(no subject)

[dchenes]

It was good that I went to Noank for five days. I spent most of it hanging around, except for going for a long walk most days. One of my long walks consisted of walking up to my former elementary school, which is going to be torn down and replaced with a community garden (there aren't enough kids in town to support a school these days). The way you get there goes past the Noank cemetary, which I hadn't been in for years, so I wandered through there for a while. I didn't realize how many late 19th and early 20th century graves were in there. Most of the larger families had a stone for somebody lost at sea at the age of 20-something. Some of the more modern graves are people I knew; my 5th grade teacher is there, and somebody I went to school with.

If things had turned out differently, I might have been visiting Dad in the cemetary, but he's home and making progress. By this afternoon, he was actually able to blow his nose somewhat forcefully, which he hadn't been able to do on Thursday. Hopefully after Tuesday, when the staples come out, things will improve considerably. (Staple removal is not a thing to try at home. He's had people remove stitches for him at home before; he starts rejecting that sort of thing about five days after getting them. It's a useful trick for splinters, but not so much for stitches/staples.)

Somewhere on the list of things the homestead might consider upgrading is the 30-year-old unpadded twin mattress I (sort of) slept on. I think I'll have to call it a character-building exercise. My right hip is not very happy with me and my left hip is even more so. Between the condition of the mattress, the lack of elastic in the bottom sheet and the fact that the covers all seemed to want to be anywhere else, I'm happy I can fall into my own bed tonight. The other guest bed is a pillowtop queen, but I deferred to my sister's horrible cold and let her have that one.

One of the books I brought to Noank with me was The Chronicles of Master Li and Number Ten Ox. From page 101:

"Lotus Cloud hops out of bed and plunges her head into a pail of cold water, bellows "Aaarrrggghhh!" runs a comb through her hair, and looks around to see if there's anyone handy who feels like making love. If such is the case, she hops back into bed. If not, she jumps into whatever clothes are lying around and leaps out the door - or window; it doesn't matter - to see what wonders the new day will bring, and since she views the world with the delighted eyes of a child, the day is bound to be marvelous."

I think I might make a resolution this year to try to live more like that.

Comments

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you weren't visiting the graveyard for that reason.

Those are wonderful books.