The Last Supper: No eats or drinks past midnite - Surprise after-dinner company

Who's this? Oh, it's my daughter Sarah and her husband Ethan.

At 6 pm Sarah and Ethan pulled up in a darling beige Mini-Cooper which traveled from Brooklyn thru Staten Island (I think it's the Verazano Bridge)right here to Cowbell Lane in Willow Grove.

Their friend Lisa Koentjen was driving. I typed up her last name to prove to myself that I could spell it. German origin. She's from Chicago but lives in Bklyn and practices psychology in the city where she also teaches.

I imagined having her as a therapist. She's quiet and friendly and a great listener.

Lisa Koentjen

Mom stopped over today. She's not actually sleeping. She had hemmed a couple of garments for me to take to the arspital. Reminds me of one of my fave gospel songs If I could just touch the hem of His garment, sung by Sam Cooke.



Silly me forgot to take pix of all the great food we ate tonite. On my way home from Doylestown Hosp yesterday I got behind this huge Asplundh Tree Trimming truck. I caught myself staring at, thinking to myself, This is a well-made piece of equipment. Very substantial.

I love when people stop by spontaneously just like in the olden days. In fact my front door is open right now should anyone wish to keep me company while I do one last blog post.

Look who stopped by! My sister Donna from Hatboro, PA. What can I do to help you, she asked.

Well, one of the worst things is packing. So she helped me pack. I referred to my index card called NYC, which you can figure out what that means. I first starting making packing lists when my ex and I went camping w/ baby Sarah. Now I'm gonna camp out at Einstein Hospital.

Oh-oh, I'm getting hungry again. It's 10:49. Only an hour to go before I can't eat or drink.

Dinner was spaghetti w/ fresh asparagus, mushrooms, carrots, and red pepper drizzled w/ olive oil.

Steamed kale.

Salmon w/ a pesto sauce.

Sarah made the latter two dishes. I skipped the salmon cuz it makes me thirsty.

I was anxious to hear how The Bad Plus's performance of Rite of Spring went. They were commissioned last year to write it for Duke Univ.

It's one of my alltime fave pieces. I could never reconcile the way the composer Igor Stravinsky looked w/ the raw sexual power of the music. Esp. the accompanying dancing. Remind me to ask Ethan when I wake up from the Long Sleep to tell me about music and sexuality.

I found myself at Weinrich Bakery again today and asked for something not terribly sweet. I was presented with French Twists. Sticky and delicious and, not terribly sweet. Here's a photo of 'down to the very last bite.'



While getting our dinner ready, handsome neighbor Patrick stopped by to capture this Night Before Dawn.

He was a professional wedding photographer when his kids were very young but now he wants to spend more time w/ the little guys, Pat, 7, and Ian, 5. In fact, I used a couple of his photos in my Compass mag. He shot one of his wife Sue. I didn't recognize her and said, Who is this beautiful waitress?

One day Patrick asked me to drive him to a wedding since his car wouldn't start. It was a hot summer afternoon and I was wearing my short shorts and tank top.

When I got to the church I went inside w/ him and everyone but me was in their wedding finery. Nonetheless I managed to get into these great conversations w/ the guests. Then the bagpipers arrived and I stuck around so I could hear the haunting sound of pipes.

And I didn't need to spend 50 bucks to buy a gift.

Here's my b'ful full-kidneyed daughter.

Au revoir Odysseus, au revoir! I told Sarah she was the most b'ful baby. (So was her brother Dan.) In the two-three days we were at the hospital, her face changed so she looked at times like her own self, her Grandma Margie, and her Grandma Bernice. The genes were stretching out and expressing themselves.

Here's Scotty, who enjoyed his meal, esp. the salmon. I sent him outside with the scraps to feed the compost heap. The deer aren't even afraid of us.

Bill Adams stopped by from next door. We talked about a mutual friend Jeff Bigelow. To this day, I said to Bill, whenever I hear the Beach Boys on the radio, which is sadly too rare, I think of Jeff, who turned me on to the greatness of the Boys. I also read the autobio of Brian Wilson which was excellent, esp. how he tried to kick drugs.

Bill works for Waste Mgmt and has an office upstairs in his 'attic.' When I need something faxed, which is infrequent, I send Bill at email: May I come over to fax something?

One time he wrote back, 'I'm in Las Vegas.'

Okay, 40 minutes to go before no eating and drinking.

I passed out copies of Icing on the Cake, the poetry review our Coffeeshop Writers Group just had printed. No need to tell you who organized the whole thing or who got it published for free.

Got a surprise phone call today from Jena Johnson in Portland OR six months after I signed up w/ her organization Compassion and Choices, dedicated to helping terminally ill patients have a good death and also engage, if they wish, in physician-assisted dying.

In my Patch.com article, I cited C and C as being part of my helping team, so while we were talking I forwarded the article to her. Wonderful lady.

In our country, just about every mission or problem a person has is served by a group. And if they're ain't none, well, it's your responsibility to step up to the plate and start it, n'est-ce pas?