Thursday July 13

We've been back now since Sunday, and my focus has been on my continuing struggle with the sciatica. I cannot walk very far without the pain kicking in at a distressing level. And so my days are rather like those in London...how to fill them?  The daily puzzles take up only a small fraction of the day. Tennis from Wimbledon also helps. But there is an overwhelming sense of boredom, not much relieved by a stack of New Yorkers to catch up on, not to mention numerous copies of The London Review of Books and The New York Review of Books. I subscribe to these 'sophisticated' magazines, and yet I often skip though an issue and find very little that I want to read--so often the books reviewed deal with the most esoteric subjects--I start reading an article and at some point I often ask myself, do I really want to read a review of a book dealing with, for example, some aspect of medieval governance in The Holy Roman Empire?

Last night, I had a new affliction visited upon me--as if the sciatica is not enough. I got a sharp pain in my neck when I turned my head to the right. It made it very difficult to find a pain-free position in which to sleep. That has always been a problem since the onset of the sciatica, but the neck problem made it much more difficult. So the night was, to say the least, somewhat disturbed, and I have felt very tired and sleepy today. I have used the hot water bottle and the thing we bought in London that we heat in the microwave to apply heat to my neck, and it does seem a bit better--fingers crossed.

It's 94F degrees outside, and the air-conditioning is blasting away. 

Joan has just delivered to me a cherry smoothie...wonderful...she is a great concocter of drinks.

One important thing I have to do is submit to Aetna the medical claims for the treatments I had in London--first the squamous cancer, and then the slew of stuff with the sciatica: doctors' visits, two hospital bills, and two physiotherapy bills. I have difficulty in facing up to getting this sorted out. Tomorrow....perhaps.

One landmark passed this week.  I have finished the book of 201 Daily Telegraph cryptic crossword puzzles. I started it on the 24th of September last year. When we were in London, Joan bought me a book of 200 London Times' crosswords, and I will start the first of those this evening.

When will I have something more interesting to write about--instead of this repeated tale of woe?

Footnote: I do not understand why in some of these blog entries there are a few words in the Very Large print. I have no idea what has caused this to occur.