Saturday, September 19, 2026

     I drive by the park in the early afternoon.  No one is playing pickle ball.  What? The sun is out but it is not hot. The courts are empty, some cars in the parking lot, a few people in the park. No balls being hit, no conversations.

     Another mystery. Weekly, for the last year, I drive to an appointment on Cass Street. I drive into the motel parking lot to turn around.  The lot is mostly empty even in the summer, or even during car week. The motel is well maintained but it doesn’t seem to have guests. There are seldom any cars in the motel parking lot.

     Unexpectedly the living room fills up with charming laughing family members. They are on their way to someplace else but came by for a hug and a short conversation. I think I must be their grandmother although I don’t feel like an old grandmother. I am part of a active gang of good people, all on the move.

     In the evening, we watch a good Britbox series, SHOW TRIAL. I like courtroom drama especially in British courts with the curly white wigs. And we also watch another episode of TRYING, a fabulous funny show about family life in England. The young poet and I watch the noon news with Katy Tur on MS NOW. No good news but wonderful articulate journalists and historians. Corruption, war, and masked gun men on the streets, continue to create mayhem, all to please the dangerous president.  

 

Friday, September 18, 2026

     When I was a young single mother with three children and a full time job, I would fantasize about getting TB and being able to stay in bed for a year.  I would read and sleep. It was the reading that I longed for.  Now I have been sick for 5 years and I am tired of it. I have read thousands of books and taken thousands of naps. I am ready to get up. I find out in October if the cancer is back.

     I go to bed last night to the sound of the military bugle at 10pm and this morning wake up to the 7am wake up bugle. Monterey is a military town.

     I struggle with folding sheets. I take the sheets out of the dryer, two double bed sets, and try to fold them.  My arms are not wide enough and there is no place to lay them out. Finally, I just roll each sheet up. They will be wrinkled.

     I am reading two novels now, one British and one Danish. Both interesting and readable.  RANGE by Dorthe Nors and EDDIE WINSTON IS LOOKING FOR LOVE BY Marianne Cronin. We watch more of LATERNS but I don’t know if we will continue. A messy Bro series. And the news is difficult as we get closer to the midterms. The question is will we collapse first before the Kennedy center is destroyed by our corrupt president.  I do feel vulnerable to the chaos that could arise. Corrupt president is at fault.

 

Thursday, September 17, 2026  

     I no longer can sign in as spider woman.  My car remains spider free. I drive to the library to return overdue books, and my car needs to be driven or it will die again. I park in the back and slowly climb the ramp with the 4 books to return. Friends usually pick up books for me, but I want to test my ability to be independent. I fail. I do need help with getting library books.

     Inside I grab the courtesy walker and find the 7 waiting books. I can’t carry the books to my car and ask for help. A kind librarian carries the books down the ramp to my car.  My roommate brings the books into the house.

     Sheldon Wolin was a professor of Political Science and philosophy in 1960 at UC Berkeley.  In his class I learn about the underlying philosophy of our country’s governance and politics. I barely passed. The next semester I audited the same class to learn more. I developed a life long interest in why we are the way we are.

     Now I am reading another novel by Marianna Cronin, EDDIE WINSTON IS LOOKING FOR LOVE. A delightful warm story about a 90 year old man. I watch another episode of BROKENWOOD MYSTERIES, a British series. This morning band music fills the air, probably from the high School. I read the New York Times with my breakfast. The whole world is on fire thanks to our corrupt war mongering president.