Friday Evening

As usual, click on picture to enlarge; click on back-arrow to return to blog

Hello All,

Cousin Sylvia battled the traffic all the way from Brooklyn and came for a welcome visit yesterday. She is admiring Bernice's red earrings which were made by Laura, our oldest granddaughter. Bernice's hair is slowly growing longer but the weekly increments are less noticeable as the percentage change diminishes. That is the admiring engineer talking, of course. I am taking a little chance here but one of Bernice's complaints about her blood condition is that it creates her enlarged spleen. She rightly declares that if this enlargement did not exist, she would be slender. Bernice wants me to clip and frame future pictures to avoid that feature. Anyway, Sylvia was dissuaded from bringing loads of food by our assurance that we still have a more than adequate supply but she did bring me some Brooklyn corned beef. She also brought some vegetarian sushi, a favorite of Bernice and herself and they finished this off as a little fore-spice. Sylvia has been a social worker for many years in Brooklyn and her clientele includes the Jewish orthodox community. In spite of self-denial in this community, Sylvia, knowing that human problems are universal, has long experienced the challenges of dealing with such problems among people who refuse to accept human frailties or differences. In the past week there was a talk by the Republican candidate for governor to an assembly of Orthodox Rabbis who praised him for his remarks declaring that gays were unnatural, a sin, and an outrage. These stupid and rabid remarks made the headlines and provoked much criticism. Pallidino, the candidate, backtracked the next day saying he had gone too far. This raised the ire of the rabbis who denounced his spinelessness and cowardice. Sylvia could only shake her head at the hypocrisy of these leaders who should know of the multitude of gays in their flock, so to speak, suffering behind firmly closed their closet doors.

Bernice, an avid reader of the NY Time's Wednesday dining section was enthralled with coverage of whole-grain pastas and communicated her interest to son Dave of one of the recipes: Pasta with Caramelized Onion, Swiss Chard, and Garlicky Bread-Crumbs. Ever eager to please his mom and being an adventuresome cook, Dave gathered the ingredients, brought them to our kitchen, and prepared our evening meal. Dave and the women loved the result and I thought that the crunchy little bread crumbs were very tasty. Dave did another thing to satisfy his mom yesterday. To make her ascent and decent on our stairs easier and safer we have railings almost everywhere (he installed most of these) but there was a missing spot where three stairs go to a landing from which the main stair case ascends to the upper bedroom level. What is tricky here is that the wall at that point has a horizontal jutting. Dave overcame these difficulties, fashioned an oak railing, and installed it yesterday. Lovely.

Today was notable for we made an early morning visit to Dr K, Bernice's oncologist/hematologist who we have not seen since May. In June Bernice began a drug trial at Mt Sinai medical center which lasted only five weeks (some modest benefits though) but that was cut short with her terrible fall in July. Now that Bernice's mobility has improved and there is no drug trial, we will be seeing Dr K on a regular basis. Blood counts look OK but the persistent back pain is now the biggest problem. I drove Bernice and, with her cane, we got her into a wheel chair to make the visit more comfortable. The drive itself is no problem and we are considering getting into the neurosurgeon Dr M at Mt Sinai next week. It is a medical challenge to differentiate symptoms arising from her blood condition or her back and brain operations.

Today, Bill the PT who continues to push Bernice, had her go up and down the flight of stairs to my study which is below hers. Her home health aides pace her through her extensive exercises and this is surely helping her regain her strength. Tonight Bernice took over the kitchen and prepared a large savory asparagus omelet. Like old times when i just set the table and did the cleanup.

Two blogs ago i mentioned the quandary of our dear French friends who had to contend with the uncertainties of the rail system which has been racked by strikes protesting the pension changes proposed by Sarkozy. They wisely decided discretion was the better part of valor (where did I pick that up) and stayed home. It turned out to be a wise choice for the conference had to be cancelled and is rescheduled for November when, hopefully, they can zip to the other corner of France in comfort on a TGV whisking along at over 250 mph. If the stars are aligned we might have an opportunity to iChat with them this weekend.

Have a fine weekend and good night everyone,
Merwin