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Lessons learned
On Thursday, last week, I sat with LOML having an early morning coffee and was, suddenly, overwhelmed with nausea, disorientation and dizziness. WTH was happening to me. I said I wasn’t feeling well and, by the look on LOML’s face, I knew I didn’t look well. My mind immediately went to my stubborn, old friend, Brain Tumour. Could it be the brain thing? Maybe it was a drop in blood pressure? Maybe it was a drop in blood sugar? Maybe it was bad coffee? But, my mind kept coming back to “brain tumour” even though my last MRI indicated there wasn’t a change, I was convinced this was the problem. To cover all the bases, I chewed an Aspirin, “hoovered” a tablespoon of peanut butter, gulped a big glass of cool water and checked my blood pressure. My family doctor, and I, had recently decided my “brain condition” and blood pressure was stable enough to stop taking blood pressure medication, on a trial basis. I was convinced our plan was all falling apart but, my blood pressure was stable. What the H E Double Tongue Depressors was wrong with me. And, then
Well, and then I took a cool shower and I started to feel better. And, then I realized it was the seemingly endless heat and humidity (not to mention the snarky, grouchy attitudes everyone has recently adopted, in person and online) that finally got to me. I was feeling “hot, hazy and humid”. My body was telling me “Enough is enough, it’s time to cool down, in more ways than the obvious.” First order of business was to stop being a physical hot mess and turn the air conditioning on. Yup, we’ve got A/C and until Thursday we hadn’t turned it on because we’re idiots or martyrs or, well, let’s go with “idiots”. We had the means to cool off and we weren’t taking advantage of our good fortune. Of course, we didn’t turn the a/c on full blast. We turned it on just enough to help this old gal feel better and stop jumping to conclusions about her health. Hot is hot. Humid is humid. We had the means to get it in check and figured we could tough it out. Geez Louise. By Friday I was feeling much better. By Saturday the only thing ailing me was the grumpy, nasty people on social media platforms and tourists who are impatient. That situation is easy enough to rectify without telling everyone to STFU. I just have to stay away from those scenes.
Yup, lockdowns, rising COVID19 case counts, the Delta Variant, vaccine hesitancy, antivaxxers, unbearable heat, loony tourists and suffocating humidity plus clogged County streets, congested County retail outlets, not enough ice cream, not enough wine, too many meals to cook, a friggin’ Federal Election and, plain old, stupidity got to me on Thursday. You would think after living as many years as I have, I could have figured out how to operate this body (and brain) of mine. Right!? I am right. So, the A/C is on. Cool bevies being enjoyed, regularly, on the side porch. Ice cream a couple of times per week, as needed, for medicinal purposes. More reading of books and less reading of crazy comments online is happening. I’m angling for more take-away meals and fewer hella-hot kitchen meltdowns. More cool showers, fewer days of sweating it out because of my stubbornness. Short of getting a notebook out and writing down my operating directions, I think I’ll remember the lessons I’ve learned this summer, brought home to me on Thursday.
Like a lot of you, the heat and humidity isn’t making life in Pandemic Times any easier for me. I can’t always resist the urge to do things outside, and I’ve paid the price. In reality, no one really gives a gosh darn about my yard. Anyone who walks by is just trying to get from A to B without suffering from heatstroke. They aren’t looking at my crispy lawn or my wilted lavender or my overgrown Spirea. Not one person has mentioned the mess underneath the bird feeders or that the fire pit still has an ashy mess in it. No one cares about the lawn chairs that need to be painted or the landscaping that stopped mid-shovelful about a month ago. I care that I’m not feeling sick and jumping to conclusions. It’s hot. It’s August. In about three months I’ll be whining about how cold it is.
Lessons learned. 1. Be cool. 2. Stay hydrated. 3. Move more slowly. 4. Remember, kindness is always the right choice. 5. Be kind to myself.
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