Saturday 9

Go Where Baby Lives (1957)

Unfamiliar with this week's song. Hear it here. 

1) The lyrics tell us that the girl of his dreams lives up on a hill. Is there a hill near your home? Or is the terrain pretty flat where you are? Very flat. I'm always awed when I see mountains. Like in the limo from the airport last spring when I visited Los Angeles. The driver was amused by how I nearly pressed my nose to the window as we passed the mountains. He drives through them every day, so he's used to them. But I was thrilled.

2) Another clue to her whereabouts is that she's about a mile from town. Will you be staying close to home this weekend, or will you be traveling a mile or more? Maybe. My friend Kathy invited me to visit her in Dekalb, which is about 50 miles away. We'll see if that actually comes off. I'm recovering from bronchitis (see post below) and there's snow predicted. Kathy was going to pick me up at the train station, and she's not confident the roads will be cleared by Sunday noon.

3) Sam admits she's crazy about the sax solo. Is there a particular musical instrument that you love to listen to? I especially love the horn riff on "Silly Love Songs." (Comes in at about 2:35.) It's played by trombone, trumpet and sax, I believe. 

 

4) This is the only record The Strollers made for States, a company based out of Chicago. States was only in existence for five years (1952-57) and this was the 63rd or 64 records released before they went out of business. Tell us about a business in your neighborhood that recently closed their doors. Until December 27, there was a French cafe here in town. It was a fixture on that corner for nearly 30 years. I didn't go often -- it was always crowded and I don't like waiting -- but last month, my friend Nancy and her husband and I stopped there for dinner, to celebrate the holidays and to say "goodbye." Our waitress was so sweet. She looked all of 25 and said this was the only job she'd ever had. Oh well, things change. I'm sure something new will move in there and it will be a watering hole for a new generation.

5) More than 60 years after its initial release, this song enjoyed new popularity when Xfinity used it in commercials for their wifi. What company is your internet service provider? Are you happy with it? Xfinity. Yes, I'm happy with it. I've got a bundle -- TV, wifi and yes, a landline -- and each service is there when I need it. I'm not cutting the cord until I'm forced to.

6) In researching this week's song, Sam googled "strollers" and was surprised to discover how many different types of baby buggies are available today. When did you most recently push a child in a stroller? More than a decade.

7) In 1957, the year this song was released, President Eisenhower celebrated his second inaugural with a parade featuring more than 50 marching bands. The mercury never quite reached 45º that day. How's the weather outside your front door? The mercury never reached 45º here today, either. It's 34º and raining and snow is predicted.

8) One of the best-selling books of 1957 was Peyton Place. This steamy saga of small town life launched two films, two television series, and several made-for-tv movies. Is there a book that you enjoyed that was successfully turned to a movie? Many! Here are some of the very best.

9) A Peyton Place-inspired question: Can a man be physically unfaithful to a woman, but still love her? I suppose ... but I feel sorry for him. He must feel very guilty.

Hard for me to get my mind around

I finally went to the doctor on Wednesday. I'd been feeling really rundown and sick for more than a week and it finally dawned on me that this was not just a cold.

But here's the thing: I don't have a doctor. My long-time GP retired last summer, and I just received a letter from her successor, saying that he's moved on, also. I don't much mind, because I didn't know him well and, frankly, what I knew I didn't like. But it did leave me in a bind now that I need treatment.

I went down to the walk-in clinic just a half mile from my house. What a lucky choice that was! The nurse practitioner,  Ruth, was terrific! She was thorough, communicative, compassionate. She took the wheezing in my chest seriously and didn't like the level of oxygen in my blood. This confused her, as she repeated that I didn't "present" as sick as the test indicated I was.

She decided to send me for a chest x-ray. This was news I wasn't expecting. But, she told me, hypoxemia is serious in patients "our age." Over 55. AARP members. Old broads. It could account for my fatigue, and if it continued, it might lead to COPD and/or organ damage.

What the hey! I thought it was a cold with a tenacious cough! Then she added the word I was afraid was coming but hoped not to hear: pneumonia.

There's a disconnect between my age and how I feel. I've heard of "elderly," "senior" patients for whom colds and flu turn into pneumonia. I just don't feel elderly or senior yet. But, I'm 62, so I have to accept this.

My history of c. diff complicates things. Up to 25% of c. diff patients suffer recurrence. Antibiotics are a dicey issue for me. As a nurse practitioner, Ruth didn't want to prescribe antibiotics that could awaken any dormant c. diff germies. Yet if it turned out to be pneumonia, I would need a higher level of care than she could give me.

GULP!

So I went to immediate care, x-ray order in hand. The entire process -- from check in to photographs -- took 30 minutes. I don't think I've had a chest x-ray before. Takes less time than a mammogram.

By end of day Wednesday, I had my diagnosis: bronchitis. Yea! So much less serious than pneumonia. The radiologist also reported that my spine curves. Yes, we know that now. Isn't it funny how I went decades with no one talking about my back, and now a chiropractor and radiologist are all about my "scoliosis?"

I worked from home Thursday and today. Attended a meeting over the phone, made a few revisions from my dining room table, but mostly I took it easy and was careful to puff on my inhaler every six hours.

And am reminding myself that I have to take stuff like this more seriously going forward. I get mad at John and Henry for not listening to their doctors, and here I am, with no doctor of my own.

Ruth gave me a folder of general practitioners she's familiar with at the nearby hospital. I'll have to look them over and see if there's one that looks like a good match.