IF POSSIBLE, GET INVOLVED IN REAL LIFE DURING THE PANDEMIC... SO WE DID ... COMMENT ON UNCLE TOMMY short story

 Scott and I got sick of watching David Janssen in DETECTIVE RICHARDSON so we hopped in his car and drove over to the new YMCA in Willow Grove/

Diamond, you should know never to point a gun at someone unless you mean to shoot. My Marine father taught me dat.

Janssen constantly had a cigarette in his mouth. Probly why he died young. FORTY EIGHT !!!

David Janssen (born David Harold Meyer) (March 27, 1931 - February 13, 1980) was an American film and television actor who is best known for his starring role as Richard Kimble in the television series The Fugitive (1963–1967). Janssen also had the title roles in three other series: Richard Diamond, Private Detective; Harry O; and O'Hara, U.S. Treasury.

Aside: Trial is on now in Minneapolis about Derek Chauvin's killing of George Floyd. My sister Lynn is watching and I told her, GOOD FOR YOU. We've gotta make these cops accountable.

Scott and walked all around the perimeter, masks at the ready. It was an arduous walk. At first a strong gust of wind almost knocked off my blue sailor's hat, but later the wind died down.

We did not see a soul. A lovely playground had been dedicated by Gail Faulkner and some others - so colorful. 

From the Internet.

We kept out of  the wetlands, of which there were plenty.

When we got home, we walked some more. Around our hilly block. 

Anything else for my Ruthie, asked Scott.

Yes I would like a good meal.

Wait till the pandemic is over, he said.

I know. I know, says I.

Was trying to find a foto of T AND T DINER, which is out of biz, but instead I found

DINER HUNTER.. Click here

Lemme check my fridge now.

AMY'S MUSHROOM RISOTTO in oven now.

Setting timer for an hour. 

Oh, timer, where art thou?

Curious minds like mine wanted to know. Read about what vaccines DO inside your body.

Vaccines train our immune systems to create proteins that fight disease, known as ‘antibodies’, just as would happen when we are exposed to a disease but – crucially – vaccines work without making us sick.Dec 31, 2020

On the way home, we pulled next to an enormous Scepter Truck. Scott loved it and said he would have no problem driving it.

"Uncle Tommy": What a great short story!!!  I am in love with it. So much rings true & interesting.  U have a way with words, my dear.  I think many people would like it, even if they know nothing about you or me.

Keep writing!

NAMI Walk - Met old friends and a very nice police officer

Montgomery County Community College in Blue Bell, PA, is the beautiful lushly green setting for the NAMI walk, which head honcho Carol Caruso estimated drew 800 or 900 people.

Here's Carol and husband Jerry. Carol has been having some serious health issues but she looked wonderful and felt good, she said.

I bounced into the walk with my pal Ron Abrams - who carried the New Directions banner. I picked him up in the parking lot of Abington Prez, promptly at 8:50 am, after a terrible nite's sleep.

Whenever I have to get up early - 8 am - I can't sleep properly, but did get a lot of reading done.

In this week's issue of the New Yorker, there's a fascinating and scary story "The Walking Alive." Author Susan Orlean does all her writing on a treadmill desk that goes 2-3 mph so she can easily type and make phone calls.


What dyou think?

She quotes Dr James Levine, the leading researcher in "inactivity studies" at the Mayo Clinic's Scottsdale AZ campus. You wouldn't believe the host of ailments he opines will hit you if your job has you sitting for more than 20 minutes at a time, when your legs "go into hibernation." 

Joining the New Directions triumvirate is Jill and her two adorable small dogs, one of whom is named Amy.

Crowd shot. Tables were lined up promoting various organizations and giving prizes, like at the dentist's office, promoting themselves. I got plenty of pens.

There was a Janssen table. I mentioned that for many years Janssen, makers of Risperdal, used to publish our Compass. I said I used to drive up to Titusville, NJ, and Ed Quispe used to print it. Peg Forrestal gave the okay. The folks at the Janssen table knew of Peg.

These drug companies are housed in veritable palaces.


Did I ever tell you I wrote a letter to founder Paul Janssen (1926-2003) ? He lived in Belgium. I wrote him on New Directions stationery and thanked him for discovered the antipsychotic Haldol, which was the first drug I was given for my manic episode and psychosis back in 1984.

Clark Bromberg runs one of the best community mental health centers - Montgomery Central, it's called, with an excellent after-work drug rehab program. His daughter Hilary and my daughter Sarah went to Abington Friends together.

Eric Goldstein, on the right, has the enormous responsibility of running the Montgomery County Office of Behavioral Health. Eric said he enjoyed coming out to our group several years ago and suggested we invite him again.

Great idea, Eric!

Nancy Wieman, the deputy secretary, I saw later on. She was sitting on the ground, having had an infrequent bout of vertigo, and was awaiting an ambulance.


Nancy Wieman is a real champion for mental health.

So is Fred McLauren, who I booked to speak in September. Read his impressive bio.



We were walking and talking quite a while. I wear a backpack when I walk cuz I keep my diabetes supplies inside, among other things, so I pulled out a lil notepad and jotted down his email address.

He's gonna give a talk about the WRAP program. Ada will be so happy about it. Fred has two grown children and works at both MCES and Temple University Psych Rehab Program.

Dave Mauermann of Horsham Clinic. Dave is one of the very nicest men I've ever met.

He bought one of our Mental Health Awareness Magnets for $10.

Dave, I said, the worst problem I had about coming to the walk is deciding what to wear.

I chose well, a light sweater, which, if need be, I could remove to reveal a ..... sleeveless blouse.

The rain held off. A couple of raindrops was all.

Also saw Abby Grasso of Brooke Glen Behavioral Health. I did my practicum for my master's degree there in its former incarnation Northwestern Institute. It was an eye-opening experience. They had a special unit for teenagers who had been adopted. Here's a post last May I wrote about Abby - very interesting - when we met for lunch at Pho and Beyond.

Jana Nogowski, who contributed four stirring poems to our Compass. She's a jogger. I was walking fairly quickly when Jana walked up to me and said Ruth Deming.

My first thought when I saw her, all in green, was not that she was Kermit the Frog, but was that I won't know who she is b/c there were some other people whose names I couldn't remember.

"Jana!" I yelled and we hugged.

I'm a sucker for little ones.

Here are mine own.

Hello, Grace, hope to see you this weekend.



Here's Max, 6 weeks, with Mom-Mom. I'm Bubby, Jewish for grandmother.


Just swiped another pic of Max from FB.

Good action shot of Carol Caruso, man with water bottle, and young man on phone. Modern-day America.

Saw Shelly and Bill Quigley, daughter Brandy, the Morrisons, Debbie Moritz of NAMI Bucks, and was looking for Janet Taylor but she never materialized. 

I saw the Kirk Family - Betsey, Will and Raineigh. Betsey and I are planning to go paddleboating at Lake Galena in Doylestown.


Met up with Margaret, Chong and Maggie and were gonna meet them for lunch at the Blue Bell Diner.

A bunch of us walkers ate there a couple years ago, including last week's  new bride Tracey Riper, who ordered a Belgium waffle with strawberries and whipped cream. How come I remember things like that?

So Ron and I are driving to the diner. Neither of us was terribly hungry, but I couldn't find the place, and were pretty hungry when we finally got to the crucial intersection of 202 and 73.

There's a Fire Truck Parade down Route 73, where the diner is located.

I got outa the car and asked a police officer, How can I get to the diner.

I'm afraid to you can't, he said. The diner closed two years ago.

We ended up at



Colonial Quy-Bau right in Willow Grove near Nature's Harvest Health Food Store.

We enjoyed the food. I had two appetizers - chicken and peanut sauce on sticks - and vegetable spring rolls. Ron and I split tirimisu - which means 'pick me up' in Italian for dessert.

Went straight to my stationery bike for half an hour - oh, my aching tush - which always lowers my blood sugar. When you're en bike, the best thing to do to distract yourself is to talk on the phone.

Margaret of the jazz trio Margaret, Chong and Maggie, had called to say, "What happened?"

And now, if you'll excuse me, I'll ......

Slightly rancid but okay to eat

I go visit my client Evelyn, a woman I've been with now for five or six years. I know what makes her happy and I know what makes her mad. She lives in Section 8 HUD housing in Abington, PA. In fact, I just got an email alert from NAMI asking me to call Sen. Arlen Specter's office to ensure passage of a mental health bill, so I did call his Harrisburg office and left a message with Zach urging the senator to vote for the bill. Specter has a long lingering brain tumor and they want to knight Teddy in England.

I would prefer not to die from a brain tumor. Is there a choice?

So, Evelyn gives me her Cream of Rice cereal, made by Nabisco. It's nutritionally worthless but they add the vitamins and minerals they've removed from the rice. I make it with milk so I get my protein and then I cover it with maple syrup which makes it taste like pudding!

The cereal box says you can use it until 2007, so I'm not surprised at the slightly off-taste. I guess added thiamine and niacin get rancid just like the rest of us.

Pudding is without doubt my favorite category of food.

Return engagement for dinner last night from my son Dan and his future-bride Nicole. As a mother/law, I was thinking what Nicole brings to Dan. Dan is serious, mellow. Nicole is fun-loving, garrulous, interested in just about everything. She gave me a Sun Magazine to read, something Dan would never be interested in. This is so cool when couples bring into the partnership a widening of their arena of interests.

I didn't start dinner until about 6 and was mildly panicky. Both Dan and Nicole are hard workers and I knew they were starving. I got a late start cuz I was at my printer's setting up my Yes I Can booklet about living well with bipolar disorder and depression.

Mark Amos and I had worked together many years on The Compass so it was good to see him again. He is a true master at what he does. I always ask his opinion on things. And also I peek at everything he's working on.

"How did you find these people in Peru?" I asked. It was a solicitation letter from an orphanage.

I carefully selected the color of the cover stock we'll use. Daffodil.

He'll run the presses today. He hasn't called me so I guess everything's in order.

Dinner menu:

Atlantic salmon sauteed on red peppers from Chile and mushrooms from PA
Steamed asparagus (from the 'gus' family as Nicole said)
Tiny baby red bliss taters w/butter
Garden Salad with homemade vinaigrette garlic dressing (thanks Dan for chopping
the garlic into teeny tiny pieces)
Stewart's Root Beer, on sale at The Giant

Mom, asked Dan, dyou have any salt around here?

Sure, Sweetie, I said, getting the big Morton's saltbox out from the cupboard.

One reason I started making my own baby food for my kids is b/c I READ THE GODDAM LABELS! Gerber, in those days, put sugar and salt in babyfood! Yeah, brainwash em when they're young. Kill em in the prime of life from the fruits of your criminal indifference to their safety.

Dan tried unsuccessfully to load the photo of the Board Members on the ND website. So now when you click on it you get this gray patch where the photo should go. I kind of like it. Abstract art.

Lest you think I've given up my morning reading, I set my timer for an hour so I could lie in bed and read. This, of course, was after I'd done an hour's worth of work. A black book with silver lettering caught my eye from my book shelf. It was one of the first books I read about manic depression after my diagnosis.

Back in 1984 when I was diagnosed you couldn't find a thing about the illness. The book Psychiatry: A Personal View was on the remaindered table. Sure enough, there was a fantastic description of the spectacle of mania, so I bought the book, read the good parts, then tucked it away until now - 20 years later. Just goggled the author's name and this is what came up. I was hoping he'd still be alive but alas he died in 2005 of a brain tumor. Milton Miller, MD. No one's ever heard of him. His book is good but not great. He himself was great, not merely good.

So, I'm up in my comfy bed this morning, covered over with three blankets, and Milton is talking about doing therapy with a woman he has just put on lithium. The drug came out in the 1970s. His patient did very well on it and she & her husband wrote a letter to John Cade in Australia, the man who discovered it.

At that point, I put the book down and thought. Hmmm. In the 20 drafts I did of my bipolar brochure, the important part about my writing Paul Janssen was left out!

These mysterious things happen. How did I ever excise that? Truth is, I did write Paul Janssen, founder of Janssen Pharmaceutica, makers of Risperdal, which I took to control my manias. Janssen wrote back quickly - from Belgium - and I treasure the letter. Apparently, tho, not enough to leave it in my booklet.

I do think GREAT PEOPLE will write you back. True, they are very busy, but they appreciate the efforts of their fans. A friend of mine wrote the great Kubler-Ross, who not only wrote her back but invited her to visit!

Speaking of Reaching Out, I told Dan I spoke to a woman at the supermarket and told her about my program on Saturday. I knew she didn't have a mood disorder but I was also fairly sure she knew someone who did. We were standing at the check-out waiting to be served.

Mom, said Dan, you're hyper-social.

Wow! I like that. Hyper-social. See, there's no point in standing in line when there's a friendly-looking person next to you. We got to talking about clementines. I had returned a carton of mine b/c they were TERRIBLE. Peg actually said to me, Yes, there's a lot of talk that the clementines aren't good.

Thank you for validating me, I said, and then launched into my bipolar program on Saturday. You're all invited. Check the website for details.

Time to work on my short story now. I've got the name already. But can't decide if I should make it into a series of letters. I've got the rudiments of a plot but expect it will write itself.

My Hatboro Day - Meet your compatriots at Brooke Glen Behavioral Health

Traveled in my PJs to the Hatboro PO to mail 8 post cards. Tomro is The Blizzard of 2016, not to be confused with DQs Blizzard.
  Ours is closed for the season, thank god. It's always a temptation for this person with diabetes.

Received this hand-sewn poetry mag in the mail today.

Click to enlarge. 

Lovely! My poem they published was Turquoise Nail Polish. Coincidentally I had just gotten my nails polished at Strawberry in Hatboro. I do love the color which I dubbed Blood Red.

Will certainly write a poem about it and Pat who nailed me. She's from Surinam. First I asked if she was from Vietnam. No, she said. Pause. Where are you from? Then she spilled the beans.

Apres this, I walked over to Hatboro Jewelry to get two batteries for my two watches. When I visited Dan tonite he told me he ordered an implement to open his watch battery so he could implant it himself.

Then I ate at the Hatboro Dish. Delicious high carb food - grilled cheese bruschetta. Mike waited on me. Drank three cups of coffee while reading my library book club selection.



Isn't this the most fascinating blog you've never read?

My friend Rob no longer reads it. He's getting one of the postcards I mailed at the Hatboro, PO. The mail goes out at 11 am.

Here are some other people: Nancy, Sarah and ei, 2 mishpucha, HAR, Ellen R, The Sanders.

My friend Freda Samuels turns 90 soon. Photo above of her and Bernie. Drove to Hatboro to mail it this morning, part of my Hatboro Day. She'll love the poem.

Look at these Valentine stamps. They look like the heart of a ghoul. Dizgusting!

Freda told me about a column the Inquirer had about how you feel about having gray hair. Here's my response.

Am drinking Behavioral Health tea on the right, while writing with behavioral health pens on the left. Switched off Carly Simon's memoirs to listen to A S Byatt short stories. She had an unhappy childhood - what writer didn't? - and is the sister of Margaret Dribble Drabble.

Okay, ready to go to Brooke Glen Behavioral Health facility?

I think everyone loves Abby Grasso. I was sposed to get my paintings back from their art show but I forgot to pick em up.

Here's Missy, short for Melissa, who told me she thought I was cute.

Says I, You'll never guess how old I am.

I'm a poet, sez I, and I just wrote a poem called A Brief Panic on Turning Seventy.

Grace Catherine, my 5-yo granddaughter, knows my age and Mom-Moms age. When I was a kid, I was obsessed with ages. We had so many relatives at the time and I knew what years they were all born in. The late 1800s.

Abby with the very friendly CEO Neil Callahan. He actually remembered me from the art show, which they are not having again!

ND, however, is having our Second Annual Arts Festival on Sunday, April 10, Gramma Lily's 118th birthday. What a fashion plate she was! She did develop dementia at the relatively young age of 84 and off we finally whisked her to The Old Age Home in Royersford, PA.

Mom thought bc many of the employees were Mennonites or other rural folk, they wouldn't steal.

Wrong!

Mitch Goldfeder from Janssen. I'm pronouncing it the Belgian way - Yahnson. I told Mitch, whose full name is spelled Mitchel - that I wrote a letter to Paul Janssen thanking him for inventing Haldol, which quelled my first mania.

He wrote me back immediately. Here's an encomium about Paul.

 My talented tablemates.

 Talented, committed and lovely.

Pretty in pink. It was freezing. Ada parked far away as there were no closer spaces. She turned on the seat warmers in her car.

 The receptionist was very well informed about the goings on in the hospital

The hospital is tobacco-free. No smoking allowed. A condition of managed care. We all know that as soon as they come home from their stay - well, let's say as soon as someone picks em up to take em home - they'll say, Bring me my Marlboro Lights.

Sarah Wins Pushcart Prize - DeeAwn Roundtree seminar coming up this afternoon

Luckily I went on FB last nite and found that my daughter Sarah had won the prestigious Pushcart Prize for literature for her essay Skydive.

It's about her bucket list for when she was a two-kidneyed woman before ceding her left kidney to her mama so I wouldn't die a slow but not unpleasant death from end-stage renal failure. No dialysis for this good-livin' woman.

How nice it is to type in those words now that the crisis has passed.

In an hour DeeAwn Roundtree will give a Career Seminar at the Giant Supermarket. Was there this morning setting up our room.

 Bought these yellow calla lilies from Kremp Florist down the street.

I met DeeAwn in the waiting room of my former psychiatrist Larry Schwartz. Her badge said she was a sales rep from Janssen Pharmaceutica. I told her I had bipolar d/o and took Risperdal when I got psychotic.

Using her name, I called up Janssen in Titusville, NJ, and they agreed to publish our Compass Mental Health Magazine, which they did for many years. Hello Ed Quispe!

 
Now Mark Amos of Bux-Mont Stationers in Hatboro does the job. 

Oops, that's the Rifleman which Scott and I watch at 6 pm on WFMZ in Allentown when the signal comes in.

Mark Amos of Bux-Mont Stationers in Hatboro, PA. Always does a great job for us.

How much more time till I leave for the Giant? 56 minutes. Am expecting Helen Kirschner for lunch. Luckily I have some lentil vegetable I just made.

Scuse me while I heat it up.

Schmoozing after Dr Shlewiet's Talk at the Giant

Thanks Saul Miller, DDS, for taking the photo.

I always carry my stuff in an old Xerox box lid from when our Compass was printed for free by Janssen Pharmaceutica, makers of Risperdal, which was one of three drugs I took when I got psychotic. Here are the drugs: Haldol, Risperdal, and Navane.

It's always great to see Betsey Kirk, her husband Will and son William Raighne Kirk, who goes by the name Raighne (say "Raney"), a Celtic name for "Little Mighty Powerful One."

When Raighne was born he weighed all of 3 pounds and 12 ounces.

He was in the hospital for 10 days and never missed a beat after being discharged. Go, Mighty One, go!

Here's Saul now with newcomer Mary. Her family calls her "Neen" b/c one of her sibs couldn't pronounce her name correctly. I love nicknames.

Call me "Ruthie."

Will commented that Saul looks a little like Jeff Goldblum, known for his role in the wonderful and frightening film "The Fly."


Saul Miller or Jeff Goldblum?

Gerri and Betsey.

Whatcha eating, Betsey?

I had decaf coffee - into which I always add Cocoa and Cinnamon - which Adryn served me and one Irish Potato.

Margaret and Chang had bought a box and shared it at table.



We discussed books and movies.

The Kirks did not like the movie about FDR at Hyde Park even tho they said DiCaprio did a good job.

They're gonna see Quartet, the first movie directed by Dustin Hoffman, who gave a terrific interview on Charlie Rose which you can watch online.

From the previews shown on Charlie Rose the movie looked like a colossal bore! Totally banal dialogue.

I told them I saw Gregg Allman on the Tavis Smiley Show, giving a book tour for his new book "My Cross to Bear."




Although he's been off substances for many years, the man could barely speak. Maybe he was on Topomax, per Dr Shlewiet's talk.

Wonder what Tavis thought... Gregg gave one-word answers. The book is quite good. I'm not actually all that familiar with their music. Here's their album Eat a Peach (they're from Georgia) on The Tube.

They recorded the album right after Duane's death in 1971. Always reckless and impulsive, Duane was on drugs and died in a motorcycle accident in 1971.

He's been rated the second best guitarist by Rolling Stone magazine. Eric Clapton used to come by to hear him play.

The GREATS always learn from each other.



I told the movie-luvin' fun-lovin' Kirks they MUST SEE Homeland. Told em to rent it from interlibrary loan. Betsey said she used to work in the interlibrary loan department at Delaware Valley College.

They told me about a TV series called "Life" which starred Damian Lewis, who is in Homeland. They said you couldn't tell he was British.

I reserved it from my library.

Beautiful day out today. Forty degrees, says my outdoor thermometer.