Vignettes - Late Summer 2021
Just after our last newsletter Rebecca had another burn in her esophagus to contain her cancer. Unfortunately the day after she had another stroke. It was not like the one in 2019 which was significantly debilitating. This one just affected her vision; the floaters in her right eye light up in colors and block much of her sight. She has learned to compensate and is doing mostly fairly well. She has another treatment scheduled later this month and is going to try a new medication to hopefully prevent another stroke. Fingers are crossed.
For the most part it has been a summer of self-confinement. Those of you familiar with our location know that we live in isolation. Even with our two jabs - and a third one soon - we have been somewhat reluctant to go into crowded indoor locations. We have ventured out to the Farmers Market outdoors. We only take a quick swish through just a few art events when we would have stayed longer in the past. And the editor does the shopping during off-hours in a rather quick passthrough at mostly small local retailers; much of the summer even the big box ones have been eerily near empty. The 'mandatory' events have been the numerous visits to medical establishments. And we wear masks as a matter of course. But there is plenty to do and sufficient entertainment around the house to keep us from being too bored. Mostly we miss visits with friends.
The one thing we allowed ourselves was to go to an art workshop that had been in the works for quite some time, expecting that the COVID situation would be under control - not knowing of course that the Delta variant would be so disruptive. It was a bronze casting workshop at the Touchstone Center for Crafts. We may have mentioned Touchstone previously. It is a nice small art school in the Laurel Highlands of western Pennsylvania, less than three hours from our house. We have taken classes there before and have been quite satisfied. We were pleased that despite the need to cancel many classes and work in alternate ways, the school has made it through the challenges of the pandemic. All appropriate safety and health measures were taken at the school and the workshop went well. Page and Ed from Rivers of Steel Foundry of Pittsburg lead the class and us quite a bit. You will see pictures of some of the finished products.
Mrs.T has some thoughts on various topics:
At night before I go to sleep I often go outside and look at the stars. One advantage of living in the country is you see more stars. I remember when I was a child my father would name them and tell me about them. The only things I remember clearly was him showing us the Big Dipper and the Little Dipper and how we could use them to find the North Star. Often I see them still; the North Star is not very bright. This way you can find your way at night - in theory at least. My father was in the Navy in WWII and I think he learned navigation there. The other night I woke up at about 3:30 and I decided to go outside and look at the stars. I was surprised that I saw Orion's Belt. I see Orion in Mexico all the time but this is the first time I remember seeing it up here. It was in the southern sky and later than I usually look. I don't know many stars but it was nice to see a familiar one. Sometimes I think that when I die I would like to become a star. I think of a few lines from Robert Frost's poem "Choose Something Like a Star":
So when at times the mob is swayed
To carry praise or blame too far
We may choose something like a star
To stay our mind on and be staid.
This spring Nick and I bought rose bushes and planted them around the big rock in front of our house. They have been blooming ever since. They are Knockout roses and they do not get black spot or other rose diseases. ('Knockout' is a trade name for that variety of rose. -dt) Dan and I sit on the porch admiring my roses, rocking in the rocking chair like two old hillbillies and listening to the Whip-poor-will when he stops by.
Dan and I visited Dysart Woods nature preserve. (In Belmont County; a laboratory for Ohio University. -dt) It contains fifty acres of virgin forest. It is the only sizable plot in Ohio which has never been cut. There are some very large trees there. (We walked only a short way in. -dt) It was interesting because the leaves of the old trees spread out to almost completely cover the sky, something you normally don't see in hardwood forests. This made the woods very dark and also resulted in less undergrowth. We saw several large black walnut trees. I tried to convince Dan to pick a few off the ground and carry them home. Dan asked me to remind him how we would process the nuts.
"First you put the nuts in a brown grocery bag and drive over them several times with your car to get the husks off", I explained. "Is this where you get black stains on your hands and your clothes?", Dan asked. I allowed how it was. "Next you pound on the nuts with a very heavy hammer", I told him. "Then you use a nut pick to pick out the little pieces", I explained. Dan said in the event that he needed black walnuts he would buy some.
But there is nothing in the world better than black walnuts. (Elderberries are better. -dt) In fact if I died and went to heaven you would find me sitting on my star eating black walnut ice cream. Actually hickory nuts are good too. But you have to be careful with them. There are bitter nut hickory and pignut hickory. You don't want to get either of them by mistake. I guess if I died and went to the other place (That isn't going to happen. -dt), you might find me eating bitternut hickories. You just never know.
As I have been aging I find different body parts are deteriorating. But I do not despair because there is a cure for almost anything on the internet. (Some as good as we receive from the medical professionals. -dt)
There is the Brazilian butt lift. Why Brazilian, you might ask? Do butts sag more in Brazil? Perhaps it is because Brazilian bikinis do so little in the way of actual coverage that any, shall we say, faults are clearly exposed! Thus causing the need for butt lifts. (Actually a plastic surgery technique. -dt)
Another problem is sagging breasts. I guess we all could use a little hiking up here and there. There are magic brassieres that will solve this problem. There are exercises and there are machines. There are soothing creams that just perk you right up or out as the case may be. (Mrs.T is more than amply endowed; she did not allow a picture. -dt) And there are plastic surgeries too numerous to mention.
Then there are cures for turkey neck. I swear I am not making this up. In fact I resemble this remark. Probably from too much gobbling at the dinner table. I saw a cure for crepey skin. I am not sure exactly what that may be but I probably have it. In fact, being a septuagenarian I probably suffer from just about everything.
My sister (Rita most likely. -dt) and I were discussing these treatments. We were willing to try them all except for a few reservations. The first is that the treatments cost a lot of money. We both are pretty careful with our money. The second problem is that the treatment may cause pain or require undue exertion on our part. We don't mind clearing up the table or turning on our little Roomba (A very good investment -dt). But more than that we like to leave to others (The Editor, that is -dt). As far as pain goes we are against it. Our last reservation is what happens if things do not go well. We have both observed ladies whose faces look as if the skin was stretched too tight. We believe that these might be the result of aesthetic procedures gone awry. Although we have led interesting and exciting, not to mention relatively long, lives, we have concluded we might be better off just to stick with what we have, wrinkles and all.
Indeed, Mrs.T and her sisters have avoided augmentations and adjustments and have stuck with what they have been provided. As with everyone, a bit more scooting from the table and more exercise would benefit. But generally they are healthy except for the diseases and infirmities that go with aging and a few genetic items thrown in for excitement.
Here are a few photos to go with the commentary:
We hope you are healthy and taking appropriate steps to stay that way.
Best wishes for the winter. We will head to the condo at the end of October as usual; temperatures are falling as are the changing leaves.
Dan and Rebecca
www.casa-de-terrible.blogspot.com
Sent from Outlook
