Tuesday 15 November 2011

Home again.....


This morning I sat down on the deck to a grey backlit moonlit cloudy sky mourning my foolishness in agreeing to work in the clinic today – with Mr. Pointy-ears beside me – waiting to hear in the silence. There are no cars on Copeland road and no dogs or coyotes barking, no owls hooting and the squirrels and birds were doing what they are supposed to do in the coldest part of the day – hibernate. Pretty unusually quiet.

And I thought what two strange lives I am living. Yesterday morning I was in Ottawa. A bustling noisy city. I like hot yoga because it forces me to to become silent on the inside. Sirens, always cars, trucks, yet where Mary lives is quite quiet as compared to the sound level in other cities.

For the three weeks in Ottawa, the closest animal companion is a cat named Alice. Alice is very cheshire in that she will fold herself over things – steps, backs and sides of chairs, Mary's lap and give her best cheshire cat imitation on the corner of at the top of the stairs. I almost expect to see the grin without the cat! For all the trials and tribulations Sylvain and I are having trying to train ourselves, I start to miss his companionship – and his behaviour measures up quite nicely to that of a lot of urban dogs.

The house is chaos – and because it is hard to get to the places that need vacuuming (they are upside down, piles on one another, etc), there is a lot of animal hair everywhere. Two cats and the occasional dog (he is occasionally allowed the freedom of the house) leak hair all the time, not just in the spring!
The windows need two more sandings and two more coats of varnish (or whatever they are using – Bill and maybe Ntara) before we can begin to clear the space. My belongings are all in suitcases so I hope that there is a “work” outfit in the closet.

I'm fretting over the Turning Point, the establishment of PER (Physicians for Education and Research), the donor appeal, the upcoming trip to Iraq and the inability to get replies from our partners there (while I am excited that Bill is coming with me, I'm worried about stressors – when I'm alone, I have one person's tensions.)

Whenever I travel out of country, I think of the possibility that I won't come back. There are very few plane crashes but that risk always exists – but greater is the risk of a motor vehicular accident. If I travel alone, our children still have one parent; on the other hand, if we both go down, they are adults. But I'd hate to have them deal with my messes. It also makes me concerned that we share our wishes about goods and services in that unlikely event.

OK. Feed the dog, wash up, have breakfast and get dressed to “play doctor” for a day.  

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