Holy shit, I'm getting my ass kicked.
I came home for some rest, simply because I wasn't getting better and recovering from the cold/flu bug I had with me for almost all of September. At home I can eat, drink, be merry and loaf... except none of that has happened.
It's been shit sandwiches all the way down lately. I am feeling like I got a Kick Me sign taped to my back.
So, with the decline and death of my mother-in-law culminating in a near-ruinous trip to Brazil, coupled with the cold/flu that would not go away, I was feeling like the ant in the driveway when he sees a kid with a magnifying glass on a sunny day.
I don't talk about Inappropriately Hot Foreign Wife's job here because it's a very serious job and this is not a serious blog, but she's an Alzheimer's nurse, and specifically she's self-employed as a care manager for families dealing with a loved one in need of 24/7 care for Alzheimer's or end-stage dementia, who want their parent or spouse to live and die in their own home. Her particular gifts are boundless empathy and insane organizational skills. Over the years she has attracted like-minded women who make up the care teams that she manages.
I'm very proud of her, and as I have said for the last 20 years, she's just as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside... unfortunately about 24 hours after I got home this time a medical crisis broke out that was both deeply upsetting and stressful, though thankfully that ended happily enough (for values of happy, anyhow), but which turned the week into a 100-hour workweek for her. This coming just 2 weeks after we buried her mother, the timing sucked, and my own complaint, that of having to impotently watch someone I love suffer, continued, which I personally find distressing.
But as I said, things resolved well- everyone lived this time and things even went back to the pre-funeral state, more or less, in our lives. So a few days ago, after the first day of things going back to normal(ish) my wife calls me, and asks to go out for dinner and a glass or two of wine.
At the same time I get the check from dinner, which was good, and more importantly, relaxing for her, I get a call from my brother; my sister's going out in an ambulance, looks like a heart attack or a stroke. So we got... 3 hours free between crises? Perhaps as many as 4.
So that was this past week. . My sister's story is her own, and happily here a few days later, things are improving. But for me, I'm a bit cooked. My sister's the kind of person who will apologize for inconveniencing everyone by getting sick. Since I'm pretty sure she reads this occasionally, I'd feel terrible if she felt guilty that she got sick.
Still, I'm about ready for a day without something scaring the crap out of me, or something stressing the shit out of my wife and family here.
Oh.
Guess who's got a little sumpin sumpin coming overhead the day he's supposed to be going back to work?
I guess I need to be positive here. Yes, we're apparently going to get hit by a hurricane next week. But on the upside, I'm already home. At least I don't have to find a flight to rush here...
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