Berserker

I've been a pushy, censorious bastard most of the day.

I was at my Mom's this morning for a while, and the respiratory person from the home medical place came to show her how to use the travel O2 cylinders. To me, it's just a bottle of compressed gas, not a big deal, but on the other hand, I'm not the one tied to it. She is soooooo embarassed to have to wear a nasal cannula. (That's the prongs that stick up your nose.) She sort of crashed and was unwilling to go anywhere, won't go out, won't leave the house, won't go to church, and so forth. So I pushed, and pushed all day, and finally got her to make a trip to B&N with me. With our frequent attendance, the local B&N has sales which approach the GDP of Costa Rica. The hook I used was to tell her that we need to get Pastor Josh a gift card because he was such a comfort, etc., over the past week. When we were walking in, a lawyer-buddy was standing in the foyer looking at the half-price stuff, I introduced him and my mom mentioned how awkward she felt with the O2. I sort of gave him the high sign, he picked it up, and opined as how there are lots and lots of people with obvious medical problems and devices, more who have invasive medical devises that don't show, and that we would be shocked if people wore tags spelling out all the medications they were on. I didn't hover over her, rather bought a few books (including Common Sense, a small print compendium of the Leatherstocking novels of Fennimore Cooper, and The Road by Cormac McCarthy, which someone on the site recommended), and let her find out for herself that people generally don't notice little shit like that. Then we went and met LaElu at a little family restaurant, and by the end of the meal, I think that she felt a part of humanity/society again. When we got home, I urged her to swap out the travel cylinder so that she would be confident that she knows how to do it. The respiratory person told her to open the valve stem one full turn, but I suggested that she open it 1-1/4, and then close it 1/4 turn. That way, you won't mistake an open valve for a closed valve, and put the gazoobahs on it and damage what is containing gas under high pressure.

And then back to No. 3 to complete what absolutely, positively had to be done today.

In the morning, there is the "Groundhog Day Breakfast" put on by a local bank, at which the Governor will be speaking. I made a reservation for Bro. Dave, and told him he was fucking attending. Like I say, I'm just an unpleasant pushy shit this week. We had coffee at the Book & Bean this morning, and Dave shocked the hell out of me by noting that I'm "even talking like a Christian." Jeez, is it showing?

And this evening, I stopped at the Community Blog before coming here, had a mental short-circuit and entered into a full-fledged rant, and if I could find my enemy tonight, my tomahawk would be red with their blood, and I would sing the war song far into the night.

I wonder if I've been ingesting rather too much caffeine.

Pippa passes.

R