Well, it’s official. I have now entered old age.

Last Thursday, I went to the VA medical center in Seattle to see an ophthalmologist about a previous bleeder on my left retina. Luckily, there was no evidence that it had re-occurred. Unfortunately, the cataract in my right eye has worsened to where it is now operable and I will be going under the knife sometime next month.

During the past couple months, I’ve had a esophageal barium exam and a laryngoscopy to determine why I’m having a tickling sensation in my throat and larynx. The technical term is globus. I was worried I might have throat cancer, but that was ruled out by both examinations.

The shrink is cutting back my Depakote dosage in favor of an increase in the Seroquel dosage, which is supposed to be an effective substitute to bipolar treatment. I’ll be returning to see her next month to report on how the decrease in Depakote/increase in Seroquel is working out. As far as I’m concerned everything is going okay, except for the continued tremor I’m experiencing in my arms and hands. The shrink says it is called essential tremor, but quite frankly I do not consider it to be essential to my life and I think it’s time to get rid of it.

I was going to start jazz guitar lessons next month, but with cataract surgery on my eyes occurring over the next two to three months, I probably won’t be able to begin lessons until sometime in February. In the meantime, I’ll continue trying to teach myself with lessons I found on the web. I’m particularly interested in adapting boogie woogie to guitar. There is at least one song (Guitar Boogie by Arthur Smith),

https://youtu.be/_nbK-AI-31I

but I want to figure out how other songs can be arranged in the boogie woogie style. Most boogie woogie is played on the piano because you can lay down a bass rhythm with the left hand while playing a treble line with your right hand.

https://youtu.be/wvx_UsJ2U5c

or, the very talented Luca Sestak (at fourteen):

https://youtu.be/3ojt7e88g2I

If I wasn’t troubled enough, the IRS finally accepted an installment payment plan proposed by the firm I hired to resolve my $30,000+ tax debt. I should have it all paid off in about five years.

Finally, with all this occurring in my life I should still have Chapter 24 of 319 Winesap Lane completed in the next few weeks. (hope, hope, hope!)

So much going on I can only wish I can keep up.