Wednesday, October 7, 2026

     The owls are hooting and the sea lions are barking in the middle of the night. My windows are open to catch the cooler night air. And I am awake trying to go back to sleep.

     My roommate puts the drops in my ears in the evening in preparation for today’s second attempt to clear my ears of wax. Such a minor physical event and I am hopeful.

     Stuff is piling up on the dinning room table, bills, election papers, packages, newspapers, computers, gardening tools. I turn away from the table for just a day, and then days pass and the piles are higher. We wash our dirty dishes daily without a hesitation, but the dry paper stuff defy control. I am still waiting for the pathology report from my last procedure.

     In the evening, we watch the last TED LASSO episode. I will miss these silly characters. My favorite show is back LUDWIG, funny, charming. I stick with reading THE KING OF LIES in spite of my reluctance.  I like Los Angeles and San Diego. I don’t understand why the corrupt president thinks it is OK for Iran to destroy them.

 

Tuesday, October 6, 2026

     Last year the PA at the urology clinic gives me quick advice on how to avoid another UTI. I am desperate to talk about what went wrong in the recent surgery, and emergency hospitalization for sepsis. The urologist is too busy to meet with me.  The PA is in a hurry and the appointment is over before I can ask questions and talk about what had happened to me. For a year I have been mulling over why no one would listen to me.

     Now as I recover from another UTI, I am willing to hear her recommendations and try the pills she had suggested. There is a lesson here for me but I am not sure what it is.

     I tell the young man, a recent resident of Monterey, a friend of my roommate, to not worry about our heat wave. The fog will return on the third day or maybe the fourth day. I know this from 86 years of living in Monterey.  But what about climate change he asks. Well, this morning the thick cool fog is here.

     Another book I am dissatisfied with. A clever well written murder story. Everyone in the story is suffering and mean and in terrible shape.  Not one likeable character. THE KING OF LIES by John Hart. I am not sure if I will continue. In the evening, we watch the latest episode of TED LASSO and then another episode of our favorite SLOW HORSES.  I have run out of words to describe our corrupt republican government. My ballot has arrived and I am ready to vote.

 

Monday, October 5, 2026    

     In the dark evening, I sit on the deck to see the stars on this warm, almost clear night. Something calms me to look up at these tiny points of light and realize how small we actually are and how little we know about the universe.

     A slight haze is in the air. An airplane flies low and loud from the airport, definitely louder than the distant dots of light, the stars. Periodically I worry I could just fall off this spinning planet. We live on a narrow band of atmosphere supporting our life. On really clear dark skies the fear of falling off the planet does not seem so far-fetched.

     Back in the house, doors locked, roof holding tight, I prepare for bed. Several books, a current New Yorker, a sweet to eat. I sit in my blue recliner, fan on to cool the room, and I read until my mind calms down and the world feels safe again.

     I did watch TV last night and I am trying to remember what it was I watched. I move through various possibilities. I watch Rachel Maddow having a conversation with Ari Emanuel, the successful entertainment billionaire, Two powerful articulate middle aged people with different views of today’s world.  They did not mention the distant stars or the expanding unknowable universe. I can’t get away from the stars today. Looking up to the dark sky is a good remedy for our current corrupt politics.