A Shot of Trouble

We didn’t get the extreme heat that much of Massachusetts suffered. Yet! We had a good sea breeze. This coming week is supposed to be worse and we’re getting hit by it this time.  When Woody took me for my semiannual appointment, Dr. Shay recommended we get the Covid shots right then, as they we only given 30 instead of hundreds and they would usually get (thanks, RFH, Jr.) and they’d all be gone by 5 pm.  We did so. My checkup was pretty good, but then shortly after we got home, the vaccine began to knock me out. I’ve always had a bad day or two after a Covid shot, but this time was worse than ever before – much worse. I had a minor accident when I was very dizzy from the shots with my severe brain fog Thursday morning.  It was hardly serious but is causing a lot of pain although a bit less every day.

I froze 7 half pints of strawberry preserves – from local strawberries. Woody harvested a lot of broccoli yesterday, so I’ll be freezing much of it today.  I’ll keep out enough for supper. We saw friends here on Friday night and went over to Tasha’s Saturday. She made a delightful dinner for us and two other friends. It was a great evening. Especially memorable was the cake – full of fruit with almond paste and a nice crusty topping.

It has been a quiet week mostly. Some poems accepted, a zine arriving with two of my poems as well as lots of good work from the Chiron Review and two poems on line in a new zine, Judith. I was busy with garden and processing work, so only one poem to show for the week.

We wanted to get as much done outside as we could before the extreme heat hit us. Neither of us is any good at working outside in heat and humidity. Tourists will love it, however. Beach weather for sure and even two weeks before the Fourth, the Cape is crowding up.

I roasted the major part of a spoon roast for guests a few weeks ago and we froze the remaining third. Tonight, I’m roasting that. Also mashed potatoes and cold broccoli according to a
Spanish recipe with kalamata olives, roasted peppers.  A cold veggie will be appreciated tonight.

A catbird has been hanging around the pink dogwood right outside a bay window. I hope it isn’t the nutty one who kept bashing himself against his reflection: a male defending territory last summer . They haven’t begun teasing the cats yet.  They rabbits are everywhere. My only poem this this week was about the rabbits.

I’ve been reading Fox and I by Catherine Raven.  Her keen observations of animal and plant life is fascinating. She will live with any animal. She observes but doesn’t kill a colony of black widow spiders in her garage. She lives in a cabin in a mountain wilderness of Montana.

As a child, I often found it easier to relate to my cat than to my parents or other girls.  In high school I got better at it and had a circle of friends, one of whom I roomed with the first two years of the U of Michigan.  I edited the school paper. I actually worked as a paid contributor to the community newspaper my last two years of high school. Then @ Michigan, I was a reporter and then an editor of the Michigan Daily. That ended my journalism career until I was on the Viet Report in 1965 for a while. I knew I had no desire to be a reporter, but I did enjoy interviewing. That came in handy when I was doing research for my novels.