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Since 2002. Anonymous Letters to the Editor with pictures. Published Monday through Friday by Noon.
[Sewer Hook-up] My neighbor is getting sewer hook-up estimates and I asked her what’s the average cost. $2800 to $4500 depending on the amount of work needed and distance they have to run the line from the house to the street pipe. My distance is approximately 25 feet to the FKAA union fitting. That will cost me about $3000 plus the cost of removal of my old septic tank which will be around $1500. What other costs the sewer and water company will tag us with I do not know, but I think it is about time to sell out and move to someplace that does not screw their citizens. Anyone have a recommendation? |
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Has anyone else seen the painted buntings? Six are back this year at my feeders. From what I have looked up they don’t normally come this far south. Last year was the first time I’d seen any. |
[“Squeaky voice is a good guitar player but can’t sing very well”] I think I know who you mean, but I won’t write his name because he is a nice guy and he can’t help it if his voice is too high. Too bad he doesn’t practice singing in a lower octave or register as much as he practices his guitar. |
[Eimer’s Pay-off] Eight attorneys, eight police officers, the City Manager, the Chief of Police, and Joshua Eimers met in a conference room at City Hall to try to settle the civil rights lawsuit regarding the death of Charles Eimers. Eimers, 61, was the father of four who died a year ago on South Beach at the hands of Key West police officers. Yesterday, the case was tentatively settled when the City’s insurance carrier agreed to pay $900,000. |
[“What conspiracy theorists think happened on 9/11”] ] The Pentagon was hit by a bunker buster cruise missile. The size of the hole, lack of wreckage outside, size of the jet turbine displayed, Rumsfeld’s interview slip-up, and penetration depth all are consistent with a missile. A 757 is impossible as an explanation. The twin towers were hit by remotely piloted drones. The video “In Plane Sight” slows down official footage of the second plane hit. Before the shadow of the plane and the nose of the plane itself meet at the building wall, there is a bright flash at the impending impact point. In other words, something exploded at the building wall just before the plane hit. missile? explosive charge? There is clearly a bulge on the bottom of the plane. Eyewitnesses reported no windows and no commercial airline paint job. I have a friend who was working in the second tower, and often worked long hours. There was a complete floor closed above, and heavy loads could be heard rolling across the floors at night. There was extensive wire pulling throughout the building for months. The official story was “network cables”. My friend and some coworkers defied security orders to stay in the building and slipped past guards to escape in the nick of time. They felt and heard explosions, just as firefighters there reported. The buildings came down at very near free-fall speed- an impossibility with the official story. The buildings came straight down uniformly. Building 7 was not hit by anything, but also came down in an obvious controlled demolition. No skyscraper had ever been brought down by fire and there were far worse and far longer, The twin towers were specifically designed to withstand the impact of a fully loaded freight plane, because a building had actually been had actually been hit by one not long before. I watched an interview with one of the architects explaining the special design features to minimize damage. After the fact, molten steel was found in the debris, and steel column stubs were found sheared off at! a 45 degree angle as if torched. There are plenty of photos of these. Jet fuel does not burn hot enough to melt steel, and burns especially low temp when starved for oxygen. No, commercial plane hits did not bring down the towers. They were intentionally demolished. Of the vast stores of gold bullion stored under one of the towers, only a very small percentage was recovered and that was found loaded in a 10 wheel truck abandoned in a tunnel below the buildings. My brother-in-law was to have started work in the towers, but got viciously ill the day before. He thought that was rotten luck before he saw what his alternative fate would have been. Think about that the next time you are delayed in traffic or otherwise prevented from following your plan. Meanwhile, “never forget”, but don’t blame it on a few party animal Muslim guys (a disgrace to their religion) with box knives. That is the outrageously wild conspiracy story. You would think they could have come up with something more convincing. |
We had dinner at the Florida Keys Lobster House in Marathon. It was fantastic except for the total bitch with red hair tending the bar. I’d like to buy the place just to fire her. ~dave@yahoo.com |
[Marathon Journal] The Marathon City Council met at the county government center at 5:30PM. There was standing room only until the Sombrero Beach Road development issue came up and was passed. Then there was a mass exodus with some booing and hissing. No one had signed up to speak, which was surprising. The residents missed a chance to keep the issue hot and angry. One resident challenged the councilmen that an election would soon come up.
While this issue has upset the Sombrero Beach Road neighbors, this is democracy in action. That is only if all the resident come out during the next election season. The Sombrero Beach Road developer got the final approvals to go ahead with the 50 unit project running the western side of Sombrero Beach Road starting at Section 8 housing to the beginning of the high school. The developer met all the requirements twice at the Planning Commission meetings and twice at the Marathon City Council meetings. Council was sympathetic but there was no other choice. One other thing the residents can do is file an appeal with the local district court within 30 days. The residents who do not want this development will do that soon a reliable source told me. Can someone say Fireworks! An in-house attorney for Marathon is going to happen. During our interviews over the years, the pendulum has changed to having an in-house legal department. There is a Special Call Meeting at the firehouse at 5.30PM February 3RD to work on the issues. This meeting will hash out the particulars for a probable vote at the council regular meeting February 10TH at 5:30PM at the county government center here in Marathon. While the council is at it, they should renew the Mike Puto City Manager contract indefinitely not just two years. The council hires and fires legal representation and the City Manager. The mobile vendor issue will require research and vetting with the Planning Commission and the City Council. What is defined as “mobile” vendor? How long can a vendor stay at one spot? There are other questions sure to come up. This just might be funny when the council gets to it. |
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Why is it called a grandfather clock? Link |
[Help Wanted] Custodian for busy veterinary practice in Marathon. Duties include overall monitoring and cleaning hospital inside and outside. Some minor animal handling may be required. Must be able to lift 60lbs. Experience with maintenance is preferred. Shift hours are 12PM-9PM, Monday through Friday. Salary based on experience with nice benefit package. Please apply at Marathon Veterinary Hospital 5001 Overseas Hwy or call Classified Ad > Help Wanted |
A revealing glimpse into the American commerce of guns. Link |
[Cancer Cure] Got skin cancer? I’m not a doctor, this is not medical advice, FDA has not evaluated, yada yada, but if you have some small skin cancers to get rid of, I can testify this works. Swab on iodine two or more times a day. I get the decolorized (also known as white iodine) so that my skin doesn’t change color for a few hours. Side effects I experienced: It will dry your skin temporarily and may sting a little at first, especially if the lesion is open. How does it work? Who really cares, but supposedly by killing the yeast that must coexist with cancer, while stimulating deep skin stem cells to grow new healthy skin from the bottom up. Maybe, but again, who cares how?. It may take 2-4 weeks, but there will be no trace and no scar. If you have a whopper to get rid of, it’s going to be ugly, but you can use “black salve” containing bloodroot. It will only react with abnormal skin beyond maybe reddening. If it is cancerous, it will eat right in, encapsulate and expel a black glob. A big ugly crater of raw flesh will be left. Yellow salve or iodine will help it heal without a scar. It will burn and throb while working, but so will a scalpel when the local wears off. There are terrifying day by day progress videos of people using black salve on YouTube for tumors or well established cancers-even breast cancer tumors. Without careful tending after the cancer glob is expelled, you could very well have a scar or infection. Curaderm, made from eggplant extract with salicylic acid and urea will also eat a big hole and then heal it, usually without a scar. It does not burn except for a brief sting when applied to a raw wound. You have to keep it covered and not let it dry out, and it could take months for a big cancer. I had a big deep squamous that scared the crap out of me when i saw how big a hole this stuff ate, but it healed perfectly except with lighter pigmentation. I got all of the above “magic potions” via ebay “Buy it Now” options at prices lower than Amazon and others. At least one of the local drug stores sell! s decolorized iodine. Forget the little iodine application stick. Pull it off and toss it. Just wet your finger and rub it on. I had four cancer removal operations before discovering these home remedies. Two of the operations had the cancer come right back, even with a “clear margin”, “we got it all” biopsy, but iodine took them out in about 3 weeks. I had success on both squamous and basal diagnoses. Bloodroot black salve has been reported to work on melanoma and others. I’m not here to make your decisions or preach to you, just to alert you to what worked for me. Good luck, whatever you do |
[Lift Raft] Avon 6-person Ocean Valise life raft for sale. Clean and good condition. Has been stored and needs to be re-certified. Paid over $1600 several years ago, never used and no longer needed. Raft stores in compact 29-inch waterproof valise. Great for long distance fishing trips or Bahamas crossings. Text Classified Ads > Boats |
[Eimer’s Pay-off] How can the city commission have a closed meeting to decide on the Eimers settlement? Shouldn’t this come under Florida’s Sunshine Law? |
I also miss FTR. Its like a kid missing Saturday mornings cartoons. We all need to relax a bit and not have to take everything so serious. |
My wife took a list of plumbing/sewer installer contractors in the Keys around to each home owner along our street to see who preferred which contractor and if we could get a lower price per home by letting one contractor do the entire street. Not one neighbor could agree on one contractor. On top of that my wife was accused of taking a bribe from one contractor for trying to get him to do it all. Talk about getting something done by committee. These people deserve to take it up the poo shoot, cost wise, for their hook-up! |
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[Apple vs Microsoft] This week, both Microsoft and Apple unveiled their latest earnings, and the once unthinkable became reality: Apple’s market capitalization hit $683 billion! More than double Microsoft’s current value of $338 billion. |
The 3rd video down at the link (Anatomy of a grinder) is a service call on a 2 year old E-one grinder pump installed in 2011. It was just out of warranty. It cost $700 for the service call to repair the internal contactor and capacitor, but when reassembled the pump was drawing 3 times normal current, so it was taken to the shop for more work. There were signs of moisture inside the control cavity, which is a common problem with this model that is being installed here. FKAA is going to be hiring a bunch of people (9?) to do this job, so if you might want to work for FKAA, here’s your chance to preview the job. These pumps are going to cost us all in high sewer rates. Notice that not one of our County Commissioners pays an FKAA sewer bill, nor do any of the FKAA executives. Link |
[Mover Wanted] Need to make a few extra bucks? We’re looking for a strong man or two with a pickup truck or utility trailer to move a good, solid wood (read: heavy) chest of drawers from Big Pine Key to our house on Cudjoe. It’s just a bit too heavy for my wife and I. If you can carry it up the stairs that’s great. If not, we’ll leave it downstairs. We’ll pay a reasonable price for your efforts. If anyone can help us out, please call Classified Ad > Help Wanted |
Springer’s Bar & Grill Entertainment Monday: The Greens. Bluegrass / Jazz at its best from Springer’s home state of Virginia. Y’all come down and see us. Tuesday 6:30 pm: Bluegrass Jam Circle with Alan Graf. Bring your Fiddle, sing a song or just hang out for a good time. All Pickers and Grinners welcome smile emoticon Wednesday: Cornhole League – Be there or be square! Thursday: The Doerfels – Bluegrass at its best!! www.thedoerfels.com |
[Muslims at WW II Cemetery] Where were the Muslim authorities when this was taking place? Could this not have been stopped? Their disrespect for others is amazing. If making cartoons of Mohammed is worth 12 murders, what is suitable recompense for this? This is from a WW II British military cemetery in Libya. Note that dead are Christian and Jewish soldiers that liberated Libya from Nazi German occupation. Every time a joke and/or cartoon is made about the Koran, the whole Muslim world turns upside down and the rest of us are all called racists! However Muslims appear to do whatever they like and no one says anything. The majority of them give their silent approval. Video |
[Virus] FKAA reports distribution of another email virus, with subject line FW: BBB SBQ. This one purports to be from the Better Business Bureau. Nope. Just hit Delete. |
Fresh water line by Pecs. Five rolls of 1/2 ” and 3/4″. Was going to replace the Quest water lines on my trailer, but never did. Materials new, but not needed. $100 OBO for all of it. Text Classified Ads > Building Materials |
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Boating Skills and Seamanship Course completion photo of graduating class. |
America is not the greatest country in the world anymore, but we could be. We will never be great again unless we admit we aren’t. Clip from “Newsroom” well said. Video |
[Fiery Crash] So you think your Monday sucks? Video |
[“Rats”] Some of those large rats spotted down here are just designer dogs that the snowbirds bring down. You can always find a poor husband or boyfriend out walking these things and bagging poop early in the morning and at dusk. It has to be a little embarrassing for the guys. These aren’t the most manly looking dogs around. When they walk by tall grass you can hear the Keys’ real rats snickering at them. |
[Eimers Death Settlement] The Charles Eimers case settled for $900,000 by the city to make it go away. Another twist to the Eimers murder. Joshua Eimers rolls over to the City of Key West. Joshua stated his family brought the lawsuit, not for money, but to find out the truth about his fathers death. If he wanted the truth, why did he settle? Now he will never find out the truth, Donnie Lee is still the chief, Lovette, Garbo, and ten other liars are still patrolling the streets, the city commissioners still remain silent. The homeless, the suspected homeless, the van dwellers are still in danger. Sadly Joshua Eimers you could have done so much good for Key West, but didn’t. |
How similar are our propaganda mills today as compared to Tass and Provada of the late Soviet Union? I’d say, “Spot on.” Does anyone believe the BS put out by our own Govt’s propaganda organ, the local media? Why bother paying attention to distortions, cover-ups, half truths, total fabrications, or unreported facts. Remember when it was reported that Obama said that if he had a son he would look just like Trevon Martin and the propaganda organ showed a photo of a cute little 6 year old instead of the true photo of a tattooed gangbanger thug. Or the “Gentle Giant-Brown” in Ferguson? |
[Killer Seer] The leader of a Kansas commune that prosecutors say lived off of insurance payouts following the deaths of group members is set to stand trial for murder in the 2003 drowning of one of them. Link |
[Liability] I find it very strange that the city of Key Weird only carries $1M in liability insurance. I ran my own remodeling business for many years and was required to carry $2M in liability. I bid on and won a job for the state of Illinois to redo 24 bathrooms in a state run facility. I had to up my liability insurance to $10M to keep the job. At the time I had only six full time employees and three part time. How can a city the size and number of employees only carry $1M? If a tourist was hit by and run over by and crippled or killed by a city owned vehicle you can bet the lawsuit would be more than $1M.
Some possible reasons: 1) The city of Key Weird is too cheap to pay for a better policy. 2) After the $8M paid to the duck company they use the $1m as an excuse to stop others from high dollar lawsuits. 3) Maybe the insurance company took into consideration past lawsuits, the past and current actions of the city commissioners and the KWPD and refuses to insure the city for more. 4) Maybe the city commission is just too stupid to protect the taxpayers from high dollar payouts. 5) Maybe the commission just doesn’t care. |
[Gun nut baby] Toddler wounds both parents with 1 shot from handgun A 3-year-old boy found a handgun in his mother’s purse and fired just one shot that wounded both his parents at an Albuquerque motel on Saturday, police said. |
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Today, I will not answer the radio call that your boyfriend has come home drunk and is beating you again. Today I will not answer the radio call that your 16 year old daughter, who is very responsible, is four hours late coming home from school. Today I will not answer the radio call that your store has been robbed or your house has been burglarized. Today I will not stop a drunk driver from killing someone. I will not catch a rapist or a murderer or a car thief. Today I will not answer the radio call that a man has a gun or tried to abduct a child or that someone has been stabbed or has been in a terrible accident. Today I will not save your child that you locked in a car or the child you were to busy to watch who went outside and fell into the swimming pool, but that I revived. No, today I will not do that. Why? Today, I was suspended from duty for doing my job, because the media, liberals, a community organizer, a lawyer who formally represented terrorists and is the US attorney general and a mayor who ran on an anti-police agenda, who are all advised by a drug dealer, liar and income tax cheat. And, all who know nothing about Policing, have vilified my profession. Because – Today I was killed by a drunk driver while I was helping push a disabled car off the highway. Today I was shot and killed during a routine traffic stop to simply tell someone that they had a taillight out. Today I was killed in a traffic accident rushing to help a citizen. Today I was shot and killed serving a warrant on a known drug dealer. Today I was killed by a man when I came by to do a welfare check because his family was too busy. Today I was killed trying to stop a bank robbery or a grocery store robbery. Today I was killed doing my job. A chaplain and an officer will go to a house and tell a mom and dad or a wife or husband or a child that their son or daughter or husband or wife or father or mother won’t be coming home today. The flags at many police stations were flown at half-mast today but most people won’t know why. There will be a funeral and my fellow officers will come, a twenty-one-gun salute will be given, and taps and bagpipes will be played as I am laid to rest. My name will be put on a plaque, on a wall, in a building, in a city somewhere. A folded flag will be placed on a mantel or a bookcase in a home somewhere and a family will mourn. There will be no cries for justice. There will be no riots in the streets. There will be no officers marching, screaming ‘no justice, no peace.’ No citizens will scream that something must be done. No windows will be smashed, no cars burned, no stones thrown, no names called. Only someone crying themselves to sleep tonight will be the only sign that I was cared about. I was a police officer. |
If you can’t fix it with a hammer you’ve got an electrical problem. |
The February AARP calendar of events is here. Full Menu > Ongoing Events |
Time is like a river. You cannot touch the water twice, because the flow that has passed will never pass again. Enjoy every moment of life. |
[Music] I was checking out the band that played at the Green Parrot this weekend (awesome saxophonist!) and stumbled on the “Jam in the Van” collection. This is musicians from all over the country playing a few tunes in a sound studio motor home. There are some great musicians to discover. There are also some instruments that I have never seen played before, like a hookah-looking keyboard with hose to the mouth for example. How often do you see a euphonium playing blues? Here is a sample of one new band I discovered from Atlanta, “Larkin Poe” I like a lot. I ended up watching the Green Parrot band on the 5:30 webcam and deciding to go to Mangrove Mama’s for the Sean Chambers band that always puts on a great show. Much as I like Looe Tiki Bar, I don’t like the same bands every 2nd week when there are so many out there. Video |
[Mr Compassion] I gave up worrying about the poor, the weirdoes, and the bent and broken because they are their own problem. It is like the Red Cross nurse said to a Ugandan man who was starving and half crippled, ‘Why do you stay here in the God forsaken country and not just walk out?’ The man answered, Because my wives are here and they are too pregnant to walk that far!’ That is why the USA is not going to make it. The only way is to sterilize the masses of useless eaters and there are plans for this to happen internationally. The sooner the better I say |
[Unedited] I gotta agree with the neighbor from hell. Damn people need to mind there own biz. Neighbors from hell are the idiots that call the cops at 8pm because you are in your yard drinking a few PBRs Blasting Toby kieth. Hell just come over drink a beer and ask the music will get turned down. And don’t worry our pitbull aint ate a yorkie ,yet, this year anyway! And in case you cant remember that long ago kids are rather noisy when they play. But they really quite when they are vandalizing cop calling snowbirds property. so remember Love your neighbor. Hell your wife might be! |
Did the old ferry go from No Name Key to Grassy Key? Where was the landing on Grassy Key? Is there any trace of it left? |
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My apartment has mould. It just appeared this last month. I think it may be in the central air conditioner. I haven’t changed the filter in overt a year. (I know I’m lazy). When I change the filter can I do something to de-mould the a/c? |
[Conspiracy] How come all those conspiracy theorists have also seen UFOs? I don’t think it’s coincidence. |
If you think the politicians are on your side you’re just wrong. They only thing they understand is cash, control, and getting reelected. Link |
[“Female helicopter pilot”] I went outside when I heard the blades replicating “Apocalypse Now”, took my binoculars and viewed. Oh my God! Someone said she is “all set”. 100% agreement from me. |
[UFO] You saw an alien spaceship. Did you enjoy the anal probe? |
[“Live your truth. Express your love. Share your enthusiasm”] Don’t tell me what to do! |
There are way too many stupid people doing stupid shit for us to keep things the way they are. I fell for none of you. |
Get ready Ohioans your Republican Governor is going to raise your taxes while playing the usual “Look over here but not here” game.
What you will be told is you will get a $500 million dollar tax cut. What you wont be told is your sales tax which you pay everytime you purchase something will go up to 5.75 percent. Along with that there will be other various services that were tax free that now will be added to the over all taxes you already pay. If you smoke you will pay another dollar in additional taxes. Larger businesses will pay more when they pay their commercial activities taxes. The least surprising tax of all is the tax the Republican Governor wants to stick additional taxes on the Gas energy companies who already pay taxes on Fracing. Republicans hate it when your fuel prices drop and cant wait to get those prices back up. Watch how fast Congress works now to get your energy bills back up to where they were. Bet they wont say “NO” when it comes to fuel price increases. All you will here then is “yes,yes, yes” after years of “NO”.They want you to give more of your money to the already highly profitable energy companies. Its Republican wealth redistribution with the citizens being fleeced. The Republicans tie a nice little bow on it by calling it “tax shifting”. A Democrat does the same thing they call it “wealth redistribution” so how come Republicans call it “Tax shifting” when they do it? To be fair I think Ohios Governor is a smart man that for the most part looks beyond the usual partisan bickering and does what he feels he was elected to do. If you believe only Democrats want to raise your taxes youre fooling yourself. The right is every bit as tricky as the left when it comes to speaking out of one side of their mouths and staying silent about the other side. look at Kansas and the financial crisis they put themselves into using Tea party reasoning. They are losing citizens left and right because of their irresponsible policies. That’s what you get with Republican leadership |
If you want to see what happens to states that are run by Republicans that promise tax cuts that are beyond reasonable please take a look at the terrible destruction Conservative governing can do.
Research the State of Kansas and its current financial standing. Theres a reason people are leaving Kansas and its Republican leadership chasing their own citizens away. An economic nightmare. |
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Romney backed out of the race when he realized that his 1% wasn’t enough to elect him. I’m planning on making a novena in thanks along with the other 99%. |
https://www.youtube.com/embed/RBqjZ0KZCa0?showinfo=0&rel=0&hd=0 “Somebody needs to pay.’ Obama’s America. |
We are Charles and David Koch, the richest men on earth. We just announced that we’ll spend nearly $1 billion to get republicans elected in 2016 so they’ll give us special tax cuts that regular Americans don’t get. That’s more than either democratic and republican parties will spend that year. Citizens United put American democracy for sale, and we bought it. Thanks, suckers! |
Deer Friends, Thank you for kind thoughts and words. I apologize for having been AWOL, Frankly, I had expected that I would be back on deck prior to this.
As you may recall, Mrs. FTR and I went to Ft Lauderdale so that I could have my right shoulder replacement surgery. That happened without event; I was discharged from the hospital on the day following the surgery and we returned to the rock. It was a piece of cake, save for the fact that my right arm was bound securely to my body and fully immobilized. When we got back I experimented with ways to use a keyboard and found that, at that time, I just couldn’t control my right hand sufficiently to type. On Sunday, the 26th, Mrs. FTR and I went to dinner and about three-quarters of the way through the meal I began experiencing pain throughout the right side of my abdomen, just below the rib cage. We paid the bill, and left. After about an hour the pain became severe, about a 6 or 7 on a scale of 1-10. I developed chills and uncontrollable shaking. We called 911 and they brought us to Fishermen’s Hospital ER. The ER was fairly busy but they finally decided to do a CT scan of my belly, and gave me painkillers. They deduced that I was suffering from Biliary Colitis and sent me home with a prescription for additional pain killers. I was astonished. The pain continued, and increased, through that night. Around midday on Monday we returned to the ER. I was in much worse shape than I had been on the previous day. A different ER doc decided to do an ex-ray of the gut. While we were waiting in the ER, Steve Estes, publisher of the Barometer, stopped by (he was with a relative being treated there.) We had only just exchanged greetings when all of a sudden I knew I was going to vomit. I urged my wife to grab a vomit bag, but from the onset to the execution of the act was less than a second. Steve was treated to a massive display of projectile vomiting. Steve left. Very shortly a surgeon was called and shortly thereafter the surgeon advised me that I had a diseased gall bladder and that I needed emergency surgery. Within what seemed to be just minutes a surgical team was assembled, I was prepped and went into surgery about 8:15PM. Three hours later the surgery was completed. I was still in “Lala” land in the recovery ICU when the surgeon, Dr. Steven Smith, advised me that he had removed my gall bladder, which he described as gangrenous. He said I nearly died. He said he first tried to perform the surgery laporascopally (sic), but that the tissue of the gall bladder was so rotten that he had to make a full abdominal incision. I was told that my gut smelled like a dead rat was in it. And that’s what happened. I’ve been in Fishermen’s since. The gall bladder infection apparently kicked off some other problems they’re dealing with, but I expect to be out of here by mid-week. The staff here at Fishermen’s has been exemplary. They are professionals who work with compassion and care. But I’m ready to get the hell out of here! My right arm is still bound up and I don’t know I long it will be before I’ll be able to post again in the Coconut Telegraph. I’ve still got a lot to say. Again, thanks for the kind words and thoughts. Respectfully submitted, FTR. PS: Mrs. FTR is taking this tale of perdition by dictation, a talent she hasn’t used in 25+ years. As far as I can tell, as usual she’s doing a smashing job |