Who ya gonna call?

I am home alone today. This is not unusual, but for some reason I’m more acutely aware of it than normal. Perhaps because my husband and son are out of town and I didn’t interact with either of them this morning. I got up and did the morning dance to get Maggie out the door and came back to a quiet house.

I am busy. Tim's called three times regarding transcript stuff, and I’m trying to do the tax work for Maggie’s nurses. I have to tally up their hours for 2009 and prepare appropriate forms (with the help of Turbo Tax Home and Business) . I pay them and then get reimbursed from the state. If I don’t have tax forms for them it looks like I have a ton of income from the state, whihch would trigger tax obligations that I don’t owe. This way everything is accounted for just the way Uncle Sam likes it. It’s tedious work, but not difficult.

For some reason I am having trouble concentrating. I keep hearing a noise. First I think it’s just the quiet or the creaking of our old house, or the heater or something. But it keep bugging me. If I lean way over my desk I can see the kitchen sink to see if there is water dripping periodically. Nope. I get up and go to Maggies’ bathroom to see if the shower of sink is dripping. No. Heart sinking, I run upstairs to see if something is leaking up there that might be coming through the wall. Nope. All is cool. What could it be?

It seems to be coming from Maggie’s room. The oxygen tank sometimes hisses, but that is all good. Her cd player is off, as is the space heater the radio and all her medical machines. But I still hear it. I open the top dresser drawer and find the source.No paranormal activity here. Apparently, someone put Maggie’s “roll up keyboard” away in its sack without turning it off. The batteries are all but dead now and it is just making this “click” noise every 20 or 30 seconds.

Blessed relief.

Now it’s too quiet.