AN APPT WITH THE EYE DOCTOR - LILAC POEM

 She was physically beautiful, the daughter of Dr Armstrong, and told me how to get rid of my crusty pus-filled stye - or BLEPHARITIS - and I must adhere to directions and do it every day.

Went upstairs and soaked a compress - or washcloth- in hot water from the new shower faucets. 

I did this five or six times and liked the way it felt.

The I came downstairs and applied OPTASE eyelid cleansing wipes on both eyelids and inside my eyes.

There is a video you can watch. Here is the URL.

www.aao.org

Fingers crossed it works!

Hold on, I've gotta blow my schnzozz now.

HONK HONK HONK !

Can you hear Kalie barking across the street?

...

Ellen is helping me out with my diabetes. She buys crackers. 

I tasted one of them.

"Ellen," I said. "It doesn't even taste like food!"

She is going to call our relatives Marilyn and Stuart who still live in Cleveland. A joke accompanies Marilyn, which I will forego telling.

...

I showed Ellen where a lilac bush is growing in my back yard. It is doing very well. There is also one in the front yard. Both are from Galbally Nursery on Davisville Road.

THE LILAC TREE REACHES FOR THE STARS

She is now taller than I am

Buds be yellow 

like tasty dumplings

my mother in law would make

with Pioneer Biscuit Mix

the singing of the birds

the pounding of the woodpecker

on the chimney next door

will complete the metamorphosis

not into a grasshopper by Kafka

but into a Grecian beauty of all time

O lilac, o lilac, wilt thou be mine!

Did I tell you I spoke to my friend Harriet Rellis in Florida?

She and husband Steve vacation there in a lovely town house for the older folk.

Told her it was hot up here - 71 now - and I was wearing a blouse she gave me - looks Picasso-esque and a pair of shorts of mine own.

Since I am losing weight these grey shorts are not snug, nor smug, for that matter. Or, truth be told, as Celeste Ng would write in Setting Little Fires.

Earlier today neighbor Sue was in front of my house with Sydney, a very shy sheep dog.

Before her they had WESLEY. I wrote several poems about Wesley. What an intriguing name. 

Mysterious phone call - solved - Poem JEFFERSON HEALTH published in Mad Swirl

 For nearly a week I received phone calls I knew were important but did not know why.

Today I found out.

I will receive in the mail, as ordered by Dr Jeffrey Berman, a kit to cure my HEP C. It is 98 percent effective.

My co-pay will be 0 as I haven't much money. 

It will arrive next TUESDAY and I can use it as soon as it arrives. Monica apprised me of all this earlier today. I will have my own aide to help me. Lindsey is her name.

...

JEFFERSON HEALTH

by Ruth Z. Deming on March 16, 2022 :: 0 comments

This is a mammoth hospital round these parts.
For days I receive their emails. “We have
processed your test results. Open patient portal.”
I can open a jar of peanut butter but patient portal?
Passwords are not my thang. I may end up dead.
Remember that my boyfriend gets the purple pitcher
shaped like an eggplant. I shall miss you, darling,
for want of a password.

editors note:

Peanut butter, we can pass. Even we will pass. But, please, not another word. – mh clay

R I P PATRICK HEAP - Poem at end

RIP  Patrick Heap. Our family knew so many people when we had our original Now & Then Shop in New Hope, PA. 

Patrick B. Heap Frenchtown resident, campaign volunteer, served in the National Guard and Civil Air Patrol Patrick B. Heap, 60, of Frenchtown, N.J., died Friday, May 25, 2018, at Morristown Medical Center, Morristown, N.J. 

He passed peacefully in his sleep post-surgery with hospital clergy present with him. 

Born in Baton Rouge, La., April 8, 1958, he was the son of Dr. Norman A. Heap and Lynette Deming Johnson. 

Patrick attended New Hope Solebury High School and graduated from Hunterdon Central High School. Patrick served in the United States National Guard and served in the Civil Air Patrol. He had an avid love of music and could often be seen with ear buds listening to his favorite recordings. 

Patrick was very interested in politics and was an ever-willing campaign volunteer for local, state, and national elections. 

Surviving, in addition to his parents, are one brother, George Heap of Nazareth, Pa.; two sisters, Grace Johnson Jaramillo of Simsbury, Conn., and Rebecca Johnson of Coventry, Vt., and his nephews and niece, Sebastian Jaramillo, Aaron, Phoebe and Nicolas DeLaBruere; also surviving are his close friends, Dino and Debbie Orginos. Funeral Services officiated by Rev. Courtney B. Cromie will be held Friday, June 1, 2018, at 10 a.m. in the Holcombe-Fisher Funeral Home, 147 Main Street, Flemington, N.J. 

REMARKABLE YOU, in memory of Patrick Heap

We know not why but your brain was scrambled

You tried everything, Patrick,

You remarkable man

Give it no thought, you said to yourself

I am good as any other.

And you were Dear Man,

We praise you to the High Heavens

Where surely you dwell next to your Lord.

A Late Lunch - and No Pea Pod yet

For lunch I had a scrumptious salad from SALADWORKS.

Thank you Ellen.

AND I ate every bite of it.

MY salad had red peppers, cukes, swiss cheese and smoked turkey.

I was upstairs reading under the covers to keep warm when I realized, I bet I am low.

79, not bad, 80 is the bottom limit.

And what you may ask am I reading?

I still have a long way to go and can't possibly imagine what will happen.

We have just come from one of Stacie's famous parties. 

Warrensville Road, Higbee's Dept Store, Parkland Mall - way out there.

Pure delight. I must do my best tho to keep all the characters straight.

Serena Wong, Moody, Lexie and of course Mrs. Richardson.

PEAPOD has not yet arrived. We save money by having it delivered between three odd hours.

Anything good in there? asked Ellen.

Small cans of V-8 I said. Well, not exactly small. The size of a Diet Coke which everyone drinks in Small Fires. 

OH, my Letter to the Editor was published in today's TIMES CHRONICLE.  Will print it out later.

The low sodium sucks. But this... this.... this is spectacular !!!

Walking at Twilight

 

It's a long way from Ukraine beneath this Holiday Moon 

The avaricious cruel despot is feared and despised 

He spends hours, they say, watching how he comes across on television.

He likes his body language.

...

Is my stomach grumbling from the TV dinner I just finished.

Enjoyable, those long snaky noodles and broccoli 

As usual, an uncooked noodle nearly broke a tooth

Pain, but I remembered, I will go out to walk.

...

A siren rings out.

The dogs bark.

Sensitivity incarnate.

Tempting, tempting. 

...

There is a term to describe the bird bath in my downstairs bathroom

 Yes. Joanne Isaac is still around.

All my bathrooms contain artwork. The downstairs has a silhouette of a bird bath which had fallen off the wall so I taped it back up.

Scherenschnitte (German pronunciation: [ˈʃeːʁənˌʃnɪtə]), which means "scissor cuts" in German, is the art of paper cutting design. The artwork often has rotational symmetry within the design, and common forms include silhouettes, valentines, and love letters. The art tradition was founded in Switzerland and Germany in the 16th century and was brought to Colonial America in the 18th century by Swiss and German immigrants who settled primarily in Pennsylvania.

I would love to write and tell her but it is very complicated.

Just got home from a walk down Cowbell Road. Folks must be doing their spring cleaning as the yellow plastic bins were overflowing.

AND folks were buying so much. How Americans love to shop to divert themselves from the existential questions of life, right, Fabian Ulitsky, who died on the operating table.

He and his wife had moved into an assisted living facility.

Two timers are going here in my living room so I will hear when my frozen dinner is ready. 

Am making good progress in the Celeste Ng book that takes place in Shaker Heights Ohio. My sister Donna, who I thought would love it, did not!

After I eat my Thai dinner I shall return and write some poetry.

Hold me accountable, or else!

Photos please! Contents of Mom's house end up in my basement - aka Family Room

Ellen hired a moving truck to bring her things over from Gantt Drive, Huntingdon Valley. 

For many years we owned the renowned NOW AND THEN SHOP. That is where I met my husband Millard Grove Deming. My dad first called him MillARD. 

Whatever you do, Ellen, do not bring Aunt Ethel's couch.

Here it is.

Sculptured bottom of couch. They don't make em like they used to, though my two red couches from Gamburg's are quite nice. I call them my living room desks.

It's a shame, I said to Ellen, you can't bring the B Altman desk here. There it is with a gorgeous lamp. Mom had such great taste.

From Guy Cooper.

Akuba bushes that stay green in the drab winter, bought at Galbally Nursery on Davisville Road.

Go quickly, before people 'wise up' and see you.

A toilet can indeed be a thing of beauty, right Michaelangel?

The vanilla is all dried up but preserved on my blog.

Shawn bought this Ford van from a friend of his. Next day someone stole the catalytic converter out of it. Shawn and his friend Bill both knew my mom, Bernice. 

They are headed to Florida now. 

Dyou like my painted on designs?