Month: October 2020

I like the changing of the clothes season.  Oh, I know.  There is the Changing of the Guard.  And, the changing of the seasons.  People like those.  But, I like the changing of the clothes.  In fact, I love the changing of the clothes.

The temperature cools a bit.  Maybe, it snows or rains.  If the temperature drops toward freezing, the hoses have to come off of the outdoor faucets to keep them from freezing.  Some conscientious gardeners cover viable plants with light tarps … and take off the tarps in a day or so when the temp returns to autumn normal.

We begin to see the real disappearance of our favorite flower stalks.  All of the tomatoes are picked and canned or stored.  The rest of the zucchini go to friends and relatives – whether they want the squashes or not.

Animals put on their winter woolens, just like we do.  If they are fortunate, they have added a little weight to make it through the winter.

Joining the Sisterhood

A heartbeat or the lack of one can change your life, forever.  It’s been three years and almost three months since it changed mine.  Larry (he was 78 years old) and I were in the ICU at Swedish Hospital.  He had been there for a day.  After his monthly chemo at the oncologist’s office, he had a problem with being cold – freezing, he said – to the point that the nurses brought out warm blankets.  The blankets helped some, but he was immediately transported to the ICU at Swedish.

When I arrived at the ICU, there was an argument going on with Larry at the center of it.  A nurse told me that he was refusing – very vocally  – to wear the oxygen mask, even though, at home, he slept with a CPAP mask on every night.  “His oxygen levels are too low,” she said.  I asked them to wait just a moment while I put down my things, and then, I turned on him.  I told him that he was not going to be mean to his caregivers – he was being mean to them.  I told him that they were following the doctor’s orders and both he and they would be in trouble if he continued to refuse to wear the mask.  “So,” I said, “you will put on this mask as you are being asked to do.”  He put on the mask.

Have you lost something?  Did it just “disappear?”  That happened to me, today.  I knew that it had to be in the house, but where?  I looked and looked and just couldn’t find it.

The “thing” I was looking for is my “help, I’ve fallen and I can’t get up” device.  Today, following my usual routine, I woke at the usual time, dressed, washed my face and hair, ate my breakfast, and put all of the things into my pants pockets (shorts, these days).  I usually wear a watch pinned to my tee shirt but because its battery is shot, I haven’t been wearing it.  It was part way through the morning that I realized I had not pinned my emergency alert unit to my pants pocket and I began, somewhat frantically, to search for it.  Everywhere.  Even in places where I knew it could not possibly be.  I figured  it would be expensive to replace.  So, the looking didn’t stop for a long time.  Then, I gave up.

I wear an emergency button everyday.  I call this thing my “help, I’ve fallen and I can’t get up” device.  Keith, my neighbor, bullied me until I decided he was right.  Like his mother who has one of these devices, I live alone and Keith thought I should get one.  And his wife Rita concurred.  So, I gave in and purchased the devices and the plan, and when they came, I reviewed all of the pieces and parts:  a red button to keep in the bathroom, a little one-inch button to wear around my neck in the house, and a larger unit with a button that has a GPS in it.

Right away, I decided that the house button is not for me.  If I wear the house button while at home, the receiver for the part that I have to talk to when there is an emergency is always in another part of the house plugged into the wall socket.  When I leave the house, I have to change it for the GPS unit and I forget.  So, there I am in the car with the house button, not the GPS unit.  That’s why I only use the GPS unit, at home in the house or the yard or on the go.  The company isn’t very happy about that, but that’s their problem¸ not mine.  It works for me.