Dave's Journal, Aug2020
Met Audree and Jim for lunch in Westford. (Known these folks for 30+ years.) Sadly they too lost a much-loved cat (Nyssa) this week, so we got to trade sad feelings and "life goes on" chit-chat.
They opened last week after a year of building renovation. The current exhibit is small and took just 45 minutes to walk through, reading everything. The buildings are much larger than the current exhibit, which tells me there's more to come in the future.
It is fascinating to read the *real* stories of Paul Revere and the fight with the Redcoats at the bridge, and the "midnight ride" that (1) he did not himself complete and (2) he had 2 partners and (3) the "one if by land, two if by sea" lanterns were only the *backup* signal that the British were coming.
Original handwritten poem "The midnight ride of Paul Revere" (...... it's fiction!)
(Good that there is no dress code!)
Blue came home today. He's upstairs, keeping good company with Zeke, Zach, Sabrina and Lexie.
How I had fun on this drizzly day .....
2nd Breakfast: peppers & onion omlette and an avocado
.... wasn't bad.
Now I can cry in my coffee about Blue ....
Waited in a line for 90 minutes yesterday to get COVID19 tested, in prep for hernia surgery this week. I am fine - tested negative, which is good, right? So we are good to go with the surgery.
They did not do the "stick-in-your-nose" test. They had us spit 5ml of saliva into test tubes, and it took just 24 hours for them to e-mail me the test results.
It was scary how careful they are about handling stuff. The nurse never touched anything that I had touched. She had me slip the test tube and ID card into *my* hazard bag and slip that into a second hazard bag that she held open and wouldn't let me touch it. This virus is not a joke.
Well, I'm 6 days post-hernia surgery and starting to feel not so bad. Stitches are a bother, and the pressure because they pushed my guts back in place and sealed them in a smaller space, and they are swelled due to the surgery. The tough pain is behind me though. I tried one of the narcotic pills thay gave me for pain. Horrible stuff, didn't reduce the pain either, so I stayed with tylenol
I'll spare you the other recovery stage details.
Very very important to ingest lots of water & fiber or Metamusil. Can't stress this enough.
My diet is very ripe bananas, steamed raisins, water (Aqua Panna), apple sauce, crushed shredded wheat pre-soaked in water, Progresso soups run through a blender, flax seed, more water, 2 bottles of Ensure, a multivitamin/mineral tablet.
They say this goes on for a few weeks.
Coming right after I healed from my dental surgery, where I lost 12 pounds and struggled to regain 3, this surgery is killing my hopes of gaining my weight back soon. I must be down to 140lbs. Afraid to get on a scale .
Update: Got on a scale out of the shower - not 140, but 149 !!! This puts me only 10lbs down from my consistent 30-year weight, and I am delighted. Target now is 165 by Thanksgiving.
Few years back, I picked up a book of the early 1900's Italian painter, Amedeo Modigliani. He lived and worked in Paris, and pal'd around with Picasso, Gertrude Stein and that lot.
I like his later paintings.
Last night I watch a movie, very loosely based on his life in Paris (he died at 36), starring Andy Garcia. IMDB gave the movie a 7.4, I give it a 6.
What a mess of a life this guy lived. It just got worse and worse.
The movie is poorly written, but well produced, the acting is nominal.
Anyway, I like the guy's later paintings and am re-reading the book as soon as I stop typing here.
I bought it at $29,000 and sold it (not totally remembering) at around $60,000.
Had the most fantastic old unfinished attic !
