These are the good old days

. . .  tomorrow we might not be together
I'm no prophet, I don't know nature's way
So I'll try to see into your eyes right now
And stay right here, 'cause these are the good old days. --Carly Simon

When I was young, what I heard was a song about anticipation. Specifically, I heard that anticipating good things was a pleasant experience. I completely missed the message. Completely.

Fast-forward 43 years.

I've been engaging in a fair amount of bitching lately about the rigors of maintaining a household while trying to work and care for two animals and a sick Mr. Simply, all while my own health steadily declines. It started one night when I crashed into my reading chair after dinner and forgot to clean up the kitchen until it was already late, I was tired, and. . .

This.

Over the last couple of days I've been paying careful attention to what, each day, threatens to overwhelm me. The complicated pet-feeding ritual each morning, which includes preparing special drinking-water mixes for each. The dishes, of course. The trash. The laundry.

And then last night it hit me: These are the good old days! I wanted a husband, a house, a dog, a bird to care for. There are aspects of each experience that I did not exactly anticipate but on the whole, I like having a house, Diana, the bird. I like being married. I like what I do for a living, and I like the people I do it for. These are the good old days, when I have a house, a bird, a dog, and a husband to take care of, when I have a job to retire from, when my body is in better shape than it's ever likely to be again. 

So I think I'll stay right here.

Back in '71, I thought that meant that if you were having a pleasant experience, you tried to hold on to it. I understand now that Simon meant something entirely different by this -- now is all we have, and it is good. I might as well stay in it. 

Simply,

Je Suis Prest

Like any good scout, I'm prepared.

I learned the hard way.

Today, we needed to call the after-hours service about a disturbing symptom Mr. Simply was having (on a Saturday, of course -- when else?) and my cell phone would not dial out. Would. Not. I had zero bars, and for whatever reason, Wi-Fi calling wasn't working either. I had 4G -- too bad I can't communicate with Mr. Simply's oncologist via Facebook.

No problem, right? I'll just use the house phone! So I did, and left my message and our number, and waited. And waited. And waited.

It seems we have Call Blocking. Who knew?

So I turned it off, and called back and left another message. And it was at that point that I believe the battery must have died (because I left the phone laying out on the coffee table last night). We only have the one wireless. So of course we didn't hear back. I plugged it in, then couldn't leave the room because as we all know, I can't run to the phone if it rings. But it was too late.

In the meantime, the symptom went away. We decided to have dinner. And I re-booted my cell phone. It took two tries, but it does work now.

Last time I was at the hospital, Tillie (my scooter) started stopping randomly -- usually in the middle of electronically-operated doors. And so I had meant to break her down and see if there was a loose connection somewhere, which is what happened once before. Except I was frigging exhausted and never got around to doing it. So here we are, on a rainy Saturday afternoon, with phones that won't work and  a sick man and a scooter I can't trust. . . Can't you just see the bitch quitting on me while I'm crossing the street in front of the ER??

So out I go, unload her from the van, tear her down, fortunately it's not raining right this two seconds, find the loose connection (exactly the same one as last time), repair it (I hope), put her back together, load her back in the van. Hopefully now if we do wind up going to the hospital tonight, she'll run.

But that's not all!

I really like to have what I call Pajama Days, in which I do not get dressed. At all. All day. And this has been such a difficult week what with Mr. Simply being in the hospital and all, that I had planned a Pajama Weekend. My pjs, all freshly washed and fluffy and soft, were laid out on the bed before I turned out the lights last night, and my plan was to put them on this morning and not take them off again until I had to go back to work on Monday.

Hah.

Here's the new rule: Get showered and get dressed. 'Cause you never know.

Simply,