2008-09-19

As the weather continued its gentle rise to summer warmth again, Mick and Gary polished off an incredible week of work with their very full Friday of storm debris clean-up. They used Stanley Subaru today since Sybil Dakota was having her valve covers replaced, so I was unable to get to the LabCorp office for the test Dr. J wants me to have done. I’ll do that on Monday.

I finished editing the transcript of our song-and-story tape, The Journey, and sent it off to Tommy, my brother, so that he can put his memory on it. I wrote the piece twenty years ago and I simply do not recall exactly what I wrote. I fear I have a soggy brain! I would like to recover all the lyrics. After working through it, I can say that enjoy the story as much as I thought I would, so I’m glad that we’re recovering this little bit of my creative work for our archives.

For the remainder of the day I worked at e-mail, sending 20 notes in all and reducing the backlog by perhaps half. I am still working in half-hour increments, then taking an hour off to rest my left arm. These days remind me forcibly of times in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s where I was similarly limited in what I could do. Then, as now, we found ways to spread around my chair – in those days it was not a chair but a hospital bed in our living room – everything I would need. It’s amazing how versatile one can be when it’s necessary! I have an empire at my commmand, from computer to telephone to flashlights, computer glasses and accoutrements of all kinds

While Mick was deep in weekly maintenance in late afternoon, Gary manned the cooktop and created a perfectly delicious menu for next week – chicken Parmesan, peas and mushrooms, corn and tomatoes and mashed potatoes. Mick got in from his work in the garage just in time to help Gary wash up and afterwards, I went in and beheld our entire range of counters around three sides of the kitchen lined with washed and drying pots, pans and the other artifacts of a successful kitchen campaign. Wow! The dishwasher tends to hide the sheer hugeness of the weekly washing-up by swallowing a couple of loads of dishes during the cooking period.

And, brilliantly, Gary got the noble idea of running an electric light for the kitchen off the refrigerator extension cord! We had two lights on tonight and it felt way closer to normal! And there was a first sighting of two Louisville Gas and Electric Company trucks about four blocks from here! Woo Hoo! This outage started last Sunday afternoon, so this is our sixth day being powerless. We’ve been told that it may be two more full weeks before we’re back on the grid, so anything short of that would be marvelous!

After a luke-cold shower, Mick and I enjoyed creating some excitement together in the darkness of my bedroom, exchanging energy and lighting each other up in the sweet old way of men and women. Then we shared a late supper and good conversation with Gary before the Gaia Meditation, at which Mick offered the closing prayer.