Marcia got up early (I smelled the coffee) and so ‘one—eyed’ Dirk is giving this Rambling keying a go. A bit of a struggle, but hey, here goes; left handed “hunt’n and a peck’n” on the keyboard.

Yesterday I had my one week after surgery checkup. The Doctors are delighted. The reason they are so happy is that 75% of the gas bubble inserted in my eye is still intact (apparently this is a cheerable situation). Legally, I am still blind as a bat in my right eye.

Actually, I too am thrilled. Prior to surgery about 85% of my vision was a pitch-black void. A smallish crescent moon-shaped curve gave me some peripheral sight. A week later I have vision from left to right, it just looks like seeing the world through a frosted-glass window.

I am told that over the next five weeks I’ll ‘see’ (pun intended) a marked improvement – with continued improvement for a period of up to nine months.

In the meantime my life is being dominated by eye drops. It wouldn’t surprise me if I found myself trying to eye-dropper coffee into the eye for continuity’s sake.

Plus, I can’t forget to mention my sleeping position of choice and one approved by the medicos. It’s something I’d seen in WWI movies of troops sleeping in trenches; I’ve built a ‘trench’ made of pillows. It works!

Cross Country sight – on George and my travels a couple of weeks ago we drove into the town of Alamogordo, New Mexico. Huh? Why promote that little town?

See, somewhere around the summer of 1974 Marcia, toddler baby Kirstin, and I visited brother Art who was stationed in El Paso at White Sands Missile Range. From there we were heading to visit my old college roommate in Albuquerque. NM. All this ‘vacationing’ done in our, then brand new, VW ‘Westfalia’ campervan bus.

15-miles outside of Art’s base we sucked a valve in the engine – 2,000 miles outside of a measly warranty period.

What took most of the morning I managed to hitchhike back to base. There, after some phone calls (remember, no mobile phones), located a garage in Alamogordo and secured a tow to the place. Three days later Art picked up the van and delivered it to us in Albuquerque where we’d traveled to via Greyhound bus.

This is the kind of adventure Marcia really never got used to, even after 51 years of marriage. Aaah for the memories!

Freezer Bowl. This weekend it’s the 41st anniversary of the freezer bowl. The Cincinnati Bengals were in the playoffs. Game day the actual temperature was –9 degrees and with wind gusts of 35mph the real feel temperature touched –59 degrees.

Watch these two delightful very short clips to help revive some memories of years ago. Fun stuff.

Ciao. Stay strong; keep pushing onward, stay healthy and safe. Have an enjoyable Martin Luther King Day – personally I think he’d preferred that the kids stay in school and take the day to focus on the likes of Frederick Douglas, Thomas Sowell, Booker T. Washington, Justice Clarence Thomas, Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks, Bessie Coleman, Mary W. Jackson, and I could go on and on. But then, doing so would give kids a ‘leg up’, it’s substantially better to have them stay home, to game, mall, or ‘hang’ (as on a street corner) for yet another day.

Keep on storming the castle. Pray for Peace.

Dirk