The Aerie
It is not my intention to post these weekly, it merely happens that
way.
I sat with Moldy again last Tuesday night -- it took me two days to
recover from being up til 3:00 a.m. This doesn't bode well for
tonight's overnight stay.
Last week Blondie showed me how to change Moldy's Depends (adult
diapers). You have to sort of shove your hands deep into the mattress,
then slip them underneath without touching him, and then lift him as
gently as possible to roll him to one side and then another, because
his skin hurts so much from the cancer.
He seemed "out of it" for most of the time, either sleeping or sort of
staring blankly through watery eyes. He didn't wake up the first time
we changed him, and he didn't react the second time. That says a lot
-- he used to be angry and humiliated when other people helped him
with private stuff, now he just lays there.
But then later he was quite responsive to some things. I pointed at
his tattoo (which seems to be of one of the bugs from an old "Raid"
insect-repellent commercial), and he perked right up and said "Yeah,
it's cool!" And when his wife came in and made kissy-faces at him he
responded and told her he loved her.
Tim and I gave Blondie's computer yet another makeover. She is
completely computer-unsavvy but very intelligent and she spends all
her time at home on the computer. As a result she was chock full of
spyware. There's a great free tool you can run,
[1]http://security.kolla.de/
which will erase the spyware from your computer. Basic running process
is 1) Download and install, 2) Update the Spyware Files, 3) Search and
destroy spyware, 4) run Innoculate to prevent reinfection.
So we did that, and we re-connected her speakers which had somehow
come undone.
I also walked their dog, which for me is a major sacrifice. My family
hasn't got a dog because, at least in Minneapolis, you have to pick up
the dog's poop and dispose of it. Well, I have this personal rule,
which rule is, "I will not walk around in public carrying dog poop in
a plastic Wonderbread bag." See, I'm aware that in some countries
carrying poop in public can be considered a sign of lunacy, and I just
won't do it. The dog will wait till my kids are in college and I move
to the country, where his poop can fertilize the fields and forests.
But for Moldy's sake I took the miserable mutt and a bag and off we
went. About half a block from the house she did the inevitable, and I
did the necessary, and there was a trash dumpster nearby and that
wasn't all that bad.
A block later she demonstrated what I later learned were the effects
of not having been walked FOR A WEEK. This dog looks a lot like a
shabby hassock, I believe it suddenly weighed half of what it had when
we left the apartment.
Of course, the property owner was right there.
Well, I had brought with me a couple of paper-towel-sized hand-wipes
in case anything untoward happened and I needed to clean up. I was
still carrying the slightly damp things, wondering what to do with
them now that, as I'd believed, the dog was done.
My father used to tell the story that he was watching a TV movie once
in the early Sixties when the first reel of the movie was followed
immediately by the third. Half an our later the second reel commenced.
At the end of that reel the test pattern appeared, and a voice said
"Uh, well, we seem to have lost the last reel of the movie folks...
but don't worry, everything turned out all right in the end!"
I will spare you the nightmarish experience that followed, and only
say that everything turned out all right in the end.
Tim and I also tried to get Blondie to go to bed. Unlike most of my
attempts to get women into bed, this one failed, doubtless because I
wasn't going to be there with her. (*Rimshot* "Thank you ladies and
gentlemen, thank you... I'll be here all week... try the veal, it's
fabulous!") What a stubborn German girl she is! We got her to lie down
once, but she emerged only about 20 minutes later to say she couldn't
sleep.
Tonight I'll be doing my first overnight, teaming up with Moldy's
sister. Hopefully we'll be able to get Blondie to take a nap, I think
the woman is running on about 2 hours a night.
I am a little anxious about seeing Moldy tonight. According to Blondie
he had a tough weekend, with a fever and with what sounds like
declining ability to communicate. I don't think there'll be anything
shocking or terrible to see, I just hate watching him waste away like
this...
Still hating cancer...
[2]Last
Posted by Albatross at July 16, 2003 12:00 AM