[Druidic]

First I’d like to thank some of you for the kind words and well wishes. I’m going to be limited in the amount of time spent sitting and walking for a bit so I’ll have to take a short break from my desktop—which means more reading of real books (always a sensual treat), endless listening to music, a once a day splurge on pizza or Chinese take-out delivered to my door… financial ruin but not a completely bad deal, at least not until I get bored out of my skull. In a recent post, I wrote, “There’s always a price to pay.” A couple decades ago a brilliant surgeon performed an operation no other surgeon would touch; and he saved my life. But of necessity, there was a lot of what was then called “vein stripping” and the inferior vena cava was removed. Because of that (and the largely unilateral edema caused by the revamped plumbing) I’m now susceptible to the kinds of leg problems often seen in elderly diabetics. But I’m still grateful to that surgeon and I’m just going to have to bite the bullet and pay the price for the rest of my life. I still regard the original operation as a good deal…considering the alternative. So this surgery was a skin graft, a last ditch effort to repair a leg wound that’s been trying to heal for over two years. And so far, it looks good.
NJ, did you ever catch the film version of Wheatley’s The Devil Rides Out? It’s an enjoyable Hammer film with Chris Lee and (surprising for a Hammer) a script by Richard Matheson. It’s one of my favorite Wheatley books.
To Ramonoski: I believe they paged Dr. Uidic several times while I was recovering but I fear I was far too busy hitting the button of the Morphine Pump every 8 minutes to be sure…BTW, John Fante is a name new to me and now someone to look into.
Murony, ChildofOldLeech, thanks for the recommendations. I’ve wanted to check out Houellebecq and now is probably as good a time as ever. And I could use a laugh or two right about now, so John Dies at the End might provide it. Thanks again.
I always find it interesting to hear or read about what other intelligent human beings are reading. I’ve discovered some Good Things that way. I believe Lovecraft discovered Lord Dunsany in a similar fashion…Years ago I discovered Cormac McCarthy that way.
Mark S. is too hard on a good book. Granted, the scene where the eye patch guy freezes to death while simultaneously swigging from a flask and fighting off a pack of rabid Siberian Huskies (even as the apparition of a dead former friend mockingly lectures him on the impossibly beautiful Evil of it all) seemed just a mite overwrought…just possibly. But that could be the morphine affecting my memory...