Our Sojourn in Maine

OUR SOJOURN IN MAINE

Deena and I had been planning a short trip to Maine for well over a year. It was to coincide with her seventieth birthday. We had a large Airbnb house reserved and she planned to invite a number of guests, but then the house was taken off the Airbnb listings around the end of last year. This past February, we found another, much smaller accommodation on the coast and reserved that house. The plan at that point was for Deena,...

ON THE TRAIL OF CANCER ONE YEAR LATER

May 5, 2024 (Sunday) Received a surprise today. A missing piece of the puzzle arrived on the patient portal. There were three biopsies done of different areas of my bladder plus a bladder washing which is always performed after a cystoscopy. The washing consists of scraps of organic debris, urothelial cells and perhaps malignant cells as well. The report finding said: “Bladder, washing: Benign. Inflammation and reactive urothelial cells.” -More to follow- May 1, 2024 (Wednesday) My pathology from last...

Blank verse

BLANK VERSE

Deena and I first met online about eight months after my wife died. After a few weeks of trading messages, Deena invited me to meet her on a Saturday afternoon for an Oktoberfest festival in McKinney, TX. We spend four or five hours talking, listening to the music and watching people drift by. Afterwards, we had a wonderful dinner at Deena’s favorite restaurant, Mio Nonno, in Allen. The following Saturday, it rained and we watched videos all day. By then,...

Purple collar gets a new name

PURPLE COLLAR GETS A NEW NAME

Deena and I leave for a short vacation in Maine in a week. We decided to take Molly with us, so I applied for an emotional support pet certification for her and we got it a short while later along with a harness that service and emotional support dogs, wear. Molly loves wearing things and loves how we tell her how pretty she looks. She has a red, plaid, flannel canine shirt she wears when it gets cold and she...

The First Passover

THE FIRST PASSOVER

Passover (pesach or חַג הַפֶּסַח) begins this Monday, April 22 and runs until Tuesday, April 30th. The word “pesach” means literrally to “skip,” “pass over” or “omit.” Passover lasts for seven days (eight in certain circumstances.) The length of Passover also has a certain significance. The children of Israel left their ghetto in Goshen the first day of the Passover, and arrived at the Red Sea on the seventh day, when the sea parted for Moses and Egypt was just...

Barn Burning

BARN BURNING

Around 1848, the Democratic Party in New York State was split into two factions over the issue of slavery. The moderate of the two factions (called the “Hunkers”) wanted to “hunker down” and hope that the issue of slavery would disappear or resolve itself somehow without leading to war. The more radical of the two factions were the Barnburners who wanted to rid the country of slavery so badly that they were willing to destroy the Democratic Party in the...

The Secret Life of Trees

THE SECRET LIFE OF TREES

This is an updated post to include additional information. I have had a few thoughts of trees lately. It’s autumn in New England, and though my wife and I live in upstate New York, the spectacular colors of fall do not stop at the Vermont border. Also, living with a forest in our backyard provides us with ample reminders that winter is fast approaching as thousands of leaves, blown by the wind, scurry across our driveway daily like shifting sand....

Dance the night away

DANCE THE NIGHT AWAY

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) once said “And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.” Or, perhaps, by those who would not hear the music? You may hear harmonies, particular chords and notes, even instruments in a musical composition that I am oblivious to. I might find musical patterns in the wind-blown chimes outside my home or in the water of a rushing brook–places where you might not pause to listen....

The Easter Promise

THE EASTER PROMISE

I would be remiss for not mentioning Easter on a blog dealing in part with faith.  When people today think of Easter, they might think of rabbits, baby chicks, new clothing, jelly beans, colored eggs and a family meal together.  But this is not the true meaning of Easter. The true meaning of Easter deals with a promise of hope, of life after death, and of God’s intention to keep His promise. The Easter promise. When you look at the Holy days...

Waiting

WAITING

On the eve of Ron’s fourteenth chemotherapy treatment, he asked me if I wanted to write an update on how I was dealing with his illnesses.  I asked, “On what? The Big C., Parkinson’s, your heart issues, your shoulder pain, or your other issues?”  He said, “No really, my readers might want your perspective.”  I quietly answered, “I am labeled as a strong woman and for the most part, I am and can be, but I have my days and the gloomy...