Where’s My Brain?
Tue., February 11, 04:52 PM
It has not been an easy morning. To begin with, I “overslept.” Not badly, you understand – I was awake at five, but I turned over and went back to sleep until a little after six. I had plenty of time to do whatever I had to do, but I tend to operate on automatic for an hour or so.
I had washed the overnight dishes – some always accumulate after I’ve gone to bed – and checked my sugar. (There’s reasoning behind this. After my hands have been in hot water, it’s easier to draw that drop of blood.) I had started a pot of coffee and was back in my room, around a quarter to seven, when there was a frantic pounding on my front door. U.D. heard it and called out to make sure I was okay, and I said I’d go to the door. Not wanting to, y’know, but it sounded so urgent.
It was a woman jabbering about her little dog. She said she lived nearby, but I don’t know her. At first I thought she had lost the animal, but it turns out that he had found poultry bones in the woods and eaten them, and she wanted to warn everyone – “not that she wanted to make any trouble for anyone” – not to put that stuff out because not only dogs, but cats as well, could be injured by chicken bones. I know – I double-bag my trash and never leave it outside until the truck is due – but do we have to do this at sunrise? I asked if the dog is okay – he is – and I thought that was it. And she goes on and on, and U.D. comes up behind me and enters the conversation, so I say “I gotta go,” and I do.
I put on some clothes and go downstairs to let out Dos-a , the only stray I still recognize; she was in the garage last night because it was cold and snowing. And I take a broom and go outside to sweep the snow off U.D.’s car and pull my newspaper out of the snow, close the garage and go back upstairs, and they’re still talking. I call to U.D. that she’ll have to go down and start the car, because there’s ice on it. I go about my business and call to her again that she’ll be late for work, and they’re still talking.
It seems this woman was one of the “big girls” when U.D. was a little girl, and U.D. always admired her and her friends. So it’s old home week for them, out on the front porch. Long-lost Friend doesn’t want to come in for coffee, but she does not take my hints and leave till well after seven.
I’m still somewhat bemused when I sit down for my morning computer “fix.” I start IM-ing Son regarding the trip next week and discover we’re thinking along two entirely different tracks. I’m trying to figure what time I need to get Husband to the public limo in order to get him not only to the airport but the proper gate on time. And I suddenly realize that Son is planning to come down from Boston the night before to drive us directly to the airport. Unless I would rather have a private limo and he’d leave his car at our house… He really is taking care of everything . What a guy!
I’ve been mentioning this and that to Husband, in order to get him thinking about what he has to do, so I told him Son was planning to drive us. “Good,” says Husband, “since you’re so worried about money.” What? I haven’t said a word about money, particularly for the trip, since that is outside our normal expenditures; my budget is in fine shape. Mind reading costs extra, and I have a helluva time reading his. Maybe I’ll find my brain before the day is over.
Most of the time I’m complaining that there’s nothing to do in this office, but now I’m resenting the fact that Boss Lawyer hasn’t given me time to play on line because he actually has cases. Such an ingrate.
