Pay attention: June will be gone in a wink! - Hello Al Wipplinger - Marion is doing well

Where's your jar of homemade peaches? I said to Al Wipplinger, owner of Village Hardware in Hatboro, PA.

It's in the back, he said.

Last year, Al sold me my squirrel-proof garbage can, so tuff they can't bite thru the top with their rodent's teeth.

Today I bot a 'hose nozzle'  - my god, what a word - nozzle - for our rain barrel. Al told me to be sure and empty the water freq'ly so it doesn't become a breeding ground for mosquitos.



Around lunch time, I went to visit Marion at The Solana in North Wales, where she's recovering from a minor stroke

The facility is really lovely. We're in the attractive dining room awaiting our food. The food is horrible, said Marion.

I brot my own delicious 'everything salad' - with fresh mint from my garden - and had a cup of their delicious decaf.

First they brot Marion chicken a la king. She sent it back. I took a look and it looked like vomit.

The sloppy joe was much more appealing.

The staff, including the attentive Brian Gross, were super-nice.

Marion has a fine memory which worked quite well. Her speech is improving, as is the use of her right hand for cutting food. Her vision is fine.

She walks very well, but they make her use a walker.

She hadn't known of the birth of my 2-month old grandson, Max, tho of course she remembered Grace Catherine.

Her one bedroom is very cheerful. She has a kitchen w/o a stove.

Her son Neil brot her a TV. Her room is filled with family fotos. She is particularly fond of her g'dtr Brooke who comes to visit every weekend. Brooke has two kids - Charlotte Rain, 5, and Henry, 2 - and another on the way.

Marion asked about many of our mutual friends - Ada and Helen (I told her Helen is going to Vietnam, no she's not enlisting, with her brother as a traveler).

Marion is one of the half-dozen people I phone to read a short story or guest editorial to see how it sounds with the intonations of reading it aloud.

When you get out - end of June or longer if need be - I'll be calling you again, I said. She remembered my reading her a story called The Nap, which I sent to Creative Nonfiction lit journal. I told Marion I had a story published in there in 1998 when I won a Leeway Grant, for 5 grand.

Marion was born in 1931. She always looks lovely.

When we passed the room of the man next door, I mentioned perhaps she can hook up with him.

He's 90, she said.

In the dining room, we sat near a table of women, one of whom was incapable of speaking. All sorts of ailments there.

Next to Marion's bed is the book "Iris and Her Friends," which I don't believe she's started reading. It's about the famous writer Iris Murdoch, whose former husband John Bayley came to live with her after her diagnosis of Alz disease.

She found the book in the Solana library and wondered if she should read it, after I told her what it was about.

Absolutely, I said. It's very well-wrin and quite interesting, I said. It's on my Reading List.




Marion told me about her accomplished family, including a grandson who teaches English in Korea and when he comes home in a couple of weeks, he'll bring his Korean GF home with him.

"So I guess I'll be having little Asian grandchildren," she said.

See how good her mind is!

Solana has a hair salon that she showed me, plus a library, called The Franklin Room.

We sat outside on a bench. I liked the bird house which had no occupants as far as I could tell.

She mentioned soaking up Vitamin D.

I told her that b/c of my new kidney I must take chewable Vitamin D with Calcium.

Also mentioned an article in the Times about a new study which shows the importance of using daily 'sun tan lotion.' It prevents wrinkles, not to mention skin cancer.

One of half a dozen roadside garden nurseries along Horsham Road.

This is a flower-laden Kousa Dogwood available for $10.50 on the internet or $220 from Galbally Nursery.

I always have room for one more in my outdoor living room that's my front yard.