Good morning World

Here it is 0800 and I thought it was time to add a post. Things have been busy, but quiet here. We had a visitor this week, Ida. The tropical storm. There is not any damage done other than some tree limbs in places as far as my neighborhood. It is in the 40's this morning in Pensacola and quite sunny. We are getting ready for the annual turkey day. As an employee of Wally World, I will be out very early on friday am for what they refer to as Blitz Day. But I will be home in the mid morning.

We have made a few modifications in the schedule this year as so many of our immediate family will be working on Thanksgiving Day. We have elected to have our celebration on Friday after everyone else and that is a good thing. Darilyn has to go in for surgery again on 12/1 to have the other carotid artery cleared so her pre-op is on that friday. It seems to work out much better this way, to have the bird on friday. Right now, I am working on a grand-daughter's computer to remove virus infection and install the software needed to keep it safe. Never get away from doing what you know how to do it seems. And that is a good thing.

Adieu.

Sunday Morning in the South

Good morning world.

I am engaged in what has become a fairly normal sunday morning for me. Because my lady wife is working weekends for the next couple of months, I am engaged in taking care of myself and the home. And in a new hobby of sorts. I have discovered a website that is the host for music that I have occasionally listened to on weekends on public radio. It is called "space music" and has been around for 25 or so years. Give a listen to it if you have an interest. It is http://hos.com. They produce a weekly show of ambient music of all genres. And I have found a tool to record streams from the internet so I save the programs for later listening.

I also spend some time at the pastime of creating breakfast and other meals during the day. Today, it was my take on the Mickey D's egg muffin delight. Other than the probable original ingredients, I feel it is better. Of course. For anyone of interest, I chop up a small amount of fresh onion, probably about 1/8 cup. I also chop 1 slice of canadian bacon. Because that is what I had in the ice box. If I had proscuito, I would have used it. Anyway, I toast 1 english muffin, after I split it with a fork of course. I beat 1 egg with about a tablespoon of milk and set it aside. Then in a small saute pan, I brown the bacon in EVOO for a minute or two before adding the onion. This is done at fairly high heat, stirring often and seasoning to taste. When the onions are translucent, I reduce the heat to medium and add the egg mixture and let it cook without stirring other than the original pass to incorporate all the ingredients. When it is mostly done, I flip it and mold the size to fit on a muffin by folding it in upon itself until fully cooked. I then place it on a buttered, toasted, english muffin. I add a little salsa to flavor it, and Voila. It was good. Enjoyed it with coffee and Activia yogurt. All this while listening to space music. What a good start for the day and the week. Santini, I will be accepting your invitation. Jimi, I will see about posting those recipes you mentioned.

Bye for now.

Cooking Blog

I have just finished commenting on my dear younger brother's blog in which he mentions the love of our father, fried green tomatoes. I am also a proponent of this delicacy. It seems the sons of Tom Miller share a passion with our father. We enjoy the art of cooking. I was unaware that there were more in the family. Cooking is a passion of mine and has become much more so over the last few years. Ever since I partnered with my dear lady wife who is a much better cook than I. And I am pretty good. I find that I enjoy the prep work and clean up in the kitchen. Now Santini will tell you that is a much changed attitude from when I was a teen. And she would be correct. But time and experience along with necessity has tempered that. I love the chopping and prepping of veggies for the dishes that my lady prepares. I also love to work on salads, making them unusual and tasty with as much visual appeal as I can conjure at the moment of creation. Sweet potatoes are another area where I have achieved some noteriety. I love omelets of all kinds. Roasting many types of fowl also seems to be a hit. Along with the concoction of soups, slow cooker meals, jambalya, and gumbo. Hey, I love to cook. Especially when there is someone to cook it for. I prepare some mean fish meals as well. So, bring on the recipes gang. Let us see if we can create a cookbook of our own. Why not? What else is time and experience good for?

See you all later. Yehear?

100% Cleared

The surgery was done today. It appears to be an unqualified success. The doctor said that it was packed tight and took a bit of work. Darilyn is in ICU tonight but will probably be released to come home tomorrow. Then she has to wait at least a week before she can drive and go back to work. The second blockage will be investigated later. They cannot work on it for at least 6 weeks to give the body and brain time to adjust to the new pressures and flow. Any sooner could cause problems. Now I will be able to sleep better. I am tired. I did not know how much I was worrying and getting myself worn out. Thank you lord for your help and guidance. Thank you family for all your support and encouragement.

Here we go again.

Yup. Here we go again. The life and times of the Millers in Pensacola.

Monday morning, Darilyn woke me early and told me that she thought it would be a good idea to go the hospital. It seems she had passed out or fainted when she was getting ready for work. She remembers being on the floor with our golden retriever, Angel, laying beside her. She has had a couple of episodes of feeling faint over the last couple of years. The last time was after her mastectomy so we had attributed it to that. But she had never fainted. I took her to the emergency room to have her checked out because this was not something either of us felt was normal. Well, they did some test that did not show anything. But to be conclusive, they admitted her to the hospital so that they could run some tests that could not be done through ER. Things like CT scans, and arterial sonograms. These did show something not normal. There appeared to be some type of blockage in her caroted arteries. This need further definition according to the vascular surgeon they called in to check it out. So, today they performed an arterial angiogram to obtain better clarification of the condition. And lo and behold, 90% blockage on the right side, and 70% on the left. She was within a very few weeks of having a stroke. Other test have shown that the conditions do exist now that we know what to look for. The prognosis? Tomorrow, 9/16, at 12:00 Noon, she is scheduled for surgery to take care of the right side blockage. The left side will be handled at a later time, we just don't know when yet. So, keep us in your prayers. The good lord has delivered another head slap it seems. Telling us to take care of things. More later.

HOORAY

I have not been posting much, but I have to pass on my feelings at the moment to those who peruse my attempts at literary sufficiency. My feelings? yeah

HOORAY!!! FANTASTIC!!!! OMG!!!

Darilyn, my lady, and I went to her oncologist this morning to get the results of her last PET scan. SHE BEAT IT!!!! No cancer anywhere!!!! I can not even begin to express the joy and gratitude that we both feel today. In my life, there have been 6 that have had the dreaded "C" word. Only 2 have beat it. Thems purty good odds as far as I am concerned. So I am going to take her out for dinner.

Facebook

Well, I have done it now. I have succumbed to the latest (well almost latest maybe) electronic communications and networking craze. I have created a facebook page or whatever it is called. I have been brought to task by my youngest daughter for not having posted an update on my blog. I guess I am supposed to announce it to this community as well. Who knew?? Anyway, here it is.

Sunsets

I was remembering the few days we spent with Santini on the lake and the sunset pictures I was able to obtain. This has started me on a quest to capture more of this lovely phenomenon in my locale. So, I have been capturing a few as I return home from working. As I do, I cross a three mile long bridge over Pensacola Bay traveling in a northerly direction. This provides me with a view of the western sky and it has been at the time of the setting of the sun. They are not overly spectacular, but I want to share them.


This is from a few days ago with a storm just having past through the area.


This one is from yesterday. The weather is much nicer.



This one was taken tonight on the way home. I know they are a little dark, but they are a beginning.

Good news

It has been a long time since the last posting. I apologize for that. So let us get caught up with how things are here in the Florida Panhandle.

Starting in early January, Darilyn received radiation treatments every week day for 6 weeks and ended with a case of what could be described as second degree burns in an area on her chest. The plastic surgeon prescribed some lotion which helped to heal it very well. The prognosis is great at this time. There is no current indication of any cancer although there will be further testing. During this time, she was back at work full time and loving it. She has lost 52 pounds. She is starting to get her hair back, a salt and pepper color that is short, soft, and curly. She is uncomfortable with the hair loss though and wears a wig whenever she is out of the house. She has 5 of them, most given by the American Cancer society. Last friday, Good Friday by the way, she had the reconstructive surgery. The surgeon moved some tissue from her back to form a breast and did some work on the left side to create a balanced pair. Tonight, she came home from the hospital. She will be recuperating at home for a while until the doctor agrees that she can go back to work. All is going well.

Me? I am going from day to day as I must. The task needs to be done, or in the immortal words of John Hay, "I'll hold er nozzle agin the bank til the last galuts ashore". So that is a quick synopsis of life in the miller household here in florida.

Bye for now.