I’m in a New York State of Mind… Day +131

It couldn’t be better… here we are in the latter part of August and the Yankees and Red Sox are in a virtual dead heat for first place, with the Bronx Bombers holding a slim ½ game lead! I’m having a tough time thinking of a sports rivalry that is any more intense or that has any more rabid fans than this.

I grew up in a Yankee household… my Dad and his brothers were all Yankee fans and all played baseball. Uncle Bobby played softball well into his 40’s and I was a batboy for his team, the North End Democratic Club. Uncle Pat and Uncle Dom were Yankee fans, too… but Uncle John, Uncle Tom and Uncle Bob were Red Sox fans. As a result, I had some (actually many) cousins who rooted for the dreaded Red Sox. Oh, what shouting matches we had… Williams was better than Mantle… trade Mantle for Williams? Through the 50’s 60’s and even the 70’s the Yanks had the edge, winning the pennant and World Series many times.

But when the Red Sox started winning earlier in the last decade, all heck broke loose. So now the BoSox have two World Championships and haven’t let up since (BTW, the Yankee count is 27!). While Florida residents are well into the football season already, baseball, for me, will last until the beginning of the college basketball season (GO UCONN!!).

On the health front: neuropathy is still an issue, but it seems to be abating, albeit at a snail’s pace. Of bigger concern is the muscle and joint pain… a consequence of lowering the dose of the anti-rejection drug. Marie’s cells are goin’ crazy. The swelling in my right leg is getting better, and looked almost like my left leg earlier this morning!  Sometimes it gets so swollen that my skin hurts, but no pain now. If we could only speed up the fixing of the neuropathy, things would be just fantastic. I’m going to see my VA doc tomorrow… I haven’t seen her since February. I was using a walker back then, so my improvement should surprise her.

We have a cat in the house with some problems: a messed up thyroid gland. We had Eli on meds to control it, but the meds aren’t working at the dosage we were giving him. We were going to do a thyroid irradiation, but his kidney function is only at 65%. We humans can live with only one kidney, but cats need much more than 65%. We’re moving from a trans-dermal (through his ear) to a pill… better control and the expectation is that he’ll do better. He’s somewhere around 12 or 13… he picked us back in ’98.

I was working in my office one day when Maggie (my Black Lab) started barking like mad. I went into the dining room and there was this little cat sitting in the middle of the driveway just driving Maggie crazy. He hung around for a couple of days and Becky came into town on her way to the Cape for the summer. In a few more days, this cat weaseled his way into our hearts. Becky threw him into a carrier and brought him to the Cape… had him neutered, got his shots and a bath… now we owned him. September came and Becky went back to Savannah… and left Eli with us. UGH, two cats and a dog! Eli became my Father-In-Law’s cat and lived in the apartment we built for them. When my FIL passed away, Eli mourned for about three months… wouldn’t groom himself and just moped around. He’s a real love… we call him Mr. Snuggle Bunny.

I not getting bored sitting around… seems the days fly by. There is always something to do. Today I’m doing a few loads of laundry, packing some packages up for mailing, planning dinner (chief cook and bottle washer here), reading, napping, etc. I read a great article yesterday, in a magazine called “Saveur”. Becky’s good friend, Courtney is production manager for the magazine and thought I would like the article on Pesto. I did! In fact I picked up some useful information about growing basil and making pesto. Last night I made a nice fresh Pesto Genovese over Cappelini with some string beans.  Ruth Ann had a glass of wine… I had some cranberry juice. The hardest part of a meal like that is cleaning the food processor! I knocked the meal out in about 20 minutes, And it took a half-hour to clean up!