Sunday, November 27, 2005

echoes/memories

elevator


I took this picture of Mabel in the elevator on Friday evening as I was taking her outside for her night-time walk. Her expression is identical to what I remember from the first day I got her. My brother had driven me to pick her up, and she sat on my lap on the way to Brooklyn. I talked to her and she looked up at me with this very same look. It was adorable then, and even more so now. What would I do without her?

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At my sister's for Thanksgiving, I got to hang out with my nephews. They are very sweet kids. _______, the middle one (like me), is like my clone. He looks just like I did at his age (seven); he talks like me, has a bizarre and vivid imagination, and is rebellious just like I was. It is a little freaky for me to witness such a walking replica of myself, a smaller echo. I only hope that he has an easier time of things as he grows up. I think he will. My sister and her husband are quite different people from my own parents.

Thanksgiving was fun this year. I was not so stressed. We all shared cooking responsibilities so I did not have the day-in-the-kitchen exhaustion and lack of appetite that usually afflicts me. The drive down was easy, although once I got lost after getting off Route 78 for gas, and then missed my exit even though I have driven that road hundreds of times. I was distracted. Oh, and on the way my car stereo stopped working (it is almost thirteen years old, so no surprise there) which meant that I could no longer listen to my iPod while driving. And it is illegal, I think, to drive with headphones on. So I am stuck with the radio.

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On Friday my Venta Air-Washer arrived. After setting it up it was not working properly, and I was annoyed. I called customer service, and they said they would send a new one. But after I got off the phone with them I was able to get it to work properly. So I will call tomorrow and tell them that it is seemingly ok. They may opt to send a new one anyway, but it is ok with me if I just keep this one. It really works well. I no longer wake in the morning with my throat dry and my head aching. And I don't have the same allergy/asthma symptoms. Perhaps I am imagining it, but I think not.

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