Author Archives: Sans Souci

Blogging For Breast Cancer 2025

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I am re-posting the INDEX to the series, “Blogging for Breast Cancer.” Those who subscribe to my blog will receive an e-mail alert of this post mid-afternoon. It’s been a long time since I have sat down to blog. You could say, I had my feelings but I lost my words; there has been a lot going on in the new microcosm that is now my life, and even more going on beyond me. It’s been hard to sort out. I hope to be back soon. I am fundraising on social media and am giving it another week or so … Continue reading →

Five Hundred, Twenty-Five Thousand, Six Hundred Minutes

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[if viewing on a device and photos are not fully visible, tap on one and scroll sideways] It has taken me a year to tackle Robert’s obit. I couldn’t face it. The words didn’t come. Then they came and there were too many. Then there were not enough. Now, it is done. The best I could do. It will be published nationally on Saturday in The New York Times, January 18, 2025 on the ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY of his passing. He read The Times everyday, never missed a day since he was a pre-teen. All those years. Now one year … Continue reading →

1964, When All Was Fair

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    Welcome to the past: The fiftieth anniversary of the World’s Fair is the background for memories that I will share in a subsequent post. I was a High School student at the time, and the 1964 World’s Fair, housed in Flushing Meadows Park in Queens, was the thrill of every visitor. The fair’s theme was “Peace Through Understanding,” its icon was a 12-story steel model of the Earth called the “Unisphere,” and it ran for two six-month seasons, April 22 – October 18, 1964 and April 21 – October 17, 1965. Admission price for adults (13 and older) … Continue reading →

20a. Taking a Break: A Day in Brooklyn: At the Brooklyn Museum

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This has nothing to do with my mother and everything to do with my mother. Exhaustion. Day in and day out I have been on the phone, for months, taking care of my mother from afar and observing by feel the decline of her health. And mine. So I was under orders from everyone around me and the people who take care of my mom, to go out and enjoy myself. Easier said than done. I tried. But wherever I go I carry a large trunk filled with memories from the past, concerns for the future, and angst for the … Continue reading →

Poetry: The Afterlife by Billy Collins

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THE AFTERLIFE by Billy Collins They’re moving off in all imaginable directions, each according to his own private belief, and this is the secret that silent Lazarus would not reveal: that everyone is right, as it turns out. you go to the place you always thought you would go, the place you kept lit in an alcove in your head. Some are being shot into a funnel of flashing colors into a zone of light, white as a January sun. Others are standing naked before a forbidding judge who sits with a golden ladder on one side, a coal chute … Continue reading →

Poetry: The Blue by Billy Collins

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THE BLUE by Billy Collins You can have Egypt and Nantucket. The only place I want to visit is The Blue, not the Wild Blue Yonder that seduces pilots, but that zone where the unexpected dwells, waiting to come out of it in the shape of bolts. . I want to walk its azure perimeter where the unanticipated is coiled, on the mark, ready to spring into the predicitable homes of earth. . I want to stroll through the pale indigo light examining all the accidents about to rocket into time, all the forgotten names about to fly from tongues. … Continue reading →

All About Cats, Pet Supply Store & Adoption Center

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My three babies in the back of the photo: just posted from the shelter: Teddy, LuLu and Baby Blue. We miss them. A note to the shelter: I’m so happy they are there! So nice that they have some friends! As for the “new babies,” the mother comes to feed but not as regularly as before. She still looks like she has a pouch on one side but the bulge looks smaller than it did two weeks ago. I am baffled as to her pregnancy state or non-state, and with that puffy winter coat it makes it even more difficult. … Continue reading →

12-8-12 Post Kitten Stress Syndrome

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During the night I wondered how my little threesome was fairing at the shelter.I actually peeled myself out of bed at around 9:00. Up until then I would have gotten up at 7:00 am or earlier. This morning I took care of my cats and looked out the back slider to find Sorbet, Princess Blue’s partner, sitting at the edge of my deck waiting for his breakfast. In the rain. Without Princess Blue. Could she have had the new litter? And then what was my choice? Do I have a choice? When I cared for the kittens I would greet … Continue reading →

12-07-12: And then there were none …

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I have some bittersweet news: after hours on the phone yesterday hearing that shelters were full, getting recorded messages and leaving messages that were never returned, I called a vet’s office I know I got a recommendation for a no-kill shelter in Freeport, Long Island which is a distance from my home. I called in tears with my story: the now three kittens needed to be adopted, I have three of my own, the shelters are full, calls are not returned, and the North Shore Animal League had me on a waiting list and never called me in–and by the … Continue reading →

Looking back at 12-6-12: On strange days and possibilities

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Yesterday, 12/6/12, was one of the strangest, most stressful days I have ever experienced. It began with a phone call that roused me from a deep sleep at 2:00 am telling me my mother went to the hospital with an ongoing blood pressure issue. I was on the phone continually seeking information, trying to network and make contact with shelters for the three kittens that are left. I was told over and over again that “we are full.” There was hurricane spillover that affected the shelters and it seems that more and more ferals are being trapped and delivered to … Continue reading →

12-4-12: A visit to little Souçi’s new home

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I visited with my little adopted friend at her new home with her “Nonna.” Her adopted mom was at work and we wanted to get in a feeding. Souçi looked so much bigger when she was at my house in the cage, but seeing her hiding in the bathroom and then in a little blanket, reminded us how teeny she is. She was nervous and shaking at first but after giving me a sniff she seemed to recognize me and settled down and purred when held. She’s the baby of the litter.

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12-3-12: And then there were three…

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LuLu, Teddy, Baby Blue…it’s a little quieter today without Souçi …just not the same. She spent her day alone sequestered in the bathroom of her new home. I’ll be visiting her tomorrow with her grandma while her new mother works. In the meantime these three have more room to stretch out. Hallway Soccer Team Notice the ball action. They’re exhausted now. They needed to blow off that steam before sleep.

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