Friday, February 28, 2025

     I meet with the Physical therapist for the 4^th time in the morning. A half hour of exercises to improve my balance and step climbing. While he counts the movements, I talk. Maybe I should be quieter. Very few people in the rehab room. We have an ongoing conversation about food shopping, in particular what’s good at Trader Joes. I encourage him to walk through Elroys and be humbled by the prices and the unfamiliar products.  It is definitely a trip to a foreign country.

     I haven’t been in a grocery store for years. I am home bound and receive meals on wheels, Instacart deliveries and Amazon packages. Oh yes, I have been to Elroys to pick up a fabulous salad. And friends do bring me food. So grocery shopping is an exotic activity for me.

     Sea gulls are flying high in lopsided circles over the town. Maybe more rain is coming.   More blossoms on the apricot tree this morning. The rock roses and the lavender are blooming. Flowers everyplace.

     After the sobering news show, I watch the Acorn series A REMARKABLE PLACE TO DIE. There are four episodes, each 90 minutes long. I watch half an episode at a time. New Zealand is such a beautiful country.

 

Thursday, February 27, 2025

     Sitting outside in the late afternoon shade I hear the sirens in the distance going uphill. I don’t smell smoke.  The air is warm, a few birds are chattering and then the distance sounds of dogs barking and always the low rumble of cars on the roads.

     Last evening the high school stadium lights are on for the first time.  Lots of neighborhood controversy about these lights. I like them.

     It is amazing how many lies a person can tell over and over again and still be listened to. On the news program I watch video clips of the lies. Stupid lies, hateful lies, childish lies, ugly lies, dumb lies. People are dying because of the lies and yet it does not stop the lying. How helpless we feel listening to the lies. We don’t know how to respond to and stop the poisonous lies.

     Time for another detective novel.  THE WAITING by the prolific Michael Connelly. Comfort reading, good enough.

 

Wednesday, February 26, 2025

     In the rehab waiting room I ask a woman about her sturdy walker.  She says it was her husband’s and now hers. Made of Titanium in Canada. She really likes it. Umm I think impressive. The physical Therapist focuses on twenty minutes of leg exercises. I feel the movements in my muscles. I am exhausted in the evening.

     My baker friend brings two small loafs of home baked bread. The best part is she stays and talks with me.

     I am just about finished reading AFLAME by a favorite author, Pico Iyer. It is a collection of reflections of his many stays in Big Sur at the New Camaldoli Hermitage. Yep, just my kind of book.

     Rachel Maddow continues to inspire me with her daily reports on politics. She is clear eyed about the incompetence and greed in this president’s team. I am hopeful.