Laughter, the Best Medicine

It is funny how you get accustomed to your disabilities. I know I can't do certain things on or with my right ankle, and now I have learned how to navigate my life around how close the toilet is.

Today was a rough start. I could barely get out of bed. I felt really disconnected and spacey, and it took a long time for me to feel like I could function. At lunch time I debated whether or not I could make it up the road to buy a flat of plants and back to school without a disaster. I took a deep breath, and headed out. I got to the place and could not find any of the plants Ruben told me were there. I called his cell, and he told me to go down the stairs to the right of the place and that was where all the plants were.

I took the hike, but found nothing but broken machinery on one side, and a rock quarry on the other. WTF?

I go inside of the store and ask the woman where the peas are that my friend had bought there last week. She looks at me kind of odd, and says "ma'am, we just put our plants out today". "Where am I ?" I ask, and then find out that I have gone to the wrong place. DUH. I slink back to my car and realize I am really out of it.

I find the nursery, the RIGHT nursery, fill up a flat, and head back to school just in time for another trip to the bathroom. "WHAT HAPPENED?" Ruben asks. I fess up to my total space out. He laughs.

He feeds me lunch. Nice grilled potatoes and London Broil. Man, it tasted good. I was hungry. BUT an hour later, I have to run to the bathroom.

As I am leaving, one of the crisis workers comes running down the hall. "WHO WAS IN THAT BATHROOM?" he asks. "Me" I say in a quiet voice. "WHO DID YOU LET IN THERE?". "No one I murmur. "THEN WHY DID THE SMOKE ALARM GO OFF?" he queries. I flush a deep red. I tell him it's me. "WHAT, ARE YOU SMOKING IN THERE?" he asks? "No, JB. I umm..had to light a match". He cracks up, turns around and walks back down the hall.

The phone starts to ring in my room. It is Laurie, my supervisor's secretary. My assistant answers the phone, and says "I think you should talk to Patti about this". Again I am questioned as to who was in the bathroom, and again I have to retell the story. By now the entire school knows that Patti had to light a match in the bathroom, including the kids.

I managed to get in my peas, the Swiss chard, bok choy, and parsley as I know it is going to rain some more and it was the best time to plant, when the soil is moist and more rain coming.

Tomorrow I finally get to the doctor...to tell my stories of woe, and to ask to start the process with a test for parasites. No one else in Spain was sick with them, but then again, who else but me and my girlfriend gets parasites in the US in Raleigh, North Carolina, on one of my jaunts there several years ago. If there are parasites, I will find them. I am, as always, a most gracious host I suppose. Hmmm...

pattio O gardener