What I didn’t anticipate about surgery

When you’re facing major surgery, your surgeon will load you down with information. At the first meeting with the Midwest Orthopedics surgeon who would replace my right knee, she gave me a folder with two dozen pages about the procedure, medication, exercises, and frequently asked questions; a preparation checklist; and a postoperation guide. I went home from surgery with another folder. But all the information still didn’t forestall surprises, including these.

Dealing with a botched (and fixed) remodeling job

In a recent letter to the Asking Eric advice column in the Chicago Tribune, a homeowner wrote that her walls and ceiling had been painted the wrong colors. The store gave the wrong paints to the painter, who didn’t check the cans. 

“Who’s at fault here?,” she asked. “Is this just a live and learn situation?”

While saying the store may have gotten the paint codes wrong, Eric blamed the painter: “He should have checked the product he was receiving before he left the store. . . . He should have offered to fix his mistake, if not for free, then for a discount.”

Eric added, however, that “sometimes mistakes can’t be painted over.” I’ve lived with those kinds of mistakes. 

About that “Don’t go” advice . . .

I have lived in Chicago for more than 35 years and have volunteered with Chicago Greeter for nearly half that time. Purportedly I know the city well. Actually I know only the lakefront from the South Loop to the Evanston border. There are many South and West Side neighborhoods I’ve never been in. 

You know why if you’re a Chicagoan. The South and West Sides are reputedly unsafe. I’ll go to their tourist attractions when public transportation or a car drops me at the door but otherwise stay in my comfort zone. 

When I heard about the book Don’t Go: Stories of Segregation and How To Disrupt It, I wanted to know what the authors have to say to well-intentioned people who perpetuate segregation by staying away from “dangerous” neighborhoods overwhelmingly populated by people of color.