History Hound Travels

But I have visited. In fact, I lived in Germany for close to 2 years, but I was in southern Germany, in a little town called Göppingen about an hour from Stuttgart. I was just looking at the Google Map, and thinking of going to Frey (department store), and the Bonnet (pizza place). I found the most interesting yarn shop there, but I wasn’t into real wool then and sadly did not take advantage of it.

I only stayed in a couple of hotels the whole time I was there, and never any Hotels in Berlin or Hotels in Berlin if you sprechen Deutsch.

I really regret that I did not spend more time visiting other countries while I was there. I should have visited France and England and Italy again, but I was young and homesick, and did not take advantage of the close proximity. I could have booked any of the hotels in Vienna for a long weekend, but….no. Oh, hotels in Vienna for you natives.

There is a reason people tend to ask me when they want to know obscure facts, and it’s because I tend to know stuff. Today, I was wondering about lapband surgery, so I went to (wait for it) wikipedia to check it out. The first band for this type of surgery was patented the year I graduated high school, and now it is considered outpatient surgery. With proper lifestyle adjustments and followup care, it’s helping patients lose large amounts of weight.

I think that the advancements in the field of medicine are mind boggling. Just imagine that 300 years ago, going to the doctor was probably one of the least safe things you could do. The neighborhood surgeon/dentist/barber would be happy to see you, but whether or not he could do you any good was another question altogether. And that was just 4 life times ago.

What about this lifetime? Well, 50 years ago a tonsillectomy required a three day hospital stay. 20 years ago, it was overnight. Last week, it was donefor my soon at a stand-alone surgical center and he was home 5 hours after we left for the appointment.