LarchBurl of Leave
Nov. 2nd, 2018 09:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ismoI had a moment this morning, so I called Queenie. We do this just to check in, and I figured it was my turn. I always think we'll just chat for a few minutes, but it's always more than that because we seem to have a lot to say. Apparently I once told her that "We suffer because we're moving through time." I have no memory of this, but it sounds like something I would say. She was very impressed with it, and I guess it is true. Animals have their own pain, but they don't suffer in the same way, because for them it is always just NOW. We have regret and fear because we can remember and imagine the past and future. We're always losing things and leaving things and having to change. But we also have hope and a treasury of good memories that we can enjoy any time.
I triumphantly located some items I wanted for a project. The project was taking the photos off the picture board I made for my father's memorial service, and putting them in an album, instead of leaving the unwieldy object in the attic where it's been. I've been putting this off. But then I couldn't do it anyway, because the pages I wanted to glue things onto weren't the right size. Sigh.
We raked the front yard for the third time. We used up all ten of the latest round of leaf bags. The rustle of dry leaves and the sound of a distant train whistle are very Midwestern sounds.
My mother is not doing very well with the phones lately. She seems to have lost her ability to make calls--again. This happened last year, and then she kind of got it back. She can't push the buttons correctly on her land line, so my brother got her a cell phone. Now she can't make that one work either. She called me this afternoon by accident, when she was in the middle of getting ready to go to the doctor with the Duchess. She thought I had called her. There was obviously chaos in the room, so I suggested she hang up. Me: "I see this was an accidental call and you're busy, so just hang up and take care of your business." Her: "What? You had an accident with the car?" Me: "NOOOO I'M FINE JUST HANG UP GOODBYE!" Tonight when I spoke to her, she was completely random. I left three messages for her, and when she finally called back, she had to have the helper make the call for her. She's really grumpy, and when I asked how her leg was doing, which was mostly the point of my call, she pretended not to hear me and changed the subject. She did make sure to let me know that, instead of going down to the dining room, she was gnawing on half of a leftover BLT, and the bacon was falling out, and she hoped it wouldn't give her a stomach ache because it was in the car all afternoon. She loves to let us know how much she's NOT EATING. It's her little rebellion. Unlike my sisters, I refuse to rise to the bait. I just hang up and write it all down for later. Being a novelist provides a defense against all kinds of craziness.
I triumphantly located some items I wanted for a project. The project was taking the photos off the picture board I made for my father's memorial service, and putting them in an album, instead of leaving the unwieldy object in the attic where it's been. I've been putting this off. But then I couldn't do it anyway, because the pages I wanted to glue things onto weren't the right size. Sigh.
We raked the front yard for the third time. We used up all ten of the latest round of leaf bags. The rustle of dry leaves and the sound of a distant train whistle are very Midwestern sounds.
My mother is not doing very well with the phones lately. She seems to have lost her ability to make calls--again. This happened last year, and then she kind of got it back. She can't push the buttons correctly on her land line, so my brother got her a cell phone. Now she can't make that one work either. She called me this afternoon by accident, when she was in the middle of getting ready to go to the doctor with the Duchess. She thought I had called her. There was obviously chaos in the room, so I suggested she hang up. Me: "I see this was an accidental call and you're busy, so just hang up and take care of your business." Her: "What? You had an accident with the car?" Me: "NOOOO I'M FINE JUST HANG UP GOODBYE!" Tonight when I spoke to her, she was completely random. I left three messages for her, and when she finally called back, she had to have the helper make the call for her. She's really grumpy, and when I asked how her leg was doing, which was mostly the point of my call, she pretended not to hear me and changed the subject. She did make sure to let me know that, instead of going down to the dining room, she was gnawing on half of a leftover BLT, and the bacon was falling out, and she hoped it wouldn't give her a stomach ache because it was in the car all afternoon. She loves to let us know how much she's NOT EATING. It's her little rebellion. Unlike my sisters, I refuse to rise to the bait. I just hang up and write it all down for later. Being a novelist provides a defense against all kinds of craziness.
