Life of Pi: Puppetry

Life of Pi

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I have rented the community hall on the night of Saturday, October 28^th. My plan is to use the grant (that I haven’t got, but which looks promising) to pay for the hall, and to organize, with my fellow LGBTQ+ community members, a Halloween party. I hope to raise money to support a LGBTQ+ refugee from Ukraine who is coming to live here on our island (and not the clinic).

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Yesterday was a lovely sunny day, but it only reached 8° in the afternoon. However, although it was rather cool, I was outside all afternoon cleaning up the backyard. I have a lot of trees in the backyard as do Leo and Merrill, so there was tons and tons of forest fall on the ground. Two branches had to be chain sawed into pieces to remove, and there were billions of cones and twigs to rake up and load into the wheelbarrow. 

I’ve cleaned up half of the backyard and removed the two massive branches. I will likely get more done today if the weather holds. And then there’ll only be the gardens to tidy up and till. But before I do that, I must move a lot of wood from my back woodshed into the tool shed. That will have my tool shed full of well-seasoned wood. And the new wood I buy or the wood I get split from the rounds of the two trees I. had felled last year, will go into the back woodshed.

I was very happy to slide into the spa at the end of the afternoon. I was pooped from the work and the spa was an excellent way to reward myself for all I’d done. I stopped having spas every day when I was involved with the clinic. I am glad that habit is back in my life. There’s nothing like a soak in a hot tub in cool fresh air and Spring sunlight.

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I went for the monologue festival and signed up as a volunteer for the Foundation for a couple of reasons. I wanted to ‘come out’ as a person with a stutter, outside of my circle of friends, and I wanted to stop thinking about myself and my condition. Now I’m out the other side of the experience …. Well, almost. When the monologue is done, I’ll be past the challenges.

I’m already past the Foundation experience, and I have the monologue written and memorized, all there is to do is perform it in June. There’s nothing on my mind, and it’s a good time of year to be free of all concerns. I can focus on yard work and read on rainy days.

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April 9^th is the 7^th anniversary of the onset of FND. It’s just part of me now, and a far, far less intrusive part. It sure was a battle to get where I am today. The first year was a total write-off. I was plagued with nasty seizures, and I could barely speak. Years 2 and 3 were my Dr. Shoja years. I was focused on adapting and learning during those years. Since then, I’ve been pretty normal here in paradise. Now, post clinic, I feel better and stronger than ever.