Yesterday’s Scripps webinar was okay – in fact, I ordered a fitbit and signed up for their research project, collecting sleep and heart rate data to try to predict hot spots. Why not? Fitbit is probably a good idea to wear until the pandemic is over, if it ever is. And why not help science?

Right now I’m listening to The Best of Art Farmer trumpet music. It’s called contemporary jazz, but many of the songs sound like they would be useful as part of background music for Starsky and Hutch. It has that vibe – as in vibraphone – and that scratchy guitar thing emblematic of that era called wah sound. Not my cup of tea. But a few of the tracks are pleasant. I guess I’m more fond of what are called Jazz Classics, most of them from the 30s and 40’s, when jazz was evolving from ragtime to dance music to bebop. Now that was an era! More on that later.

I checked on my Amazon royalty payments this morning. Apparently, someone bought, I assume, the first of the Suffer the Children books – in Europe! How do I know? The royalty on the books is smaller than the kindle versions. But hey, Europe! That’s cool. So now I can add that continent to some sales in Australia, and that makes me an international author, right? I am pleased.

I want to start writing for Medium, which isn’t necessarily for money, but does get exposure. I have a follower or two there, since I’ve published exactly one piece about the Cvirus. I can follow up with more on that, or I can branch out into other things. Other Medium subscribers do comment, and it would be nice to get more feedback on blog pieces. So with that in mind, this blog may subtly change in some posts that I’ll copy and paste in Medium. Bear with me on this..it’s just good exercise for my writing skills. In the blog, I’ll identify which ones are destined to go there.

It’s fairly pointless to comment on current events. They are such a complete disaster, and the media coverage is nothing if not completely depressing. I spoke with Erik the Younger last night, just to make sure he was okay as Tiffany is still in Florida with her mom. He said she’d be returning soon, and then the whole gang will return for the summer. Good thoughts go out to Carol in coping with her heart issues and trying to stay cheerful.

I need to get out more. Stale air in the house is making my allergies act up, and gives me a scratchy throat and stuffy nose. Of course that is of concern, but I keep checking my vitals, and no big changes are noted there. I suppose the best thing to do is incorporate some walking time into my daily routine. I’ve done it a couple of times, but not consistently. And with all this rain, while t tamps down the pollen, it increases mold spores. They really get me. So once around the pond on a daily basis for a week or so, then twice around. That’s the equivalent of 10,000 steps, and allegedly that’s what’s wanted here.

Five more months ’til the election. I think many of us will be lucky to survive until then. Calling out the military to clear the way for a photo op? This, the day after the dark windows in the White House while he huddled in the Dick bunker? What a jackass. I know – you know that. Sigh.

Today is Thursday, so I have my Zoom therapy session this afternoon. I have begun to write the Clemmie sequel, but as mentioned before, I am treading most carefully. I think about it and try to picture it, but the dialogue isn’t clear yet. The setting is crystal clear, tho’. So that’s a start. The backroom work is easy, and enjoyable. It’s the front room work that’s tough, but slowly and carefully I’ll get there. The more I talk about it, the less scary it is. Talking with Jopie for 3 1/2 hours about the period from 1946 to 1950. It was helpful in cementing some perceptions, but the work still requires me to see, feel and hear them. I’m not there yet.

My temperature is 98.2° F. My blood oxygen is 95% and my resting heart rate is 75 bpm. All this – and sleep data – will soon be transmitted to Scripps via Fitbit. Looking forward to getting started, after my watch arrives, complete with a purple watchband. Cool, eh?

I tuned into another Caixin webinar this morning. It was entitled “Caixin Roundtable: Fighting Coronavirus Policy Analysis and Practical Experiences.” It was, as always, quite good.

The main speaker was a Ph.D./MD named Jim Young Kim, who lives in Boston and advises the government of Massachusetts on how to deal with SARS-2. His English was excellent, which helped him communicate much more effectively than the others on the panel.

Dr. Kim made several excellent points. First: let’s talk about how the US responded to the pandemic, vis a vis other countries like South Korea, China, Taiwan, Vietnam and China. We violated all the established rules of what you do when you are faced with a pandemic. There was no testing, no isolation or self-distancing, there was no effort on the part of the government to take the virus seriously for several months. That gave Cvirus a chance to get a foothold in Washington state, Oregon, California and New York. Once it got established, we still didn’t move quickly enough to deter its spread. To add insult to injury – literally – we lacked sufficient PPE, personal protective equipment, to protect health care workers who were doing their best to treat patients with whatever means they had at their disposal.

If Dr. Kim said it once, he said it five times: I am worried about how things are progressing with the virus in this country. We are months – if not years – away from a vaccine. We have not done testing in concert with contact tracing to make a hill of beans difference in the spread of Cvirus. It’s become politicized, so that there are bars with signs outside that say “Masks are not allowed”. Good grief! That’s nuts.

Finally, Dr. Kim mentioned two words that are necessary to consider if we are going to get a handle on our situation: solidarity and humility. We have to collaborate with expertise from all across the globe if we are to stop the spread of Cvirus. And we must be humble in its wake, because, as Dr. Kim put it, to think the virus will go away by itself is magical thinking. It won’t. And when flu season hits, emergency rooms will be jammed with people with symptoms who don’t know if it’s the flu or the Cvirus. They may go in with the flu and come away with Cvirus. That will be the so-called ‘second wave’ everyone is expecting.

I enjoy these kinds of webinars because they make me think maybe I’m not the crazy one here. The ratio of deaths to total cases is now at 5.7%, and has been there for a couple of days. At this rate, dropping about 1/10 of 1% every three days or so, deaths will continue until the fall. They will likely pick up again then, for the reasons mentioned above. We must, as a nation, learn how to contact trace and begin to do that. Otherwise, per Dr. Kim, we will continue to primarily kill the old, black and brown, the poor and the already ill. We cannot and will not reach that other benchmark people keep talking about – herd immunity – before a lot more people die. Sweden tried that, and they killed a bunch of people and didn’t save any more money than their immediate neighbors that used self-isolation as a tool.

Tomorrow is another Scripps webinar. It’s titled ” How We Can Tackle the COVID-19 Crisis Beyond Testing: Front Row Lecture with Eric Topol, MD and Jennifer Radin, PhD. That should be interesting. I’ll tell you all about it tomorrow.

I spent most of the afternoon today with Jopie, talking about family history between 1945 and 1950. It was necessary background information for my continued writing of the Clemmie story – at least the half that takes place in the front room. I’ll report more on that tomorrow.

My temperature is 97.8° F. My blood oxygen is 97% and my heartbeat is 76 bpm. All Quiet on the Western Front.

I think this picture will become emblematic of the Trump administration. A moment of silence while we pause to appreciate its demise.

Yes, he’s huddled down in the Dick Cheney memorial bunker. When the Dick occupied it, we were under attack from without. Now we’re under attack from within, and he is powerless to know what to do. He was always incompetent, but the stakes were lower. He’s still incompetent, but now the country is melting down. Erik says it’ll all stop by the end of the week. I’m not so sure. A combination of frustration over unemployment, the virus and now the death of another black man is more than these kids can handle. Here’s another picture to contemplate.

Yes, that is I-95 early Sunday evening here in Palm Beach County when protesters took over both sides of the interstate for a while. What does that say to you about the state of affairs in this country? Do you think it’ll stop in a week, or will they become like the kids in Hong Kong, leaving school, home and family to become professional mobs?

My text sounds like I disapprove of what these kids are doing. Most of them are just going to the protest because that’s a cool thing to do. Girls are clad in black yoga pants, tapping on their phones. The guys are wearing tie dye (remember that from our era?) or shirtless, waving signs and shouting? When kids get shot, like at Kent State, will they quit or become more militant? I suspect the cool kids will abandon the field, to the new revolutionaries who will not. They will be there in sufficient number to get the media’s attention. That will draw more in, and, well, here we go – Hong Kong redux.

By November, I calculate the US will incur a total of 285,000 deaths from SARS-2. The economy will be in a state of virtual collapse by the end of August. There are already articles saying restaurants are in worse shape after reopening, because of limited seating and likely not even using what they have. I am afraid to go to a restaurant, and I don’t think I’m all that unusual. We, like Trumpedo the Maleficent, are hunkering down until the ‘thing’ goes away. You mean the virus or the protesters? You decide.

A lot of people that hate Trump will welcome all that dismal news. Then, at some point, reality will hit, maybe when his unemployment runs out or she gets sick and incurs a whopper of a hospital bill she can’t pay because she lost her insurance when she lost her job. Then what happens? At some point, a genuine leader will emerge from the shadows and start to make things better. I expect to see that some time in September, when it becomes exceedingly clear that Trump and his gang are done. Then and only then will the Republicans figure out that they’ll be swept out of office too. The tunes will change bigly then. You’ll start hearing, “Well, I never really agreed with him, but the party leadership made me toe the line.” Or how about, “Now that I see what he’s REALLY like, I disagree with his policies and believe we need a change in this country.” But by then it’ll be too late. We’ll all vote by mail, because the second wave of the Cvirus will make it too dangerous to go to the polls. Why? Because poll workers won’t show up, fearful of the same thing. Lines will be too long to process with social distancing. Vote by mail will be the only solution. And when the results do finally get tabulated – maybe two weeks or so after the election? It will be chaos in Washington with the changing of the guard. It won’t be pretty.

What to do in the meantime? You know the drill. Do what you’re supposed to do to avoid getting sick. Stop listening to popular media because they are clueless, grasping at straws. Like 60 Minutes last night, showing one man who believed he was saved by antibodies in plasma from a donor. Maybe he was. But there aren’t enough plasma donors to make any kind of dent in the number of serious cases that will need antibody therapy. So, come on Scripps et al – do your thing and work on a treatment with those monoclonal antibodies! We need to turn this battleship by January, 2021, when a whole new administration will take over. They will have a whale of a set of problems to solve. But with Democrats in charge in the White House and both sides of Congress, I believe it’s possible to begin to rebuild. Or not. Biden’s choice of a VP will be essential to this task. I don’t believe he has what it takes to do it alone. We need a hero(ine)!

My temperature is 98.1° F. My blood oxygen is 96% and my heartbeat is 79 bpm. Good vibes here.

It’s Friday, the 29th of May. According to Worldometer, there were almost 25,000 new cases of SARS-2 in the US today. There were almost 30,000 in Brazil, and 125,000 in the world. So between us and Brazil, we accounted for 44% of all the cases. This is not a tragedy; this is a crime. The crime scene? The entire country. Yes, the virus is infecting everyone now. Was it too early to open? Gee, what do you think?

Minneapolis is still burning, and protests/riots are spreading all over the country: Atlanta, San Jose California, Houston, and yes, still in Minneapolis. I think George Floyd’s death has set off a spark to a pile of kindling created by a pandemic and a psychopathic president. David Brooks on PBS tonight said it was one of the worst weeks ever for this country. He was angry; he was heartbroken. His partner in the piece, Mark Shields, was philosophical. What’s at stake here is that people just give up on this country and its people. I know there are lots of good folks out there just trying to get by and be decent citizens. I count my family in that group. But a whole lot of other folks are so angry or frustrated or just fed up that they are burning, looting and creating contagious mayhem. This is a bad time for all that. People: we’ve got to get it together and go way back to where we were before this madness called the Trump Administration began. We need to find a way to heal this gash in our collective sides.

And then there’s the deployment of a drone over Minneapolis for ‘situation analysis’. Yes, an unarmed (thank God!) drone was rerouted from routine patrol over Canada (?) to fly over Minneapolis at 20,000 feet. Somebody, somewhere thought that was a good idea. Fortunately, before it had hovered just long enough to be spotted by a group of monitoring civilians, it left Minneapolis and domestic spying. Next time will it be armed, or will they just threaten that it will be armed (ref: notable quote from Trump about looting and shooting, which he says he didn’t know came from the Liberty City riots in Miami way back when). This is way out of line, but with the entire government and half the Congress held sway by that psycho in chief, it will not be investigated or condemned. Remember when the FBI infiltrated Vietnam Veterans against the War? Are we back to those days again? Damn it all to hell. I fear we are.

There will be no end to this pandemic for at least another 18 months. In the meantime, we need to get really angry. That’s the only way things will change. Larry Kramer taught us that, and now he’s dead. At least he lived to age 84 in the age of AIDS. He may not have always had the right idea, and I’m not sure whether it was him and ACTUP or Liz Taylor that shamed or influenced the government to act. But at least he tried. And we need to be doing the same. I am angry. Something has to change. Otherwise, we are doomed. I know, I know, I keep saying that. But God almighty, how much more can this country take? Will we even make it to November?

Got the results of my blood work today from Dr. Viera. It was all within limits. So I guess that means I’ll be around to fight another day, Cvirus notwithstanding.

I also wrote some more on my Clemmie sequel. It is interesting to describe my process to Elaine, my therapist. It is no process, no outline, just put down whatever happens to the keyboard. There are certain parameters. I am ten years old in the back room; I am a 70 year old woman in the front room, with the ten year old within me, alive, aware, functional and partnering with me in my endeavour. That means conversations between the 70 year old and the ten year old – me. I don’t know if anybody has effectively done that in literature before, at least not that I’ve seen. It will be tricky, but necessary. As I said to Elaine, I only want to go down this road once.

Meanwhile, our existing world is in the throes of complete madness. It’s continuing to be challenging to watch the news, where media personnel treat Trump’s actions as though they are those of a rational man. He is not a rational man. He is, as Bill Maher said to Tom Friedman, the mad king. I know it; you know it, if you’re willing to admit it; and so do those media people who pretend it’s still a rational world. It isn’t. Get over it. Stop watching it, if you don’t like it. OK.

Elaine says she’s waiting for someone – just before the election – to stand up and call bullshit on all this. She said it in a much more refined way than I’ve expressed it, but it’s still the bottom line. How we are living is unsustainable. We cannot continue to pretend that all is well. The stock market keeps going up, despite 20% of the working population being unemployed. The media reports on Trump signing an executive order to rein in social media platforms, when over a million people are desperately trying to survive a deadly virus in this country – nearly 3 million worldwide. I fear the time for the election will come and go, and nobody will stand up and say what needs to be said. Trump will be ignominiously defeated, if he allows the election to proceed. Ah, there goes democracy out the window, the thing that Republicans claim has already happened by them being asked to wear a mask. But they’ll be perfectly comfortable with postponing the election. Sigh.

The back bedroom – Kiernan’s old room – still needs to be cleaned up and reorganized. She’s left lots of stuff in the closet and on the bed, but all that can be bagged up and put with the rest of their stuff. That isn’t the problem. The problem is that a king size bed simply does not fit in that bedroom. What’s wanted here are two twin beds, straddling the east window. There are french doors on the south side, and I don’t want to put anything in front of them. So somehow, I need to swap out a king sized mattress for two twins. Alternatively, I can let the bed float in the room a bit, so there’s room behind it to exit through the french doors. I’ll give that a try.

Finally, there’s baseball. Actually, there isn’t…baseball. The owners of the teams are trying to find ways to save money, so they dump the players from the minors because they have no union protection. It says a few million, when they made billions last year. It doesn’t seem fair, it isn’t right from the kids in the minors’ perspective, but as a business decision, I guess it’s right. But what do you jettison next? We won’t be able to attend games likely for another couple of years. They won’t go broke, but it will rankle that they must pay the players who do nothing but stay home. Baseball will change, along with everything else. Union busting in the offing, or bringing the kids in the minors into the union tent? Time will tell..we shall see. Money isn’t money anymore. It’s a means to monitize debt. Whatever that means…Sigh..

My temperature is 97.6° F. My blood oxygen is 95% and my heartbeat is 75 bpm. Clearly I am well as can be.

Apparently, addition is a skill too far for us in America. According to Worldometer, we passed the 100 thousand death mark yesterday. Everybody in this country’s media thinks it was today. So apparently accurate counting is just too hard for us. Oh my God.

Speaking of Worldometer, they have our death toll at 102,107. The CDC says the death toll is 76,874. Johns Hopkins says it’s 100,396. Who’s right? Who’s wrong? Why don’t these numbers agree? Why is the government estimate so much lower than a website designed to attract advertising dollars or a great American university? Enquiring minds want to know, but I doubt we’ll ever know. The truth is, the death toll since the virus has exceeded the norm. Anderson Cooper had a graph showing that’s been the case since March. That I do believe.

So what happens now? We keep social distancing; people will keep dying. No matter whether the government ‘opens’ your state or not, if you’re 70 or older, you must socially distaince yourself. No restaurant meals. No bowling alley gatherings. No pool parties. The best you can do is takeout with a mask and staying at home with your family. If you manage to escape the virus, you’ll thank me. That is assumng you don’t lose your mind in the process.

My friend Bobbi and I walked around the parking lot by the Chinese restaurant, and then got a takeout. The walking was fine. The food was mediocre. It tasted like they cooked it yesterday and warmed it up today. That seems to be the norm with takeout food these days. We’re better off fixing our own, but cooking and cleaning up gets old too. What’s the answer? Beats the hell out of me.

Ray heard from the old writer’s group, welcoming him to a Zoom session. I think I’ll pass on that, and focus on just getting some writing done. Lots to write about, and plenty of time in which to carry out those assignments.

My temperature is 97.9° F. My blood oxygen is 94% and my heartbeat is 79 bpm. I’m alright..nobody worry ’bout me. (Thank you Kenny Loggins).

As of 7 PM tonight, Tuesday, May 26th, 2020, we have seen 100,500 Americans die of SARS-2. That is 28.6% of all the deaths in the world. The next highest death toll comes from Brazil. Their unfortunate claim to fame is 24,500 or 6.9%. While Brazil and Russia are rushing to catch up with us, we have a much greater head start. The trend in this country will continue unabated. Why? Because we aren’t testing enough people to quarantiine the vulnerable away from the people who think it’s ok to get ‘back to normal’.

As a result, the vulnerable have to quarantine themselves. There’s no going to dinner and a movie for us folks over 70. Just going to Lowes to look at flooring is a risky venture. The most fun we have these days is when the family comes over and we have a few hours of talking and laughing. That is really kinda sad, but hey: that’s the way it is.

Tomorrow I’m going walking with my friend Bobbi over by our favorite Chinese restaurant. I haven’t walked more than a third of a mile in the past 74 days. I warned her we need to take it slow and not go very far until I start getting back into shape. I miss my Silver Sneakers class, as it was the perfect exercise for someone like me. It was one part aerobic, one part upper body strength building and one part balance exercise. Perfect. But now a thing of the past.

I did do a little work on my Clemmie story yesterday, and it’s like wading into a minefield. To say I am tentative about it is an understatement. But if I take it slow, just write as much as I can without having an anxiety attack and then putting it aside, then I’m good. That’s the game plan, anyway. We’ll see how it goes. It looks like it’ll be stream of consciousness along with dialogues with trumpeters and Clemmie. That part I’m looking forward to, because it will create humor and perspective. It is the front room dialogue I fear. What child likes to confront their parents for their failings? I didn’t do it much while they were alive: can it really be effective when they’re both dead? We shall soon find out.

I need to find the perfect little piece of furniture to go under my Basquiat picture across from my desk. There’s a space there, crying out for something precious. Where to find such a thing? Ebay means having to pay shipping, which makes no sense. Surely there’s some place around here where I can find one. Let the search begin! Wayfair! Nah..I’ve bought from them before. You have to put it together. Never looks quite right. Continue the search.

I went to Stuart today to get fingerprinted for my soon to start temporary job with the United States census. They have assured me that there will be no risk taken in collecting information. We shall see about that. In the meantime, unless my fingerprints come back showing I was an urban terrorist in my 20’s (not likely), I should be starting training soon. It pays $17.50 an hour, even for training. No too bad. What will I do with the money? Give it back to the government in July when I pay our tax bill, of course!

My temperature is 98.1° F. My blood oxygen is 97% and my heartbeat is 79 bpm. Still kickin’, here.

Today is Monday. I did some laundry and John made lovely porterhouse steaks for our dinner. Erik and I went to Lowe’s to look at flooring. We’re going with vinyl plank for the 2nd floor Tallahassee house instead of laminate. It costs a little more, but is waterproof and decidedly more substantial. We want it to last for a very long time.

Today is also Memorial Day. I’ve been thinking and talking today about my deal with God, and then thinking about how my father’s family dealt with the death of their son, brother, grandson and nephew. They mourned. More than once, they mourned. First, they mourned when they got the news of his death. Then they had to mourn again when his remains were returned some 5 years later. It wasn’t the government’s highest priority to return dead soldiers’ remains. He’d been buried in a German (!) cemetary on the north coast of New Guinea, not too far from where he flew out of at a place called Wewak. Public pressure led to the government returning the remains.

I thought a lot about Erik and his deployments. He posted on Facebook for people to remember the departed instead of thanking him for his service. I thank God for his safe return home and in one piece, since that was our deal (ref: previous post). He is now a stalwart observer of Memorial Day, Fourth of July and Veteran’s Day, since he has an overarching appreciation of what that sacrifice is about. Since we are not going into crowded public places, I just remembered quietly, in my own way. I started writing the second part of my Clemmie series. This one is called Trumpets and Trauma. It’s set back in the south Miami house, but there are two distinct parts: the back room and the front room. The back room is a place of refuge, of happiness, joy and artistic expression. The front room is about trauma remembered, confronted and potentially re-experienced. There’s a closet in between that is in the transition area. I change between the back room and the front room, going from being an adult to a child. But I have begun, and that is what is notable.

We’re right on the cusp of a hundred thousand SARS-2 deaths. By tomorrow we will likely exceed that milestone, if you want to call it that. At this point, I’m not sure it’s entirely a bad thing. If young people get it and become immune, scientists will use their plasma to develop a treatment and potentially a vaccine. That will save us vulnerable people. The trick is to know if you’re a sheep or a goat, euphemistically speaking. It doesn’t do us any good if you are dead. Dead plasma won’t work. So hey, you old folks, continue to take all precautions and let the youngsters get it and recover.

My temperature is 98.1° F. My blood oxygen level is 95% and my heartbeat level is 78 bpm. All continues to function well.

Erik’s in the other room watching CNN regurgitate all the ways idiot Trump has screwed up managing this pandemic. I said that was like flagellation, and made me compare Trump to Idi Amin. Remember him? I think they had/have similar IQs.

We did the family gathering today – lovely as ever. Ray and I discussed how to attract people to our writing group. It turns out Meet Up costs $120 a year. Not worth it. Instead, we’ll try the Palm Beach Gardens writing group on the 15th of June. Then we’ll decide if we want to start our own.

Tomorrow I’ll start working on the Clemmie sequel, because it’s Memorial Day. We won’t go out and mix it up with any groups, so it’s the least I can do. I’ll give Erik a call too, just to see how he’s getting along being at home by himself with just the dogs to keep him company.

Slowly the house is coming together. I’m going to work on the Tallahassee house for a while. We need new flooring upstairs, and laminate instead of old carpet makes sense. Lowes’ contractor is coming to measure on Tuesday, so I hope by the end of June to have the new flooring in. Then we’ll need to go up there and work on the stair steps. We’ll take the carpet off, paint the steps and risers white. Then put a rug up the middle, held back with brass carpet rods. It will look great. The last major project will be the kitchen floor and backsplash. The backsplash is easy: brick. The floor is more difficult. Getting someone to come out and take a look has been quite a challenge. We’ll see how Lowes does on this project and maybe we’ll let them take a crack at it.

It’s Sunday night and I’m tired. My temperature is 98.0° F. My blood oxygen is 97% and my heart beat is 76 bpm. All is still well.

I took the vintage Ringling Brothers poster depicting a chariot race to the frame shop in Lake Park. They do a good job there, better than Michael’s for not that much more money. I saw the poster on the wall next to Max Cherry’s desk in Jackie Brown, and I liked it. Turned out there was a back story involving Robert Forster. The actor’s father was an elephant handler for Ringling Brothers, and it was his poster on the wall. I used the same frame, but with better matting, picking up some of the more obscure colors in the poster. I hope it looks good at the Tallahassee house, and that Kirsten likes it.

Monday is Memorial Day, and I’ve been giving that some thought. Erik and I used to attend every Memorial Day service when Erik the Younger was deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan. It was my deal with God to attend the ceremony honoring war dead in exchange for Erik coming home alive and in one piece. Then there’s the Clemmie story on top of Erik’s wartime experiences. All in all, it makes Memorial Day rather special for me. I will celebrate it in my own way, not by exposing myself to any potential SARS-2 carriers, but by beginning to write the sequel to the Clemmie story where he can talk through his experiences. I think it apt.

We’ve been slowly picking away at getting the house in shape, moving some things around and hanging some pictures in appropriate scenarios. Today was scrubbing the kitchen floor, a task that probably hasn’t been done in six months. It was gross. There’s been a lot of cookin’ in that kitchen in these past 19 years. It still has the original gas cooktop, though some of the igniters don’t work any more. I’m just afraid to change it out, because you and I both know: they don’t make ’em like that anymore. So I keep my bbq lighter handy for the burner that won’t ignite, and carry on. Maybe someday.

Last Thursday Erik and I went to Dr. Viera’s to get blood drawn for our regular checkups. I’ve been working hard on maintaining good cholesterol, managing blood sugar and taking Vitamin D. We’ll get the results next week, and I’m confident we’ll both be doing OK. He takes good care of himself and I have good genes. There you have it.

Finally, the family is coming over tomorrow to drink wine and talk about starting a writers’ group here in Jupiter, as previously mentioned. Ray has dug up a whole lot of criteria to be considered, and I want the artist ladies in the family to make us up a logo like the one I found with the cowgirl and the lasso. It may have to be virtual at first, but eventually we’ll figure out how to get like-minded people in the area to come together and share their writing. Looking forward to it.