Still Camping

Here I am, sitting on the hearth and drinking the first coffee we've made. The generator can handle about four extension cords, so we juggle among the various choices..TV? coffee? Internet? Heat? I am strangely content. I think adversity draws family closer and makes you appreciate what you do have. What you don't have can go in it's own box, but does not represent the whole picture. I promised to clean house today, but it will just be dusting, sweeping and picking up. We did half the laundry at Betty's last night and left the rest for them to start another load this morning.

Richard is holding his own, still with a nasogastric tube until his bowel feels better. He is sleeping a lot, and has an IV for nutrition. It is hard on the family to see him sick. From my distant point of view, he is still peeing, and breathing on his own and didn't have a temperature during the night...a good report.

I will stay home today so the generator can run and keep the house warm. I am on call, so I may go back and forth if needed. I promised Dr. Laura I would call the minute the lights went on. They are eager to go back home, after living in town all week. I, on the other hand, wish I could spend the day at the quilt shop, my happy place. There are two stacks of fabric about chest high that need to be cut into kits for a block-of-the-month program. It will still be there when I get there.

I think of each of you and hope you have a happy place of your own, to bring beauty and creativity (and light and heat) into an otherwise gloomy day.