4/19/2026

Sunday, April 19, 2026

1775  Paul Revere's midnight ride from Lexington to Concord

1989 Central Park Five: Violent rape of jogger Trisha Meili in NYC's Central Park became one of the most widely publicized crimes of the 1980s. Five teenagers were wrongfully convicted and spent between 6-12 years in prison.

1993 After a 51-day siege by the FBI, 76 Branch Davidians died in a fire near Waco, Texas (accident, suicide, and tear gas are disputed causes)

1995 Oklahoma City bombing: Timothy McVeigh triggered a truck bomb at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, killing 168. including 19 children, and injuring 500

In bed at 9 and up at 3, read 2 chapters of The Idiot and fell back to sleep until 6:20.  3:10 120/57/33 206.0;  34/26/44

Morning meds at 8 a.m.  Ranolozine at 6:40 a.m. and 6:10 p.m.

My normal morning regimen or protocol lately has me waking up between 2 and 3 a.m., switching from the bed to the beroom recliner to try to get back to sleep, engaging in my daily weigh-in and blood pressure measurement, recording the results in my phone, then walking with 'Judy' out to the kitchen to make a caup of decaf coffee, onto the tv room recliner to record the weight and BP data in the VA booklet, and then in my journal, and then my day begins, by opening my laptop and  starting to write in this journal, reading the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, and usually checking out Morning Joe. Tired all morning and much of the afternoon.

Geri's birthday dinner was lovely.  Steve and Nikki came up from Chicago, and David came over with Ellis.  Sharon was home with a very bad cold.  She had David go down to Benjy's earlier to get her some chicken matza ball soup.  Geri and David grilled a wonder piece of beef for the top of the menu, with mashed potatoes, chimichurri, and a Costco luscious chocolate mousse birthday cake.  Steve brought up and gave to us a beautfiul incense holder which he had made in his pottery class and Nikki gave us some incense cones she had made herself.  I told them that I think it is wonderful that they are both engaging in art-making with their hands, an activity all of us humans can benefit from.  I'm feeling the deficit in my life now that I've long since stopped drawing and painting.  They remind me to get on the ball and try to do at least a little patchwork on old paintings to get the juices flowing again.  The photo is of Steve's incense holder below with the residue of some of Nikki's homemade patchouli incense, with another creation of Steve's above it.

 The Idiot.  On Sunday afternoon, I'm 40% through the novel, still reading it, on page 192 of 506 pages. It is said that Dostoevski didn't think it was such a good novel, but it was his favorite.  Like all his novels, it's pretty long, filled with character studies, and explorations of good and evil, man's relationship with God and religion.