No News is Good news

Maggie had Monday off school for Indigenous People’s Day. It’s one of those days that is celebrated by school kids, government workers and banks but almost everyone else is at work. In fact, Maggie had an appointment late in the afternoon. I arranged to have a nurse here during the day so that Maggie could be cared for and entertained while I worked and ran errands etc. The nurse was ill, so everything changed. Working was out. Showering was out. Maggie came with me on the errands. That was day 3 pretty much on my own. Steve was out of town on a fishing trip. My shoulders are sore today from all the lifting and from loading and unloading her and the wheelchair in and out of the car so many times.

Once the mundane errands were done, we had a great time taking the dog for a walk in beautiful Crissy Field. It was a spectacular day here. The S F Bay looked more like a lake. Everything was still and calm. There was a big fire on Angel Island on Sunday night and the whole island was still smoking in the middle of the Bay. It was wild. Actually, it was a bit hotter than I expected. Both Maggie and I had too many clothes on. I didn’t really realize Maggie might be over heating. I’m always behind her when I’m pushing the chair. When it dawned on me that I was uncomfortably warm, I checked on Mag. She looked wilted. We came home to change clothes, do all the nursing chores, and just recover a bit before the late appointment.

Maggie is a smart girl who needs a lot of interaction. She doesn’t watch television or movies because of her visual impairment. She’s sort of bored with all the diversions around here. She needs her brothers to come home and amuse her. She needs more action. But I was tired. I got down on the floor with her. I picked up the newspaper and read Miss Manners and Dear Abby aloud to her. It’s important to use voices that “fit” each character. She found that particularly amusing. After a bit, Maggie looked sleepy so I snuck off to the computer.

I could hear Maggie in there rustling around a bit on the living room floor. All the “nursing” issues had been takes care of and she didn’t need suctioning or any other intervention. But she wasn’t asleep either. I figured I would just leave her be and hope she grabbed a quick nap before we left.

Apparently she had other plans. I left the newspaper within reach of her. She quietly ripped up the entire section we were reading. Perhaps she’s tired of all the bad news, or she disagreed with Miss Manners’ responses. Who knows? She just decided no news was good news.

So I didn’t get to do the Monday crossword puzzle. Too bad, Monday is the easiest puzzle and I feel so smart when I complete it.

I sure hope Steve didn’t have plans to read that when he came home.