The skies were cloudy and rain threatened to fall at any moment as my wife, Sarah drove our Dodge Ram pulling our 'Hippie-Hangout' trailer along the twisty, bumpy and frost-heaved country road to our friend's (Renee and Gary Sullivan's) place in Simonds, situated beside the still-rising and flooding Saint John river. As we drove by East Grand Lake, traces of ice could still be seen tenaciously hugging the shore, while clots of snow still huddled within the shadowy forest; winter's last holdout. Because of the possibility of an over flowing stream across the road, we took the slightly longer route to our destination through the quaint little town of Canterbury, not to be confused with Geoffrey Chaucer of long, long ago, who wrote 24 stories titled Canterbury Tales. We were wishing we were on our 'Cross Canada Tour' that we had planned for this year, but each bump in the road only brought us closer to the hospital and my upcoming rectal operation on May 7th.
Before reaching the Sullivan's, we had to make a quick stop at Woodstock, NB not the Woodstock of 1969, where a horde of hippies, 400,00 strong, arrived to experience a musical, marijuana induced love-in. While Sarah had to do some things at the Farm Market, where she, until very recently, used to run the cafe on Fridays, I sat in the truck and waited. A ray of sunlight had broken through the clouds and as I basked in its warmth, I watched as the Culberson's served delicious sausages on buns to a line of customers. We had spent 7 years being part of the Farm Market and knowing Sarah has mixed feelings about giving up the cafe, I wondered how she was feeling, seeing someone else running the kitchen. However, both of us, having done quite a few different things in our lives in order to make a living, I felt she would be fine, it would be just another phase in life dribbling away into obscurity, a new adventure rising on the horizon.
Our next stop, after leaving the Market was the River Valley Hospital in Waterville, where I had to go for pre-op bloodwork. I've been to that department so many times lately, that if someone had tied a blindfold around my head, I most likely could have walked there without bumping into anything. A young pretty blonde receptionist, after taking my medical card, began asking me some questions. I could see a touch of a grin at the corners of her mouth and a glint in her eye as she asked me, "You're not pregnant are you?" We both laughed when I said, "If I was, it would certainly be a long and skinny kid." When my name was eventually called for my blood test, I was surprised to see the same blonde woman waiting for me in one of the small rooms, where rumour has it, vampires have been seen. While she tied my arm off with a wide elastic band and I made a fist to make my vein pop, I told her one of my blood-takers had stuck me five times while trying to insert an IV needle and finally gave up, the next nurse, one painless poke and the job was done. I hardly felt a prick when she stuck the needle into me, a real pro in my estimation.
We had hoped to see my surgeon afterwards because we wanted to talk to him about a recent episode I had had one night, after getting up to take a leak. I started feeling a bit gwoppy (how do you like that word, made it up myself?) and had to quit before I could finish and then shuffle-streaked back to bed, where Sarah asked if I was alright, should she call an ambulance. Although I could see she was really scared, realizing it would take over an hour for an ambulance to arrive and then another hour or more to reach the hospital, thinking if I was going to die, I'd sooner be home, I told her to wait awhile. I had taken a bath shortly before the episode and I remember, while being immersed up to my neck in hot water, that I had actually shivered. When she took my temperature, we were surprised that it had dropped to 35C, which was not good. However, within a short space of time, it began climbing and my body soon reached a normal temperature and whatever was wrong with me had passed. I suspect, even though there is a serious problem with my back passage, the front passage may also have a problem, mini-strokes coming to mind.
While at the hospital, since our neighbour, Clayton Clarke at the top of Green Mountain was recovering there, we took the time to visit him. At 120 lbs., although his spirit was feisty, he looked very frail. He and his family have been very good friends to us since almost the first day we arrived in NB from BC. He's helped us do a lot of things we were incapable of, mechanics, plumbing, etc., which are not my forte. I remember one very cold winter day one of the copper pipes froze and burst, and Clayton, well over 80 at the time, was lying on his back in the freezing cold as he replaced the pipe. We wished him well and speedy recovery and if we are to be hospital-bed neighbours, I couldn't be happier. We had no sooner left his room and were on the way out when we bumped into Bobby Farrell, another neighbour at the top of the hill. I hadn't seen him for a long time since he'd gone to work in the Alberta oil fields and it was really good to touch base with him too, especially since he was one of the first friends I'd made when we moved here. The day seemed to be filling up with running into friends, hopefully not an omen concerning my operation, because when we went to Walmart to pick something up, we also ran into Benjamin von Keutz and his girlfriend Aly, He works at Sabien's, where he builds the most beautiful conga drums imaginable. He invited me to drop in and play the drums after I recover and that seems like a real blast; I'd like that. Although I know diddly-squat about playing drums, I can see myself, my long white hair waving around, as I gyrate about while my hands are
beating away on a drum. Sarah could play her ukulele and we could make music, well maybe not music but a lot of incredible sounds just the same.
Finally, after parking the 'Hippie-Hangout' at Renee and Gary's place (Sarah's home while I'm in the hospital for a week or more) we visited with them for a couple of hours, the conversation interspersed with much laughter. While I'll be recovering in the hospital, I'm so appreciative of them letting us park our trailer at their place because I know she will be staying with good supportive friends through this upcoming and yes, scary ordeal...peace, eh! - Trip
My wife and I recently started up an Etsy Store a little while ago and if you'd like to check out our artistic creations just click on the link.
No comments:
Post a Comment