It is amazing how much your life changes when someone gets very ill. I have a whole new understanding of what elderly couples have to deal with. Most people we know that are our age have one malady or another. Jerry and I have been blessed with excellent health our entire 39 years of marriage. Except for some skin cancers on him and the vein surgery for me, we were healthy. No flu shots for us. We go years without a sniffle. I've never had the flu. I get a cold about every 3 years. Neither one of us takes any medications at all -- well up until we discovered that Jerry has Lymphoma. I have swallowed a million Benadryl for allergies, but I'm talking about prescription drugs here.
Still, Jerry is in such good health otherwise, that he hasn't even loosened the top on the vials of several of the medications prescribed to him for the Chemotherapy side-effects. He has not had any nausea or diarrhea. He has taken the pain meds off and on. Yesterday and today, he hasn't taken any. The main thing I notice about him is he is SO TIRED. The slightest amount of activity wears him out. When we came back home to Kingston today, he didn't want to drive.
Let me tell you!
THAT is VERY RARE!
I probably should have called his doctor.
Jerry doesn't like the way I drive because I don't just push the cruise button and let the car go. Jerry will "cruise" right up some other car's bumper if they don't move. I hold onto the dash half the time when he is driving for fear I am going to be thrown out of my seat when he slams on the brakes when the bad car in front of us won't move out of his way.
I, on the other hand, like to drive like I eat.
I like everything EVEN. I put even food on my plate. Equal meat, potatoes, vegetables and salad. Then I take a bite of one, then the other, then the other, then the other all the way through the meal. IF I run out of peas and I still have meat and potatoes on my plate, I have to get a few more peas. I can allow the salad to run out because you are supposed to eat the salad before the other stuff anyway.
When I drive, I like to have a certain amount of distance between myself and the other cars. I want to be either AHEAD of all the cars, or BEHIND all the cars. I HATE being in the middle of cars and even more, semi-trucks. I feel like a little ant crawling on the ground between volcanic mountains on gigantic wheels, and I'm just sure they can't see me.
THEREfore, I drive a lot with my foot on the gas pedal. Then I can adjust my speed constantly to stay away from other cars and especially, semi-trucks.
Drives Jerry crazy! He keeps hollering, "JOY!, put the cruise control on!"
Jerry drives right along with the semi-trucks and traffic all around him, and the car is in "Cruise"!
There will be a semi in front, one in the back and one on each side, and several in front and back of them. And they want to PASS each other!
I get claustrophobic, and I STARE out the window constantly at the MILLIONS of wheels on all those semis wondering which one is going to blow up first and shoot long strips of black rubber flying through the air that are aimed RIGHT at our car while at the same time, watching the space between our car and the one directly in front of us as it gets narrower and narrower because our car is in "CRUISE"!
One time,when I was driving alone, a WHOLE TIRE bounced out of the back of a truck and came rolling extremely fast right toward my car. I could NOT believe my eyes! Just before I smashed head-on into the escapee, it bounced and bounded up in the air over the next lane, into the shoulder and into the grass where it bounced again and JUMPED over a fence into someone's backyard.I SWEAR that is totally true!
Imagine what the homeowner thought when he went into his backyard, and there was a large tire lying there that had probably left a path of destruction behind it. What if it CRASHED through his patio door!
Another time -- alone again -- I was behind a big truck with a flat bed full of boxes on it. I was purposely staying as far behind it as I could, but it was right in front of me in heavy traffic. I watched as the end of one of the huge boxes OPENED ITSELF UP, and hundreds of 15-foot long slats -- shaped like those in blinds, but wood or metal, -- slid out of the box and plopped right in the street in front of me! The end of them hit the road first. As the truck kept moving -- having no idea he was dropping his load -- the slats came out of the box further and further and further until the other end of them finally came out and slammed onto the I-40 exit off of I-35 spreading themselves across the entire lane!
I, of course, expecting all of that to happen, was already in the other lane and had decided to keep on driving North instead of exiting.
You can probably understand now WHY I like to have the road to myself.
Jerry is tired and ready to get in bed so I need to shut this down. Hope you all had a blessed Christmas. Ours was the best we have had since the grand kids were little. Everyone was so loving to Jerry, and it did my heart good. I even heard from a very dear friend from years ago. I have missed her so much over the years. It was a very good Christmas indeed!
Hugs, Joy
Oh, my goodness! Jerry is Roger and Roger is Jerry! Roger drives exactly the same way! I was driving one time because he was tired and the man didn't like the fact that I was in the left lane instead of the right lane. We passed an accident that was in the right lane (not the left lane!) and he informed me that was what was going to happen to me because I was in the left lane. No, it didn't make any sense to me either, but it made me so mad that I pulled off at the next exit. I pulled into the first gas station I saw told him, to fill it up and I moved to the passenger seat. We still had a half a tank of gas, but I didn't care. The next time he was tired and asked me to drive I told him that he had to close his eyes and shut his mouth if he wanted me to drive. He's never criticized my driving since then.
ReplyDeleteI did tell him one time when he was on the bumper of the car ahead of us and driving 70 mph that this wasn't Nascar and he didn't need to be drafting off the car ahead of us (racing term).
You know I get claustrophobic when surrounded by cars and trucks!
Glad you made it home safely.
Hugs, Phylly
You solved the mystery! One day we went outside to find a TIRE in our backyard! We assumed it came over the fence from the road but it was hard to believe. Another 10 feet and it would have crashed into our living room windows. Finally, someone who saw what happened!! Love it! and love your blog :)
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