Hamstrings and nukes

Sunday I took part in a rally against Pilgrim Nuclear Power plant, an aging Fukushima clone that leaks into Cape Cod Bay and threatens all life on Cape Cod. There is no possible evacuation for those of us who live here or for visitors. It is poorly run, even according to the NRC which runs things for the benefit of the nuclear power industry. It has rotten security. You can walk or steer a boat right up to it .It’s owned and operated by Entergy Inc, out of New Orleans. They save money by cutting corners on safety and cutting personnel. In its roof, over 3000 spent rods are stored in space legally limited to 800. There’s no place for the spent rods to go. Nobody wants them in their back yard or in their mountains as they go on leaking radiation for the next hundreds of thousands of years. I was asked to read my poems against Pilgrim. I read two of them and finished with The Low Road about organizing and resisting. Harvey Wasserman, a long time foe of nukes and an engaging speaker was the core of the program, although Yvonne Barokis represented Down Cape Downwinders and delivered a strong speech about Pilgrim and its dangers. Woody strained his hamstring running on the treadmill at the gym and has been in terrible pain. He had not slept for several nights. Now his doctor has given him muscle relaxants, anti-inflametory medicine and anti-seizure to keep the hamstring from cramping. He says it’s about 20% better and he can sleep for at least five hours a night, a great improvement on no sleep. I’m beginning to prepare for our big trip at the end of the month to Ohio and upstate New York. I have my keynote speech written for Bluffton and I just put together my reading for Rochester. We already prepared for the memoir workshop at Books and Writers. I’ve been trying to do some of Woody’s garden work while he’s in pain but some of it I can’t do – what requires brute strength and what requires kneeling. I’ll never be able to kneel again according to Beth Israel because of the artificial knees they implanted. I have seven raised beds but am hoping for more to be built this fall. I can plant, weed, harvest raised beds – although it’s been so miserably hot and humid, garden work is not a pleasure lately. Woody now is able to do more with his medications. He has little pain during the day but still a lot at night. It wakes him between three and four a.m. The cats like that. I don’t nor does he. Much canning. We are also endowing others with excess tomatoes. Woody is off right now bartering our great heirloom tomatoes with a friend who has a restaurant for some meal deal. We also give tomatoes to friends. And we can and we can and we can. I’ll start dehydrating soon. I’m mostly a farm wife at this time of the summer when the gardens are belching out the veggies we’ll eat all winter – completely organic and healthy grown in our good soil and grown without chemicals. I’ve frozen 11 lbs of beans so far and given away some. We eat all the small ones as they don’t freeze well and we give away the big ones for the same reason. I continue experimenting with recipes for zukes and pattypans. Last night I made a Spanish stew with chuck, tomatoes, madeira, potatoes, pattypans, onions, pears, sultanas and lots of herbs. It was great and I made enough for us to have tonight with bread and beans on the side.