Be Here Now in Everyday Ramblings

Mrs. Sherlock had a tooth out yesterday and her dental team told her to take it easy so we did a two-mile stroll with Frida in a flat neighborhood across the river and marveled at all the amazing front gardens. She picked me up at the gym so it was perfect; I got my cardio in and then hung out with them.

There is this small pocket park with a couple of large heritage trees that looks over industrial Portland that rings the river banks north of downtown. Frida and I horsed around there until she got tired out, it was goofy fun while her dog mom enjoyed the view.

Their friend that has cancer and lives in his car got his port placed late last week and this week they wanted to monitor it before they start radiation and chemo. I talked to a social worker for the hospital and she was troubled that a doctor would tell a patient it was okay to live in his car while having this intensive level of treatment. Her mother had been treated for the same kind of cancer and she says she knows first hand what it takes out of you. We talked about options but we needed more info before any recommendations could be acted on.

We think the doctor might have told him that so that he would start treatment and not give up or refuse it altogether.

He was quite touched that I reached out on his behalf like that but texted me that he is pretty sure he can deal. So I told him I would wait until he felt like things might not be working and was available as an advocate if he was ready. We all need an advocate. We do.

But I understand, it is a beautiful spring week and he has a very dire diagnosis and a difficult road ahead and holding onto that last bit of independence…I get that. Mrs. Sherlock said he was planting flowers today.

My nephew sent out a link this morning to an article about Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum making digital images of paintings available for free online but what caught my eye was they have a program to accommodate terminally ill patients that want to visit favorite paintings one last time.

One of my most treasured memories is of Mr. Finch waving goodbye covertly to his favorite landscape painting at our local museum on what we knew would be his last visit I wrote a poem about it.

The Sherlock’s have made up their minds inconvenience be damned they will take him in when it gets bad. But I may need to be on call while she does her crazy 10-day rafting trip trough the Grand Canyon at the end of the month. Mr. Sherlock’s short-term memory is not functioning quite as well as it used to.

I hope we can come up with something before then to lighten the burden on everyone.

Motorcycle Man made me spitting mad this week by ordering me to do something he didn’t understand in a whiny email that was all about how inconvenienced he was. I dealt with it in a professional manner but I think about what a baby he is compared to my friends and family and students who truly have hardships.

I had a turn in thinking this week that made me realize that these assholes in the long run have no power over me. I am smarter than Motorcycle Man and much much more experienced and if they want to play hard ball…I am game.

If it is two months from now or a year and two months from now I am going to be out of there and off into the comforts and joys of my own life and they have 20, 30 years ahead of them in that hellhole of a workplace. I want to make sure that at least they are made aware of the fact that their behavior is illegal as well as immoral.

After that…I don’t care.

Everything is green and blooming and beautiful here. I want to enjoy it while I can. Me and the bees. The ones that are left.

Last updated May 04, 2019