To add to the enjoyment of the day I had a call from the dental surgeon’s office arranging to extract baby daughter’s molar (which was realigned last year and now has a huge cavity due in large part to her high sugar diet I’m sure) at a cost of $520 which must be paid upfront and then claimed on insurance. We arranged the date for when missy is finished work and I am off - good way to spend my vacation eh?
This place is a zoo or more correctly this place is a farm! Yes, that is a photo of a golden hamster you are looking at. I couldn’t bring myself to open the door to the bedroom and actually photograph the two - count em TWO hamsters who have come to (temporarily) live here. The future son-in-law of daughter # 3 apparently has purchased them to live with him and his brother in the apartment while t
hey are at university so the rodents are on vacation in the country until the big move. I can’t understand how the ‘no pets’ rule which meant he couldn’t take Stanley (the cat missy brought home last year who now has to stay with his grandparents for 4 yrs until she graduates) to the apartment doesn’t extend to hamsters. Now I explained in no uncertain terms that three cats + 2 hamsters does not = 2 hamsters. I was assured that the door to the bedroom would always be closed, that the cats really like them (I’m sure they do - yum) and that the cats were shown the hamsters last night (brains with hair on it as the local saying goes) and weren’t interested. How that explains the 3 cats sitting outside the closed bedroom door looking at it when I came home tonight I’m not sure. I have made it plain that I am not hamster sitting, the cage must be kept clean etc. but I’m sure I’m whistling in the wind. It’s not that I mind hamsters, it’s just that we really don’t need another mammal in this house.I headed out of the office, dropped daughter # 3 at her second job and began grocery shopping (it was pay day). A woman who I remembered as a few years younger than me nodded as I entered the doors and I nodded back then turned to the vegetables thinking of her mother who had been a patient years ago. A few moments later she was at my elbow and said “I always mean to come and speak to you when I see you so today I’m going to. I wanted to tell you how much it meant to all of us that you were there with Mom when she died. I think of it every time I see you but we never say these things like we should do we? Do you remember it?” Oh do I ever. Her mother suffered a cardiac arrest when I was doing a venipuncture at home and I did 45 minutes of CPR in front of her family while we waited for the ambulance. I will never forget that day. We spoke for a few moments about how her mother didn’t suffer but went very quickly, how everything that could be done was done, and how badly I had felt for the family and how upset I’d been as well. As she turned to leave she said “we were so grateful for everything you did” That statement - 35 years after I made the decision to become a nurse - explains why I have never really regretted it.
Today as I drove home into the yard I was followed by one of my summer neighbours who had kindly taken in our errant dog and returned her when she went to visit her canine neighbours Jake and Buddy. Apparently the promise of a new clip installed by the carpenter was superseded by deck building. She was still up for a walk but it was me who really needed to be walked today as I had hit the wall.
The most disappointing part was that I had to call the cleaning lady and postpone to next week - why? Well because the front entryway is full of power and hand tools, sawdust and boxes. The baby daughter’s bedroom, hall and dining room are full of boxes, bags and various articles not packed for moving. The den is full of camping gear, future son-in-laws suitcases, bags etc. and there are no surfaces for her to clean. I had trouble choking those words out though on the phone - it grieved me.
Tomorrow is Friday, an auction on Saturday - very therapeutic and only one day forecast as a 'painting' day so there is hope.
