LONG DAY

Gloom descends at about forty minute intervals throughout the day but then leaves as fast as it arrives, like flash floods. I think am just brain tired. I don't remember sitting still until now except for when driving to the nursing home and back.  Was dropping by the time I got to Laurel Lake and so when Peg was shuffled off to physio on her walker, I lay down on her bed to listen to Barbara Beckett cough her lungs out behind the curtain and would have closed my eyes but worried someone thinking I was "Margaret" would be in taking my blood pressure any second and buzzers would ring and I'd be whisked off to the ER. I'd just done an hour and a half of Going Over Peg's Address Book with Peg and was trying to calm down. Armed with a red pen, it involved crossing off the Known Dead and Those Who Couldn't Possibly Still Be Alive, plus those whose names meant absolutely nothing to Peg. I kept having to tell her who half of them were. I found this unsettling and saddening. And ever so slightly irritating. 

"Gretchen. YOU know, Mama, Cary's daughter. Gretchen.    GRETCHEN. In ALASKA!" 
"Gretchen...Oh. Was that the one we liked?"
"YES."
"Her last name is what?"
"Bogard."
"Bogard! Since when?" 
"SINCE ALWAYS!" and on and on and...all complicated by Peg's habit of writing to people's mothers, specifically doctors' mothers. If the doctor has done something marvelous, see, like made Peg's dentures not hurt, or fixed her tear duct, or aortic valve, she writes a thank-you to their parents or sends flowers. Nice, but the result is that there are nine million entries that say "Mother" or "Parents" but the doctor who belongs to these people is on some other page or not there to begin with.
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HIGHLIGHTS:

- Odd when I got home asking me who the woman is who comes here and nods her head a lot and falls down. I assured him it was no one I could think of offhand but he insisted, even raising his voice: "I KNOW WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!" I said I'm sure he did. All I can think is he's remembering someone from when he was at Laurel Lake himself last October. 

He then shouted "DOORBELL!" and "GET THE PHONE!" (Hello? Grand Central Station here!) and I snapped back "I KNOW! I CAN HEAR THEM!" and he banged his table and said "OH SHIT!" then went to take a nap. He seems better now. Except he just asked me if Peg knew where she was. I said I imagined she had a pretty good idea, and made him some eggs.

- Peg telling me today she's going to live to one hundred and ten. 
"Mother,  you told me years ago you were going to live till 92. What happened?"
"I misinformed you. I feel great."
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STAFF ON CALL:
Bonnie Bonnie Bonnie with whom I could not possibly do without. 
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BACKGROUND MOVIE TO BLOG BY:

Beauty and The Beast - Jean Marais 1946 version in French
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Have just attacked the Peg's Piles on the kitchen table I made yesterday. Sorted and filed ODDS LETTERS TO PEG; PEG'S LETTERS TO ODD & TO HER IN-LAWS; LETTERS FROM PEG'S MOTHER FRANCES TO WHO KNOWS WHO BUT HAVE TO KEEP BECAUSE SHE TALKS ABOUT PEG; SAMUEL FRENCH INC RECEIPTS; PEG'S INCOME SINCE 1937; SOCIAL SECURITY INFO; COMPLETE CAST LISTS FOR ETHEL AND ALBERT SHOWS; SCRIPT BREAKDOWN FROM OLD TIME RADIO CONVENTIONS 1990 - 2013; RADIO MONITOR SCRIPT LISTS; CONTRACTS AND LETTERS OF AGREEMENT; FAN MAIL FROM THE COUPLE NEXT DOOR; and MENUS FROM TRIPS (you will be relieved to know that for the Farewell Dinner aboard the SS Cristoforo Columbo on Wednesday March 25, in 1964 en route to Naples Peg and I had "Glazed bocconcini of roebuck au Sandeman Sherry" and not the "Roman Spoom" whatever that is). I have mailed a first draft of a speech Odd made at Jacqueline and Paul's's wedding to Jacqueline and a letter written in 1943 by Art Chase, a relative, to his widow Joan, pronounced Jo-Anne.  I will presently attack all the original scrapbook stuff she "pulled" for her Blue Books--which, incidentally, I have been profusely thanked for by four recipients so far, out of eight. 
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DINNER: smart food and olives and nokkleost cheese from Norway. My friend Charlotte has told me to eat protein and greens. Am hoping the olives can be the green part.