Our Week

I have survived. Our small town is afflicted with a intestinal virus.  Despite seeing very few people the last few weeks I caught it.  I'm lucky, it left me with a pretty good belly ache and no appetite but mostly it was fatigue and I am very good at sleeping.  I did drag myself out a few times because son Chris who also lives alone had the bug it in its more violent, ugh mode. I got his meds, pedialyte, low sugar Gatorade and crackers for him for starters. He could barely get up and threw up anything he ate. He's a type 2 insulin dependent diabetic all my mom-alarm bells were ringing. 

I went to check his temps and blood sugar. The first day was the worst. The elevator in the building was out. I have COPD so climbing three flights of stairs to his apartment was a long process done with many stops and lot of bad words. The second day he could keep the Gatorade and the crackers down and the temperature was gone. Suggestions to go to Urgent Care were met with the classic cry of the adult child " Maaawm, nooo!" Regression is us. We are lucky we do have Urgent Care here in our hospital complex.  See a doctor with no appointment and no emergency room. Great docs too, but noooo! He is back at work.

The difference in our ages is apparent. At 44 he was back at work after two and a half days.  I, at 74, was much less ill and am still recovering by sleeping 10 hours a night with a two hour nap yesterday. I read a theory about aging immune systems, that they react much less than the immune systems of younger people.  That's the theory of why so many more young adults than elders died in the 1918 influenza epidemic. Not that it isn't serious for us as well. Our bodies are not as capable of the violent reactions to disease as in our youth. Interesting stuff.

In the middle of all this sick son Chris had been moving from his old apartment into an apartment across the hall. He needed to be out by Thursday but he couldn't stand up. Fortunately he'd moved all his furniture and clothing.  I called son Dave who came over with his wife Heather, his fishing buddy Kyle and some of his million kids to finish the move. Chris wobbled down to let them in the secured building.  They all got in the elevator to the 4th floor where it refused to open its ancient double doors and let them out. Chris called the building manager but before they got there two of son Dave's younger children were freaking out so former heavy-weight wrestler Dave and his big friend Kyle forced the doors open.  The family army moved all the goods, deposited all the trash and went home. I was at home and not sorry to be left out.

I also started feeling vaguely useless. I'm the oldest child in my family and was kind of the rescuer/fixit person. The girl who could change her own oil or fix the toilet for Mom when Dad was out of town. Able to leap tall buildings etc. I haven't been that for quite awhile.  Half way up those damned stairs I finally recognized how much my physical life has changed. More bad words.  Made me laugh, age has only increased my vocabulary.  And my family manages their own lives, and if you need rescuing you only call me to listen or to call someone else.  I am both a little sad and relieved.

Food, sun and a birthday

Monday was my youngest son's birthday. A grand 42 years old. We celebrated by going to the First Monday Food truck event in front of the wine, beer, distillery incubator near the Walla Walla airport. The grounds there used to be part of Fort Walla Walla during the WW2.  It's owned by the port now and some interesting enterprises have sprouted up. There are still barracks, closed up tight, and bunkers here.  The streets are all named one letter A, B, C's intersecting with cross streets named for airplane companies, Boeing, Piper, Lockheed and so on.

Got a delicious gyro for dinner. Lots of great food to try. And of course there are the libations.  It was about 80° and being me I wore my straw hat, sunnies, and a boat load of sun screen.  Next time we go we will bring our folding chairs and locate under the shade of those lovely trees. 

We sat at tables conveniently located pretty much right in the middle of all offerings.  Below are the buildings housing start-up wineries, Burwood Brewery and the Shot in the Dark distillery where son some of his birthday money.  He took home two quarts of fancy moonshine.

Beautiful evening it was and youngest son's wife and brother joined us.  The music was good and being a small town we saw quite a few of our friends and neighbors. One of my grandgirl's was serving up BBQ chicken at theBBQ on wheels of a friend of ours.

I kept thinking summer is coming, summer is coming. So the next night we had wind, rain, hail, and lightening!  What's up with that?  And how did my "baby" get to be 42. And my oldest grandgirl is pushing BBQ chicken for college money this fall.  All and all it's been good and still is though.  Can hardly wait for the first Monday in June.