Surgery

Dad has had his surgery. He did quite well, and Dr. Vasquez was able to insert Dad's stents through his femural arteries!

My brother and his family came up for the surgery; two gentlemen from Mom and Dad's church spent the morning with us. The waiting room at the Jack and Jane Hamilton Vascular Surgery Center at Baylor Hospital was absolutely wonderful. My brother is staying with Dad tonight, and Dad should be able to come home Thanksgiving or the day after.

Dad had been adamant that his surgery not interfere with my college, so I began taking Historical Methods last week, but I must say, I am not liking this class as much as last class. The first six weeks seem to be a repeat of what we already learned in Historiography. Discussion Board is still around and looks like it always will. The book, What is History Now? edited by David Cannadine is not my friend. Another long paper is due at the course's end, but there are some interesting activities along the way--searching archives, finding grants, so we will see what Dr. Charles Reed has in store for us.

Aortic Aneurysm

We saw the vascular surgeon, Jay Vasquez of Surgical Associates of Dallas, and we really liked him. Dr. Vasquez explained that Dad's aneurysm is 4.7 cm, but it is one that is growing on the side of the aorta, a saccular aneurysm, so it has to be operated on and removed. The stent is mesh, made to order fitting Dad's heart exactly, and hopefully will be inserted going up both of Dad's femural arteries instead of opening up his chest. We will learn more from a second, pre-op visit.

An "A," but...

My final paper was an A, but a low A, because I just never could quite grasp a few principles of how one analyzes historiography. Nonetheless, it is finished, submitted, graded, and I just registered my first A.

Dad is ill, though. His heart has an aneurysm in its aorta, and so we do not know what kind of surgery, if operable at all, this entails. In spring 1995, Dad had open-heart surgery with a quadruple by-pass. The healing was a long process, and we are hoping and praying Dad does not have to have a second open-heart surgery at 79. His actual heart muscle is strong and 25 years younger than its actual age. Dad exercises, but not now for a bit, eats well, and enjoys his life--all good things.

I am enrolled for my second class, Historical Methods, but as we have this one week break between classes, I'll see if I'm actually taking the course or not after we visit the vascular surgeon.

Study, Study, Study

Well, I am halfway through this first course, and we are already registering for the second course, Historical Methods. I can honestly say, my spare time, i.e., non-working hours, is consumed with reading and studying, but it is paying off, as I have an A. I don't understand how exactly to write this final paper, but I'm working on it. Dr. Gledhill is helpful, and I'm thinking on-line will work but still not a fan of Discussion Board. Trudging onward...

Historiography

Historiography is the history of writing history. It is not as complicated as it sounds, right now, any way, but it is difficult to muster my thoughts about how history has been written. I like the professor, Dr. Michael Gledhill, but I do not care for the Discussion Board. It's how on-line students foster a sense of classroom; however, the thing is, not everyone can write or use grammar correctly, so I find it difficult to read a poorly constructed post, as is required. We write each week about a topic, reply to two topics, and some weeks we write additional short papers preparing us for the final paper--ugh! My advisor, Matthew, stays in contact quite frequently, too, and has been most helpful. All-in-all, I am pleased with my decisions, but I am worried about only 10 weeks in which to accomplish so much.

Making Good on a New Year's Resolution

I have always wanted to go back to college, but I have always been too busy...or so I thought. I would wind the evening down by playing Candy Crush, and after wasting many, many hours on that game, which does require the use of reason and spatial logic, I realized instead of trying to get to level 467, why not use this same time and keep your last resolution of 2014. So, I applied to Southern New Hampshire University.

I chose this school after first seeing their "bus" t.v. advertisement. I really had investigated it and others for about a month, but just did not do anything until yesterday afternoon. Now, I have, and I am a college student once-again, almost 30 years to the date I was last a college student. I guess better late than never. I am not sure how being an on-line student will work, but I am willing to give it a shot.

I will be earning a Masters in Public History, and my first course will be 501-Historiography, whatever that means. I have ordered the two books: Historiography: Ancient, Medieval, Modern by Ernst Breisach and The Modern Historiographer Reader: Western Sources edited by Adam Budd.

So we shall see...