It seems I unwittingly did the wrong thing with the furnace and a pressure relief valve was triggered which caused a small pond of hot water to form in our old basement. Weather here has been going below freezing at night and sometimes staying there during the day.


Texted my son-in-law at work and he came over, not only explaining how a furnace works, but what was needed to fix it. I said I really appreciated his help, but could he show one of our sons everything because my mind just doesn't work that way. He happily did this and after a few hours, everything was as it should be.


In the middle of that though, I had to pick up my husband and borrowed my son-in-law's Jeep. I passed the sycamore and a dead baby skunk. Something about its tiny paws reaching up to the sky saddened me immensely. I wondered where its mother was and if skunks feel sadness. Parked the Jeep and as I stepped out, my left foot caught on the side of the car and next thing I know, I'm hitting the pavement pretty hard with my whole left side, in particular, left hip.


As I lay there in the glorious sunshine, I prayed nothing was broken or fractured. Slowly got up and limped towards building. Got husband and his art project of a turkey and four words pasted onto white paper saying what he's thankful for: autumn, friends, home, feast.


Somewhere between the furnace fixing and falling out of the Jeep, I had received a phone call from Pine Acres with news that my mother had a heart event during the night and was now on oxygen, awaiting a chest X-ray to rule out pneumonia.


Sent out a brief email to the siblings, had my son replace a smoke detector battery that had interrupted my sleep all night with intermittent bleeping or chirping or whatever that annoying sound is called. Took 2 extra strength acetaminophen and 2 ibuprofen and 1 muscle relaxer, then sat on various ice packs while my husband slept through Family Feud and Wendy Williams.


In the middle of all that, I had helped the old cat get to the litter box and eat, plus moved some laundry from the washing machine to the dryer. My son picked up the new sleeping meds for his Dad, then headed off for the weekend. Prior to this, I had written about recent E2 Bugs, although my initial attempt was to fill a nodeshell as well as see if anyone else was having similar problems.


My husband was still napping and I was ready for food, so I made a spinach salad with avocado, onion, and marinated artichoke hearts. Got laundry from dryer and planned to get back on ice, fold laundry and have a glass of wine. All settled with pillows and ice packs, when suddenly I feel one of my teeth moving and out drops a $2000 crown.


My sister calls regarding my mother, and I tell her about my eventful day. She tells me it's "God's way of telling me I'm doing too much." I said, "Seriously? Well, God can stop giving me so many things to deal with and I'll be happy to slow down." I believe in God, but not like that, then she told me what I should be thankful for and I said, "I'm thankful about the smallest things these days; you have no idea.".


Before hanging up the phone, told my sister I loved her, then thought about four words of thankfulness: sleep, family, skies, and music.