Thankful

I am thankful. I really am. The holiday weekend was full of family activity; too much food, 10 year old grandson jokes, Ken and Claiborne’s baskets full of pretty things and pies and waggedy tails, and my niece with her 9 week old princess. My baby boy (now 27)held her, awkwardly at best - one of the few pictures without 10 year old fingers in front of the camera.

I still have the shingles, can’t sleep for the pain, slipped and fell flat on my tu-tu cracking my neck, and didn’t have a working oven for turkey or bread…my favorite smell’s this time of year. But I did have a tea party my Emma grandest-daughter hosted - without asking mom. It was so worth going. She asked me later at the big 84th birthday dinner for my Dad, “Tell me how my tea party made you feel. Was it refreshing?”

Sometime that day the phone rang, Tessa’s husband calling from Bagdad – he’s in the heavy artillery unit – been there five weeks. She is brave for him – she hears it in his voice though – the longing to be home that waivers across the airway – thousands of miles away yet so intimately near. It fills me with tears – tears of gratitude for others who gave over this past two centuries or so to make this nation what it is - something that makes selfless men out of selfish young boys.

Bill prayed so elegantly – we forget what America has done for the world – we wouldn’t forget if Hitler had won. I am thankful. I really am.

If it isn't the fence it's the shingles!

My skin felt so sensitive that I could not stand for my shirt or pants to touch it. My back was aching like a kidney infection or like someone was pressing their foot deep into my muscle. It came around the front like a labor pain striking a blow.

I thought for sure my skin had stretched so far with my weight gain that the very molecular structure of it was pulling apart and soon it would stretch – like a rubber band – to the breaking point and snap. It must be my weight!

But then I begin to think about rubber bands. You know people are like rubber bands. When they are at rest they are basically useless…just hanging around. When they are stretched they become useful – even indispensable. Maybe skin is like a rubber band…no maybe it is like people….or no maybe it isn’t. So enough of that thought train.

My mind found no end to its bizarre thought rides as I wondered what this painful burning on the surface of my skin was from. A niacin flush gone wild – a skin eating bacteria that shows no sign of its ravaging effects until one morning you wake up with a hole in your side.

Finally on Wednesday, a blistering stinging rash appeared and my bizarre thoughts sucked themselves in – all to a condensed focused point – I had the shingles. Oh the pain. Got some medicine from the doctor and a healthy dose of pity.

Went to work Friday. Thought I would suffer through it quietly and survive till the weekend when I could rest. I walked into the office, greeted my office supervisor and the first thing I heard myself say (before I could swoop it back in my mouth.)…”Did you know people are like rubber bands?” And that led to you know what.

I love sympathy when I deserve it.

Blocking Progress

I wish I worked in an industry where you could pick and choose what jobs you do, when you do it, and for how much you will lift your little skilled fingers. It has taken no less than two weeks and 23 phone calls to get quotes on mending my fence. I did a write up to justify everything and put every expense I could think of in there…hoping for top dollar from the insurance company of the drunk who ran into the fence. I finally sent the list of quotes off Thursday night and on Friday I got a quote in the mail from a concrete company that was oh – 7 days late - that would have netted me an additional - oh $500 - from the insurance company, My timing is off this week.

I missed breakfast with the president of our college – another timing issue I wish I could erase. She was ticked – and rightfully so.

The best part of this week has been the weather. I love November in Florida. It is like the coming out of a Wisconsin spring – only different – not as fresh, lovely, amazing. Okay never mind – it is not at all like the coming out of a Wisconsin spring. But the breeze feels great through the house and the passionate heart-swelling evening skies never miss their timing.

Thanksgiving is coming. I look so forward to a houseful of loved ones. Our pups have their fall haircut…should be long enough in December through February to keep them from shivering. I ate cinnamon crème stuffed pancakes this morning to celebrate.