I make a bit effort to be positive amidst the daily barrage of disheartening news, I find great joy in my life. Today didn’t work out for me. I was sick this morning with a nasty head and chest cold, and am sicker now.
I spent all morning in pursuit of a reclining lift chair, I wish I had gotten it sooner.
A Russian hacker tried to buy a lot of stuff in my name, and it took a couple of hours to sort it all out and regain control of my online world. I never really felt the Cold War was personally directed me. I feel flat today, and a stream of decongestant medicine has made me edgy and gloomy.
And I know how to be gloomy. Tomorrow, my writing class resumes, and I want to be in good shape to teach it. I could count my blessings, or be grateful for what I have, but I’m not in the mood, it is a gray and misty November day.
Tomorrow we are going to paint a slice of the kitchen, part of Maria’s new renovation plan for that funky room, last done over in the 1950’s. I think she has some New Mexico colors in mind.
Funks are healthy, I think, even cleansing. You have to get the bad stuff out of your system, and acknowledge it’s place in your life.
If we can, we’ll go see Connie tomorrow in the hospital. I’m heeding my wife’s advice, getting into bed. Red will probably come with me, maybe even Gus. See you later.
I got Gus a new dog bed, he dragged his first one all over the house, made love to it repeatedly, and chewed it nearly to shreds. This one is firmer, bigger and warmer, and he took to it quickly, I put it in my study where Gus is spending a couple of days recovering from his neutering. Gus knows how to be comfortable.
He is doing very well today, bright, active, moving easily. I think the bed is a hit.
I wanted to let you good people know that I was finally able to purchase a good reclining lift chair for Connie this morning, and it is being delivered to the Mansion on Tuesday. I bought it over the phone and insisted on the quickest delivery and Roxie, the saleswoman, was most helpful and understanding. She even took $100 of the price without my even asking .
But I also wanted to tell you that minutes after buying the chair, Connie was rushed to a local hospital. I have no more details to share and am not at liberty to disclose any more information. If she is able to request letters or cards, I’ll let people know.
I am disappointed the chair couldn’t arrive before Connie left for the hospital. I hoped to make that happen.
I talked with Mansion officials about the chair, and we all hope Connie will return to the Mansion soon, but if for any reason she can’t or does not, there are a number of other residents at the Mansion who are also in urgent need of a reclining lift chair, so I’d like to keep the order and have the chair delivered, hopefully for her comfort but certainly in her honor.
I hope this is acceptable to all of the good people who contributed money for the chair. Maria and I have become quite close to Connie, as is Red, and we both have great admiration for her honesty and courage. She has not had an easy life, she has always made the best of it.
The Mansion is a place of perpetual lessons about life, and about control and about the drama and challenge of aging. The Mansion is a gateway to the Other Side, a place of great love and consideration.
So Connie’s chair has become a symbol in it’s own right of this strong and loving and brave woman, who fights every day for a meaningful life, and one of service to others. So many of the Mansion residents love her and care about her, the staff as well.
I don’t know what information will be made available to me, or if we can see Connie in the hospital. I will share what I can and I want to thank all of you again for making this time so meaningful for her, and so comfortable. Scores of people are wearing the caps and scarves and gloves that you made possible for her to make – her room is full of yarn – and hopefully, there will be many more.
I’m in reclining chair hell and am hoping for a lift out of it. As many of you know, we raised funds the other night to buy Connie a reclining lift chair which she urgently needs at the Mansion. With the help of the Army Of Good, I ordered a Medlift version on Amazon for $899 but then discovered that it was not appropriate for the Mansion because it had a heating element, an infrared heater.
Any kind of heating element is forbidden by federal law in facilities like the Mansion, they could pose a possible fire hazard. I was about to cancel the order, when I got an e-mail saying the chair was no longer available. The money had already been deducted from my credit card, so there has been some back and forth about the refund – it hasn’t show up yet in my bank account.
But that’s another story.
In the meantime, I’ve spent many hours trawling on Amazon and other websites looking at reclining chairs without heating elements, and also, at Connie’s request, that are not leather. I read through all the specs and reviews carefully, and many of the chairs I looked at seem to draw complaints from reviewers about craftsmanship, longevity, legs out of whack, problems with remotes.
I must have looked at 25 chairs by now, and I many just show photos and no information about what the chair can do and how it works.
I see many of the reviews off of Amazon are shills, “fake reviews,” put up by the furniture companies. They just call their advertising a review. This morning, I decided to get offline and started to call regional furniture stores that advertise reclining lift chairs. The ones I buy for the Mansion are well-made, highly reviewed, and shipped quickly. I won’t bring any junk in there.
It’s getting difficult to talk to a human any longer in America, but this situation calls for that.
There are special circumstances here – regulations governing assisted care facilities, the health needs of the patients, size of the patient, of the room, and space. I want to talk to somebody about those things before I spend your money and my money. I see that this chair will cost close to $1,000 before I’m done, but I couldn’t reach anyone at any of the regional stories online, I kept getting a recording telling me to go online or leave a message.
The cheaper ones simply won’t last in the Mansion and have a number of flaws.
Finally I called Bennington Furniture in Bennington, Vt. and got Roxie on the phone. She grasped the situation quickly and is texting me two or three options that would fit Connie’s circumstances and the Mansion regulations and have no heating feature or element.
She understand what we need and how much money we have and she says she can get her reclining chairs right off of the floor and over to the Mansion quickly, which would be a great thing for Connie.
I appreciate all of the support and am reminding myself that patience and persistence are what is necessary, these are the times we live in, and I can accept them or go stick my head in a hole. I embrace radical acceptance and hope to hear from Dixie soon.
I see daylight ahead.
If you wish to contribute to the Mansion Fund, you can do so by sending a check to my post office Box, P.O. Box 205, Cambridge, N.Y., 12816 or via Paypal, 12816. Thanks much.
Gus doesn’t seem to know he had surgery yesterday, he came hopping out of his crate this morning, pounced on Fate, tore around the house and was eager to eat. His hood came off right after breakfast and I took him and Red and Fate out for a walk, he was his regular vigilant and active self.
More and more, Gus reminds me of the border collies, stoic, active, vigilant. Having a small dog is really not so different than having a larger dog, you just have to treat them all the same. I think I’ll put the hood on tonight, but leave it off today. We’re separating Gus and Fate today, Fate will be outside with Maria, Gus and Red will be with me.
I see the incision is small, about two or three inches with two self-dissolving stitches at one end. The border collies get cuts worse than that all the time, and you usually never even know about it. Dr. Fariello did a good job.
