Dear friends and family,
For this, my annual letter, I want to take a census of all inhabitants of the Saul household in 2010, but let’s take care of first things first. That would be the inhabitant that goes by the name of Raymond Massy. He is a mass that has resided in John’s head since at least 1998, according to MRIs and Cat Scans taken for various illnesses, bike accidents and rugby injuries.
No one was looking for him back then and he lived quietly behind John’s right eye (which is on the left side in the picture above). Then in 2008, Peter Jones, an ophthalmologist friend, wondered why I had proptosis in my right eye – that would be bulging. Off we went for another CT, and there was Raymond, getting way too big for his britches and the orbit of my eye. We’ve been keeping an eye on him since then, but I can no longer find doctors willing to say it’s OK to keep putting off the surgery to have Raymond evicted. So out he goes on March 29. I’ll be in the hospital for about a week, and in recovery (can you say double vision?) for at least a couple of months. We will post updates on this blog:
That’s the best place to check on me. I have asked Kathy (who points out that I had ignored her pointed questions about my eye long before Peter) to have her cell phone on and charged (a rare thing), but please check the blog before calling. Her main focus during this time will be to harass doctors and the Harborview Medical Center staff to make sure they are performing at the top of their game. Please don’t distract her.
Raymond, most likely a meningioma, is the dark mass behind the eye. Look over to the eye on the right and you will see a white blob behind the eyeball. That is Chuck Hemangioma, a tangle of blood vessels and maybe nerves that no one seems to give a hoot about so he stays put. Raymond, on the other eye, is probably benign but a pushy type about to get the boot before he does damage to my optic nerve. Actually, he’s about to get the drill. Every neurosurgeon I have seen refers to drilling him out of my head, which conjures up images of someone sauntering into the operating room, unholstering a Black and Decker from their tool belt and plunging into their work – my head. Anyway, check the blog. I especially look forward to posting entries while still on pain medication.
To continue with the census of the household: I say census because it is a subject near and dear to my heart, having completed in October 2010 my one year as manager of the Bellevue Local Census Office. I was blessed with a great staff, and we had the highest response rate in our area, finished under budget and with many new friendships intact.
Kathy continues as the Associate Editor of Pacific Northwest magazine at The Seattle Times and is headed into her 35th year as an employee there. Besides my work with the U.S. Census bureau, I spent 2010 writing freelance articles and teaching in the University of Washington Extended Learing program and at Everett Community College.
This was taken on opening night of “Tristan and Isolde” at the Seattle Opera.
Our son Jake is the inhabitant of our basement apartment and has been working at Norm’s Tavern and Café for nearly two years.
Here is Jake with his friend Megan on the night she cooked us a great dinner of shrimp and grits, one of my favorites.
Lilly
We mourned the death of Blueberry the cat for more than a year before Kathy fell in love with a kitty peeking out of a window of the mobile animal pound that the Humane Society parks outside the Whole Foods store where Kathy often eats lunch. Bringing the animals to you doesn’t seem fair to me. Who can resist? Certainly not Kathy, who brought home Lilly, a household inhabitant for almost two years now (that is as close as I will come to admitting that I never sent out a letter last year).
Our trips in 2010 included a visit to Hawaii with Joe, our California son, and his family, Jake, Grandma Marian (at 91 still bowling and playing a mean game of bridge at least once a week) and Kathy’s sister Anne. For Kathy and me, it was our first visit to the Big Island (Hawaii). We had a great time with everyone, but isn’t Maui wonderful?
Dinner in Hawaii: Jake, John, Hudson, Joe, Anne, Kathy, Cole, Marian and Cyndi.
We also visited California several times – in August for the wedding of Barrett and Casey Johnston and in October when John did a 64-mile bike ride with Cyndi. Between Christmas and New Year’s, we were in Ohio with my sister and family.
At The Winds restaurant in Yellow Springs, Ohio: Kathy, my sister Mary Jo, her husband Don, cousin Connie and her husband Denny.
Cousin Peggy Johnson serves Kathy a shredded chicken sandwich, a Northwest Ohio delicacy best made at Johnson's Country Shoppe in Napoleon, Ohio.
Because of weather problems, the flight home took 25 hours and we barely made it back in time for the annual New Year’s Eve party with old friends, our first without the master blaster of ceremonies, Mr. Stevie Johnston. Sure do miss you, Horse Player of the Year 1947 – 2010.
Stevie
Raymond realizes that his chances of survival inside a specimen jar are not good, but he has been philosophical about the possibility of his demise. He has prepared his will and asked Chuck Hemangioma to say his eulogy. He’s tried to prepare those around him to live life without him, knowing that the titanium mesh that will take his place will be a poor substitute as the carapace needed for John’s head-first (some would say foolhardy) style of rugby.
I keep telling Raymond something I read in a feel-good book in some waiting room: “If we thought we were going to live forever, we would feel terribly trapped in our lives.” I’m not sure I buy that, but it seems to be good enough for my meningioma friend so we will leave it at that.
-- John B.
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