The Furious Spinner

Sitting watching comedies on TV. Yes, it is restful. What I need. What I really need is to feel better but distraction will do for now.

Today the wind stopped, for the most part, and the outdoors became bearable again. I went to Evine's house to meet Linda. (I can’t get down her snowy icy drive, and she can’t get up my steps.) Several other friends came over too. We sat at the table eating crackers and cheese—well, they ate crackers and cheese. I hung out and balanced the medical benefit fund checkbook.

It was nice to see some friends and especially good to see Linda before we leave. She still doesn't have water at her house because the pipes froze. She's hobbling along on her walker with a catheter hooked on it, trying not to break her very fragile hip, and she doesn't have water and her lights were flickering. She’s all by herself at night. Her catheter bag broke last night and leaked all over her rug. She doesn’t complain. I think she’s trying to show her daughter she can do for herself so that she’ll go to college in January.

On occasion friends have called me and said they really thought we should try to encourage Linda to live closer to town so that she would have all the conveniences of being in town—and then we wouldn’t have to worry about her so much. But Linda doesn't want to live here. She wants to live even deeper in the woods. I’d say, “Why should Linda live in town just so we don't worry about her when her heart is elsewhere? If she freezes to death, she freezes to death. It's her choice.”

After tea and snacks, Linda opened a box and brought out some of her favorite things and passed them around for us to take. I took a rabbit worry stone she had made.

As we looked at her treasures, she said, "You know, the healing circle you guys did at the hospital really helped. I believe that. The nurse told me that no one ever lives with calcium at 24."

"I hope she didn't tell you that at the time," I said.

She laughed. "No," she said. "Later. That's when I understood why my family was there."

"Yes," I said, "we called your family because they said you were going to be dead at any moment. You fooled them.”

"It was the healing circle," she said. "I'm sure of it."

When it was time to say goodbye I started to tear up. Very unexpected. She doesn't like that. I told her, "This is the deal, Linda. Everything has to be all right while we're gone. I mean it." This would probably be the last time I saw her before we leave for Arizona.

“That's right,” Linda said. “Nothing can happen unless you're here in the middle of it." She smiled and hugged me.

As soon as I stepped out the door I got a bad headache. Tried to drink lots of water. Ate. Several times. Now Mario is making me blueberry pancakes. (Five ingredients: blueberries, oat flour, water, egg, baking soda.) Then cooked in olive oil. OK, then I douse them in maple syrup. Pure, of course. Thank you, Maples! When I have a headache, blueberry pancakes always help. (Quelle surprise, eh?) Not sure I feel better after I'm finished, but it’s worth it for those few minutes.

If that doesn't work I might have to resort to drugs.

Tomorrow I finish my NAET treatments, have another craniosacral session, and see the naturopath. Doesn't that sound exciting? As I'm writing this, I'm realizing it all sounds very blah. It's the headache speaking. It's saying, "Blah, blah, blah, blah.”

OK. Ate the pancakes. Headache still there. Now watching That 70s Show. It’s so funny.

Speaking of media. I can hardly wait to see Brokeback Mountain. I’ve been waiting for this movie for months. When I heard the story, I thought, "Man, I wish I'd written that." (That's the highest compliment a writer can give.) Mario has to work Friday when it opens, so our friend Dave and I might go. I want to see it in Portland instead of Tucson. Portland is a movie town and a blue town. Tucson is a blue town, but it is in a red state. So I can’t be sure what the audience will be like. I don’t want to be watching this movie with a bunch of of people going, “Ooooh, ick,” every time the boys make out. In Portland, I don't have to worry about that.

What can I say?

I’ve just realized this has deteriorated into a high school diary. I do apologize.

I blame it on television.

Which I’m now going to go watch with my full attention.

Labels: Linda

1 comments

1 Comments:

With Linda's calcium at 24 your healing circle MUST have worked. Mine was recently around 12 or 13 and I had to go to the emergency room and was hospitalized for four days. They hooked me up to intravenous fluid to flush it out of my system. My doc said the highest he'd seen in his career was 18.

By  kevin, at 12:09 AM  

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