Mint Juelps for Two
It was a difficult week. I couldn’t move my dental appointment which was on the afternoon when the winners and runners-up of the Regional Jose Gouveia poetry contest sponsored by WOMR was scheduled. I read last, six or seven poems. I was so numbed and worn out when I got out of the dentist—who filled three teeth during the appointment. The numbness finally wore off by 5:30 so I was able to eat a little. But I was very weak. The stage at Preservation Hall has poor lighting, a rickety rostrum from which I almost fell off the stage, and no banister on the stairs to climb up to the stage. I still read well and in a commanding voice, but I was shaking and had enormous trouble getting off the stage. Woody and Chuck Mandansky had to help and even then I was stuck for a while.
The day before I had an appointment at OCB, Ophthalmic Consults of Boston. It’s a huge eyecare factory with offices in Boston, Yarmouth, Sandwich, Framingham, etc., all over the state. Doctor Ventura is a kind caring doctor who actually took my ongoing problem of violently itchy and sore eyes seriously. She had prescribed an ointment the week before that cleared it up almost completely. I was able to get a good night’s sleep, something that has evaded me with my eyes waking me during the night, every night. But I had to have a field of vision test. Two huge woman pushed me into the machine and held me there. When I got done with that, my eyes’ itching was back and developed seriously. I am just now slowly getting better. Medical appointments for an old woman like me are often worse than what the visits S are supposed to fix.
Sometimes, I have a slight tremor, but today it’s bad. Still, I just cleared half the ornamental raised bed out front and planted 3 digitalis plants and three asclepias (milkweed), foxglove and butterfly weed. I checked the greenhouse. Most seedlings seem good. There are three ferns that go in the bed under the dining room windows, but I’ll wait till the next mild day to get them into the ground. Some tender stuff arrived from White Flower Farms but it’s too uncertain to plant them with the temperature rising and falling so abruptly this spring.
We always give a Kentucky Derby party, but not this year. Too many of the friends who always come are out of town or incapacitated. We’ll just watch it together. I actually have a stronger interest in the derby than anybody else who usually comes so it’ll be a relief to watch without a crowd of friends shouting for mint juleps. (Woody makes really good ones.) I’ve watched many of the horses in previous races all winter and spring. I never bet, but I love to watch the horses run. Woody’s going to make air fryer chicken wings and I’ll make guacamole with tortilla chips. We watched the Oaks last night. The two horses I as rooting for were unsuccessful.
Dorian worked well last Tuesday. I so hope she stays as my assistant. We cleaned up some of the immense pile of work from all of March and all of April. I had waited a month hoping that Dale would be able to return. But if Dorian works out, she may be even better. I hope so! I haven’t sent out any poems in two months. I keep writing them but they just sit there.
The now-resident fox struts up the driveway every morning these days. He/she [I can’t sex foxes] is young, looks healthy, with a fine coat. They saunter along, tail high. We already have far less rabbits. There were so many the last few years, I had to push them out of the way with my feet to work in my garden. They ate everything. We were constantly fighting them.
It’s been a dry spring. I am hoping we’ll get rain tonight. The weather people keep telling us it’s going to rain, but it doesn’t; or if it does, it’s just a brief sprinkle.