Farewell, Bill Schultz

On Sunday, May 4th, not only was the 38th anniversary of the shootings at Kent State being commemorated, but the life and work of City Councilman-at-large Bill Schultz was also being celebrated by a Dixieland-style band parade downtown, which stopped at the Main Street Bridge and then went down to the Franklin Mills Riveredge Park to plant a serviceberry tree in his honor. The band went down and played some more as people gathered to throw dirt in the spot around where the tree had been planted to help fill it all in. It was both merry and a tad melancholy to remember such a remarkable man who gave his entire life to public service. Anyone who is anyone in Kent showed up at the ceremony and it was kind of like "old home week" in Kent as nearly everyone I knew was present. The music was simply amazing and to have such a festive event in Kent on a bright, beautiful spring day was absolutely perfect. People marched behind the band down Main Street wearing Mardi Gras beads and dancing to the music in a happy remembrance of our long time friend's amazing life. Bill's family was present, too, and visibly enjoying the day and the music and the smiles and the camaraderie of everyone who was there. If only Kent could find a reason to do something like that more often! Of course, it was Bill's wish to be remembered in this fashion, so this was a fulfillment of his final wish, and wow, what a way to go out of this world! That's the way it ought to be, especially when someone has led a very full and active life as he did. It was touching, it was fun, and there was just the slightest touch of bittersweet to the entire ceremony, but to have a tree planted that will stand as a permanent and living memorial to our friend is the perfect ending to his life and a testament to his love and stewardship of the environment. Farewell, Bill. You are missed.

HAND SURGERY
On Thursday, I am having surgery on my left index finger to remove some kind of painful cyst that I have had for a long time. The picture on the left says that it's a "mucous cyst" and that may well be what it is, but it's more than likely a ganglion, or maybe it's not. The reason they want to operate is that it could be one of several different things, from a large cell tumor (not cancerous, thank goodness!) to some other possible diagnoses, so they want to remove it and take a look at it to find out what it is. I guess they're going to have to put me out and the surgery will last, from what I am told, an hour, and then I will have to spend time in recovery and be off work anywhere from one day to one week, depending. I am a complete nervous wreck over this because I really don't know what to expect, post-surgery. I know that my mom's going to have to take me over and bring me home, and I have to be there at 7 a.m. for surgical prep, and the surgery is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. The last time I had anything removed, it was four wisdom teeth 30 years ago and that was a perfectly miserable experience that had painful complications that made me very sick. So I am really scared about this whole thing and I hope that it all goes smoothly and without any complications. I'm not the calmest person as it is even when I have to go either to a doctor or even to physical therapy. It does a real number on my stomach and it takes me forever to calm down afterward. My blood pressure is always higher than normal because of the nerves and I can feel the effect on my body when this happens. I'm just going to have to relax and hope that all goes well and that I can come home Thursday afternoon and just crash out and sleep off the anesthesia and not feel too crappy.