Summer in T-Shirt

I walked Sheba early in the morning, and then we went to Mad Rona’s to meet Stacy for coffee and a chin wag. And while talking to her, I could hear myself getting better at speaking, and when we ran into people on our walks, same thing. I’ve put my ’non-verbal’ buttons away and changed the calling advice that I was maintaining on the top right of this site.

I’m not an idiot. I may crash again, but I feel very good about my speech right now, but I shall take things one day at a time. I am, however, optimistic that this relief will hole. I turned down attending a party last night that I would have loved to be part of, and now, with my speech doing so well, I could have gone. Ah well. I’m not sorry that I stayed home. I’m still crowd averse.

It was a truly beautiful and warm Summer-like day yesterday. I had to take my hoodie off when we were walking and enjoy or forest walk in just my t-shirt. And it will be the same again today, with a high of 20°. Sadly, I am not very interested in doing gardening and yard work. I’m enjoying reading and three walks a day too much.

Today is My Day. I have no plans other than to walk, read and to do a little yard work. I’m desperate for a spa or a shower. I want warm water on my skin, but my arms are so damaged from the dog a couple of days ago I don’t want to get the bandages wet yet. I’ve become a temporary sponge bather and I’m using my electric blanket for a good dose of heat.

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There was a comedy show that was popular on television. It’s still playing because it was very funny. Two fellows I worked with in theatre from Canada were two of the stars of the show. There were two other comedians as well. One standard bit they did was telling a story together, taking turns with each of them saying one word to tell the story. 

That’s a bit like speech is for me. I want to convey that which might be a sentence if I could talk. I don’t speak in sentences. I don’t use grammar. I use what I call ‘key words.’ These are words that convey meaning and, more importantly, that I can say. There are many phonemes (sounds) that I can’t say, however, it’s more complex than that. 

I can’t say the word ‘apple’ because the soft A phoneme is almost impossible for me to say. I’ve heard myself say it once lately, as I was speaking and I was shocked—and happy. A lot depends on where the phoneme is placed in the sequence of phonemes of a word that I am trying to say. (And here I thought studying linguistics was a stupid idea back in uni.) The way I talk feels like the game Ryan, Colin and their fellow actors did on that show. Each word is a step forward, but you must search to find one that works.

I could go on and on about the complexity of speech. The best thing to do, is give you an example. Here’s something I might say and do: “Visit, friend (I can’t say Dianne, so I raise my eyebrows as high as I can as I say “friend,” and I nod my head ‘yes;’ I’m trying to get you to guess the name. I give a thumbs up or down, to your guess, and my face lights up when you guess correctly), good. We, and then I would ‘walk’ my fingers along my other hand that’s held out flat (this is me saying, ‘walking’, and again, thumbs and face convey yes or no), we I whisper, ‘spa’ in a way that I can and it’s odd, we andthen I’d mime eating, moo-vee.”

So: “Visit friend good. We (mime walking), we spa (whispered), we (mime eating), movie.”

Back to Routines

Thursday began, as had Wednesday, with clear skies when I rose that turned into overcast skies shortly thereafter. It cleared up again before noon, and we had a brilliant and toasty warm afternoon. The entire coming week is going to be beautiful Spring weather, and I am already into my regular watering routine.

It was brisk as the sky cleared. I was out watering the last of the garden beds that I hadn’t done on Wednesday. I was glad to be able to get them all watered before Di rose because it meant we could spend all out time together and then, when she departed, I’d be able to chill and not have any chores demanding my attention.

Once she was up and fed, we headed to Drumbeg to walk with Sheba. It was stunning to be walking in such warm sunshine along the shore. We walked slowly and took in all the little natural things we saw, and when we arrived back at the car, it was time for lunch. We ate at home and chatted until 14:00 when Di left to catch the ferry.

Once she’s departed, Sheba and I went walking on a nice long route through the 707 Park. It was lovely to walk slowly in the sunshine, and then we came home to resume our regular evening ‘family’ routine. We’d had a wonderful visit with Di, now it was time to return to our regular routine.

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I slept in yesterday morning until 5:30. I hadn’t napped on Thursday, so I slept like a rock during the night. And Friday dawned bright and warm. I walked Sheba early and it was just the most wonderful thing to do. I was elated by the fragrance of the forest, the silence as we walked, and the joy of living here and having no pressure to speak.

At 10:00 I Zoomed with Jason. He is the representative I always speak to from the company, affiliated with Vanity, that manages my modest investments. I’d written to him about accessing money to pay off my debt with the provincial property tax deferral program. He advised me not to pay it off even though the government has upped the interest. I’m grateful for his advice as I am fiscally stupid. 

When my call with him was done, we all had lunch and then Sheba and I went for a short mid-day walk, and then I came home to do some yard work. I weed whacked the lawn covering part of my septic field. The grass was 30-40 cm high, so I will let everything recover from my work today and then do the field again in a day or so.

Then I read a little—very little—because I wanted to go out for another walk. This time, we went for a longer one. It was such a gorgeous afternoon, I wanted to be outside. When we got back, there was a woman parking and she had two dogs which roared out of the back seat of her car and one of them rushed me, jumped up against me, full of love, but she had long claws that tore both my arms. 

I raised my arms above my head until she called her pooch, and although blood was running down my arms and soaking into my white t-shirt, she said not one word. Because I have ‘old man’s skin’ that tears easily, I have band aids in my car, including some large ones, and Kleenex, so I was able to clean myself up and bandage myself to stop the bleeding.

With my arms so badly damaged, I could not have the spa I wanted to have when we got home. Sigh. I’d been really looking forward to a long soak. Instead, I read until dinner time. Then we watched a movie and I went to bed early.

Dianne Day 2

Wednesday was a lovely day because it is so wonderfully easy being with Di. We putzed around the house in the early morning; I started at 5:00, Di joined me just past 8:00. No fire, no rush. We just chatted and chilled until it was time to walk Her Highness.

We went to walk in Elder Cedar, a place that Di loves. We walked slowly and took turns pointing out things to each other. It was slightly overcast but warm, an ideal temperature for walking comfortably. When we got back to the car, we came home and had an early lunch, after which we both got comfortable to read. I, however, fell into a short snooze, and when I awoke Di was MIA. (She was napping in her room.)

I, therefore, went outside and watered the front yard, the edible garden and half of the backyard beds. It’s the backyard that takes so long to water properly. When I was done, I was chuffed to have given all my flora friends essential water. I still cannot believe how dry a Winter and Spring we’ve had. This morning, I will finish watering the backyard beds.

When I was done, Di was up and back to reading in the living room, and so I proposed that we get into the spa and chat. She absolutely loved being in the spa. She loved the heat and being outside in brilliant sunshine. Yes, the eternal sun was back in full force all afternoon. 

After our spa, Di went back to reading and I took Her Highness for our afternoon walk, and when I got back, it was time for us to head into the village to pick up a pizza for dinner. Yum! Just as dinner was winding down, I suddenly lost my capacity to speak at all to Di. It came back, but barely, later. It was weird and worrisome, but my voice is a constant source of confusion and frustration. Sigh. 

We’ll walk this morning and read and chat some more, we’ll have leftover pizza for lunch and Di leaves around 2:00 to go to Nanaimo to meet her friend, Lynn, with whom she will be travelling in Europe this Summer, to attend Di’s daughter, Ashlee’s, wedding and to do some sightseeing around southern Europe. Then she will head home on the ferry at 18:00.

So, this afternoon, I return to solitude. Aidan is in NYC, so I am taking time off SPACE work, and instead reading and doing yard and garden work around Pinecone Park. I reckon the cold is behind us now.

NASA photo of surface of Jupiter.

Dianne Day 1

Friday morning was very busy! I cleaned the cattery, vacuumed everywhere, took the garbage out for pick up, did a lot of dishes, cleaned the firebox and the toilets. Everything is spick and span for Di’s visit. We walked before 8:00, and I delivered Her Highness to the groomer at 9:00. While she was getting groomed, I did more prep work so that our dinner would come together quickly and easily.

It was disappointing that Di arrived on a cloudy day. Still, it was toasty warm, so walking remained a potential joy even without le soleil. At 8:30 I got an email from Di saying that she’s in pain and sleep deprived due to her root canal. I have Tylenol 3s if she wants one, and I shall give her time to nap, and I’ll serve her nice smooth soup by the fire. Actually, no I won’t. She just texted to say no hot fluids until after 16:00.

After dropping Sheba off, I stopped to fetch eggs for scrambling, ice cream, yoghurt and bananas for Dianne who needs soft foods, and when I got home, I picked a small bouquet to put in her room.

Di arrived at 11:30 and she loved the bouquet and how clean the house was. She got settled and then we had a modest lunch. Her dental work was causing her some pain and so soft food was in order. I was talking key word speech, and it was tremendously satisfying to be able to talk somewhat. I could convey thoughts, but I had a couple of seizures.

Mid-afternoon, Di took a long nap, and I took Her Highness for our afternoon walk during a very modest rain shower. And then we had more chat time before I made my current favourite pasta sauce (lemon, mushroom cream sauce) and we had some of the baclava tart I made. Dinner went down well.

We watched a great little movie after dinner, and then we watched some TV before going to bed. I slept deeply through the night. Sleeping may be what I am best at.

I have no idea what we will do today. It’s warm already. There’s no need for a fire. We’ll do as we please, and there’ll be more movies tonight. We are very comfortable together. I know we’ll have a great day walking, talking, eating and chilling.