spiderplanet

Recently, my dad went into the hospital for heart surgery. He had a heart valve replaced. He is young as far as heart surgery patients go (Just turned 60).

Dad believes, and I agree, that he is alive today because of the Teamsters union, the representative union at the package delivery company that he works for.

Decades ago, American health care coverage was less expensive and normally covered a large range of care for everyone. Nowadays, healthcare coverage is something that an employer corporation can easily whittle down without many people noticing immediately. As a consequence, health care coverage for union workers has lost ground more slowly than coverage for workers not covered by a union contract.

Here is a picture of Dad in the hospital after surgery.

Before surgery, the doctor told him that they found "a nice big valve" for him. He assumed that the doctor silently added "you fat fuck."

He was very happy to have the breathing tube removed within a day after surgery, and he was also happy to know that his surgeon's dad also works for the same package delivery company as him. It's good if the surgeon likes you and doesn't necessarily want you to die.

For his stay in the hospital, my brother got him an iPad, which was a brilliant idea. My sister-in-law and brother also made a video with their kids, sending their best wishes for a speedy recovery. Dad watched the video on his iPad, and he showed it to the attending nurses.

I suspect that hospital nurses are inundated with pictures and video of patient's grandkids. I doubt that's one of the downsides of the job in the heart surgery ward. All of the hospital staff were excellent, of course.

Dad's doctor has declared him unfit to deliver packages for several weeks until he is more recovered from surgery. While he is recovering, he and his wife are attending to their house and their garden. His wife has taken time off work while he recovers.

They have plenty of things to keep busy with. There's been some lightning damage.

In addition to finding a tree contractor, there's also a kitty to attend to. Here's a profile photo of Gracie the cat.

And another of the kitty enjoying some cat food.

Gracie prefers to come in and out of the house via her cat door on the second floor. The cat used to climb the tree and then jump to the roof. Dad put in a ladder to make it easier for the cat. Here are some photos.

The tree that's next to the house is an apple tree. There are lots of apples this year.

There are already apples on the ground as well.

Apples attract deer. Anyone who lives where deer do not live thinks that deer are majestic, graceful creatures. Anyone who lives where deer do live thinks that deer are obnoxious, destructive fuckwads.

Later this year, we will make hard apple cider from fresh apples. If I knew anything at all about hunting, we would have venison soaked in apple cider.

Thanks to

phoenixredux for reminding me that deer serve an often forgotten, but delicious purpose in the world.