Well, my blogs have been incredibly sporadic lately, gang, and for that, I do apologize. There are people who probably wish they could have a platform like this to express themselves but have no way to set one up (if that’s you, talk to my son)! And here I am, with a way to share my thoughts and opinions, and I can’t even keep a once-weekly schedule. I’ll try to do better, but, given the reasons why it hasn’t happened lately, it may be difficult.
I even wrote one blog on Dec. 27 that I never posted because it had the potential of creating tension in our family that I didn’t want to invite, so there it sits in the file of writings I keep for this site, very likely never to see the light of public day (I did share it with my sister, but she, and possibly my son who administers this site, would be the only ones to have seen it).
Some wise person once said something along the line of, “When life hands you lemons, make lemonade.” I’m not saying that my life is overrun with lemons, but if I were to make lemonade from all the ones that have come my way, I could make a few thousand dollars from the Sunkist people. I do my best to stay on top of the situations that present themselves so they don’t pull me down, but it’s a tough fight at times, even for somebody like me who, by most people’s reckoning, is considered to have a healthy sense of humor.
Please tell me that you’ve had times in your life like this: pretty much at the same time, I’ve been dealing with:
1. A possum that got into our bathroom and started making a racket inside the cabinet our tub sits in;
2. Chauffeuring Evelyn to and from her appointments (she has several physical and occupational therapy sessions a week), as well as to the library (about every five to six weeks);
3. Setting those appointments with our PCP, our urologist, her brain injury diagnostician, her physical and occupational therapists, and any specialists that may pop up in the course of her being treated;
4. Doing about 98.5% of the cooking (Karlyn has occasionally prepared a meal for us) with 100% of the clean-up (when Evelyn was cooking, she and I had an agreement – if she cooked, I would clean up. Somehow, without any formal consultation, Karlyn has picked up on that. Whenever she cooks, she automatically assumes I’ll clean up afterward. In the long run, it’s about as good a deal as I’ll get if she’s going to make the meal);
5. Doing Evelyn’s and my laundry (Karlyn is responsible for hers, thank goodness);
6. Taking care of all the grocery shopping. I give the store list to Evelyn to make sure I’m not forgetting anything (I’m not sure how I could – as we run out of items, I immediately write them on the list). Karlyn’s supposed to write things on the list as she uses them up, but that rarely happens. Usually, it’s, “Oh Daddy, are you going to the store? Can you please get me …?” at the last minute (or she manages to catch me on the phone while I’m pushing the grocery cart thru the store);
7. Taking in other commitments such as praise band rehearsal, drawing my two cartoons a week, writing my little “Monday Morning Mailing (MMM)” every week, and, as I said above, trying to keep up with this blog – those kinds of routines that come up the same time every week;
8. Being available to our pastor to assist him when he’s facing an unexpected circumstance (such as filling in for the Ash Wednesday service this year so he can tend to a medical need) and acting as a sounding board when he has questions;
9. Taking routine care of four pets: a cat, a dog, and two guinea pigs;
10. Keeping up with contacts via email, texts, phone calls, etc.
There are probably more I could add, but this paints a fairly clear picture.
So – show of hands – how many of you see yourselves in that scenario?
Sucks, doesn’t it?