So for the past two weeks (and it will be a full three weeks by the time I get back), I have been living a new kind of normal.
It is different in a lot of ways.
The biggest difference is simply how alone I am so much of time. I go down to visit my mother and father and see my sister and occasionally friends and the man that keeps cattle here, but for the most part I am living very much isolated from everyone. It does not seem that way of course: with online meetings during the day and the InterWeb available, it hardly seems like I am alone at all. Yet realistically I am alone in a way I have not been since perhaps 2009, when I moved ahead of everyone else to New Home (and even then, I was going in to the office).
Much of the day - or as much as it as I can manage - is spent with as little use of electricity and utilities as possible. I heat with the woodstove during the day and eschew the gas furnace (it is set at a level to avoid freezing, but it has not yet engaged). Mornings and evenings are spent by the light of the fire and a single lamp.
One surprising thing to me is how little free time I seem to have - yes, I am working, but I had anticipated I would have more time to do things like catch up on reading. That happens a lot less than I expected - with driving to see one parent or the other, practicing Iai, working out alternate days, blogging, catching up on the blog roll, and taking a walk, my days seem completely full (it appears to accomplish more, I would need to "work" less).
Meals are simple affairs, mostly put in place to ensure I get fed nutritious food in a short a time as I can manage. As a result, there is not a lot of cooking involved - microwaving chicken or a turkey patty is the extent of it (if not meeting someone for dinner).
If you were to ask me if this was different from what I had expected, I would be forced to tell you yes. And no. Yes in that the time elements (or lack there of) surprise me; no in that I am perfectly happy with what has come to be very limited human contact.
It is not a bad life. And certainly a life which, if I had my druthers, I could very easily adapt to.
I felt that way too when my mom was going through chemo and my grandparents were living in a independent living place here in town. Time became quite scarce. But now that all are gone or moved, I sometimes wish that they were back and I could forego another chapter for another visit or shopping trip for them.
ReplyDeleteEd, I understand. At the moment my visits with my parents are limited to about 20 minutes or so, as much due to the fact that there is not a lot they are able to discuss or we can talk about, given the status of their memory. It is nice to be able to talk them though, and I am hopeful that when at some point we can "go out" again, we can possibly go to lunch and have something approximating life before. But it is definitely different than it was.
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