Trying to repair the Wobblies in my body.
My hip/leg is pretty awful right now. I had suspected a pinched nerve, a big one, maybe. Do you want to hear about my health issues? Not really, I’m guessing. Neither do I. I had to cancel a radio interview that was to be a couple of days ago. I finally last night took some leftover Oxycodone. My MRI was yesterday, and I got immediate results, some of which explain the increased pain. I hope to talk to the PA today. Yesterday she said don’t take the Oxy, and prescribed gabapentin instead. Okay.
So what am I doing? Sitting here working on this Wobbly. Of course! What else do you think I’d be doing?
It’s hard to work in this condition, but it’s better than sitting around. And you expect a Wobbly from me this week. It’s good to have expectations unless they bog you down too much.
I am mired. I am mired in this difficult situation. On the other hand, being mired has advantages. I’ll tell you more about this later, but an editor of a major press has asked me if I could put together a new manuscript from the many random prose poems I’ve written this difficult winter. SHE contacted ME. How unusual! Generally, we poor poets are on the begging end: please have a look at my manuscript. Please-pretty-please. More on this later as it develops.
The End-of-the-Line Club project is moving along. Our second newsletter, July, will come out soon. If you haven’t subscribed, please do. https://endofthelineclub.substack.com/ This is a growing conversation with seniors, gerontologists, poets, senior center administrators, with the intention of making the move into old age smoother and more confident. The substack is free and you can unsubscribe any time.
Monday, Jerry and our friend Gary played and sang some old standards in the piano lounge. We live down a long hallway, and I had to ask for a wheelchair to get there. I’m not traveling down to dinner at the moment. Too much pain. Wheelchair?? Why, yes. I trust this is all temporary.
What’s wonderful is hearing Gary play (former head of Jazz Studies at Indiana University at Bloomington, and Jerry sing (professionally trained and club singer in his early life in Nashville before he gave it up for a safer career as a English professor). What’s wonderful is that to see these two geezers revert to their early lives with so much joy. And giving others so much joy.
I see this as a precious stage of life that certainly not everyone gets to experience: turning back and picking up what was left behind. One of our resident friends has just published his first mystery novel after a lifetime of practicing law. No, actually, two friends have just done this. Law and mystery novels seem to go together. You can figure that.
Enough for today. Main thing I’m feeling is incredible gratefulness for my friends and family. I can feel you out there, churning up love and support. Even if we can’t get to the lake right away, I’m okay.