Monday, August 3, 2026

     Cold damp morning. Wearing winter clothes now.  Feeling peppy, ready to do something. Cell phone now beeps with another offer of hundreds of thousand dollars if only I answer some questions. For sure, spam.  I get several of these calls everyday.  It must be because I own my own home so I am a target.  If only they knew my just barely adequate income.

     My roommate is tired yesterday so I get to be in charge. I order groceries, clean up the kitchen. Surely, I did more but now I can’t remember. What does being in charge actually mean. I feel in charge but actually I do what I usually do.

     I am disappointed with the sci-fi book, EARTH 7 by Deb Olin Unferth.  It starts off with a bang and I love it. But then it becomes too technical and difficult to understand. I continue to read THE SECRET SHARERS by Qiu Xiaolong. In the afternoon I sit in the shade outside and do my chair exercise.  Then I listen to an interesting NYT’S BOOK REVIEW podcast focusing on JOHN OF JOHN. A good conversation about a book I enjoyed. I also listen to a bladder cancer podcast to hear about the latest treatments. Protocols keep changing. A difficult disease.

      And then early in the evening we watch TV, the last episodes of the great series, RUN OR DIE. Now we want a second season. The living room darkens as we watch. I turn on the lights and close the curtains and lock up the house. Still only two sun flowers blooming. More coming. Nothing new to say about the national political quagmire. But the very loud and busy car week is coming soon to our community.

 

Sunday, August 2, 2026

     I scroll through the pictures of food on Instacart at Andronico’s. Time to order but it has been months since I placed an order. My turn to shop for groceries. I am surprised at the high costs. I just want to buy everything, the curse of shopping. I have forgotten how to be a careful shopper.

     Saturday late afternoon I sit in the front yard doing my chair exercises. Then I sit and listen, mourning doves cooing, airplanes flying overhead, the steady drone of cars, a single dog bark as my neighbor arrives home, a distant siren. Lots of bees busing though the plants. I can’t hear the bees but I see them.

     I start reading a new book even though I haven’t finished the others. EARTH 7, sci fi novel by Deb Olin Unferth. Really easy and compelling to read.  Not her first book. On line I look for a medical memoir by a gerontologist, my way of learning how medical world really works. What do doctors working with old people really look for.

     In the evening my tired roommate and I watch an episode of SUGAR, and of RIDE OR DIE. I mute the sound during physical fighting scenes. Foggy morning, birds in the bottle bush trees. More people are tackled by masked ICE thugs in airports. Sigh.

 

Saturday, August 1, 2026

     The old pine tree is gone, now just a raw stump and some sawdust at the side of the road. A huge empty space in the sky. No longer can squirrels race high above the ground among the trees. Less shade for my house, more sunlight for the neighbor’s house. The underground water pipes are once again protected. I am no longer worried about my home being damaged from the harsh new winds. So why then am I so sad to lose this wonderful tree.

     A pile of wood chips are piled by the garden gate for my roommate’s work in the back yard. She would be very excited if she hadn’t just returned from the dental clinic and is recovering in bed.

     A friend comes by for a short visit. She and I are both in our 80’s and have lot of body experiences to share. I give her a bag of New Yorkers and a pile of paper grocery bags. Between the two of us we know many of the local doctors.

     I finish reading the memoir, FAMESICK.  Such a painful sad book. Now I start the Shanghai detective novel, THE SECRET SHARES by Qui Xiaolong. We watch episodes of RIDE OR DIE.  The house is quiet in the evening. Dogs are not barking for a change.  The TV is off. I check facebook for any disaster that might be happening. I wonder what today will bring.