No mistaking that invitation

FaceTime with Margie today; she was in excellent spirits. Told me about her wonderful carer and the  joy of taking a shower, pretty much the same thing she said last week. I asked her what she does in the afternoon and evening, after the carer has left and Lucy is at work. She said she reads the New York Times, and now…she grunted a bit, reaching out to the stack next to her chair to find a book and read the title to me. “I’m reading a very funny book by a man named Sam Apple, called Schlepping Through the Alps." She waved it in front of her phone to show me. I asked her to tell me about it and didn’t mention that I bought her that book for her birthday a few years back. I know she has read it several times, and each time it’s new and it makes her laugh. It’s a joy to know your gift is a hit, and I love Margie's delight in life.

I had several other phone calls and some texting, and then I forced myself to get out of the apartment and move my body. Today is the first day after the course of antibiotics. I walked ten blocks, by the end of which my legs were jelly, my head was pounding, my back was in agony, and I was exhausted. I guess it takes time to recover from a month of lying around. Still, it was good to be outside, and the air is still clean. That privilege. Back at my apartment block, I saw this chair and it looked so inviting I decided to make it my blip.