My mom recieved some alarming news this afternoon. The MRI she took on Monday showed an abdominal aneurysm. An anuerysm is a ballooning blood vessel, which, if ruptured can cause a stroke or death. The size of it is a bit smaller than emergency level (which is 4 cm.), so it's not quite as bad as it could be, but it's still serious.The usual treatment is surgery. Her other health problems, COPD heart disease & emphasyma makes surgery a very risky undertaking, so I'm not sure what treatment the doctors will prescribe.

    The original reason for the MRI was to see what could be done for her sciatica & back pain. That result was more postive than expected, physical therapy instead of spinal injections. She'd been feeling quite uplifted & encouraged until she found out about the aneurysm. Now she's shocked & frightened.

    I'm also feeling quite upset about this news, as is my sister, despite her being a nurse. My sister has already scheduled the  blood tests, CAT scan & echo test for my mom this coming week that the doctors requested to explore the situation further. All three of us are nervous and scared.  

   Today is Viktor Schreckengost's 100th birthday. You may not recognize the name, but you've seen his work. Not only was he an artist in the traditional sense, in painting & pottery, but he also designed a lot of industrial things, including toys.

In Cleveland, his hometown; his work is everywhere, from the bird building at the Zoo, to school auditoriums and even the backyard, where thousands of kids pedaled little toy cars designed by him.

 At the nearby Rocky River Library his crowning piece of pottery is displayed, the Jazz Bowl, which was designed for Eleanor Roosevelt when her husband, the future president, won the govenorship of New York state. It's quite stunning, large & vividly colored. A perfect example of the Art Deco style which characterises so much of Shreckengost's work. You can see quite a bit of his various projects at a website devoted to him: viktorschreckengost He was playful, but no less of an amazing genius.

   The noise is still going on despite calls to their landlord. They told the social worker that it was a mini-fridge. Since when does a fridge make loud noises at certain times of the day?

   Plus, I've developed acute bronchitis, which means I need more rest, not less. Finally broke down & went to the doctor this morning, because it's getting harder to breathe & the coughing is wearing me out. Now I have a nifty inhaler & a course of antibiotics. Hopefully, they will kick in soon & I won't feel so miserable.

   In late May, one of the guys upstairs began using a new alarm clock. You may recall that  apartment is used as a halfway house for schizophrenics, it used to house hearing-impaired mentally ill & much of the special equipment is still up there, though all of the current residents have regular hearing. The bedroom over mine is now using one of the alarms for hearing-impaired, it cuts through ear plugs and my migraine medicine to wake me from a deep sleep. To make it worse, he lets the alarm ring for at least 20 minutes, usually longer, even when he's up walking around. Sometimes it rings every half hour, sometimes every 2 or 3 hours. It used to start around 6 am, this week it's been 3:30 am & goes on for hours. I'm groggy & irritable from lack of sleep. I am leery of driving because I'm not alert, so I can't go anywhere once I'm up. I feel awful, because I'm not getting any rest.

   I've confronted the guy who has that room, he denied he had anythign making noise, but his roommate later said it was an alarm clock. I've written a letter to the company that oversees the residents in that program & that didn't seem to do any good. Since the easy solution to this entire problem would be for the guy to get another alarm clock, I'm tempted to just go buy one & give it to him. But if he didn't use it, then I'd have wasted my money, when it's not even my resposibility.

   But I've got to do something because I can't function like this.

  Finally got my new camera connected to the puter. It only took 3 months!  

   Everytime I tried installing the software, it wouldn't complete. But today I spent nearly an hour trying again & surprisingly, it got all the way through & installed successfully. So I was able to download all the photos I've been taking since my birthday back in March. The very first photo with the new camera, was, of course, Rufus. It's much closer & clearer than any I've gotten of him before, so I'm very pleased. 

 And here is Rufus going through a little tunnel he made from the newspaper lining his cage.

  Last weekend I began to play dominos online. I have some actual dominoes from childhood that I've only used for standing on end & making short designs across the floor to knock over. But I never learned how to play the game.

    I thought that I did last weekend, just match the same dots to the end ones on the board & presto! It all seemed so simple. That ought to have tipped me off. But then an opponent said something that led to the discovery there was strategy & scoring involved. I am completely baffled by keeping score, I have no idea how it's done. It's worse than tennis. The few websites I've looked at so far have been no help, so I'll have to Google it to get some better instructions. But I know anything with counting is doomed from the start, I am sooooo bad at math.

Recently I've begun started bike riding again. This year it's either been too cold, too hot or rainy, but last week the weather evened off enough for me to get back to pedaling, much later than usual. It's the only form of sport that I enjoy or even know how to do. I'm so out of shape I can't go far, but I'm increasing my distance & after a couple miserable weeks, should be enjoying it more.

    I got a new helmet this winter, to replace a boring plain white one I've had since the 1980's. My new one looks like something Batman would wear; shiny black with purple & blue zig zags across the top. Plus, it has a visor, which I understand is all the rage in bike helmets. It's very aerodynamic & has more air vents, so my head stays cooler. And perhaps I don't look quite as dorky as with my old one. Though I believe I'm naturally dorky, so it's hard to avoid altogether.