Lost Weekend

I’m in the midst of a lost weekend. I should be at a wedding, but began coming down with a nasty bug on Thursday, and when I woke on Friday, well, there was just no way. Not to mention the sprained left shoulder.

I spent two days self-medicating the sprain with vicodin left over from my last knee surgery, and still, when I went to the library Friday to load up on books, I had to walk like the hunchback of Notre Dame, left shoulder up to my ear, left arm pinned to my side. That’s the last time I transplant shrubbery and small trees on my own. Of course it will be the last time, because now they’re all moved, and appear to be taking well to their new spots. The pain is much better now, although turning my head all the way left, or right, is not an entirely pleasant experience.

Sprained shoulder, and a nasty viral something; complete with fever, chills, runny nose, cough, and an inexplicable craving for sweets. I figured that no one at the wedding would want what I had, and so here I am, at home, with a fabulous excuse to do nothing. I still want to do stuff, I have a load of plants that need to get into the ground, but I won’t be doing my shoulder any favors if I do it now, not to mention the coughing fits I go into if I breathe too hard…so I’m baking myself.

I have books, I have water, I have lemon juice and gin, and I have a fairly comfy canvas chair with a footrest built in. I have a weekend that will be sunny and average 85 degrees. I also have a determination to rid myself of the “farmer’s tan” that I’ve developed over the last month or two. I wear jeans and a t-shirt for everything, so only my face and forearms are tan; my legs and décolletage virtually glow in the dark. This must change.

So I am going to spend the weekend icing my shoulder and alternately baking and marinating my virus…could be worse, could be much, much worse. Today’s book was good, I managed not to sunburn myself (I alternate between applications of SPF 15 and SPF 30), and I’m still laughing about my encounter with the librarian.

I checked out a book called “Leonardo DaVinci: Flights of the Mind, a Biography” about a month ago from our library (and a very fine library it is for such a small town. I continue to be impressed.). When I went to the library on Friday, and returned all of the books except for the DaVinci one I said to the librarian, “I’m not quite done with the DaVinci book, its very dense reading. Is it ok if I hold onto it a bit longer?”

“Well, “ she said, “as long as you’re reading fast, because I think that there are other people waiting for it.”

I wasn’t entirely surprised. Reading “The DaVinci Code” may have inspired people to investigate Leonardo DaVinci himself. “I’ll read fast,” I assured her as I stepped into the “New Releases” aisle, looking for some light reading for my lost weekend.

The librarian approached me a few moments later, “Don’t worry about the book,” she said, smiling. “I thought you were talking about “The DaVinci Code”, there’s a waiting list for that, but no one’s signed up to read his biography, so you can keep it as long as you like.”

Ah, so much for my faith in peoples’ desire to dig deeper for truth. All the better for me, I do find his biography fascinating; for a million reasons that I won’t go into here…I may blog on it later.

So here I am, stuffed up and sore, but amused, because I can keep the DaVinci biogrophy, and relieved because I received a check from my father today that was more than my mortgage payment…it will also cover some of my utilities.

They had initially told me that they were cutting the money down to the mortgage payment, and that’s all. I may write about what I’ve done in the past week or two to raise money…or I may not. Tonight I am suncooked, reasonably happy, and slightly marinated in gin and lemon juice. I have a dog snoozing on my couch, a cat on my porch, a good book on my lap, and a little money in the bank.

At this moment, for this moment, I am content.