Darkness at Morn

It's warmed up a bit, 26 degrees this morning, but pitch black outside, no shadows, no stars, hardly a house light on the Bemus side.  I am listening to MSNBC analyze Obama's speech last night and predictably, the liberals liked it, the right criticized it.  It was not as inspiring as his speech in Tucson but he said the right things, with a call for working together to save the country.  He always seems so reasonable among the irrationality of the right but I get the sense he still thinks they can work together for the common good.  The one controversial line was his vow to raise taxes for the wealthy.  It's about the only time the Republicans really disagreed with what he said.  The republican response by Paul Ryan, the rights fiscal tiger, was pretty good, I thought, as he outlined the problem, a deficit that may eventually cripple our country, but from then on, he was the wolf in sheep's clothing, generalizing, talking about the constitution, never mentioning his real proposals: to get rid of entitlements, including Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid. I was impressed by his style and can see why he is a rising star.  This summer, my neighbor down the street, spoke in glowing terms of Ryan, which made me aware of him for the first time.  Like many of the successful older retirees, he is a avid fiscal conservative, but only too happy to take his social security and medicare checks.  To paraphrase a quotation I have always liked, 'we judge a society by the way they take care of their poor and elderly.'  So far, so good I think but if Ryan gets his way, forget it.  Fortunately, even the republicans know they would risk losing their seats if they go after retirees.  Thus, they only want to change social security for those under 55.  Time will tell if this  Congress gets anything done.  Our local paper asked the Jamestown citizens if they were going to watch last night's speech, and 89% said 'no way,' usually followed by some unprintable epithet. I am always amazed on the underclass, those who depend on government, vote against their self interest.

The eastern sky is just beginning to take on a dark blue glow, as the sun begins to light the sky.  Sunrise is an hour away but the sky's first light glows when the lake is frozen.

Evie's working out and I am listening to the pundits debate last night's speech while I read JUST KIDS. The lake looks the same, white frozen lake with a gray sky of various hues, and a couple of fishing  shacks dot the far side.  What is different is the lack of birds at the feeder today and yesterday, most likely a result of a predator nearby, perhaps a hawk.  This has happened before and they eventually return because the food is so available.  Perhaps the fact that the feeder was empty when we were in Cleveland may also have been a cause.  At 1:00, I check in with my local physician, making sure my wounds are healing, my vitals are normal.  I usually see his nurse practitioner but today its Dr, Berke, a legend around here, I have heard, doctor to most of my friends and famous for competing in iron man competitions.  We have been told he is very social, so make sure he checks you over first before socializing.  I have had this happen before, with Dr. Litman and Mac Callum.  I assume they get tired of just examining and trying to make sense of the symptoms, and enjoy the talking.

Well, the gossip was right, Dr. Berke is a talker.  He was about a half hour late then proceeded to tell us all about himself, his triathlon, his various injuries, his interests, taking up I would say a good half an hour.  Very personable, social, a type A no doubt, a pretty good doc I think if you can keep him focused on the problem. We tried hard...fortunately I received a very thorough going over from a med student who is following him as part of his course and he seemed very knowledgeable.  We bemoaned the state of our schools, of English language, and he told a couple of stories about some of the things his patients have said to him...a triple negative as he explained. He even talked about rowing, since he has a machine in his house as well as working ou at Turner gym.