My dishwasher repair doesn’t take place till Tuesday. Meanwhile, the heating element has started heating up even when the unit is closed, so I keep it unplugged until just before I wash the dishes of the day and then I unplug it for the night.

The other morning I went into the kitchen and heard a rustling. For those of you unfamiliar with the sub-tropics, this means there is a large something – a roach on steroids we call a palmetto bug. They make noise when they move, unlike those puny things we had up north. I traced the rustling to the toaster and figured there was someone in there eating bread crumbs. So I turned it on. Ha. Ha. Ha. Die fiend!

When it was time to use the toaster. I unplugged it and turned it upside down to get the crumbs and the dead bug out. No bug. I got a large flashlight and shined it in and … nothing. So either the sucker got out before he was fried or he was pulverized. I put the flashlight on the counter and it rolled off and fell on my foot. It was painful but I put my sneakers on and took my walk anyway. That, apparently, was not wise because then I was crippled for the rest of the day and I got an idea of what it is like not to be able to do anything because I couldn’t walk. But a night’s sleep repaired it and I am relieved because I thought it was just possible I had a fracture.

Another upsetting thing is that a palm rat got into the garage. Think something as big as a cocker spaniel. Ed was more spooked than I was because I lived on the lower East Side and once I had to dispatch a large rat that came through a hole in the wall – he was sick and no match for me. I threw him out the window. He landed on a white car in the parking lot below. I wonder what that guy thought when he got to his car. Jay couldn’t help because he was by then bedridden. He didn’t even know about it but he would have been proud of me.

Ed said I wasn’t to let the cats hang out in the garage because he was afraid the rat might be violent. Both Max and Brunswick like to go in and adventure and look for geckos and whatnot. So I kept them out for a while. I don’t know if Mr. Rat is still in there. I am hoping he found there is no food and has gone elsewhere, perhaps squeezing himself under the garage door where there is a bit of space and I am guessing that’s how he got in. Or Ed’s tobacco smoke drove him away since that is where he goes when he smokes. I know that would do it for me.

I will add here that because Ed is a guardian advocate for a lock-down mental hospital in Punta Gorda, he gets many calls asking him to authorize medication. We got one such call at 2 a.m. For those of you who cherish an uninterrupted night, please know that it ruined mine. And, of course, we all know that we worry when we get a call in the middle of the night, anticipating some family crisis.

It so happens Ed has had medical training having gone to medical school in his early 20s. He knows a good deal about what people may or may not need. Sometimes attendants just want to medicate to calm a patient and they can over-do it. I wonder how other guardians respond? They probably just go ahead and say okay. Ed asks questions, and has been known to say no, he won't authorize.

Them’s me adventures for the week.



xx, Teal