Journal

Monday Sept. 3, 2001

Summer is over, neighborhood children have gone back to school, and at our house, we've been eating garden tomatoes every day. Kate was here for lunch yesterday and I gave her some cherry tomatoes and a few leaves of basil to take home. She told me this morning she made a tomato-basil breakfast burrito. I can't wait to see the recipe and try it out!

Sunday, July 22, 2001

We called Peggy Friday and left a voicemail wishing her best of luck on her bike trip. She was riding on the Northeast AIDS Ride (New York to Boston) again this year. Last year, she injured a leg while riding and had to finish the trek in the accompanying van, but had high hopes for completing the ride this year.

This morning she called home to say she was all right and it was nice to get our messages. Well she did have a little mishap, fell off her bike, but she's all right. (That's good!) A wheel may have struck something in the road- she didn't see anything - and she went flying and landed on her head! (That's terrible!) Luckily, she was wearing a helmet, which made a huge difference! She's all right! (whew!)

How it happened

She was going about 20 miles an hour down a hill when this happened. She struck the ground and rolled, and then lay still, not trying to get up right away, but gingerly moving her parts to see if they functioned. She didn't lose consciousness, and everything seemed to work. A whole bunch of other riders stopped when they saw her, to check her out. An ambulance was called and they checked her out. She didn't think she needed to go to the hospital - but when she sat up, felt light-headed so they took her in for a check up. She spent the night in the hospital! They took x-rays to be sure nothing was broken and then let her go back to the group camp. She was all right! (whew!)

Up and around

The Group medicos told her she could ride more, but probably ought to wait till morning to see how she felt then. In the morning she ached all over, especially her neck and shoulders. So the trip is being completed again in the van. She will get out and join the group when they all enter Boston together at the finale.

It's been a very busy summer for Peggy, who works for C.E.O. a progressive organization, in Connecticut. This summer they gave her time off so she could help the teaching assistants at Brown University unionize. She's been living weekdays in Providence and driving home to Connecticut on weekends.

July 15, 2001

I am taking an HTML Writers Guild class in web accessibility (it will be taught again in September if you're interested). It's quite exciting learning how to code a page so someone using a screen reader can get at it. They can't get at it if the text is embedded in images, or if more attention is paid to visual presentation than to the logical structure of the page.

The weather this month has been stunning! Like Maine summers I remember: warm enough in the sun for a bathing suit, cool enough in the shade for jeans and a sweatshirt; very low humidity and a nice breeze.

My childhood summers were like this. I lived as a very young child in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia and was able to be outside all day every day. OK, almost every day. During most of my grade school years, I lived in New York State. There much of the summer weather was like this as well, except that it was hotter in the sun and got less cool in the evening.

June 15, 2001

Another Friday! I love Fridays. We had a heat storm yesterday, very unJunelike weather.It was hot and muggy. I was wearing my new LL Bean shirt over a tank, wow! what a nice combination! The shirt is a bright magenta color and looks really sharp above the black tank top. I wore it with a knee-length black skirt, sheer off-black hose and black loafers. <chanting> "I'm too sexy for my hat</chanting>

June 5,2001

The sky is achingly blue. We've had enough rain to green everything up beautifully.

I just began a course in web accessibility. Thus I have added a page of links - very short so far of pages relating to this topic. See links.

April-May

Winter finally blew on by. April was uncommonly cool, May warm but uncommonly arid. Near the end of May we got rain and sun alternating neatly and the lawnmowers were once again put into commission.

Bronze frogs?

Early March...

The bronze frogs that sit on either side of the steps have six inches of snow on top today. The rest was blown off by the wind. Between them are the tracks of a cat struggling chest-deep in the snow. Ok, I admit it- the bronze frogs are a figment of my imagination. Someday...

The sky is a soft gray and 4-6 inches more snow is promised. This would be all right if it were December or January -- but it's March. Perhaps because the light has a less heavy feel to it and the day goes on longer, the cold today doesn't seem as cold as 25 degrees would in December or January.

Anyway, I have hope! Soon the bronze frogs will be shaded by arching ferns under a blue sky, and we can get back to business.

p.s. There are actual large bronze frogs on the new bridge that spans the Willimantic River down where Agway used to be. Where, suddenly, on account of the new bridge, Fannie McHenry's Foot-Long Hotdogs stand has assumed a position of prominence in the community. Things change. And that's March for you!

Pamela Shorey
P.O. Box 954
Willimantic CT 06226
860.423.6218