"The pain of the mind is worse than the pain of the body" (Syrus)

.....I'm really confused.  I am suffering pain from a sore in my heel at the same time I have pain in my groin. Not just a little pain; but a whole lot of it, and neither problems seem to be getting any better.  Tuesday I go for the oxygen treatment, but as I've said, I don't believe it will do me much good.  Joel wrote that if Rhoda said to do it, then I ought to do it.  Phil B. asks what I have against oxygen.  Both boys appear to be optimistic.  Well, OK; I'm doing it and we will see what happens.  According to me, nothing will happen.  Right now I can't even lift my left leg; someone has to help me.  

.....Ilana will be graduating from high school at the end of June.  I've made air and hotel reservations, but right now it looks as though I'll lose the money involved. If I can't go, Rhoda can stay with Renee, he daughter.  Rhoda does not want me to be alone in the house and wants to get someone to stay with me and help with the things I need.  So, I'm afraid I won't be able to go to New York; it won't work with the condition I am in.  Ruthie thinks I may have "given up"; well I have been pretty close to that--and worse.  I'm willing to try anything now and so tomorrow we are going to the place for the oxygen treatment.  I don't have much faith in it, but I'll give it a try.  They put you in a "tube" and pump in pure oxygen for an hour and a half.  That is supposed to help you to heal faster.  We shall see.

"Make War breed peace" (Timon of Athens)

.....Here's the latest. The sore on my heel is yet to heal.  (Good example of homonyms).  The doctor has recommended something called "Hyperbaric oxygen therapy."  It's a procedure where they put you on a table and wheel you into a contraption and blow in oxygen for a full hour and a half.  It'supposed to make wounds heal faster.                          It's something that I believe will do me no good and I will have wasted all that time breathing pure oxygen.  I fluffed it off, but Rhoda was fiercely adamant about it.  I will spend the hour and a half just thinking.  There will be a tv set, but I don't watch tv in the afternoon.  I could bring a book, but the only book I read now is one that I have written.  Wouldn't it be fun to read about what happened to me in 2007?  At any rate we are trying to get that wound to heal.  It distributes pain.


.....There's nothing really going on these days besides boring stories of my affliction. I was really "down" the other day when I got an email from a student of mine who graduated in 1965. It made my day. 
 I have told anyone and everyone who would listen that you were my favorite and most valued teacher!  I've taken multiple classes in my education career and have had many excellent teachers but none captured my interest and excitement for learning the way you did.  So....after all these years I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
.....  I can't even remember if I was smoking pot that year--or any other year for that matter.  Maybe it was that which made me a teacher like the one she remembers.  I never even suspected that I would become a teacher; I was just a kid from the Bronx who knew nothing.


.....Every year at the end of May comes Memorial Day.  Greeting someone with "Have a happy Memorial Day" just doesn't make it on that day.  It's a time to reflect and to remember those who gave their lives in the service of our country.  Those like the eight boys in my own aircraft who never had the chance to enjoy their grandchildren.  It's a day to honor our soldiers and sailors who were young and who never came back.

"The knight of the doleful countenance." Man of La Mancha

.....An update on my "condition": First of all, I believe that I have neglected to mention the ulcerated sore I have on my left heel.  This sore is painful and doesn't seem to be going anywhere.  I've had to deal with it for five or six weeks now.  So, what with that problem and the problem I"m having with my left leg which produces pain in the pelvis whenever I try to take a step. I feel that I have been in a Royal Battle.  In the least, the pain I have might be alleviated if the Queen knighted me; Sir Baron d'Ross knighted to honor all the Ross clan in Scotland from whence Sir Baron emanated. In addition, Baron was reminded of how his Sopwith Camel plane outdueled the Fokkers.  So what's a little hip fracture compared with that?  Eh?

.....The renovation of our place is complete now and very beautiful.  All the floors are created with wood, except for the master bedroom. RH+ did not want wooden floors in there in case she got up at night and put her feet on the cold wooden floor...so that's where we still have carpeting.  So that the Baroness would not get cold feet in the event she got up at night to go to the bathroom, we still have carpeting in there.  Our pantry has been remodeled and we now have tile on the terrace.  Finally got rid of that awful green covering.  Of course, all of this cost us a pretty penny, and along with the $6000 bill we got from Whitehall, I may really have to go back to a casino where I will be very careful in all my movements.  I refuse to stand by the entrance to the turnpike with a cardboard sign saying, I will work for food.