Tuesday, April 19, 2016

The day after

Not surprisingly, I had a hard time falling asleep last night. 

Not surprisingly, I woke up with a headache, probably an adrenaline hangover. 

We had to go to work, so I got up at 4 AM and took my shower.  I did my God time later.  I watched the news.  Greenspoint got flooded pretty bad. 

Now I need to tell you about Gunspoint, that's what they call Greenspoint.  It is a dying mall surrounded by low-rent apartment buildings, and fancy businesses.  It is rife with drug dealing, gangs, etc.  I will say I have never seen any hookers. 

And it got it's ass kicked yesterday.  People were floating out on refrigerators.  Here's a link to some flood photos.  Look for the word "Greenspoint" or "Arbor Court" in the captions.  flood photos

You can bet I am hearing The Call to go do a Bible Handout.  Timing will be tricky.  It will rain tomorrow and Thursday, Friday I have to get up at 2 AM to get a soda delivery.  I suppose I could take the crate to work on the hand cart, and take the #6 or paratransit to the handout location.  Worst case I will pay someone to give me a ride.  Money well spent! 

Our first driver got stranded over there and she had the perfect intersection for me.  I am always open to suggestion, when someone has said "You need to go to..." I always have a spectacular handout. 

I will go.  I can't stand the thought of traumatized, newly homeless, lost everything, people trying to navigate the system and get their lives back, without God.  Imagine if they lost their Bibles in the flooding!  That would be awful! 

If you don't agree don't say anything in the comments.  This is what drives ME. 

We got to work, which was fine.  They installed a badass drainage system when they did the remodel a couple years back. 

"How many people came in yesterday?" I asked a "nice" manager.
"About 20" he replied. 

We decided to forgo the sandwich delivery this week (I will get something at Sam's).  We stocked everything.  I had a little trouble with the coffee machine but that was my fault.  It is tricky to remount the canisters. 

I will need to refigure out how to do them.  Agh. 

Snacks were better.  Our repairman told us #2 throws snacks at me (when I exit programming mode) because it has a bad board.  He is ordering another one for us.  This happened Friday, I just forgot to mention it. 

I stocked, not that it needed a heck of a lot, and helped Ron.  He didn't need a tremendous amount either.  If no one got into work, no one bought anything. 

I didn't feel guilty about skipping work yesterday.  Not that I could have gotten out anyway!  I figure water was about 6 feet deep in the street.  I am on a modest grade, thank God. 

[takes a moment to break into Gospel praise song over not getting flooded]

I teased someone at work about my leg and they thought Ron beat me, even after I explained.  [sigh]  Ron is in for a rough road if I get murdered one day. 

I did have Doc put "clumsy" into my chart, though, so there's that. 

Pretty soon we were done and we headed out.  We had a good ride home with a really nice driver. 

When we got home I took a nap.  #6 kept their kids home today but they "let" me sleep.  Praise God.  I am still pretty exhausted from yesterday.  "Almost" losing my house is nearly as bad as losing it. 

It sounds obvious, but I never really thought of it that way.  I had hours of very high tension wondering what was going to happen.  Praise God it had a happy ending. 

I would hate to be ungrateful.  Ron was back to his usual complaining at God today, but that's between him and God.  I just know this: God did an amazing thing for me yesterday, many amazing things in my life, and I thank and love Him forever for that. 

Just in case you wondered where I stood.  :p 

After I got up the #6 kids went out to play.  I thought I would like to leave the house for a while, as it's going to rain tomorrow and it didn't look like rain today (in spite of the forecast). 

I thought I would like a pupusa.  But they were closed, that area did flood so I pray they're OK. 

Well, I thought, I can always ride the bus the other way and go to McDonald's.  I headed out. 

The bus was running today and came pretty quick.  I went to the grocery store. 

Greg, the handyman, loves the "blue" Doritos.  So I hit the rack and bought 10 small bags.  I also got him some other drinks because he gets hot working.  He is diabetic so that is an issue. 

I left, delighted with my haul.  It wasn't too heavy, which is a consideration when I have to walk half a mile to get home. 

I went to the chicken place.  They said they got flooded and lost their "oven", so no chicken specials today. 

I went to McDonald's and got my food, and a hot and spicy fried chicken sandwich, add bacon, for Ron.  Ron loved it. 

I had put all my medication in my shirt pocket.  I don't take my morning pills the morning I do sales tax, because one time I messed it up and we almost got a penalty.  So, I had EVERYTHING, all 8 pills, plus my supplements. 

I managed to fish it all out except for the Haldol.  I took what I could and fumbled with my breast pocket for a couple minutes, wondering if I was going to need to ask for help! 

"Excuse me, could you reach in there?  Yeah, the breast pocket, there's a little orange tablet in there that keeps me from seeing things.... wait!  Come back!" 

Happily, I dug it out, but next time I will put them in a plastic bag. 

I finished my food and left.  I had to wait over half an hour at the bus stop but it finally came.  I had a good walk home. 

I checked the mail, the mailbox didn't flood.  I got the water bill, we used a thousand gallons. 

They just installed new meters, but the flood waters wrecked quite a few of them, I saw, on my way home.  I don't envy whoever has to pay for that. 

Probably me, in the next bill! 

Ron was awake and on the phone.  He handed it to me so I could chat about the handout, while he gobbled his sandwich. 

It's funny, 10 years into my illness, medicated, and I can't remember eating without medication in my hand.  I never in a million years thought I would need 8 pills to remain functional but here we are and I hope I am rocking it. 

I plan to go to bed early tonight and hopefully replenish. 

I don't want to get sick out of this. 

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great idea for the bible handout. Look forward to reading about it on RR :) I admire your courage.

Anonymous said...

Nothing about you is wrong i am so glad you are ok !!!!
God can handle Rons rage. Sounds like a great ride aroung town to " check in" i woul love to live on a goo bus line. Maybe someday