Being Loved

February 7, 2015

After being up half the night coughing, I managed to get a bit of fitful sleep around 4:30. I've spent most of the day in my chair by the fire, trying to breathe without launching into another spasm of coughs, with only limited success. Linda took Alex and Abi to play practice late this morning, then stopped in town to shop for a few necessities. I took the opportunity to borrow a snow rake from daughter Jessie, who had in turn borrowed it from their friend Bruce (Thanks, Bruce!), and got to work pulling snow from the roof of the entry room. An ice dam had formed, and the water was leaking through the window casement and dripping all over the sill and the stone wall. As anyone knows, too much of that can spell real trouble, so although Linda wanted me to wait to tackle it till I felt better, I figured three days of this was enough.

Once the snow was raked off, it was time to get to work, so I got out the ladder and an axe, and climbed up. The ice was at least a foot thick on the edge; for anyone who doesn't know, you don't have to get all the ice off; you just need to get it away from the edge. An ice dam forms when the ice builds up and hangs off the edge so tightly that any melt that forms from the heat escaping through the roof can't escape, so it flows back under the eves and finds its way through the wall. Like many people I know, water always takes the path of least resistance, and in our case, that was a path around the edges of the windows.

Hacking at ice with an axe while hacking one's lungs out is not normally a fun task, and this was no exception. By the time I was done, I was sweating, sucking in gulps of cold air that fed the blast furnace in my throat. I wasn't unhappy to climb down that ladder after half an hour's work. Then it was back to my chair to cough my way into the evening, which I managed to do quite nicely, thank you. Linda left for an honors band concert that Izzi was in tonight, but ten minutes later was back, feeling guilty that she had left me alone in such a state. I then felt bad that she felt she had to miss the concert, but she explained, "You have said at various times that I often put the grandchildren ahead of you; I wanted to put you first." What could I say? It's embarrassing to admit that I have felt that way at times, but tonight was not one of them. On the other hand, it is a wonderful gift to be loved like that, and I am thankful for it.