrong with those (I hope) but I have a recommendation from the family doctor to go to the ortho for x-rays and follow-ups.

So, here we go into our twelfth year of retirement. We’re praying that the widespread insanity diminishes enough for us to get back to normal and maybe hit the road to relieve our wanderlust.

Two weeks ago, we added a new AR style firearm to our inventory. We now have two of these. Our local arms dealership is going out of business due to poor health of the proprietor and we got the latest AR at a 10 percent discount from their posted price. We also acquired some spare 30 round magazines for 5.56×45 and a couple of other accessories.

Now that the smoke has settled from the acquisitions, we decided to upgrade our stock hand guards to a quad rail system. The units we bought are Leapers UTG PRO AR-15 MTU001 Drop-in Carbine-Length Quad Rail System. Our main motivation for this is to be able to install forward vertical grip handles on the rifles as well as addition of illuminators or other goodies on the rails.

I installed the first Quad Rail on the new rifle this afternoon. It went quite well as I followed the instructions from their You-Tube Video. I then installed the vertical grip on the lower rail of the new unit. Before and after images below. Click on either image to enlarge.

I tried to install the second Quad Rail on our older AR and had a problem with it. I think it may be due to a slight misalignment of the barrel nut (looks like a gear with teeth). If you watch the video, they mention that an “armorer’s wrench” may be necessary to correct the misalignment. Well, we ain’t got one of those and they are too $$ for a one-time use. I am going to go to the shop where we bought the gun and see if they can fix the problem. I’ll mosey on over to the shop tomorrow and see if they can help.

Meanwhile, the new rifle looks sorta cool with the rails and the vertical grip. We’ll get to the range soon and see how it feels with the grip.

It’s time for the annual milestone to mark yet another year of blogging on CB&D. Our statistics for the past year show that we have posted about 52 times, or, on average, once a week. That’s nowhere near the “old days” when we made 300 or so posts yearly, but it’s not to bad (in our opinion).

Just because we’ve gone sort of silent on posting does not mean that we’re out of blogging in the reading sense. We have an RSS feed reader browser extension with some 27 blogs that we read daily (or as often as they post) several of which post many times a day. We think that we’re getting the news we need through them.

In the coming year, we will probably be doing just about the same as this past year, noting when there are special events or personal activity, not the least of which we hope will be travelling in our motorhome to new and interesting places as well as some old favorites. That may resume in springtime assuming this COVID-19 crap goes dormant and there are no riots where we’re going.

Lest we forget, today marks The Autumnal Equinox, a.k.a. “first day of fall.” Here in AZ we are still having what we call “second spring” with cactus flowers and our Pride of Barbados shrubs in bloom. We see bees, hummingbirds and butterflies regularly and will probably continue to have them well into winter months. What will disappear from our skies are the ubiquitous Turkey Buzzards who will soon be headed to Mexico for the winter. Happy Fall, everyone!

Thanks for keeping us on the blogrolls. Let us know if we’re not reciprocating.

Friday, September 11, 2020, marks the nineteenth anniversary of the Islamic terrorist attacks on US soil. On that day, the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon in Virginia and possibly the US Capitol in Washington DC were under attack by nineteen Jihadist enemies of America. But in reality, the nineteen represented a majority of Islamic interests worldwide on that day who were attacking freedom in spirit. We saw the celebrations in Palestine and other Islamic areas on that day.

The fourth hijacked aircraft never made it to its target, potentially the US Capitol Building in Washington, DC. Thanks to the brave souls aboard flight 93 that fought back against the hijackers, the fourth target was spared and, of course the passengers who fought back gave their lives in the effort. We must NEVER FORGET.

The entire Whitehouse Proclamation text can be seen at this link.

By a joint resolution approved December 18, 2001 (Public Law 107-89), the Congress designated September 11 of each year as “Patriot Day.”

NOW, THEREFORE, I, DONALD J. TRUMP, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim September 11, 2020, as Patriot Day. I call upon all departments, agencies, and instrumentalities of the United States to display the flag of the United States at half-staff on Patriot Day in honor of the innocent people who lost their lives on September 11, 2001. I invite the Governors of the United States and its Territories and interested organizations and individuals to join in this observance. I call upon the people of the United States to participate in community service in honor of the innocent people we lost that day and to observe a moment of silence beginning at 8:46 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time to honor those victims who perished as a result of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this tenth day of September, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-fifth.

DONALD J. TRUMP

The purpose of this post is not to elicit sympathy, but rather to share some of my recent healthcare-related experiences. There are several things going on with the old meat-frame, none of which, at this point in time, are too serious or life-threatening.

Eight years ago, I found out that I had a malignant neoplasm in the bladder which was transurethrally resected and my most recent checkup showed no signs of recurrence. There were some complications that needed correction after the initial surgery, but those are in the past save for some minor atrophy of my right kidney.

I’m seeing a nephrologist for the kidney function which is now diagnosed at stage 2 (of 5 stages) failure, but no special procedures indicated at this point. No dialysis is required at this time and probably never if I follow the prescribed diet and medications.

I’m scheduled for cataract surgery on the left eye next Monday. Prior to that, the hospital wants me to be tested for COVID-19. That test is scheduled for Friday. The surgery, I’m told by others that have had the procedure, is quick and painless and generally a big success.

I have been going to several dermatologists over the past 30 years, or so. I have a good one here in town who I see regularly. I’ve lost count of the minor excisions of skin cancers and other lesions on my epidermis. Squamous, Basal Cell, Common Warts and Nevi have been victims to his various cutting implements. Some of them just get frozen with several dabs of liquid nitrogen. I’m sure there will be more in the future.

It’s been five years since my last colonoscopy, so I’m due. It would be a longer interval except the proctologist removed several polyps last time, so I’m a bigger risk to have more. I have yet to set up the session, although anytime prior to December 2020 would probably be OK.

Last month, I had my 77th Birthday. Just prior to that, I had chest pressure (can’t really say pain) but went to the ER anyway. They did a chest X-ray, an EKG and blood work and found nothing out of sorts. As a follow-up, I got a CT scan of the upper torso. The radiologist found nothing to address the pressure I had, but did notice some small irregularities in my lungs. I have an appointment with a pulmonologist to further examine the radiology. I assume they will tell me my options once they have looked at the the scans. The local radiologist who wrote the report recommended another CT scan in six months to see if anything changed.

After the chest pressure incident, the family doctor ordered an Echocardiogram. The results of that test were quite normal.

I may update this post over the next couple of days when we figure out what’s to be done next with regard to the lungs. I may also update with a report on the cataract surgery.

UPDATE: OK here’s the first addition to this post - I visited the Pulmonologist (lung specialist) today who reviewed the suspicious CT scans and pronounced them “no big deal.” He wants to test me for Valley Fever (a common ailment in the southwestern US) but other than that he says to come back in a year to see if the little nodules in my lungs are doing anything like growing. Praise God!

UPDATE 2: It’s been over a couple of weeks since the cataract lens replacement in my left eye. I’m happy to say that it went well and the new lens is functioning perfectly. I am still using eye drops per the ophthalmologist’s direction for another week. The second surgery is scheduled for mid-October. There are complications in the right eye that I will post about later. Thank God again for a good outcome!

Today, our elder dog, Cabela, is approximately twelve years old. I say that since when we adopted her from the Humane Society here in town, she was estimated to be about two years old but her actual birth date was unknown. That was ten years ago this month at the time we were having our Arizona house built.

Cabela is probably a pure bred miniature pinscher “blue” but we have no history on her other than she was found near the rodeo grounds up in Constellation Park here in Wickenburg. We figure she was cropped and bobbed by her original owners who managed to let her run off somehow. I pity their loss. At the same time, we feel fortunate to have this little dog despite her high-strung personality and a tendency to bark at most everything. She truly must think she’s ten feet tall and bullet proof.

At twelve, Cabela shows few signs of growing old. She is quite active, can still jump and run at full speed and when on a leash can drag “The Daddy” along to where she wants to go. Despite being headstrong, she can be a nice companion here at home and still sleeps on the bed with us, sometime stealing the covers. She is quite the character and we love her.