Grass Widow
June 29th, 2009Now it can be told! The pups and I have been alone for the past eight days. Pyrate was off on The Great Ohio Bicycle Adventure, touring around Northwest Ohio. It’s a marvel of modern logistics, transporting all the tents and personal effects of the riders (4 semi truckloads), arranging food and entertainment for about 2800 people. It’s a good break for him, just riding his bike in scenic places and getting away from it all.
Was it Khalil Gilbran who said, “let there be spaces in your togetherness”? That’s the way Pyrate and I are. We do okay apart for short periods of time. It’s easier on the doggies (and our wallets) too. It costs a lot of money to board dogs anymore. Tes is getting older and he frets. Vera, having spent most of the first five months of her life caged up in a petshop, doesn’t ever want to have to go back into the pen We’ve boarded them a few times, and while the local doggie hotel does a good job, we come home to traumatized unhappy dogs anyhow.
So I did most of the things I always do, just cooked less stuff for dinner. One night I had a “garden” dinner- made a broccoli casserole with a surprisingly good side of turnips, “country style” boiled with ham! Worked on my crafts, caught up on my reading. I even mowed the lawn- front and back- on our sexy tractor.
I found an Internet channel that is old time radio 24/7 www.otrnow.com Very nice. Just one program after the other! Radio is better than TV, because you can listen to programs, but still do other things!
Before I forget, let me recommend “The Sunday Philosophy Club” books by Alexander McCall Smith. They’re shelved with the mysteries, but not “whodunit” books. Isabel Dalhousie is a divorced Scottish woman, who edits an academic philosophical review. Her parents left her a house and a steady income, so she’s free to think (perhaps too much) and seems to find herself dabbling in other people’s lives, correcting injustices, etc. She has a romance in her life too, so it’s a lot of fun.
It wasn’t a bad week at all to be sleeping alone. A few weeks ago, I was diagnosed with “severe” sleep apnea. The sleep specialist said I was stopping breathing every minute! (I have things to do and people to see, so I’d rather not die in my sleep thank you.) So last week, I was getting used to my brand new Cpap machine! I have the claustrophobia model. It’s not so bad. There’s a breathing device that goes to my nose and blows air into me all night. Funny, if I open my mouth, air comes rushing out and I feel like a fire breathing dragon!
I can tell right off it’s helping. The biggest change is, over a few nights recently, I’ve slept all night and just woken up in the morning. That hasn’t happened to me for years! What finally got me to tell the doctor, is just feeling horrible in the morning and not being able to explain why. Best description is, have you ever found a pet goldfish near death gasping on the floor from jumping out of the tank? That’s what I felt like. But it is an adjustment. I can hardly move my head because my nose piece can jar loose, and then it seems to spray air and steam iron water on me until I wake up. This week I’m meaning to get one of those body pillows; it sounds cozy. 
And it’s an adjustment for one’s partner too- he didn’t marry a dragon lady, but he’s got one now!

I don’t smoke; not for lack of trying. When I was growing up, all the cool people smoked. Everybody had ashtrays all over their houses. Like drinking coffee- just adult behavior.
I think the most effective thing to get people to give up smoking is the cost! When I was a kid, my mom could send me to the corner store with a dollar and a note-and I came back with four packs of Raleighs! Pyrate could buy a carton from his ship’s store for $5. The other day at the gas station there was a sale- a carton of Marlboros for $57.50.
This noble fellow is St. Isidore of Seville, the saint of the Internet. “Hey Izzy, need help here!”
He was a pious farmhand. the other hands were complaining to the boss because, Isidore was always at Mass or taking time off work to pray.So the boss went to talk to him, found him kneeling in prayer and observed an angel doing the plowing. Cool! He’s got a town in CA named after him: San Isidro.

The Grand Duchess made me a gift. I wanted a shawl- triangular with enough to it so that I could drape it over me and tie in front. And a requested a beautiful dolphin gray color. She had a lot of “help” from the kitties, who wanted to tear it up because of its softness, but at last it is finished. She likes to knit lace and I like to knit socks, so we will no doubt continue to exchange things in the future. 

