Before dawn it was 78 degrees Fahrenheit. I went for a hike before the sun came up and beat the daytime heat. It will be the kind of heat they were talking about in the Bible… namely, Hell. A couple groups of joggers were out with me, one running by flashlight. We locals often have the same ideas if there are different interpretations of illumination.
I went to the clinic for a blood test this morning. A technician was working on the entryway. Looked like he was installing a new security system. He asked, “How are you?” I responded, “That depends upon what the doctor says.” Well… he left himself open to that old-time joke.
The university remodeled the waiting room. They removed almost everything except the seats, replaced those and increased the capacity to 13. They included two double-wides, not that anyone in our area needs one of those. They must have high hopes. That or standard practices that make no sense out in the country. I noted they made me wear a wrist band. Not like I would get mixed up with anyone else at my early morning appointment. They did use it to scan me after the blood was drawn.
When I was checking out, the person at the window said my current physician is moving to Coralville. Did I want to follow him, they asked? I said I wanted to continue to visit the local clinic, where I have been going since 1993. They changed my appointment to be with the new practitioner. I should have asked whether it was a physician or some other type. Guess it doesn’t matter for my kind of common maladies.
I made a list of outdoors work for after the clinic, but the only thing I did was spray the cruciferous vegetable patch with DiPel which is made of bacillus thuringiensis, a common pesticide used by organic growers. Everything else will have to wait until the heat wave moves on. According to our post-DOGE weather report, it looks like it is heading east and we may break loose by tomorrow. Who knows, though.
Importantly, I have returned to writing. I wrote a chapter with a career update, then turned to my real interest: remembering our time as a family when we moved from Indiana to Big Grove Township. I can tell it will be a good summer for writing.
Like many people, I am self-sufficient, reasonably healthy, and don’t like going to the doctor or clinic. I go often enough to catch things before they get bad and mostly take their preventive medical advice. On Tuesday I had the third colon screening of my life and the results were favorable. The practitioners were helpful and congenial. I knew one of them from in real life, although surgical spaces with structured hierarchies and apparel are real life too.
My previous colonoscopy was on Feb. 20, 2015. The visit became a horror show when the physician asked me whether I wanted to add an extra procedure just as I took sedation. This seemed a bit of hucksterism. The treatment plan had been laid out for weeks. While I still had consciousness, I told them no thank you, I came for a colonoscopy, so let’s stick with that.
When I presented for the procedure on Tuesday, there was a protocol whereby I stated my name, date of birth, and why I was there. Then the practitioners repeated “colonoscopy” then they each said “I agree.” Things went much better because of this protocol. In both cases, no polyps or biopsies. On Tuesday, doctor said I was good for ten more years. I thought of the Social Security life expectancy table and said to myself, may I live so long.
Neighbors were involved in both procedures. In the earlier case, the neighbor hooked me up to the saline drip which had the apparatus for administering sedation. The night before, we had a discussion on the telephone about another matter. They had the professionalism to not bring that up while I was getting my IV. The procedure was well done. Tuesday, a different neighbor was called in because there was a shortage of nurses to do all the work. This nurse had been a member of the board of directors of a group I was in. In those days, I did not know they were a nurse. We used the time between tasks to catch up.
The community of practitioners is not very big in Iowa. It seems inevitable there is a relationship between the patient and one or more of the folks in blue scrubs and hair netting. One should be on best behavior… always.
The other thing I would mention about my 2015 procedure is getting a colonoscopy was a communal event. After check in, the morning’s patients were assigned space in a large room with flimsy curtains partitioning off one patient from another. We could hear each other talk and we knew what was going on right next to us. That curtain made for little privacy. In 2025, I had a room of my own as a base where the person accompanying me could wait and I could leave my clothing until needed. I felt the care was more personal in the new setting.
Other than the procedure, Tuesday was a lost day. I used the afternoon to sleep off the sedative. One day in the life in Big Grove. Let’s hope there will be others.
Waiting room at the University of Iowa Health Care Radiology Clinic.
When the University of Iowa bought Mercy Iowa City Hospitals and Clinics in November 2023, we were thankful our hospital of decades did not close the doors because of bankruptcy. We haven’t had major health issues, yet our child was born there 40 years ago, and they kept the facility up since then. Why ruin a good thing?
Now called University of Iowa Health Care, there are changes to accommodate. For example, we have to wear a wrist brand inside the 2,828 square foot building when we are at an appointment. I suppose practitioners might confuse us with the other patient seeking treatment at the same time. It’s not like we are a small town. We’re up to 3,182 people according to the most recent census information. Hell, I don’t know the half of them! There were questions about the wrist bands at first, yet we didn’t want the administrators in the county seat to get mad at us and close the only clinic in this rural part of the county. We now wear them when asked.
I’ve been treated in our local clinic since we moved back to Iowa in 1993. The doctors and nurses used to be good. Nurses still are, but the first impulse of recent physicians seems to be to refer us to another clinic in the university system for a test or consultation. Hang on to your wallet, because if you don’t have good insurance, these referrals can run into the thousands of dollars.
Some practitioners, the male ones anyway, give me the wooden Indian look when I ask about my records from before the acquisition. They don’t say, but I think there is an issue with integrating our old medical records into the university system. No worries, though. Doctors today seem to live in the moment. They might say, “Don’t worry about those old records. Let’s take a look at you now!” That’s fine with me because I live in the now. I’d just as soon forget about all the ailments for which I have been treated in the last 32 years. The only major health concern from the old days is my being obese. That persists, yet the university has a solution.
I first noticed the double-wide waiting room benches when I went to the podiatry clinic. A six-hundred pounder could fit into one of those no problem. My spouse and I can share one since there is room to spare for the two of us. In another context, we might call the double-wides “accommodation.” I suppose the doctors get tired of telling patients they need to lose weight, therefore let them have double-wides. Now that I’m thinking about it, some of the examination chairs I’ve been in are double-wide as well.
Obesity is a problem in the state:
Iowa currently ranks 11th in the nation for adult obesity, according to the latest Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) data. However, Iowa is one of 19 states with an obesity prevalence rate of at or over 35 percent. (Iowa Department of Health and Human Services website).
It is good the hospitals and clinics try to accommodate people with every characteristic. The University of Iowa is a teaching hospital that accepts patients from all over the state. That is, they accept people if there is room and sufficient staff to treat what ails them. Otherwise, we go to Illinois, Nebraska, or Minnesota. Anyway, if obese Iowans make it through the maze to treatment, they will be comfortable while they are at the clinics.
There is a dark side to all this, and that is people are getting fed up with all the accommodation in society. It’s not just the double-wides. It’s everything. It’s like we returned to the 19th Century world of the great novelists with their chatty gossip and sexual double entendres. Where wit and morality are front and center in books that purportedly corrupted youth. I’m thinking of Charlotte Smith, who promoted women’s rights as long as women knew and kept their place subservient to their husband and produced a large number of children. It is as if to say, “Here! You have a right to this double-wide. Also know that we are better than you and will lord it over you.”
Sorry for that last paragraph, which was a bit of a stretch. Sorry, not sorry.
Let’s face it, though. Some in the Iowa legislature and the Congress definitely want to tell us how to live. In many cases, it has become a big morality play in which we have to hear their values and comply… or else! Here I am thinking of the state bill to repeal the obscenity exemption for schools and libraries. Our local library emailed us:
While the intent behind these bills may be to protect community standards, the broad language used could lead to unintended consequences. By altering obscenity exemptions, these bills could subject libraries and educational institutions to increased legal scrutiny and potential penalties for materials deemed inappropriate by subjective standards. This shift could result in self-censorship among librarians and educators, limiting the diversity of materials available and hindering the open exchange of ideas that is fundamental to educational growth. (Email from the Solon Public Library, March 7, 2025).
They expect us to comply and remain in our station in society. They assert in this, they are better than us.
All of this said, I like the new arrangement with the University of Iowa Health Care organization. The people are friendly and helpful, and if something is wrong, and we can afford all the tests and consultations, problems can be detected early and addressed before they get out of control. That’s what we want with our health care. Double-wides are optional.
Heat stored in the driveway concrete is doing its job. As I write, the snow is forecast to end in about an hour. After that, very high winds are expected: the kind that blow trees over and wreck buildings. It will be a day of staying indoors and wondering how the apparent demise of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will affect these small updates. Several hundred NOAA employees have been fired. National Public Radio reported staff cuts at NOAA could interrupt the weather forecasts many Americans rely on.
We finished our federal and state tax returns and neither owed anything nor expect a refund. In the meanwhile, Associated Press is reporting the Internal Revenue Service is drafting plans to lay off half of its 90,000-person workforce. “A reduction in force of tens of thousands of employees would render the IRS ‘dysfunctional,'” said John Koskinen, a former IRS commissioner.
Our Social Security pensions came on time in February. The Social Security Administration plans to lay off 7,000 workers, bringing its workforce headcount to about 50,000, according to a recent news release. Workforce cuts may delay benefits, shut down offices, and create problems for retirees who rely upon government assistance, according to a US News and World Report article. Our family bellwether is whether the payments arrive on time. We are waiting to see what happens.
There is the uncertainty at the National Institutes of Health which is the government mechanism to help fund research in so many diseases we seniors might get. The way cuts rolled out was the same way a group of kids dink around with a live turtle, seeing what it will do under stress conditions. Morale at the clinics and labs that rely on this government funding must be low. Low enough for employees to look elsewhere for a new, more stable job. I hope they get NIH funded so the research on infectious disease, cancer, and other common ailments continues before more people need life-saving treatments and die for the lack of them.
We don’t use Medicaid presently. We might as we age and perhaps need continuous care in a nursing home. It is best if a family can care for their aging members, yet not always possible. The Congress is playing a shell game about cuts to health care, yet it is no secret they are looking at $880 million or so in cuts to Medicaid in addition to other programs poor people and children rely upon. The prospects for such cuts loom like the forecast high winds later today.
The wind picked up since I began writing this post. After experiencing the 2020 derecho, high winds have been unsettling. Maybe it wasn’t the best idea for me to watch damage occur in our yard during the derecho, rather than take shelter in the lower level. What the experience gave me was a direct connection to the potential damage of high winds. If NOAA is dissolved, the uncertainty of from where we will get reliable weather forecasts can cause stress. With everything going on in the administration, more stress is something we don’t need.
Last week was a time of planning, events, and appointments. Because I had fasting labs before blood work on Thursday, I had a headache after the appointment. By the time I arrived at a local grocer and bought Starbucks at their in-store kiosk it was 9:22 a.m. That’s the longest I’ve gone without morning coffee in years.
Coffee cost $2.81 for a tall, which with tip came to $4. Expensive, yet I had to have it… immediately. No typical pleasantries discussed at Starbucks, things like unionization, Palestine, Ukraine, approach to supply chain management, workers’ rights, human rights, political activities, anti-social finance, tax conduct, palm oil sourcing, factory farming, or animal rights. Just coffee, any coffee. I was feeling better after getting groceries and driving home.
Rural Political Gathering
Also on Thursday, I attended a meet up at Shuey’s Restaurant and Lounge in Shueyville. It was one of a series of informal political happy hours held throughout the county. This one had a number of public office-holders and candidates, including the mayor of Shueyville, the county sheriff, and one county supervisor. In fact, folks up for election and their entourages outnumbered us locals.
The reason I went was to meet our state senate candidate Ed Chabal, promote an event we seek to hold in the City of Solon before the primary election, and get caught up with friends and contacts. I had not been to the venue previously and found it modern and perfect for a gathering of this sort. I believe they recently remodeled after a fire.
In Johnson County the primary for supervisor is usually more important than the fall general election. There are five Democratic candidates for three supervisor positions this cycle with incumbents Rod Sullivan, Royceann Porter, and Lisa Green-Douglass facing newcomers Mandi Remington and Bob Conrad. Green-Douglass and Remington were present at the event. I keep hearing echoes of problems with the group dynamic at supervisor meetings, yet haven’t paid enough attention to what’s going on.
There was an action initiated by some elected officials for the county central committee to censure the county attorney for following the law in the prosecution of some protesters. That went nowhere, except to make a kerfuffle. However, the bigger issue, one on which I believe the primary should be decided, is about building a new jail.
Johnson County has needed a new jail for a long time. The current jail opened in 1981 with a 46-inmate capacity. With doubling up prisoners, capacity is 92. We have more prisoners than space, and spend more in housing excess prisoners in other county jails than it would cost to build a new jail. With jail diversion programs and other initiatives between the county attorney and sheriff, the overall jail population reduced substantially. The condition of the jail is not what is needed.
In this you have the rift on how county funds should be spent. There are two supervisors who seem likely to oppose any initiatives by the sheriff. If the election yields a third… well, that would be that regarding a new jail. The supervisor race is still germinating in the primordial soup from which campaigns will emerge. Stay tuned.
Good Health
Over the weekend it began sinking in that my glucose level and LDL cholesterol number are within normal range. That’s the first time since I began seeing a practitioner for my condition. My A1C remains below seven, so that’s good, too. Diet and exercise is helping prevent diabetes in my case. Aging is inescapable and we do the best we can.
Check in tables at the county convention.
County Convention
The county convention was held at City High, an old, well-maintained school which I don’t recall previously visiting. Democrats are getting better at conventions as this one finished up before 2 p.m., platform and all.
There continue to be a number of old-timers in attendance. At the same time there are many younger faces. I had not planned on doing so, yet I signed up to be a delegate to the District and State conventions. The District convention is just across the lakes from me, and my spouse can visit family in Des Moines while I am at the convention there. We fell one short of the allocated number of delegates to these conventions so I’m glad I volunteered.
This week is Good Friday and my potatoes are cut and cured. There will be exercise involved with planting them: more than I am used to experiencing. Make it a great week!
Beginning with pain in my tooth after biting a piece of cheese last Thursday, it only got worse.
By Friday afternoon I was ready to see a dentist, although because it had become so late in the day I couldn’t get in until Monday morning. It was a sleepless, uncomfortable weekend because of the pain, even with Ibuprofen.
It was tooth #14, the same one on which I had a root canal in 2018. At the end of eight hours of diagnosis, including a three dimensional X-Ray, the endodontist determined the large root had cracked open and re-doing the root canal would provide no positive benefit. I went back to my regular clinic where they extracted it.
After the morning visit, I went to the pharmacy to get a prescription for pain killers and antibiotics. I knew it was serious medicine when the pharmacist asked to see my driver’s license. The guide to medication said, “Even if you take your dose correctly as prescribed you are at risk for opioid addiction, abuse, and misuse that can lead to death.” The handout mentioned death a couple more times. I waited until I returned home from the extraction to take the first pill.
I intend to get off the opioid as soon as I can tolerate the pain.
I have a couple of things to say about the episode.
First, both clinics were very accommodating to get me in for the emergency procedure. The fact that I get a regular checkup created a health care infrastructure upon which I could rely with the onset of unexpected pain. I sent each clinic a thank you note for going above and beyond normal expectations.
I’ve had dental care most of my life, since I grew teeth. I also worked at the University of Iowa Dental Clinic and had work done by students. I’ve learned to pay attention to what the practitioner says and does. Understanding each step of the process as we went along relieved any anxiety I may have had. Local anesthesia highly recommended.
Over the weekend, in my sleepless delirium, I had a dream that I went to the garage and extracted the tooth myself, and with ease. In real life, the top part of the tooth broke up during extraction because it had become brittle. Each of three roots had to be extracted individually. The one that had cracked open proved to be particularly difficult. Moral: don’t try to extract your own teeth even if you think you can.
The episode took six days out of my life and just today I got out in the garden to work for a while. I’m supposed to take it easy for a couple of days. I’m not sure I know how to do that, but will try. While I’m on opiods, there were only twelve pills and I don’t plan to get more.
While riding my bicycle around the trail system I press against the edge of a boundary. It is mental, not physical.
I feel trapped in a cage, ready to break out.
June 18 was the first bicycle trip. I don’t remember where I went. The scale told me this morning I dropped two pounds since then. The purpose of increasing daily exercise wasn’t weight loss though. It was a way to deal with my diabetes diagnosis.
Since seeing my health practitioner in June I developed five types of exercise to get my heart going, produce a sweat, and support whatever magical physiological workings reduce blood sugar. I missed only three days of 25 minutes or more of exercise that included bicycling, jogging, using a ski machine, walking, and sustained gardening and yard work that produced a sweat. Combined with watching my carbs, eating fewer big meals, taking Vitamin B-12, an 81 milligram aspirin, and a cholesterol drug, my numbers came down to a more normal range. If I went to a physician today I wouldn’t be diagnosed with diabetes.
I’m ready for what’s next.
Part of me wants to ride and ride the bicycle. Mostly I run one of four five-mile routes and once or twice a week ride 10-14 miles. I have no interest in riding across Iowa with the tens of thousands who do so most years but I’m pressing the limit. I want more.
Desire is balanced by caution because of my age and the age of my 40-year old bicycle. Bicycles are always needing repair, adjustment, and maintenance so I’ve learned new skills and identified a bicycle repair shop. Even though I don’t work outside home there is a lot to do and I can’t afford a two or three-hour daily trip just because I’m restless. My lower body is strengthening and my jeans fit better. For the time being that may have to be enough.
During the days before the Nov. 3 U.S. general election the limits of my range are more profound, the cage more tactile. A lot depends on the election outcome. If Trump and Republicans do well, there is one course. If Biden and Democrats win there is another. I expect the results to be mixed in Iowa. There is a broad Republican base where Democrats win majorities only when everything aligns. Recent polling showed Biden leading Trump by 14 points in national popular vote polling. Hillary Clinton led Trump by 14 points in the same polling exactly four years ago. Political work remains this cycle.
With cooler weather approaching I’m not sure how much more outdoors exercise I can accomplish before winter. I have a good start on the ski machine and expect that to be my daily regimen until it warms again. Between the plan and reality comes a shadow.
For now, I’ll continue what I’ve been doing. At the same time this bird wants its freedom and to break loose from restrictions of a cage where we’ve been living too long. Not today, but soon.
When my medical practitioner diagnosed plantar fasciitis in 2015 it mean I had to give up running. I’d been running for exercise since 1976 when I enlisted in the U.S. Army.
Doc suggested bicycling. I took my Austrian-made Puch Cavalier ten-speed down from the hooks in the garage and delivered it to the bicycle shop where I bought it in 1980 to get tuned up. Parts were scarce for the old bike, but the technicians found them. I brought it home and hung it in the garage where it stayed until this month.
During a recent medical check up I asked again about running. I needed more exercise and my feet felt better. I could run again, I thought, maybe not five daily miles as before, but something. He said if I returned to running, plantar fasciitis would flare up again. I started walking and it wasn’t enough.
On June 18 I dusted the bicycle off and rode for the first time: about five miles. I’ve been out the last four days and expect to continue bicycling, gradually increasing my daily distance.
I’m a cautious bicyclist. I have a good sense of myself on the bicycle and know how to use the derailleur gears as they were designed. I couldn’t locate my helmet or riding gloves so I adjusted our daughter’s helmet so it would fit. I put a fanny pack over the handlebars to hold my mobile device and the garage door opener. I still have the plastic water bottle I got when the bike was new. I have two pair of bicycling pants with the cushion in the crotch. I’m wearing my old running shoes for now.
While I was in graduate school I ran and rode a lot. I would run from my apartment on Market Street in Iowa City out to the Coralville dam and back. Afterward I rode the bicycle for another ten miles. I was a restless soul then. I made all the usual rides: to Sand Road Orchard; to Kalona before dawn where I saw kerosene lamps illuminating homes and barns; to Stringtown Grocery; to the Kalona cheese factory; through Hills, Lone Tree and Wellman. I was a primitive rider, having no training and an undisciplined approach. I made a century ride with the Bicyclists of Iowa City and experienced glycogen burn out. At the time I didn’t know what was happening to me and it was a little scary. Not freak out scary though, and I made it home safely.
I need more exercise. It’s cheap medicine. Today I rode 7.6 miles with a goal of being able to make it to Ely without stopping. After that, who knows? For now it’s enough to feel the cool breeze as I ride and make progress toward an unspecified goal.
We each need something to cope with the coronavirus pandemic.
The linked video by Dr. David Price of Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York helped me and it might help you. Click here to view the 57 minute video.
It is a recording of a video conference call in which Dr. Price explains what is COVID-19 and how to protect ourselves while living as reasonable a life as may be possible as we keep our distance from each other. It relieved stress about living away from friends, family, neighbors and co-workers. It explained how we should interact with a small group of family members who live with us. It is presented in a way that is persuasive and practical. Unlike so much of the hyperbole, misstatements, and falsehoods I read and hear elsewhere, Dr. Price is believable when we need that as much as isolation from the virus.
I yearn to get out of the house and trips to the garden and yard are not satisfying enough. Armed with knowledge, I plan to go to work at the home, farm and auto supply store in a couple of hours. I’m not afraid any more. I’m not being foolish. I’ll be keeping my distance from co-workers and customers and washing my hands a lot, trying not to touch my face. Absent a general call to stay in place, either at the federal or state level, we must go on living as best we can.
Social distancing would be more tolerable if the ambient temperature would warm up by about ten degrees. Getting my hands in the soil and doing much needed yard work would take my mind off the coronavirus and self-imposed isolation.
As a writer, I’m used to working in isolation. It gives me strength and an ability to distance myself from social media and unwanted contact with others. I find a chance to think clearly about my life with others and how it will be lived. There cannot be enough of this time.
As the number of cases of COVID-19 rises in the United States we don’t know how the infection will escalate. In New York, the number of cases is doubling about every three days. In Iowa, we have limited testing availability for the coronavirus, so what numbers we have don’t tell the whole story. The first person died of COVID-19 in Iowa yesterday. While tragic, I’m not sure what it means in the context of everything else going on.
My remedy was to view Dr. Price’s video, and use the information in it to go on living. We’re doing the best we can.
Above the fold at the Solon Economist, March 19, 2020.
When I started this blog there was no intention to write daily about a pandemic. Isolation, quarantine, social distancing, shelter in place, self-quarantine, and more are words to describe our behavior in response to the coronavirus.
As a writer and blogger I understand the concepts. Who knew it would feel important to write so much about them.
The words suggest something — communal behavior, loneliness, or disruption. I’m not sure exactly which. It’s as if once we understand what’s going on we know what to do.
When I returned from yesterday’s shift at the home, farm and auto supply store my spouse was waiting on the stairs.
“Give me your phone,” she said, ready to disinfect it on the spot with a homemade disinfectant swab.
I was directed to the kitchen sink where I washed my hands, then to the bedroom where I changed clothes. If I carried something home it could be isolated and not spread throughout the house.
I recognize these instincts from spending time with my maternal grandmother who took no quarter against threats to her household. One has to wonder why they are not my own instincts.
Nuclear, biological and chemical military training well prepared me for the coronavirus pandemic. Except for the phone part, I knew the drill, and can execute it without losing focus on main events. Being an infantry soldier prepares us for life in unexpected ways.
A co-worker said they wished “the thing would run its course and be done so we can get back to normal.” I don’t know what that means. We are all active agents in a pandemic. The number of cases of Covid-19 and resulting deaths is largely dependent on what we do as a society. It’s not a given that any particular thing will happen or that a specific result is preordained.
At work a local medical facility ordered 800 welding shields to protect health care workers. We had them express shipped from the supplier to arrive overnight. If they can protect an arc welder from getting sparks on their face, they can likely prevent moisture droplet borne contamination from reaching a physician or nurse’s face. If we lose front line health care providers to the coronavirus we’re sunk.
We don’t know the future of the coronavirus, but it is likely here to stay. The pandemic will run a course but coronavirus will infect many of us potentially creating an immunity for those who survive it.
In China, where the virus originated, we’ve gone two days in a row without a new case being diagnosed. The first inklings of trouble there were in late December so if that is the course of the pandemic, 11 to 13 weeks, that’s better than it could be. It’s unknown whether the delay in recognizing the threat in the United States, and our apparent slow response will lengthen that trajectory. It will have an impact that takes additional lives.
Yesterday the home, farm and auto supply store announced a paid leave program for full and part time employees who must be quarantined. It’s not the same pay as working, but it is recognition by the family who owns the business and their managers that they must be socially responsible to remain in business. They have been flexible with other time off related to the pandemic.
Midst all of this, Spring arrived yesterday. May the gentle rain falling this morning wash away our concerns so we can accept our lives and become positive forces in the outcomes of friends and neighbors. We hope for that regardless of whether there is a pandemic. If this blog helps readers that way, then I’m doing my job.
Journey Home 
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