Coming and Going
These days it’s hard to know if I’m coming or going, and my father’s progress since his car accident three weeks ago seems to take one step forward and two back.
First there was the 2 week trip to Aspen for a wedding in October and then a week in Boston this November to visit my family and my father in the hospital. I arrived back home in Virginia Saturday night with no resolution and soon discovered that my computer hard drive had crashed.
How much damage and how much did I lose? I’m waiting to hear the answers to those questions from the technician at Blue Nova Computing.
How much damage and how much will we lose? My father survived his crash, but can he survive the complications (pneumonia) from being immobile for 3 weeks in the hospital and the cycle of invasive interventions?
With a knife, I go into the garden to save what I can before we get a hard frost. I cut turnip greens and kale for supper while crying, and I wonder…are they poisoned or made magical by my tears shed over them? I assume a winter freeze is inevitable, but this year it’s hard to tell.
A week into November and someone was walking barefoot on Nantasket Beach in Hull, Massachusetts, the last day I was there (see above photo).
Here at home, hordes of fat sluggish flies are gathering on my window panes as if it was spring. How strange are these times?
Post Note: My sister, Kathy, also posted about my dad today on her blog, A Particularly Persistent Point of View.
Comments
I will continue to remember your dad and your family in my prayers. It sounds strange but bedrest is extremely hard on the elderly.
The weather here in VA has been different this year. Any warmth and figs on our large tree seem to balloon and ripen over night. I picked over 50 yesterday even though we thought the season was over last week.
Posted by: srp | November 8, 2005 11:42 AM
It was muggy this morning. The moths are out in full force every night, attracted to my porch light. If my street weren't so dark, I would leave it off, but otherwise I can't see to get in my house now that the sun sets so early!
Posted by: InterstellarLass | November 8, 2005 12:17 PM
These times are very strange indeed, though I wish it were warm enough here fore bare-footed walks on the beach. I can see a patch of snow out my window. I'm here from Michele's, this time.
Posted by: Canadian Mark | November 8, 2005 1:13 PM
At times there just seems to be no rhyme nor reason to things. I find, when I have days like this, that it sometimes is just easier to focus on what I have to deal with at the moment. Looking at the big picture can be so confusing and sometimes, frightening. My thoughts are with you.
Posted by: Simply Coll | November 8, 2005 4:32 PM
It was 79* here today, and the mosquitoes have come back in full force, as my poor legs can attest. This is a really odd fall, and I cannot help but remember the horrible tornado we had one year after Thanksgiving, when the temps soared and a cold front came through right after. Eerie.
Why do footprints in the sand always looks as if they are rising above the sand instead of depressed into the and?
Posted by: kenju | November 8, 2005 5:34 PM
I love you Colleen.
I think one footprint looks like it is rising above the sand and one looks like it is depressed in the sand, almost like an optical illusion or a play on words. Almost like how we feel on this roller coaster ride of LIFE! Almost like are we coming or going??????xoxo
Posted by: Sherry | November 8, 2005 5:48 PM
What an amazing photo. I am sorry that this is such a tough time for you. Here's a cyber hug from a cyber friend.
Posted by: vashti | November 9, 2005 12:10 AM
BEAUTIFUL BEAUTIFUL Photo!!!
I do hope your Dad recovers from the pneumonia. I have respiratory problems and know how dibiltating and dangerous pneumonia can be...I wish him well, and soon!
And the flies?? Horrors! I hope they just go away---and very very soon! (lol)
Posted by: OldOldLady Of The Hills | November 9, 2005 1:20 AM
Hugs to you, I hope things calm down a bit soon!
Posted by: Jen | November 9, 2005 4:19 PM
Sending hugs and prayers for you and yours. That photo is wonderful; made me think of a yin/yang.
Wishing you all strength and much comfort.
Posted by: Elissa Malcohn | November 9, 2005 10:48 PM
That's a very cool photograph.
I hope you get some good news soon, on both the daddy front and computer front. It's so hard to see our parents frail and ill.
Posted by: terrilynn | November 10, 2005 8:14 AM