Day 4: Sunday

Just a boring day; nice to still have those.

Another lovely day with a frosty morning and blue skies–so NOT Oregon. We are tripping on California weather. I turned off the heat and opened all the doors and some windows to air out the house. Well, 48F (9C) is a bit cold, and soon, I was closing up the house again and turning back on the heat, but it did feel excellent for a while.

The morning started as these December Sundays, with me rising to my alarm at 7:30 and rushing to start my working day, working-from-home Sunday. I read the status updates on Slack channels and related emails. I understood the issues, and during the first Zoom meeting at 8:05, I could cover them. More status calls followed, and I watched all day and stayed home.

I managed an NYC bagel (thanks, The Smiths, Kramers, and Joyce) and a yogurt for breakfast. I had two and a half cups of liberal coffee and was nervous again. The coffee was hitting too hard, and I did not dare another cup. I will be careful to stick to a cup tomorrow.

I finished reading the rules for the board game Quartermaster General 1914 and think it would be fun to try again, but it is really a game for history geeks, especially for us crazies who can’t stop reading WW1 stuff. I folded all the laundry and put it away. I did all the dishes. I got the recycling out of the house.

Barathi, a friend from work who helped on India Night, brought me lunch. It was very kind of her, and I ate that while watching one of my favorite sets of linked Doctor Who stories: Extremis. This is Peter Capaldi at his best for the show (Heaven Sent also being good). The food was excellent!

I also called Leta, Susie’s mom, and we chatted for a while. Now a resident in a home (Leta is headed home on Monday), she saw the things that shocked me when Susie was in a physical therapy facility. Susie would be left at a table for hours. I remember Susie trying to help another resident who could not stop crying, even with her weak hands and broken words. The old Mariott spirit of service would rise in her, and she would try to improve the conditions for another resident. Leta was trying to help others and even brought cookies to a fellow resident who did not get much for dinner.

A memory comes to me; I remember Susie shaking me awake when I, in the middle of my chemotherapy cycle, had fallen asleep sitting next to her in the PT facility. Susie asked me, “Are you alright?” and looked worried. Always trying to help. I had to use a cane to even walk. I reassured her that I would be safe and would head home. I don’t remember missing a day visiting Susie during chemo, except for my infusion days (one of those sent me to the ER).

Today was a housework day. I vacuumed the carpet and the floors. I cleaned the toilets. I kept checking in and did one review for work. I made some soup from a can for dinner. I watched the rest of the three related episodes while having some soup with crackers. Shana stopped by to buy my old laptop (she was the first person who wanted it), and we went over setting her up on the Apple. All done.

I put away a few items and prepared some other items to mail for Christmas. While the house needs what seems to be an endless amount of work, it is a bit better today. I hope to use more Sundays to get things more on track.

After that, I started on the blog.

Thanks for reading. Sorry for a boring day.