304) Of Loss & Holiday Lights

December 13, 2008
Saturday

El Milagro: Today I planned for the new strategy of spending more time at home doing chores and going in late for dialysis... and so it was after noon when I called in to see about a chair. So, Rita the Nurse says they have a chair at 3 or 3:30 and I try to get her to be more specific and she says "Yes. Between 3 and 3:30" Then I have a brief moment of cheer before Lizzie reminds me that now I'll miss Shayna's end-of-season soccer party. Shoot! One more piece of evidence against dialysis being a fun thing to add to one's schedule.

So here I am, sitting here at 3:30, getting stuck and evaluated by Rita the Nurse, listening to Folkways' Christmas tunes on my radio earphones, and going over in my brain of brains the morning's activities. Shayna and I put up the new blue LED C9 outdoor lights that Uncle Larry convinced me to evolve to (since our old regular C9 lights use 6 times the amount of electricity per hour!) So now we have these new lights replacing lights I've been using for more years than I can remember. So Shayna was excited to climb the ladder and hook the new lights to the old hooks over the porch and up over the garage doors.
And I was happy to get that chore done.

On the way to El Milagro I stopped by Walgreens to get some hard candy. My habit is to have hard candy available during dialysis. Walgreens again has my favorite hard candy: Christmas candies that come in a Quaker Oats kind of round box available only throughout the holiday season. These are made in Juarez and sold out of a company called Blueberry Hill Foods in my home town. I buy two cylinders today and will probably buy many more before they dissappear again from the shelves.

After Rita sticks me and leaves, Mary the Nurse comes over to check the settup and calls Carrie the Tech over to ask who set me up... I say "Rita" and they frown and Carrie takes off to get my potassium bath, which Rita forgot to hook up. Carrie hooks me up with my potassium bath and I kid her about 'giving my my bath' and we are all happy as clams. I grade one of my classes group projects and settle back to watch some tube... not much interested in the opening of the college basketball season... or leftover football... and settle on the end of a gory movie; Hannibal; and the beginning of one of my favorite movies: Fargo. It's like Saturday at the matinee today. I lay back and enjoy the break from my recently hectic out-of-town schedule (which continues next week for a final blast before my vacation). The place is kinda empty it seems today... the regulars, like George the New Heart Guy, The Mercedes Fat Lady (I'm sorry... she really is fat), and others.

Somewhere in the middle of the movies, Rosie the Tech comes over, pulls up a rolling stool, and leans on my shelf seriously... I can tell she is ready to say something important... so I pull out my earphones and lean towards her too. She hands me a sympathy card with Rosa Acosta's picture on it... "Rosa passed on Thursday..." I read the card and reply, "Oh... she was the longest one here... I remember interviewing her for the newsletter last year..." Rosie: "She died here..." Me: "That's too bad... she was one of the long-timers..." Rosie: "Yeah. We lost three in the last week" and she goes on to tell me about the others, whom I didn't know. Rosie has this expression of sadness and questioning, as if she wants me to say something.... she sits there expectantly and I sit there thinking "do I have a blank look on my face?..." hoping I don't look smirky. I finally say something like, "Well... we all must pass on at sometime... at least she lived a good life, based on what she told me." Back when I interviewed her, she had said, "I am here because of my daughter. She is here for me and I am here for her. (I) try to live (my) life no matter how bad it gets. If you got kids, do it for them." Rosie and I sit there a moment, not saying anything, and then she rolls on back out of our scene and she goes back to work.

I watch my movies. So it goes on a Saturday at El Milagro.

Notes: In at 76.5 and out at 75.