Monday, March 13, 2006

Roller coaster


Hard to hold down,
nimble,
alighting wherever it likes:
the mind.
Its taming is good.
The mind well-tamed
brings ease.
Buddhist wisdom.

I’m not doing good this morning. Running about a four on the Bob scale. That Buddhist saying really doesn’t apply at the moment. Nothing nimble about the mind now. Just talked to Holly at River East about the stuff at the warehouse. It was a little difficult to communicate but I managed. I need to see about the truck and storage unit now. I am having to think through a fog right now as the brain is processing slow. Not the best time for me to be out but need to do this.

3:30 – Just got back from taking care of Barb. I am operating at about an 8 now. Big improvement but that’s the way it is. Nothing like your brain going on a roller coaster ride whenever it feels like it. It’s like being on drugs or drinking but not as bad. I never lose common sense, just can’t process as fast or handle multiple tasks at the slow times.

Fred was a bit…old, this morning. He had me drop by and pick up an old charger he had, from another phone I think, to take and see if it will work on Barb’s phone. Then he asked me to pick up $30 from Tom at the Marathon to use for buying a new charger for Barb’s phone. I told him I could probably fix the cord on her charger and he said that would be good but still buy a new one. When I asked him “What if this charger works” (referring to the one he gave me to try) he said “Don’t you think she should have a new one?”. It’s his money so I wasn’t going to argue.

I got out our cat carrier and went to pick up the money. With that done I headed to Barb’s. She was waiting and had put one of the two cats in a cardboard box. It was struggling to escape and she was struggling to keep the lids closed. We got the other cat into the cat carrier and took them to the car. I told Barb that she would have to sit in the back seat with the cardboard box. When she wondered about that I explained that the last thing I needed was for a cat to be running loose while I was driving down the road. She understood and got in. I had her give me the number of the place, called “Cat Paws and Whiskers”, and called to make sure of the address.

Barb talked about the cats all the way there as the one in the box would scratch her to escape. This is hard for Barb but has to be done. At the cat shelter Barb said her good by’s to these seven month old kittens from one of her other cats. She had plenty of time as the shelter was busy. I could see how she hurt but she handled it OK.

With that done I took her to the phone place to get her charger. Barb talked about her brother, prison, big drug busts, and other things on the way there and back to her home. She’s been through it, that’s for sure. Mostly from being around the wrong people. I gave her a couple of bucks so she could get the breather she had a prescription for. The doc had told her she had the lungs of a seventy year old. This is one of the motivations she has to quit smoking. I need to remember to ask Allen and Eileen if they have any of the nicotine patches I gave them left. I think they should have almost all of them cause neither one quit.

I stopped by the storage unit we had gotten a discount for at the home show to see if their offer still stood. It does so I reserved a unit. Getting home I called Holly at River East. I was going to go there on Thursday but when I looked at the calendar I saw that I am taking Wayne to the MS fund raiser that day. I called Calvin to see if he was still able to help me and he said probably without allot of confidence. Hope he can. Then I called Holly and we got it set up for Friday morning. Should be interesting. The guy they will have supervising me is their scrapper. This guy has been steady cleaning it out and when I called Holly said he was in the back getting more stuff. Who knows what will be there Friday.

I just called Cherie and asked if she would like to go to the park when she gets off work. She is tired but would like to go. It is 70 today and the storm clouds have long since wandered off. The sun is out, I’ve got all the windows open airing out the place, so this is spring weather. Time to get out after a long winter. Wasn’t a bad winter but winter none the less. Time to get out. I’ll have pictures for you.