My Little Corner of the World: A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE

Subtitle - did you put your socks on this morning?

A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE
Everything in life is based on our own personal perspective. For example, what is the most important thing in your life right this minute? What is worrying you the most? The current national crisis? What you are going to have for lunch (dinner, breakfast,) the traffic, the weeds in your garden, your kid’s behavior lately, does he (she) still love me, the weather, the mirror, oh, the list goes on and on! If you live in hurricane territory, right this minute your obsession would be your safety and the safety of those you love, possibly your possessions, packing, getting out of (or back into) Dodge, and if there will be anything to come back to when Gustav (Hanna, Ike, whatever) is over. I doubt your first concern is McBush’s choice for VP or whether your lipstick color matches your dress.
Sitting here on the Eastern Shore of Virginia, we keep a close eye on the weather. If a bad storm is on its way, there is only one way off this peninsula, and there are a lot of people to get off this lump of sand, mud and clam shells. We don’t have 4 directions here, just up the road or down, and the down means across the 17 mile Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel which is very likely closed in any storm. Here we keep an emergency supply of food and water all year round as nor'easters can be as bad as hurricanes, and god forbid we should get snow or ice! A half an inch of snow will close the schools sometimes for a day or two, and a good ice storm can leave you in the dark for a week – and those are the good points!
But, putting major crisis aside, what is your most pressing problem right this minute? Or maybe an hour ago? Most of us just slide thru life with worries no greater than what do I want to fix for dinner or that I have to go out in the rain to feed the dog. Yet there are so many who wonder where they are going to get the food to feed their kids, let alone the dog, and sadly, there are those who don’t care. Sometimes life throws us a different set of problems, and it might be summed up in – were you able to put your own socks on today? Tie your shoes? Get your own cup of coffee?
About 2 weeks ago, well, I don’t know what hit me, but it hit me hard. For several days, being able to get up out of bed, in or out of a chair, get dressed, prepare a meal – those were all things that were simply beyond me. My back muscles totally locked up and the least little movement was met with excruciating pain. It would take 3 or 4 rings before I could manage to reach a phone that was actually within 2 feet of me. Add to that an intestinal flu that left me weak and dehydrated, and in still more pain, and you have the picture – or part of it, anyway.
Over this past week-end, however, I managed to put on my own socks with no help. Yesterday I put on my shoes and tied them. So, it has been on my mind for a while how we take doing the simplest things in life so for granted. I mean, do you think about it when you need to feed the dog or the cat? No, you just go and do it. I, on the other hand, had to sit here, rigid in my chair, while my baby food baby (Snuffy, the cat) would sit and stare those sad eyes at me with the obvious question – Mommy, where is my breakfast? Or listen while the outside cats cried at the back door because it was 10 AM and no one had gotten outside to feed them.
But, I am getting better, and that is a good thing, as we are watching the lower Atlantic as Hanna and Ike and who knows what else are swirling around and looking our way. At 25 feet above sea level on an 80 mile long peninsula, 2 miles from the Atlantic Ocean, 3 miles from the Chesapeake Bay, we keep a close eye on these things. Am I physically able to pack up, put the cats in the van and get out of here if I had to????? I am not sure. Not that I have ever evacuated before… but after Katrina, one looks at these things differently. So we wait and watch.

I have been visiting most of you, reading, but it has taken too much effort to comment. My patience has been in short supply since it takes all I have just to get the dumb things done - like brushing my teeth and, well, putting my socks on.
On the brighter side of things, the fall blooming season has started, so there is beauty to be seen from every window, as I am not yet up to walking around the yard. Plus, it is so dry, the flowers all look wilted close up. And I truly cannot get out there and water things right now. Fortunetely, I CAN feed and water the cats, and myself.