Melenie and I are prepping for Woody’s workshop. He’ll be doing the joint workshop we do every year the first weekend in August at Omega. Xeroxing, figuring things out, updating. Omega is very rough, hilly, have to go down a slope, through the woods over roots and mud patches and then more downhill and up a steep flight of steps just to get from our cabin to meals. Woody insisted I not try to do it and I’m inclined to agree. I also don’t see how I’d have time to do all my exercises with the heavy teaching schedule there. Yesterday I began a story, my first creative work since about 4 days before the operation. I had promised a story for a Jewish noir collection and I finally got an idea Tuesday. It’ll go slower than usual because I still can’t sit at the computer for too long. But it’s a fun story to write and I’m excited about it. I like the voice I’m using and the tone of it. Prior to Thursday afternoon, I had my new incision held together by metal staples for four and a half weeks. Last time in December with my left knee, the nurse was allowed to take them out at three weeks exactly. This time I called twice pleading almost begging, the visiting nurse called twice and each time we were told that they could not come out until my scheduled appointment. And the first thing the p.a. said to me at my appointment Thursday was, why didn’t you have the nurse take them out a couple of weeks ago? It hurt like hell to get them out as the skin had grown over a number of them. It was stupid half killing myself to get into Boston and being let out at rush hour just to have a p.a. look at my knee, take out the fucking staples the visiting nurse could have done just as well or better, and have them tell me what I know, that I can do everything they would desire of a knee patient at four and a half weeks. they kept saying I had an incredible range of motion already –of course from doing the excruciating exercises all 14 of them 3 X daily. I’m obsessive about them because I am going through all this in order to be able to walk freely for reasonable distances [up to the treadmill accident I walked 4 miles a day at least four days a week unless there are a hurricane or a blizzard] and to travel for pleasure again. I cooked my first meal last night -- what I call zucchini mélange – a dish I make all summer, never quite the same but always with zukes, sometimes yellow squash also, onions, pesto, some form of tomatoes, sometimes like last night, eggplant, sometimes peppers. Melenie and I made pesto this week. she took some home, we froze some and put some in the refrigerator. We’ve done 12 half pints so far. Melenie is incredibly good to me. She was hired as a secretary but she does anything and everything to help me. She has incredible patience and a strong nurturing streak, besides being beautiful, intelligent and talented. Plus we have fun together. Today Woody is going to pull the old cilantro and I’ll see what I can salvage to freeze; same with the old dill. I’ve started new cilantro to go into the garden. Also, I’ll go out to our gazebo in the middle of the gardens and deal with the garlic that was harvested last Friday. Woody may get to harvest the rest of the beets today, we’ll see. Tonight I’m going to cook a chicken dish, either Armenian chicken or chicken with bulghur and we’ll have beans on the side if Woody can harvest them. I can’t harvest yet but I can sure deal with the veggies as they come in, freezing, cooking them, whatever. Normal life slowly returns.