Decluttering the Worry Table in Everyday Ramblings

Not the castle house but detail of another one up there in the same area.

As I (and my family) have been reading more about bottle diggers and how they find sites I realized that I could go to the map room at our Central library (it is right next to the poetry section) and probably could find a map that includes what structures were here on my block at various times over the last 200 years or so. Duh.

I did notice something new yesterday for me. The towering mimosa tree that it out in front of the former mayor’s house that was moved has a couple of sister trees on the edge of the now vacant lot on the other side of the house that has been there all along. There was a gas station there at one time and it is a toxic cleanup site that has been fenced off the whole time I have lived here. Now I wonder how old those trees are.

Out here in the real world I have been talking about all this stuff to anyone who will listen and that includes my public class students most of whom I know from other arenas. One of them sent me an email yesterday about a talk a fellow is giving with slides about the history of the Jewish and Italian populations in you guessed it, my neighborhood. It is at a large Jewish community center that is a little challenging to get to south of here but I am going to chance it on Thursday night.

One of my other student’s husband is a member of an old money family here and went to school with the children of other old money families and she knows a remarkable amount of local history. More related to the amazing houses up the hill where I took this shot but also a broad perspective of the history of the city in general.

S. got a big kick out of learning about the bottle digger and the privy sites.

Last night because there is a big conference with lots of money using our multi-purpose building my yoga class got bumped to our wonderful historic parlor room where since 1923 folks have come to sign the membership book. It is where during the church year the Women’s Circles meet. Besides circle I’ve been to writing classes, caregivers groups and poetry readings in there but we were all marveling at the perspective from the floor on the marvelous old soft Persian carpet.

My biopsy pathology report came back clear yesterday so that is one big scary thing to take off the worry table. We got to talking about the doctor that did it this morning after a meeting and he is truly a wonderful guy. You can even tell that in the warmth and humanity in the path report.

It was expensive though even with insurance. Other people have vacations; I stay home with the cats and rule out things.

He wants me to have another ultrasound in 6 months of the cyst they found.

Next stop is my GP again. The arthritis in my hips has come on really strong the last few weeks. I like my hips very much, I am attached to them and would like to keep them thank you very much.

Speaking of the cats, in a magical moment yesterday Diego let me clip all ten of his front nails! At once. This is a first. No need to dangle him from the scruff of his neck like we did the first attempt, just me, a snuggle on an old clean towel on the bed and human nail clippers.

There is hope on many levels here. And that is a balm in these difficult times full of internecine righteous and hate-filled over armed conflict.

I loved listening to Mark Maron talk about what it was like having the President of the United States come sit in his garage for an interview on his podcast last Friday.

My favorite part was to hear that after all the secret service and snipers and staff had left he had to go over to his house and let his cats out of the bedroom.

And they were quite happy about that.

Last updated June 24, 2015