Update on Hearing Problem

 

This is a picture of my father, Isaac "Ike" Tipton, Sr. taken in August of 1990 at his three and a half acre home outside of Downingtown, Pennsylvania. This picture has nothing to do with this blog posting but I came across it while looking for another more appropriate picture for this posting but I found this one intriguing. We had a complicated relationship which I've written about often in this blog. I will write more about that relationship in future posts. I don't think he ever liked me and the feeling was mutual but he was my father. Ironically I am a lot like him much to my chagrin. I even look like him!

Yesterday I had my long awaited appointment with my ENT (ear, nose and throat) specialist. Yes, I have all those problems. 

Remember when I wrote about my left ear plugged up after my trip back from California? I thought I was going to be in that condition for the rest of my life. Well, thank goodness my ear is clear now. I can hear out of it, with the help of my hearing aids, perfectly now. 

When I initially went to the doctor the ENT center, they discovered I had a dried blood in my inner ear which was causing the "plugged" sound. They scheduled a CAT-SCAN for me. Yesterday I got the results. Turns out the dried blood has dissipated. I was curious and asked "Where did it go?" thinking do I have dried blood flecks floating around in my brain.  She (I forget her name) looked at me bemused and said "It just goes away." Oh, okay (I guess). The important thing is that I can hear now! I told her about my ear problem every time I fly in a plane. She said a blood vessel had probably burst because of the pressure, which prevented my ear drum from bursting. Well, when I heard that information I told her "That does it! I'm not flying anymore!" 

This short video was taken September 6, 2016 on a flight back from Toronto Canada to the Philadelphia International Airport. I was visiting Pat.

In my life I've been very lucky in that I've never had an earache but I do have trouble with my ears when I have flown. I absolutely cannot fly in unpressurized planes which I have done several times in my younger days. Low flights are all right but higher up the pressure kills my ears. The pain is so intense. This last flight the pain was so bad I thought I was going to pass out. And now with all the problems with airport safety and delays, I have a final reason never to fly again. Remember my last flight when I missed the connection in Phoenix to Palm Springs? And the expense! It costs me almost a thousand dollars for all that aggravation just to be squeezed into an airplane seat next to who knows who. Twice now I've sat next to a Middle Eastern young man who reeked of sweat. I'm thinking "What am I going to do if this guy is a terrorist and springs into action to take over the plane with his cohorts?" All kinds of crazy things are going though my mind. I don't need that stress folks in addition to maneuvering around airports looking for my gate number.

Pat still wants to go to Palm Springs every year in February for Modernism Week. I told her we could drive (Pat's a good driver) but he's not too keen on that. For once I would like to experience Middle America. All my life I've lived and worked on the East Coast, including the three years I was in the Army (New Jersey, Massachusetts and Maryland). I was born and grew up in Pennsylvania and now am living my twilight years in Delaware. The only time I've been anyplace else is when I've visited California and one memorable weekend took a plane trip to Cleveland for a disastrous weekend with a buy named "Lenny" who I met in a bar in Philadelphia. That was in 1979. I don't think I've written about that weekend in this blog. Maybe I have. I've never forgotten that disaster. But I digress. 

I told Pat that if he wants to fly to Palm Springs next year that he can go by himself. I'll share his experience vicariously via FaceTime. That's how we share our lives now anyway while we await the American Consulate in Montreal to interview him so he can get the final approval for us to get married. Long sentence there. Bottom line is I'm not flying anymore. So there. 

Now it's time for my weeklong visit to the Restore Thrift Store, the highlight of my week these days.

P. S.

At this time of my life since I'm so near to my Final Exit, I often wondered will I see my father again? I know I'll see Bill because he's with me everyday in spirit. He often communicates to me by mental telepathy. Bill is waiting for me as are all my friends but will those that I wasn't so fond of be there? Something to wonder about.

Packed and Ready to Go!

Packed and ready to go!

Ah folks, I feel a lot better now.  I am pack and:

READY TO GO

Of course I just know that once I get to Toronto and open my bags (carry on and one suitcase with wheels) I will have forgotten something.  Always happens doesn't it?  Something major.  Oh well, it will give me something to write about on one of my blog posts.  

I had a pleasant surprise this morning when I opened my e-mail.  There was an e-mail from U.S. Air informing me I was ready for check-in.  How about that?  The last time I traveled our friendly skies was right before 9/11 when I flew to Orlando, Florida to Disney World.  

My Aunt Mabel and I have arrived at the Double Tree hotel in Orlando, Florida April 2000

I was working at the Hampton Inn in Lionville, PA and had won a four day all expense paid trip to Disney World ("I'm going to Disney World!") for two.  I won the trip because the Hilton Hotel Corp. selected me as the "Best Guest Representative" for the last quarter of 2000.  

Me, The Mouse and my Aunt Mabel at Disney World April 2000

Me and the vice president of Hilton Hotels Corp at the Epcot Center in Orlando, Florida where I accepted my award
Count this photo as this week's entry into "Throwback Thursday" (why not?)

Here I am going off on another tangent when I intended this blog posting to be about my final packing for my trip tomorrow to Toronto, Canada.  But I'm on this tangent so I'll finish it.  I had won a trip for two but none of my friends was available to go with me.  Of course Bill never wants to go with me on vacation unless it is his hometown of Toccoa Georgia.  I finally found someone, my Aunt Mabel.  I'm glad I took her because not too many months after that trip she became ill and couldn't travel any more.

Any way, that trip was wonderful.  Know what the best part was?  Arriving at the airport in Orlando and seeing a dark suited gentleman holding a sign saying "Tipton".  He was my chauffeur to the Double Tree Hotel!  How cool!  I've often seen those people in movies holding signs for very important people but here was a man holding one for me.  So, so cool.  Of course my four day stay at the luxurious (a suite) Doubletree was fantastic. Disney World was fun but perhaps a little too hectic for me.  I'll have to write a blog posting about that experience sometime.  

But back to real time today.  I'm packed and ready to go.  I have my boarding pass, a ride to the Philly airport and Pat is picking me up at the Buffalo airport tomorrow.  First stop, Wegmans in Buffalo because I'm fasting (sort of) today.  

Hop on folks, it's going to be a "bumpy ride" but fun!

Two crazy guys (Dos Locos) - actually Cafe Azafran in Rehoboth Beach

Hang Gliding in Delaware

Late yesterday afternoon we had more ariel activity above Casa Tipton-Kelly.  This time the flight was a single seat mechanized hang glider.  Across the way is a small airport in which single and twin engine planes often take off and land.  Occasionally, like yesterday evening some fool (yes, anyone who rides a chair in a mechanized hang glider is a fool) straps himself into one of these mechanized hang gliders and fulfills his fantasy that he is a bird flying high above us mere mortals trapped by gravity on this earthly surface.

Why do I say fool?  Last year Sussex County councilman Vance Phillips broke his back and injured his spinal cord with a bad landing from one of these mechanized hang gliders.  He is still in rehabilitation.  I remember years back when my first boyfriend had a spur of the moment suggestion during one of our Saturday morning rendezvous that we go sky diving.  I said "Are you crazy?!"  Hey, it was dangerous enough meeting him during our weekly rendezvous (he was a married man with three small children) but I wasn't about to go SPLAT! some where over Chester County, Pennsylvania. I'm not afraid of heights like my friend Larry who gets the vapors and hits his panic button if he goes more than three steps up on a step ladder but there was no way I was going to JUMP OUT OF A PLANE!

Bill said he would hang glide in a second.  I guess so, he was in the Air Force.  He loved flying.  Me?  I like to fly but I want to land with a set of rubber wheels, not strapped into some flimsy chair.

Yep, that was a fool we were watching fly over our place yesterday. Dream on Bill.

Man Flies!

Bill and I took an impromptu trip to our old home in Pennsylvania today. We just got back about a half hour ago and this is what we saw flying over our back yard...two men in their flying machines.  I you look closely you'll see that both of them are sitting in chair like contraptions with their legs dangling.  Wow.  Talk about being afraid of heights.

When I was up in Pennsylvania I stopped in to visit my brother Isaac.  He was telling me what an adventure it was for him to climb up on his single story ranch house roof to put a scree over the chimney so the stink bugs won't get in the house this year.  He said "this old man can't climb anymore."  I agreed with him.  Heights didn't use to bother me but they bother me now.  Maybe it has something to do with getting older.

Watching these two guys fly around the sky right above us like a couple of noisy mosquitoes was interesting.  The view from up there has to be great.  Imagine the great shots with my new Canon SLR I could take from that angle.  But after thinking it over for about three seconds and seeing those guys dangling their legs from their chair in the sky, I don't think I'll be going up anytime soon.  What I can't figure out is how do they get down?

NOTE:


My friend Lar wanted to know about the header picture on this blog.  He said it wasn't my usual scenic shot.  He thought an explanation might be in order.  So here it is, this picture was taken about four years ago at the Double L Bar in Rehoboth Beach.  That's me getting ready to make the break the balls (no pun intended) and my longtime friend Big Bob watching.  


The Double L bar is a gay leather and western bar.  "Gay and western" means that it is a butch gay bar  and not your regular gay dance bar with drag shows.  That's for the "other" gay guys.  We butch gay guys prefer pool instead of seeing a fat gay guy in drag impersonate Liza for the millionth time.  I'm not making judgments here, just stating a fact. No offense to anyone if the glass slipper shoe fits.