The Day was Good

The late afternoon, not so much.

I got the child home from school and was transferring the washed bedsheets into the dryer for fluffing before hanging them in front of the soapstone stove, when I started to get the jagged frizzling in my vision that signals an oncoming migraine.

Luckily for us both, it was not long until his dad would be home, so I curled up in the dark and didn't worry if I fell asleep. I woke up hours later with a blanket over me, which I dimly recall asking for, and four Beanie Babies around my head (skunk, pelican, vampire bat, and gray tiger-striped cat).

I guess this was anti-migraine voodoo as practiced by our son.

The mostly-over migraine was followed up with a weird episode, something I've had happen before, where one eyelid swells up like a little sausage. It looks and feels really weird, but it doesn't hurt half as much as a migraine, so I hung the fluffed sheets in front of the stove, devoured some delayed supper, and did a little sock knitting with one eye half shut.

I'm blaming the weather for this one. First the temperature and the atmospheric pressure went down and up, respectively, then they went up and down. Yesterday the temperature went from the 20's up to the mid-40's. Meanwhile the air pressure dropped 11 millibars, then overnight last night went right back up again. My ears popped while I was sitting on the couch!

At the same time, the weather report was saying snow and 20 degrees, while the air temperature was 44 and we had no precipitation at all. I think Tallguy in Alberta has the weather our "forecast" claimed we were getting.

I don't hate snow, but I'm ready for the weather to settle down so I can quit riding the weather rollercoaster!

I read about an interesting guy in the news, Bill Inman, who is Uncovering America by Horseback. He's riding his horse Blackie across the US from his home in Lebanon, Oregon, with the support of his wife, Brenda, who drives the pickup pulling the horse trailer and carrying their dogs. Right now they're in Tennessee.

I love reading about this kind of thing. So often the only thing in the news is the latest blood, horror, and crisis. After a while it starts to seem like that's all that's out there. The news has unfortunately gotten away from putting regular heartwarmers in there. I know I certainly don't see them as often as the weird gory murders.

Certainly the heartwarming things do still happen, but rather than being seen as something essential to report, they are seen as fluff, nice to have, but not necessary.

From my perspective, they are necessary. There's a saying about gardens, that the vegetables you grow in it feed the body and the flowers feed the soul. Soul-feeding is essential. It's not a luxury. It's necessary.

When the USSR was falling apart, I remember hearing a radio report about some people who were struggling to feed themselves and feed a dog while all the essential services were falling apart. The reporter asked them how they could justify trying to feed the dog and keep it alive when it was so hard to find food for themselves.

They said something I've never forgotten. "Caring for the dog keeps us human." I can't convey the intensity in their voices, but it was clear they had not given up. They had not given up on themselves as humans. They would not give up trying to feed their dog as well as themselves.

That's what I feel is missing from news reports with no good news, and it's probably one of the reasons I read your blogs and celebrate your finished objects. The good news keeps us human. We need it. It's not a luxury. It's essential.