Bad neighbors

Reading Lou's blogpost this morning about a long-term bad neighbor, I was inspired to think of a classic bad neighbor I grew up with--Lil. I don't know her last name, but she was a doozy. Lil was a fuzzy haired biddy who lived next to me when I was growing up on Stirling St. in Philadelphia. She never had a family that I know of, as in a husband or children, and she always seemed old to me, but I guess at one point, she wasn't. It was hard to tell.

She was a dead ringer for Larry of the three stooges, and had a grating voice that made me think of nails on a blackboard. What she said with that voice was more annoying than the mere sound of it though.

Lil was a gossip and a mean-hearted individual. She ridiculed my parents and me, and spent a lot of time getting the other neighbors to gang up on us. For example, my dad loved to plant vegetables in his postage-stamp garden out front. Lil didn't approve; she had chopped down and cemented over her own lawn and put lawn furniture on it. But because she lived on a corner lot, she had a bit of greenery alongside the house as well.

At one point, she called the police and claimed that my father's vegetables (tomatoes, watermelon, cucumbers) had attracted rats. There were certainly rats in the sewer that would come out and munch on the garden, but even without the garden, they were there, and we frequently saw them. Well anyway, the health department bought her argument and made my dad uproot the garden and chop his garden way back.

Frustrated, dad planted hedges all along the borders of his property, such as it was. Then she decided that 3/4" of the hedges belonged to her, and ripped them out, at least the ones on her side. In their place, she put a full trashcan full of garbage, right under our window, in the middle of summer, and we didn't have an air conditioner.
For the record, it is very very hot in Philadelphia, very humid, miserable. Hell. There are frequent thunderstorms, and one is always hopeful that they will cool things off, but they don't. Even when it is raining, it's still hot as hell, and afterwards, it's worse.

Huh!

Well it seems that the full moon hike for tonight is canceled because the workshop leader injured herself and cannot walk! While I am of course sorry to hear that she injured herself, I really was not looking forward to driving out there on Santiago Canyon Rd., where the motorcyclists and hotrodders scare me. Generally when I drive there, there are lines of impatient drivers behind me, with really pissed off looks on their faces because I am going the speed limit or a bit below.
I do not like driving there, and since driving at night is hard for me (I don't see well at night, or not as well as I could), I am relieved that I will not be driving that road tonight. However, I will spend some time outside, looking at the moon, perhaps on my way home from synagogue.

Inspiration

My pen-friend through yoga, Kathy Ricci, is suffering from cancer. I heard through the grapevine in yoga that she was ill, so I began sending her cards and notes via email about a year ago. Since then, I have come to marvel at her amazing spirit. Although she suffers from the pernicious effects of her disease and chemo as well, she refuses to allow all that to hold her down. She practices restorative yoga, tai chi, walks on the beach, and enjoys her life insofar as she is able, and she seems able to a very great degree to do that. It is a lesson to me that she refuses to give in to despair or to pain.
I hope that this fierce spirit is rewarded and that she improves again.

New Worms

My dad's worms died when the ants he attracted by chopping up garbage in his room in his food processor in order to feed the worms caught the attention of the landlord. He sprayed with Raid and killed the worms. So my dad cleaned out the worm farm, made new bedding, and I contacted the worm lady so we can pick up some new worms tomorrow at the Farmer's Market in Laguna Hills. I will bring my dad, and maybe pick up a few other things while I'm there.
Tomorrow evening is another full moon walk at the Red Rocks again. I am tempted to call it off; I'm so tired, and I've been to Red Rocks a few times now. Next month it will be held somewhere else, and I'm signed up for that, but the wilderness workshops have provided an opportunity for me to write poems. I haven't been writing many these days, though I have been reworking old poems for the manuscript and for the list I'm making of what can go into the manuscript and what can be sent out. I hope to get back some things that are out soon so I can send them out again or know that they are going to be published somewhere. I'd especially like to hear about the story I sent to Riverteeth 6 months ago or so. They are still considering it. Sometimes it takes a long time to get those things back. Sometimes they don't come back at all.

Anxiety Dreams

We have all had such dreams, where we toss and turn and feel as if we haven't slept at all the next morning, even if we have. For a while recently I was dreaming that I was lying in bed and couldn't sleep, even though I was sleeping when I dreamed this, obviously. I would dream it over and over again, like a real sleepless night. Last night, I dreamed that I was supposed to be driving, but was in the back seat of the car sleeping. I woke up with the car hurtling down an empty mall, and jumped into the front seat just in time to stop the car. What a horrible night! I don't know exactly what I am anxious about; it's sort of generalized. Perhaps it's the fires, or the fact that my hearing seems to be worsening, making it harder to hear my students. I am thinking of calling the doctor and getting a new hearing test. I don't think there's anything I can do about it. There are only two kinds of hearing aids that will work for me, since my hearing is opposite of everyone else's. Most people with hearing loss lose high frequency. I have lost low frequency sounds. I suppose the insurance would cover new aids. I got these two years ago, I think. It's probably time to get tested again. But it upsets me to think that I will go totally deaf, and soon. Maybe I ought to learn to lip read a little better.

Torah Taboos

I was too tired last night to get into the discussion as much as usual, but there were some interesting topics last night. We began to discuss the laws of kashruth, particularly the pork taboo. The commentaries all agreed that pig meat is the most delicious meat of those forbidden. After all, I have no desire to eat an owl, one of the forbidden meats, or even a snake (though I have indeed eaten french fried rattler and alligator--two forbidden foods-- actually), but I and most other Jews tempted by a BLT have wondered what's with pigs anyhow that they should be so tremendously taboo that one is not even supposed to touch their skin. The commentaries suggest that pork was a central feature of the festivals in other nearby cultures. It was a matter of distinguishing ourselves from those others. Making distinctions--between holy and secular, night and day, etc., is a great part of the laws in this religion. The dangers of not making such distinctions are made clear by the story we discussed last night, where the new high priests, sons of Aaron, got carried away and offered a little spontaneous ceremony not planned beforehand, and were instantly zapped for it. Their dead bodies were contaminating the sanctuary, and had to be dragged out for the grand opening of the temple to go forward. God then proclaims that priests should beware of hitting the bottle, so commentators speculate that this is why the two new priests went off the rails.

Slippery Section

Enrollment in one of my sections at school is at 26 and has held steady since the first day. However, the other section has been like a revolving door. I had to ESL students, both of whom dropped. I forgot to check what the LD instructor said about my possible LD student. I know I have a student with Aspergers or some other disorder in the Autistic spectrum, but he seems to be doing okay. He's a little peculiar, but he's smart and pretty much with it in class. He'll be okay, I think.
There are some students who apparently don't pay attention or read things well, but one always gets this sort. I put up the assignment sheet in class and discussed it, and now I get home and have a student tell me she doesn't know what's due next time. Sigh. Then there are students adding. The one who added last time was nodding off in class. She seriously looks as if she's on some sort of drug. And today's add can't get the college to accept the APC code; she says that they have accepted her writing 1 credit from another college, but then she says they want her to take Writing 1. I am confused... I know she is. As far as I'm concerned, it's too late to add anyone else.