Tearing Conclusions

It's getting cooler around here. The sky is even changing somewhat -- instead of the warm blues and golds we often see in summer, paler shades predominate -- cool white, pale blue. The local hummingbirds have flown the coop. Do I see leaves starting to change, as well?

Ah....Fall. My favorite time of year.

Spent most of the day double-checking a quilt I've been restoring (for way too long...poor client), and going to the doctor with Daughter #1. Her big toe nail needed to be ripped out (ewwww) so it would grow in properly. She came out crowing from the examination room: "Mom, you should have seen the blood -- it was spurting out all over! You would have been crying like crazy!"

   She's right. Ever since the girlies were babies, I've bawled whenever they got shots...stitches...whatever. Daughter is 24 now, but that wouldn't have stopped me...I would have been sobbing, and trying desperately not to grab at the doctor's arm.
   At least it's over. Daughter's got a 'new playing field,' so to speak, and a prescription for Vicodin. I try not to think too much about the French Resistance fighter in WWII, who was captured by the Germans and during torture, had all 10 toenails ripped out. Seems way too close for comfort.

And wouldn't you know it, we got hit up by a panhandler at King Soopers while filling the prescription. I gave the lady $3 to buy some groceries. I never do this. (I should have followed my impulse and just taken her into the store to buy a few things. But there was no time.) After I got in the car, Daughter said, "Mom, I've seen her here before a few months ago. She gave me the same story then...I gave her a buck. And I think she was high on crack today."

      Maybe I was affected by yesterday's panhandler post. Maybe I wasn't thinking clearly. (The fever STILL has not gone completely away.) Maybe I was thinking about someone else's daughter, alone and asking for money in a parking lot, shivering under her dirty sweater. And with my darling close at hand, clean, well fed and greatly loved, the comparison was too much not to give.