A Blog for 2025

September 15, 2026 Happy Birthday, Collin. A cone of pink oyster mushrooms, so tasty in  my dinner tonight. Lunch with David and my usual at Wild Roots, so delicious.   And perfect weather to go along with it.  And  great company.   Off to the doctor's with my questions which all got answered.  There seems to be no damage done to the kidney.  The function of the left kidney has  returned. I was given the  ok to go back to the Y tomorrow, which improved my mood exponentially.  Tomorrow I go back to my gang.  So happy. EJ made me a great dinner and I learned more about the workings of the diabetes and the kidney issues.  They  may change some of my meds, but it is not as drastic a change as I imagined.   T. brought us fresh mushrooms, both pink oyster and coral, they are so beautiful.   EJ fried them up in butter, salt, pepper and garlic and added them to sliced onion and very thin slices  ...

September 14, 2026 He flew so close to me, I thought he was going to go for my camera. I felt up to writing by the canal today.  I didn't get a lot of writing done, but I was very happy just bird watching.  That's the first eagle flying photo I've gotten in over a year.  Remember in 23 I spent all that time searching down the perfect eagle photo.   There were three heron in the canal today.  The first  one I saw flew away with 100 ducks when the eagle came out of no where.  I'm sure he landed in one of the islands of reeds by the edge of the road and I just couldn't see him from the car.  I'm not quite strong enough to get out of the car and walk a little, but  I moseyed on down and saw 2 more.  This one was chased away by the two swans.  They were bullies,  I'm very glad to be seeing a doctor tomorrow and having the opportunity to ask some important questions.  I'm so worried about not  being allowed back into t...

September 12, 2026 EJ, Nash, Diane and I had dinner together tonight.  Delicious. My new want is to turn my dining room into a salon.  I need  to move the eating area out of my bedroom, although tonight it was quite sweet to be here with the gang.  EJ and Nash had gone to the fair.  I really want to go see the animals.  Oh, how excited I used to be for the Fair.  Is this another marker of my aging?   Not really fair of me to use the gathering as a photo shoot especially when I'm not even using a real camera, but I couldn't resist.  They are both so cute.    Maybe tomorrow i will have a real Sunday and get some real photos taken.  I was asked to put 3 or 4 pictures in a LAVA show at the Court House in Oct.   I'll try to chose them tomorrow.  

September 11, 2026 Happy Birthday, Leo Hwang. Very busy day and I know I covered a lot of personal ground with a lot of different people.  My brain is functioning well, but I am not getting information enough to be able to answer my  own questions.  Clearly my kidney was damaged.  Can  it be restored?  Am I able to regain  some function that I lost last month?  I don't know the answers and I need to wait until I see the doctors before I can answer them.  Meanwhile, I feel tentative, wary and wondering how much my life has been  altered. Once again I took myself up to  the rookery to stare at the water.  I forgot my memory card so I was left with phone camera once again.  I passed some cows wanting to eat the golden rod on the other side of the gate.  I didn't know golden rod was tasty.  Up further there was bales of thistle.  I saw no creatures to eat it, but I could hear the old tractor mowing along on the ...

September 10, 2026 Saw Margie and Nate today for a quick visit.  I felt a little guilty that I didn't have more energy but they got it and it was just sweet to see them.    Patrick and I had some dinner together. T. brought me some mushrooms. EJ did some grocery shopping. And I was just here, surrounded by good  vibes, but a little anxious about what the future holds. No photos, no writing.  I did do my pt exercises. And now I will sleep.  

September 9, 2026 On September 9, 1985 Corri Vaughan was born.  At the time Corri's dad and I were in the 1st year of creating The Literacy Project.  Here  we are 41 years later.  I first held Corri when she was about 5 hours old.  She was so beautiful, I was in total awe.    For some reason my computer is not downloading photos to my blog tonight.  Not that I took any photos today, but I was trying to do something a little creative with past photos.  I don't know what is happening. I'm going to leave it at that tonight.  I realized a year ago Diane and I went to the Clark and had a wonderful lunch out on their terrace.  I was in horrendous pain.  I'm not in that amount of pain at the moment and it is spooky to believe all that stuff was happening inside me and no one knew it.  It was brutal.  At that point I was not giving in to the pain.  Today I'm giving into the tiredness and not pushing although I feel ...

September 8, 2026 Up early to be at LAB by  8  a.m.  Shows I have damaged kidneys, but everything else seems good.   All of a sudden everyone and everything is  full of kidney disease information, what not to eat,  what to eat how to exercise, and the advice to walk.  Which is the only thing my body doesn't seem to want to do.  I'm going to walk more in the water and begin to do some on land. It was a very beautiful day.  It is my favorite time of the year.   I must admit I am impatient that I don't feel myself, yet.  It's been a month, time to get back into the groove.  Not true.  And I have been craving ice water, which indicated an iron deficiency, so I have to make a new grocery list based on this new body in this new life.  Spent time with Patrick today, wished we could have driven out to the Clark, but I really don't have the pep for that.  I like it when we just hang,  but  I also like ...

September 7,  2026 I got up and I got dressed, had some breakfast and went and got Amie.  We went for our fist ride in who knows how long.  It was so nice.  The weather was perfect.  We didn't go far but we blabbed and blabbed and took pictures and were happy.  Felt great. I came home and I actually got some time on my porch, almost strong enough  to clean off the  porch  table and have a space to sit at out there.  Maybe tomorrow.   I think driving around these spots that  I identify with helped me to feel a little more grounded.  We saw many geese, several ducks, a heron, a few swan and crows. I went up to the rookery about 4.  It felt more like home today.  It was 78 and clear skies and a very gentle wind.  I hung out for a while and wrote a little and then went on up and around the  mountain where I ran into a large  3 family grouping of turkeys and a large murder of crows sharing the road...

September 6, 2026 Today was an event of the National Beat Poetry Foundation  in support of LAVA Center. Very fun afternoon.  I managed 3 hours and they went  on another 3. I usually am at the door during these events, but Jan had the door today and I was a member of the audience in a seat  where I could hear people.   Paul ran it as a round robin, if you had a poem to read, or 5 minutes worth, you took a chair in the front and went to the mic when you were up.  You could go back to the chairs in the front and read again.  It was interesting to watch people wrestle with the concept.  Some people went up and took their  five minutes, others read a poem and went back in line.  I  read, but I messed up the order  of my pages.  Oh well. People came from all over the country to be a part of the event.  I was so pleased that someone who runs a reading in Portsmouth was there.  I think I might try to go to one in th...

9/28/25 September 5, 2026 Happy Birthday, Bro. I had a nice day today, I had 2 surprise guests; Joanna from the pool and Eli, who I haven't seen since Christmas.  Nice visits with both of them, although I'd like to set up the table on the porch so we could sit there.  I am well enough to have a sitting room or someplace other than my bedroom to greet people. But I took no photos, nor did I write any words.  I suppose I could still write something.  Tomorrow is the 1st Sunday event and I don't have anything to read.    

September  4, 2026 This dragonfly was so beautiful.  I spent over an hour at the canal today, most of the time on the phone with Annie, but  still staring out at tons of ducks.   Saw 2 heron. In a sense today was the most routine day I have had in 7 weeks.  I slept in a little, but when I did get up I got dressed and went to the canal.  It was  lovely.   I saw 2 heron and I had the feeling if I were a little stronger and got out of the car there would have been others in the reeds.  There certainly were a lot of ducks.   Those early  signs of fall are popping up and the temperature is quite perfect.  Lovely. I went and ate shrimp at the Coop and came home and slept.  It is amazing how tired I get and how weak I feel, but I think strength is beginning to build. EJ made me a big pot of Greek bean soup.  It's really good.  It was a perfect dinner.  Made me truly happy.  He and Nash hung out ...