Winnie, I'll try again Weds - A couple of poems - A couple of doggies - I Think of You with Every Bite - The One and Only (Winnie)

  Scott routed me to see my friend Winnie, who's staying at her sister's in Glenside. She's in hospice.

Who knew there were two Linden Avenues in Glenside?

Good thing I'd gotten gas - 40-cents off at the Giant - this morning as I drove around and around. The Linden Avenue I visited did not have her sister's number, say, 340 or whatever it was.

Up and down the streets I went, finally ending up on a DIRT ROAD, my car bouncing along like a golf cart about to tip over.

In fact, there WAS a golf course nearby.


















Manufacturer's Golf & Country Club.

I'm very attracted to country clubs b/c as a Penniless Dogooder I could never get in.

One man on my journey to find Winnie was riding a John Deere Tractor. He scratched his head and thought.

Why don't you ask the mailman, he said.

Great idea, I said, and drove down the street looking for him.

Saw the mailtruck at a Baptist church. Every door was locked tight, even tho I rang a bell.

Somehow I limped home. Yes, that's how exhausted I felt.

BTW, I'm a member of Compassion and Choices - Dying with Dignity.  Became a member when lithium ruined my kidneys and before Sarah donated her kidney.

I'm glad for the rain today cuz I have some bird poop on my car. You've gotta get rid of it immediately or the acids in it will dig into your car.

When I had my car inspected thother day at Tom Sawyer, I asked em if they had a vacuum so they could scoop up the Bug Museum from my back window.

No more bugs!

I got a whole host of wonderful poems rejected by half a dozen mags. One of em was printed. The Crane Fly.

Finally got my short story The Boys of Saint Regina's published. Read it here!

     Got the idea for the name from this sign I pass. The name is Regina Coeli, pronounced CELLI.

Father Luke was loosely based on my late friend, Luke.



My story is reminiscent of the great Catholic writer J F Powers.

I'd read his books as a teenager.

Was fooling around on my laptop when I looked over at my clock.

4:15 pm

Suddenly I remembered - Happy Hour at the DQ.

For $1 you get

A cuppa coffee with cream. I shoulda told her no cream.

Here's my second doggie, warming up in the pilot-lit oven.

My first was the sauerkraut onion mustard relish one.

Dana told me the chili dog w cheese is her fave. They use Strohman Rolls and I forget the kind of doggies.

In the car I injected 12 units and my sugar isn't that high - 184.

Packed my car to visit Winnie. Wrote her a poem. Packed my fave pretzels.

And also a lemon-colored box of tissues I bought this morning at the Giant.

As you know, when I go on Facebook, I like to write a poem. So here's what I wrote, with the accompanying foto.

 Lunch salad.

New, easy-to-spot label of unsalted peanuts.

I THINK OF YOU WITH EVERY BITE

The strawberries with the seeds
on the outside make me think
of you, Walter, an old man
who's disappeared from sight

The blue berries make me think
of Mom, with her blueberry bush
she lets the birds eat

The flavorful greenish olive oil from
California makes me think of my
friend Marcy in the Golden State

And when I have spooned up every
last bite, I think of where I am
headed this afternoon. My friend
is dying in hospice at her sister's
house in Glenside. A wise woman,
she knows who's got control of
her body now. Sadly, it's not her.

***

THE ONE AND ONLY

There are so many Winnies
we've got Winnie the Pooh
Queen Winifred of Kent
and Winnie Shaw, the Scottish tennis player

I know only one
the greatest of

them all

Who's that lovely blonde
in Village Green
with the darling
red-headed daughter
Dawn?

Lifetime friends
from Building H
pound pound pound
up the steps

To Building J
remember old Jerry
the maintenance man
who did us favors?

Your beautiful furniture
traveled to Moreland Towers
I'll never forget our first
visit, then we drove to my
Mom’s, who loves you so,
and sends her best.

And now I arrive for your
final rest. You're a wise
woman Winnie Bannigan, who
knows what she wants. I
applaud you.

The green and white philo-
dendron you gave me smiles
at me in the morning light.

What a fine legacy you’ve left.