Back in the Flatlands

          I’m back home now and happy to be here. It was wonderful spending time with family over the weekend, but the added bonus was an increased appreciation of my own home.

 

         Too much of my visit was uphill. We still do have stairs in our life here in condo-land, but that’s where the second bedroom and the less-used loft area are. The majority of my day is spent at one level, so the shift to climbing my daughter’s stairs to my belongings was an awakening. Reading glasses? Whoops – upstairs. Sneakers for a walk with the dog? Ditto.

          In contrast, a fun reminder of my past life were the interruptions by some of the residents to whatever I was doing.

       I had help with my i-Pad, 

help with my reading, and help from the family’s marshmallow-like 16-pound second cat, Marvin, who was always eager to jump in my lap and decorate whatever I was wearing with a liberal dose of fur. 

After seven cats and one dog, I do miss all of that.

          On Sunday, we returned to the welcome familiarity of routine. Grocery store, a stroll around the complex, golf. Today was book club at the library – The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch. I dragged my feet, but finally read it. It’s a quick read, full of life lessons, but too soon (and too long) our group veered off from the book and devolved into personal stories, as I guess a book like that will invite.

          Afterwards, I stayed to tidy up my three assigned bushes as a Friend of the Library
volunteer. My job is to dead-head the white butterfly bushes in the library’s new garden, but I clipped a few spent blossoms on the purple ones, too, and went home feeling virtuous.