Sylvia's Journal

I woke up with a terrible pain in my hands. I wonder why, why now and how it is that I must be sleeping to upset them so much. It takes awhile to get rid of the pain. I feel rather dazed because of the vivid dreams that mingle with the hand pain. I spent a few minutes catching as much of the dreams as I can remember and writing bits down. The themes are clear, it’s all about travel, long corridors, keys, lost luggage. I am reminded of a quote from Antoine de St. Exupery whose Wind, Sand and Stars is sitting on my night stand, ‘The trip becomes a journey after you have lost your luggage.’ We should all be traveling light. There was also something in the dream about shipping puppies. Sita is trying to talk us into getting a puppy.

As I am quietly contemplating all this information so early in the morning and starting to write, Joe calls up from San Diego where it is now 5 AM. We don’t usually get calls from him this early. Something is amiss. Four years to the day his valley is on fire again. Joe had learned much about calamity management and network mobilization from the 2003 San Diego fire that raged through his valley. He brought his expertise to manage our calamity and mobilize our network so successfully in July. Now he is back to his own calamity, calling from his car as he is moving stuff out of the way. Other than talking with him there is little we can do and we feel rather powerless. The wooden ramp he built for us is of no use to him. He needs prayers, not stuff that burns.

For us, as intended, things were quiet yesterday. We were blessed with another gorgeous fall day and the trees appeared in fire in their bright orange, yellow and red colors, the kind of fire that Joe would prefer. I spent a good part of the day outside sitting in the sun and reading. I also finally had a chance to dig up my potatoes, something I watched other doing over the summer and was so anxious to do myself. I harvested probably another 10 pounds, the last of the season. The little ones that Ann Lasman had left in the ground a few weeks ago had grown into full size spuds. We ate the new crop of the baby potatoes last night, ending, with that, the possibility of one more harvest.

And now we are off to another intense week of physical therapy and exercises. Axel’s eyesight is steadily improving and we are beginning to contemplate getting his driver’s license renewed. It expired in July. He is not ready to drive yet but we think the day that he will is getting closer. We saw no more muscle twitching in his left arm (I still haven’t seen it with my own eyes). Betty had prepared us for this possibility, so we remain patient as well as patients. I’ll get to see it one of these days, I am sure.