Water Play for Harassed Caregivers

Not one of our better 24 hours. I seem to have caught some sort of cold thing which involves waking up in the night with dizzy spells, stumbling around and finding a decongestant which seems to have done the trick, meanwhile all night long HP was dreaming and shouting and moaning and generally in a state.

He was sound asleep, not in pain, as I found when I went down to check more than once. Even the cats joined in, howling and yelling, dangit. No peace at all in the house, since the monitor transmits all the sound from downstairs, as a safety precaution, since I sleep one floor up.

Then this morning, early, before he woke, I was trying to order up his protective underwear online, and unlike all the previous times, which were easy, they shipped, it arrived, just fine, they now seem to be making it not possible to get items shipped.

No shipping screen appears, though I cleared the site and re entered it three separate times to try again. All they will give is the chance to order online and pick up in person at the nearest branch. I called them and they said, oh, no, we don't ship. Who knows what happened in the meantime.

Sooooo, I made the order, this being vital stuff for a totally incontinent invalid, and figured that while our college student was visiting HP this afternoon, I would nip over and pick up. I knew exactly where this place was. Famous last words.

I spent close to an hour in a very complex shopping center with confused and confusing traffic, where several friends have totalled cars in exactly this situation, totally unable to find the place.

Ended up at the library on the way home in high dudgeon, and the nice friend there explained that it's not actually IN that complex, it's on the outside, up the road nobody ever goes up because usually it only leads to an office building. Which was exactly why I overshot it, since that's the road where our lawyers' building is. AAAArrhrhrhrh. Moreover, she said, it has NO SIGNS on it. Unless you already know the building, there are NO directions to get you to it. I ask you.

And the traffic was awful, many shoppers, this being a holy day for some people, and a day off work for a lot of people, who decided to shop.

So after all that, and feeling totally stupid about the whole thing, I went to the Preserve in my remaining precious free time to regain my composure, as Serena Williams would say. Except that I didn't swear at anyone or threaten them with a tennis racquet or anything. Though I might have felt like it if I'd had one with me.

And half an hour in the lovely breeze, bright but cloudy day, interesting sky with turkey vultures, no small birds, too windy for them, a few interesting leaves to bring home for show and tell, did the job for me.

On the way back to the car I stopped off at the birdfeeding station and noticed their little fountain, one of those that makes a lovely globe of water, you know the kind, intended for birds to drink at.

When the wind was blowing it flung the water around, totally frazzled, like my hair at that moment,



then as it calmed down, the water did too,



and when the wind died away, the quiet orb of water reappeared.



Art imitates life, and influences it, too.