THE MIGHTY HAVE FALLEN

Yesterday was a great day (in the land of chemo brain).  It was the undoing of the Irene preparations.  The preparation that took three days was unprepared in a matter of hours.  These are the days when the fight in my head is over whether I should be feeling good or feeling bad.  And, I feel both, in the same instant.  How is it that I can get so much done today and not every (or mostly ANY other) day? (bad feeling) and Look at how much you accomplished today! (GREAT feeling).

I put the yard back together; stowed all of the flashlights, lanterns and candles IN THE SAME closet where I found them; located a new home for the extra chargers I picked up in the insanity of “get ready for Irene,”; drained the three inches of water on the newly installed basement floor (a “charger” for the sump pump would have been a great thought, but I think I need to invent that).

I drained the excess pool water and even though I overdrained it, I got it to its proper level without overfilling it for the first time this entire summer.  Every other time there was an issue with the water level, I screwed the damn thing up.  It became like groundhog day or an episode of candid camera.  Drain the water.  Oops, too low.  Throw the hose in the pool.  Oops, too high.  Repeat.  Ooops, repeat again.  And again…. Today was a victory.  I set the automatic pool vac to clean all the leaves and remembered to empty the bag several times.

I even did laundry and it’s not still sitting in one of the machines or in a laundry basket somewhere.  WHAT IS UP WITH THAT???  I have no idea why the day was so damn productive.  I’m not looking a gift horse in the mouth.  I’m just thankful and I hope I can string together a second consecutive day!  Maybe it’s the fact that there was no deadline staring me down.

“Better get the water or you will die of dehydration.  Better get the batteries or.....”   

OR WHAT?  I’ll be stuck in darkness.  BIG deal.

The only thing I do know is that I am in a clean, comfortable and cool house.  Television works, internet works, laptop is charged.  The power was restored before the any food defrosted or any milk turned sour.  I am lucky.

Come to think of it, I did get a bit pissed off when I powered up my desktop computer.  Immediately, I see all of this simultaneous activity.  ARE you joking?  I am watching a multi-tasking computer screen??  Backing up to my off site storage, syncing my dropbox files, running a virus scan AND archiving emails.

THAT’s why my day was so productive!  It started at my desk where I watched this commotion.  The computer taunted me and I must have done a silent, “Oh yeah, I’ll show YOU!”

The day started at my desk with "I'll show you!" and it ended on the sofa with a very different, "OH yeah?!"

I was annoyed to no end by the hum of the generators when I was plunged into darkness.  I always forget that my home is at the very end of a “power grid.”  As I was glancing into the nighttime darkness, I realized it seemed a bit darker than normal.  And a bit noisier than usual, too.

My power went back on about 30 hours ago.  The generator people?  The ones who live right behind me?  The ones who can see my illuminated home?  Still plunged in darkness… Perhaps I will go bang on everyone's doors and invite them over for a post storm party?  That's the neighborly thing to do.

Oh how the mighty have fallen! 

(I really do feel badly. Even as I poke good natured fun, I was born with that "feel bad gene." In fact, I'm marching around the corner right now!!!)