Beginning the Faulkner...

So...have just read the first 26 pages of Wild Palms---Wow!---very intense. Faulkner really draws you in---this book demands so much concentration---but i think that is what I like about it. Should be a viable challenge for the next few days---maybe a way of getting through the weekend. Strange, the idea of losing myself in a book and sitting in Riverside Park, just a short distance from where I live, is something, pre-Pandemic, I would never have thought of. Will doing this reading by a substitute for standing on the corner of Broadway and Patchen Avenue in Brooklyn, where Bed-Stuy meets Bushwick, and trying to comprehend the history of those streets around there for the last 15 or so years? Not sure, energy is still erratic---health issues still are part of my life. But Wild Palms may excite me so much, it will easily replace my "jaunts" through Brooklyn.
  Yesterday, spent a good deal of the day at 1470 Madison Avenue, the large Mount Sinai building where the Hematologist and his nurse practitioner discussed the findings of my blood results---the ones that were discussed with me last week by the Resident at Ryan health, and which hinted at some trouble in my blood,that I had not experienced before. Yes, my red blood cell count has gone down from about 13.5 to 9.5, which means I probably have some iron deficiency. The doctor was very warm and personable---seemed to really listen to me---and gave me some iron pills to take as start. But I can't take them until I have the colonoscopy; that was very important to the doctor. So, three more weeks to prepare---and then it happens. Feel a lot more relaxed about it then before.
   My friend Sarah and her husband Alex have committed to taking to the procedure and back---really very lovely of them---I greatly appreciate it. Sarah also said that she would help me get through the day before--that is the really tough one--so I am hoping for the best.
  Have listened to the first two segments of the virtual Richard II presented by the Public. Lots to quibble about, but lets just say I love the language---taking it in, thinking about the imagery, so even if there are some overall problems, I can get a lot out of it. Shakespeare is all encompassing. The poetics of Richard II are so strong---so very different from the rest of his history plays---well, we will see how this plays out. Will report soon.