I had my annual physical exam and got great marks on everything and my doctor flirted with me, so what’s not to like. I used the laides’ room and there was a sign there to pee in a cup write your name on it and leave it in the bin, and I briefly considered leaving a sample and labeling the cup “Guess who.”

I have been using our newish (bought from the estate of a ward of Ed’s who died) treadmill. It is sandwiched between the window and the bed on Ed’s side. He hangs clothes on the railings. I put a phone in one socket, and the TV remote in the other and I yank the sound up to 100% because otherwise I can’t hear the dialogue over the hum. I usually watch MSNBC but when it’s unsettling, I choose Law & Order, because that rarely fails to engage my interest.

I start out at 2.2 miles an hour, with a 2.5% incline. The first time I used it, at 1.5 miles an hour with the incline, I did 30 minutes and then went to bed for the day. It was the incline that did me in. I am now up to 30 minutes every day, starting at 2.3 mph, and raise it to 3 mph for the last two minutes. I am thinking of raising the incline to 3. If it weren’t for the TV, I’d be bored to tears. I close my eyes and concentrate on deep breathing during the commercials. That helps.

When I don’t have errands to run (always have to drive, as opposed to walking to the market as I did in Queens) I sometimes don’t put make-up on. If someone comes to the door, I call out, “I promise to open the door if you agree not to look at me.” My hair is white and I refer to it as platinum. But actually, I am lucky with it. It’s the same as my mom’s was and I get compliments on the color.

Life could be worse. I am lucky to have inner resources to make up for disappointments. When feeling low, and if nothing is on TV, and if one has worried Facebook to death, and deleted requests for money from one’s e mail, and petted the cats, and fed them, and loaded the washer, and folded the last load, and done my stretches, and push-ups, and treadmill, and jumps, and releves, and Ed is out dealing with the needs of wards, and composed several essays to send to the News-Press (they’re getting two a day from me and printing very little) what is left? Meeting with friends would be high on my list, but I’ve lost several and have to start over. But my friend, the piano, never fails me, even when my hands hurt. I am blessed. And I am bringing some really major works to completion, notably the Chopin F minor Ballade. And I could retackle the Liszt Harp Etude, with its insane demands. Check with me next year. And remember, a room without a piano is like a room with no windows. Nothing to see, nowhere to go.

xx, Teal