Thursday, September 10, 2009

Marching on

It's been a weird couple of days. I must say that I am very happy with the nanny state that we have here. Even though that's a pejorative term, I think taking care of the family at a time like this is very forward thinking. The government gives $2500 when you die to help with costs to the family and they give you all kinds of support information starting with the brochure "What to do after a death." So yeah, there's all these things to DO when all anybody really wants to do is sit around and weep. But life goes on, inevitably, incessantly. Only Serge and I saw the body after they unplugged him from everything and we both wish we hadn't. It's a haunting image that we can't shake. Here lets talk about something more pleasant.

***

On Sunday, due to my insistent prodding, we went off for a hike in the woods. It's a place we went to a couple of years ago (and I wrote about but cannot find that post now) about a half hour's drive from home. It was a perfectly beautiful day and we took a different trail than what we did last time.

This was at one of the summits. The day was spectacular.



The video is from the second summit Pain de Sucre where the view was panoramic.


After the two hour workout, we went down the hill to find a riverside cafe where we shared a plate of nachos and a beer. The mountain we climbed is in the background there. It was a perfect day until we got the calls in the middle of that night.

***
There was another time I was awoken by the phone in the middle of the night. I was housesitting for my parents while they were in Europe. One night the phone rang and each time the answering machine picked up the person hung up and redialed. This went on for 10 minutes without stopping before I got out of bed, totally enraged, and picked up the phone and screamed "WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT!" at the very tippy top of my lungs. I'm surprised my hair didn't catch fire. It was my mother on the other end of the line with friends and relatives on speaker phone from France. Speaker phone! Rage melted into embarrassment rather effortlessly and it was after that that I realized that all emotions are just different shades of one another be it love, hate, greed, embarrassment, jealousy or sadness.

11 comments:

Rox said...

OMG I would have done exactly the same thing with the middle of the night call! (And felt much the same!)

I remember the mountain hike post! I'm starting to think we know too much about each others' lives. :o)

vuboq said...

Something similar happened to me once. Except, after saying "what the fuck do you want?" I hung up, fell back asleep, and forgot all about it. It took me two days to realize that my next door neighbor wasn't speaking to me.
Finally, she told me what I had done. Oops.

CoffeeDog said...

When we were in Hawaii we kept getting calls on our cell phone at 3 AM. We finally answered and it was Sears trying to sell us an extended warranty.

Canada...has death panels, OMG!

dpaste said...

See, I always pick up the phone. I can't imagine ignoring it.

Anonymous said...

When I worked for the state I was expected to be on call 24/7. They were mission critical systems to be sure.

That phone never rang after 6PM.

GayProf said...

I would have shut off the phone. Rarely do I swear in uncertain situations. Maybe it's the residual Catholic in me.

I don't have a helpful pamphlet to offer, but I do hope the two of you are doing okay overall.

Luuworld said...

haha. speaker phone. dangerous!

Birdie said...

I was alone, and the phone rang at 2am. I knew it wasn't hubby; he'd have called a different line. When the caller tried a second time, I answered. "This had better be good." "Sorry, wrong number."

These days I dread that call in the night, with aging parents and a daughter that lives out of town.

I hope the two of you are holding tight to each other.

Muzbot said...

Beer and a plate of nachos! That sounds like a top way to end a good walk.

Fresco said...

That pint goes with a well deserved "santé!".

http://elegant-slumming.blogspot.com

Rebekah said...

there was no video for me to see...just a space of blank. I hope you two are taking care of yourselves. I'm glad you had that good day.