Two steps forward, on step back

Sweet little girls, children of a friend


Dear family and friends,

Yesterday I made another bad move that increased the pain again. That's two days in a row. I guess I am feeling so chipper and limber that I think I can do anything. This was another bending movement, so I am going to try hard to avoid those. Otherwise I think I am making good progress.

I am grateful for so many things: shall I count the ways? I love the photos that surround me. I am going to try to get more of them into my computer. The children—my children's and those of my friends—especially delight me. I enjoy this walker that gets me around so well. For several days after the fall, I could not walk at all, even with the walker. Now I can walk fairly easily with it. It's such a fine instrument: I can lift it with one hand. It locks securely in place for security, but still can be moved if necessary. Merwin can wheel me in it or I can use it as a walker.

Yesterday I had an appointment to have Paul cut my hair, but of course could not go. Still, he is such a wonderful artist that I hardly even have to comb it because it just stays in place where it belongs.

Rabbi Lee came before Merwin returned from his water aerobics class, so Lee and I had time to talk about some serious matters, particularly about decisions to be made. I found it very reassuring to talk to him. We also chatted about his several trips to Israel with members of the congregation and why he thinks it's important to go there; a documentary movie he recommended (Killing Katzner), a documentary directed by a young woman, which he saw recently; recollections of his years of study, which included working with a devout rabbi who had studied the Sumerian language; Merwin spoke about our reliance on Babylonian number systems. I also shared some thoughts about my current work, and more, for about an hour. Lee had brought cookies from Diane's but had left behind a little pile of books that he had chosen from my weeding project. He asked to come again with lunch, after Passover. Indeed a pleasure.

The rest of the day was quiet, with the usual mixture of email, work, telephone conversations, and all. What was not usual was what happened to my email. If I have not responded to you since yesterday afternoon it could be because my Eudora email has crashed. I like the program very much but its makers gave up supporting it 5 years ago. Just this past weekend, Harvey convinced Merwin to change to another email program, which he has been struggling with. I didn't want to change, but I think Eudora may be corrupting everything. I rushed to transfer my current work onto a flash drive.

The problem is of course severe at any time, since email is such an important part of my social and working day, but right now it's particularly acute because with the help of excellent librarians from three different cities (all via email of course) who directed me to the correct Google resource, I finally located some documents I need to complete my work on the Sea essay. Hooray! So this is not a good time for a crash of my computer. I wont describe the weirdnesses.

OK, off to breakfast to face all that later! And I will try not to make bad moves today.

Love to all,
Bernice