Three Itsy Bitsy Miracles. Maybe Four.

The oppressive heat and humidity have finally broken - for now, anyway - and life seems bearable again.

Three weeks of daytime highs in the mid 30s C (90s F) and the humidity making it feel like high 30s (over 100F), with the humidity continuing overnight and making it hard to cool the house naturally, and, well, I wasn't doing much beyond surviving.

I realize those temperatures sound very tolerable to folks living in southern USA, Australia, or southern Asia, but I am prone to overheating and fainting when it gets that hot. It was that way even before I gained weight. I can remember "laying out" in the sun to get a tan when I was 17 years old and 90 pounds soaking wet, before we knew about skin cancer, and after fifteen or twenty minutes I had had enough. As I got up to go inside the house, I became very dizzy and my vision went dim. I didn't black out, but it was close. I have also been close to fainting at work after just walking from the car to the office. If I had not lain down on the dusty floor in my office clothes with a cold wet towel on my head, I'd have been a goner. (I say this as someone who has fainted on other occasions. I know the progression, and this was a close one.)

As my husband used to tease me, I am clearly "a delicate flower".

Ha.

Ha.

Ha.  

Thank you for all your comments on my last post. I needed very much to vent, and you all kindly listened/read and I appreciate it.

But just to prove that I am more than my constant complaining would suggest, I have three things to tell you - little tiny uplifting miracles on days when I felt that one more glitch would send me over the edge. The first two happened when I was still hands-on caregiver to my mom, and my stress level was constantly off the charts. The third was a few days ago. To be honest, many days I still feel like one more "thing" will exceed my ability to cope. I think I am still in burnout, but I'm hoping time will help.

The caregiver brain. I can attest this is very accurate. I have experienced everything here, to some degree or another, except the baby locks, bed sores, incontinence, and changing adult diapers. And I wasn't even a live-in caregiver, as many caregivers are. Did you know that being a caregiver puts you at higher risk of death? The National Institute of Health in the United States says the risk is 63% higher. (Link HERE.)

But I've gotten off the track, into the weeds. Again.

Here goes.

Miracle One:

Way back in winter, on a very cold evening, I was on my way to my mother's and stopped to pick up a few groceries for her. When I returned to my vehicle, it wouldn't start. I sat and thought about what to do. Time was ticking, and I had to get to my mom's place fairly quickly, and then go to work. I still have two vehicles, my late husband's SUV, which I was driving, and my own car, which was at home. I checked with the store manager to make sure I could leave the SUV there overnight. Then I called a taxi to take me home to get my car, and sat in the SUV to wait. I looked out the side window and - boom! - caught the fall of a bright meteor in the sky. I like to watch the Perseids meteor shower each August and have seen a fair number of them, but this was far bigger and brighter than any I have seen. If I hadn't been there at that moment, with nothing to do but look out the window at the sky, I would never have witnessed it.

Side note: Shortly before that, I had read that if a meteor gets brighter and larger it means it's coming straight toward you, which is not really a good thing. This meteor did not do that, thankfully. But you can bet that micro-thought crossed my mind as soon as it registered how bright this one was.

Miracle Two:

I dropped an earring in my kitchen one evening and absolutely could not find it. I checked the floor over and over. I looked under the appliances with a flashlight (lots of dust but no earring), and then dusted under the appliances because I couldn't un-see the dust. I checked the countertop in case the earring, being small, had somehow defied gravity and leaped sideways as it fell. I checked the top of my sneaker in case it had bounced back up and was tangled in my laces. No luck.

Then I tried a trick I read about when I was a kid: drop another thing just like the first thing, and watch it carefully to see where it lands. Believe it or not, this often works. I've found needles and pins and other tiny things using this method.

However, this time it failed me. The second earring just ker-plunked beside my foot.

I sat down (because it's easier to think when I don't have to stand up at the same time. Don't judge me.). I couldn't believe that the earring could just disappear into thin air, so I got up to check the floor again. Still nothing. Quelle surprise. Yes, I know the definition of insanity - doing the same thing repeatedly, expecting a different result. But what would you have done if you were me?

Finally, finally, it occurred to me to check the bottom of my sneaker . . . and there was the missing earring, stuck in the tread, which was so deep the earring had no affect on my walking and didn't clickety-click on the floor, either of which would have alerted me to its presence. 

Miracle Three:

My basement is very full of things I have not yet parted with after moving into one level of my home while my son lives in the upper level. There are dozens of cardboard boxes and a box spring and mattress in one area of the basement, where coincidentally I've had a dehumidifier running since June. It is the kind that has a container which must be emptied when full. There is a sensor suspended just inside the lip of the container that shuts off the dehumidifier when it needs to be emptied.

Somehow, some dang way, something didn't work, and the container overflowed. I didn't notice right away, not until I spotted a soggy cardboard box about six feet away from the dehumidifier. With a heavy heart I started cleanup.

People, the pool of water stopped right before it reached the edge of the mattress. A half hour of work took care of the mess. None of the contents of the boxes were ruined, even though they contained old photo albums, paperwork, and books. I could hardly believe my good luck.

***

And now for one more minor miracle, this one for you: we have almost got to the end of this post!

Except for a few funnies which I hope is a somewhat acceptable exchange for your patience in reading my extremely detailed descriptions of the other three miracles.

That's a wrap. Almost.

I hope your week is going fricking fine, my friends 😁

Tell me how you're doing in the comments if you wish. I'm a-waiting.