3/7/2025

Friday, March 7, 2025

D+120

1965 Alabama state troopers and 600 black protesters clashed in Selma during "Bloody Sunday," protester and future congressman John Lewis was beaten and hospitalized

In bed around 9:45, awake and up at 3:45 with thoughts like caged squirrels, minnows in the bait bucket.  Before retiring last night, I loaded the washing machine with napkins, including the ones soaked with water from my overfilling the humidifier.  31° outside, high of 38°, some snow expected around 1 p.m.

Prednisone, day 320; 4 mg, day 3/21; Kevzara, day 3/14. 2 mg. of prednisone at 5 a.m. and 4 p.m.  Other meds at 10 a.m.  Trulicity injection at 12:20 p.m.  

Old age and vulnerability.  I felt it yesterday helping Geri.  First, just walking along beside her through the garage,  from the car to the back door, and later, dealing with her ice/water machine that provides pain relief for her knee.  In each case, my lower back and hips,  my 'pelvic girdle'  were tight and iffy, my leg strength and balance were iffy, and I was close to falling, which would have created a hell of a pickle for Geri, who was in pretty rough shape herself after the 'manipulation.'  Every now and then, the thought pops into my mind whether all the knee surgery, 3 operations under general anesthesia in 8 months, was worth all that she has endured, but of course, I don't know how much pain, discomfort, and lack of functionality she was enduring before the first surgery.  In any case, it is, as they say, what it is, and we are where we are.  She will turn 81 next month, as I approach 84 next summer. Quo vaditis?  Quare vaditis?  Judica me, Deus, et discerne causam meam de gente non sancta: ab homine iniquo et doloso erue me.  Quia tu es, Deus, fortitudo mea: quare me repulisti? et quare tristis incedo, dum affligit me inimicus?  Emitte lucem tuam et veritatem tuam: ipsa me deduxerunt, et adduxerunt in montem sanctum tuum, et in tabernacula tua.  Introibo ad altare Dei.  Ad Deum, qui laaeificat iuventutem meum.  The things an old guy thinks about while waiting for the sun to appear, Psalm 43, prayers at the foot of the altar.  The photo is wall art in the waiting room at the Orthopedic Hospital.

Heather Cox Richardson, yesterday.  "This morning, Ted Hesson and Kristina Cooke of Reuters reported that the Trump administration is preparing to deport the 240,000 Ukrainians who fled Russia’s attacks on Ukraine and have temporary legal status in the United States. Foreign affairs journalist Olga Nesterova reminded Americans that “these people had to be completely financially independent, pay tax, pay all fees (around $2K) and have an affidavit from an American person to even come here.”   “This has nothing to do with strategic necessity or geopolitics,” Russia specialist Tom Nichols posted. “This is just cruelty to show [Russian president Vladimir] Putin he has a new American ally.”  

Lineage.   Robert Taft -> Barry Goldwater -> Ronald Reagan -> Newt Gingrich -> Tea Party -> Donald Trump -> ???

Wildcat is a 2024 film directed by Ethan Hawke and starring his daughter, Maya Hawke, about the life and work of Flannery O'Connor.  I watched it on OVID this afternoon, wanting to like it and enjoy it, but it wasn't to be.  I couldn't imagine Maya Hawke as O'Connor, at least as I envision her, nor Laura Linney as her mother.  The biographical line of the plot is interlaced with segments depicting various of her short stories, and the technique doesn't work well.

Caela, God bless her, came over after her Pilates session with some analgesic for Geri.  We had a nice chat, even about the wars in Gaza and Ukraine.