This is my first summer in STL, which apparently starts in May, stays in the 9os until fall, with ongoing air quality alerts, and high humidity.  Who needs Florida!  The only thing missing is daily monsoons, ‘gators, and hurricanes.  Instead we have periodic flash-flooding, armadillos, and tornado warnings.  And huge creepy rabbits.  We even have similar fascists.  Retire to sunny MO!  You’ll never freeze to death.

Don’t mind me, I’m just adapting, i.e., sitting in my air-conditioned apartment with ceiling fans (or at Avdi’s, depending).

Yesterday for erev at A’s, in addition to challah, I made an elaborate Asian stir-fry with tofu, HB eggs, peanuts, snow/snap peas from the garden, long beans and several other veggies, ginger root, sesame seeds, soy sauce, fresh herbs, and Asian yellow curry beef sauce, served over jasmine rice.

Just an aside…I’ve had to cancel/postpone several routine preventive medical procedures due to lack of transportation.  Now I’m in that same boat that used to just be other poor oldsters.  It’s a weird place to be.  I spent years schlepping my parents to specialists all week, in my own car.  In order to do that, I had to give up my job, home, and own healthcare in MD and move back to NJ.  As I’ve said many times elsewhere, I would never expect my own child to do that for me, and I mean it.  It’s just a fact of life for many people, whose ranks I’ve joined.  One more necessity I don’t take for granted.  I feel very fortunate just to be able to live near my son, who works very hard to pay his family’s expenses, and helps me out in so many unexpected ways.