Friday, April 4, 2025

     My iPhone reports the steps I take each day. Written messages appear, reminding me I am being watched and judged.  I quickly become addicted to checking the numbers.  After several weeks, I stop checking the steps screen. Too much hovering, too close. Stop hovering iPhone.

     I have a quiet day of doing my exercises, walking, washing dishes, taking out garbage, and writing and reading in my comfortable chair. This after noon I have a session with the Physical Therapist.

     Another weekly episode of LUDWIG arrived.  A treat to watch in the evening. Such a good series. And of course, the ever present news and conversations among experts about what these new tariffs means. And why the stock market is falling.

     The stack of New Yorkers is growing by my reading chair.  I feel overwhelmed.  I could just pass the magazines on, but I don’t want to miss a good article.  A friend suggests reading the letters to the editor to learn which of the many articles are interesting. It is not so good to let the pile grow.

 

Thursday, April 3, 2025

     As I begin to understand that maybe I will be alive for awhile, I make an appointment for eye exam and new glasses.  I have ignored lesser body issues.  Time to remember dentists and dermatologists.

     In the medical waiting room on Wednesday, there are the scan folks, the blood folks and the rehab folks. I am a rehab person. The large room has rows of chairs squeezed together. We each find an isolated chair.  I watch incoming people search the room before finding the manageable safe chair.  We all are afraid of strangers. I don’t know how airlines get away with crowded seats and stranger anxiety. It is definitely a struggle in waiting rooms.

     I finish THREE DAYS IN JUNE, the latest Anne Tyler novel. She writes about a comfortable middle class society that may not exist anymore. Good comfort reading.

     I am already tired of counting my steps with the iPhone. Tired of carrying the phone close to me. My new plan is to check once a week to see how I am doing.  Today is the weekly counting day for me.

 

Wednesday, April 2, 2025

     In the evening, we watch the TV news, Cory Booker’s 25 hour speech, the election returns from Florida and Wisconsin. Good news, bad news and the narrative continues. Governance and politics have always interested me, but not watching sports events. Actually, maybe, they are similar, sport’s events and politics. I remember listening to the McCarthy hearing on the radio when I was young.

     During a pause in the rain, I retrieve my empty garbage bins from the curb and pick up the mail. Water continues seeping across the streets from the neighbor’s yards. The leaves sparkle with rain drops.

     I do my daily prescribed exercises in the morning when I have more energy. Wednesday morning another PT session focused on balance and climbing stairs.

    QUESTION 7 by Richard Flanagan from Tasmania is good, part memoir, part something else the defies classification.