I started the day waking up to a loud explosion. A powerline blew out on the corner, and we had an outage for hours. So, after getting tired of going to the bathroom by candlelight, and not having anything hot to eat, we went down to McD's for breakfast, where we ate yummy breakfast sandwiches, and drank coffee that tasted like gasoline. And then it was onto the creek trail through the little forest, for a nice walk to the library.
In the forest, we saw seventeen ducks in the creek, all swimming in a line. I sang gently to them, and they all started quacking and came up the steep bank, and waddled to us. One female especially liked my singing. She sat there right in front of me, looking at me, with her ear cocked towards me to hear my song.
After a while, the duckies left to continue their parade downriver. In the woods we saw woodpeckers, juncos, crows, ravens, and scrub jays. As each bird sang, we would quietly and tenderly sing along to the "beat" of each birdsong, filling in the empty spaces with our own melodies, sort of like soft jazz. It caused most of the birds to pause on a nearby branch or on the ground to listen. Squirrels liked our songs too.
Then we went to the library, where I encouraged my daughter to try something new. She has taken 5 years of Spanish, and just finished 12th grade Espanol, so I brought her into the Children's room, and we found the libros en espanol. I challenged her to read as many books in spanish as she could, so she'd be ready for college spanish. She selected Percy Jackson, and she's going to try to read the whole series in spanish. She says that she understands most of it. She knows all the verbs. It's just a few nouns that she hasn't learned, but the rest of the text is so easy to understand that she can figure it out.
They also have the Harry Potter series en espanol, and that's another one that'd be fun to try. We found a Carmen SanDiego book. It was titled "Donde esta Carmen SanDiego?". My daughter is so silly. She looked up at me with mock concern and sadness in her playful eyes and said, "Everyone always asks, 'Donde esta Carmen SanDiego?', but no one ever asks 'Como esta Carmen SanDiego?".
Once we got home, my daughter went into another room, and I felt so energetic. I jumped from my wheelchair and snatched up the walker. Before she could come out of the other room, I jogged out the door with the walker. I went up and down the driveway, in the bright sunshine. I felt so proud of myself, because it's been hard to walk since my last illness. But I just felt so amazing today. Maybe it was the gasoline coffee? Maybe the rejuvenation of being in the woods, among the animals? Or perhaps the fact that my daughter was the first person on the planet to truly ask with deep compassion, "How is Carmen SanDiego?"
All I know is the power is back on, I have a smile across my face, and my daughter is watching The Incredible Hulk smash the living daylights out of Loki. Life couldn't be better.
