So, during our six days and five nights of powerlessness, six people offered for us to come over and shower. My husband's company set something up for showers on the first day after power went out. We took one friend up on it after skipping a day and was about to say 'yes' again on day five when Nick got sick and we needed to hunker down with him instead. Then power came on and I got my shower. As it was, I had a shower every other day. If I'd taken everyone up on their offers, I'd have had to take two showers some days. I know what people are thinking. A shower feels good when you're cold and dirty.
I had other offers of help too. One friend brought dinner the day after power came on, saying we'd still be catching up after all of that. We were. My house was a mess.
Another friend had Nick over for a sleepover one of the nights. He got a shower in and played with his friend as if it was a normal day. He had a great time and I knew he was clean and warm that night.
Yet another friend offered to loan us her kerosene heater once her power came on.
So, I should complain. I have friends, nice friends. It was great to feel all this caring come my way. Facebook was a great network for keeping in touch during all of this even though data on my iPhone was sketchy when I was at home. Once we could get out and about, we could catch the wave and facebook away.
Here's the problem. I am not very good at accepting help or telling people how best to help when they're offering it. More than a shower, I needed help hauling water every day. My back was killing me after hauling all 144 pounds of it over that sketchy snow on a cheap sled every day once Mike went back to work. I had back surgery when I was 24 years old and I really shouldn't have been pulling that much weight. I don't like to complain about it though, so most people don't even know. I am very careful, so people don't even notice how I manage to stretch and avoid lifting heavy objects. I could barely handle the five gallon jugs when I needed to fill the toilet tank. How do you ask for help with that? Really. I might have been able to ask my friends to leave a gallon jug at the door now and then, but it's likely they'd have left a brand new jug rather than filling up an old one. I just can't imagine pouring bottled water into a toilet tank.
I appreciated the meal my friend brought. I really did. I had mentioned to her that Mike can't eat onions. I didn't tell her that, rather than being a preference, it irritated his intestines, that the doctors used to think he'd be a candidate for surgery until he began to manage the problem by limiting his diet. Her dinner was chock full of onions, diced small so they were hard to pick out. Mike ate it anyway, but I wonder if he got much work done today. Plus, it was a pasta dish. I ate a little bit, but it pushed my carb count too high and I felt drugged and thirsty afterward. So bringing us meals really isn't the way to go either. No tree nuts, no onions, no greens, no peppers, no broccoli, no pasta, not much rice, and no bread. How could I possibly accept an offer for a dinner and then turn around and say all that? I can't, that's how. Our family just needs something that is very specific when it comes to food and people don't get that it's a medical issue for each one of us. Add on top of that the feeling of humiliation when I watched my friend look around at my house before I'd had a chance to clean it up. There are three people who are good enough friends that I don't mind if they see my house when it's really messy and she isn't one of them. That feeling was almost as hard to manage as the carbohydrates.
The kerosene heater offered by a friend might have been good too, to go with the wood stove and really heat up the house, but I think Mike has a kerosene heater in the garage. He always keeps the door opened for ventilation when he's using it, so that worried me. Plus, it's likely to be a big honking heater and I'd have to haul it back and forth. Ha!
The sleepover was great, but Nick, already tired from one night on the floor in a cool room, came home exhausted from staying up until after midnight. Then he had two more mornings of waking up cold before we realized that one of us needed to get up in the wee hours to stoke the fire. This boy still isn't very good at snuggling down into his sleeping bag or staying on the sleeping pad when he's cold. I think three nights of being chilled and one night of staying up really late has contributed to this cold he's battling now.
It's embarrassing to shower at someone's house. I'm not sure why. As much as I'd like to, I'm not going to ask people to come vacuum my floors, dust around my piles of books, pick up debris in my yard, walk my dog, or let me come over to their house to make my protein smoothie. I'm really not.
Now you have it. I'd like to let people help me. I really would .... but I'm picky and ungrateful too.
Thank you for listening, jb
I had other offers of help too. One friend brought dinner the day after power came on, saying we'd still be catching up after all of that. We were. My house was a mess.
Another friend had Nick over for a sleepover one of the nights. He got a shower in and played with his friend as if it was a normal day. He had a great time and I knew he was clean and warm that night.
Yet another friend offered to loan us her kerosene heater once her power came on.
So, I should complain. I have friends, nice friends. It was great to feel all this caring come my way. Facebook was a great network for keeping in touch during all of this even though data on my iPhone was sketchy when I was at home. Once we could get out and about, we could catch the wave and facebook away.
Here's the problem. I am not very good at accepting help or telling people how best to help when they're offering it. More than a shower, I needed help hauling water every day. My back was killing me after hauling all 144 pounds of it over that sketchy snow on a cheap sled every day once Mike went back to work. I had back surgery when I was 24 years old and I really shouldn't have been pulling that much weight. I don't like to complain about it though, so most people don't even know. I am very careful, so people don't even notice how I manage to stretch and avoid lifting heavy objects. I could barely handle the five gallon jugs when I needed to fill the toilet tank. How do you ask for help with that? Really. I might have been able to ask my friends to leave a gallon jug at the door now and then, but it's likely they'd have left a brand new jug rather than filling up an old one. I just can't imagine pouring bottled water into a toilet tank.
I appreciated the meal my friend brought. I really did. I had mentioned to her that Mike can't eat onions. I didn't tell her that, rather than being a preference, it irritated his intestines, that the doctors used to think he'd be a candidate for surgery until he began to manage the problem by limiting his diet. Her dinner was chock full of onions, diced small so they were hard to pick out. Mike ate it anyway, but I wonder if he got much work done today. Plus, it was a pasta dish. I ate a little bit, but it pushed my carb count too high and I felt drugged and thirsty afterward. So bringing us meals really isn't the way to go either. No tree nuts, no onions, no greens, no peppers, no broccoli, no pasta, not much rice, and no bread. How could I possibly accept an offer for a dinner and then turn around and say all that? I can't, that's how. Our family just needs something that is very specific when it comes to food and people don't get that it's a medical issue for each one of us. Add on top of that the feeling of humiliation when I watched my friend look around at my house before I'd had a chance to clean it up. There are three people who are good enough friends that I don't mind if they see my house when it's really messy and she isn't one of them. That feeling was almost as hard to manage as the carbohydrates.
The kerosene heater offered by a friend might have been good too, to go with the wood stove and really heat up the house, but I think Mike has a kerosene heater in the garage. He always keeps the door opened for ventilation when he's using it, so that worried me. Plus, it's likely to be a big honking heater and I'd have to haul it back and forth. Ha!
The sleepover was great, but Nick, already tired from one night on the floor in a cool room, came home exhausted from staying up until after midnight. Then he had two more mornings of waking up cold before we realized that one of us needed to get up in the wee hours to stoke the fire. This boy still isn't very good at snuggling down into his sleeping bag or staying on the sleeping pad when he's cold. I think three nights of being chilled and one night of staying up really late has contributed to this cold he's battling now.
It's embarrassing to shower at someone's house. I'm not sure why. As much as I'd like to, I'm not going to ask people to come vacuum my floors, dust around my piles of books, pick up debris in my yard, walk my dog, or let me come over to their house to make my protein smoothie. I'm really not.
Now you have it. I'd like to let people help me. I really would .... but I'm picky and ungrateful too.
Thank you for listening, jb
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