Last Day of 2016 - The late Carrie Fisher on Charlie Rose (thanks Marce!) Poems: My Soul Resides in a Pond of Silence - I Can't Concentrate - Waking Up in a Bright New Morning

Scott and I celebrated New Year's at NOON at the Willow Inn - official name DiMarzio's Willow Inn.

 Didn't bring my camera but here's what I wore

 and here's my leftover manicotti

Afterward we walked at Pennypack Trust, up n down the hills of Raytharn Farm....energizing. We always guess how many cars will be there. About a dozen. Old foto of Scott at Pennypack.



Scott and I sat in an outer room at the Willow Inn. Donna was our waitress. At the other end of the room was a large party. I heard the name Silvestri mentioned

Maybe 20 years ago the Silvestris owned a huge farm on County Line Road. I'd shop at their roadside stand and can remember buying fresh lima beans encased in thick pods.

No, not those pods!




Invasion of the Body Snatchers.

I was friends with Rocky Silvestri, who my sister Donna also knew. Rocky would take me back to the refrigerated section and tell me hair-raising stories. Wonder if  Donna still remembers him. Probly.

Hold on, I'll give her a quick call.

Donna said that when Silvestri's was sold the Huntingdon Valley Starbucks was put in. Along with many other stores. Wall to wall shops instead of land!

Land? What's land, they'll say on earth in 25 years.

Scott and I talked a lot as we overlooked York Road. I could barely see outside bc of my shortness, but he said there was a steady stream of people going to the Wawa.

My Intelligencer Guest Column "10 New Year's Resolutions for Leading a Longer Life" was published on Thursday, Dec 29.

I forgot to look for it, so now no one can see it if you're not a subscriber.

Nancy Myers across the street saved a copy for me.

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Impossible to read. Was a really good story too.

Well, here's a poem I just got published you can read in the Loch Raven Review.... My Soul Resides in a Pond of Silence. 

The best line is the title, which I did not write.

Watch the late Carrie Fisher on Charlie Rose, thanks to my friend Marcy. Then it segues into many other interviews including with Ellen Degeneres who is a really snazzy dresser.

Not to mention RZD, all decked out in her holiday digs

 Poetry please

I CAN'T CONCENTRATE

Am reading "David's Ankles" online
about the perilous state of
Michaelangelo's David

Instead I am dining with Scott
at the Willow Inn. Only 53 more
minutes to go.

I sip on my medium roast
the first coffee of the day
and scan the menu with my
reading glasses

Shall I bring my transitional
object, like a baby its blankie,
mine would be the stories of
John O'Hara

I'm all dressed, in black,
it so happens, and listen
to the squawk of the
crows, right now, shouting
Come and get it, fellows,
nice juicy rabbit down here.



*****

Don't you love waking to
a bright new morning? Today
was something, New Years eve.

Closing my eyes, book on chest,
I was back on Glenmore, babysitting
for the Biskinds.

The house smelled like June's pickles
fermenting all along
the kitchen floor. The kids were
in bed and I'd drunk the Coke they
left me in the fridge.

The dark-paneled den was lined with books.
Where should I start? I'd finished What
Makes Sammy Run by Bud Schulberg, then
stood on a bench and took down a couple
from the highest shelf.

Mahalia Jackson was singing In the Upper Room
on the television as I paged through the medical
books. Elephantiasis stared me in the face as
did obstetrical oddities. And old tools like
forceps.

What if they came home now and found me, their
shy next door neighbor? I carefully replaced
the books, lay down on the couch, en couche,
and decided motherhood was not for me.

Skin cancer is the most common type of cancer in the USA - Poem: Fiona - Poem: Squamous

Keratosis on my right leg. On the left leg is one that I picked off.

My dermatologist Dr Lorrie Finelli said it's okay to pick em off tho they'll probly grow back.

They're genetic.

Finelli REMOVED my squamous cell carcinoma. She caught it very early. 

Here's Dr Finelli's website. 

I highly recommend her. She gave me many emoluments that I'll spread on my dry skin.

The office is always mobbed. They're right next door to my nephrologist's office.... Dr Ghantous.

Oh no! Debbie Reynolds, dead at 84, of a stroke. A day after her daughter Carrie Fisher died of a massive heart attack.

View details here.

She gave me some brochures to read.

I was not at all interested in skin cancer the first two times I was there, taking a Who, Me? attitude.

I could not wait to get the little suckers excised from my face.

Here I am now

drinking my

reheated large Wawa coffee - a special blend of Ginger, Molasses, and other spices. A gift from my friend "Tree," short for Teresa.

Just think! Anytime I want - it's about 9 pm now - I can run out and buy anything from Wawa.

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It was great to be back at Wawa, burning my hands on the coffee cup, until I found a sleeve. This huge man - broad, stout - stood near me. He had a holster with a revolver in it.

A copper!

Was he gonna admonish me for ordering a pretzel with cream cheese inside?

Mon dieu, was that delicious. Thank you Tree.

Waited till I got in the car on this very windy chilly day before I began munching it.

Then I drove to Moreland Towers to visit my friend Allan on the fifth floor.

There was his beautiful new cat.

FIONA

Black silky ears
Sexy black body
and cool yellow
eyes

She doesn't listen
said her owner
She has the
run of the house

I leaned down
in my blue
recliner and
petted her on
her long black
tail

As I left I
wondered, Does
Fiona come alive
in the night?
Does she become a
vixen like on
the film noirs?

If so, her owner
won't tell. 

***

Scott and I watched and napped to the last of Rem's film noirs. Edward G Robinson in The Red House.

  Edward G. was a very bad man. Let's call him disturbed. A killer with a cause.

Now I would like to attempt a poem called Squamous. Will go backstage for a few moments while I compose it.

SQUAMOUS

Sounds like a food
the native Americans
would make

Right here in my
back yard
a millennia ago

A mooshy stew with
acorns and deer
inards, delicious
if you're a Lenni-
Lenape

Let's dig down deep
and see what we find

Grace here's a little
shovel for you, and, Max,
keep us occupied with your
patter about the stars,
the phases of the moon,
your new Hess tractor-
trailer,and the board
games we played last
night.

Meantime, I'll wear
sunscreen 30-plus
apply my Eucerin
on my flaky skin,
not unlike the
baklava Kay
used to make

And call the office
back within ten days
a strange phone number
starting with 706.

***
On bike I watched a really exciting show Treasures from Egypt.

There are 30,000 objects from King Tut's tomb NO ONE has ever seen before.

Egyptologists were also finding new crypts thousands of years old. Their enthusiasm was contagious.

Terrible photos please:

Dig dig dig

The digging season has come to an end due to the heat. That's when you find the best discoveries.

yr

The pyramids were built to fool looters.

 This new museum will open in 2018. Would you go? The narrator said that Egypt is a safe country.

A person of importance above.

She's an expert on bones. Great personality.

 Colorful sarcophagus of King Tut?

He was buried with two dead fetuses, both girls. Probly died b/c Tut mated with a close relative and the girls were deformed, as he was.

It showed his crooked legs.

Also a marvelous photo of his sandals.... intact! Was on the bike so couldn't take foto.

 Tut was buried with many walking canes, as well as toys. 19 when dead.

Possibly a boat, which taught them a lot about ships.

Thanks to the fabulous Bob and Kim - Poems: Ode to my Washing Machine - Giant: The Town Center

 Thanks to Bob and Kim Ruby for the two lamp chops awaiting me when I got home from Mom's house.

hed

Napped at Scott's as we watched and slept thru another one of Rem's great film noirs. We watched The Second Woman with Robert Young and Betsy Drake. Both were superb actors as she tried to convince the future Marcus Welby that someone was out to kill him.

Just remembered we watched something else last night about a bank robbery gone wrong starring Robert Payne. Very exciting!

Kansas City Confidential.

Oh, remove that teasing photo, will ya? It has nuffin to do wid da film!

Here's my assignment for today. Gotta write a 2000-max true story that changed my life. What dyou think about the first day I did therapy at Bristol-Bensalem Human Services, now an upscale housing devmt with rocking chairs on the front porches?

I can see you contemplating the idea.

Am brewing some Wild Berries Tea, no decaf, which I'd rate a C+

Here's the poem I wrote on FB this morning while my egg omelet was cooling.

Yesterday I wrote one of my fave new ones. 

ODE TO MY WASHING MACHINE

Hear the merry sounds of the
waters splashing like
Niagara into the
basin

We no longer use
washboards to beat
our husbands' overalls
on

Or go to the
polluted Ganges
to submerge our
families' clothing
as Brahma the Creator
looks on

In twenty minutes
my clothes will
be cleansed:
black diabetic socks
hankies made from
strips of old pajamas
and a Pennypack Park
Cleanup Day in the
spring, a brilliant
lime green

as my own Creator
laughs from on high.

=====
THE TOWN CENTER

The day is gloomsville
one of those when you feel
like hunkering down
under the covers
and watching Miranda
Osmonde Erbe
exercise with her
goodfellows

Needing some food
this Jewish mother
with no food in the
fridge, drives off
to the Giant.

In I go, the supermarket
lit up like a million
Hanukkah candles.
I sail past all the
things I cannot consume
Dr Pepper, Fanta soda-pop
a favorite of Jack's,
the shiny new juice
machine offering
OJ today.

There are my people,
angels in disguise.
Debbie the Fishmonger,
Jack the Produce Man,
Bonita the check-out
gal.
Where is Tyler the
Beermeister?

A day off. Kathy with
the long fingernails,
one painted with Santa,
is replaced today by
Kayla, who pours me
a hot Eggnog Coffee
- new! delicious! -

Mondays' coffees are
only 99 cents all sizes.

Special edition! wails
Time magazine. And there
he is on the front. The
president-elect. I thumb
through and see a color
photo of a beauty pageant.

As kids we would play
Miss America and dress up
in Mom's clothes.

Sipping my coffee as I
leave the store, I look
up to the heavens and
wave a quick thanks.

My 71st birthday - Lovely cards - Peppermint Mocha from Starbucks - Scott's Gifts - Poem: Christmas Morning 2016

Thanks for remembering me, Moe, Terry and Nick Pointer. Great people from Glenside PA. Terry was born in Uruguay.

 Dave Deming from Houston, TX.

Pat and Ian Kiernan on the High Hill cattycorner from me.

Carly and Charlie Brown sent this tiny adorable card along with a a What-we're-up-to Note that was quite interesting. Charlie is helping kids learn to read in Inner-City Schools.

Dragged my exhausted self from bed at 10 and made my peppered omelet.

Why I was up so late. Watched the film Boyhood, over three hrs long. At first I didn't like it, but was desperate to watch something after finishing A O, the great and mysterious.

The film captured modern-day individuals and how they communicate or don't. Their body language, numbness, enthusiasm or lack thereof.

Outstanding were Ethan Hawke, Eller Coltrane and Patricia Arquette, as the single mom who finally triumphed at the end.



Scott came over early and said he could NOT get on Netflix cuz "everyone" was watching.

So he watched a history documentary on YouTube.

He's leaving for work tonite at 7:05 pm so I've gotta go over and pay attention to him. Maybe we can go for a walk. It's about 47 degrees outside.

 Stopped off at the Demings to give MomMon a poinsettia from Kremp Florist, half price. Drew himself got me two gorgeous plants, half off.

Since the party was cancelled, I dropped it off and Max waited on his chair to say goodbye to Bubby. I have four Little Golden Books I bot for them at the Giant.

 Ada gave me this lovely leopard-print sweater from Chico's. Here I am at the Huntingdon Valley Starbucks wearing the sweater after ordering the Peppermint Mocha Coffee with my $5 gift card from Jade's baby shower.

Emily and Nick remembered my sister. I posted this on FB. It's important to make people happy.

In the car I'm on the 14th and last disc of The Lilac Girls.

We're now in Berlin and gonna confront a female doctor from Ravensbruck concentration camp who performed terrible experiments on the legs of Polish women. It's quite exciting.

 Ya know what I've done? When I finished my Starbux coffee, there was a thin residue of chocolate on the bottom. I filled up the cup with boiling water.

Almost done. Almost done.

 Told Scott I wanted to read short stories by John O'Hara. It was the last copy at B & N.

Plus a $25 gift card from the one and only.

We're gonna walk at the Pennypack now.

Didn't write a FB poem, so lemme try one now.



CHRISTMAS MORNING 2016

Eyes still closed
I awake and imagine
we're all together
again.

I can feel the energetic
vibe of Daddy, the presents
are wrapped and sit before
the mantel on Marlindale Road

Is this the day I get Hoppy,
my stuffed rabbit or perhaps
the little stove with the
creaking white door that
opens and closes.

I refuse to thank Mom,
we're in a power struggle
but when she brings it
out the following
week, I smile and thank
her, thinking of all the
foods I will bake.

Gramma Lily's kuchen and
cinnamon buns, sweet and
sour lentil soup

Many of us have died. But
look at me! Still here.
Daughter, Mother, Bubby,
alive and performing
in my yellow house on
Cowbell Road.

***

Just got home from a Walk in the Pennypack.

Added some grasses to my collection on the kitchen window sill.

Suicide Loss, Helen's Daytime Group - Poem: Drinking Tangerine Juice in the Willow Grove Giant Parking Lot

Tony Salvatore of MCES was shocked when his son Paul took his own life many years ago. He recently revised his Suicide Loss Pamphlet, which you can read here.

It's very good. Will send it to some family members and friends of the late Ron Abrams, plus others. My brother David, who had autism, took his own life at age 29.

When I told that to Tony, he said "I'm sorry for your loss" and sent me an academic paper he and others wrote about the high incidence of suicide among autistic folk, esp. men. Scroll down for more info about David Richard Greenwold.

The late Ron Abrams is below. Tony said Ron falls into the largest category of those who have taken their own lives.... white males between certain ages. It's called Elder Suicide.


 Every holiday season Scott affixes this huge cloth poster to his Dining Room Wall.

It's from the Humane Association.

Stopped in to see Helen Kirschner and Friends at the Daytime Meeting. Asked Jonathan who'd worked at Starburst or Starline or Starry Night - forget the name - what the best coffee was. He answered tersely "Medium Roast."

Just finished eating this delicious spaghetti which takes 7 mins to make. Saute mushrooms while boiling whole wheat spag, thin, then add some Classico spaghetti sauce, into a saucepan. When spagh boils, drain it into a tea mug and your tea will have extra.... what? Flavor? Nutrients? Body?

$3 bottle of Tangerine Juice. When Scott came over I told him about it, knowing that even tho he went shopping today he had not seen the machine.

Tunnel vision. 

DRINKING TANGERINE JUICE IN THE
GIANT PARKING LOT

They were polishing the
shiny machine. Juice is
my favorite food. Mom
made juice drinks when
Dad was dying,
thinking the enzymes
would drown out
the tumors.

As I unloaded the groceries
into the back seat, I grabbed
the small plastic bottle
shimmering with radiant
juice.

Why wait? I thought,
taking a few delicious
sips. A woman was driving
by, her seat belt made her
look like a drum majorette,
while a hawk soared through
the sky, keen on finding
an afternoon snack.

The moment I get home
The phone jingles with
merriment. The day
has begun and Santa
is on his way.

Am saving some of these pix for the Compass.

Card from Nancy W from Columbus, Ohio. She hit the nail on the head when she said I don't know how we got old so fast. She's a year behind my 71-year-old behind.

The blue Chanukah card of a dreidl was made for me by Teresa B. Just got it today.

I sent Tony this photo with the following caption, then ended my email by saying Aren't you glad we started corresponding again?

Am gonna tell you the details of my windowsill, much of it in memoriam to those who have passed.

Winnie's philodendron is doing well. She died in hospice at her sister Tony's house in Glenside PA.

My brother David's ceramic bird house. I added a calendar pic of an owl which you cannot see. Mom gave him art lessons and piano lessons.

See the stork and baby stork? Ralph Nelms gave it to me when he was dying of Alzheimer's. I'd written a story about him for the Inquirer after I saw an Upper Moreland library display case of his work. This is at the old library with the turnstiles the kids loved to play on.

Stop that! yelled the librarian.