The day started passably well. Although I had gone to bed approaching midnight last evening, I surprised myself this morning to remove of a sudden my sleep mask only minutes after 8:00 o’clock. These days I consider that a respectable hour to awaken. As I lay momentarily inert under the duvet, adjusting to the brightness of the yellow bedroom and the critical reality of another day, wondering whether I would reposition the sleep mask over my eyes, I could see through the bottom of the window blind that it was a sunny day. I set upon getting up. The elevation of my corpulent body was not without its effort. These days nothing is without its effort. Everything creaks and strains under the most inconsequential motivation.
Once upright on the edge of the bed, I sat there bent over staring meaninglessly at my sun-tanned feet on the floor, recovering my strength from the erstwhile triumph of exertion. I meanwhile recalled with satisfaction an upcoming pedicure appointment next week. Then with a groan I commenced to stand upright. Not a pretty picture but thankfully not one shared with others. I laboriously motored to the bathroom and began my customary ablutions. Once seated upon my shower stool I felt that I had accomplished a number of perquisites. One must take strength in even the small advantages of bath soap and shampoo!
The succeeding breakfast of sliced green apple, toasted sprouted multigrain bread with Kerrygold Grass-Fed Pure Irish butter and honey went off without a hook. Where the excitement – if I may call it that – arose was afterwards upon my tricycle ride about the neighbourhood. I paused along the laneway to chat with an elderly woman (91 years of age) whom I had met only recently. She was completing her morning walk. There was nothing of consequence which arose during our brief confab. As she departed to resume her walk, I commenced acceleration of my tricycle. In the process of doing so, I inadvertently struck the right pedal against my shin. It was an accident of no particularly moment; that is, it was just a blunt rap on the shin-bone. But when I examined the blow, I could see that blood was streaming liberally down my bare leg into my shoe. I put my hand into the pockets of my shorts but soon realized I hadn’t a tissue. Indeed I had nothing at all to stop the blood other than my hands which I proceeded to cover in blood when I tried to stop the flow.
Fortunately for me I was very close to our townhouse. By contrast my subsequent entry into the townhouse was marred by slamming the front door upon opening against an inside door which happened at that moment to open as well. Is nothing easy! Meanwhile the blood continued to stream (no doubt a consequence of my taking so many pills which thin my blood). What followed was a flurry of activity to locate a bandage and whatever else might be used to address the minor cut. As always I am eternally indebted to my partner for his welcome assistance in arresting the problem at last. It was however many minutes before I recovered from the disruption which, though not affecting me physically, had contaminated my psychical and spiritual matter. I was in particular concerned about the propriety of later venturing into the swimming pool in my present condition. It turns out to have been no more than a scrape and the application of some pressure and the bandage reduced the drama of the occasion to one of a dismissive character instead.
Later at the pool I discovered there were no chaises longues available. Apparently several of the chaises longues which have recently been damaged were taken for repair but not yet replaced. Under the circumstances of my morning misadventure I was content to repose in the sun on a normal armchair, which I did, seating myself adjacent a neighbouring family of father, mother and child. They were at the moment dawdling together in the pool. When they regained their chairs we chatted about this and that. They were not long remaining au soleil but soon collected their belongings and headed home, kindly leaving me one of the chaise longue (giving the other to nearby residents).
The remainder of the afternoon was spent agreeably roasting in the burnishing rays, chatting with other residents accumulated about the oasis and comfortably dipping into the pool (where, floating upwards, I marvelled as usual at the inexpressible azure sky amid the verdant palm fronds). This pleasing dénouement was further rewarded by intelligence from the property manager of our place in Canada regarding a recent mechanical issue which he considers now moot.