Dear Abby: My husband and I are retired. A short while ago, a young couple moved in across the street. A few months later, my husband, who does yardwork for neighbors for extra money, started working in theirs. He never charged them for it, and even after they had the equipment to care for their yard, continued working there some of the time.
Dear Dr. Roach: A few years ago, when being prepped for a colonoscopy and gastroscopy, I had an IV line inserted into my right arm with a sedative in it. As I waited to pass out, I noticed a large air bubble slowly moving down the IV line toward my arm. I got concerned about an air embolism and called the nurse over, who pooh-poohed my concern: “It’s just an air bubble! It won’t hurt you.” I insisted on seeing the charge nurse, who came over, turned off the drip, and flicked the line with her finger multiple times, getting the air bubble to move up the line. She then pinched the line shut and turned the drip back on and flicked the line a few more times, until the air bubble floated into the IV bag and wobbled to the top. She released her pinch on the IV line and said: “There. Are you happy now?” and walked away.
June is on its way which means the calendar is about to start saying what the weather has been saying for a while now: summer is really here again. For those new to the Northeast Texas area, you are about to discover a level and breadth of heat and humidity unlike that anywhere else in the world.
Two good arguments collided in the discussion of a teacher pay raise in Louisiana. We think the raises are needed, at the state level, at this time.
In the interest of justice, Anthony Broadwater was exonerated for a rape he didn’t commit — after 16 years in jail that stole his freedom, his health and his life prospects. In the interest of justice, New York state should stop fighting Broadwater’s claim for compensation and start negotiating a settlement.
It’s true, we’ve covered primaries, election days, runoffs — all of it — for decades and generally the most excited people are the candidates and us, the journalists who watch those processes. Nobody else generally cares much.
Northwest Georgians should get ready for the dog days of summer. In recent days, high temperatures have soared into the mid-80s then cooled considerably.
Dear Abby: “Dana” has been my best friend since 1995. We did so many things together, until she had gastric bypass surgery three years ago. Mind you, Dana was never fat. She may have been overweight, but she was never morbidly obese. She never participated in any of the fun sports I did, such as mud/obstacle course runs or fun 5Ks. Her lack of participation wasn’t due to her weight; she just said it “wasn’t for her.”
Dear Dr. Roach: I am a 75-year-old female. In 2012, I broke my ankle and they put in a plate and six screws on one side, and one screw on the other side. I’ve been reading that one should not leave the screws in for the rest of their life, because it can cause problems with the bones, causing arthritis. I can touch and feel the screw heads. The only problem is buying shoes that aren’t too high to rub, or when I sleep, positioning my foot.
There are few things in this world that are as effective at veiling one’s vision about things as nostalgia. There is saying that everything always looks better when you look back, and “it is from this inescapable tower of the past that Longing leans and beckons,” poet James Russell Lowell once there.