Monday, October 26, 2020

Three Beautiful Things 10-25-20: Angry Big Toe, Aging, Surgery BONUS A Limerick by Stu

 Reminder: Starting Sunday, Nov. 1, Facebook will no longer publish Notes. On that day, I'll start posting a link to my daily posts that will take you to www.kelloggbloggin.blogspot.com.  If you receive my daily posts by email, nothing will change. 


1. Not often, but on occasion, my right big toe swells up. This malady returned late last week. Tests in Eugene several years ago confirmed it's not the gout. It's a mystery why this happens, although, many times, this inflammation seemed to be caused by shoes that didn't fit quite right. Well, for the past few days I've been limping around, applying an ice pack to my toe (a huge help), and applying an antibiotic cream to the redness. Saturday night, the pain woke me up several times during the night. I'm happy to say, though, that today my toe, while still a bit angry, was much better. I walked much more easily, was rarely discomfited, and continued to apply ice to it. My toe is behaving just the way it has in the past when this problem has flared up.

2. Bill, Diane, Colette, and I joined one another for a ZOOM talk this afternoon. As always, our discussion went in multiple directions. As we have before, we discussed aging. Colette just had a birthday. Diane's birthday is Monday, the 26th. Colette had just watched the Bruce Springsteen movie, Letter to You. My understanding is that Springsteen, now in his early 70s, has aging on his mind -- and so do Bill, Colette, Diane, and I. 

I was unable to articulate it this afternoon, but our conversation made me think of Joan Didon's essay, "On Keeping a Notebook". She writes that we are "well advised to keep on nodding terms with the people we used to be. . . . Otherwise they show up unannounced and surprise us, come hammering on the mind's door at 4 a.m. of a bad night and demand to know who deserted them, who betrayed them, who is going to make amends." 

I didn't say it as elegantly as Joan Didion, but I told Diane, Bill, and Colette that the people I used to be haunt me, often at night, on good nights and bad ones, but the ghosts of my past aren't that picky about when they visit. They come day and night. They demand answers, wanting to know why I failed in this way or neglected to do that thing, often asking me the very pointed question, "And who did you think you were?" 

Those ghosts never come back to remind me of accomplishments or good times. They are always puzzled, out of sorts, tired of being ignored, accusatory, always reminding me of shortcomings, acts of meanness, my ignorance, bad decisions, and the many wrong paths I traversed. 

There is more to my experience with aging than having these ghosts hammering at my mind's door, but those visitations were what immediately sprang to mind in our splendid conversation on ZOOM.

3. Whereas Saturday's Game 4 of the World Series had a miraculous and nutty ending, Game 5 was a normal game. It was like having witnessed a chaotic bar fight on Saturday night only to be in an operating room on Sunday. 

The Dodgers' win, 4-2, was efficient, even surgical. Clayton Kershaw didn't have his best stuff, but he made the most of what he did have, surrendered two runs, got out of a sticky fourth inning, and, with two out in the sixth, gave way to three relievers who shut out the Rays.

Game 6 will be on Tuesday. The Rays have their two best pitchers, Matt Snell and Charlie Morton, ready to pitch on Tuesday and Wednesday. If the series goes to Game 7, the Dodgers will have the fearsome Walker Buehler ready to start that game. 

I'm sticking with my original assertion. I will root for the Rays, but I think the Dodgers will win this World Series. 


A limerick by Stu: 


If you’re Passing you sure won’t be Flunkin’!
If you’ve coffee and doughnuts you’re Dunkin’! 
But, on October Two-Six, 
Carving faces, pie mix. 
Can only be done with a Punkin’! 

 National Pumpkin Day

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