2/3/25

 Monday, February 3, 2025

D+88

1931 Arkansas legislature passed a motion to pray for the soul of journalist H. L. Mencken after he called the state the "apex of moronia"

1959 Plane crash known as "The Day the Music Died" killed musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, J. P. Richardson (aka The Big Bopper), and the pilot near Clear Lake, Iowa

1994 President Bill Clinton lifted the US trade embargo against Vietnam

In bed around 10 after sleeping on the recliner, awake at 3:38, and up at 4:15 after dreaming of wildfires in LA, teenaged CBG's family evacuated, and seriously talking with her mother and father about friendship and dating.  The temperature outside is 36° which is today's high temperature with a low of 32°.     

Prednisone, day 290, 5 + 2.5 mg., day 27, Kevzara, day 13/14.  5 mg. prednisone at 5 a.m. , 2.5 at 5 p.m. 

    

Geri continued to report weakness yesterday though she said she was stronger than the day before.  She sees Dr. Graf again this morning and is scheduled to have physical therapy again this afternoon.  She came out from her bedroom at 5:30 this morning, asking me to bring her an ice pack for her knee.  I brought her two, one for below the knee and the other for on top of the knee.  She had awakened from pain in the knee.  It's been 17 days since the surgery and I'm wondering whether this is 'normal' or a cause for concern.  I guess we'll know after the visit with Dr. Graf.  Or not. . .   10:30 a.m., Dr. Graf's assessment isn't very clear to me but basically it's that Geri hasn't been using enough pain-killing meds, even though they made her very nauseous, unable to eat, physically weak, and severely constipated.  Her physical therapy session at 1:30 went well and she rested in bed all afternoon with the ice-based cooling patch on her knee.  She has an appointment with Dr. B. at 10 a.m. tomorrow.  

Email exchange with LOA:

LOA: Robert  Bly?

CDC:  If I recall correctly, you were an English major at UWM, one of those increasingly disparaged, "useless" majors (like history) that aren't specifically designed to prepare college students for a trade or profession, like accounting or computer science. If so, uou may be more accepting of one of what Geri thinks of as my "eccentricities," i.e., I like poetry.and classic literature. I don't like most of the poetry I come upon, which is simply incomprehesible to me, but I have some that move me deeply like Walt Whitman's "Come Up From the Fields, Father" about a mother's grief over the death of her soldier son, and Yeats' "Vacillation", only the 4th and 5 stanzas. Now that I am an old man, all that seems to have stayed with me from my college education is my enjoyment of literature that I picked up in my English classes in Marquette's Liberal Arts college. In any case, I came across Robert Bly's poem about the dream of a telephone call from his dead father in my paperback anthology of poems edited by Garrison Keillor, "Good Poems." It grabbed me because of its suggestion of a troubled relationship between the poet and his father and ambivalent feelings toward his father: "Why did it take us so long to get going. Perhaps he left us somewhere once, or did I simply forget that he was alone in winter in some town."

I think you know my Dad was one of the 70,000 Marines who fought on Iwo Jima 80 years ago this month. He was a radioman He came back to my mother, my little sister, and me quite thoroughly fucked up from the experience. He never talked about it until he was in his 80s and I was in my mid-60s, and then only sparingly. Growing up with him and his PTSD was a miserable experience for my sister and me.   I had a strained relationship with him most of my life. There was a period of 13 years in which we never spoke, never wrote, never communicated at all and it was only when we were both old men that we developed a healthy relationship and real friendship and even then, he held onto what seemed to be his life's motto: 'The less said the better.' In any event, it was with that personal background that I read Robert Bly's "When My Dead Father Called."

The last few years of my Dad's life he lived with Geri and me during the warmer half of the year and with my sister Kitty in Phoenix during the colder half. My children didn't know him. All they knew of him was that my former spouse Anne told them he was "a crabby old man" which was what she knew of him. I wrote a long memoir for my children that contains a lot about my childhood with him, about Marine training, Iwo Jima, and PTSD. Quite a bit of research went into the memoir. I have the chapters on my computer in digital form and, if you're interested, I can email you the chapters on his time in the Marines and the effect it had on him. They would explain why I was so moved by the conclusion of Bly's little poem: "Perhaps he left us somewhere once, or did I simply forget that he was alone in winter in some town." 

 Exchange of texts with KAJ:

Hi Uncle Chuck.  In another stunning turn of Trump events, I resigned my position as the Deputy Chief of Staff after a Friday conversation with the Acting General Counsel.  I mention this because now I have oodles of free time as I commence my job search.  I understand AG is struggling with her meds and pain.  Could I ask you to raise the idea of my paying a visit?  I know that if I was in pain the last thing I’d want is a visitor (and you may not want a visitor either 🤭) but if I could be of some use/distraction I would love to do so.  No need to mention that I am a jobless hobo to AG just now.  Let me know your thoughts, time permitting.

Charles Clausen:

Hi, Sweetie.  Have we told you lately that we love you?  Old Elvis hit.  You are right about AG struggling with her meds and pain.  She sees her orthopedic surgeon in about half an hour and hopes to talk with her primary care doctor later.  She asked to respond to your offer after those 2  consults.  I don’t know what to say about your resignation under our new administration which would have had you working for Stephen Miller, the Prince of Darkness. I hope it all works out for you and suspect it will.♥️♥️♥️

and

Hi, Sweetie.  She was in with the orthopedic surgeon for about 45 minutes.  Her recovery/rehab is not going as expected.  Her knee should be being now, more than two weeks after the surgery, but it isn’t.  She has been so sick from the medications: nausea, weakness, intestinal pain and troubling constipation.  The latter seems to have cleared up but the surgeon tells her she hasn’t been taking enough pain medication, even though that is what was making her nauseous and constipated.   She has an appointment with her physical therapist this afternoon and she want to keep the appointment, though I’m wondering whether she should cancel.  In any case, she has an appointment with her primary care doc downtown tomorrow at 10 a.m.  She doesn’t want to make any decision about visiting until after that appointment and seeing how she will be feeling tomorrow after taking more pain med.  As of today, she is avoiding any visitors because she feels so crappy so we, she or I or both of us,,  will be back in touch with you tomorrow.  You know how much each of us appreciates your kind offer and that you are always welcome in our home, except when AG is so very much out of commission.  (And, BTW, the one who perhaps would most appreciate your presence might be ME, for your company and moral support as much as anything, but of course I don’t want anything that would make her life more challenging right now.  More news later, and please give my best to Jordan)❤️

knee should be bending, not being. 

TI watched The Nightingale on MUBI, a film written and directed by Jennifer Kent.  Excellent acting by Aisling Franciosi and Baykali Ganambarr.