16:57 - 07/15/2009
Splish splash
Happy Saint Swithin's Day!
"St Swithin's day if thou dost rain
For forty days it will remain
St Swithun's day if thou be fair
For forty days 'twill rain na mair"
It rained here today. Gully washer for about 45 minutes. The only 45 minutes that I was outside walking about, of course. You see, my oldest arrived here to sleep after work early in the morning. He combined the need for some uninterrupted rest with his loan of his prescription sunglasses to me. The sleep he needs because the injuries he sustained almost a year ago in that hit and run accident are flaring up. We chatted about it for a while when he did wake up. I promised I would do some research to find an orthopedic doctor for him, as well as try to connect with the neurologist he has been seeing. Might as well use my "free" time effectively, right?
The glasses are necessary for me, so I can see when attending a job interview. The contact lenses I had - well, one broke while still in my eye that day I was assigned to work outside in the sun for eight hours on that concrete pad beside the railway tracks outside the store. The other contact seems to have disappeared from my eye while A+ and I were out celebrating Canada Day. I have no money to buy new contacts, so I have to find a way to be creative enough to make do for now. I do have a pair of non-prescription reading glasses that I bought at my local drug store a few years ago. Ok for close work. I found an old pair of my own glasses lenses that I wore up until number four son broke the frames at the age of two and a half. Seemed to be a rite of passage for each son at that age. When the fourth child continued the tradition, I gave up replacing my glasses and opted for contact lenses instead. I took the damaged pair over to A+'s to see if there was any chance he could mend them - me being useless with such things - but they were too far gone to rehabilitate. My oldest's sunglasses have a very John Lennon look to them, so I am quite content to work with those for the time being.
As my oldest son was preparing to leave, I said I would walk with him to the bus stop so that I could pick up a small bag of litter for the, now stinky, cats. I guess he had been watching me dig through sofa cushions and such looking for enough change while he was packing up for work, because he handed me enough money to get a larger, less expensive per pound, bag. When we left the house it was just spitting a bit. No big deal since I love the rain. By the time I arrived at the main intersection before the store, it was coming down so hard it felt as though hail might be in the offing. Seems to be a trend, since that happened last time I went cat litter shopping. At one point, it felt as though I was doing laps in a swimming pool. You know that feeling when your head breaks the surface and your mouth fills with water involuntarily, if one has forgotten to keep it closed? Well, maybe not. I was pretty much soaked from head to foot by the time I walked into the supermarket, as a result. I was just relieved I had managed to keep my footing across the roadways/parking lot. My moccasins are great on the sidewalks when wet, but all that drek that oozes from the vehicles onto the roadways makes for very slippery conditions. Lucky for me, the massive puddles diluted and washed away some of the effluent or it might have worked out less positively.
On the way home, I had to stop at the main traffic light. One of the drivers, in a big black half-ton truck with over-sized wheels, sped up and headed for the biggest puddle there was nearest to me. You know those photos where the waves from a wild ocean sweep up and drench a person? Well that's exactly the size of the wave that that driver sent my way. Me, standing there with a 25 pound bag of pea gravel clutched in my arms, meant I didn't have a hope of moving quickly enough to avoid the unexpected bath. As I watched the pathetic loser speed away, I consoled myself with the thought that maybe his assault on me might mean he wouldn't beat his wife/kids when he got home as a result, or, if he was heading off to work, maybe his co-workers or sub-ordinates wuld be spared his bullying, since he had already taken out his aggression on me. The heavens must have agreed with that thought, since the rain stopped and the sun came out as I reached the opposite side of that street and headed home.
I had so much adrenaline flowing at that point, that clearing up the litter boxes was actually a physical release and a relief. Ditto for hauling the mess out to the back alley for trash pick-up. I hauled the recycle bin back inside the gate - the brand new service now offered by the city. They made so much money last month from selling the refundables, as well as the other plastics/paper, that they seem to be making quite a tidy profit on an environmentally friendly service. Yay! Harvested some of the long grass for the cats' delectation as I returned inside. I have been intending to mow that grass for two weeks now, but the rain hasn't let up enough to do so. Good for the cats though. Since my hair was already soaked, I decided I might as well wash it, since that effluent from the streets might not be the best for it anyway. My motor has just about run down, now that the adrenaline has been channeled into positive actions, so I think I'll go have a nap now. Sweet dreams, dear diary.
�
�
