Life Meanders
A straight line may be the shortest distance between two points, but it is by no means the most interesting.
It is strange how nonlinear and meandering my days have become from just a year ago when I could count on hour-by-hour what each day of the week would require. Nowadays, it's hard to know what a day will bring my way. Days taking care of a sick wife are especially non-sequitur.
I've never liked the doctor’s office. Every visit feels like the worst — because when you’re a kid, you’re always sick when you go. And the times you aren't, they are sticking and prodding you like a science experiment. Because you kind of are.
I miss the old days of the little office with the GP who was your doctor for 20 years. Now everything is a franchise and docs are hired hands just like everyone else. Stakeholders are looking to build a business and cash out. We who need healthcare are just the cattle in pens designed to maximize profit. To cynical?
Yet, despite all my rage, I am still just a rat in a cage.
Billy Corgan may have yelled it better, but I felt it first in a waiting room.
We are here today because Mrs Whürl doesn’t trust our nurse and she’s sure she’s on the verge of death. She isn't used to being so sick that all she wants to do is sleep. And then, to offset the medication that makes her nauseous, she took dramamine for the first time. It's turned her in to a zombie and it's scaring her.
I keep insisting that if she just drinks water, eats a little food and sleeps, she'll come through. But she has a hypochondriac sister that is giving her all types of possible horrible conditions. And in her less-than state she is having trouble sifting the reasonable from the crazy.
Now would be a great time to have a trusted friend around who has your best interests at heart so she could just lay back and be sure that everything would be taken care of.
No doubt the antibiotics will help faster than the over-the-counter meds we are using to treat her UTI. The real problem is that she walked through water in the rain and triggered a viral infection.
That drove her blood sugar up (diabetic) which feeds the UTI. So she’s got a nice little self sustaining ecosystem going in there. Give her credit — green living, just not the good kind.
She can now rest easy knowing that the meds will have her feeling better in a day or two. I predict by the end of the day tomorrow she'll start wondering why she is taking antibiotics.
Speaking of wondering...
When we were on our recent not-quite-as-epic-as-i-had-hoped road trip, mice moved into our pantry. I guess being gone for two weeks gave them license.
So, I set traps near their ingress in the cabinets. Yesterday morning after a long sleepless night thanks to my poor sick wife, I heard an unusual amount of noise from the cabinets followed by two loud snaps.
The traps triggering were obvious, but I'd never heard mice from across the room before. I thought, there must be A LOT of mice. When I pulled out the drawer that obscured the trap, I found not a mouse or a rat in the trap, it was a juvenile squirrel. It was squirrels that were making such a mess of things. Which explained why their activity seemed mostly limited to the top shelves. Also, that's why our dumb cat just ignored them. That thing hates to climb.
I felt a little bad, but a rodent is a rodent as far as being in my home is concerned.
But, I can't bring myself to reset the traps. Poor guys. Instead, I'm working to block their entrance and keep them from getting inside.
Not rodent related, but I am truly enjoying The Royal Road to Romance by Richard Halliburton. I was telling a friend about it today and he said he'd love to listen to it. BUT, this book is long out of print and unless you can score a paper copy, the best you can hope for is to read it on archive.org or google books. This inspired an idea.
Why not read it myself? I'm a fair reader and I have the equipment and editing knowledge to do a passable job. And so, dear reader, I'm going to read my first audiobook. I hope I know what I'm getting myself into. Before we left for the doctor, I was able to get through the first three chapters. I will admit, the French names can be a challenge. But that just means spending a few minutes researching.
I can see why a producer and a production team would be handy. Nonetheless. I'm determined to get through the whole book in the next week. Here is the first three chapters if you would like to listen. I HIGHLY recommend this book in some form.
I'll spare you more of my mundane ramblings for now. After all, how could one be expected to moil over such dulness when the perfume and the moon and all the demoralizing lure of a May evening were seething in one's brain?
She’s sleeping now, the house is quiet, and the traps are unset. Maybe peace isn’t found in controlling the chaos — just in showing up, staying curious, and doing your best to read the lines aloud.
WIWL
#audiobook #essay #memoir #journal
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Thank you for coming here and walking through the garden of my mind. No day is as brilliant in its moment as it is gilded in memory. Embrace your experience and relish gorgeous recollection.
Into every life a little light will shine. Thank you for being my luminance in whatever capacity you may. Shine on, you brilliant souls!
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