Sylvia's Journal

It is Saturday morning and it is a beautiful day with blue skies and no wind. The world is fine [I did not say this, the Dragon software made this up]. Bill is flying to Bar Harbor today, a perfect day for a flight along the Maine coast. I am so sorry to miss this, but as a one armed pilot I would be pretty useless. I also would have been too tired for duty as a navigator and radio woman. I am exhausted.

Sleeping upright in my bed with the bulky sling and velcro contraption on my arm while keeping my shoulder fully demobilized [make that immobilized] is increasingly difficult. At about 3 AM last night I moved downstairs to finish my sleeping in the recliner chair, the only way I could be comfortable. I feel less than rested right now.

Yesterday morning the Greek painters arrived to power wash the house, Axel left for the Subaru dealership in New Hampshire to pump another thousand dollars into our aged car, and Steve and Tessa had already gone to work hours before. That left me alone in the recliner. I had a whole day to myself. The problem with whole days to yourself is that they are much more fun when you feel well, much less so when you are injured or recuperating.

Debbie and Leonard, our summer neighbors who live in de yellow carriage house down the driveway visited to say goodbye. Their short summer in lobster Cove is over and they are returning to their home in Illinois. This is the only time I saw them this summer. Their leaving is a bit like the first leaves turning yellow: it means fall is in sight.

I spent the rest of the day learning to read and write Dari from a neat website that uses flash cards. It is very basic stuff, such as colors, directions, and basic greetings. My many lessons years ago in Lebanon on learning how to write Arabic paid off, as everything came back and I worked myself easily through the flash cards. Dari script is more or less the same as Arabic script. I am still a long way off from being able to have a decent conversation but my confidence is increasing, and so is my vocabulary.

Late in the afternoon I received a phone call from Chris and Kairos who were inching their way from Cambridge to Manchester in the Friday afternoon exodus from Boston with a screaming three month old baby in the backseat. But they persevered and arrived just about the same time as the mosquitoes, when the sun begins to sink behind the Putman trees. Seeing new parents with a tiny infant brought back many memories from 28 years back.

Since we are in a life transition on the other end (and happy for it), you realize that most everyone appears to be in one transition or another. This is of course what makes life interesting.

By the way most of today’s post was dictated again and it seems that the software and I are getting used to each other.