Elemental Forces Making Us All Mental in Everyday Ramblings

Yesterday evening we were having record breaking rains in a weirdly warm environment and I was homebound. My oldest sister called. This is indeed a very rare occurrence. The way things work in their house with her daughter and granddaughter (Miss E.), (especially during the holidays) is that they participate in many many of the festive offerings Seattle has to offer to make Miss E.’s experience growing up as rich as possible.

Because of all these complicated logistical arrangements one is not “allowed” to just call and chat. Everything is tightly controlled, although some of that has by necessity been a bit more flexible since my sister’s cancer diagnosis and treatment.

She had two wounds from the surgery, and the abdominal wound, although very slow to heal did so. But the other one is still “leaking” after six months and so she just went through another round of appointments with her Oncologist and Surgeon.

There was concern that there was more cancer creating the problem and on Thursday the test results came back that yes indeed there is more cancer. We are all sad and disappointed and a little scared by this news. This is not a terminal diagnosis but it means more chemo (which she has pretty much decided to go for) and probably more surgery and another long recovery time.

But she is not going to start until later in the week or next week. She still has her port so at least that part of the treatment will be a little better than it could be without it.

As I had a biopsy last week as well, which I will have to pay a portion of, we all decided this year to have a very modest Christmas. We are doing our bit to support the industrial medical complex in all its dysfunctional glory here in the U.S.

Luckily, my wound is small and on my thigh just above the knee so I can change the dressing myself and continue to teach. My doctor was absolutely wonderful and I got in to see him within a few days.

Kes and Most Honorable are celebrating their 27th wedding anniversary out at the beach in very stormy weather. Poor them may be stuck there an extra day because of flooding and mudslides. An unbelievable amount of rain fell on the Coast Range yesterday. But the snow level is way high because of the warm temperatures. So it will take longer than usual to get home but they will.

We have our annual Christmas Eve Eve dinner scheduled for Tuesday and we all are looking forward to that.

My oldest sister was able to make two trips down here to Oregon recently and then just got back from a trip to Los Angeles where she went to see some old well-heeled friends that live in West Hollywood. She went to Venice Beach and the La Brea Tar Pits and the attached museums. The husband of the couple she visited worked in the movies as a sound man and is a member of the Academy so they previewed a bunch of movies in contention for the 2015 Awards.

We are all thrilled she was able to go.

When she called she wanted to talk about this book she is reading about the history of Kosovo. Last year this time her MD was so bad she could barely see and we all thought she was going blind for good so her ability to read now is a true gift.

Her friend from the movies loaned her a book about the Chelsea Hotel in New York and she loves it because it is a book as much about the building as the people who lived there. She teases me all the time that I am more New York oriented than West Coast oriented and she said, you probably know all about the Chelsea Hotel and of course I do.

This evening we have our annual slightly pagan Solstice celebration at church welcoming the longest night of the year. It is pretty tame as pagan festivities go but also just lovely with the choir and the recitations and honoring of the essential forces of nature.

All very evident to even the most casual observer here lately.

Diego says hi and thanks for letting him take over posting for me. He is an absolute brat but a thoroughly endearing one.

Last updated December 21, 2014