Here is one of multiple huge bunnies imagining he’s hiding under some blooming mayapples, or in full view.  If it had rained this evening like it was supposed to, mayapples would have made good umbrellas.

As it is, I found the garden quite dry from its week of 80 degree weather, but holding on.  Tomorrow I’ll water everything, in between cooking and baking.  Meanwhile, lots more flowers and plants bloomed and veggies emerged while I was gone.  It’s amazing to see what happens when I’m not here to supervise!  I’m particularly happy to see the native red and yellow columbines in full bloom.

I was at my apartment last night and all day today, running out of things to do and ways to kill time until I could get to Avdi’s, where there’s always worthwhile work to do!  Sometimes I can even squeeze in a blahgpost!

Today was Day 2 of dental maintenance for, as it turned out, both Avdi and me.  While I got the second half of my deep clean/laser treatment, Avdi got his routine cleaning and checkup at his dentist.  My followups will be even more intensive.

After mine, I sat outside at the picnic table having a delightful conversation with one of the dental staff, who auspiciously just happened to have almost my exact birthday!  What are the chances?

Avdi met me down the street at a fun Mexican restaurant, Hacienda, for a local cerveza, marg, guac and fish taco.  I almost felt like a normal person doing normal things again.  You know, like dental work and margaritas!  Oral stuff.

Bad pun alert: today was edentful.  That’s when you go to a routine first consult with a new dentist, end up spending much of the day starting on procedures, with another session lined up for the very next day!  (It would have been the same day, only the insurance doesn’t allow for it.)

It’s just the start of a whole schedule of necessary treatments and procedures culminating hopefully in implants.  It seems my mouth is a disaster zone.  My whole mouth is trying to fall out of my mouth.  That’s what I get for being the genetic dental loser of the family, and for having to delay maintenance.  But I should be back on track now.  So this was a good day.

On the way back, Avdi stopped in at J’s, so they could resume work.  I got my kitty and doggie (next door) fix!  Pixie even came out to play with me, and watched as Eric and I did a little garden maintenance.  I even got an excellent homemade burger out of the deal.

Apologies for sounding like an old person, whose day consists of medical procedures, cats, and gardening.  (And needing to beg rides.)  I’m very grateful just to be able to do all the above.

Yesterday afternoon Avdi took me to an excellent performance of a play called “Skeleton Crew” by The Black Rep, at a theatre in U City ( STL’s university row).  The play was set in a Detroit auto plant break room around 2008, where they were about to lay off workers and force them to take severance.

The subject and plot were very familiar, having lived with and around people who were put in the same predicament in Dayton, OH when the GM plant shut down.  The four actors in the play did an outstanding job of recreating that human crisis.  The audience was a mix of mostly older Black and white attendees.  I found myself very absorbed and engaged in the production, and was glad to be able to experience some STL arts and culture.

Back at the old apartment…an aside first.  I want to be clear that I’m extremely thankful and grateful to A&J for helping me to find and move into this convenient location.  It’s perfect for my modest needs, and especially for walking to Avdi’s.  Sometimes I jokingly whine about living on “the other side of the tracks” so-to-speak, but I don’t mean it.

There was a character in the play, Faye, who had become unhoused and was secretly sneaking into the plant to sleep.  Then on top of that she was forced to take severance and lose her retirement benefits.  But her supervisor, an old friend of the family whom she had helped, when he discovered her plight, offered to take her in to his family’s home.

I’ve never been in that dire a situation, but I could easily have found myself there.  My son and his partner wanted to make sure that didn’t happen.  I could really feel for Faye, her pride and need for self-respect vs. her loss of housing/financial security, and how much it meant to have a son-like friend care that much.  That’s a lot like how I feel about my son and J. making it possible for me to live here, and offering rent assistance if I should need it.  Just to clarify.

And now back to my apartment…I removed the final five herbs from the hydroponic cube, and potted them up for A&J’s respective gardens.  I think in future I may grow all my herbs hydroponically, they did so well.  To that end, I’ve set it up again for another batch.

I managed to find a lot of necessary puttering around to do all morning, catching up on neglected chores (mostly hort-related, of course!).  Even though I’ve rotated most of the plants to Avdi’s, it’s impossible for me to not have growing things around me.  It’s in my DNA.

Later, I walked to CVS to find a gift card for my Gkid E’s birthday, and to get exercise.  I checked out a couple of other useful stores on the way back–a clothing thrift store that had the exact suede mocs I needed for Avdi’s, like new for only a few dollars, and a smoke shop that had all the good incense flavors!  I also discovered one of the large storefronts under renovation will be a new animal hospital!  That sounds like a promising development for that somewhat seedy strip mall and this area.

Tomorrow I have an initial consultation with my new dental group.  I’m nervously looking forward to it.  It’s way overdue.

I don’t mind being back in my apartment the way I thought I might.  It gave me a chance to catch up on business (e.g. extensive dental history docs to complete online for tomorrow) and chores, after being away so long, and just catch my breath.  I’m sure A&K can use the break from me!  I slept pretty well here.  When weather allows, I can always walk to Avdi’s and garden.  Not a bad life at all.

Soon I’m going to my other lodgings; not sure how I feel about that!  I’ve gotten used to being here with people and garden-surround.  But I’m sure they can use a break from me skulking about underfoot, plus I’ve done most of the jobs there are to do for now.  The garden is getting a soaking without my help, and it’s actually cold and gusty out there.  So maybe alternate scenery is in order.

Here are some rainy scenes to close out this chapter.

Yesterday turned out to be quite eventful.  The weather alternated between a delightful day to hang out in gardens, and dangerous extreme thunderstorms, culminating in an actual tornado warning in the evening.

After sitting out the first storm threat, Avdi and I grabbed his pro photography gear and joined Jess and her daughter E and a whole mob of her friends and their parents at MOBOT to do a prom photoshoot.  It was like herding very fancy, funny cats.  I helped Avdi carry gear and hold the large round reflector.  I even managed to sneak in a few shots of actual flowers.

In the evening we had pizza and started to watch our show, while weather conditions continued to worsen.  Then we started getting tornado warning alerts (“seek shelter now!”) and the siren came on continuously.  Was this the big one, where we all end up in Oz, or worse, Kansas?  So the three of us schlepped stuff down the basement and hung out there for a while with Percy, me trying not to panic, Avdi entertaining us with funny readings of Poe stories, K unperturbed by it all, and Percy just sitting there with his beady eye on me.

Finally the worst of the threat was over, though very loud thunderstorms continued.  Avdi and I finished watching our show; he hung around for a while to make sure we were OK, then he went out and I spent the night.  Another scary tornado averted.  I don’t think I’ll ever get used to it and take it in stride.

But I lived to write another day.

It’s thunderstorming, as predicted, and is the garden ever relieved!  Which makes me happy; the air smells like fragrant new life, and I can feel the plants hydrating.  I think just in the last five minutes, more veg seeds germinated!  It’s rejuvenating to be surrounded by so much wild aliveness.

It’s also no coincidence that I don’t have as much writer’s block here at Avdi’s.  Whereas sitting in a sterile apartment, cut off from nature and people, makes writing about remotely interesting topics a challenge.

Here, surrounded by easily accessible plants, critters, humans, the elements, and experiences, I’m in my natural habitat, which is both exhilarating and calming.  There’s always a new discovery, and sometimes a challenging adjustment to absorb and master.  In other words, an ever-evolving, dynamic situation.  Lots of things for me to learn, help with, write about, and photograph!

This may not even be my last post of the day!

Update to the update–K’s wrist appears to be OK, not broken or damaged.  That was a relief.  Avdi and Jess got back not long after the incident, so that worked out.  Jess went home, and Avdi and I had a chance to sit in the garden with drinks and catch up.

There was a lot of catching up to do!  Their presentation went well, and they got to unwind and relax in Philly and in Columbus.  As hoped, he was duly pleased with the garden and work I did.

Then we had Shabbat dinner together.  K got to have his challah, finally!  He approved.  My Asian coconut lime chicken with jasmine rice and a veg stir-fry were also appreciated.  Later, A and I actually watched two Expanse episodes, to make up for all the lost time!

Avdi offered to drive me “home”.  Um, remember my trepidation going into this two-week stay?  Well, I have been assimilated.  Resistance is Futile.  I opted to stay over another night (!), which was fine by A.  And another, tomorrow night, when A will be out.  What apartment?

I mean, someone has to maintain the garden at this crucial point, and Avdi will have his work to focus on.  Most of the apt. plants are now here.  Obviously I can’t live here, with the kids coming soon, which is fine.  But I feel more comfortable with my role and responsibilities, which will only increase.

I actually slept through the whole night, which is unusual.

I got up early as usual and gave the garden a spritz, before the predicted strong thunderstorms this afternoon and evening.  It didn’t rain at all the whole two weeks, and it was in the 80s.  The forecast seems to have removed the dreaded possible T-word (you know the one); let’s hope it stays that way.

When I was done, Avdi and I had coffee on the patio and I showed him some of my latest garden discoveries.  I even caught a picture of the gigantic rabbit.  Guess who got some leftover radishes?

Update–just after I posted that, K texted from school, needing a ride because of an injury sustained while iceskating.  Once again being able to drive J’s car was essential.  K’s arm or wrist may not be broken, hopefully.  We’re just doing triage with an icepack and ibuprofen for now; it seems to be helping.  At least the timing was synch, since Avdi is almost home and can decide what to do.  I’m not quite up to that speed yet.

In the meantime, here’s the famous challah, ready for K.

Avdi and Jess are on their way home across the Midwest.  Here on the home front, I watered the garden, made Asian coconut lime chicken in the slow cooker, plus an Asian stir-fry, baked challah, did some last minute chores, weeded the garden some more, and got ready for Shabbat, and for going “home”.  Where is home, anyway, now I feel more at home here!  Maybe I’ve turned into a “fixture” after all!  Or at least the gardener.