C and Quakertown

Marge went on her way down the Eastern Seaboard last Wednesday for her visits with family and friends before her annual stay for the rest of winter with her Charleston, S.C., brother.

Marge headed for warmer climes just in the nick of time.

Snow and cold soon followed her departure.

Concentrating on what was at hand, I attended to appointments and obtaining the rides to get there and was hugely happy for the willingness of others to help. That continues this week as my two main health concerns are researched and diagnosed and and and...

So, that being said, I won't walk around this anymore and tell you a little about what is going on.

Not driving... Cardiologist said stop for awhile until it is determined what exactly has caused a series of irregularities. Strong heart but something electrical maybe misfiring. Still looking into causes. Except for episodes, I feel fine making it seem surreal that I am not driving. I'm walking. I'm asking for rides. Boy, is that different! Good part of getting rides from others: I get to see more of Pennsylvania. The leaves are off the trees and there is much to take in that summer hides. Good part of walking--it's like slow food.

The other thing.

Last fall the adversities that befell my advancing years via leg pain and serious coughing it was learned, after serious research and hospitalization, were blood clots. That's from Factor V (Leiden Mutation). I got a copy from Mom and another from Dad. Now I know and you know. A modern pharmaceutical has that under control, thanks and all praises, and put me squarely in the Doughnut Hole, thank you big Pharma.

In that quest last winter, a nodule in a lung was noted while the Factor V search was going on. The good doctor made note and followed up on it through this year. Last summer's scan and the scan made a couple weeks ago revealed the nodule is just fine; still sitting there doing nothing, but a new species of neighbor moved in and is, according to yesterday's full body scan, classified as a Stage 1 cancer. That's medicalese for it hasn't spread anywhere else. The same good doctor is calling on the mighty knowledge of Temple University's Lung Department, their formidable expertise and their robots that will excise my in-dwelling threat. And, that's to be within a couple of weeks. If all that other hadn't happened last winter and this fall, this newest development might well have gone on to advanced stages.

It's all a mystery and sometimes we get to know it is.

So, this part is about what I'm doing these late years with what life just morphed into. No doubt, much will be cleared up and I'll be back behind the wheel later on. But, just now, I get a very close look at the world with my feet on the ground.

There was wrapping and mailing to be done and I applied my stack of funny papers from the Philadelphia Inquirer to the wrapping task; thus, thwarting at least a small portion of Christmas merchandizing if I can't thwart Big Pharma. My trusty new sidekick Cartwheel and I headed out with packages walking the mile plus to the US Postal Service in the old part of town. But first, there was a big intersection awaiting. All along this corridor that cuts through Quakertown there are big boxes and franchises with a pretty squalid block paralleling either side of it. Each lighted intersection has at least one inoperable pedestrian button and the painted crosswalks lead to nowhere except for one corner that has about thirty feet of sidewalk running alongside a Wendy's. The rest of the egress from the crosswalks is lumpy stuff. Two of them send you directly into oncoming traffic lanes. I plan to alert the Borough of Quakertown.

The far side has nowhere to go but up the lumpy grass slope and over a curb into the McDonald's parking lot. I doubt anyone but me actually walked across over the past month. I'm sure no one in a wheel chair has ever

Once a block on past the highway, the walking is through old neighborhoods; albeit, strung with electrical infrastructure, but full of history and interesting human occupation.

The little sign says "Oldest Log House 1761".

This made my feet stop hurting. At least, for a little while.

I was amazed to find this library...

...and it's stood here since 1788.

Ah yes, the electrical infrastructure. Yet, I still loved walking this street.

McCool's Event Center has a presence here I didn't know about.

McCool's Red Lion Inn next door on the corner.

Bucks County's Visitor Center.

One of the historic houses...

...where I'll stop in sometime.

A bid to recycled patriotism

A bridge marked with its beginning.

Infrastructure again. Soon there will be more salt to damage it some more. We're due for some serious freezing right now.

And this is the creek it spans. I wonder if it has a name.

This is proof that Cartwheel and I were at the post office. 

On the way back we picked up a few groceries and out there next to parking lot land a sound emerged; then, I found this...




My first busker observation in Quakertown. Then, I saw seagulls.

Back on my side of the challenging highway intersections someone copied the house in My Big Fat Greek Wedding.

By then Cartwheel and I were in trudge mode. Mostly, because I packed a little too much into him.

Well, time to wrap this up and say goodnight.

Goodnight, Moon.