“No phone, no pool, no pets…”

If you’re of a certain age (I am not of that age, but I was always into “oldies”) you may remember “King of the Road“, a Roger Miller song which lists some of the woes of life on the road. “No phone, no pool, no pets…” is running through my head these days as we try to get our trac phone going, miss playing pool in the staff room and really miss having a cat that wants to get between me and my laptop and sleeps on our bed at night.

Filling out forms is a lot harder when you’re not sure what address to put – where you are temporarily, or where you’ll be (hopefully sooner, rather than later). Without our own, whose phone number do we give? Before Elena came home from hiking fourteeners in Colorado, her answering machine’s blinking red light eyed us balefully, daring us to push the button and risk disaster. Not being answering machine smart, we left it until she rescued both her and our messages on Sunday. It’s not that we don’t have a cell phone. We have two. A trac phone purchased for our

From Newton – La Junta

2007 cross-country bike ride to San Jose, CA and an Indian one purchased just months ago to give the doctors and hospitals and us a way to keep in contact. We were probably about the last Americans to get a cell phone – and – the last in India as well. That is not a leading edge of technology that we are on. There are more Indians with access to a cell phone than to a toilet. We bought two SIM cards there to increase the possibility of getting coverage. Yesterday, trying to reactivate our trac phone here, we discovered it has an outdated SIM card. Here, its not something you can just go buy in the buzz (bazaar) for less than a dollar. Here, the company has to send us one. In the meantime, we do listen to messages on Elena’s answering machine, er, she listens and we get the message…

While we missed the big Kansas heat wave, if we had been here all summer, our backyard pool would still be up and a quick dip before bedtime would help in a mostly un-air-conditioned house. Here in the country, the wind has blown through the house every night to the point where we’re adding a light quilt before morning. The other kind of pool we’re missing is the daily shoot-out in the staff lounge at Woodstock. A great way to let off steam is to hits some balls as hard as possible. I seem to have perfected a technique that allows the cue ball to jump its target and land on the floor. Even so, I’ve managed to beat Dave a couple of times. Not often, but occasionally. There are quite a few staff who play. It’s interesting to see how quickly new staff have gotten sucked into this little routine played out every day during the lunch hour and afternoon tea. There is quite a bit of etiquette involved, a graciousness with newcomers, and an unwillingness by anyone to hog the table.

Vandana was the Queen of women players.From 2009 Staff candids

Ajay, who came to Bethel for two years.  From 2009 Staff candids

Dave and Judy. From 2009 Staff candids

We are animal people. From the dogs, cats, ducks, chickens and calf in Newton, to the dogs, cats, chickens, goats, donkey -and- monkey in Chad and both times – cats in India. We’ve always had pets. From Kitties

Last summer, we left behind wonderful cats, our alpha mama ended up on a farm and our shy, darling lilac-point Siamese ended up at the pound in Wichita. This summer, we left behind a very affectionate tabby that we had just gotten from departing staff. I haven’t done the “research” yet (Google and I are friends), to see if there are serious concerns about having pets while immuno-suppressed. The only thing we’ve seen so far is that I shouldn’t clean out the litter box. No problem, I’ll be happy to leave that for Dave.

He’s found a couple of cars to check out in Wichita.  Just now, a hawk landed on the garage roof outside Elena’s dining room table.

2010-09-01

I’ve put off our walk until evening in order to get to this. We brought home dirty rugs that I’m now trying to wash in Carol’s front-loading machine. If I’d washed them in India, they wouldn’t have been dry until mid-September, and thoroughly mildewed in the meantime. Our renters are having trouble finding places and figuring out what to do with their stuff – and their lives. Our coming home in an emergency has not been kind to them, though they are being kind to us and trying to be accommodating. It sounds like they will not be able to be out in time for us to move in over labor day weekend.

I need to possess my soul in patience and relax – while frantically filling out forms that will help get my medical treatment paid for. Hopefully.

Pray for our renters to find places, for the chemo to work and lead to a successful surgery on Sept. 28th, for Dave to get a job (with benefits) and/or for me to be approved for disability and medicaid.

In the meantime, the sun is shining, my husband loves me and I’m feeling okay today.

Peace,
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