Digging Into the Present

As Corinne and I sat on our front deck this evening after supper, I told her that I’m having difficulty coming up with material for my blog. My life over the past few weeks has been uneventful. I hang around the house doing physio exercises and falling asleep. Healing is a slow boring process.

I said to Corinne, “I might have to dig into the past to come up with topics for my blog.”
She said to me excitedly, “Ron, why don’t you dig into the present?”
“What do you mean by that?” I said.
“I don’t know,” Corinne replied, “but I like the sound of it.”
So now I’m sitting at the computer digging into the present.

My friend, Gail, suggested that I might want to write about my walking aids. I do have a walker that’s on loan from the Quebec government, but I’m not crazy about it. A walker is not cool, and there’s really no way to make it cool. I went online and asked the question, “How can I make my walker cool?” I found pictures of decorated walkers, like the one below, but I don’t really think they’re cool. Maybe in some circles this is a cool walker, but not in my neighbourhood.

The walker doesn’t work well in our split-level house. Every time I want to change floors I have to call for Corinne to carry the walker up or down the stairs, and because of my restlessness, I change floors frequently. The good news is that I’m done with my walker now. I’ve moved on to the cane, which is a simpler and more elegant piece of equipment.

Our backyard is a wildlife refuge, populated by squirrels. This time of year, the squirrels are doing mating dances and chasing each other around the yard. This morning, I watched one squirrel do an elaborate mating dance. The thing about this squirrel that was both endearing and pathetic is that none of the other squirrels took notice of his dance. The dance became more frenzied and elaborate and he introduced some yelling, but still none of the other squirrels even looked at him. Maybe there was something wrong with his dance (it looked good to me, but what do I know). Maybe he was just an unattractive squirrel (I thought he was cute, but I’m not a squirrel). Whatever the reason, his dance was ignored by the other squirrels, and I felt sorry for him. I hope that some day he will find that special squirrel who will appreciate him for who he is.

One of the fun things about squirrel watching, that I’m sure many of you have discovered, is that the word ‘squirrel’ rhymes with ‘girl.’ This means that, while squirrel watching, there are thousands of songs you can sing by substituting squirrel for girl. Songs like: My Squirrel, Squirrels Just Want to Have Fun, If You Were the Only Squirrel in the World, Brown Eyed Squirrel, Fat Bottomed Squirrels, and Big Squirrels Don’t Cry.

So, this is what happens when I dig into my present—an uneventful present that fills my mind with thoughts of walking aids and squirrels.