Yeah, I posted Tchaikovsky’s 6th Symphony only three months ago, but that was before my medical troubles were uncovered. This is the performance that I know best, having purchased an LP copy in college.
Planet Clare
More Comfort Food Music. A quirky, fun favorite from the early days of Ye Olden Bloggen.
Countdown to Cancer Cut
For the half-dozen of you who visit here, new postings are probably going to be slim for a while. As I approach next Friday’s cancer surgery, I’m stressing much more than I did with the melanoma six years ago. That was on my head, and this is where the sun don’t shine. As a bonus, I have a-fib to worry about.
You want to see what recovering from cancer looks like? Here. I won’t embed it.
https://dograt.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/ScalpWound.jpg
That was well into the healing process, after plastic surgery. When the wound was closing up and looked good.
A couple of helpful things came my way this week. First, an actual get well card, sent by snail mail. You know who you are. Thank you!
Second, word got around about my diagnosis at my former place of employment. Yesterday, I exchanged messages with a former colleague who, it turns out, had the same diagnosis, and who happened to have the same surgeon I found. The final result in that case was, no chemo was needed. Here’s hoping I have the same luck!
An important point is that I have regular Medicare with a Medigap plan for Part B. This means I don’t need no stinkin’ referrals. Medicare Advantage plans, aka Medicare Part C, are administered through insurance networks, and referrals to in-network medical providers are required.
If I had needed to go through that rigmarole, who knows what doctors I could see, or how much of a delay and additional hassle there would have been? What I don’t know yet is how much my out-of-pocket costs will be, between the cancer and a-fib. For now, I don’t want to know!
Another Week of Worry
One week from tomorrow will be my cancer surgery. Watching my fake fish will help to keep me calm.
Lost Horizon
Commissioned for the Horizons pavilion at Disney EPCOT, Robert McCall’s painting, “The Prologue and the Promise”, was on display for a few years. This is a high-resolution image.
After being taken down, the painting disappeared. Its whereabouts are unknown. Not an easy canvas to hide, at 60 ft. wide by almost 20 ft. tall.
https://www.mccallstudios.com/the-prologue-and-the-promise/
https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/The_Prologue_and_the_Promise
Waterloo at 50
I probably knew about ABBA before most everyone else in America. It was thanks to this girl, who I was lucky enough to meet in high school, on August 29, 1972.
Originally from Germany, she grew up in Belgium (where Prue’s family is from, coincidentally). At the end of the school year, her father’s business returned the family to Belgium. We started writing to each other, and while I was starting college, she was continuing high school in Waterloo.
I had never heard of the Eurovision Song Contest until she wrote to tell me how a new group, ABBA, had won with “Waterloo”. But ABBA wasn’t entirely new, as explained in this comprehensive 5-part history of Benny, Björn, Agnetha and Anni-Frid, from BBC Radio 2.