1. I blasted from Kellogg to Spokane a little after six this morning and checked in at the lab on the fifth floor of the Outpatient Health Center and had a handful of vials of blood drawn and left off a urine sample.
This morning, it had been just over ten weeks (about the length of a winter term at LCC) since I had been in either a coffee shop (outside the Outpatient Health Center) or inside a grocery store.
Following the guidelines set out for me by the transplant team, I decided to go to Rocket Bakery on 14th and Adams and then go shopping at Trader Joe's.
I always wear a mask anywhere I go at Sacred Heart. Knowing I would be going into other public places, I kept my mask on as I folded myself into the Camry and departed from the parking garage.
That's right.
I wore my mask while alone in the car driving to Rocket Bakery and then Trader Joe's.
Did I think I would pick up an infection alone in the Camry? Did I think I'd infect someone else while alone in the Camry?
No. Ha! Of course not!
Was I showing off, guilty of what is called virtue signaling?
No.
The masks I wear have a clip that goes across the bridge of my nose. When I secure the mask on my face with this clip, not only does the mask fit snugly on my face, it keeps my exhaled breaths from fogging up my sunglasses.
If I take the mask off and put it back on again repeatedly, this metal clip becomes less and less effective and the mask becomes less and less secure.
So I leave it on.
While alone.
In the car.
I arrived at Rocket Bakery, didn't have to fiddle with my mask, and found just what I hoped I would inside: a nearly empty shop. I ordered a bagel and a latte, sat at a table with no one near me, and enjoyed being in a public place again.
I anticipated that Trader Joe's wouldn't be crowded -- and I was right -- and I anticipated that I wouldn't experience any customers at Trader Joe's teasing me, looking at me funny, or in any way confronting me because I was wearing a mask. (I've heard stories of other transplant patients experiencing this in stores and it's an unpleasant response to mask wearing I don't care to deal with.)
I had fun shopping. I followed Debbie's advice. She recommended that I go to Trader Joe's and just buy stuff that would be fun to have. So I did. I bought cookies, domas, cinnamon raisin bread, calamari, bagels, cream cheese, and other items that weren't exactly necessities, but that I knew Debbie and I would enjoy.
No one hassled me, looked at me like I was a weird-o, or did anything unpleasant.
I loaded my groceries in the trunk.
I started the car to drive back to Kellogg.
I removed my mask.
2. If you read this blog, even from time to time, I hope you can tell that my mood over the last ten weeks or so has been upbeat. I've done all I can to enjoy being home, often alone, while I recover and while my immune system slowly improves.
That said, going to Rocket Bakery and Trader Joe's today sweetened my already upbeat mood.
So did arriving home with a couple bagfuls of fun items.
I am aware that it's common for transplant patients to gain weight after surgery, in part because of inactivity, because of giving the surgical site the many weeks in needs to heal, and, in part because some of the medications stimulate some patients' appetites.
In keeping with the transplant team's wishes, I weigh myself every morning.
I must say, I've done a commendable job of keeping my weight stable and look forward to when the time feels right to return to the Fitness Center.
But, alas, today I know I carelessly and heartily and happily put on a pound or two as I ate chocolate bark, chocolate chip dunkable cookies, two bagels with cream cheese, toasted cinnamon raisin bread, and toast with newly purchased strawberry preserves. Later in the evening, at Carol and Paul's, I had a scoop or two of vanilla bean ice cream and satisfied a craving I've had for weeks and resisted until tonight.
It's been a long time since I cut loose and just indulged myself like I did today.
And, you know what? Indulging in these various treats boosted my already very positive morale.
Simple pleasures!
3. Because of the heat on Monday, the huge family dinner Carol and Paul hosted had to be moved indoors.
It meant around ten or more people were sitting side by side around a single table with no way to create distance between themselves and so Debbie and I, exercising an abundance of caution, did not join in.
Tonight, however, was a different story.
The evening cooled off nicely. Carol, Paul, Kevin, Linda, Pat, Laurie, Debbie, and I could sit comfortably on Carol and Paul's patio, spread out a bit, and enjoy one another's company.
As so often happens when groups of people congregate, we talked about a wide variety of topics: the history of wildfires in Idaho and Oregon, golf at the Shoshone Golf Club, doctors who practiced in Kellogg years ago, school buildings of the past, the realigning of high school sports teams' classifications in Idaho, Debbie's lousy luck traveling, and more.
At one point, Laurie talked a bit about her recent trip to London and told us about celebrating the Eucharist at St. Paul's Cathedral and that she and her companions heard a sermon on the Holy Trinity that has stuck with them and been a source of conversation in the days and weeks to follow.
St. Paul's Cathedral is an Anglican house of worship. In the USA, those of us who are part of the worldwide Anglican communion, are, for the most part, Episcopalians.
It's been nearly thirty years since I was confirmed as an Episcopalian after about fifteen years of worshiping in the Episcopal Church. (Side note: The closest Episcopal Church to Kellogg is in CdA since the two Episcopal churches in the Silver Valley closed. I sorely miss being close to an Episcopal church and hope as I recover that I will return to driving on Sundays to St. Luke's in CdA -- I've not worshipped there since 2020.)
In talking about the sermon, Laurie said something like this: "Growing up in a non-denominational church, we didn't really think much about the Trinity." That's not an accurate direct quotation, but I'm pretty sure it captures the gist of what Laurie said.
It just didn't feel like the right time or place for me to ask questions and try to learn more about this statement, but that's what I wanted to do.
I know that the non-denominational church the Roberts family headed up acknowledged and participated spiritually in the reality of each of the Trinity's three "persons", the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Ghost).
So what, I wondered, did Laurie mean by saying (approximately) "we didn't really think much about the Trinity"?
I wondered this largely because the Holy Trinity is like gravity in the Anglian tradition: in the same way that we deeply trust moment to moment in our daily lives that gravity will keep us bound to the ground we walk on, as an Anglican I deeply trust that I am living in the presence of the unity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Ghost) and that these different dimensions of Supreme Being just are, keeping us bound to the nourishment, guidance, love, and vigor of God's multiplicity.
So, last night I enjoyed the ice cream and strawberries and the talking we did about travel and hospitals and schools and golf and fires and other things, but I didn't go to sleep thinking about those subjects.
I went to sleep contemplating the Holy Trinity. And church denominations. And non-denominations. All of them are subjects of contemplation way beyond my ability to really understand.
No comments:
Post a Comment