Lean on Me

I saw a robin yesterday! The first robin of Spring! And today is a gorgeous 66 degrees, prompting visions of baseball and kids playing outside. Maybe those tattered baseball sign-up notices posted around town that were bravely whipping in the winds of last week’s blizzard will get some responses yet.

This morning I was chilly and reached for an old fleece hoodie of my husband’s to slip on. I felt something heavy in the pocket and pulled out a rusty, two-inch bolt. It was like a touchstone to the past when our boys’ pockets yielded up all sorts of various and sundry items on laundry day. Sometimes he is as unpredictable as a boy, as in an incident that happened right after breakfast today.

Howard had eaten heartily, then headed to watch something on tv as I did up the breakfast dishes. When I walked through the living room, I saw that he was sound asleep. Just sleepy from rising early to take our grandson to school, I figured. I called him, and he awoke reluctantly but drifted right back off. After an hour, he was still difficult to wake up, but I knew he had planned to go food shopping with me before he went to work. Getting a late start, we finally left, getting home barely in time for lunch and work.

Before he left, I saw Howard looking at a pill bottle. “Is this the right kind of Tylenol I’m supposed to take?” he said.

“No, that is Tylenol PM; it’s to take at night,” I told him. He had bought it by mistake once, and I hated it because it made me groggy the next day. “Did you take that this morning?” I demanded, the light beginning to dawn. He nodded that he did. “No wonder you were sleepy!” I exclaimed.

Finishing the dishes earlier, I was letting water out of the sink, swirling it with my hand to speed the drainage through the garbage disposal. I flipped the disposal switch and instantly felt a jolt of electricity shoot through me! “Howard! I yelled. “I got shocked!” That was when I found him asleep in the living room. He said something about grounding the appliance before he went back to sleep. Even though it may be (almost) Spring, we are no spring chickens. Thankfully, we are there to look out for each other!