The Eclipse - The Projection Method using a large box of Oatmeal - Poem: Gathering Forces

 See the moon below projected onto the cardboard?

I wrote a dandy poem about it. Lemme see if I can find it.

GATHERING FORCES

The machinery on high
looks down at the earthlings
they're on the road again
in the sunny U S A
A few are joggin,
most have taken to their
vehicles, Ford pick-ups,
Toyota Raves with dogs
barking out the back windows,
and how bout that
three-wheeled red motorcycle!

"Hun, did you check the oil?"

"Got enough blankets just in case?"

"What if the baby comes when we're
outside Portland?"

Even folks in nursing homes feel
the pull, the excitement, the thrill
Jest let me live till the sky darkens
says ole Granny in her terrycloth
robe.

Great fried chicken, Fontaine,
say the folks in her new gold Lexus
whose shocks protect them from
trash the thoughtless have
tossed from their windows.

Fontaine wipes her mouth and
says, "Extra napkins in the glove,
Dunkin Donuts this time."

"You're the best, Mama!" says
daughter LeVonne. They've finally
made up after years of squabbling.
The bipolar didn't help none.

The shadows begin to fall
at different times
a hush falls over America
bathed in a new amaze, a new
belief that Yes, let's try again,
I'll make something of myself this time,
I'll give up drugs, be nicer to my
sister, listen to more Joshua Redmund
on tenor sax, obey the 10 commandments,
or most of em anyway.

And then each one is left in their own
thoughts, many wondering, Will the
darkness last forever?

Outside the rest stop in South Carolina
the doctor and his wife sit atop a
picnic table and stare at the sky.
Each has a pair of special glasses
that shield their eyes.

"Reminds me, Dear, of when we watched
'The Fly' back home at the
drive-in with the 3-D glasses."

"Help me! Help me!"

"All's I can say," said the doctor
"is that we drove - what? - 8 hours
exhausted, arguing, heads out
the window to stay awake to
see a golden chalice in the sky that
comes once every 17 years. Was it
worth it?"

"Damn straight," they cried in unison.

Suggestions for folks with serious mental illnesses - Poem: Lie Back and Relax

Fran Hazam sent out an email from SAMSHA. They want suggestions for those of us with serious mental illnesses.

Here's what I wrote, after going on a 20 minute walk around the block.

I should have mentioned that New Directions serves as a model support group. Also, that exercise is essential to lift the mood, create new neurons in the brain and help avoid dementia later in life. 

Submitted on 8-24-17 at 10:34 am.

Dear Ms. Foote -

I'm the founder/director of the premiere support group in the Philadelphia area called New Directions. View www.newdirectionssupport.org. We serve three groups of people: Those with bipolar, depression, and a loved ones group.

I am also a psychotherapist in private practice.

View a talk I recently gave.

http://ruthzdeming.blogspot.com/2010/04/newly-diagnosed-with-bipolar-or.html

Everyone diagnosed with a serious mental illness - OCD, bipolar, depression, schizophrenia, etc - should take free classes on how to deal with their illness. Insurance companies should pay for these classes. Hospitalizations will be decreased. Marital counseling is also a must. The divorce rate is extremely high.

1 - A person must know his or her diagnosis. Believe it or not, most people do not!

Through my support group I hear all sorts of comments about other therapists.

"They don't speak to me as an equal."

"They say mean things and put me down."

"They do not believe me."

I kid you not, Ms. Foote.

2 - Encourage friendships. People are often lonely and isolated. Our support group is the perfect place to make friends and not feel stressed about who they are.

3 - Ask what hobbies people have and encourage them to pursue their hobbies. Life is MORE THAN just having an illness.

4 - Once a year New Directions hosts a bonfire at a local park. We get a good turnout. Everyone brings their favorite food. We play music and sing by the fire. View http://ruthzdeming.blogspot.com/2013/10/bonfire-sat-nite-oct-19-2013-great.html

5 - We also host an Arts Fest. People have many talents - singers, dancers, visual artists. View http://ruthzdeming.blogspot.com/2016/05/second-annual-arts-fest-great-performers.html

6 - Have a list of resources, such as places to go to for drug addiction, top psychiatrists and psychotherapists, volunteer agencies.

7 - Live a life of meaning. In our group, all individuals are encouraged to get volunteer jobs if they are unable to work.

8 - We host The Beehive, a writing group held at an individual's home. We've put out The Icing on the Cake - a poetry journal - and are working on another. View http://ruthzdeming.blogspot.com/2011/02/our-coffeeshop-writers-group-power.html

Thanks for listening to my suggestions, Ms. Foote.

Ruth Z Deming, MGPGP

Founder/Director

New Directions - now in our 33rd year

www.newdirectionssupport.org

Home phone - 215 659 2142 


LIE BACK AND RELAX

You might think I'm on the massage table
covered by a white sheet with the sound
of Japanese music playing in the distance

But, no. I am at the eye doctor's, the
gentle Doctor George. My pink toenails
peek from my sandals, as the doctor
dims the light and says, Put your
chin here.

A delightful indentention fits my chin
exactly. Look straight ahead, he says,
as Stacey records his findings.

I just like being in his presence.
I stall, thinking of ways not to leave,
not to go back to the waiting room
with its smell of Folger's coffee
and the gulp-sound of the water cooler.

Doctor George, I say, as the light
goes on, gradually as the morning
sun through my drapes at home.

Tell me some new findings in the
world of ophlamology. This may be
the first time I've ever pronounced
that long word.

They're doing a lot of research in
the field of macular degeneration,
he says. Getting closer to understanding
it and finding a cure.

I smile. My aunt is 99 and has the disease.
Instead of reading, she listens to audio
books, I say.

Good thing we have them, he says, handing
me my backpack and walking me to the door.

In the car, I turn on Gary Paulsen's
Hatchet about a young boy lost in
the wilderness.

Am I practicing what to do if I go
blind from glaucoma? I am a suspect
as he calls it.

Certainly not. The maple leaves
flutter down as I drive triumphant
down my street.

Activate Microsoft, she cried in the wilderness - Poem: He Sees Everything

Max, 4, at Ocean City, N J.

Am trying to get up my nerve now to call Staples b/c my new Word package has not yet been activated.

Am typing on my laptop dans le living but will go upstairs now and call.

Wait a sec, she said, trembling.

Ate at Mom and Ellen's for lunch. I brought my Nature's Promise hot dogs. Lynn brought Hormel baked beans.

And, yes, there was dessert.

Breyer's coffee ice cream with frozen blubberies.

You will not have seconds, Ruthie, I told myself.

 This yellow squash is about 10 inches long. Put it in my slow cooker. It is now done. Pierced thru the center.

 Plucked it from the front lawn before it could be et.

 At my feet are tiny solar lights I bought at the Depot. 6 for $18. Most of my old ones flared out like the sun will do in FIVE BILLION YEARS.

Do you think I have time to get my nails done?  Toes, that is. Try a pedicure some time. Feels great.

Scott did research for his new upstairs baffroom. And found everything he needs.

 Ma... MA....MOM!  Hard of hearing. Lynn bought her this lovely gray shirt.

 After one bite - on Dave's Killer Bread - the entire thing collapsed like The Bridge at San Luis Rey.

Lynn showed us pix of Baby Girl on her iPhone.

Verbena outside Mom's house, swarming w  cecropia moths.

HE SEES EVERYTHING

And the Lord God cried out
who's mucking up Planet Earth
I created in only six days
with tiny creatures for your
pleasure like the honey bee
streaming in and out of their
hives over on Terwood Road
and everybody's favorites
the baleen whales.
They never need dental floss
as humans do.

Insanity, thy name is
DJT. What's needed now
is leadership in these
United States, not a
crass Shakespearean actor
who makes up his lines
as he goes along.

The good people of America
have banded together in
cities across the land.
In the name of righteousness,
freedom for all, these
helpers take the upper hand
to make America proud again and
to this you can say Amen.

New short story Our Libby - Removing statues - Poem: Eliza from my Lips

The Times had an excellent story about the racist Robert E Lee. Read it here.

I knew I must poetate upon it. Took about 45 minutes.

I do think it's quite good. 

ELIZA FROM MY LIPS

Oh, he was a big man
our master Robert E Lee
clanking about my kitchen
with his endless questions
When are those cinnamon buns
gonna be done, he'd say, or
even Do you think if you
were ever freed you could
learn to speak the King's
English or do mathematics?

I never looked him full in
the face cept when that
big white head of his
was turned away

Oh, he loved to
deliver lashes
to his slaves
lashes, mind you,
whippings

When the war was over
he refused to free us
as they call it, free us
like we were yoked oxen

We ran away and that man
with the clanking sword
never knew that Eliza
could read and write
and that in my flowery
dress I kept a recipe book
I had carefully printed out
with ham bone soup and
corn fritters and my
sticky cinnamon buns
that became the
rage of the tethered-
together nation.

***

Full house at Beatriz's this afternoon. Excellent work, as always. Beatriz had enough energy to write about her homeland of Argentina and her stubborn little sister, Raquel, a brilliant child. Sadly she was killed by a drunk driver so her talents were never fully realized.

Rem continued with his radio show where Randy interviews fascinating individuals. Today we heard from Vladimir Putin, who admitted on the radio show, that he was a godlike figure, perhaps Apollo, and also an alien from outer space.

Judy led a discussion on the new unhappiness and anger of people since President Trump refused to wholeheartedly condemn white supremacist racists in Charlottesville, VA. She also read a zenlike piece which both Beatriz and I thought was "special" and very different. She pooh-poohed our thoughts, Winnie.

Just went on The Times where a former racist and white supremacist voiced his opinion of the Virginia rally. His godfather is David Duke. Read it here.






So you see, Virginia, some people can change.

Can my bad dreams be blamed on the upheaval our country is undergoing?

Let me continue. Ken Ivins - no relation to the spicy iced cookie that comes out near Halloween - wrote part two of a very unusual relationship. The chauffeur gets close - let's say intimate - to the insanely rich widow he drives around.

Awfully good. He wanted to see what it was like to be wealthy so he inhabited that situation, living in splendor and wearing Armani suits and other expensive clothes. He inherited from the dying Amanda - she had a heart condition that was killing her - an emerald necklace and earrings - so her estranged children would not get them.



Three spectacular poems by Linda Barrett, including one for David Kime whose apartment burned down.

Marf wrote about Ash and Odin - father and son from Norway - and Miss Rosamunde. She did lots of research to find out what it's like sailing in a yacht. A yacht doesn't have to be one of those huge Steven Spielberg yachts, but can be any motorboat.

Wiki - In modern use of the term, yachts differ from working ships mainly by their leisure purpose. There are two different classes of yachts: sailing and power boats. With the rise of the steamboat and other types of powerboat, sailing vessels in general came to be perceived as luxury, or recreational vessels. Later the term came to encompass large motor boats for primarily private pleasure purposes as well.

What about

     My frustration is boundless! For about $750 I bought a new HP desk top computer. You must REGISTER your Microsoft package.

Grrrrrrrrr!

Enough said othan it's not registered.

Our family has a friend named Libby who suffered a rather serious stroke. I wanted to write about it. We all grew up together in "fashionable Shaker Heights, Ohio," sez I in my story, which contains many true details.

My sister Lynn had been her special friend back then. I emailed Lynn at 7 am about details about Libby. She called me and we talked.

Five hours later - including a 20-minute nap - I presented Our Libby to our writing group.

Brava! they shouted to a man and lifted me up, opened up B's patio door, and threw me out on my fat ass.

Tonight I dined in elegance - but w/o candles - in the Willow Grove Giant beer garden. Ate lobster bisque and chicken salad on a croissant. Cold. Heat it in the microwave. I ate it cold. Very good!

Lemme tell you something pathetic. I could not remember the word "croissant." Kept thinking the word began with "p."

Just heard from my number one reviewer, sister Lynn, who really liked the Libby story including the surprise ending. I knew Libby, who overcame her stroke, was gonna die, but I didn't know how until I came to the right place in the story.

Anything else, Dear Reader?

In that case, I bid you a wonderful night, as we close in on the Total Solar Eclipse this Monday.


 

Whew! Becky of Staples to the Rescue - Poems: Trixie Belden, the Red Trailer Mystery - My New Shark Cordless Vac - -

Before the deluge, I brought my downstairs laptop to the Willow Grove Staples.

Luckily it's only 10 minutes away.

Not a raindrop fell as my sturdy steed and I pranced over.

Becky is a wiz. She was helping other people so I was there about an hour. Spent time reading my new Trixie Belden book.

What I wanted was for her to find the Blogger Dashboard so I could continue blogging.

She has enormous confidence. I also told her it's a pleasure to work with her b/c she's always in a good mood.

Where did I get the Trixie Belden book? Read on.

Went to the Giant and got five plastic containers of salads. Brought em to Mom and Ellen's.

Mom and I stuffed ourselves. Ellen had brought her own food.

What a pleasure it is eating with Mom!

My friend Dorothy wrote a poetry book and sent it to me. Received it this morning.

Told Mom and Ellen I would read the whole thing after I ate.

Ellen joked it would take her a year to finish it.

It was very well done. I have to shout when I'm with Mom. She'll get hearing aids very soon from Costco.

One of the many things we talked about were toilets.

I said, All I've gotta do is go on my blog and I'll find Bob Frisch putting in my new toilet.

View it here.

I still don't like it. Old people are sposed to like sitting on a high toilet. Not me. Gimme a low-down toilet any time or a pit in the back yard.

After leaving Mom's, I started driving home and stopped at Masons Mill Park. Used to take my kids there when they were little and I also played Volleyball there every Sunday.

Randy Johnson where are you now!

To walk off my food, I quickly walked about 20 minutes. They have these little exercise pods and I exercised on every single one of em.

For example, they had a slanting bar. I simply bent down, this ole body of mine, and went under the bar.

Great fun!!!

In Sarah's old bedroom, I had a pile of about 20 books. Put em all in plastic bags and brought em to the library.

Getting ready for Doomsday!

BTW, the Total Eclipse in Monday.

Here's what to do and I explained it to Mom and Ellen. There are dozens of science sites but here's one of em.

I asked George, one of the Meat Men, at the Giant what healthy hot dogs to eat. He recommmended Nature's Promise - oops - almost wrote Nature's Poison - uncured beef hot dogs. I dunno what uncured means, do you?

Every time I leave Blogger it takes forever to get back on here.

Rainbow above the trees.

Bill Adams came over and stood on the stoop.

Ruth, he said. I jumped like the frog of Calveras County.

Don't mean to scare you, he said, but there's a rainbow.

Look Max, Look Grace!  Rainbow.

Scuse me while I get anudder bowl of Trail Mix.

Actually I'm too lazy.

This one website is raving about the Total Solar Eclipse next Monday. 



TRIXIE BELDEN
THE RED TRAILER MYSTERY

Driving home from Mom and Ellen's
where we ate salads I brought
from Giant - such sweet
watermelon, honeydew,
strawberries and blueberries

I waved goodbye and drove
slowly so I could listen
to Hatchet by Gary Paulsen,
and stopped at Masons Mill Park
to walk off my food, hardly
anyone was there

A guy shooting hoops
Tiny tots in the playground
The heat oppressive as
in a Steam Bath in Romania

And then I saw it!
The FREE BOOK cabinet.
Be there! Be there!
I prayed.
And it was!
the Trixie Belden book.

Last time I refused to take it.
I'd read the Nancy Drews and
Raggedy Anns, but somehow
skipped ole Trixie.

She's come back again
to thrill a new generation.
How bout this for a
complicated first sentence:

"Trixie saw her father's car turn
into the driveway from Glen Road,
and she raced out of the back door
to stop him before he reached the garage."

If you're a writer like me, you redo
each and every sentence, making it
better, better, better, better!

Now get on with you. A storm, they
say, is coming. Hide, little
hummingbird, hide!

***
MY NEW SHARK CORDLESS DUST VAC

Smooth as a bottlenose dolphin
I hold it like a baby in my arms
A perfectly perfect purple
Accented by black
Wah Wah Wah!
It cries like a baby, louder
than a crow on my
outside wire, the
province of squirrels

The suction's amazing
It's sucked up three drafts
of poems, my Verizon bill,
dead leaves I've traipsed in
and if I'm not careful
it will suck me in too
like Jonah's whale.

Epilogue:
Wanted dead or alive.
Ruth Z Deming. We've sent
in the fine minds of Mandy
Patinkin and the gang from
Criminal Minds.


HAVE YOU MET MY NEW FRIEND?

We'll call her Charlotte
after E B White.

First met her when I got out
of the car at the Dunkin Donuts.

Holy cow! No, holy spider.
The noiseless patient spider
rolled through my brain
the way hunger pangs
rolled through my belly.

Indifferent to the
events of the world
my Charlotte continued
the job she was given
as I drove home
at thirty miles
an hour.

Please be there, I prayed,
taking a small sip of coffee,
as I got out of the car.

We don't know why she landed
on the back of my car, a deep
field of gray like the sparrow's
wing. The morning sun
lit her up, and there she
will stay until her
weaving is done.

***

I wanted to put Penelope of the Trojan War in the poem and how she fooled her suitors by unraveling a burial garment she was making for her husband Odysseus. Could not figure out how to do it.

It was raining heavily when I got back from Staples. In fact there was such a racket I actually thought the rain was coming thru my living room roof!

***

Now how can I remember how to get into Blogger.

Go to "Sign on" and click on the odd-looking thingee. First Microsoft will come up.

Microsoft the scourge of the world.

Always bossing us around and telling us what to do.

***
What are you doing tonight?

I'm reading two good books. Easy, Ruthie, easy.

Went into Sarah's old room, gathered up about 20 books that I wanted to read, look em all over, saved but one.... a large print of Michael Connelly's The Bronze Project, which is probly the name - and brought every single book over to the library.

Hurray for me!

How bout a nice short poem.

Earlier photos of a doe in the backyard.

LISTEN TO THE UNIVERSE SPEAKING

A quiet night
I've lived on this
sacred spot of ground
since 1989

A train whistles
in the distance
a moan of lamentation
for all the sadness
I've endured

The phone rings.
Mom thanking me for
the delicious salads
I brought over. I love
the sound of her voice.

Alone again with
the sounds of the
universe.
My breathing.
In and out.
In and out.

And the joy of
the cicadas. Their
optimistic mating call.
Ting, Ting, Ting.
Come to me,
Come soon,
Why wait?
Find me over here
in the necking zone
on the sycamore tree.

Outtakes - Or things that didn't fit - Two poems: Getting Ready for the Arts Fest and Missing without a Trace

Cynthia Marcolina paid me a great compliment: You're our Muse, she wrote me. Cyn had been a prolific poet. I was doing the Compass and wrote her, Send me some new poems.

She said she hadn't written any. I was shocked. She was working as a counselor on the night shift.

Then suddenly six weeks ago, she goes on a writing jag. Keeps sending me new and terrific poems.

 ***

When I finished blogging about the Arts Fest I went to bed and collapsed with fatigue.

My right arm was killing me. Hannah, the pharmacist, gave me a flu shot. Scott noticed it was covered over with a band-aid that read "Giant."

At first we were gonna do my left arm. Hannah noticed several black n blue marks on there. Why, she wanted to know.

Oh, I said, that's one of the places where I shoot up.

Are you allowed to do dat, she asked.

Allowed? Told her I do it in a fleshy place where it doesn't hurt.

When she first proposed I get my shot I thought, How can I do it on the same day as the Arts Fest? Seemed incongruous.

***

For the show, I was gonna do a monologue about the upcoming Total Solar Eclipse. This is when the moon covers the sun and casts a shadow on the earth. I typed it up and brought it but there wasn't time to do it.

I'll print it here plus two other poems I didn't have time for. You always bring more than you can do rather than less.

***

Did I tell you this upstairs computer is on its last legs? My friend Freda originally gave it to me.

***

EIGHT DAYS until the day of the eclipse.

Millions of Americans will witness the moon moving in between the Earth and the sun to create a total solar eclipse. This spectacular phenomenon occurs when the sun, the moon, and the Earth line up in a row, causing the moon to cast a shadow over the planet.

Although total solar eclipses occur every 18 months on average, this event marks the first total solar eclipse to occur in the continental U.S. since 1979.



1979.  What happened in 1979. I did a search and came up w moderately interesting things like:

January 26 – The Dukes of Hazzard debuts on CBS.

February 26

    A total solar eclipse, the last visible from the continental United States until 2017, arcs over northern coterminous USA and southeastern Canada ending in Greenland.

March 4 – The U.S. Voyager 1 spaceprobe photos reveal Jupiter's rings.
March 5 – Voyager 1 makes its closest approach to Jupiter at 172,000 miles.


June – McDonald's introduces the Happy Meal.


September 16 – Two families flee from East Germany by balloon.


The observing path will stretch from Salem, Oregon to Charleston, South Carolina. Observers outside this path will still see a partial solar eclipse where the moon covers part of the sun's disk.

GETTING READY FOR OUR ARTS FEST

Vacuum the living room,
Do back exercises, go outside
to say hello to the black-eyed
susans, listen to audio book
Selected Works of Roald Dahl
read by the author

Red Garland's on the radio
bee bop? Can I remove my
clogs and sail round
the room?

I can. And did.
Leslie Caron I'm not
dancing with Daddy
Long Legs, Fred Astaire.

Clipboard at the ready.
A regular Bob Fosse
Or back at Bristol-
Bensalem calling up
my clients into my office.

Did I tell you the place
is gone? Memories, tho.
Those iris in my backyard
from Wankel's Nursery.

I found the word "surrender"
on the side of my fridge.
Ed gave it to me. I fondled
it with the back of my
finger.

I surrender. Whoever will be
there today will be there.

 ***



WITHOUT A TRACE

My new favorite series I watch
until I'm goggle-eyed played
itself out this morning as
I returned my library materials

Left notes on the audio book
SHILOH: Two last discs have
so many scratches you can
hardly hear it!

WITHOUT A TRACE: Last three
discs are inaudible.

Then, leaving my car
by the door - the library
opens at one - I walked
around the block.

Tottering in my
brown clogs with
turquoise splats
from painting
the hubcaps in my front yard

I walked down Center Ave.
Nice houses with front
porches and chimes that
jangled in the breeze.

"You must remember
where you are," I said
to myself. "You've got
an occasion later today."

Wide-faced Anthony LaPaglia was
assigned to my case. Sarcastic
and vindictive, he joked to
a colleague about all the
Dairy Queen spoons on the
kitchen window sill.

What worries me, though,
is I am still missing.
Hurry, FBI agents, I have
an occasion this afternoon,
12:30 sharp.

Arts Fest - Part Two

 Donna Krause has experienced many losses. She wrote a poem about her daughter Mariel who died at 15 of meningitis. The audience was so moved they commented on the tragedy.  Donna has written many poems about her beloved daughter.

I mentioned that religion and a belief in the Afterlife was a comfort to so many people who were there. Another woman, Lorraine, had lost her 32-yo son to a heroin overdose.

"Rolling into Town on a Greyhound Bus," sang Vern. And "Come with me, come with me, Corn Maiden." He also read a poem about the death of a young man in the neighborhood Kenny Rankin. Shot to death. Told him at first I thought he was singing about Dave van Ronk, a great folk artist, who was the basis for one of the Coen Brothers films. 

 Fran Hazam drove out from her apartment in downtown in Philly. She lost her husband Denis about a year ago. I have the program from his funeral on my death shelf atop my living room desk. I can summon his mellifluous voice any time I want.

Fran is one of the greatest activists I've ever met. "Got rights?" reads her T-shirt. She's gonna retire in November from MHASP.

 I said I was happy to introduce people we'd never met before who would take the stage.

Bob McGlinski - this may be a repeat - read a very touching poem about his mother who had Alzheimer's for many years. She had been a nurse who suffered from bipolar. Great job, Bob. 

Below is Susan Miller who read an astoundingly good poem WHO AM I ?  She's been through a lot and wrote this poem a week ago.

She also sang! She belted out the Stylistics Betcha By Golly Wow. 

She is a risktaker!

Linda read a series of poems. She had written one this very morning which she read for us. She has her poetry organized in a notebook she buys at Staples and has each page in a laminated sheet.

Her new poem concerned a duel the poet goes through as an evil spirit tries to take her down.

Rem read an epic poem about the ruination of our planet. And then a lighter one.

Ed Lakota was at his best, as he strummed his geetar and played his harmonica. He started with some Roger Miller songs. Then he moved on to the Beatles, including Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. We discussed if the song referred to using LSD. Probably not.

The rhythms were so great I got up and started dancing. I pulled Herb up from his chair and danced with him. He was struck down when he was discharged from the Army. He has a phenomenal mind.

Herb is in the middle below. More about him later. Mary is a peer specialist from Salisbury. And Helen, wearing a cape, surprised us. She had just come from a really long walk.

 Family member Gail Russell also surprised us. She and her friends are frequently on FB. What believers they are! She read some passages I had written her on FB, such as that she sounds the trumpet for hope and triumph against mental illness.

 Maggie and her friend react to Ed's rhythms. We stood up and danced. I pulled Herb out of his chair.

 I read one poem. When the pope came to visit. There was an orange Gerbera daisy on the back table. I gave it to Susan Miller as her gift.

 Herb asked if he could do some stand-up comedy. I was skeptical but he was so persuasive. He was GREAT!  Did some voices - Rocky Balboa - a waiter at a Jewish deli - an Indian who owns a gas station. Excellent likenesses. Then he sat down but remembered another act, so did that one too.

Imagine! Herb was so excited about performing! He was a natural. Hope he has the chance to do it again.

Ed and Vern knew each other. They were talking shop. I love to bring people together.

And, yes, we were all together today, Sunday, August 13, from 1 until 4 pm, the exact time we were supposed to be there.

I'm listening now to Mountain Stage from West Virginia. The Chocolate Drops with Rhianon Gibbons.

After we said goodbye to one another, I went downstairs at the Giant and had dinner!

From the Hot Bar I got Chicken Pot Pie, a breaded triangle filled with mac an cheese, and a serving of steamed veggies.

I sat down with my friend "Sherman Johnson," who I've known for years. He has a nice pension but his family in TX won't have anything to do with him b/c of his bipolar disorder.

Does this ever stop? This nonsensical prejudice? He's got a 3-year-old g'daughter 'they' won't let him visit or talk to.

What dyou say? I said Wait a while and then try again. But don't let your g'dtr forget about you.

Cynthia Marcolina from Harleysville is a bundle of energy. She "retired from the "Minutia-scrutiny" of work, as a counselor. "Sunlight and flowers reviving me now. Finally, out of the Cold-dark-den."

She vacationed in Barbados.

Everywhere… blight and beauty.
        Here glass becomes treasure when the sea
        Is done with it.  Crumbling houses merge
        With the ground.  I swam with turtles and
        Floated on waves of iridescent translucence.

And me? I read my pope poem.... Pope Francis came to visit me.

What must he think of this world where he was elected to be king and conscience and fixer-upper and just general Francis-be-good?