So I won't get lost

In April, I'm taking two bus trips. One is to Washington, DC, to see the cherry blossoms and various museums, the other to a place in upstate PA called Wolf Sanctuary, followed by a tour of Wilbur Chocolate Factory.

I'm terrified, however, of getting lost on the way to getting to the bus.

The Hagey coach - you mustn't call it a bus - departs from Lightpole Number 17 at Montgomeryville Mall.

Drove down there today, with Scott in the passenger seat, and found it easily. Bus leaves at 7 am. I'll leave at 6.

Honestly, have you ever seen anything more beautiful than the cherry blossoms? Don't you just want to rub your face in them and eat em up?

Driving down, we passed the huge Grand Canyon of Route 309 - the Glasgow Quarry. When my kids were little and we'd pass it on the way to one of Dan's comic book stores, I'd stop the car so we could look down down down into the deep depths.

Everything I was interested in I showed my kids.

On the way back from the mall, Scott and I stopped at Lowe's. He wanted to get a squirrel-proof bird-feeder but they didn't have one. I bot two things: an outdoor thermometer that I can see from my living room window and the first flowers for my garden: purple violas.

After a kidney transplant you're not supposed to immerse your fingers in the soil: microbes! So Scott will plant them deep in the earth for me, then I'll do the rest, and quick run in the house and wash my hands with dish detergent. Oooh, I just love getting my hands into the soil. After all, we used to be hunters and gatherers. It's in our genes.

My mom is doing great. Dan and little Grace visited her this morning and I met them there. Grace explored the house and was probly surprised to see me there. What's the connection, she must've thought. Why is Bubby here too? Mom is walking really well since she started seeing the physical therapist Laurie.

Quick: Thinks of artists who are named Laurie.

Uh, Piper Laurie the actress; Laurie Anderson, the artist,

Here's Anderson w/her husband Lou Reed, the legendary musician, whose parents got him shock therapy to shock out his bisexuality - I'm sure Rick Sanctorum would approve.

And the only other artist Laurie I can think of is the great Lori Nelson, actress and dancer in Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. She's still alive at 78.

Lori Nelson

When I was a kid I wished my name was Lori.

Now I wish it was Ruth.

My sister Ellen, who's about 60, took a class at Abington Hospital on how to keep your memory sharp. We talked about that today at Mom's. Mom is 89 and seriously has a far better memory - and mind - than I do.

Here are tips to keep your memory sound:

Use your opposite hand when using the mouse (I refuse to do dat)

Say the alphabet backwards: ZYXWVUSTRPQNMOLJKHIDEBCA

They also gave you a test - very hard - naming parts of your body - both inside and out - that have only THREE letters.

When Scott and I went walking today at Lorimer Park - we saw geese and hawks - we were trying to think of some.

Here's a few: lip, ear, hip, jaw, tit (doesn't count) toe, leg, arm. I can't think of anything inside the body w/only three letters, can you?

After we got home, we made two pizzas. We buy the whole wheat crust at giant, slather with sauteed peppers and onion, mozzarella, and spaghetti sauce.

Then I went home and went on my exercise bike for 15 minutes to lower my blood sugar, went back to Scott's, who of course lives next door, and then we began our movie marathon.

When Dawn to Dusk was nearly over, Scott asked if he could turn it off. Very violent, so we did.

Then he put on Cry, the Beloved Country, based on a 1948 novel by Alan Paton, about his country South Africa. There have been many adaptations of the novel, but we watched James Earl Jones in the 1995 film. Heartbreaking, and I did indeed cry.

Here's a quote from the novel:

Cry, the beloved country, for the unborn child that is the inheritor of our fear. Let him not love the earth too deeply. Let him not laugh too gladly when the water runs through his fingers, nor stand too silent when the setting sun makes red the veld with fire. Let him not be too moved when the birds of his land are singing, nor give too much of his heart to a mountain or a valley. For fear will rob him of all if he gives too much.

Richard Harris and James Earl Jones.

This is a deep and insightful movie about race relations. Right after Paton finished his novel, apartheid was instituted in his beloved country.

Why must people always hate each other?

I only took one photo while stopped at a lite on the way to Lightpole No. 17.

I just loved the Nissan sign.