Waiting for the Master

“He’s in there somewhere.”(Photo by Ron Palermo.)

Yr Fthfl Srvnt has completed surgery number-three, a hernia repair.
It wasn’t expected. All-of-a-sudden, “What’s killing me?””
It was an Inguinal hernia. The abdominal wall ruptures, intestine pokes through, and thereafter inflames.
Surgeries One and Two were prostate removal over a year ago, and total replacement of my left knee a year ago.
The possibility of hernia increases with advancing age; I’m almost 73.
Hernia repair is outpatient. My surgery was yesterday (12/28).
So I took my dog to the boarder Tuesday night (12/27), and a retired RTS bus-driver came out from Rochester yesterday morning to take me to the hospital.
Someone else took me home, but that bus-driver, whose name is Ron Palermo, offered to help me pick up my dog.
Grooming had been scheduled long before this hernia. Ron and I could get the dog to my groomer, but next would be getting her back home. I can’t drive — two weeks.
After deducing my groomer couldn’t drive the dog home, we cancelled.
Ron and I would just get the dog.
But I was running out of bananas.
“I can pick up bananas on my way out,” said Ron.
“Not that simple,” I said. “I exert rules buying bananas. I don’t feel it’s fair to excoriate a banana-purchaser. I’d rather buy ‘em myself.”
So I asked if I could hit a supermarket on the way home with my dog.
So that’s when Ron snagged the above picture. He and my dog are waiting outside the supermarket.
That silly dog, a bundle of incredible energy, despite being 11 or 12, a rescue Irish-Setter, is extremely attached.
She makes up for my wife dying.
People poo-poo my attachment to that dog.
NO WAY am I abandoning her.
That dog wants me around.
Surgery number-four is to repair a torn rotator-cuff.
I asked my doctor “What next?”

• For 16&1/2 years (1977-1993) I drove transit bus for Regional Transit Service (RTS) in Rochester, NY, a public employer, the transit-bus operator in Rochester and environs. My stroke October 26th, 1993 ended that. I retired on medical-disability. I recovered fairly well.
• My current dog is “Scarlett” (two “Ts,” as in Scarlett O’Hara), a rescue Irish-Setter. She’s eleven or twelve, and is my sixth Irish-Setter, a high-energy dog. (A “rescue Irish Setter” is an Irish Setter rescued from a bad home; e.g. abusive or a puppy-mill. [Scarlett was from a failed backyard breeder.] By getting a rescue-dog, we avoid puppydom, but the dog is often messed up. —Scarlett isn't bad. She’s my fourth rescue.)
• My beloved wife of over 44 years died of cancer April 17th, 2012. I miss her immensely. Best friend I ever had, and after my childhood I sure needed one.