Of A Tuesday

Just two more guests and I'm out of the Aibnb bizness till September.

The Italian guy left this morning about 8:15, giving me a few minutes to strip and remake bed before work.

I arrived home with time to spit polish room, add fresh flowers and give the bathroom and kitchen a shine. All this in 100 degree weather, with the window units laboring mightily to keep the house a cool 80degrees in the living room, 74 in the bedrooms.

The Italian guy turned off his airconditioner and the overhead fan saying it was too cold to sleep.

Italy I don't think so, I think he came from Hell. It's never been too cold in my casa.

Now I'm waiting for the Australian.

I'm pretty sure he will speak English unlike my guest of the last three nights.

Hard going for a communicator like myself. I finally downloaded the Translate app, which helped me immensely.

At least I could express my feelings about the USA/Columbia soccer match last night. Bon mots such as "they play dirty" flowed from my fingertips.

But no app was needed for Enrico and Lucy to communicate, it was love at first sight for him.

And even though Lucy is married I detected a lilt in her voice and a tilt of her head which made me suspicious.

Then I saw her tail disappearing into the guest room and I knew it was all over for Lucy and B. At least until the next time he comes over.

She has not learned this behavior from me, I promise.

Unless she has managed to find my dairies.

We are waiting for another storm to hit with winds up to 60 miles an hour and hail.

Oh joy. My backyard has just drained out from last Saturdays tropical storm.

Gus of course rushed out into the inferno as soon as I got home and will undoubtedly wait until he is ready to wring from the rain before I see him again.

Kids. What are you gonna do?

The sky is turning black, this will be my second guest to arrive in a Wizard of Oz fashion.

Gotta run, need to put my umbrella down and start the plaintive cries of "Gus, Gus" so often heard round da hood.

Life Can Be Both Wave And Particle*

Whew. Now I can finally write a blog post.

As I'm sure anyone who's been reading me for any length of time knows, when something big is brewing, I go into radio silence.

Wait, not necessarily true, sometimes I spill the beans before they're even cooked.

But if I'm not writing about what's happening, I'm not writing.

So last Monday I woke up to a bug, maybe a spider, maybe one of those damn flying ants, on my right breast, and when I went to shoo it away I felt a lump where there never was a lump before.

I poked, I prodded and I fell back to sleep.

When I awoke I went about my normal Monday morning, pulling weeds, feeding plants and letting the cats in and out.

It wasn't until I was dressed and ready to go out for lunch that I remembered my strange "dream".

So I poked and prodded again and found that same lump.

This was no dream.

I called my doctor, his office called me back.

By now I'm in a car with friends on our way to lunch.

I could have a breast exam in 2 hours.

We ate a messy lunch of lettuce wraps at our favorite Vietnamese restaurant then they dropped me off to go a little shopping.

I grabbed an iced latte and headed upstairs to see my gynecologist.

He examined me, wrote me a prescription for a comprehensive screening. This would start with a mammogram and go thru the circuit of ultra sound, MRI and a biopsy if necessary.

He asked if I drank a lot of coffee. When I brandished my latte at him, he suggested there may be a link between heavy caffeine consumption and benign fibroid cysts.

He said he didn't think I had to worry but I did the right thing by coming in immediately.

I made an appointment at the imaging center for Monday the 15th. And then I went about my business.

 Today, same friends, different lunch spot, we ate Thai.
 
They dropped me off and went shopping.

I entered the world of pink. Pink scrubs for the staff, pink tops for the patients. Even the key chain for our lockers was pink. It was aggressively pink.

I had a 3D mammogram, which despite more interesting pictures, hurts just as much.

A radiologist read the results and said all was well, they would send the report to my doctor. I could get dressed and go home.

Other women were told they could get dressed and go see the radiologist.

I felt very lucky. I cried a little as I changed out of the pink and into my white top.

I got an iced green tea with lemonade, my friends picked me up and away we drove.

It's so random, the way your life can change in one split second.

Or not.

xo J

*  Ellen Gilchrist











 
 

As Miss Pickering Would Say: Lately And In No Particular Order

I am alone in my house for the first time in weeks.

It's been raining since about 4:00 pm today, it started, it stopped  and then started again everytime I tried to leave the house to walk to the store.

Who cares, I have bowls of ice cold cherries, watermelon and cantaloupe, a pitcher of garden fresh ice mint tea and a lemon syrup.

They can wait for a new bag of crunchies.

I had a guest from Singapour via Morgantown, West Virginia who left this morning.

She was tall, thin and extremely elegant. As if Lucy suddenly became a person.

She's a poetess who just got her Masters in Creative Writing.

To hear her talk about demolition derbys and football games and pepperoni rolls, apparently the state food of West Virginia, was hilarious.

She had a beautiful accent reminincent of a 30's British movie star. She said it's her fake American accent.

I want one.

Meanwhile up in the attic was B. His new place around the corner wasn't available until yesterday so I said he was welcome to stay in the attic if he could make it work.

Several hours later it was clean and  organized, he built a tent like structure from the piles of textiles I have stashed up there, bought an air conditioner and an air mattress.

I think somewhere in the swirl of activity he and Lucy got married, at least I hope so because she moved up there with him too.

I told the next two Airbnb guests he was my nephew.

I don't know why. I didn't know how else to explain why a man married to a cat was in the attic.

So now it's just the 3 of us. Gus is soaked from the rain, Lucy's sulking cause her man did her wrong and I'm missing my griller.

But tomorrow Carlos (another Carlos) arrives, this one from Miami and the next chapter unfolds.

Born to host.

xo J

PS. Gratuitous squirrel picture.  I have never eaten a peach from my tree.

Public Enemy #1