Pumkins in the Night

I have a guilty secret to confess. It is one of those private pleasures that is best enjoyed alone and kept to oneself, but in this case, I will share it with you. It is this – after the kids leave for school, I go back to bed.

I take myself back to the bedroom and slip beneath the covers with feet that are now cold and I huddle there, sometimes shivering now that it is cold outside as I slowly warm under the thick comforter.

I seldom fall really asleep, but rather sink into an extended reverie where my mind plays through the thoughts and plans that are contained there. I gradually enter a different kind of consciousness that is dreamlike and fantastical. Sometimes the sunlight filters through the blinds and flickers beyond my closed eyelids. It is very luxurious and very, very sensuous.

Sometimes, my awareness rises to a level where I hear my dog snoring on the floor next to the bed. Sometimes sounds from the outside world make their way into my dreams and become blended with the half-formed fantasies playing out inside my semiconscious brain.

Once and a while, the phone rings and jars me back to the “real” world and I have to crawl from under the now warm blankets and sit freezing while I listen to some person rude enough to call me at such an ungodly hour.

These little morning naps seldom last more than an hour, but it is an hour spent close to heaven. I have grown accustomed to them and looked forward to the start of the school year so that I might indulge once again in something that I would never have dreamed possible in an earlier life.

I am usually called back to duty by something as common as a full bladder, the result of the coffee consumed earlier as I fixed my children their breakfast. As much as I would like to remain beneath those wonderful blankets and dream my day away, I cannot resist the call of nature and must once again rise, and once arisen, join the world as Lazarus did so long ago. Only for me, I get to do it every school day. Which is like going to church in a way, at least for a sinner like myself.

Once I am up, there are the usual things that consume my time. There are groceries to get, laundry to do, weeds to pull, bills to pay, and so on.

Of late, I can report that K has been asked to Homecoming my Mister X the 6th (or so). As I lay in bed reading the paper the other evening, there was a very loud knocking at the front door, which lead to the girl in question answering the door followed by a long silence, then some yelling for whomever to show themselves (the trend appears to be to leave an invitation of some sort, knock or ring the bell, and run like hell), and finally a reentry by the girl, holding a pumpkin carved with the letters “Homecoming?”

Aside from that, life has been rather uneventful. We are still trying to get used to school again. The early rising, the preparation of breakfast, (the secret naps), homework – you know, all of those school things. I have to admit that I enjoy the quiet time by myself.

So, there is your update. I still go in for chemo every four weeks or so and as far as I know, it is keeping things at bay. If any of that changes, I will let you know. Till next time then. Ta ta.