Serenity - still searching for it

The weekend is a slower pace and that’s a darned good thing. Life in the fast lane takes it’s toll on this old girl. I’m not traveling in the cyber world of my ‘out west friend’ who has added me to her Facebook. And perhaps I’m just exhibiting Luddite tendencies here but… the whole Facebook thing looks like more trouble than it’s worth. I can hear a gasp issuing from all the under 25 group who just can’t believe I’d write such a statement! I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt and suggest I’m doing something wrong as I attempt to navigate. Will have to seek the assistance of a non-geezer to try it out.

The Captain of the house was looking a little wiped yesterday and when I asked about the particulars it turns out that he had had technological problems too. He set his alarm clock for 4:30 a.m. in preparation for lobstering but then found himself awake at 3:45 so decided to get up but… when he sauntered out to the kitchen he noticed that… it was only 2:45 as he’d messed up the time by an hour when setting the alarm. He didn’t dare lay on the couch as he’d fall back to sleep so he headed back to bed and….never closed his eyes again until it really was time to get up. So he was sleep deprived all day. I told him if he was looking for sympathy he had come to the wrong source.

The amazing part of this story was that I’m so used to him climbing into and out of bed over the past 30 years at all hours of the day and night that I was oblivious to his journeys. I can remember once years ago when he was fishing for a few days at a time that he came home early in the middle of the night due to either mechanical or weather problems and crawled into bed. That time he woke me with his cold feet and I remember saying sleepily "who is it?" This question bothered him as he said "how many men climb into this bed in the middle of the night?" That's the problem with talking in your sleep.

This afternoon we did a social excursion for Mothers Day which involved daughter # 1 coming with me to take Mom out for an ice cream. So there we were three generations of first born daughters enjoying a beautiful spring outing. The interesting part is that not one of us is really anything alike but we can enjoy each others differences. To be able to give Mom the gift of our time and to get out of the confines of her routine is the main gift as she really has only a vague idea that we belong to her. We headed up to the Dairy Treat where strawberry sundaes (her lifetime favorite) were on offer, then down to Sobeys to pick up a few things for a BBQ tomorrow. As we’re getting ready to check out Mom says “oh no, I don’t have any money, there’s going to be an accident” as we head towards the cash registers. When reassured I’m going to pay, she settles somewhat but watches the proceedings warily until my attention is on the debit machine and then heads off with the empty cart. We run into one of the Manor staff shopping who tells us that it sometimes alarms seniors to bring them shopping and see today’s prices to which I comment “and why not? It alarms me too”. We returned her tired but content in time for supper and slipped away quickly. So a positive Mothers Day story of sorts as we‘re doing the best we can.

You know when I think back to being my daughters age and looking into the future - it never occurred to me that we’d have experiences like this to deal with. A good thing really as I sure wouldn’t have wanted to know if anything this tough was coming. Not that I lead a tortured existence but I think of those fortunate to have a senior with only physical restrictions who don’t make an attempt to visit them and wonder - could you really do the hard thing if you had to? Probably not.

In keeping with my pledge of serenity - the quote of the day which I connected with in the newspaper…He who angers you, conquers you - Elizabeth Kenny
Will have to keep that in mind as I head back to work on Monday as serenity is hard to come by in my life.