Praise then darkness, and creation unfinished

I took the bus to Cambridge today to visit some lilacs near Harvard Square. These lilacs are in the front yards of several houses near Mount Auburn Street (on Ash Street and Story Road), not the impressive collection at the Arnold Arboretum, but they're much closer to transit. There was enough rain yesterday and today to wash away some of the pleasant lilac scent, but there was enough to enjoy when I leaned over to smell the flowers. Most of the flowers on those lilac bushes were already open this afternoon, and they're forecasting more rain for each of the next several days, so this may have been my best chance (especially given my upcoming medical appointments), though I may look for more lilacs near my apartment tomorrow or Tuesday.

I stopped on my way home at Lizzy's to replenish my supply of ice cream. I wasn't thinking about ice cream until Adrian reminded me this morning to take the insulated bag with me, so I'm glad she mentioned it. (Ice cream without nuts, seeds, or pieces of fruit is on the list of things I can have as part of the pre-colonoscopy low-fiber diet tomorrow and Tuesday.) or I might have bought a pint of strawberry or ginger.)

I got a call from my neurologist's office ten days ago, reminding me to have blood drawn for tests before my next Ocrevus infusion (which is scheduled for April 20th). I had in fact forgotten all about it, and asked them to send me a reminder note in MyChart.

I went over to Mt. Auburn this afternoon, checked in, and walked down to the walk-in clinic, which is also where they collect blood samples. When I handed the phlebotomist my sheet of stickers, he looked at the record, and asked if I wanted this done, because the order was from last year. I thought about it, briefly, and then asked him what the tests were. One of them was hepatitis B, so I told him to go ahead: they won't do the Ocrevus infusion without a negative hepatitis test within the previous year.

It did occur to me that I have friends who would almost certainly have said "never mind" or "can we call the doctor's office to check?" rather than asking what the tests were after the answer to "when were they ordered?" turned out to be September. Me, I'd rather give them some unnecessary samples than make an extra round trip from Brighton. (All my medical stuff is on the other side of the Charles River, in Cambridge, Somerville, Arlington or Watertown.)

I treated myself to a hot fudge sundae on my way home, because it was a pleasant sunny afternoon and nobody was sitting at the table outside Lizzy's.

[I already have the negative hepatitis B test results, released automatically through MyChart.]

Occupational therapy continues to go well. The therapist re-measured things like grip strength and how far I can bend my wrist, even though it's only been two weeks since the last measurements, because the insurance company wants that information before they will authorize (agree to pay for) more sessions. The measurements are consistent with my feeling that I continue to improve, in terms of strength, flexibility, and pain levels. I hope the bean-counters will decide that the therapy is working and they should pay for more, rather than deciding that I have improved enough that I don't need more OT.

Once again, the therapist did massage and ultrasound, and she said the muscles are continuing to loosen up. Also, again I have no new exercises to do at home. The therapist told me to use the two-pound rather than the one-pound weight for more of the existing exercises. Also, I asked if I could squeeze the ball she gave me for the purpose harder than I had been, and she said yes, but not to strain myself in doing so. This will be easier mentally than what I had been doing, squeezing the thing just enough to notice an effect. I should also continue to reduce how much time I'm spending in the wrist brace.

I have appointments for a few more sessions, and the therapist said that I should come in next week as scheduled unless the receptionist calls to tell me there was a problem with the insurance.

My OT sessions are now in the afternoon, since there's no risk of overheating if I'm out in the middle of the day. I stopped in Harvard Square on my way to OT for a slice of pizza, and then went into a new shop, whose sign says "le macaron French bakery." It turned out to also be a gelateria. One of the flavors they had this afternoon was violet, which was a very pleasant surprise--the surprise being mostly that they had it at all. Violet isn't one of the common flavors, for gelato or anything else I'm aware of, and I think I last saw violet gelato in Wisconsin, when I was in Madison for a Wiscon. After enjoying my cup of gelato outside, I went back in and bought a few macarons and, because I could, some violet meringues.

I had a bivalent covid booster a couple of hours ago, plus a flu vaccine since I was going to be at the pharmacy being vaccinated anyhow. Right arm for both, because I sleep on my back or left side.

I had a longer wait that I expected; apparently the appointment timing was thrown off because the pharmacy had fewer people working there this morning than they expected. So far, I am feeling OK even though I climbed some stairs I wasn't expecting. I'd somehow thought that the only Green Line station that wasn't accessible was Boylston Street (which probably never will be); Hynes isn't accessible either, and the backs of my thighs were already sore.

However, I had a sweet potato pastry (so labeled, from the French bakery part of HMart) before being vaccinated, and onion soup, good tea, and a hot fudge sundae afterward. I'm feeling OK so far, a couple of hours after being jabbed.

I think the pastry was vegetarian; the soup definitely was. The server asked if I wanted the soup vegan, even though I had just asked for dairy milk for my tea. This was at Veggie Galaxy, which along with the entirely vegetarian menu has a nice patio, and is between the drugstore where I was being vaccinated and Toscanini's Ice Cream.

Between the pandemic and geography, I hadn't been back to the Central Square branch of Tosci's since it reopened; it looks very much like I remembered. I had raspberry-blackberry ice cream in my hot fudge sundae, since sweet cream wasn't on offer, and bought a pint of orange ice cream with chocolate chunks to take home.

I just made a carefully timed trip to Harvard Square, mostly to buy ice cream, and also to get dry-mouth spray at the CVS in Harvard Square. [I prefer the CVS/Bartell's generic to the Biotene it's a generic of, because the generic is less minty.]

Carefully timed: there were very few other passengers on the 73 bus, in either direction. I walked to the back and opened some of the bus windows, in addition to the ones that were already open.

( discussion of masking by other people )

Yesterday afternoon, I went to my doctor's office for a hepatitis B vaccine booster, and the annual flu shot. Hep B doesn't normally need a booster, but one of my medications required hepatitis tests, and Carmen noted that while I don't have hepatitis, I wasn't immune, despite having told her I'd been vaccinated. I made that appointment last week, then the doctor's office sent out a general message about flu vaccine clinics, so I decided to ask if I could get that vaccine at the same time, and they said yes.

I went over to adrian_turtle's after that, and stayed over; she made a half-recipe apple crisp, which was a pleasant surprise to go with the pasta and salad I was expecting for dinner.

On my way home today, I went to the library to pick up a book they had on hold, and browsed a little while I was there. Then to Cambridge to buy socks at Cambridge Clogs--three pairs of smartwool socks, two navy blue and one red, plus a non-wool pair of socks, which seemed like a good idea because rysmiel is allergic to wool.

I noticed that Bagelsaurus was open and didn't have a line, so I bought a bialy and a "deli rye" bagel. When I ordered the bialy, the cashier told me that they had onion-and-poppy seed bialys, was that all right? I said yes, though I'm used to bialys with onions and no other toppings. cattitude and I enjoyed the bialy: it's not Kossar's*, but it's a good bialy, unlike the things the otherwise-excellent bagel shop in Bellevue was calling bialys.

*Kossar's, on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, is so much the canonical bialy that most New York bagel shops get their bialys from Kossar's, and when I was living in New York, they had the one kind of bialy. I just looked at their website, and they have added a half-dozen other flavors to go with the onion/original bialy. Nothing I'd consider weird, it's plausible savory things like garlic, sesame, and olive, though some people might think sun-dried tomato and basil is a weird thing to put on a bialy.

cattitude and I took the bus to Harvard Square, where we got pizza for lunch at &pizza because it's convenient and has outdoor tables. The set-up there is that you can put as few or as many toppings on your pizza at a fixed price (rather than paying per topping). I saw that I could have a fig and balsamic vinegar drizzle added after cooking, so I tried from memory to recreate something I used to get at Mod Pizza when we lived in Bellevue. It wasn't bad, but I should have asked for more basil than the person put on at first, and maybe omitted the cooked onions instead of asking for extras of those. I think what I was getting at Mod was tomato, mozzarella, basil, and mushroom, and then the balsamic drizzle, but this really isn't a good summer for tomatoes.

From there, we went to Central Square, for the farmers market and H-Mart. I also wanted to go to Target and look at socks, but there was nothing there I really liked (it's a small Target, but I keep not getting to the one at Porter Square).

We bought some produce, along with conversation like "oh, I still have some plums from last week" and whether to buy a tiny orange or purple cauliflower: cattitude sensibly pointed out that we shouldn't get both that and the cabbage, and he has plans for the cabbage. Tasty plans. What we did get was a few yellow plums, a half-pint of raspberries, a cucumber, a cabbage, and two Puritan apples to see if we liked them. I couldn't get Evernote to show me my "apple list" note the note with my apple; now that I'm home, I see that we had tried it before and been unimpressed, but I am usually unimpressed by early-season apples. But we have them, and I will eat one, because maybe this year's crop is better.

We got another loaf of the Luce bread from Hi-Rise, and seeing their display reminded me that I hadn't finished the lemon curd cake I got last week. So I had that with my afternoon tea when I got home; in a zip-lock, it was still good after a week, though a little drier than when fresh. At H-mart, we bought cherries, pork-and-leek dumplings, and a quart of milk.

Thence, Cattitude went to Davis Square to pick up a prescription at the CVS there, and I went to Harvard Square to buy ice cream, and then home via the CVS nearest our house, to pick up my prescription. The timing worked out that Cattitude and I got to 73 the bus stop at the same time, so he came with me to the drugstore.

That was a lot of walking, possibly too much, even though I took a naproxen before we set out. But I don't have to go anywhere tomorrow, or Wednesday, hHaving postponed my dental appointment.

cattitude and I took the T to Alewife Reservation* this afternoon, to walk around and look for frogs. It was a pleasant walk, on which we saw one (1) frog. We also saw, and heard,a variety of birds, including red-winged blackbirds (heard more than seen), swallows, and Canada geese and mallards. There were also many water lily pads, including a few already in bloom.

On our way back to the T, we saw adult geese with several goslings, and then noticed a woman feeding them bread. We chatted with her briefly, and she told us that she knows these geese, or they know her.**

Alewife Reservation was high on cattitude's list of places to go back to, once it's feasible after the pandemic, and I wanted to walk around outside somewhere. The park was open (and may never have been closed), and we now feel comfortable riding the subway while masked.

* the Alewife Reservation is a park, which includes a nice (recently restored) wetland, near the eponymous T station, which is in turn named for Alewife Brook. The Having looked this up, I am reminded that the park isn't just the area past the "Welcome to Alewife Reservation" sign, and extends north along Alewife Brook.

** I can think of several reasons not to feed the Canada geese, and specifically not to feed them bread, but don't think I need to worry about this.

This afternoon, I went to Davis Square and bought a chicken and some frozen ground lamb, then walked a few blocks to Mass Ave. and bought some lettuce plants for my garden. That's two stores I hadn't been to in over a year, MscKinnon's and Pemberton Farms, which were both basically as I remembered, and I will be able to roast a chicken for cattitude and adrian_turtle while they're recovering from their second vaccine doses.

I wanted to do my own shopping for the chicken, rather than chance an Instacart shopper picking something that needed to be used right away. The original plan had been to go to Star Market, which is closer, but some of their delivery drivers are on strike, and shoppimg there right now would feel wrong even without a physical picket line. So, bus and subway to Davis, rather than just a shorter bus trip. The advantage of this is that uncrowded subway trains let me do a bit of balance practice, which isn't formally PT but which the physical trainer I was working with for a while agreed was useful as a balance exercise. (When I was 15, standing on a moving train without holding on was just for fun.)

Mostly this trip felt refreshingly normal, though passing through the Harvard Square subway station and seeing almost nobody in the normally crowded area between the escalators and the turnstiles, fare vending machines, and busway was weird.

I have been to an athletic shoe (and clothes and gear) store, tried on shoes, and found a pair that fit! They didn't have it stock in the color I preferred, so they placed an order and the shoes will be delivered to my home.

Shoes aren't exciting, but I seriously missed being able to go into a store and try them on.

I walked from there along Cambridge Common and Church Street to L.A. Burdick, and bought chocolate mice and other candies. It was sunny and in the upper 50s F (12 or so C), and a very fine day to be walking rather than taking the bus a few stops.

Then I went to the supermarket and selected produce. It's still April, but I have a box of lettuce that isn't two days from expiration, and a few bananas of the ripeness cattitude and I like, plus bread and milk. A loaf of Pepperidge Farm pumpernickel from the supermarket, and an Iggy's baguette from the food shop next to my bus stop.