Time Travel

I just checked the calendar, its November already!  When did that happen?!  I keep telling my kids that life has a tendency to move a lot faster when you get old but this is getting ridiculous.  The time change over the weekend only served to highlight the issue.  I know it’s only one hour but the daylight savings to standard time changes always mess with me. 

I blame it on a life spent in the military.  The mind gets trained to wake at a certain hour each day.  I guess they never figured out the mental widget to account for daylight savings time.  While most people were luxuriating in the extra hour of sleep this weekend I was prowling the house with my faithful early morning companion Buddy the Wonder Pooch.   My wife, the civilian, was not so encumbered.

My wife did make a drastic departure in her usually tight control preventing any decisions on my part on home décor.  We’ve engaged a Panamanian Mafia approved contractor to replace an exterior door and install a shower door.  Since she was gassed from a day delivering Meals on Wheels she called my office to delegate the task of meeting the contractor at Home Depot to pick out the two doors.

I was taken back a little by this unexpected and totally unprecedented sign of trust in my judgment.  I immediately went to the default position of imagining living in a house where there would be two constant reminders of how I screwed this decision up.  I took the trust very seriously and abandoned my usual shopping tactic of enter, point, and purchase.  I eventually reached a decision by doing what I thought she would do – given two choices – always go with the more expensive. 

I’m fairly certain she will approve of my choices.  I rolled into the house to face the expected questions confident in my success.  Instead of asking me to describe what I had chosen she asked to see the photos I had taken of my choices.  When I glanced weakly down to the camera/phone hanging from my belt that went unused – I realized two things.  One - her trust in my fashion sense only went so far (should have seen that one coming) and two – I’m a dumb ass.  The doors come in on Friday – pray for me.

Speaking of prayers, I’d like to thank all for the wonderful comments and prayers sent yesterday following my thoughts on the incomparable Miss Louise.  She’s resting comfortably in a hospice but surprised her family and most of all her doctors yesterday by waking up a few times.  She was even able to answer questions and knew who the vice president was (so Biden at least impressed one person).  The doctors cautioned this may be just a window of lucidity and to not nurture fast springing hopes but maybe some of the thousands of prayers sent Sunday night found some fertile ground.  More to follow – keep the prayers coming.