Artnotes: A Visit from the Grinch

 

15 December  Rocca Malatina, MO     Italia

Wednesday Painting    Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic/canvas  16 x 12"  40 x 30cm  450.00 We used to spend our summers at Hemlock Lodge, in Winsted, Connecticut.  The family that owned the property had 7 children and more than 30 grandchildren, who would all be there, playing in the lake, eating together, being a little wild.  I admired the Matriarch, Barbara, for her sang froid.   She’d let everyone just do their own thing, minor catastrophes be damned.   As I sit in this chair, wearing the same clothes I’ve been in for 36 hours, I think, who cares if I don’t do the breakfast dishes? Ever again. I know some of you have been wondering where we’ve been – no, it’s not another stellar trip to Francia.  It’s not even that we’ve been up to our ears in the two art shows we were scheduled to participate in.  No, we’ve been visited by the Grinch. Holiday Foliage Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic/canvas  13 x 19.5"   33 x 48cm  450.00  What seemed like another turn of the flu we had in mid November, sized up to be Covid.  In Spades.  Tuesday before this, Blair was diagnosed positive.   It was a though I could see a terrible scenario unfolding, and we drove back up to Roccamalatina.  Shortly after arriving, he had frighteningly little oxygen in his blood and high temperature.  I drove him to a clinic where a covid survivor we know was treated.  He was well cared for in both the Bazzano Clinic, and Bologna Maggiore Hospital, where he received monoclonal antibodies. He is now resting in a “halfway” hospital in Bologna, until he can breath without additional oxygen, and be deemed fit to go home. Tree with Red Berries   Laurie Fox Pessemier  Acrylic/newpaper 25 x 17"   63 x 43  250.00 I didn’t get my Covid test at the same time as Blair, but it was pretty clear I was infected.  Coughing, fever, exhaustion reduced me to 18 hours of sleep a day.  Once Blair was ensconced in a safe place, I just slept.  When I did get my positive test, I think I was over the worst.   I continue to fight a fever, and cough, but I am so glad to be on this side of the grass. I am not eating much and I haven’t had a glass of wine in ten days.  Our 239 Euro holiday wine delivery is sitting in a neighbor’s house in Stimigliano.  Blair and I are hoping to be together for Christmas, but nothing is apparent right now.  I guess I’ll have another peanut butter and jelly sandwich and laugh about the laundry.