Monday, December 27, 2010

I Have Been Unable To Post!

Because I lost my way!
My Dashboard disappeared from me!
A woman whom I have never met, showed up
when I googled Reverend Lowell!
I am not dead; yet.
I will resume posting later.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

October Red

... or lack of it.
As of today, the foot doc has cut me loose. My amputation is healed.
No more open areas. No more infections. No more PICT lines. No more vancomycin twice a day.
Of course, I have no idea what will come tomorrow. I'll just have to trust that the world will be awaiting me when I nudge the eyelids open.

The home rebuilding is done. I need to put up an "After" little film. I need to edit the last one, as it is massively unwatchable.

Not to be seen as searching for pity; but  the first thought I had upon seeing the room : " What a great room to die in!"

I have a Kindle (sorry Beckett). As I was culling books for a scaled down library, I discovered I had six copies of Moby Dick. I still have 1965 copies of "Peanuts".  I have every "Doonebury" book. I have amazingly huge color cartoon books of "Calvin and Hobbes". Pynchon and Helprin, of course.

I'll go out tomorrow and pick up a repaired guitar amp. A 1962 Epiphone Devon Tremelo.  I'll see if John Harrington is there and drop hints about jamming with him up at the studio. Look up Little John and the Sherwoods; to get a sense, a touch, a taste of what 1960's Lowell was like.\

I'll , at last, see if Tom and Ness and another Derry guy want to get together and play some CSN&Y.

I'll hire some hot shot secretary/typist to help me assemble all my poems and get them out to UMass Lowell and be done with it.

I'm still working on "Radio Plays - Drama, Doom and Comedic Ditties (Rhymes with Kitties). Except I'll learn how to blogcast? them.

In other words, I'm Back!

Tuesday, October 5, 2010


Perhaps I spoke too soon.

Indeed.

After behaving quite nicely in the Healing Department, my left foot began hurting the other night. I got my usual 100.4 temp and severe pains in my joints. Although there was no redness in the leg; it was clear that the leg was not right and would be shortly going bad.

So we didn't fool around.  On wednesday, we drove out to see the Doctors' Assistant and she advised going right into the hospital. Which we did. Or, I did. We saw the Emergency room staff and they presented me with the Steak Knife premium from the Gift Catalogue. We had vancomycin flooding into my arm about 16 hours from the first twinge of betrayal.  Spent two nights there thinking we had reacted quickly (we had) enough to stop this from advancing. We are now not so sure. One of my Doctors thinks it's not too bad and the anti-biotics should kill it. One another, a friend of Maureens spoke to her and suggested more dire endings. He thought I should accept my fate and have a Below Knee amputation.

This week I will see a Foot guy and an ankle guy. They will order some pictures and read the results of my blood tests. Get the lab reports on what' exactly is brewing down there. They will make their recommendations and on thursday I will meet with my Primary Care guy and we will make a decision. I'll probably write about it here; rather than the FDP, because I don't want it to be a distraction. I think i'll put a notice in Moe's, sending the interested here.

Also; i'll be putting the 'Bird up for sale at the FDP.

Monday, August 23, 2010

WHITE COTTON - WOODEN DESIRE

New bandage - a small hidden  moth -
and a beautiful piece of wood.

Friday, August 13, 2010

CAST REMOVED! FOOT FREED, TOES MISSING !

Things went as well as they could. The wound was closed, the foot shape was well rounded and strong. This was the cast this morning.

















This is the view out of my Doctors waiting room.  He is the Foot and Ankle guy for the Patriots. If I keep letting him cut away on me; I might be able to get some Patriot's tickets!




















This is the poster that greets you when you wheel in:

CAST REMOVED! FOOT FREED, TOES MISSING !

Things went as well as they could. The wound was closed, the foot shape was well rounded and strong. This was the cast this morning.

Sunday, August 8, 2010

The after demolition movie.

Self explaining -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gx1tEuL35ek

I MISSED THE SUMMER !

I told you I was sick, back in Feb- March, or whenever.  I went into the Emergency room on the 4th of July.  I got out treatment IV for the weekend and got admitted to the Hospital in Lowell.
I went home with Vancomycin which my wife and I were administering. When all my "Pictures" came back, the left side of my foot looked wonky. My foot surgeon made an appointment for me with Dr. Chiodo of Boston's Bringham and Womans. I saw him out in Foxboro, at Patriot Place, home of Gillette Stadium. He's now the Foot and Ankle guy for the Patriots.  He is a very forthright guy. As  he was debriding the left side of ny foot, at the little toe, he was hitting bone. Osteomyolitis. So I had to have an amputation. Either a Transmetatarsal or Below Knee; depending on how far the infection had progressed.

So we pushed an operation up to july 30th. When I came out of the OR, I had the best possible outcome. I  was left with half a foot, which will give me much more stability than a BK. So , i've been home for 4 days, getting a little better each day. I'll see Dr. Ciodo on auguat 13 to get the partial cast off and we'll peek at the stump. I'm still non weightbearing and I hope that changes to partial weight bearing.
......................................................................

Look for me to be selling about 10 guitars and a few amps. I need to downsize! I am probably never going to go out playing much, if at all.
......................................................................
Ask me about the Ammo re-loading stuff I have... useful for when the disaster strikes.
.......................................................................................................
I'll be selling about a thousand of my books - and getting a Kindle.
......................................................................................................
It's getting to be about that time in my life. No regrets .......

Friday, July 23, 2010

Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Before the DESTRUCTION

Banks are giving us  .25% on our savings accounts.
Which means they are now Losing Accounts.
So, being disabled, I choose to put my "money"
into solid, touch 'em assets. Such as home improvement.
We are staying here, so we are making the place
wheelchair friendly.

Sunday, July 11, 2010

COME PLAY

NEW OLD NEWS

Got home saturday at 2:00 from the Hospital.
I only spent three nights in the largest hospital room in the Universe.
It was once a 4 - Bed birthing Unit.  The vibe is angry woman cursing every masculine molecule in view or not; begging for drugs and sharp scissors.
So, yeah, it was pleasant. It was on the fifth floor with windows festooned with Monster Spider Webs spun by prehistoric monster spider beings. When the windows need to be washed; they hire Blackwater.

But I bitedress; my old everpresent friend Mr. MRSA, made an appearance that went bad, quickly, This means I need to get myself into Room 506 promptly. My team is my Primary Doc, a Vascular Doc, A Foot Surgeon, and the Infectious Control Doc. While they confer, I renew old acquaintince's with the Nurse's and Aides.

What happened was I got new, orthopaedic shoes, snappy little boot leather, and instead of gradually breaking them in, I put them on and went to work in the woods for 5 hours. ( It's a big, final deal! Really, I mean it! ) I developed a bit of a wearing away of a few layers of skin at the base of the little toe. To make a boring story less boring, it got infected. So now I need to take Vanco ( look it up ) twice a day for a few weeks at least. If its in the bone to any degree, i'll be losing some weight quickly, and you can call me shorty.

THE END

Good news - I have heard from Tom Thibodeau and it looks like we will be jamming. With Ness Patenaude - Piano, harp and vocals. This could be much fun. Turn on the Tascam and hook up 8 Shures and Mic the entire room .........

Saturday, June 19, 2010

ES-330, Me playing an old man...

O.K.

How does this work?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poBOfW1f6yo

On Bums, Hippies and Other Nostalgia Acts

There should be no borders, man; and, like, no personal property! No one needs three bedrooms and two baths, man. Like my parents, man. They should just have the government, man, put up these group homes where, man, you could just go sleep when you're tired. You wouldn't be bothering nobody, man. Like my grandfather, man, he's in this, like group home with other old dudes and ladies, man. They feed them and everything. Give them drugs, man. That's the way everything should be man. Everything should like just be free, man , from the people to the people.
signed,
Lumpy ..............
Under the First Tree
on the Right 
as you come into
People's Park.
man

Sunday, April 11, 2010

after the rain

The BIG poem down below - about the English - is part of a larger poem. The next installment could be "Passaconaway".
But for the time being; here's a smaller poem about heartbreak, booze and wild geese.




4-24-00
after the rain
the enemy
comes not
down
in the bottom
of the bottle
- it sneaks
into the soul
soundless in
the  Dead
of night-
just when
you let
love
slip out.
........................
II
when you
no longer hear
the breaking
of another 
heart
when the wild
beating
of the  wing
goes un-noticed.
Then
.........................
III.
you begin -
to hear the secret
language
of the heart.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

A Poem about the English

some scattered notes
on the settling
of the colonies
by the english
of the English
it was Gosnald-
was one of the first
-report on habits
disposition of the native
and mostly- products
-what products to be had
Pring  was in it
traded for  sassafras and fur
Waymouth on his ship
Archangel mapped
explored the Maine coast
taking back five -
five Indians back
back to England where...
well, 
it was
that they should speak of riches -
riches to be had
this
so money might be raised -
money to be used
to build the colonies.
      Capt Challons made the mistake
took the southern route
his ship,  taken by Spanish
never reached Virginia
Jamestown was holding
but Sagadahoc less than a year
lasted -
the death of George Popham
fire in the storehouse
no gold found
for hope
or inspiration
.......................
Harlow had it in mind
did it -
kidnapped five natives
off Martha’s Vineyard
brought them back to England
and Hunt
he took 24 to  Malago
and there
sold them
one of them Squanto
the Wampanoag
who was in later years
valuable help to the Puritans
until going too far
Massasoit asked for his head
Jamestown still held
but there was
of course
growing hostility towards
and mistrust
of
of course
the English -
the  plague was there
in 1616 - 1617
making it easier for English
interpreted by Puritan
as God
making room for His people
...................................
Wampanoag
unseen
silent at Plymouth
when Puritan came
watching
listening
seeing the English at work
Nauset
set ambush to English
in December
with no success
                         in December
it was found -
English settlement
built on the site
of Pawtuxet -
old Wampanoag village
decimated during the plague
English named this as Plymouth
by 1628
    300 at Salem
    ( Naumkeag then in name
white at Charlestown
more and more into Watertown,
Boston,
Boston growing fast -
fast because of harbor
expansion inland
in forms of trading post
trade at Matianuck    ( now as Windsor
settlement at Pyquag -
the start of Dorchester
   Saukiog became as Hartford for the white men
.............................
what started it was -
was Stone and the seven of his crew
the ones the Pequot killed
many
including Puritan
said he deserved it -
this death
but not the seven -
the dead being English
was enough
and it was revenge
that was wanted
scattered raids
as, like at Saybrook
or, say, at Wethersfield
where
after the ambush
Pequot paddled
up to Fort Saybrook
hoisting the shirts
and skirts
of the dead
as if they were English sails -
raids gave way  to war
war between Pequot and English
Mohegan in it
in it for the English
to prove loyalty
came to Saybrook
with four Pequot heads
and one -
living warrior
for him
living warrior
it was for one leg to be tied to the post
to the other, rope -
and like this
to be torn apart -
by  English
   Capt Underhill says the body
   was roasted and eaten by Mohegan
in a half hour
Mason’s  army killed
six hundred
Pequot men women and children
- this at Fort
    on Mystic River
Mason
in Puritan fashion
took not the credit
played it down
putting it -
the credit
to his god
this -
for judging the heathen
and filling the place with their bodies
Stoughten landed at Pequot Harbor
rounded up natives that remained
thirty-three women and children
given to the Narragansetts
three went to the Massachusetts
fifty-four kept for the Bay Colony itself
- the twenty - two warriors -
executed
.......................
Quinnipiac   ( New Haven
was site of battle
women children and old men
allowed to leave the swamp
warriors tried
in vain
to escape
lay huddled together to die
....................................
muskets loaded with ten to twelve balls
fired at close range
Sassacus and forty warriors
later
found by Mohegan
their heads and hands
arrived at Hartford
presentd for the English
Sassacus
       sachem was dead.

Sunday, February 28, 2010

STILL NOT DEAD YET

So, once again i'm fighting MRSA.
Once more my immune system has decided
it couldn't care less about me.  Foreign bodies,
assorted virus', and unlimited vaguely threatening
entities? Come on in!!! We've just about got
this guy set up for the kill!

So, I get to go to the hospital for 7-10 days
to sit in a chair and get a bunch of Vancomycin
pumped into my poor little veins.
But, and this is the Good Part, I get to come home
every night! That's right ... spend three hours
with the wretched ugly mob of sick people
who insist on some kind of emergency care
when they crack up their Camaros and Hummers!

Why, just today, a fine strapping young man was parading
around the IV area showing of his smacked up fist,
gaily recounting how he had gotten likkered up
and punched a Wall!!!! And Guess What!!!!
The Wall won!!!!  Jesus, Mary and Mailer, help me.

Monday, February 15, 2010

Winter Sick - Tired

Not writing much.
I've been getting terrible joint pain and chills and temperatures up to 102.5.
Maybe once a week - or two weeks. I can't remember - I remember from my past ( and from a glimpse into the future ) having MRSA; a very, very bad thing to have had. Isolated Hospital rooms and gowned up Candy Stripers pushing bad trayed-up hospital food at me as if i'd wolf it down like some bedraggled old, well, wolf.

I'm seeing a Foot Doc who is trying to close the last of my wounds; a stubborn open thing on the bottom of my foot. I've had plastic surgery twice on this thing; semi-successful in that the procedures managed to get ass graft  skin to stick and grow. Last summer I managed my wood lots in person. On the ground, on my own two feet. The wound re-opened and somewhere, had a boogaloo party with something rank and rotten. (Maybe a back room Health Care boondoggle! )

So the Good Doc took a culture and sure enough, MRSA is back. That's what we expected. It's like walking around with a sinus infection, chill popping head cold while being beaten by little Mark McQuires. So i'm trying to hang on and will be probably getting wired up for in home IV therapy.  TIED to the MACHINES again! Little buzzy intrusive things..... Five times a day, I get to have an IV Liquid Diet through a PICT line. This is not a great way to live.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Town, Gown and Remorse in equal Measure





I'm guessing that what the individual wants out of life, how he wishes to spend his working hours and leisure hours counts for a lot. Without getting in to DOB land, i'd say that the people who have been educated at Elite schools and move in rarefied social circles, have an existential moment or two, where they realize, that indeed, "Is that All Their Is" is more than a Peggy Lee song.

After careful rumination, some of them go back to school at their Local Community College and study Beatnik Lit. Or Buddhism.
In other words, some realize they have taken the wrong path for them; and gotten lost on that Path to Boot. Others will never feel that heart pounding in the middle of the night I've wasted my life I should have joined Barbara Seagull in the tree house moment. They'll just go to work in the morning and summer at the Lake House with Cousin Edwards family. They'll ski at Vail. He'll die never knowing how much his wife actually, really did love him and what beautiful wonderful children he has left behind.

Others will be American cowboys; fiercely independent and proud, quite willing to sacrifice and delay satisfaction. He'll change his own oil and do his own brakes on his 6 year old American car. He'll be proud his wife holds an important job at the Hardware Store, even though she only went to the Community College for Upholstery. He'll attend his son's ball games and laugh and cry at all his heroics and miscues. He'll vote in every election and do his own taxes (wrong) explaining the importance of both actions to his disinterested family.

They'll spend a week down at the lake, the south side, with the slightly weedy, muddy and rocky beach. They'll ski on Fridays at the Kenwood Ski Tow.

He'll work overtime and his son will get into Boston University, a Jewel of a school, nestled in the Arms of Boston, surrounded by constant reminders of what made America, America. He'll hear 40 languages and find his love at an Abbott and Costello Revival at a small, bum laden theatre.

He'll go; probably the damn cigarettes his wife yelled at him about. He will be attended to by friends and family and possibly a shadow outline of Michael; a saintly presence during his entire
life.

But - who knows - such is the fate of those of us who pursue pieces of paper.......

ah .....sunshine ....

... you Jewels, you. 

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

VINYL ALBUMS





Back in the '60's you learned when Harvey was getting the new Beatles album in. You'd get in line on Central Street outside of Harvey's Book Land and wait for him to open. When he did, you'd enter and pay his daughter. He preferred that you pay with 3 singles as the price was $2.50 + .15 for tax. Teresa was standing on the right, with a stack of dimes and quarters, accepting the folding stock and handing you back your change. She'd have a five on the counter, close to the edge, in case some rich kid from Chelmsford had rolled in to town. She'd say "Thank you" and you'd shuffle ahead and when it was your turn, you'd spy Harvey half hidden amongst the plain brown boxes. You'd hold out your hand and Harvey would hand over the sacramental vinyl and you'd make a left turn and walk out into the grit and chop of Central Street, Lowell, Mass not knowing Kerouac, the great Beat Angel himself would right then, be up Back Central at Nicky's Bar regaling the regulars with stories of Old Angel Midnight.

It would take years of friendship with Harvey, before he would acknowledge the times Jack would slip in the back way and watch his flock running their hands over the spines and edges of the holy goof book classics stacked in haphazard order. How they'd sip from a bottle of wine and marvel at the will of the people to read, desire, consume.

That's gone. Harvey now running with Jack and Poe; chasing Lucy down Merrimack Street, threatening to dip her pig tails into the universal ink.