September is coming up, and it’s hard to believe that the year 2011 is drawing to a close. Children are back in school, and hopefully the weather is going to cool off. It will be good if this is the last day of 90 degree weather. I’m sure we are all ready for cool, fall weather. I have had a particularly bad summer, because I never got adjusted to the hot weather. And on top of that I just spent five days in the hospital. I went in because I had a very bad flair up of inflammatory arthritis. It  was very painful, and I wasn’t sure what was going on, so I went in to the emergency room. They thought I was having a heart attack and gave me two ekg’s and then gave me morphine which I CAN NOT TAKE! I entered another universe for about three days, and things got worse instead of better. I was saying I was going to go home, and they wouldn’t let me, telling me I was confused and needed to be restrained. I knew that was true because of the medicine, but I found out how utterly helpless I was.

Finally a wonderful Doctor, a Dr. Shanthappe, came and gave the correct diagnosis of inflammatory arthritis. What a blessing that was finally and needless to say, so I won’t say, I was not at all a happy camper. I wrote a very scathing evaluation to Methodist, particularly after I found out in my Dr’s office that my computer record stated no morphine or narcotic drugs were to be given to me. I am still very upset about their callousness, lack of caring and my absolute lack of control or power. I will absolutely take an advocate with me the next time I go to the hospital.

I am back at work, because I feel okay, but have learned how careful I must be with food and medicine. I enjoy working more than staying home because I work short hours, usually just four hour shifts, and I’m not at home where I see the things that need to be done that I don’t want to do. I have done a tremendous amount of reading this whole summer, and I am almost tired of it and need to take a break. I pretty much gave up on my yard this summer. I couldn’t stand the heat and I hated to spend the money on the enormous amounts of water that was needed, so I just let it go. Next spring I will start over.

I went to see A Better Life at Independent Theatre this afternoon, and it made me very sad to think that it may the next to last movie I will see there because it is closing. It has been wonderful to have a movie that showed art, controversial and unusual films. I will truly miss that. Hopefully another may open up and maybe even in the same building. It was an ideal location. After realizing that it was operated by Jay Goldberg, I’m even more upset that he didn’t put more money into advertising, because that is what killed it. Many people hadn’t heard of it, and didn’t recognize the excellent selections of films shown there. A sad commentary about Peoria again that we won’t have an opportunity to see the great films that were shown. My friend, Carlette, and I went to many of the films and even joined as members right after commenting that they would probably close after we joined.  And sure enough that is what happened. We’ll miss the films and Luke, who was so courteous.

The last couple days have been a little on the warm side, and I was looking forward to wearing a jacket in the morning. This morning was cool enough to wear a jacket when I walked Kaja, but fortunately not too cool. I will love cool fall mornings all the time soon, I hope. I started another new book this morning, and have been reading a lot this last week. The title of this one is The Eighth Promise and is the story of a Chinese boy who grew up in America, but part of a family that kept the Chinese tradition alive. It is very interesting to read from a male’s perspective.

I have enjoyed several volumes recently written by people of other nationalities. It is refreshing to read about other cultures and I always learn so much about theirs. One I read was called The Lost Wife and was a different slant on a holocaust story. It was a tragic story of a couple who survived not knowing the other was alive to meet at the grandchildren’s wedding. It was very touching and made me feel their sadness in a whole new way. Another was Telex from Cuba by Rachel Kuhsner, which was the story of an American family whose father worked in management in the sugar cane industry before the Revolution. It certainly offered new insights into another lesser known culture. The last that I particular enjoyed was the The Mistress of Nothing by KatePullinger. Again a different slant of a well worn topic. I have learned to enjoy many different styles of book than I used to, and it’s opened up many vistas of growth and knowledge. Enjoy our cool Fall.