Skeleton Crew. Day Review
Keep pushing that cart.
It’s not even ten in the morning yet.
Where is the day not going too? Why? It’s sort of stuck here. Sometimes this can be a good thing. Though lately it’s been more about moving the day along through its various stages and phases. Stages and phases seem the same, no?
Well, no. stages refers more to time frame. Phases has more to do with mind. There’s a difference. Sure, they’re related, but not one.
So as I sit here and will it along I wonder about my sister on her way to Israel. Should be fun as she traces the steps of Jesus. My only concern is that she’s going to a part of the world that is anything but safe or peaceful. Yes, it would need an extra dose of bad luck to get caught in an attack. I get that, but still. She’s my sister.
I phase in and phase out as the day progresses through its stages. There is an early morning stage, then approaching noon, finally noon and early afternoon, might do for a nap. Then, of course, the sun slants ever so subtly. Three rolls around and I know I’m entering the home stretch.
‘Entering the home stretch’ can be misleading. In fact, on almost a daily basis, during any given time of the day, it may feel for moments as if I am entering a high point, the crest of a good wave. There are days that right after seven AM at my desk I feel lifted and I write my heart out. This is part of the wonder and I question if this is as it is for others?
Almost as if it were rhythmic.
Then if it’s an on day, I do my exercise routine which feeds me right into my walk time, finishing the daily activities around four thirty ish. From there its coasting time, hanging with my wife and with my visiting Mother-in-law and my sweet niece who brought her up from Honduras. My wife’s family is taking turns taking care of their ageing mother. Along with those more common setbacks that the late eighties can bring about, she has developed a progressing sort of dementia.
An interesting phenomenon is my dear mother in laws negative inclination. For as long as I’ve known her, she’s shown a real penchant for slipping into the ‘darker’ side of just about any issue. There is no pleasing her. I can only assume that at her advanced age and her mind playing tricks on her that this mental darkness must be even more torturous.
Maybe when she was still a teen, she would’ve benefited from PMA courses. Those positive mental attitude courses that salespeople swear by.
The day moves on.
Dinner for those who eat at the late hour, say around six thirty.
Late hour? Oh yeah. Time was my wife, and I didn’t even think of supper until seven. Maybe we’d eat, then set out into the city for a few beers and dancing. No more. What with our unruly guts, we really can’t eat past around five. Ever since my cancer surgery, my appetite died and stayed that way. Reflux became an issue for both of us.
Off to bed to begin my closing routine. Perhaps Netflix or other. Maybe two shows. Then I read until the book falls from my hands with a laughable clunk. It works best if I hold off sleeping until ten thirty or even eleven. I get up without fail every hour on the hour until just before five to pee.
As a seventy-three-year-old man, my plumbing isn’t as efficient as it once was. So, I pee all the time.
Start a fire in the fireplace around five, watch the news until just before six, nursing my first of two coffees. Most days, the news is hardly newsworthy. It just isn’t. One would think that with so much going on now that they could put together a show that really holds me. I refer here to all news outlets. But I try to keep up with the world. Sure, it becomes a bit trying as I can only take so much of the back-and-forth whining rivalries between all the countless groups.
The inredible story this morning is of a Chinese balloon that is floating across the US. It is beyond me to comprehend that there are those in powerful government positions screaming to shoot the damn thing down!!
It’s a balloon!! What if it were red!? What if there were ninety-nine of them…?
‘Just ask yourself congress person: What is gained by shooting down a balloon?’
The Chinese: ‘We truly are so sorry. Our balloon got loose and perhaps is on its way to destroy your country…’
Is it any wonder we still haven’t finished ourselves off by now?
Meditation from six to almost seven. Around that time my wife is stirring, good mornings and before long breakfast becomes the kickoff event for all present. Soon after, I’m in my office to review notes and to write.
Right now, amid closing doors on my pastry business. This is the remaining remnant of my former nine-to-five life. Nine to five is, of course, just a way of saying that I’d leave at six AM to my office and be home as the sunset every day except for my day off, most Sundays.
Eventually bumping into the twenty-four-hour mark, now at just past ten PM.
And so, it goes. My day in a nutshell.
A mere fraction of what my days used to be years past, of course. The key to at least some joy is keeping busy. Productive. It’s normal then to find myself in the middle of some days where I almost wish the hours to whisk along. Strange, you might say. Given my age. One might think I’d be doing everything to still time, even extend it.
Not me. I’ve got no complaints, know my limitations and also realize I’m in my last chapter and not trying to create a world-shaking example out of it. Peace and health are the two things I most crave. Every day will show these two in different measures.
Today is a good day.
