My new life leaves little time for posting, which is a good thing.  Fortunately, the timing worked out so that I’ve been able to gradually reacquaint myself with each kid in turn, not get thrown into the deep end of the vortex at once.  I have been assimilated into the Borg (or should I say Ninja) that is S (the youngest).  We seem to have a good connection.  Being somewhat on the spectrum myself helps, I think.  What an interesting kid and experience.

Next, E (next to oldest of the four) will probably return early from summer camp, where they had a meltdown but then adjusted to some degree.  That will give me a chance to re-bond with them for a week, before Y joins us again, and repeat.  Meanwhile K (the oldest) has understandably retreated to his gaming lair to avoid the whole annoying process of dealing with sibs.  I can kind of see his point!

Here are a bunch of photos.  The dog is Jean, a neighborhood bull mix, my favorite teddy bear in the world.  He just plops down in the driveway to exchange affection.  His girl has to drag him away by his harness!  The rabbit, a fixture in the yard, is named Frankfurt I believe.  He’s more of a lawn ornament.  The chipmunk (don’t know his name) is also a permanent resident.  The other night, raccoons raided the trash and dined on old challah.  They just sat there while Avdi took a picture.  It’s a menagerie out there.

The last two days have consisted of doctor appointments, cat management, and getting to know my youngest grandson.  Even without the lingering dizziness, I wouldn’t even have time to garden.  That’s OK, priorities first.  This is why I’m here.

I did manage to catch these photos in between Ninjago and outdoor fantasy swordplay.  I’m afraid I don’t make a very good ninja.  (I’m just a lowly Nomi in training.)  Speaking of which, gotta get back to it.

I got to see the gkids!  I managed to drive over there (in the loaner car), not too dizzily, to see the two (E&Y) off to summer camp, and the youngest (S) who was riding along.  We got to hang out for a while before they left, which was great.  Of course they’re very different since the last time I saw them (years ago!), as am I, but this gave us a chance to start to get to know each other again.

This is Dizzy Day 6, the longest I’ve ever had vertigo, but I’m hoping by tomorrow I can get back to a semblance of normal and take care of business.  I’ll also get to spend some time with my youngest gson.  We seem to have gotten off to a good start.

Here’s a daisy I was given.

This was the longest attack of vertigo I’ve had.  It’s at day 5 now, just starting to subside.  I won’t bore you with details.  Suffice it to say it’s been unpleasant and surreal.  Getting old is getting real old!

Lots happened while I was out of commission, mostly the kids arriving at Avdi’s.  I haven’t even gotten to see them yet.  All seems well, so far.  Two of them will go to summer camp, so that will take some of the load off.

Jess and family are going away and loaned me the car, so once I can operate heavy machinery without crashing, I can catch up on all the medical appointments I’ve had to cancel, do cat maintenance at Jess’s all week, and hopefully get over to Avdi’s.

Being out of commission paradoxically made me realize how fortunate I really am.  Many people have it way worse than I, medically and economically.  I have a nice apartment to retreat to and recover, family and friends who can drop by and help, and some food once I was able to eat.  I don’t have to worry about losing a job, or being out on the street.  I’m one of the lucky ones.

I also thought about how five days of radio silence wouldn’t even be on most people’s radar, since my blahg is so boring and mundane.  It gave me a chance to take a break and rethink it.  I’m not sure where I’ll take it from here.  The more good books I read, the more I realize I’ll never be a writer.  Maybe I’ll just prune it down to encourage new growth.  Like a literary propagatrix.

Between Avdi’s additional new work gig, and the kids’ imminent arrival, it’s crunch time, which means getting creative and time-effective with transportation.  Accordingly, I had my first Lyft ride today from Avdi’s to my apartment.  Now I can keep medical appointments.

Today after watering the garden, I weeded some more, and harvested lots of peas.  Avdi and Jess were preoccupied with  reorganizing the house for the kids’ moving in, plus working, so he set me up with Lyft on his account, and now I’m back “home”.

Something tells me soon I’ll be looking back fondly at this brief period of R&R in my life, before all hell broke loose!  But it will be a fine and worthwhile hell, I’m sure.

This is my first summer in STL, which apparently starts in May, stays in the 9os until fall, with ongoing air quality alerts, and high humidity.  Who needs Florida!  The only thing missing is daily monsoons, ‘gators, and hurricanes.  Instead we have periodic flash-flooding, armadillos, and tornado warnings.  And huge creepy rabbits.  We even have similar fascists.  Retire to sunny MO!  You’ll never freeze to death.

Don’t mind me, I’m just adapting, i.e., sitting in my air-conditioned apartment with ceiling fans (or at Avdi’s, depending).

Yesterday for erev at A’s, in addition to challah, I made an elaborate Asian stir-fry with tofu, HB eggs, peanuts, snow/snap peas from the garden, long beans and several other veggies, ginger root, sesame seeds, soy sauce, fresh herbs, and Asian yellow curry beef sauce, served over jasmine rice.

Just an aside…I’ve had to cancel/postpone several routine preventive medical procedures due to lack of transportation.  Now I’m in that same boat that used to just be other poor oldsters.  It’s a weird place to be.  I spent years schlepping my parents to specialists all week, in my own car.  In order to do that, I had to give up my job, home, and own healthcare in MD and move back to NJ.  As I’ve said many times elsewhere, I would never expect my own child to do that for me, and I mean it.  It’s just a fact of life for many people, whose ranks I’ve joined.  One more necessity I don’t take for granted.  I feel very fortunate just to be able to live near my son, who works very hard to pay his family’s expenses, and helps me out in so many unexpected ways.

I think I lost a day.  Now it’s Friday–I know, because I’m at Avdi’s baking challah!  Don’t worry, you didn’t miss a thing.

Also we have: Avdi’s excellent homemade raisin bread, a very large rabbit, prickly pear in full bloom, milkweed starting to bloom, and lots of other action.