Sylvia's Journal

If you had tried to capture Annette on camera yesterday it would have been hard to get her in the frame. She rushed around the house cleaning, re-arranging, moving, bagging and boxing stuff. If you (and we) thought we’d done all that already, as indicated in my journal entries, then we were exposed yesterday as frauds. I guess we really needed an outsider to see the dirt on the cabinets, the crumbs in the drawers and the unnecessary clutter in our rooms. “Clutter is not good for your mind,” said Annette as she shoved yet another batch of stuff towards the cellar door. Out of sight, out of mind. Of course the cellar is now cluttered big time, but most of the time the light is out there and we don’t have to see it.

We can now move around the house without hitting tchotchkies, stumbling over books, unplugged phones or large bulky computers that are trying to hide under furniture (ours or Sita’s). The refrigerator is spotless again and the oven clean (it did that itself). We also got broken stuff to repair places. As a bonus, Annette also shopped and cooked a fantastic meal and then cleaned everything up afterwards. After all that we sat by the fire and read. Can you imagine, all this in one day! And we have a few more coming. She claims she can even fix the holes in Axel’s sweater. Wonder woman!

Annette’s presence allowed me to concentrate on work yesterday. I was able to put in more than half a workday in between three daily exercise sessions and one PT session. Most of the time I sat at my computer with either an ice pack around my ankle or a hot pack around my neck and my leg propped up on pillows on a table next to my desk. It works for short periods of time and then I have to get up and move and stretch.

Axel had another stay at home day. We are encouraged that his eyesight is often greatly improved in the morning. Unfortunately it tends to deteriorate slowly as the day goes by. He has rediscovered his muscle relaxant pills (Skelaxin) which had been pushed into the far corners of our pill pile. They are doing wonders for his body and mood and allow him to sleep in ways he hasn’t done for awhile. We haven’t quite done our Google research yet on whether these pills are harmless or not; we think (and hope) they are. He has been able to pick up his old business of making the most wonderful note cards out of photos taken around our house. He actually had got an order to fill.