April 20, 2010
Plum trees are blooming everywhere, as are the pears, crab apples, and redbuds. It is the best part of our spring season with air scented by all the flowers, and the avian summer residents arriving daily. We have a good number of song birds that come here just to raise their families; we have water and lots of bushes and vines for protected nesting habitats. We also have an over-abundance of insects to add to their food supply.
This weekend, friends from out of state will be here and Charles and I will have the first of several celebrations of our 50 years of married life. It will be fine for all present to tell stories and compare lives in the intervening years since we were last together. Most of us are advancing toward “the golden years” (to use one of the many euphemisms used to describe those of us who are of a certain age). It should be a joyful time, and our visit to the oncologist today made us very aware that it is also time to do our celebrating. The last weeks have begun to take their toll on me; I am losing appetite, taste, and weight. All of these things are signs of the advancing of the malignancy – we will try a pill form of marijuana to see if it can help the nausea and perhaps make food taste better. (A possible side effect: “Acting goofy”.) Dear Charles said, “But how will I know?” Indeed!