Dramarama

Sometimes, nothing happens in my life. Then a whole bunch of things happen that make me say, Whoa, whoa, let's stop it. But each time, I am glad people have been there to lessen the worst that could have happened.

On Boxing Day, my mother-in-law went into the hospital because of respiratory complications. She has COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease). She goes into the hospital almost every Christmas, probably because of the onset of cold weather, the stress of the holidays, and exposure to something she's allergic to. Thankfully, this year, Sil2 was with her when she had the attack and she was rushed into Emergency. She seems better now, though still weak and pale.

But The Man has been in a foul mood since visiting her. His foulness was palpable; it was in his tone, his voice, his body language. You could feel it just looking at him, and if you come too close, you plunge into a similar foulness without knowing why. It was like standing on gossamer. Move with too much pressure and you break the fabric and fall through, yet you can't stand still. He does not admit it, but I think it comes down to him feeling his mother values his siblings more than him.

This morning, as soon as I was out of bed, The Man received a call from a neighbour who's just cut her finger open. I said to The Man, "Why don't you get dressed so you can drive her to the hospital. I will go see her now." He agreed quickly. That's because he is not good at looking at blood or open wounds. So I ran over, still in my pajamas to find Carol, still in her pajamas, bleeding at the sink. She tried to catch a falling glass fish and it cut her finger.

We decided she should go to the hospital because the cut was through a vein in her finger and she had lost a lot of blood. She also started to sweat and had to sit down to avert fainting. Each time she came out of a sweat, she tried to put her house in order. Finally I said, "Stop cleaning your house while you are fainting and bleeding. Let's get you dressed." We dressed her and The Man took her to the doctor.

They came back within half an hour, having found a clinic that was open and was able to treat her. She then came and had some breakfast with us.

Meanwhile, we were expecting a visit from Sil. When Sil arrived, Carol took her leave. But I also had to get our packing done as we were preparing to leave by 2 PM to Deerhurst for one week. The Boy then told me the friends he invited to come with us were arriving at 3 PM. Ugh. Why 3 PM when we are leaving at 2:00? "Because I asked you the other day what time we were leaving and you said 4:00," he said. "I thought you were asking about going to Sis' on Boxing Day."

A flurry of phone calls later, The Boy got his friends to come earlier. They arrived shortly after 2:00. But between visiting The Man's mother for two days, The Man going out with friends last night, and the activities this morning, I hadn't bought the groceries for the week yet. I packed all the food we had in the fridge and freezer and hoped for the best.

As we tried to leave, now all packed up in the car, I suddenly remembered I hadn't made arrangements for someone to feed my fish while we were away. A few neighbours later, I found one who was going to be home all week. We had already given him a key to our house last year in case of trouble, so I didn't have to give up my key.

Finally, away we went. But we made four stops on the road for our two and a half ride to Deerhurst. The Man had to buy a pair of pants, we had to get lunch, the kids had to buy a game while The Man bought alcohol and I bought breakfast food, and lastly, we stopped for gas because we drove into a snow storm and our gas tank was almost empty. I cancelled dinner plans with friends because we were running very late.

But we did make it to Deerhurst. And it's nice here. Our unit looks out to the lake and we're comfortable. The kids love it. They've gone skiing. I laze about (as usual) and watch TV (which I never do). The Man reads his newspaper. We look forward to a good week.