Carpooling

One and my friends and I happen to work in the same town about a half hour from home.  I have on a few occasions taken her to and from work, on days when her husband needs her car.  She emailed me last night to ask if I wanted to carpool on a regular basis, given the ever-rising cost of gas.  This simple question aroused in me an immediate, primal response…NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO…hmmm….  I grew up a California girl.  Your car was your life.  You can’t get anywhere without one.  I have been an East Coast transplant since 1974, and have come to love public transportation, when it is available.  LOVE the T in Boston.  BUT I like to have my car available to me just in case.

The other issue is me.  I LOVE my drive time to and from work.  I listen to books on tape, I watch the seasons change the scenery of my commute, I breathe the smells of hayfields and horse farms.  I decompress.  And an essential requirement for this enjoyment is that I am alone.

I was proud of myself.  I emailed her back and told her that I wanted to have my car at work all the time, but that I would be happy to take her tomorrow.  A compromise.  Hopefully her feelings won’t be hurt and definitely I will continue to enjoy me quiet commutes.

Could it be?

Spring is springing all around me and I am blissful! Because we are lucky enough to live in New England, we celebrated Patriots Day on Monday. My workplace is on the route of the Boston Marathon, so I can’t work on Patriot’s Day…aw, shucks, eh? We spent some of each of the three day weekend with hands in soil or attached to a shovel or pitchfork. We have pansies in the front step boxes and tomatoes and strawberries in a sheltered spot on the deck. My wonderful half hour commute brings me huge patches of bright yellow forsythia, lots of daffodils, crocuses, grape hyacinth, buds and just a sheen of green on the trees and, best of all, three blue heron nests in the top of a stand of dead trees with the occasional heron flying into or out of the nest. Plus, the temps have been regularly in the 50s and 60s (it is supposed to top 80 today!) and I drive with my windows open, so the smells are intoxicating (I have always wanted to say that something was intoxicating). This is an incredible time of year which always makes me thankful that I live in New England.

Reading…

I had a little extra time this morning for some reason, so I read some newspapers online.  Well, not the whole paper, but those articles that piqued my interest.  The Washington Post story about the Texas LDS sect “raid” and what is happening and going to happen to these mothers and their children (I find myself much more concerned about their plight than that of the “fathers”) is horrifying.  Please please please let us come up with alternatives for these people other than cribs and cots lined up side by side, institutions for the teenagers and sending the mothers back to “the ranch.”  How could we uproot them from something that we perceive as bad and provide them with something worse?  Who do we think we are?

Spring is springing…

I love living in New England.  Each season brings with it the good, the bad and the hopeful.  The good, in the case of spring, far outstrips the bad.  Those last stubborn snow piles at the end of the driveway (where a winter’s worth of snow plow scrapings accumulated) are gone, the daffodils and crocuses are just beginning to peep green tips out of the mulch, my winter coat makes way for spring wraps, boots are still worn occasionally, but more for style than need.  The man across the street thatched and mowed his lawn for the first time and the drone of the tractor makes me think of summer…oops, this is about spring!  The only bad thing I can think of at the moment is mud. The hopeful are too many to list, but high up on the list is LIGHT!  It gets light earlier and stays light longer…ahhhh…I may be a New Englander now, but the California girl still loves her light.  Bare feet…I am a barefoot girl yeararound, but spring means bare feet outside…ahhhh again.

First things first…taxes are calling…I can’t put it off any longer…I guess that falls on the “bad” list, but will be moved to the “good” list once finished and filed.  Dreaming of the smell of cut grass and the roar of the rototiller…

Tired of being sick…

Head’s up…the following is not for the faint of heart…

I almost never throw up. Usually when I get the flu, it all happens at the other end. I got home from work Wednesday night, felt okay, went to bed and started feeling really strange in the tummy. After tossing and turning, trying to ignore the feeling, I was finally driven to get into the bathroom. I sat down on the toilet and immediately got up and ran for the nearest sink. A few bouts of system cleansing (at least after the first time, I knew what to expect) and I crept back to bed. This happened a few times in the night. Thursday morning, sore and very weak, I sent my boss an email saying I wouldn’t be in. The rest of the day, I tossed and turned and slept sporadically. Thursday night, I had a terrible time sleeping and, when I did, I woke up drowning in sweat. By Thursday morning, the nauseous feeling had passed and I started sipping water. That worked okay, so I sipped some chicken soup. That worked okay, so I ate a can of pears in fruit juice. I felt weak but okay until evening, when I started feeling nauseous again, this time exacerbated by heart burn that tasted vaguely of chicken soup. Last night, I had trouble falling asleep. Twice, I slept for a couple of hours, but each time, woke drowning in sweat. I also had the weirdest dreams. This morning, I have to go to work, so I am trying to get myself out of bed and into the shower. I’m sure that I would feel better if I had something in my stomach, but the thought of anything (even water) makes my nauseous again. Ack ack ack! I am NOT liking this at all.

Whine, whine, whine…