Sylvia's Journal

It is Thursday and this means one more week till my appointment with the orthopedic surgeon. I am counting the days, even though I am trying hard to live in the present, but as far as my leg cast is concerned, the present sucks.

It was another restless night of trying to sleep comfortable with this hard thing on my right leg. As I am writing this, Axel is busy trying to reposition his left arm which is his problematic body part (one of several). My problematic leg is on his problematic arm side so we are not well matched up for the night.

I had a series of bizarre dreams that had little to do with planes, healing, legs, or arms. I remember snippets about having to elect a Catholic Church official. I vaguely remember thinking during the dream that this was odd because I am the daughter of a fervent anti-catholic and I don’t know anything about the hierarchy or its election procedures. Nevertheless I favored some old African (Kenyan?) sister who had done much for teenagers. I did not stick around for the results so I don’t know if she made it. The only connection between my current situation and this dream that I can see is the word saint. We are surrounded by saints.

One of those saints who appeared yesterday was Mary Scofield who completed the refrigerator work started by Carole the day before and cleaned out the freezer. Chuck joined her and together they rid us of assorted canisters with undistinguishable frozen substances and the broccoli that had been used to ice painful backs. Chuck checked the garden with the order to get any tomatoes that were sufficiently ripe to attract the attention of our huge and well-fed chipmunk population. Mary’s aged dog Lillie did little to chase them away, the rascals.

Axel had not even awaited the arrival of Chuck and took an early morning nap. This too is discussed in the book “The Art of Being Idle.” He slept till we woke him up for the visiting nurses. Once again we tried to sort out the problematic night time pillow construction. And once again it seemed so easy, they have such a way with pillows and making their patients comfortable, and yet, at night we can never reconstruct it.

Axel was read the riot act (as well as the exact doctor’s orders) about his left arm. He is not to do any active stretching, which is of course what he had done the entire day before when he was using his left arm to carry an assortment of items. It is hard to wean him from this. The left arm has to be picked up by either his right arm or by someone else before it can be repositioned. We will be working more on this new discipline today.

After a delicious light summer lunch that Mary had brought and my first locally grown melon Roger Warner took over and invited Axel to select no less that 7 (seven!!) new eye patches since Sook and he decided black just wouldn’t do. They got the eye patch cottage business owner on the phone a little later and she is stitching hard to get Axel at least some of his new patches by Sunday. I know one is with fish and another with baseballs.

Ellie Cabot brought my hairdresser Bonnie Burgess who gave me haircut ‘en plein air’ looking out over the cove, while Chuck, Roger, and Axel were joined by Gary for some contrasting male banter in the background. Gary offered Axel two walking sticks that are pieces of art in their own way.

Sita’s friend Brian showed up with some perfect veggies, followed by Diane Neal Emmens with a container of freshly picked blackberries. And while Roger and Diane discovered a common name in the network of overlapping circles, the Lashes arrived, as announced on the calendar and started cooking in the kitchen. Toni Boisvert from Waring came by with his son Campbell to see us and Tessa and while we waited for Tessa to get back from work Campbell fed our homegrown carrots to Tessa’s bunny. This is one lucky bunny and very convenient for kids: carrots and bunny all available in one place.

We invited the Lashes to stay and join us in eating their meal which made for good company and minimized the amount of leftovers.

After dinner I joined a telephone meeting with the Board of the Organizational Behavior Teaching Conference with people calling in from Australia, and both American coasts. It was my first act of not being idle and I managed to stay connected throughout the hour and a half meeting. It was nice to be brought back to the real world out there which has shriveled up a bit for us and hear all these dear and familiar voices. Sita called while I was on the phone and I was sorry to miss that. Later nurse Tessa oriented nurse Jim to the complexities of putting Axel to bed, and I joined them after my call was completed. It remains a nightly challenge, but onward we go.