Needs List, Vinegar and Primroses

I think I’m mostly recuperated from my big concert adventure now. I have to reiterate that a day of exhaustion was absolutely a price worth paying for seeing that show. I don’t think I’ll be purchasing any more concert tickets in the near future though. Worth it or not, I can only pay this price so often, and I think I’ll need a nice long respite until the next time.

Last night The Socialist and I spoke a bit about the “needs list” that The Big City Hospital wants to put me on. I am hesitant about it for a few reasons. They say the livers available through this list are “imperfect” but safe (I’m not entirely sure what that means, and intend to get clarification tomorrow); if there’s nothing wrong with these organs I have to wonder why they don’t allocate them to those higher on the MELD listing. I also feel a little bit pressured by Big City Hospital on this one and wonder why they feel compelled to push this so hard with me. The Socialist feels I’m being pessimistic and taking the “glass is half empty” outlook. I don’t know … maybe he’s right. I should get a fuller explanation tomorrow though. Maybe that will help me look on this more favorably.

The weird food cravings have come back upon me with a vengeance in the past few weeks. I’d almost completely weaned myself off the vinegar thing, but I now again feel the need to put vinegar on anything and everything. I’ve been trying to stave off the worst of it by making sweet cucumber and onion salad (which is little more than cucumber and onion slices in sugared vinegar) and by having lots of salads with the lettuce strategically torn into spongeable bits that will hold the maximum amount of wine vinegar possible. It’s gotten to the point where I’m trying to spoon the leftover vinegar off of my salad plate though. I’d love to know what triggers this damn craving – maybe then I could get a better handle on controlling it.

Last night I watered and dead-headed the primroses. They’re starting to take nicely, and this morning I noticed that there were already quite a few new flower buds forming on them. With luck it won’t get too hot too fast around here, and I’ll have a real chance to enjoy them before the heat finally gets to them. I’m already thinking in terms of what to replace them with when the heat finally takes them, though with luck that won’t be for months yet. The Socialist remarked that it was about time to start thinking about breaking out the patio furniture again. That sounds good to me – I already have plans for dinners by candlelight on the back patio, giving us time to simply kick back and take it easy for an evening.

I see from my last year’s entry that the temperature this time last year got into the mid-nineties. Today is 45 degrees, overcast with rain pending. It’s amazing how different the weather can be from one year to the next.