I’ve been off work since Thursday at 5:00 p.m., and I’m amazed by all the things I can get taken care of if I don’t have to go to work. I got ink for the printer, unloaded the dishwasher, did laundry, took Shannon out for lunch, went to the grocery, cooked a fabulous chicken, unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher and picked up the dry cleaning. I also paid rent and the water bill, along with a couple of other bills, filled up the car and got it washed.
(Baby was horrible-dirty. Between the landscaping and construction on this property and the mall being demolished across the street, the dust gets a little heavy some times.)
This morning, though, my eyes are swollen, and they burn. The bathroom wall collapsed in on itself a week ago, and it’s been sealed off since. The water damage that had accrued and been neglected over the years reached the point where the tiles no longer stuck to the walls around the tub. They starting falling off in sheets and left water-logged wallboard covered in mold exposed.
In theory, we have 2 bathrooms, but since the toilet and tub for the master bath are in the contaminated area, we really have 1 bathroom and an extra sink. I sealed the mold room off with clear plastic packing tape and a towel as best I could. The worst part is that the sealed-off room has the tub with handicapped grab bars for Shannon. They were supposed to already have them in the other tub by now, so I’m guessing that, since they don’t, the great mold makeover may take a while longer than I had anticipated.
And the Democrats won’t stop calling. On Saturday, I called the county Party office and the state Party office to tell them that enough is enough. I voted over a week ago, so they’re wasting my time as well as theirs. Still, over Friday and Saturday, we had about a dozen calls from one or both of them. I don’t think it was the national Party, because Obama has no chance of winning Texas. He’ll take Travis County handily, but we’ll be one of only a few counties where that happens.
Other races on the state and local level, though, remain important. The carpet-bagger who took over my newly-gerrymandered US Congressional district a few years ago faces serious competition. The man who used to represent me and got gerrymandered out of my district has little to no competition. In Travis County, TX, home of old-fashioned Texas liberalism, old hippies and intellectuals, the US Congressional map is so contorted that it looks like nothing so much as water draining down a toilet. Or a satellite picture of a hurricane about to make landfall. Or a black hole.
Take your pick of analogies. One is about as apt as the other. And appetizing.
We met Shannon’s mother and sister-in-law down south for lunch earlier today. Just one more thing I was able to fit into my fun-filled 4 days off. His mother’s about 80, but spry as ever. She’s as excited about the upcoming election as me, so I’m sure the other diners enjoyed our sometimes-animated conversation. She doesn’t hear so well anymore, so I had to talk louder than I would have otherwise done. They got an ear full, I’m sure.
And his sister-in-law is still going through chemo for uterine cancer after undergoing a radical hysterectomy last month. She’s putting on a brave face, but I could tell it’s wearing her down. “2 more rounds,” she said. “Then we’ll see.”
I have to go back to work tomorrow, so I took another nice, long nap this afternoon. The clock continues to confuse my body. It’s already getting dark, and if I had worked today, I’d just be getting home. It will take weeks to adjust. But I’m sure I’ll be up half the night tomorrow watching election returns, so I’m not sure the time change is going to matter too much over the next few days.
And I’m taking inauguration day off if Obama wins. It will be an historic day that I want to see for myself in its entirety. I didn’t think I would live to see a black president. I thought a woman was more likely to come first. (She almost did, but that’s another story.) And a voice of hope and unity when it seems like to sky is falling makes my heart sing instead of sink.
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