Perservation

Today (Monday, Memorial Day) feels like Saturday to me, maybe because Keith doesn't have to go to work. Keith is off somewhere, and I am home by myself. It feels good to sit here at the computer and not have to go anywhere.

Do you ever wonder why certain thoughts toss around in your mind? For instance, today I was sitting at the computer and the song, "Tambourine Man" started singing in my head. I haven't heard this song in ages. A long long time ago, I used to play it on the piano, but I haven't played it in years, maybe decades.  So why today?

"Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, dah dah dah dah me... " I can't remember the words, but even my thoughts are being sung to that tune with a few words of the song thrown in from time to time as I remember them.

What was I doing when the song started singing in my head? Last night I downloaded Java, and there were links to games. So I downloaded Arcade Bubbles.

I click to swap the bubbles, and as they fall, I hear "Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, dah dah dah dah me... " in my head.

If you are of my generation, when I mention "Mr. Tambourine Man" you probably remember it, a song of the 70s. If I mentioned it to my sons, they'd give me a quizzical look and say, "Yeah, right, Mom."

Before the song overtook my thoughts, I kept thinking of the movie, "Doc Hollywood". Michael J. Fox plays this plastic surgeon that has a wreck in a one-horse southern town. As a result, he is sentenced to 40 hours of community service because he plowed down the fence of the local magistrate.

The part that perservates in my head is the part where Dr. Hoke overhears Dr. "Fox" (I forget his name in the movie) calling the office of the California surgeon where he has an employment interview. He is missing the interview because of his community service. Then Dr. Hoke (why do I remember his name and not Fox's character?) has a heart attack. Dr. Fox has to call again and reschedule the appointment for a second time. It looks like he is going to lose out on this opportunity to work with a highly paid plastic surgeon's practice.

You can see Dr. Hoke right outside the doorway while Dr. Fox is on the phone. Then later in the movie you find out that the big shot plastic surgeon knowns Dr. Hoke. He gives Dr. Fox his interview because Dr. Hoke called him in Dr. Fox's behalf. Well, whaddya know, the one-horse-town doctor has a little pull after all.

One of the patients Dr. Fox treats has a stomach ailment. Dr. Fox thinks it is some sort of serious heart problem. He is ready to send him off in an ambulance to a bigger city when Dr. Hoke rushes to the clinic with a can of Coke. Apparently the boy has been chewing his Daddy's chewing 'tabacca.' Dr. Hoke knows this because he knows his patients.

I wonder if Dr. Fox is thinking, "I have more medical expertise than this small town doc. He would miss a serious ailment." So Dr. Fox doesn't look for the obvious. Then later in the story Dr. Fox's expertise does come in handy when Dr. Hoke has the heart attack.

Did you see this movie? I hope so, because I am not telling the story very well.

What I am wondering is this? Does perservation about something (like a movie or a song) that I think of out of the blue have the same meanings as a dream? Is it like a daytime dream? Is there some message that my subconcious (unconscious) is trying to tell me?

The Cabin

I didn't sleep last night. I was worried about Keith. He was over at the cabin. Last month he asked the renter to move out by May 30. They had been packing and had taken some things that belonged to the cabin, things that belonged to Todd when he lived there. When Todd went to Anchorage for lineman's school, he left all his belongings there and rented the cabin to a friend. Keith wanted to board the place up, but Todd convinced him that it would be better to have someone stay there and guard his stuff.

I keep having this vision that Keith is going to be shot. Keith stayed over there all night Sunday night, sort of guarding the place. He removed Todd's things, loaded them into his camper, and brought them over to our house. Then he returned to the cabin in case they decided to come back and vandalize the place.

Keith came home this morning and took a shower. He said that he boarded up the cabin so the ex-renter can't take anything else. They never did pay the rent for May, and the electric bill was over $200. If they pay nothing, then Keith is out the money.

I got up in time to see Keith taking off again in the truck. I suppose he is going back over there. He really is afraid they are going to trash the place.

I feel bad about this because Keith bent over backwards. The rent was always late. We paid the electric bill even when we didn't have the rent money to cover it. Keith wanted her out of there, but he didn't ask her to move in the winter because he didn't want it to be a hardship for her. So she turns around and treats Keith like dirt. What a mess.

And I was doing so well with my sleep schedule, too! I slept Friday night and was up on Saturday. Then I slept on Saturday night, and I was awake at 7 a.m. Sunday morning.  I could have been ready for bed at a decent hour on Sunday night. Instead I lay awake all night wondering what was going on with Keith. Early this morning I finally crashed. I don't remember what time it was. I woke up at 1 p.m. so I got at least 5 hours of sleep (what I consider my minimum daily requirement).

Fishing Trip

Today Keith went fishing. He wanted to fish for King Salmon in Valdez, but he didn't feel like driving over 300 miles to catch a fish. So he drove up Chena Hot Springs Road and fished for grayling.

When he climbed the stairs, he said, "Are you ready to clean some fish?"

"Oh, no," I said.  I don't clean fish. Even my Dad doesn't make my Mom clean fish."

He was joking. He caught a few little ones and let them go. Then he drove up to Chena Hot Springs for a hot soak in their three tubs. He came home refreshed.