News and Views From my kids accomplishments, to my heretical perspective of the world

I still play basketball usually 4 times a week, and it happens that some of the regular players are physicians.

This morning I ran into someone’s elbow with my face (it really was my fault), and the edge of my glasses cut a long deep slit in my cheek. Blood was running down my face as I ran to the bathroom to get paper towels.

After I came out, huddled around me in conference to determine the best way to proceed were three physicians : an anesthesiologist, a gynecologist, and a general surgeon.

They all had their opinion, but in the end I went with the surgeon who put in three stitches. I’m going to have a black eye for a few days and probably a scar, but otherwise I’ll be fine.

I’ve had similar injuries before and usually just put on a butterfly and band aid, but this one seemed a little deeper, and it’s nice to have professional help when you need it.

Gisele’s sister Angela was in town, so we took her to the Grand Canyon. She had never been there, and we had not been there in the winter.

We went on Wednesday, and they had received over a foot of snow on Monday and Tuesday. It was enough time that the roads were all clear, but the snow had not started melting, and was still covering everything. It was beautiful.

There was a light snow falling most of the time we were there, but it was light enough that the roads stayed clear. It did reduce the visibility into the canyon much of the time, but it let up enough to see the river and north rim much of the time.

The snow reached about 1/3 of the way down to the river. The south rim is about 7000 feet, and the river about 2000, so it looked like it had melted below about 5000 feet or so.

Here are some pictures taken with my Droid. This first one shows the rim:

Here’s Gisele getting ready to take her own pictures. She unfortunately had to take her gloves off to press the shutter button.

And here’s Angela and Gisele. Notice the ice on the sidewalk behind. It had been spread with some kind of gravel so it wasn’t slippery in most places. But you still had to be careful. Slipping while standing on the rim of the Grand Canyon can make your heart skip a beat.

We went up to “The City” last week. Partly just because we hadn’t been there for a while, partly to celebrate Chinese New Year (Sunday — “Gong Hay Fat Choy”), but mainly to attend a wedding. Our nephew Jerry Chen got married in Cupertino on Saturday.

Gisele’s sister Angela came back with us and will stay for about 10 days.

On the way there and also on the way back we stopped for a short visit with Richard and Dianna in Quartzsite near the California border. Dianna fed us a delicious soup on the way out. They introduced us to the locally made kettle corn, and we’ve been pigging out ever since.

My brother Dale come out to Arizona from Buffalo to spend Christmas with his Arizona relatives. It was great having him here for a few days.

He came out a couple of months ago for the first time in about 40 years, and that was really special. But it was a short visit with lots of relatives around to share his time and non-stop “getting acquainted”. This visit was more relaxed, and we even got to take a 5-mile geocaching hike on South Mountain (Dale, Donna and I). We found about 6-7 caches and had a good, tiring hike.

We went to see the new Sherlock Holmes movie yesterday, ate dinner with Mom, and just generally enjoyed each other’s company.

I put him on a plane this morning, and it’s back to Buffalo with a high predicted today of 17F. (Phoenix is in the 60s.) I hope we’ll get to see each again soon, either here in Arizona or back in New York (in the summer, of course!).

Yesterday morning Gisele came downstairs to find Apollo in the midst of another seizure on the kitchen floor. He was fine in a few minutes, but I took him to the vet anyway. This was only the second time we have seen him in a seizure, the first being about a year ago. Who knows how many times it has happened when we weren’t around.

The vet took blood and will do another test for Valley Fever. Remember that we discontinued his Valley Fever medications about 2-3 months ago because his infection had decreased so much. If it has gone up again, he may have to stay on the med for the rest of his life.

The results should be back by tomorrow or Monday, and I’ll post here as soon as I hear.

Otherwise he seems fine, full of energy, frisky and happy.

Last month Gisele had a reunion of all her surviving siblings. Next month is my turn.

In October all of the Lafferty brothers and sister will be together for the first time in 40 years. Dale is coming to Arizona from New York, Richard and Don from California, and Donna and I are already here. Dale’s three children are coming with him, and several of the other cousins will be here too. As far as I know, none of the New York cousins have met any of the western cousins. And of course Grandma Lafferty will be right in the middle of it all.

Everyone is very excited, There is disappointment that some of the cousins will have to leave early to fill unchangeable reservations, and not all the cousins will be able to make it, but it’s a wonderful first step in rejoining a divided family. We are counting the days! (31 as I post this.)

We are back from our Cruise (actually on Saturday). It was very nice; cool and rainy which is a relief after a summer in Tempe. We got a good view of a glacier and saw lots of “calves” falling off. Visited Juneau, Sitka and Ketchikan. We traveled on Holland America. I would rate their food and entertainment below both Carnival and Princess.

Gisele and her brothers and sister had a great time. It was the first time they have been together since their father’s funeral, so it was a more celebratory occasion this time.

Tomorrow we are going to Las Vegas for just one night, and will be bringing back with us Gisele’s brother Joseph and his wife Anita and son Tim. They are going to spend 3 days in Arizona before getting ready to return to Australia.

Gisele and I are off on a week-long Alaskan cruise. It’s really a family reunion for Gisele, as all of her surviving siblings and their spouses are coming along.

The veterinarian said that Apollo can stop taking his Valley Fever medication!

He still tests slightly positive for the disease, but she said he had recovered so well that she wanted to try him off the drugs for 3 months, then test again.