Heart Catheter tomorrow

I'm a little anxious tonight because I'm scheduled for a heart catheter tomorrow morning.

I started noticing a mild tightness in my chest about eight months ago. It showed up when I exerted but it never rose to the level of pain.

I finally mentioned it to my GP during a quarterly checkup at the end of December and he referred me to a cardiologist.

The cardiologist had me take an exhaustive stress test and concluded that I have about a 30% blockage on one side of my heart.

So he fast-tracked me for a heart catheter at 9 a.m. tomorrow (Monday).

I trust the cardiologist to do a good job, but I still have some anxiety about the procedure.

So, mention me in your prayers, please.

My work is on display

Here are a few of the photos on canvas that will be in my exhibition at the Sugar Creek Art Center. in Thorntown, Ind.

I was flattered to be invited to be the Featured Artist of the Month for September in the downstairs gallery.

I'm scheduled to hang the exhibition this Thursday and am pleased that my stuff will be on display during the 2022 Thorntown Festival of the Falling Leaves, the last weekend of September.

Please drop by if you're in town in September.

New (to us) Lexus RX350

With the mid-March demise of our 2004 Lexus RX330, we've been a one-car family, which means Maria drives the Subaru to work and I stay home.

I was liberated this week with the acquisition of a 2013 Lexus RX350, which is like a spaceship compared with the old RX330.

It appears that we're fated to be a Subaru-Lexus family. I can live with that. 

Bring out your dead

 I cleaned up my contacts and Facebook friends list over the weekend and said goodbye to several friends who have died.

I was carrying 14 dead people in my Facebook friends list and six in my contact list.

I suspect I may have missed some.

Adios, Lexus

We said goodbye to our 2004 Lexus RX330 yesterday.

It had developed an expensive power steering problem that would have cost $2,100 to fix, which is more money than I cared to spend on what had become a luxury beater with 205,000 miles on the odometer.

We bought it in 2009 in Jonesboro, Ark. from a guy who worked with Maria at the Jonesboro Sun. He and his pals had a sideline of buying and fixing up wrecked cars for resale. This car began life in Memphis as a corporate car that was written off after being beaten up by a hailstorm. The damage was cosmetic and it was still mechanically sound. The price was well under the Kelly Blue Book value, so we bought it.

It replaced my 1994 Honda del Sol that Maria insisted we get rid of because she felt unsafe driving it.

When it came time to return home to Indiana, we had a U-Haul trailer hitch attached to it, letting us make several trips to Indiana with our stuff.

The guys who repaired it post-hailstorm did a poor job with pain and clear coat. The clear coat was peeling off making it look like a molting bird coming down the street.

So when it crapped out last week, I arranged to donate it to charity and it was picked up yesterday. I just finished taking it off of our car insurance this morning.

Adios, Lexus. Maybe we'll replace you with a newer Lexus or another Subaru.

Bobby Kennedy campaigning in Indianapolis in March, 1968

Going through my archives this morning, I found these photos shot by my old Indianapolis News compadre Art Harris on March 28, 1968. Art died in 2016.

 

Thanksgiving catered by Cracker Barrel

We hosted Thanksgiving for Maria's parents and her son's family yesterday.

It would have been a major chore, but Maria discovered several restaurants prepare holiday dinners in generous proportions to just heat and eat.

So she placed an order with Cracker Barrel and I picked it up on Wednesday.

The cost of $168 struck me as kind of pricey until I calculated what all that stuff would cost at the supermarket, especially in this year of Bidenflation. Turns out it's a helluva deal when you consider the time and stress saved to present a truly luxurious meal for six adults with a lot of leftovers.

We may try the feast package from Buca di Beppo for Christmas...