TD left today / Started packing today

My good buddy Tom Dwyer left today after spending 5 days here in Lawrence with me.  Tom was one of my mentors in Japan.  He recently came back to the US to retire after working 52 years in Japan.  We had a very nice visit together.  Tom is extremely kind and fiercely loyal to his friends; I'm glad he is one of mine.  Last night we went to a SoHIP concert in Andover. The all-women ensemble played music by 18th century Italian women composers.  Maura and Patricia and Arnie were there too.  I drove Tom to South Station this morning for a 9:15 train.  5 hours from Boston to 30th Street Station on Philly, then out to Villanova by the SEPTA train.  He called me at 4:25 to say he arrived OK.


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This afternoon I started sorting my books.  My goal is to find homes for 1/2 of my books and over 1/2 of my clothes.  I have already found homes for 75% or so of my musical instruments.  Down to one guitar and my ukulele.  Oh, the tin whistles!  Forgot.  I only need the D and the low D.   I think I have C, G and Bb.  Any takers?

Eustress

"Eustress" is an entirely new word for me, and one that I knew what it meant as soon as I saw it.  In fact, there have been times when I wondered if there was a word that had that meaning.  Just the other day I was talking to my new doctor about landing in the hospital 15 months into my time in Japan.  I loved Japan and enjoyed living there, but my doctor (a Japanese nun) said that it was indeed stress, the stress of trying to assimilate all of the new overt and subliminal information that I was absorbing that had caused my innards to rebel.