About that prostate surgery...

It was a success.

The surgery actually took place at 7:30 AM on 5-26-2026 at Omaha's Methodist Hospital...and five hours later, after they reduced my prostate by 100 cm, I woke up in my own room there. I was discharged at 11:30 AM the next day.

Surgery was the easy part...the first robotic radical prostatectomy ever done here in Nebraska. Recovery was the hard part. Very difficult at first to let my body heal...circumstances didn't really permit it.

First order of business was to clean up my apartment...something wearing a catheter made harder (especially when you factor in the use of a vacuum cleaner). Good thing the staff at UROHealth Partners removed my catheter on 6-3-2026. Despite what Methodist's discharge instructions said, I ended up throwing out my bed in four pieces, running that vacuum cleaner, and climbing stairs. (Couldn't help climbing the stairs...I live on the third floor.) I'm trying to eat better than before, though: More fresh fruit, more soups, more salads. And I'm fighting to stay better hydrated than back in April. I'm drinking less pop, more water, and more Gatorade, too.

I actually feel better now than I did before the surgery; in fact, I'd call myself 99.999% recovered from what the robot (and the laser attached to it) put me through.

Now...to do something about those extra bathroom visits...

If you're in the Omaha/Council Bluffs/Bellevue area...

...there's a new caterer in town. (Well, it's new to me.)

The name: House of Bah.

House of Bah actually got started in 2020...and its aim is to provide, as the Website says, a unique and bold experience of modern African cuisines.

H of B provides a customized menu to fit your needs...something for everybody, regardless of the event you're trying to provide fine dining for.

This month alone, I've twice had the chance to taste Bah's cuisine...and both opportunities happened at church functions (6-13-2026 and 6-28-2026).

The House's fine food helped make the two functions better.

Don't just take my word for it...check out all the House of Bah has to offer by calling 402 212-7149 or logging onto https://houseofbah.com. You'll be glad you did!

Omaha makes history...again

It's been three weeks now since John Ewing Jr. took the oath of office as Omaha's mayor...breaking the color barrier in the process of replacing Jean Stothert, the former City Council member who, in 2013, shattered the mayoral glass ceiling here in town.

I'm glad he's in there.

And I'm excited about Ewing surrounding himself with people who have a better grasp on how to handle the city's road reconstruction projects than Stothert and her people did. (I mean, if you're going to make a street repair, why not make sure the repair lasts a long, long time?)

A little bit about him:

Ewing turned 64 on 4-18-2025; he became the Douglas County treasurer in 2007 and had that job until he became Omaha's newest mayor. Before his stint as treasurer of Nebraska's most heavily-populated county, he spent 25 years in the Omaha Police Department...eventually becoming deputy police chief.

He could've been a US representative here in this House district (known as Nebraska's Blue Dot)...but in 2012, incumbent Lee Terry Jr. (he used to be on Omaha's City Council, too) nosed Ewing out by 4,197 votes.

High school sports fans around here might remember Ewing from his days at Northwest High School, where he was on the football and boys' basketball teams.

Just before the 6-9-2025 swearing-in, JWE talked about looking forward to being able to be mayor and wanting to "tell the people about the great progress we are going to make to economic development and addressing the issues we talked about, affordable housing." He believes in building good coalitions, because, to him, that's "the best way to get things done because then you're partnering with people who do the work and you're partnering with the people who are the beneficiaries of the work as well." Can't wait to find out what's in store for the Big O and its 52nd mayor!

Sources include Wikipedia and www.ketv.com.

I'd never been in a parade before...

Until 7-13-2024, that is.

Seen parades on TV and in person in the past...but I'd never marched in one until last week.

I'm on a couple of committees at our church, and one of the things we wanted to do was take part in this year's Heartland Pride Parade.

And I'm glad I participated alongside thousands of other people.

I mean, for all the many, many things that make us unique individuals, we're still one...we're still members of the human race.

Tomorrow's the day!

This could've taken place in January 2017...except the need to replace the transmission on the car I had at the time (a 2006 Ford Taurus SEL that I bought in June 2007) came first.

Instead, it's going to happen tomorrow at 9:15 AM at the Miracle Hills Surgery Center (11819 Miracle Hills Dr., Suite 201, Omaha, NE 68154).

The mission: To remove the cataract from my left eye.

Quite a few things during the intervening six years and two months delayed the surgery...from the need to continue building a retirement fund to 2020's successful enrollment in Medicare to my having to buy a replacement car in April 2021 to retiring from my factory job in October 2022. But now, I'm ready for Dr. Matthew Brumm to come after that cataract.

A followup will ensue this coming Tuesday at 8:30 AM at Brumm Eye Center's north office (6751 N. 72nd St., Building 2, Suite 105, Omaha, NE 68122).

After all this...who knows? All I want is to see better...so that I can, among other things, drive at night again.

Now...it's your turn. Have you faced cataract surgery (or surgeries) in the past? What was it like? How'd you fare?

Thanks for reading "Boston's Blog!"

The countdown is over

I needed to let you know that, due to a bunch of personal issues (most of them job-related, some related to finances, some even church-related), I've decided to stop holding the Ragtime to Riches Festival. The continuing pandemic sure hasn't helped, as it wiped out what would've been the 2020 and 2021 R to R events. Still...I'm thankful for everyone who attended the festival since its 2005 inception, and I'm thankful for every performer who did the festival. Haven't dropped music for good, because I'm still going to the Pink Poodle Steakhouse in Crescent, IA to perform on the last Sunday of the month. (Hope to see you there!)

To John

One day late last month, I looked in the obituaries section of the Omaha World Herald. And I was shocked to find John F. McIntyre's name in there.

When wife Laura Vranes and parents Dan and Barbara McIntyre were listed among John's survivors, it hit me: I met John and Laura on Labor Day 2013 (9-2-2013) at Omaha's Tree of Life Sculpture. The occasion was the Omaha/Council Bluffs/Bellevue area's "Play Me, I'm Yours" street piano art project. By contributing Barbara's old Richardson upright piano to the local exhibit (and enabling Bill Hoover to paint the piano), and with Barb's okay to the contribution in the first place, Laura and John helped make the Omaha Metro's stop on Luke Jerram's "PMIY" tour a tremendous success. The "Boston's Blog" post about the Tree of Life experience ("Monday, September 2, 2013: M-A-G-I-C!") is still up. (Check it out!) John, you, Laura, and Barb enabled so many of us in the Omaha area to have so much fun during "Play Me's" time in the local spotlight. Thank you so much for all the great things you've contributed.

Lookbook #1- "Really Old School"

Things have gotten to the point in the movie-and-TV industry where writers trying to break in (and those who've already established themselves) need to put together a collection of photos serving as an expression of the writers' vision of how a movie or TV series is supposed to look. (Directors have been using this tool for quite some time.)

This collection of pictures is called a lookbook. 

Well, anyway...here's my very first attempt at a lookbook, and it's connected to my very first attempt at a screenplay since 1994, "Really Old School."

The screenplay's logline: 

Inspired by a piece of 1910s sheet music, a modern-day Omaha, NE teenager wants to honor and emulate the tune's author: Her newly-deceased great-grandmother, a ragtime-era composer-musician-bandleader-arranger.

Hope you like this lookbook...and wishing you all the very best!