Pete is a Saint

Eureka! I figured out how to upload an image to be the header of this blog.

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I rose, as usual, at 5:00 yesterday. The house was a mess. I hadn’t done dishes for days, and there were Fir needles everywhere. I saw the need to clean everywhere, so as soon as I was up, I got to it. I feel good in a clean and tidy house, and I wanted to do everything I could to make myself feel good because my speech situation brings me down.  

Saturday was such a shock. Sunday, I was very low as the reality of my speech settled in, and Monday was worse, partly because of Facebook saying I was denied for life for violating their ethical policies, and partly because of how compromised I feel in a fluent world. So, I was determined to do all I could to feel good yesterday. The cleaning got me off to a good start, and I hoped to walk without running into anyone, so our morning walk was early, and I chose a remote trail. After that, I planned on spending the day with Kate Atkinson.

The walk was spectacular. The sun had come out, and there were times on the walk when I felt positively euphoric. When I’d find myself standing in a grassy meadow in warm, glorious sunshine, with Sheba beside me and surrounded by the forest and with birdsong as my soundtrack, I feel truly blessed. Feeling so good was spectacularly welcome!

When I got home, there was an email from David. He’s an acquaintance who helped me access FaceTime years ago. He came over to help me again, and thanks to him, I am back to being able to access our community pages. They enrich my life here; I’m truly happy to have regained access.

I read and did some domestic chores in the afternoon, and then Her Highness and I went to Elder Cedar to walk. The stream there is a dribble. Normally it is a heavily flowing creek at this time of year. When I got home, I checked out my Fuchsias. They were bone dry. I can’t believe that I needed to water my gardens in March! It’s predicted to rain today. I’ll bet it won’t. And then we have several days of warm weather (18°) and no rain coming. Hose alert!

Unexpectedly, Pete arrived at 3:15 with his blower and got busy tidying my yard. This is the second time he has done this in a week. He felt badly that all our work on the first cleanup was ruined by the storm. He tidied the yard, and he’s left me things to do at my request, for when the warm weather comes, I love doing yard work and being outside.

The evening was as usual, except for a lot of writing that I did in advance of my meeting with Dr. S. I have put down thoughts to cut and paste into the Zoom chat when we meet on Tuesday. I have lots of them and more will come, I know. That’s why I asked to see her every two weeks. Adaptation is trying, and I value having her to talk to while I go through it.

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Today I must go early to Life Labs for blood tests in advance of my Zoom meeting with my new HIV doctor. He was resistant to video chatting when I met him online with Kris here helping me, so I will be profuse with my thanks when I see him on Zoom, because he’s setting up a video chat.

Every night, I seem to re-set to zero. When I woke up this morning, I could feel ‘the wall’ inside me and I couldn’t speak to my pets. As the day progresses, I seem to reclaim some capacity; first a word here and there, then I can reach key-speak and communicate slightly better.