Precariousness of our lives

 This week has moved toward the 25th anniversary of the attacks on the USA by terrorists.

Of course it can happen again, even with all the safeguards Homeland Security has put in place.

Of course with a mad man in the White House, he is asking for something extreme to happen.

But each day I wake up and am grateful for the life I have. Clean air.

Oh you don't know how important that is...just take a deep breath and think about how hard it might be if you coughed with each intake.

And clean water. 

From the internet

Gratitude list continues...

And homes. And food. And neighbors who look out for each other.

And friendships across the miles.

And the internet which connects us to each other quickly, effortlessly.

Phones. Cars. Planes.

OK, so much I am grateful for.

Boom, 9/11 happened.

Here's short documentary about the people who escaped Manhattan Island on 9/11 by water, narrated by Tom Hanks.

More people were transported by water that day than in the evacuation of Dunkirk.

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And if it’s true we are alone, we are alone together, the way blades of grass are alone, but exist as a field.

ROSEMERRY WAHTOLA TROMMER

Rebuilding

 A lot of renovation is going on after the storm last year. I saw this work last week when I went to pick up my lunch. Actually the workers announce themselves by blaring their radio music over the neighborhood!

It rained the next day, but the following one, they were back.

I wish I'd seen them put in the roof beam! Bet that was heavy! It looks like an open ceiling rather than pre-built truss-work, but I may be wrong.

I should have taken flower photos on my way into exercise last week...by the time I left it was sprinkling and I was pretty washed out myself! Exercise class is held at a local church, since the Lakeview Center was damaged by the storm.

Today's quote:

When we pause, we are able to observe our interdependence—from a harvest taken from the soil by a stranger’s hands to the electrician who keeps the lights and Wi-Fi on. We are surrounded by the abundance we create for each other.

JOE PRIMO

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And as everyone is thinking sometime today, I remember the awful events of September 11, 2001.

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Writing On Wednesday night from my hospital bed with a view of Pisgah Mountain off in the distance -

Where there is a very nice little restaurant which I plan to visit in a few weeks with my friends. Our plan is to have a picnic and then go to the restaurant for dessert with coffee. It’s too early in the season for the color changes of the leaves so it will just be nice to see our pretty green mountains From the Blue Ridge Parkway. It has only been opened from Asheville down to there fairly recently. (Note I’m dictating on the iPad so there are some punctuation spelling problems sorry)

I may be the kind of patient the doctors want to get out and gone soon because I know what things are going to help and what things aren’t in a lot of ways – because I’ve already Tried a lot of of them.

 I don’t like having heavy duty steroids and so I haven’t slept very well. The people are wonderful as far as offering help and caring about each patient, so I’m not complaining. I just don’t like to be sick, especially with bronchiectasis- Which means my cough needs to be treated differently than other peoples - By encouraging Frequent Coughing to clear the mucus rather than drying it up. So I have a flutter valve, which I blow into and it kind of triggers my lungs to cough. As well as chemicals that I use in a nebulizer at least twice a day when I go home, I will also need to start. Using the little Therapeutic vest which also jiggles my chest so that I cough up stuff.

An amazing thing just happened. Wednesday night I was given a consultation with an infectious Doctor. Specialty Is Infections. So she’s changed a lot of the things that I’ve been prescribed. She was sent by the pulmonologist and is now in charge of what I’m going to be doing. She’s testing for whole new things, but they don’t have to be done in the hospital.