Travels with The Rayman

My pinkie finger on my left hand is undergoing a make-over.  This involves a “digit widget”.  It looks like an oil derrick of the grasshopper variety.  See below.

This has happened because I have a genetic disease.  See Dupuytren’s Contracture.  Google it, I mean.

Loving to write means typing.  I’ve trained myself over the years to express myself in writing using the computer.  It took some doing but there you have it.  And I need that pinkie to hit the keys on the keyboard.  With a “limp” pinkie, it was becoming exceedingly difficult.  Hence the digit widget.

Ode to the Digit Widget

Bent by contracture the pinkie needs help

The finger is stubborn like a wet piece of kelp

It cannot get wet nor can it lie dormant

Stretching it hourly in hopes it will not torment

Me.

The widget is mechanical and simple in form

Screwing into the bone it tries to perform

A miracle.

Oh, digit widget, my constant appendage

Will you right the wrong brought on by my lineage?

For if you deliver on the straightening as designed

My hand will be more useful and I will be resigned

To continue my typing

As long as I can.

Finis

Now that I am someone inhibited, I’ve had to make some changes.  No swimming.  No dishes.  Showers by the Rayman.  And life is a stitch.  Now I’ve taken to walking the dog for an hour each morning.  Good for doggie.  Good for me.  Showers are a kick.  Rayman has to wash my hair and body for the most part and help me towel dry.  I recommend everyone to try this even if you don’t need to.  It’s very fun.  For both of us.

Other advantages include no dishes.  Gee wizz.  Rayman often cleans up after dinner anyway, but now it is a given.  No negotiating.  This may last up to 6 weeks.  I’m a week and half into it.  Glory, glory.

We have been studying Italian and take one class a week, on Wednesdays at 5:30.  This interferes with Valentine’s day so we improvised and did a good dinner last night.  Rack of lamb roasted with slices of eggplant, tomatoes, garlic and olives.  The whole thing was washed down with great Opolo zin.  And we enjoyed some See’s candy that Rayman bought for the occasion.  Hope you all have as good a time as we did. 

But I digress.

Italian is fun.  No grades.  He speaks to us in Italian and that’s where my blank stare comes into play.  I have no illusions of speaking the language other than some perfunctory phases.  However, we will be able to read some of it and get the gist.  Oh, we leave for Rome on May 1st for those that don’t know.  For a month.  Should be wonderful.  And the digit widget will be off.  Yippee.

Several of our friends have fallen victim to various diseases and this concerns us.  We very much wish them a speedy recovery.  You know as you age that things are going to happen and yet, we are always surprise when they do.  My advice is to get out and do whatever while you can, if you can.  As if you need my advice.  Still.

One thing we can’t seem to do is ignore the politics de jour.  OMG.  Never thought it could be this bad.  And yet.  Here we are.  So, Rayman and I are trying to curb our habits of getting carried away.  It isn’t easy.  Enough said.

We are racing back to Stanford tomorrow for a follow up appt on my hand.  Driving to the Bay Area is such a good drive.  Beautiful fields of vineyards, cabbage, cauliflower, lettuces.  A meandering Salinas River.  All the signs with Spanish names, Arroyo Seco, Gonzalez, Soledad.  A reminder of all that  has come before us.  We owe so much to the Mexicans.  it is so much a part of our culture.  Life would be boring without tacos, enchiladas and our gardener, Vicente.   I count my blessings as being empathic to my fellow man allows me so much joy and many tequila drinks!   I hope you all feel the same way.

My writing has stopped because of my duties as trustee.  Since June, 2016, when my uncle died, I have been working as trustee.  It’s hard work.  It takes effort, time, patience, and lots of it.  Perhaps I should write about the job of trustee.  There is so much to know.  And if you want to do it right, you need help.  And then there are faux pas, mistakes, issues to handle.  A book would be good to write as it is still fresh in my head.  I’m thinking about that a lot these days.  I compose paragraphs in my head all the time.  Do you ever do that?  Make up stories?  Compose letters?  I often times find myself doing that and I wonder if that is what most people do.   One does have to wrestle with the mind, doesn’t one?  Keep it moving in the right direction.  Keep it positive.  Keep in fun.  It all takes work to corral the good and cast off the bad.  And I’m not always successful.  However, it is a goal, nevertheless.

So, happy Valentine’s day to you all.  Love is a good sentiment to celebrate.  It is positive, heart warming, and good to remember every day, not just VD day.  Have a good one.  And if you have the ensuing baby and want to name it after me, I use two n’s in my name.  Dianna.