The Ribbon of Road Ahead

Having a conversation with me is like trying to herd cats on the Hermiston Butte.  Who would even think of doing such a thing? Yet if you did… you might experience this…The big cat sees a rodent, the black cat is scared to death and hugs close, the young  cats don’t follow trails and those stray  cats we picked up on the hike  turn this way and that and totally have their own agenda.  The cats, like me, may never quite get to where they are supposed to be…the end of the story…but I will try to get the whole though through without “bird (cat) walking” too much.

Time changes throw everyone off just  little.  Young children may take awhile to adapt.  We all enjoy a bit more daylight yet it throws the dinner schedule off.  I make mention here as it throws my medication off by an hour.  Knowing that  a change is coming I need to make some decisions.   Prince Charlie hasn’t adjusted and brings the med box around, I let him know I  am on top of this one.  I can  suffer through one hour and get back on schedule with the time change.

Bird walk #1.  Skipping back a day to Saturday.   Nancy on keyboards and me on guitar
accompanied Sara, Doreen and Charlie for  Mass music  The parishioners who had lingered in the foyer were gathered up and witnessed as Fr. Maxwell anointed me. Feeling blessed and hoping for healing, Charlie drove to the  GP in Pendleton where we had been invited to listen to the Irish Singers. Their music  was fun. We met up with so many friends new and old and former fellow 
co–workers and friends of friends, and their daughters and sister’s friends and boyfriends  and girlfriends and husbands and wives that well, I truly listened to maybe one song.   

A stiff  stiff and sore and tired Carol fell asleep on the couch.  Like so many times when I fall asleep early I woke up at midnight (Today so I am back on track) and was wide awake until 5:30.  I looked at the computer screen the entire time.  Made no decisions, bought nothing, read nothing, wrote nothing.  What a waste.  Falling back to sleep I started having cramps in my toes, then my calf, then my hamstrings. Prince Charlie arrived on the scene with my medication and the “cramp pills”. And I slept to 9. woke, then back to sleep…awake, sleep and finally up at noon.  Wind was up, Charlie was gone, I felt wobbly.   No bike ride today.

I set out to put the laundry away.  While doing so, the top closet shelf came down  on me taking the next shelf and all the clothes to the floor. Ok its mess.  But I am not hurt.  I gathered everything up, replaced  the shelves and start putting putting the clothes away when the darn thing falls again. Apparently I needed stronger little brackets as the current ones  were bent. Sitting there on the floor, under a pile of  clothes that had escaped the closet… I had to grin. I started to giggle. No one else would see the humor in this mess, or would they?  Would you?

Something strange occurred while I was giggling,and it made me stop and ponder. My Acoustic Celtic station on Pandora Radio changed.  The station was different, very different indeed.   Digging out from under the fallen clothes, I reach for my iPad to see whats on.  The new channel was “Slightly Stupid Radio”. How perfect for this catastrophe!

I changed it back.

The pile of clothes from the shelves  was left on the floor. The iPhone was near a comfortable couch.  I started to type  this blog post  and  there is an “error”. How can there be an error on my iPhone? There was no opportunity to save.  I lost what I wrote. Saddened, I turned on the computer, opened the blog, and there it was…everything I had written. Relieved, I fell asleep right then and there.

Only three things knocked  me off kilter (time change, wind, barometric pressure) and three happenings (shelf falling, shelf falling again, no, was it music or iPhone…or maybe those cats!) Survival with good humor was the key.

Ice Cream is good in Spain as is  napping

The point of all of this is…little irritations can add up to big issues. Anger can escape over the smallest things.  Being irritated and upset is a waste of personal energy.  Not going to let my energy be wasted.  No, won’t do it.   I will just grab a couple of spoonfuls of Cherry Garcia and take a little nap.

Ice cream and naps in just the right amounts do  wonders. Don’t waste the energy on anger.

Ice Cream in Iowa often comes with pie attached