Green days, white memories

Dear family and friends,

In case it is getting too hot for you, here is a winter scene at the front of our house. I think I can do without that very nicely. Above is our azalea in full bloom. As I rode my stationary bike, I relished the sight of it outside my window. Now there are no blossoms at all. To the right is Jon, Rae-Rae's brother, and me; he and his wife Malkah live in Israel.

Most of the time yesterday was spent on hamletworks.org. Through Skype, I took Satyaki on a tour of the site, showing him what each page has and how to make the most of it. Now he will go to work on individual documents (each line of Hamlet has 1-3 documents) and many of them are very very long. We have a lot of information for anyone ho wants it. Satyaki and I have a Skype appointment for later today.

I have been making up menus for the guys' two-day visit later this week. The main goal is to keep it simple enough to make it easy for me. When I have to, I will lie down and rest. I also have been making notes about some of the things we can talk about, hoping that we can move smoothly into the next phase.

The bad effects of taking prednisone do not seem to be diminishing as much or as quickly as I would like in spite of my being down to 12.5 mg a day now. But some of the bad effects of not taking it are beginning to show: no trouble breathing, thank goodness, but rather intense itching. I am taking my UVB light treatment 3x a week and slowly increasing the dose; when I broke my pelvis, I couldn't get to the machine and when I restarted I had to begin with a low dose.

This too will pass.

I am looking forward today to the start of physical therapy to strengthen my legs and hips. Something is wrong with my stationary bike, and I am missing using it. I'll probably have a chance to bicycle at the therapist's office.

Love to all,
Bernice

Memorial Day

The photo on the lower left is of our back yard a couple of years ago. You can see dimly the path of stones that leads to the edge of the property on the south side. The photo above that shows Rae-Rae standing in front of her excellent Charlie. Next to him is my excellent Merwin and in front of him is me as I looked before I had an enlarged spleen and started on prednisone. Oh my. Will I ever look anything like that again? Next to me is Rae-Rae's daughter, Debbie. I feel a special bond with this lovely young girl, who has had a wild side as I did at her age. Rae-Rae's son David is not in the photo. Both kids are doing great, top of their classes, really high achievers. The other scene is of our front curb and the plantings nearby.



As usual, click on a photo to enlarge it and then arrow left for return to blog.

Dear family and friends,

Rae-Rae, one of our "daughters," took the photos above a couple of years ago and sent them to us the other day We are expecting her and Charlie to visit us next month. That will be fun. It so very sweet when friendships persist through generations. This is not true for all our friendships, unfortunately.

Yesterday Florence stopped by and we took a little walk together. I really like these impromptu visits, especially when they are so easy to incorporate into my day: we walked for about 15 minutes around the neighborhood, which is gorgeously blooming. Florence moved from Sea Cliff to Glen Head a few years ago, and we both belong to RSNS.

Rather late, Merwin and I had the pleasure of watching a movie, right on my computer, that we have wanted to see. That is a fun thing, especially when, as in this case, it was one we had a hard time getting to with our "free" movie tickets.

Earlier, I had Skyped with Satyaki, who is catching on to the rather convoluted task I have for him. I was so pleased that Skype worked. Thanks, Dave! So now Satyaki and I have seen each other, he from Reno, me from Long Island. Satyaki will Skype me today for a longer session, and my plan is to walk him through the site, showing him all the goodies. After all, he will be a teacher one day, and then perhaps he will encourage his students to use the site—and even contribute to it. He'll be able to do his work better if he understands the whole site.

Sending love to all, especially those in pain for any reason,
Bernice

Days go by

Dear family and friends,

The battle of our mahatanista, Lee, is over. She died yesterday surrounded by her family. Her daughter (our daughter-in-law) Sandy, and Sandy's sister Barbara, were holding her hands, and Murray, her husband of over 60 years, and their son Lawrence, were standing by, as was our son Harvey, and Barbara's significant other, Matt. Our hearts are with them. Lee timed it so that all could be together, managing to wait through Harvey's work-related trips to Israel and Norway, so he could be there at Sandy's side to support her through her grief—and her relief that her mother was free of pain at last and that her ever-faithful father could rest, too.

So life goes on. I participate in a special way in this milestone event as I think of my own demise, probably sooner rather than later (though I admit that I feel better now than I did a year ago when I was on terrible meds), and I hope for myself and my family that the slope can be steep at the end. It would be good if there were ways (well, there ARE ways, but they are illegal) to speed the inevitable. Lee asked for this relief many times. Yet her last days were not without joy. She asked even a few days ago to be wheeled outside on a recliner so she could enjoy the flowers she loved.

Lee and I had a special bond, and I will cherish that in memory. What an indomitable will she had!

On the brighter side, our dear almost-daughter Dawn visited with her significant other Brian yesterday. We ordered pizza to test out this source, Abeetza Pizza, which we have heard is good. It WAS good, loaded with fresh vegetables. But the crust, because of the leakiness of the veggies, was a little soggy. I must ask them which veggies would allow the crust to hold firm. Or what I could do at home to firm it up. I had the oven on high while Merwin and Brian went for the pizza, then turned it off when they arrived, and slipped the pizza onto a cookie tray to stay warm until we were ready (about 5 minutes). We also had one of Merwin's great salads and then ice cream and cookies for dessert. Nice and easy.

I needed a rest during the day and again during Dawn's visit. Merwin regaled her and Brian with stories of his fabulous transfers of 33 records to CD and then to his iPod. He transferred some CDs to Dawn, who was pleased to get them. She is hoping ot trim the number of her possessions, but I keep giving her—or loaning her—books I think she can use. I gave her some of Patti Tana's poetry because Dawn, having had a public reading this past spring, was asked by someone in the audience to join Patti on stage at the Tilles Center at C. W. Post this fall for a program he is organizing. It's always great to see one's children getting ahead, and I am proud of them all, including the ones who are ours because we adopted each other as family. Blood is strong, but love is even stronger. I always say that to our nephews, Merwin's sister's sons.

Below, I hope, is a photo of Dawn and Brian.

It's going to be another beautiful day today. Love to all,
Bernice

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Keeping it simple

Dear family and friends,

A view of our NYC studio apartment taken by the management company to show as that all is back where it was. Well, it's not quite the chair arrangement we had at the table, and I don't see the placemats I keep on the table, but it looks reasonably habitable. Though we supplied the paint, which should have matched, it seems that the patch where the workers gained access to the building's water supply shows as a lighter color. Or as Merwin says, that could be a reflection of the camera flash. I don't see Merwin's computer. Outside the window you can see the scaffolding, which was supposed to be gone by the end of March. You can still see the greenery of Bryant Park, however. I can't wait to return, next week for sure and maybe before.

We had a lovely lunch with Harris and Evelyn. I enjoy making new friends, and these guys are winners. They go to the same water aerobics classes that Merwin attends, and the various men there stick together and tease each other. Harris and Evelyn have three girls, and 4 grandchildren, two boys and two girls, who live close enough to see each other frequently. Harris worked at CBS among other places as a film person and Evelyn was a high school English teacher. Like us, they enjoy theater. Because of them we renewed or membership in TDF, and we bought tickets for a play in which our friend Laury's daughter Elyssa will perform next Sunday in NYC. Elyssa just graduated from Harvard College. Hooray, Elyssa.

Somehow just sitting and talking knocked me out completely. We arrived a little after noon, and were home just before 4. I slept in the car and then went immediately to bed for a continuation of the nap. I did nothing to occasion that amount of fatigue, being served hand and foot. But I take advantage of every good moment I have, and thankfully, they are many.

I made an appointment with a physical therapist in Glen Cove who does not charge a co-pay. I will go as long as my medicare holds out. This is to strengthen my muscles that were weakened while I was recovering from the broken pelvis.

I just heard from her husband Sandy via email that our friend Phyllis B is back in the hospital with dangerously low blood pressure. We send her our love.

Satyaki, the grad student from Reno who is working on our website, tried to reach me on Skype yesterday, and I returned his call to no effect, but I hope we can connect this weekend. I have been working on the agenda for our summit meeting on Thursday and Friday and, via email, discussing Jesús's work for the site: he is creating a magnificent new edition, which I hope will be completed soon. I started looking into Q1 (the First Quarto of Hamlet), which we hope to have on the site soon.

If anyone wants to take a look, click on hamletworks.org, then click on the second item on the left, "Linked Enfolded Hamlet": scroll down, and click on Q2 and scroll down to read as much as you want; then close that and click on F1, and again scroll down to see what that looks like. Then close it and click on the middle text, Enfolded, which mixes the two, Q2 and F1, together, my invention, The Enfolded Hamlet.

Harvey and Sandy are in Cleveland with Sandy's mother, who is so ready to die. Arthur and Debbie are working on a tool shed for their house with the help of a technician. Lincoln is of course out of town. Dave is having a bar-b-cue, I expect, in his lovely back yard.

Have a great Memorial Day weekend, everyone. Ours will be quiet and peaceful.

Love,
Bernice

Relaxing day

This is our house, the before picture. It's a Sears Roebuck kit house, built in the 1920s. Here we have added a garage with bedroom above. This is before Dave planned our garden, and I hope to get a photo of a few of the great improvement that have been made since then.


Dear family and friends,

Thinking of ginger soup, we went with Rachael, who came for a brief visit, to Sherwood's, my favorite local restaurant—and found it locked and darkened. It's gone! You see what happens when I can't get out of the house? We had not been there since before March 16th, the day of my encounter with the sidewalk. I should have called! I should have gone sooner! So of course I had to start a version of ginger soup last night. It needs, I think, a scallion, some coriander, and possibly some other vegetables. We'll see.

The high point of the day was the visit from Rachael, our granddaughter. She will be 25 next month, recently returned from Oslo, and will be starting a new job next week or so: she is at present a freelance cinematographer. Merwin, Rachael and I went for a walk at the Sea Cliff beach, went out for lunch to a restaurant near the shore, and just hung out, talking about both serious and frivolous things. Rachael is easy to talk to. We also went to Dave's house in Glen Cove, which has come a long way since I last saw it. Now that I have my emancipation from the house, I always mean to use a cane, but somehow I got in the car without it. I was pleased to see that I was able to negotiate the steep steps and all without any difficulty. I restricted myself, though, to the house itself, and merely looked out the huge windows to the back yard, which as you can well imagine, if you know Dave's horticultural gifts, is lovely. A high point was the fan over the stove, which Dave designed and had fabricated. It beats anything I have ever seen before.

Another high point was the beautifully designed railings on the second-floor porch. From there, even with the trees in full leaf, you can see a bit of the sound; the house is a block from Morgan Beach.

I also saw Dave's dog, but I am going to keep my distance in spite of my general love for animals. I don't think it's a good idea to have a dog in an unfinished house. There is so much dirt and clutter around—and a dog can add to that or get hurt by that. But Dave is happy with her.

Rachael and Merwin had noticed another asparagus near our pond, so I broke it off, cooked this lightly in butter and gave most of it to Merwin for supper. After our big late lunch we didn't want much. I looked for our new fish butdidn't see any. They are hiding well, I hope.

Our three-year old goldfish having disappeared suddenly, Merwin had gotten new ones. We can only hope that whatever took the others will not get these smaller ones. There is plenty of vegetation for them to hide under, and the pond is surrounded by purple iris now, which might obscure the view of heron, raccoon, or whatever got the fish.

This morning we are going to Queens to visit our friends Harris and Evelyn, a delightful occasion to look forward to.

Love to all,
Bernice

Welcome Guests!

One of my favorite photos, which I keep in my study. Barry Kraft in 2000, at Ashland Oregon's Shakespeare Festival where he was an actor, dramaturg, and director, watching the actors onstage while holding the Three-Text Hamlet, which I invented with Paul Bertram, and which I prepared for publication using Quark Xpress.



Dear Family and Friends,

Lovely hot day yesterday but we were comfortable inside with our Mitsubishi air conditioners, installed last fall. They are so nice and quiet.

The big event of the day was a brunch for Barry, his bride Jessica, her father Jack, and Phe, my friend of over 50 years. I wrote about Barry and Jessica yesterday and included a link to their photos from the Galapagos. A good time was had by all, certainly by me! It's thrilling to me that these friends, old and relatively new, could come for brunch. After about 10 days in DC, partly to celebrate Jessica's brother's wedding, they will return to Jack's home, and we can hope to see them again.

After asking Jessica if the only other meal they have had here—a year ago or so—was brunch, and getting the negative answer, I told her I was then free to bring out the old chestnut for this brunch: baked eggs and cheese, the dish Merwin's mother's family brought with them when they came to the USA from England in 1903.

Nephew Mike has been making baked eggs regularly for his family since visiting here last summer:Congratulations Mike! on the new grandchild, Connor, making it three girls (Jeremy's children) and two boys (April's children). Go, Mike! Congratulations, Dinah!

At the brunch there were also by popular demand, mini-bagels, lox, cream cheese; spinach Pie, courtesy Sophie (this gets better and better, Sophie), and a new dish, a spin-off on a Bittman recipe. His called for day-old cooked Jasmine rice: I used coos-coos. His called for finely sliced garlic sauteed till they were crisp and brown and the same treatment for peeled, finely sliced fresh ginger. These were to be passed around as an optional extra: I folded them right into the coos-coos. Similarly, he called for sesame oil and light soy sauce to be passed around; I mixed in a very small amount of each. What I skipped altogether were the eggs Bittman used: we already had enough eggs.

Jessica suggested a ginger soup to match that at Sherwood's perhaps. I am going to try it soon. Process ginger and about 3x the amount of carrots, add water, and cook till vegetables are the consistency you want. Is this right, Jessica? I think we should go to Sherwood's today and check out their version—and then go on from there. I think I just want to get out for lunch with Rachael today.

One strange thing: at the Galapagos, people throw postcards into a barrel in a store and visitors from around the world shuffle through to find anyone from their home town and post the card when they get home. Or hand deliver the card if it's really close by. We got not a postcard but Barry's very short letter celebrating Shakespeare's birthday (23 April) on a scrap of paper. Someone had picked it out of the barrel and was kind enough to send it to us in an envelope. I think this came from the Mid-West, St. Louis perhaps. Unfortunately, I didn't save the envelope, but I have Barry's Galapagos letter along with a pile of other things from him: Barry has good ideas that I have incorporated into hamletworks.org, and he has also corrected errors in the Three-Text book. It's an amazing thing, the friendships that result from Shakespeare.

After a long nap, I had lots of backs and forths with the hamletworks.org team, arriving next Thursday. Final details still to be worked out: how to use the air train to get to Jamaica and hence to Glen Head or wherever is easier; who gets which of the guest beds; and, for me, planning an agenda—and the meals!

Now it's time for my walk in the neighborhood or my bicycle. Looking forward to a cooler, pleasant day with Rachael visiting.

Love to all,
Bernice

Good news all around

Dear family and friends,

The best news this morning comes from Naomi, who heard it on the news: Lori Berenson has been paroled, at last. Many of us think her trial was a farce, her crime non-existent or at least a far-fetched exaggeration. See the New York Times this morning (search Lori Berenson). She has been in prison since 1995, serving a 20-year sentence, and has to remain in Peru while on parole.

The other good news is more personal: We went to Dr. K yesterday and got very good news. My platelets are well up over 100 and my white blood cells are low, well below 100. Merwin, who is our record keeper, has not given me the chart yet, but when he does I'll add the specifics—or not. The point is that I am doing well, the prednisone taper is going well without the extreme fatigue or the pneumonia that accompanied the last effort to taper. So I am to continue at this slow, slow 2.5 mg a week taper, leaving me 6 weeks to go to zero. Dr.K also thinks my spleen is smaller, though only an ultrasound can measure it in toto. The red blotches on my arms are also fading.

It took 3 hours at the doctor's. because she had so many problems to solve, so it was very late for lunch: as a solution, Merwin finally redeemed a part of the gift certificate he got from Bobbie and picked up a sandwich at Ben's—which he enjoyed very much. This meant a very light supper for him. Thank you Bobbie!

Other good news: Barry and Jessica phoned from Jack's house, practically around the corner from us in Mill Neck. They have just returned from world-wide travel, including Venice and the Galapagos. Jessica sent wonderful photos, but I don't know how to download them. Merwin can probably do it. The three are coming today for brunch, and I am thrilled that we will be seeing them with Phe, who was coming for lunch but graciously agreed to come for brunch instead.

Here is the URL for their Galapagos photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/47434224@N07/sets/72157623965461782/show/. I just tried it and it did work. I hope you don't mind, Jessica?

Once we had settled on brunch, we went to North Shore Farms again to pick up just a very few things that I wanted. There's going to be a lot of food!

We heard from various children. Sandy's mother is still hanging on. She indicated she wanted to see the flowers outside and was wheeled out in a recliner. She is confounding all predictions. I am glad (here from a distance) for her tenacity: she wants to live! and don't we all?

Obviously, I did a certain number of work-related things, but enough with that for now. Off to prepare for the brunch!

Love,
Bernice