April 14th ? How can that be?

I haven't been sick or disabled. I have been busy but not that busy. Inertia sets in. Books need to be read. Neighbors need visits. But there has been real work to be done, too. Grass to be mowed. Flowers beds that a certain person was too lazy to clean in the fall and were a hellish mess had to be attended to. Seeds to plant and annuals to set out.

I have no idea what I've been doing for the past 7 weeks. I have no one here to take care of except myself and 2 cats. I do have one neighbor who needs a lot of attention. The psychic one. Sometimes I get so caught up in her world that everything else has to wait. I understand that not everyone believes in psychics or in seeing into the past or talking to dead people. I've always had a curiosity about such things and Joy has reinforced that interest. It's never dull around here. Spirits come and go like this was a bus station. Some have been here for a very long time, while others just pop in to speak with Joy. More than one has followed her home, probably because she can communicate with them. Her 2 children can often sense when a spirit is around. I rarely do. I can sometimes sense the spirit who refuses to leave here because he thinks he needs to protect his home. Part of my house overlaps where his house used to be so when I'm in that part of the house I sometimes know he's there. This spirit didn't know he was dead, either, until Joy told him. "How can that be? I'm here, I'm talking to you." He was really upset. She told him he could move on to the light or stay, it was his choice. He said he would stay awhile longer.

My son has also needed a bit of extra attention. We see each other several times a week and he phones, sometimes from work late at night when he needs to talk to someone with common sense. Those are his words, not mine. He's had some problems with his blood sugars bouncing up and down and that takes a toll on him. One of the few Saturday mornings I wasn't scheduled to work was my youngest grandson's first baseball game... at 8am. My son had to have Cheyton there at 7:15 for photos and I had my clock set for about that time so I could get there to see at least part of the game. When the phone rang before my alarm went off, I thought Mom was phoning to get me up. Wrong. "Mom, I'm over in front of East High School with the little ones and my sugar is dropping fast. Can you help me?" I said I was on my way and dropped the phone, grabbed two regular soft drinks from the fridge, one a half full liter, a tin of cookies, and my keys. It took less than 5 minutes to get to East and Jim and the kids walked over to meet my car. Jim took all of the stuff and I asked him if he needed me to stay. No. Yes. I said I would park and be right with him. I had to drive a ways down the lot to find a spot and in his disorientation, Jim walked away, holding each of the little one's hands with his supplies tucked under his arms. I ran down the sidewalk to catch up with him, calling his name but he wasn't hearing me. He was moving slowly to the line of kids and coaches. Just as I got to him, Cheyton's team was called. Kids were to go in one door and parents were to wait where the kids would exit. We didn't do that. As we followed the kids up the stairs into the building, a woman who apparently had some official function told us that parents were to wait over there. I told her, "This man is about to have a seizure and we're going inside." Sorry, she said. We sat on a bench and Jim finished the orange soda and asked me 3 times if Cheyton was with his coach. Yes, now drink. Have a cookie. Jaida sat watching her dad. She asked if he was sick and would he be okay and where was Cheyton. It took a lot to bring Jim around but once he starts getting enough sugar in his system, he comes back quickly. As we waited outside for Cheyton, Jim said the other parents probably thought he was a weirdo. "Come on, Son. If they think anyone is weird it has to be the woman in the shiny pink pajamas pants, white t-shirt, and Spiderman sandals with bedhead and no lower teeth who was running down the sidewalk, shouting." There just wasn't time. And the game was cancelled because the field was too wet so we came back here to get some real food in Jim.

As I said, it's never dull around here.