160102 Back In Black

On Sunday, December 20th, I got the call. My Second Mother had died. I dropped everything and drove 1500 miles (2400 kilometers). We packed all the wrong clothing and didn't sleep. We couldn't sleep there, either. My bed was a two-seat settee in the living room, and the house temperature was set at 75F (24C).

I enjoyed seeing my sister-in-law, because we had always been good friends. My fil was a wreck. Often, parents age beyond their ability to be stronger and sharper than their children. Children don't like to see this. Parents feel distress about this as well. They were married for seventy-five years, so I don't expect him to live much longer. I am putting money aside for another 3000 mile round trip.

My seventeen-year-old went with me, because she had to. My adult child cried because she couldn't go. She remembers her father's parents with fondness, but at three weeks to graduation, she couldn't just take off and expect to make up the school work in time.

Before we left, my sister called to say that a huge storm had hit Texas and was travelling towards us. It had already caused newsworthy damage in Dallas. Before we had gone two hundred miles, it caused ice storms in Memphis, Tennessee. We had intended to return that way, so quickly devised a different route. We continued south, because the storm was wedge shaped. The leading edge was north of us. As we continued south, we avoided it. I drove without stopping much, sleeping for an hour or two whenever I felt tired, then continuing south. We reached Mississippi about midnight the next day and slept. The storm woke me about 2:30 am, but it was almost nothing that far south. I'd seen worse rain and wind in a spring shower in Texas. When day came, we had sunshine. It seemed to take forever to cross Louisiana. We crossed into Texas at sunset and cheered. I slept an hour or so in Beaumont and started driving again at midnight. We raced through downtown Houston at the absolute best time: 3:00 am. It was 7:00 am and sunup when we reached home. Yes, Texas is that big.

Next time, I hope to have the elder driving her car, because then we can take turns.

141112 Again With the Ringing

Once again, my ears are ringing. I have been eating a lot of fruit lately, and I just finished eating some fried rice. My guess is that my blood glucose levels are up. I almost collapsed in the kitchen last night. Emily thought I'd been drinking, but I hadn't. While it seems like such a little thing to control one's diet, the truth is that cheap food has a lot of carbohydrates in it, and carbohydrates turn to sugar in the body.

The constant ringing in my ears had started to go away, but I was going crazy on the restrictive diet. Food prices also took another jump, so I went back to the food bank. What they give falls mostly into the "breads and grains" category, so I dropped off the expense of the Atkins and added rice to my diet. Emily took the other grains. The ringing is back full force, and although I've had only water so far this morning, I feel like I am drunk. My brain is fuzzy and that low level buzz makes me think of alien bombardments.

Temperatures here took a drastic nose dive yesterday. Monday's high was near 80F (26C). Tuesday's high came at about eight o'clock in the morning. It got close to freezing last night, and we should have a hard freeze tonight. Yes, northerners laugh, but adapting to survive the summers here does come at a price. Cold bites.

If this doesn't sound incredibly depressing, it is because I am fighting SAD with all I have. The novel has become dark, but I'm on track with my goals concerning word counts. I have discovered that I cannot write an outline, then write the book. I have to just write. I thought this was a failing, but then I listened to a favorite author, John Erickson, discuss writing. He doesn't plan, either, and sixty-four published books says outlines don't have to be.

OK, how can you be depressed listening to "It's me again..."

What? Children's books can be fun and funny. He didn't write the first two for children, but when children loved them, he decided to make a whole series of them. He's a good speaker, too.

I'm just a lump on a log. I miss ice cream. Ice cream tastes wonderful and is fun to eat, but would just make my body feel worse. *cries*