Catching Up

David and his children were here for a week. Now it is going to take me two weeks to recover and catch up.

It took two days working on my apartment, leaning down on my creaky bones to pick up pennies, dimes, dollar bills, and rubber bands off the carpet. All their lives my grandchildren have been given anything they ask, done anything they want to do; they literally throw money around. Adams and Alle had a rubber band fight in the living room while David and I watched – or tried to watch – “The Civil War” on television. My four-room apartment, comfortable for one tired old person, is too small for four people, even if two of them are less than four feet tall.

Papers on my desk are now in five piles. When will I find time to go through them? I should balance my check book, write checks, file medical reports, and toss out the junk mail.

The World continues to collapse without my sage advice. Why don’t the Republicans admit that they cannot cut enough programs to balance the budget? Congress must raise taxes to meet basic needs. The rich get richer; they do not pay their fair share. I’ll write my Congressman. He is one of those rich Republicans who panders to the Tea Party. He will ignore my letter.

In between dialysis sessions I spent an afternoon with my dentist grilling into a molar in preparation for a new crown. As always, whenever he took the drill out my mouth, I talked. I found out that Dr. B. is a runner. He has run 30 marathons. Last week he and his wife, an M.D., were in Arizona, where they go every year to the Grand Canyon. For the past 30 years they have run the path that goes to the bottom of the canyon.

Sensible people let donkeys carry them down the narrow path to the Colorado River. It takes all day. They spend the night on the banks of the river, then spend another day riding to the top. My dentist and his wife run down and up in one day. Their best time was five and a half hours. This year took longer. Climbing out they were buffeted by a blizzard.

Can you imagine trying to find a foothold in five-inches of snow on a path where one misstep would send you over a cliff to be smashed thousands of feet below? And think of the experience as a fun vacation?

I remembered my Albuquerque lawyer. He jumps out of airplanes. He even went to Yugoslavia to take part in an international sky-diving event. The World is full of mavericks. Interesting, nutty people are everywhere, regardless of race, creed, or nationality.

This nut is going to forget the mess, personal and national, and escape to memories of Denmark.