We are finally settling in a bit, and we have had a couple of peaceful quiet evenings. There is still much unpacking to do but it is going a little bit more easily as G as getting settled into his new surroundings and is no-longer quite as confused and agittated. Anyone with any experience with Alzheimer's/dementia patients would aniticpate this, but even anticipated, it is still exhausting, and the first week was spent more in acclimating ourselves to our new space than in unpacking. It is not the way I would have thought I would go about settling in but one must make the best of what curves life throws one's way.
Our first completely quiet, peaceful evening we sat contentedly reading in the new sunroom/sitting room, still a work in progress, yet transformed since my last post into a cozy nook. Here is a picture of Sam, on the arm of G's chair, next to the book cart, which contains my current "to be read" pile. I haven't unpacked the bookends yet, so various foodstuffs and cleaning supplies have been called into action to keep everything in place.
We had already been to the local library and G was reading Simon Winchester's Krakatoa, which has actually been on my to-read list for a while now. I hadn't read anything for a couple of weeks, with all the stress of the actual closing and move, which is not a story I am in any way ready to share, and was perfectly content to settle down with some light mindless escapist reading, so I read Danielle Steele's novel, 44 Charles Street. It was exactly what I needed, not very realistic, certainly not a book that will stand up to critical reading, but an enjoyable bit of escapism. Considering that reading one of these novels only takes a couple of hours (you have to be willing to suspend disbelief), or about the same amount of time as a movie, I tend to find it more rewarding than the average movie simply because reading engages my imagination in a way completely different from what I experience when watching a film.
Last night we spent another quiet evening, reading part of the time and then watching Morley Safer's interviews with Dolly Parton, Anna Wintour, and Meryl Streep on "60 minutes". We split a new-to-me gluten-free beer, Green's Amber Ale, which was actually GOOD. Yes, the emphasis was needed as too many of the gluten-free beers I have tried just take like amber colored sugar water with a hint of hops. I'm not really much of a beer drinker, as I find it terribly filling, and half a bottle was perfectly satisfactory. It is nice to think that there is some beer to cook with again, however, and I see a rarebit or a carbonnade in our future.
I started reading Charles Frazier's Nightwoods, and I although I am not far along, I am ready to sink into the author's beautifully rendered, resonant prose, which seems to perfectly capture the essence of a person and a place. At the moment though, what resonates with me the most is this particular passage:
"You try your best to love the world despite its obvious flaws in design and execution. You take care of whatever needy things present themselves to you during your passage through it. Otherwise you're worthless."
But perhaps this is just my all-too-human brain seeking connections and ways to tie the various parts of life into one continuous whole.
