When my mother read my palm as I was visiting them from college, she told me I’d die between the ages of 38 and 42. I turned 86 this week and no one is more surprised than me. I remember when I hit my 43rd birthday, even though I didn’t believe in her divination, nonetheless I felt a great relief.  Now I’m twice that age and still wobbling along.  I’ve lived longer than my father and I’m only a year younger than what we think my mother’s age was when she died of a stroke.

The temperature continued its highs unusual in March and its lows, even more extreme for the season.  Today appears mild and overcast.  Thursday night we had a greats storm with howling winds and rain coming sideways that kept me awake for at least two hours.  I suspect we had about two inches of rain.  I hope to get outside after lunch today  as I need to thin seedlings in the greenhouse.  There are already many seedlings out there growing rapidly. 

Tonight we celebrate Stephen’s birthday and mine at a dinner here.  Dale will make dessert; I’ll make the rest of the meal.  Stephanie is coming over too.  Soon she is threatening to return to her house in the Berkshires.  Tash is back teaching at Dartmouth, but we had a lovely meal that she cooked last Saturday.  We had a delightful time with them including Stephen and Dale.

My tooth and its accompanying gum have given me no trouble since I went off the antibiotics – they seem to have fixed it, I hope.  I have been trying to catch up on everything neglected while I was out of commission.  I got way behind on outdoor work and on just about everything else. I write two poems last week, but both were about – my tooth.  Now I’m on track.  My poetry group met this week. We are in crisis as three people have dropped out.  One woman has to take care of her ailing husband; another, her frail mother who moved here for that very reason. The third is ailing herself and feels she can’t write now.  Still another is about to enter an 18 month class to further her therapy credentials into a new area.

I invited one new poet, but we need more, poets who are serious about their writing and produce sufficient poems to discuss at least two once a month at our meetings.

Woody made me a delightful birthday, perfume, chocolates and a new dress I love. Melenie sent me jewelry.  Jay sent DVD’s from when they were professional actors in Hollywood.  Jay had the lead in a kung fu movie and Melenie was featured in a horror flic.  We’ll have to watch them on our computers as our new TV turns out to have no way to watch movies.  We didn’t notice that when bought it or probably we wouldn’t have.  How much would it cost the manufacturer to put in a DVD option?

It's time to start more tender veggies and start plalnting the hardy plants. We’re running late this year because of the weird weather and unusual cold .