June 2024

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It’s the Nouns “It’s the nouns that go first,” my friend quipped when she couldn’t remember a favorite author’s name. She’s not alone.

Garden Care… for the Human When tending to the garden this summer, remember to tend to yourself! After several months of general inactivity during the winter, it is important to prepare your body for the activity of summer. Along with some proactive tactics, many of these suggestions can be used to support the healing process if you over-do it in the garden and on the trails.

Neither St. Luke’s, nor its new owner Aspiris, nor the North Shore Health Board or its Administrator have done the right thing for Cook County and moved her on. The impasse between the doctors and the NSH CEO continues, to our detriment. It is easier to replace one highly paid administrator than all the doctors who serve us. Perhaps the election of two new NSH Board Members this year will change the dynamics. [My personal transactions with NSH and its Administrator have been positive. This is a policy disagreement, not personal.] Last weekend’s events showed me again that when we get older (please don’t say old”), we see we are mostly replaceable. Eight years ago, when we moved with our best friend to Grand Marais, I supervised, and loaded and unloaded much of, three trucks that moved our two households here. Last weekend I watched my 50 year son, his wife, and their friends pack up the 12-foot U-Haul truck with our friends’ belongings for her move back to the Cities. They finished early. My contribution was a padlock for the truck and admiration for the next generation.

Tex Mex A dear, old friend of mine named Smiley likes to tease me about my ethnicity: Are you a Mexi-can or a Mexi-can’t? My Uncle Henry offers his answer, “The most Mexican you’ve ever been is the day you were born!” If I interpret this correctly, Uncle Henry means that every day after my first, I move further away from all things Mexican. Thus, I suppose the most accurate answer to Smiley is that I’m a Mexi-don’t.