Toad Tales

                                    

I went to the dentist today because I had a abscess which necessitated taking a tooth.  It was going to be a root canal or the tooth was going to be pulled.

Since the tooth was already not a good tooth I decided to go have the damn thing out.  I did not like that but I do like my dentist and I guess I am glad to get it over with.

It seems that the nice weather is gone. I have been reading on the porch for hours and have finished two long books in a trilogy.  It is one of those books that are a "family" books. And I love them. 

In the 11th century, Rob Cole left poor, disease-ridden London to make his way across the land, hustling, juggling, peddling cures to the sick—and discovering the mystical ways of healing. It was on his travels that he found his own very real gift for healing—a gift that urged him on to become a doctor. So all consuming was his dream, that he made the perilous, unheard-of journey to Persia, to its Arab universities where he would undertake a transformation that would shape his destiny forever.

Robert Jeremy Cole, the legendary doctor and hero of The Physician, left an enduring legacy. From the 11th century on, the eldest son in each generation of the Cole family has borne the same first name and middle initial and many of these men have followed the medical profession. A few have been blessed with their ancestor's diagnostic skill and the "sixth sense" they call The Gift, the ability to know instinctively when death is impending. The tragedy of Rob J.'s life is the deafness of his son, Robert Jefferson Cole, who is called Shaman by everyone who knows him. Shaman's life is difficult. First, he must learn to speak so that he can take his place in the hearing world, and then he must fight against the prejudices of a society where physical differences matter. As Shaman struggles to achieve his identity, the Coles, along with the rest of America, are drawn into the conflict between the North and the South

A spirited and gifted physician forgoes a stellar career at a prestigious hospital for a small town private practice, and finds even greater challenges than those of the big city. Now she faces her hardest test as a doctor and a woman: whether to keep the medical secret of a girl who has desperately turned to her for help, or to betray that trust to keep the love of the man who has filled her life with unexpected joy..

I am about a third of the way of the last book.  In the summers I would take an stack of books with me to the lake.  I would fish, swim, and play cards and also then I would read until 2 or 3 AM reading,,,  Those were the days my friends, those were the days..