Wednesday, first morning without the boiler, so I’m not getting up any time soon. I hunker down with coffee, toast and a new poetry book that a friend has sent me. However dead on 9 o’clock I am on the phone ringing the people who installed our heating system pleading for an engineer to come and rescue us. To my great relief they are able to send someone between and 12am and 4pm. With a sense of relief I settle down to read Beyond the Brink is the Beginning, a collection of poems by Richard Wain. The collection is a themed one around hope for the future rooted in faith in nature and interpersonal recognition of each other. I think that’s the message. I read the whole collection and all the notes that come with it. Its a strange mixture of feelings that I am left with. The sentiment is good but it feels naïve to think that somehow nature will lead to a self repaired better world and all we need to do is recognise it and the sameness of each other. I could not help feeling that the the tipping point for humanity has come and gone. It made me aware of how powerful the natural processes that drive humans are and that they are beyond the real consciousness. Its like the old example of earth worms. They are crucial to the ability to create viable soil and therefore crucial to the food production for humans, however the worms just do what they do without any idea or conscious appreciation of what they are doing in relation to the whole system. So it is with humans. True we have some appreciation of some of our process and relationship with nature, but I would contend we are still unaware of the fundamentals to the extent that humans can adapt quickly enough. An interesting start to the day and not yet out of bed.
Finally I get and choose my clothes for a cold house. As a result I drag out my super thick jumper and layer up. Looking like an Inuit I go to the Shed to retrieve the electric fan heaters that are stored there.
The garden is frost covered and looks attractive but would of course kill me if I linger too long. Back in the house I set the up to warm the working members of the household while we all wait for the engineer to arrive. I go to the sunny lounge and start to draft the blog before reading the stricken boiler cupboard for easy access by the eagerly awaited engineer. Lunchtime arrives so as I settle down I become aware that there is a tense telephone call going on. It turns out that my partners carer has fallen over and broken her foot. There is a short period as everyone making decisions on what is best to do. The upshot is my partner and eldest daughter are whisked away by my sisters brother as they head off to deal with the situation. I remain at home waiting for the boiler engineer to arrive.
So while I wait I check the mail and find things that need to be dealt. So I send photos of letters to the solicitors and try to understand some advice that has been provided. In the end I send more emails to the solicitors in essence asking idiot questions and declaring my ignorance. While I am doing this admin the engineer turns and starts to give my system the once over. It appears to work. Sods law really, one moment not working and then being fine when the engineer looks at it. Like going to the doctor to find the pain has gone.
My partner rings and tells me that her mothers carer has been attended by a large number of paramedics and that she is going to hospital. My partner and her brother have decide to stay with their mother tonight, while my eldest daughter goes to the hospital with the carer. I prepare to travel with a bag of clothes for my partner but my niece has agreed to pick them up and take them over along with her fathers requirements. She picks them up and I settle down to keep a watching brief on what is going on by messaging my eldest at the hospital. My youngest daughter rings me and I update her. I take the opportunity to order an Indian take away so that I am fed if I need to go anywhere. The evening is full of messages and conversations. My eldest daughter is being a star at the hospital as she hangs on for the carer to be taken up on the ward once her fracture has been plastered or booted. I keep checking the boiler and the radiators to ensure the boiler is still working. The temperature of the house is taking a long time to recover as the temperature outside is dropping rapidly to minus 2. Inevitably everyone enters the waiting phase as we wait in our various situations doing what we can and seeing what happens next.
The evening goes on in this fashion for sometime. I am sitting at the home base beginning to prepare for my oncology review tomorrow. It a phone appointment so I need to be clear about what it is I want to ask and discuss. I’m expecting the arithmetic to be good enough for me to be given three more cycles of chemo and perhaps be seen in person in the new year. This would at least give me a clear run at Christmas. I need to get back to training at some point but I noticed the display on the row has gone blank again so there is a battery juggle to be done. For the moment I watch Shetland and await news from the hospital. One o’clock rolls round and my eldest daughter is still at the hospital with the carer as she goes for yet another x-ray. Its going to be a long night for my eldest and the rest of us. I take my night meds and settle down to wait for my eldest daughter.
