Did I actually make a new friend today? Poem: Driving home in the foggy night - Letter to my Sister Donna (about Crown series about Queen Elizabeth II)

Okay, Ruth Deming reporting from her upstairs computer, the computer where you cannot delete a thing!

Did I tell you the guy at Classic Computers yells at me when he tells me how to fix the problem? Scott will have to get on the phone with him.

Remind me on Monday.

Scott just left for work in this chilly weather.

When I left his house one of my favorite films - which he dislikes very much - 2001 A Space Odyssey was on.

HAL was just 'losing it.'

Scott and I watched a very good film - Mr Church with Eddie Murphy.  

Well, Scott slept thru much of it.

Roger Ebert gives it a terrible review saying... Sep 16, 2016 - The Academy loves its servile Black people, and “Mr. Church” is directed by Bruce Beresford, who seems to be addicted to this kind of character ...


As far as I could tell, there was absy no prejudice in the film against black people.

So, I was to meet my friend "Denise" at the Barnes and Noble Cafe and buy her a cuppa whatever as I have a $5 gift certificate.

She went to a real Starbucks so was a few minutes late.

I got my own tall coffee, which I'm sipping on right now - I added some olive oil and put it in a coffee mug with an inch of wild berry tea.

Delish!

B & N  doesn't accept Starbucks coupons b/c this is not a Starbucks. It's a B and N. Fershtay? 

While waiting, I asked a woman what time it was.

2:05. Then I asked her what she was reading.

She showed me a book by Thomas Kinkade and said he died recently of an OD of Valium and alcohol. View story here.

By now, a fresh pot of coffee had been brewed and the barista brought it over to me. I asked Adeline if I could sit down w her. She said she would continue to read her book and I said fine.

The woman I was waiting for, I said, was blond.

She was not. Curly dark hair.

I just called Adeline now and told her not to forget about me. She lives in the area and we'll get together again some time at Starbucks. She does not drink coffee. She comes alive in the morning by drinking tea. I said I don't drink coffee reg'ly as I don't wanna get addicted.

  Bought Mom four Godiva bars. Had them wrapped as it was Upper Moreland Library Wrapping Day, and then drove over to give em to her. She's still in a lotta pain from her fall. An ambulance drove her to the Abington ER about 1 in the am thother night. Tremendous pain that neither Vikodan nor Perkies really help.

She's good though. Her mind is just fine. When I told her about Adeline she said she went to Sunday School with Adeline Rasher.

"Wonder where she is now," said Mom. "I can guess."

She died in 2011. Am gonna call Mom now to tell her. 

Mom: Defending champ of longevity.

Scuse me while I sip on my coffee.

Finished up my story for the Intell on New Year's Resolutions. Based many on the PBS Show A World Without Cancer with radiologist Elizabeth I Cuomo, of the famous Cuomo family. 



Lest you think all I do is watch movies, you're correct.

Immensely enjoyed this tearjerker. Let's see what Roger Ebert says about it. Chaz, his widow, has someone write about the film.  Read it.

In fact, I'm gonna read it when I dismount from this blog.

Also, in the car I was listening to NORA WEBSTER by Colm Toivin.



Our Book Group meets the First Thursday of the month.

I forgot to write it on the calendar so I missed it!!!

DRIVING HOME IN THE FOGGY NIGHT

After leaving the Italian restaurant
the world has gone foggy,
I strap on my seat belt
pat my belly filled with
cheese ravioli and enter
the whirl of traffic
like a Medieval jouster
bounding into the ring

After the balustrade of
lights, the road grows
dark, Christmas lights
sparkle surrounded
by mist

I climb up the hill
make the first right
while cars on side streets
wonder Should they
dash onto the main road?

I'm in the lead of this
parade of brightly
lit cars, thinking me
brave, a leader like
Pope Francis or
Johnny B Goode

Though I'm frightened
I relax, I know where
I'm going like a reader
who's just begun the book

If I must stop suddenly
for a deer prancing across
the road, we'll have a
12-car collision as shown
on Action News

I stop traffic as I put on
my blinker for a turn onto
Overlook, then chug up the
wet road, fallen leaves
stuck like bangles across
the road.

Two more turns and close to
home, open my window and
invite the mist inside
but shuck it off
as I enter my brightly
lit home.

***

LETTER TO MY SISTER DONNA

I finished watching the first
season of The Crown, ten episodes
of the family of Queen Elizabeth
the Second, a plain dresser, who
also loved horses, and watched,
the unromantic mounting of two
brown beauties, to produce a
new generation.

Conservative to the bone, The Queen
pissed off, most notably, her delectable
husband Philip - was I wrong to take
his side? - and her younger sister Margaret,
referred to in print as "The Tragic Younger Sister."

What I want, I emailed my sister, is a Fan Site
where we can exchange views and say, Did you
see what Anthony Eden did? or how could Lizzie
be so cruel? or did you see the outside of
that palace? It looked like the Cabrini-Green
Project in Chicago.

It's just a movie, of course. But the
minute I shut it off, all tension fled,
all worry vanished and I went upstairs
and fell asleep. Why then, can't I
stop thinking about it?

***

SHE

Last night, Turner
Classic Films presented
"She Who Must Be Obeyed."

I sat upright in bed
and stared.

Ayeesha, a beauty in
golden headdress, was the woman
of might who ruled her
kingdom like an Afghan
warlord.

Did I care? I was
far far away. Or was I?

Suddenly I became a
child again, back in Cleveland,
reading the book by
H Ryder Haggard,living
in a fantasy world

No longer possible since
I'm all growed up.
The relief of childhood!
To be loved, taken care of
and never know the worries

***