From his wife:

A new Christopher Green update:

Yesterday I got a strange text from Chris, then my phone rang.. It said it was Chris, but the person on the other end was talking! i asked who it was? IT WAS CHRIS!!!!!!! He was a little froggy, but my darling man was talking! I could not get ready and race ti the hospital without crying tears of joy! It was a wondefrul day!

It turns out it is a fairly simple thing to transform his trac. Why didn't they do this before?

I'm home typing one-handed...

My doc said there were no surprises and all went well, as expected.

Your good wishes and vibes worked! I am so grateful for all your help...I love my friends.

Tomorrow I present myself and my defective left shoulder to the hospital where my doctor will operate and hopefully fix said wonky shoulder.

I'm scheduled for out-patient surgery, so I should be home late in the afternoon...

I really REALLY hope this is the last surgery! I want to be myself again...

So, if you can spare them, a few vibes, or good thoughts, or whatever you think will help...I'd greatly appreciate it.

Thank you.

snip...

In the fall of 1961, I was 8 years old and living in the Israeli hamlet of Kfar Saba, where my parents and I were born. We could see the Samaria Mountains from our porch, and the town of Kalkilya, now in the West Bank but then part of Jordan just a mile or so away. A valley of orchards and wild brush lay between us and was forbidden; the border was more or less defined by an old rail path.

But precisely because that citrus-scented valley was off-limits to me, it was also enticing one Saturday afternoon. I rode my bicycle past the village square, beyond the old bus station and into the valley that unfolded against the biblical mountains.

Kalkilya was close by where I walked in the thick groves that divided the two worlds. And then I realized that I was not alone. Standing and staring at me was an Arab boy, about my age, as surprised by this encounter as I.

We both froze in fear. But curiosity quickly prevailed and we began to talk. It was a halting mixture of Hebrew and English; I did not know any Arabic. I still remember that he knew words from both of my languages and I did not know any from his. I remember his face very clearly, particularly the way he smiled.

The rest at the link: http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-kamin-israel-two-boys-20140717-story.html

http://www.salon.com/2014/07/14/nestle_is_bottling_water_straight_from_the_heart_of_californias_drought/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

After my left shoulder got replaced back in January, my progress was pretty good, if slow.

PT really turned me into a pretzel on a regular basis!

We had planned that I would continue with outpatient PT till the end of May. But a few weeks before that, I noticed that my shoulder was doing something odd...it was slipping in and out a bit.

Turns out it was trying to dislocate itself.

I wore a sling in the hopes that this would fix it, but it didn't. So today I saw my doc and we talked about our options. Mainly, day surgery to fix the joint and stop it from slipping around.

It seems that my chest muscles are tight and they push the joint backwards. And of course, the back muscles are loose.......and they allow the joint to move backwards! Wonderful.

But my doc can fix it.

We don't have a surgery date yet, but we will...

Just thought you all might want to know...

From his wife:

A Christopher Green update:

Sorry, I have spending a lot more time with Chris. He is more himself every day. Last night we watched fireworks from his 9th floor room, facing east. Confinement to his bed prevented him from seeing them all. There were fireworks all along the lake, out east and south.

Thanks again to all that supported us by eating at Frankie's Italian Cuisine!

Today I honor her memory...

Her parents saw, and lived, the American Dream...

They came from Sweden, met and married here...

She was their oldest child...

She was a bright, hard-working, motivated lady...

She and her husband raised their six children on a farm outside Chicago...

They had a pump in the kitchen...

She would kill and clean chickens for their meals...

She baked bread every week...

And still had time to go into Chicago for concerts...

She lived through the World Wars, and the Depression...

She did not let adversity shrink her soul...

My Grandmother! How much I still miss her, and her example!

I wonder what she would say if she could see what's happened to her beloved country...

Her birthday, today...

I salute her!