Beautiful season, beautiful minds

That's the title I gave my latest article that appeared in last Sunday's Intelligencer newspaper, based in Doylestown, PA. Usually the editor picks his own title, based on space considerations, but he stuck with mine. Read the entire 900-word piece here.

Here's what's been keeping me busy since last we spoke:

- my kids n I went to my new kidney doc - let's see if i can spell nephrologist correctly w/o getting those horrible red wiggly lines of spelcheck - well, i flunked, seems like i spelt it wrong. sorry, microsoft, you big monopolist you! (actually during this post Dr Ghantous just called w/my latest test results. my GFR is 'acceptable' he said. these docs don't use superlatives cuz these are progressive diseases. i'll need dialysis or a transplant as soon as 6 mos to a year and definitely before 5. i've written it all down on the back of a huge brown envelope. as you can see i've come to accept this.)

- am getting ready for my mediterranean cruise the first 2 weeks of novembre. forced myself to go clothes shopping. you know, of course, i only shop at the most exclusive shops here in the delaware valley so after careful consideration i walked thru the doors of what used to be santerian's dept store in hatboro which is now impact thrift. why buy new when you can have somebody else's germs? i went on a nonmanic buying spree and am currently sitting here in my gorgeous fake-velvet purple zip-down shirt.

helene liked it so much when i went to her house to get my pants hemmed that she tried to bargain it off me. i told her and her hubby they MUST go see the Coen Brothers latest film A Serious Man. She called me the next day to say it was a work of genius and that she cried and laffed her way through. I'd seen it w/my friend Pam the psychiatrist after we'd eaten sushi at Ooka in Willow Grove. Scott will not eat sushi but when i told him raw fish is the consistently of lox, as in bagels n lox, he said he'd give it a try.

- had the kids over for my delicious fish chowder. thank god they liked it. they were worried cuz dan called in advance to ask about the ingredients. i also presented him w/his new bowknife which is particularly effective in cutting thin slices of homemade bread, lemon, limes and of course fingers.

- scott and i watched auto-focus which i ordered inter-library loan, the true story of bob crane of hogan's heroes who was brutally murdered (is there any other kind? who was gently murdered?) i thoroughly enjoyed this sex-blasted film made by paul schrader who was raised by strict calvinists and punished when bad by his mom who would stick pins in his hand.

my interest in hogan's stems from my client 'evelyn' who loves nothing more than to sit in her raggedy easy chair and watch some of the 138 episodes of hogan with me or all by herself. her fee to see me is being paid by an 89-yr-old relative who i'm trying to convince to put evelyn in a community home. she pays $10,000/year for evie to eat at area restaurants.

- i finally found a book i could sink my teeth into. it's by ann lamott. people in my online writing group had raved about her. it wasn't until sarah told me to read her 'how-to' on writing that i went to find her in the stacks of our library. i can't remember the title of the book but it's fantastic - about her conversion to christianity and her love of jesus. it's very moving.

i'd given up my search for god and concluded the universe was created exclusively by amino acids but my ongoing quest to find god will never be complete.