August 2nd 2001
Subject: hebdo.convalescent
monday july30:
need to find a new bulb for th wall fixture in this room. it burned out yesterday between a couple of power outages triggered by some intense thunderstorm activity. all i have to read & write by is a table lamp- little better than a nightlight, what w/ th 25 watt bulb dr.dad puts in all fixtures as cost-saving measure.
been having cous-cous w/ chick peas for dinner since friday, after nearly three straight weeks of lentil soup. three weeks under th wandering- jaundiced?- clinical eye of der guter doktor, five weeks since i first noticed th marble-sized lymph node close to th groin on my inner left thigh. as th swelling slowly goes down, a ring of four or five hard nodes can be made out surrounding a soft center under drying, wrinkled purplish red skin, w/ something more like a tiny blister than
a pus-filled pimplehead on th edge of that area. as per dr.dad’s fairly plausible & logical theorizing, one lymph node,
most likely th locus of th original infection, collapsed & burst under th onslaught of bacteria, (virii? dr.dad insists on questioning th generalized assumption that bartonella henselae is th cause & agent of infection in cat scratch disease…)
launching th mounting high-fever crises as my defenses scrambled to contain th damage.
tuesday last-
javier is coming into town, actually going to th cockfights in isla verde. he offered to pick me up on his return & help
w/ th move back to th beach house. eight in th evening, maybe? i’m not sure about arriving late at night to a refrigerator full of rotting blueberries & whatever else may have been sitting, blooming, fermenting or making itself at home in th beach house these last 23 days…aimless randiness & inertia- after three weeks off coffee, my tolerance to caffeine has gone down so far a cup of green tea kept me up reading until sometime past two-thirty this morning. fittingly enough, i’ve been slogging through a rather idiosyncratic spanish translation of ‘th magic mountain’ by thomas mann…of course i didn’t wake up until nearly eleven so i’ve been out of sorts all day…
mittweek august premier- (approaching mittzanotte…)
sure enough, when my dear kid brother finally turned up a little after ten he was lit like ben franklin’s kite, high as
th rockefeller center tannenbaum. he had sense enough to suggest staying th night & leaving th drive for today, but
at one-thirty in th morning, after th usual ranting argument that only ended (but only temporarily!) when dr.dad shut
th door to his room roaring to be left alone- to read himself to sleep- javier was still asking for my latest financial statement, insisting i figure my losses, change brokers & get out of stocks as best i could FIRST THING IN THE MORNING.
it was a l o n n ng day today. long, hot & full of traffic. at least i got th basic errands done: i stocked up on bread, grains & breakfast cereal at freshmart in hato rey, then paid (part) of th phone bill back in th san patricio area. javier had not changed th oil filter in his ford f-150 in five (count em, FIVE) years & between a fairly long wait & getting th job done,
hi-tech jiffy lube took just over an hour. sweltering two-thirty in th afternoon by th time we got back to th house to catch a bite, gather my stuff & hit th road. dr.dad arrived just as i was throwing th last of th vitamins & bits of food from th fridge into a plastic bag, so w/ th old emotional push-pull we didn’t get on our way until quarter to four. heavy traffic everywhere- even all th way out on th toa baja straightway, at th entrance to th town of dorado, on th ramps to get on
th expressway…one last pit stop for further grocery shopping at xtra before finally arriving to find th old wheelbarrow
& th hammock hung between two palm trees i was looking forward to lounging in had been stolen. ah, well…home, bittersweet home…environmental activist robert kennedy, jr. & n.y labor leader dennis rivera were released from
th guaynabo federal pen today after serving a full month for th civil disobedience act of trespassing on navy property;
th navy is scheduled to begin full-out maneuvers, including old-fashioned (read outdated, ritualistic) w.w.II -style amphibious landings, in vieques tomorrow…