The Unexpected

Everything about this weekend was “unexpected”. Anna had been not feeling well since Wednesday. She called me Friday morning and sounded so miserable I decided to go to Eau Claire and bring her home for the weekend. I think she was nervous that she would be sick for two weeks like she was when she had covid a month ago…and didn’t want to be stuck at school…and maybe just needed some Mama TLC. I needed to see her and actually assess what she had going on…and if a visit to Urgent Care was in order.

I made her homemade chicken noodle soup on Friday…yes, I can cook sometimes… and her and I worked on a puzzle together. We decided that if she wasn’t feeling better on Saturday she would go to Urgent Care. Well, she woke up Saturday morning feeling better. In fact, her and I spent all afternoon outside getting ready for winter. Jason would have been proud of us for taking advantage of the “last nice weekend”. She took care of all of my pots and I dragged in all of my garden/yard decorations. We also got the garage cleaned out…again..so that Seth and I can both park in there. It was a super productive day. Then we watched a movie and played a game in the evening.

Today she helped me go through a pile of stuff in the basement before I drove her back to school. She still has an annoying cough…but I sent some cough medicine with her that was really helping.

It made me so sad to clean up my gazebo for the year. I feel like I was finally just starting to enjoy spending time in my yard. I’ll have to transition to spending time in the basement in front of the fireplace I guess. Not the same.

Have I turned any of you into Dermot Kennedy fans yet? Love him so much. So much emotion in his voice…and his lyrics…seriously…and when he plays piano or guitar…I’m just done.

I wrote this poem right around this time last year, but I was reminded of it today as I was driving home from dropping Anna off at school.

Fall

Fall
A season of intense beauty
And death.

Your fall
One last flash of all your beautiful colors
Before darkness.

Now we clean up the remains
And prepare our hearts and homes
For winter.

Spring
Is a promise of new beauty
Someday

Without you