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August 11, 1998
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While Joan-west stayed at my place working on the editing job we picked up yesterday at Wisdom Publications, I went to therapy and then to coffee at Starbucks. I didn't run into many of my coffee buddies, except laptop man. He was busy working on his laptop, so I read the paper and left as soon as I finished my coffee. I picked up some organic French roast coffee for Joan and some tempeh sandwiches for both of us so we could have a decent lunch before I had to bring cats to Brigham Manor. I had told Joan ahead of time that I was already committed to bringing the cats to the nursing home and that she could come along if she wished. She has always wanted to see the shelter, so she decided to join me. We met Martha at the shelter and picked Alexis, Chantal, Fluffy, and Kitty to go with us. Alexis and Fluffy went with us last time, but this was the first time for Chantal (Alexis' sister) and Kitty. We had to do emergency grooming on Kitty who had some poop clinging to her long fur when I took her out of her cage. Then we were off. The elders were gathered in the activity room. It was packed and too hot. Last time, Martha and I took the cats around to individual rooms, but this time the administration wanted to make cat therapy a group activity. It was kind of hard to get the cats around to all the people who wanted to touch them because the wheelchairs and walkers were really packed in tightly, but we managed. I was glad to have Joan's help because two people cannot manage four cats in this kind of situation. Most of the people loved the cats. A few were afraid. One lady kept asking me: "Do you know my daughter? What time is she coming to pick me up?" and other questions about going home. She had an alarm attached to her chair that went off every time she tried to get up and walk away. That was a little irritating to the cats and very irritating to me, but we made the most of it. The cats seemed to get tired and burned out and crawled into places it was hard to get them out of. But mostly it went very well, with people and cats enjoying each other's company. I was drenched in sweat and covered with cat hair by the time we returned the cats to the shelter. After a quick supper, we went to hear Neil Huston teaching at Friends Meetinghouse in Cambridge sponsored by Kurukulla Center. Many of the people I met at lunch on Sunday were there. I remembered some of their names. It was wicked hot and humid in the meetinghouse. There was a fan but Neil is sort of soft-spoken so David from the Kurukulla Center turned the fan off. With no air and unbearable humidity, I found myself almost drifting off to sleep during the meditation and having a hard time focusing on what Neil was saying. As he was talking, the sounds of crickets, thunder, and flashes of lightning surrounded me. It seemed somehow appropriate to see lightning as he was talking about changing your mind but every once in awhile the realization that we were in for a severe thunderstorm would surface above the equanimity of Neil-voice and cricket-voice. The rain started just as we left the meetinghouse and the drive home in driving rain with zero visibility and thunder and lightning crashing all around was terrifying. By the time we got to I93 I could not see anything but rain. My hands froze on the steering wheel. I knew I couldn't let myself be afraid because the distraction of fear could kill us both. Up ahead I saw a couple of flashing red lights in the breakdown lane. I realized that either two or three cars had pulled off the road. I did likewise and waited and waited until there were no cars coming from behind me and the rain had slacked off a tiny bit - a barely perceptible bit, but a bit. I was less than a mile from my exit, so I figured I'd go for it. I found the exit and survived the ramp. The road was flooded but not so deep I couldn't get through if I took it really slowly. By the time I got home, I did not want to talk to anyone or do anything except stretch out on my bed and decompensate. |
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