Deep Breathing

Here's more graffiti I came across on my walk on Tuesday. I'm sure this person is trying to imitate Abotz, whose cat faces featured in my post two days ago. The one above is pretty amateurish compared to Abotz but it's kind of funny. Go big or go home, right?

Thanks for your comments on my post yesterday. I loved reading everyone's thoughtful responses to our current politics. It made me feel better to write out my thoughts, and to read all of yours as well. (I'll respond to them later today.) Just to be clear -- although I'm sorry the Democrats aren't doing a better job getting their message out, there is no chance that I won't vote for Biden in November. I am not waffling on that. He's got my vote all the way.

My personality is such that in any situation, I like to imagine the worst-case scenario and prepare myself to accept it. I do this with medical tests, I do it with any other stressful situation, and I do it with politics too. So this was my way of thinking through my response to a Trump victory. Hopefully, like many of my worst-case scenarios, it won't come to pass.

Speaking of medical things, I got my report back from my lung scan. It once again found mild thickening of the airways. To put it in the doctor's own words, there was "very subtle generalised diffuse prominence of the airway walls which is non-specific and could lie within the wide range of normal variation. I suspect however it probably does represent some mild airways inflammation." On the plus side, he said there was no bronchial dilation, significant structural abnormality, fibrosis or anything else worrying, and that my lungs were "reassuringly unchanged" from the last scan a couple of years ago. So that's good.

Bottom line -- I may have some mild thickening from inflammation, which I suspect is connected to acid reflux, or I may just be built this way. In any case, it's apparently nothing too severe, though it is occasionally uncomfortable. I still think it's very mild bronchiectasis, but perhaps so mild that calling it that would overstate its severity -- if that makes sense.

Dave has also been having some interesting medical adventures. The doctors have told him he needs surgery next month to repair a hernia, so when we get back from our trip to LA he's having an outpatient procedure for that. It's always something, right? I'm glad they're finally fixing it -- Dave has a couple of hernias and up to now the doctors have said they're not serious and don't demand repair, but they're making Dave uncomfortable and I'm glad the doctors have finally come around to fixing them.

I just finished a book that I enjoyed called "Destination Unknown" by Bill Konigsberg. It's a YA novel about a couple of gay boys in 1980s New York, and it reminded me a lot of my own college years -- coming out at the height of the AIDS crisis and contending with all that fear and uncertainty. I've written at length about my own experiences during that time. Konigsberg is a good writer -- he wrote another YA gay novel I enjoyed, called "The Music of What Happens," and I'm glad he's out there producing books for young gay readers.