Online since June 1997!

Blog Archive - February 2008

29-Feb-08 Got my new CPAP so I'm excited, but had enough parts over the last few days to use it, so I'm caught up on my REM sleep, even though the temporary mask I was using was tough on my complexion.  The new one has nasal pillows. 

27-Feb-08 We had a nice dinner with my brother and his family last night at Val's Burgers, which is renowned across the Bay Area, even though it's in Hayward!  I actually thought it was in Castro Valley, but it must be right on the border.  I didn't go for the ONE POUND papa burger, thankfully, and we split the onion ring and French fry orders so that we wouldn't over-do, but we did indulge in getting shakes.  I have very fond memories of getting a chocolate chip shake on the way to grampa's in the mother-lode country growing up, and Val's has the same thing going on.  There were some damn hunky trucker types patronizing the place, even if they were die-hard rednecks, so they eye candy was great.  Surprisingly the parking was tight on a Tuesday night, but we managed to get in as others left. 

Even though it was ten days late, we celebrated April's birthday.  They brought her even more ice cream and the whole restaurant sang her happy birthday.  Nicholas was damn cute and we passed him around, but it was the grownups who spilled the ice cream and water, despite his curious reaches.  The mushroom "side order" for the hamburgers are well worth it, and I got my burger on a French roll.  I was even smart enough to get half of it wrapped and took it home.  They only take cash, but for what we ordered, I found the cost to be quite reasonable.

26-Feb-08 I was very pleased with the new version of A Raisin in the Sun that I caught on TV last night.  I don't think I ever saw the entire film with Sidney Poitier, who I just saw an appearance of in a magazine with his interior designer wife.  He's looking great for being in his 80's.  Sean Combs apparently produced this version and I believe acted in the play on Broadway for a spell.  Audra McDonald blew me away with her acting.  I had only seen her in lighter roles before.  That girl can seemingly cry on a dime.  I thought she stole the show vocally and otherwise when she was in Annie, which to my glee had her as the interracially-married Mrs. Warbucks.  Sean Combs was perfectly intimidating when he needed to be, yet still heart-warming as a father, brother, son and husband who ultimately does the right thing.  It's nice to see a role that shows what black men have to suffer through in this country, even if it was a few decades ago that it was as perceivably treacherous as it is in this story.  There are still many families for whom the tortures of poverty give them little hope for prosperity in this very rich country.  I really was not interested in seeing this version because I was more interested in Poitier's version when I had a chance to see it in more depth, but the dialogue stands on its own.  One intense scene that comes to mind is where Phylicia Rashad's mother character defends religion (which I found to be pandering to conservatives, despite her practically condoning her daughter-in-law's contemplation of an abortion) to her intellectually-curious medical school-bound daughter.  If nothing else, this story shows the diversity of thought and culture among the bourgeois and/or "assimilated" blacks, appreciative and proud African (and West Indian) immigrants and African-American multi-generational descendents who had nothing but struggle to contend with after the legacy of slavery (a reality that still affects our society today). 

25-Feb-08 I finally watched Hairspray (the new version) and was impressed, but not as much as I had hoped.  I did not find the soundtrack as catchy as I would have liked, and the only ones really belting out the songs were the background singers/characters. 

Josh finished putting our patio furniture together, but we have not been able to use it since it rained pretty much all weekend. 

I went ahead and made plans for my daughter's 16th birthday for when she is here on Spring Break without her knowledge, since she hasn't called me all year.  It will be three weeks early, but at least it will give me a chance to have some kind of celebration with her, as undeserved as it is.

This past weekend did a lot of updates to the video section of my web site.

22-Feb-08 Josh and I drove into the city yesterday, which ended up being a wise decision, despite the heavy rain in the morning.  I can't believe how "bad" the weather is for Josh's first full winter in California, but at least I can still go outside without a jacket most evenings.  "Bad" is relative.  Certainly there is nothing severe about this weather.

Despite a history of diabetes and vision problems in my family (probably just cataracts and retinopathy since I have not been able to get any confirmation of glaucoma through the language barrier and medical terminology/diagnoses from the extended family in Italy), my eye doctor confirmed that I do not have any reason to fear glaucoma at this point.  I have a large retinal cup-to-nerve ratio, which I may have been born with, so there is no evidence that there is anything wearing away at my vision.  As I have taken yearly for the last several years, even with my ophthalmologist in New York, yesterday I took another spatial test of my peripheral vision, which came back normal. You look forward at an object and click the mouse when you see a light flash in your peripheral vision, and there is no pattern to it, so you can't guess as to when the light flickers.

I was pleased that my eye doctor in New York actually forwarded my records, which my San Francisco doctor was skeptical would occur.  Now Dr. Ai (I'm not kidding, that's my eye doctor's name) and Dr. So, the glaucoma specialist, have several years of history on extensive eye testing.  My eye pressure, which was normal-high since about 2004, was only 15-16 yesterday (above 18 is abnormal).  They measured it by numbing my eyes with drops and putting this space-age monitor directly on my eye.  Although I felt nothing, it made what I was looking at momentarily shimmer like some special mirror effect .  I will go back in a year to check again for any signs of glaucoma, but Dr. So assured me that my grandfather's eight year blindness could not have been restored if he had glaucoma.  There is no cure for it, so the family information I got that he went to Spain for some revolutionary procedure that restored his vision just before his 50th wedding anniversary in 1993 doesn't seem as credible.  Since my grandmother in Italy goes to Croatia for cheap dental work even these days, we now think that they just went to Spain for cataract surgery to expedite the restoration of vision before the ceremony, as they may have been on a waiting list in Italy.

My vision was 20/25 when I was tested at a morning eye doctor appointment a few weeks ago.  Yesterday afternoon I was 20/50.  I suspect the new medication I'm on for diabetes (I now take glyburide with metformin as opposed to byetta and metformin) affected my blood sugar, perhaps combined with something I ate, but I also think the test was not administered as thoroughly as it should have been because I was really there for glaucoma testing.  I'm not worried about it, though.  I certainly didn't lose significant vision in a few weeks and I still don't need glasses.  I'll be getting a new hemoglobin (the three month history of my blood sugar) test in a few weeks so we'll see how well this combination of treatment is going for me.

Josh and I went to the Castro for a simple dinner at Sliders then our obligatory caffeine fixes at "Bearbucks".  We later met up with our friends Rob and Dylan for drinks, ran into a triad we met on New Years Eve, caught up with a few other people we knew (Doug Graves, a theater sound man, who I met years ago in New York recognized me), and then met up with Rick much later in the evening after going to the bars in SoMa.  We almost hated to leave the Castro, though, because Josh had an amazing parking spot right outside of Daddys/440.  The Castro Theater sign was recently restored in all of it's 70's glory due to the filming of "Milk", so that was nice to see again.  We took pictures of it when Kathy Griffin was there under the IBR album.  One of Josh's co-workers took a day off to be an extra in the film.  Rick was celebrating a friend's birthday late at night and we got to meet her and one of her friends who Rick had just met that night.  Tonight Josh is going to make dinner for Rick and his friend, Stephanie, who is driving him up from San Jose. 

I'm so happy I finished doing our taxes yesterday, so that is out of the way.  I also suspect I will be generally less grumpy when I finally get the new CPAP that is being prescribed to me after my follow up appointment for apnea.  Apparently I don't have as many per night as I did over a decade ago when I was heavier, but I still have what is considered severe apnea.  That means that I have been oxygen deprived when I sleep and that for almost two months I've probably had almost NO REM sleep.  Even though my brother is in great physical shape, he snores terribly and you do not have to be overweight to have apnea, which he probably does.  I hope he considers getting a test, but I don't want to pressure him.  I know Josh think I'll be a much happier camper when I get better sleep, so he's certainly looking forward to my newly-issued machine.  For the last few weeks I've been blowing air on me while I sleep with a little fan Josh bought me.  I think it is actually helping somewhat since I do not get up at night to go to the bathroom (a symptom of apnea) and Josh said I've been snoring less.  However, Josh is such a sound sleeper, he was also surprised to learn that I have over 70 apneas per hour.  My original diagnosis was well over 200.

I'm glad I invested in the bird feeder that hangs in our front porch.  The birds are using it much more frequently, and it's the dead of winter, so I suspect some of them migrated south.  There doesn't seem to be a shortage of robins and bluebirds in the backyard, though.  I also have a nice chime on the front porch that I bought in New York, but which reminds me of my grandparents' house in the mother lode country when I was a kid.  The cedar birdhouse was a steal and I'm glad I didn't go with the cheaper looking ones.  I bought it when Josh was visiting Rochester, since I thought it would remind him of his folks' house, but he said he wasn't actually looking to buy one.  We also debated over whether we should put it in the backyard or on the retaining wall, but then we realized the brown squirrels would get to it.  I think we also have cats roaming through our backyard because when my sister visited the other day she saw some animal poop there on the hill that my niece almost picked up.  I think the bird feeder on the front porch completes the porch's cozy factor well.  I'm also so chime-crazy I'm thinking about getting a few more, perhaps including one in the backyard which would probably be good for privacy but also to be heard from the back bedroom.

21-Feb-08 Luckily Rick didn't work and was able to be at the house yesterday, because our patio furniture came much earlier than expected.  I wasn't butch enough to put it all together by the time we sat down for another scrumptious meal that Josh made, but at least I started the project, and I remember from law school than 90% of doing something is starting it.  When I was shopping online for this set, it struck me as kismet that the style was "Calabria", so that's the one I went with. 

The other convenience about having Rick home yesterday was that we had PG&E come out and test our home for carbon monoxide leaks.   The landlord's son had a very close call when he and his girlfriend were nearly killed by a leak in their apartment in a nearby town.  They were awakened in the middle of the night by their cat barfing on them in bed.  The girlfriend soon thereafter passed out and the boyfriend barely made it to the neighbor's doorway before collapsing.  They recovered, but were in the hospital for days.  Apparently we have some equipment in the house that needs replacement soon and we should have a carbon monoxide detector installed immediately. 

Although PG&E didn't come until Josh and I were already home, I PREDICTED that the woman coming to check our home was lesbian before she arrived, and BOY was I correct.  She took one look at my six foot Barbra Streisand head and said "you guys MUST be family."  We had a nice chat about her girlfriend of ten years and gay life in general.  At one point her girlfriend called and told us to look at the ECLIPSE, which was very cool.  We saw it very clearly from our porch.  I love our view, but this is the first time it came in really handy at night.

20-Feb-08 IBR was a blast.  I posted pictures from the event, even though we did not stay through until the last day.  Josh and I spent a great deal of time with Rick.  It was Rick and Josh's first major bear event.  It was great to see a lot of east coast acquaintances and convene with a lot of the folks in California I haven't seen in a while.  We were all disappointed in the dim sum, though.  Although it was nice to be surrounded by bears in the restaurant, I think it made us all sick (although I'm sure in my case that had a lot to do with eating too much which I find particularly easy to do in these situations), the service was mediocre and it was far more expensive than we expected.

Have I heard from my daughter?  She initiated one chat with me, but it's still late February and she has yet to call.  She didn't have much to say except she does not feel she's getting a good enough education in NJ and would even consider returning to the uniform-wearing school in Manhattan where she would have to commute each day with her mother.  I offered to give her a much better life here in California.  Mentioning that again caused a renewed silence.  Too bad.

This page was last updated 06-Mar-2008.