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i have not been out of my home for a week. last friday i was operated on my right knee and now i must use two crutches and can't do anything and the doctor said i need to lose ten kilograms i have had no running hot water for a month because the bathroom is being renovated i didn't have even a toilet for four days because they unscrewed it and stood it in the hallway while laying a new sloping cement floor so that any bathroom water runs down the hole where it should, i had to go to the toilet in a plastic bag in the bedroom and the only place i could get water from was a little cold-water tap five flights down in the cellar and it's been minus 8 degrees centigrade outside and my back has been playing up i have to lie down on the ice cold wooden lino in the lounge every morning when i get up and click my spine back into position before i can hobble upright out into the kitchen and put the kettle on with stale water i have collected in a saucepan and my good knee the left one is aching after having to work double and i don't know why i am ten kilograms too heavy because i am so careful i never eat much sugar or biscuits or crisps i eat the white meat of chicken breasts never pork and lamb just occasionally even though i love lamb, and now the cold water tap spits violently at me there must be an airlock in the pipes but at least i have water again albeit freezing cold, i have had several people dropping by with gifts but i smell badly i haven't been able to shave or wash properly because of the lack of water ot the ice cold water i can heat it in a kettle but i have two crutches to deal with and can't stand for long, all i do is sit here at the computer i need to get out i want to see the outside world i miss going into town and visiting my friends and eating at restaurants i look like a tramp and my bank account has dropped to zero because of the bills from the plumber, electrician, plasterer, as well as the ordinary bills the telephone, the ground rates, the electric company, i have been out of work since last september after i tore the ligament in my knee in three places. i could have had it operated on earlier at a private clinic but it was expensive so i waited in line at the hospital. now i am trying to exercise my knee so i can get out and start work again and earn some wages, but really all i need is to get out of this flat i can't stand being here no more this lonely cold empty little flat with no warmth and nobody ever waiting for me.

I thought I saw you on your crutches today coming in the Dublin Rd ??
Was that not you Geoffrey

Geoffrey wrote:i have not been out of my home for a week. last friday i was operated on my right knee and now i must use two crutches and can't do anything and the doctor said i need to lose ten kilograms i have had no running hot water for a month because the bathroom is being renovated i didn't have even a toilet for four days because they unscrewed it and stood it in the hallway while laying a new sloping cement floor so that any bathroom water runs down the hole where it should, i had to go to the toilet in a plastic bag in the bedroom and the only place i could get water from was a little cold-water tap five flights down in the cellar and it's been minus 8 degrees centigrade outside and my back has been playing up i have to lie down on the ice cold wooden lino in the lounge every morning when i get up and click my spine back into position before i can hobble upright out into the kitchen and put the kettle on with stale water i have collected in a saucepan and my good knee the left one is aching after having to work double and i don't know why i am ten kilograms too heavy because i am so careful i never eat much sugar or biscuits or crisps i eat the white meat of chicken breasts never pork and lamb just occasionally even though i love lamb, and now the cold water tap spits violently at me there must be an airlock in the pipes but at least i have water again albeit freezing cold, i have had several people dropping by with gifts but i smell badly i haven't been able to shave or wash properly because of the lack of water ot the ice cold water i can heat it in a kettle but i have two crutches to deal with and can't stand for long, all i do is sit here at the computer i need to get out i want to see the outside world i miss going into town and visiting my friends and eating at restaurants i look like a tramp and my bank account has dropped to zero because of the bills from the plumber, electrician, plasterer, as well as the ordinary bills the telephone, the ground rates, the electric company, i have been out of work since last september after i tore the ligament in my knee in three places. i could have had it operated on earlier at a private clinic but it was expensive so i waited in line at the hospital. now i am trying to exercise my knee so i can get out and start work again and earn some wages, but really all i need is to get out of this flat i can't stand being here no more this lonely cold empty little flat with no warmth and nobody ever waiting for me.

Geoffrey, even though this describes a truly truly dire and lonely and dirty [in fact] situation.. reading it had me laughing out loud.. but not in an uncaring way. It's just SOOOOO bad.. that.. well, that's how I react to direness in my own life as well. I mean, when things get this rotten it just starts to seem terribly funny. [to me, at least]

I do hope this hell is temporary, and that you are out and about soon.

v.

Meanwhile... keep doing the stream of consciousness that you do so well. It can only be therapeutic and keep you sane. If not healthy and happy, at least go for sane.

Hoping you're better ~ in all ways ~ soon, Geoffrey .


Love ya,
Lizzy

You know people love you when you smell bad and they still come.

Now … I’m thinking this could pose an interesting opportunity here for you G...

I suspect there would be one or two ladies (I shouldn’t be sexist – people) who live close by who would be willing to heat the water and help you out with a sponge bath …. Just make sure any plastic bags are properly disposed of.

hey - do you have any more short stories? I really liked the one about the priest that you had posted before.

xx
cate

thank you. no i don't have any more stories, but i do have hot running water, just a trickle anyway. hot water for the first time in a month. the water-heater dial had been turned to maximum, but as it didn't work i switched it off. an hour or two after i had switched it i noticed that the water was boiling hot. i guessed what had happened. the electrician had put the element in upside down so that the dial was reversed. 'off' meant 'on' - and vice versa. the hot water does not come out very fast, just a small thin stream, but at least it's hot. i washed and shaved today. it took 20 minutes to get enough warm water to half fill the bathroom basin, and the water was brown instead of transparent, but that didn't matter because i wasn't going to drink it, and i didn't just stand there watching the water coming out, i used the time doing other things, like cleaning my ears out with a Q-tip, changing the bandage on my knee and removing protruding hairs from my nostrils with a special battery-driven nose-trimmer i bought myself for christmas. not that i have ever had a problem nostril hair, but i talked to a lady in town who had that problem, and that inspired me to go to an electrical appliance shop as soon as possible and get one of those little machines. i had never seen her before but we just got chatting like strangers do in a small town. while i talked to her my attention was involuntarily pulled the whole time down to her nostrils. when talking to someone my eyes usually follow a triangular path, zig-zagging from eye to eye, down to the mouth, then back up to alternate from eye to eye. but this lady's nostrils sort of waylayed my concentration and i just prayed that she didn't notice me keep staring at them. i couldn't help it. and of course when looking at hairs sticking out a person's nose one's peripehery vision also captures the surrounding vicinity. i could see a yellow hue inside her nostrils. although with no cigarette in her hand at the time, she was obviously a smoker, and one in the habit of exhaling nicotine through her nose. it was not a pretty sight. i am not a judgmental type of person but naturally it made me think, and i can't sit here and tell you it was nice to look at if absolutely was not. a surreptitious look to the almost indiscernible stain between her fingers loudly confirmed that she was a chain-smoker, had no self-discipline, was self-destructive and being lied to by her own brain. my glance to her hand lasted only a microsecond because i was eager for her to remain unaware of my observation. the empathy inherent in my personality dictated that our encounter should not be one culminating in her being embarrassed. so i tactfully took my leave and suddenly knew what christmas present i should buy for myself. later on my thoughts returned to that lady; i replayed the entire episode in my head, but there was no sound. i then realised i had not forgotten what she had talked about, i simply had not heard her. so a nose-hair trimmer has two functions, one might say. apart from the obvious one, it also allows people to focus upon what one is saying.

"nancy was alone"? - tell me about it

… moving away from the lyrics


Nancy was alone ...
There was no yelling, nobody to get tea for, nobody to cook for … she left breakfast dishes beside the sink and the tea towel was thrown on the counter. Dark circles left her eyes and her arms no longer hurt when touched. She, wore a hippy skirt with little metal beads on it that rang with every step and dyed her hair red – very red. She even wore red lipstick.
Mornings were in the garden, afternoons at her desk, evenings with old movies that she would play again that night before sleep with an alternate ending – No Heathcliff, I couldn’t possibly!!! … well .. maybe just this once ...
Nancy was alone!


~~~
Not sure if it’s the same Nancy … I don’t think so


Nancy was alone …
so moving the body was difficult at best. She had considered moving it piece by piece but the potential damage to her Persian carpet was out of the question. Instead she stripped the spare bed of it’s fitted sheet, wrapped the body in it (making sure to tie it at the end) and dragged it out to the garage. It was dark. She found the switch, turned on the light and then found her grown son’s forgotten skateboard.

Patricia kruszewski awoke the next morning to discover that her husband had once again been out late drinking. This time though, he had stumbled down the back steps with a terrible result. People in the neighborhood were saddened but not surprised. They rallied support as best they could – some, like Nancy, even brought over warm meals.

LOVING your first scenario, Cate. The second has possibilities in a book somewhere, but I love the real-life possibilities that inhabit the first. [Yes, I know... the second one can happen, too .]

thank you Lizzy.

Is this a game for anyone to play?

Nancy was alone. She closed her phone and let it slide into the pocket of her black trousers. Slowmo people jingled in the city sunshine like silver coins in the wake of the train that had just hit her. She looked up and tried to make eye contact with just one other being; she only needed it for as long as it might take to brush a hair from her forehead. They fluttered and disappeared, they spoke a hundred languages, none of them English; Nancy, like all of them, was invisible. There it was. They were all invisible. She could hold to that. She brought herself back into the city, one of them, one of us, same difference.

she's a ghost
... I like it.

Is this a game for anyone to play?

I hope so ...