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| Dragon; Deb Marshall photo |
Oh yeah – a really, really long month.
We all know the political stuff – just be sure to vote. No excuses. Your vote may decide whether the world as we know it ends.
We all should know the Covid stuff – it’s getting worse, in case you’ve been living in a bubble-bath for months and only associating with happy elves. Wear a mask, wash the cloth ones often, wash your hands - don’t just rely on hand sanitizer – wash your hand sanitizer bottle often, avoid crowds, be brave and make the hard but safe and correct decisions about holidays, and hold your breaths until this is under control.
OK, don’t hold your breaths – but for god’s sake, don’t breathe all over other people!
So for me, personally – this is going to be a lot of stuff you may not want to know, be warned. My summer started with tendinitis set off by whacking a rock, hard, while hand-troweling holes for plants. That’s usually a 3-month recovery time, especially because it’s an old injury and it’s my dominant hand. But within a couple of weeks, I suddenly had pain in both thumbs; and then in both hands, both wrists, the forearm and upper arm and elbow of the original hand, the neck and shoulders…And then something bit me on the calf – something with a big, sharp bite – which left a lump, and enduring muscle cramping and pain that traveled up and down that leg, and did so for about a month, and seemed to make the hand pain worse; and then, all the Chinese formulas and needling and over-the-counter analgesics and pain ointments and plasters and braces and kinesio-tape and massage stopped working or didn’t work; and then I (in hind-sight, foolishly) took an extended- release pharmaceutical, which I had a wicked fine allergic reaction to, and the allergic reaction has continued to make my life complicated for weeks and weeks afterward, including increasing all the arm and hand pain, and making me see double at long distance, so I can’t drive myself anywhere for the time being. And the tendinitis is still not all better.
Portsmouth NH, Charley Freiberg photo
It’s been --- interesting. Good thing the garden had a crappy year, because sometimes I’ve been able to deal with it, and sometimes not. In the past month I’ve made up for years and years and years of no health problems: I’ve been to the ER twice, had an echocardiogram, an EKG (more interesting to get than the echo, which takes 45 mins and is boring, boring, boring) and I’m scheduled for an MRI. And I’ve seen my PCP and talked to her via email 100 times more than I have in the last 7 years together. And I’ve had blood tests for all sorts of interesting things. And no, nothing is obviously wrong; and the eyes are very slowly correcting themselves – and fortunately, my up-close vision wasn’t affected, so I’ve been able to stab patients with sharp needles through it all.
So, maybe the bite was a deerfly carrying some odd pathogen; or maybe I have long-term, old Lyme disease; or maybe the disinfectants I’ve been using at the office have been breathed too freely while I’m disninfecting; or maybe there’s a fungus or mold of some sort in the garden soil that the strange weather brought to the surface and I breathed too much of it; or maybe it’s a muscle thing and I need a chiro adjustment more often; or maybe it’s something else. We don’t know yet, and to quote the ER guy, we may never know.
Anyway, all that to explain quickly why I haven’t written in awhile!
Have you noticed what an absolutely spectacular fall we’re having? Oak leaves that are orange and red and burgundy, and other leaves glowing from inside, and lingering much longer than usual. Bachelor Buttons and Bells of Ireland and California poppies and Calendula and something I don’t know what it is are all blooming and fantastically beautiful, the Egyptian onions are going crazy, and the fall raspberries were superb. Dill is resprouting, and I’m slowly, slowly mulching and starting to plant next year’s garlic crop. And in the last 2 days, when I look out the window at the garden, I’m only seeing one garden instead of two!
Pleasant Lake; Charley Freiberg photo
Though who could really complain about seeing extra gorgeous trees in full, mystical color?
Hallowe’en this year is the day of the blue moon. And just days before the election. To quote someone, probably Shakespeare by way of Penny, “The gates of hell are open, and all the devils are here.” Please vote – and not for the Antichrist.
Deb Marshall Self-Portait?
