I slumped into the kitchen and grimaced a good morning to Carm. ‘Are you still feeling down?’ he asked. Yes was the simple answer. ‘Maybe we should go for a car ride?’. No. ‘We could visit Kirsten.’. ‘They’ll be busy, we can’t just descend on them’. ‘Call her.’
So, with a tiny bit of an anticipatory tickle in the back of my head, I texted her. She must have still been having a coffee as she answered quickly. No, they didn’t have anything planned, and yes we could visit. Yay! A few messages back and forth and we had the day planned.
As I bustled around the house getting things ready for us and the dogs my mood was already improving. It was going to be a good day :-)
We got there around 1:30, let the dogs free to reacquaint themselves with the cousins, then gathered around their kitchen island to have some lunch. Hotdogs. The food of summer kings. Outside beckoned, and even though it was a hot day, a lovely breeze under the shade of the giant maple kept us cool. I wrangled the dogs, well, Adia - Spike was sticking close. Once I had Adia tied up, I joined the girls in the pool. Kirsten made us drinks to have in the floating drinks holders which was fun - surely a hot day in the pool with floating drinks couldn’t be more perfect for my mental health!
And then it was time to go. Having the dogs with us meant we weren’t clock watching all afternoon, even though they were a bit of a pain. I like to believe that Adia will eventually settle down and not need so much supervision. I think I should have taken her out on Shawn’s trails when we first got there to wear her out a bit.
As soon as we turned onto the road the dogs settled down in the back of the car and went to sleep. They were exhausted from the excitement. There wasn’t much activity from them all evening and Spike didn’t even bug us for his bedtime snack. As soon as they had their last out (and yes a bedtime snack) they both went straight to bed!
Spike seems like he wants to make friends with the cousins, especially Tilly as he followers her around with a hopeful look on his face. She’s not quite ready for that. He’s much more social than I imagined he would be.
We had a wonderful time (and again I was thankful that they’ve moved back so close). The feeling is lasting over into today which is a good thing. A big part of managing my bipolar brain is keeping it busy with social contacts. I can’t even count the number of times that a mood swing to the negative has been truncated with the excitement of having people over, that a feeling of malaise has been toggled to one of happiness with supper preparations. That’s what’s so hard about the pandemic. I’m sure I’m not the only one experiencing this..
The rain gauge has been sitting forelormely dry crying about the lack of rain. It was hot and dry today. Almost too hot for the swing, but I persevered with the help of the pool. Such a hardship!
Headline tonight: 4,366,051 cases with 149,773 deaths in the US. There are a total of 113,911 (113,179 yesterday) cases of Covid-19 in Canada today, with 8,890 (8,880 yesterday) deaths today.
“That's the thing about depression: A human being can survive almost anything, as long as she sees the end in sight. But depression is so insidious, and it compounds daily, that it's impossible to ever see the end.”
~Elizabeth Wurtzel
1 comment:
I's nice that you can visit. We have been down to our daughter's a couple of times, but are limitd to sitting outside more than 6 feet apart. Lunch "inside" is not an option. I wonder what Christmas will be like this year. Oh well, no sense in looking to far forward.
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