Monday, November 01, 2021

Apologies

I have not forgotten you, but I have demands on my time.  My wife had bunion/hammertoe surgery and has to be non-weightbearing on one foot for 5-8 weeks. I have had to reduce my walking mileage in order to stay nearby, and there are lots of little things.  I can still get exercise right here with raking. I am having my second cataract surgery next week, which I hope will improve my book-reading, but for a while it will hamper all reading. I forget how long that will last, as memory of the first one gets rolled into the very lengthy recovery for the surgery on the macular hole, which was much worse. Lastly, my adult studies class on forgiveness begins this week after two delays, and I have to assemble all the material into a coherent set of lessons. Every time I go back to it I assemble it differently.

So "Prehistoric Burials," which I have some observations on - mostly of my usual variety of noting how we make assumptions which are not warranted and there are better ways to look at some practices.  I also just got some interesting updates on Ashkenazi Jewish genetic heritage, which also brings in some corrections to the way we usually look at Christian history in the places where they intersect. For example, it has been known for years that the lineage seems strongest for Levantine men and Northern Italian women intermarrying in the 7th-8th C and moving from Italy to the Rhineland by 900 AD. But Italy was very Roman Catholic then - the papacy well-established.  What are all these Italian Catholic women doing marrying Jews? Why is no one forbidding this, punishing them?  Fun speculations have been coming up as we learn more nuance about the DNA.

10 comments:

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  2. Good luck on the cataract surgery! Had both eyes done a couple of years ago. Went from 20/200 vision with slight astigmatism to 20/20 vision. It's great. My insurance didn't cover the extra $1500 per eye for the adaptive lenses, so I now need reading glasses, but I'm happy that I can see a golf ball 250 yards down the fairway instead of only about 50 or 60 yards like before.

    Hope your wife's recovery on her foot surgery goes smoothly.

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  3. No need for an apology. I hope everything turns out well for you. God bless.

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  4. Best wishes on the recoveries and surgeries. Life comes first.

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  5. My recovery from cataract surgeries were very easy and painless -- I hope that this one is for you also. "Macular hole" sounds quite scary! The biggest problem I had was keeping the eyedrop schedule straight.

    I opted to pay out of pocket to correct astigmatism and close-up vision. For close-up vision, each eye is now at a slightly different focal point and this took some getting used to. (My pupils are not the same size.) It also requires light and contrast. Menus with red print on a black background in a dimly lit restaurant require both a flashlight and reading glasses. I think it was the astigmatism correction that eliminated the halo/glare of lights at night. Perhaps eliminated isn't quite right -- the halo was replaced by "targets" that are now not noticeable (the brain adapts). At first though, the concentric circles were quite entertaining.

    The part of the cataract surgery I was conscious for was enjoyable -- what a light show! It's possible I'm just strange... but that show combined with the percussion* of an MRI!

    *After my first MRI, I opted for no music as it was always "off" the beat of the machine and that was very annoying.

    Cataract surgery is the only surgery I have ever had that left me better off than I'd ever been. It's not the only surgery that does that, just the only one I've had.

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  6. Foot surgery is no walk in the park. My daughter had to use a 'knee scooter' for near 10 weeks after surgery on her foot. I'm assuming my daughter is much younger than your wife (since you and I are about the same age) and it was very difficult for her. Please tell Mrs. AVI to hang in there -- it gets better!

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  7. Best wishes for both of you.

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  8. Best wishes to both you and your wife for speedy and trouble-free / pain free recoveries!

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  9. What Aggie said is what we mean. Best Wishes for you both

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  10. It may have had more to do with the economic prospects in the region (women are quite practical). If the Jews had a trade that would survive a location change, that might be seen as a better bet than a poor man tied to land that yielded poor harvests, or might subject him to military service.

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