2026 Life Logs, Day 110: Treading Water
Date: Monday, April 20, 2026
Weather: Chilly, Mix of Sun, Clouds, Rain; High Temp 51, Low 43 degrees F
Location: At Home with My Shadow, Falmouth, MA
My day started with a phone call from the physical therapist at the rehab facility where my sister is currently a temporary resident. And the entirety of my day until 4:30, with a 30-minute lunch break, was spent either talking to people on the phone about my sister’s situation or writing texts or emails about it. It was never ending. And still I have not gotten a call from the head of nursing at the rehab facility and have no clarity on her care or lack of care there. If I didn’t have this terrible congestion that is not getting better with the antibiotic, I would hop on a plane and go to Charlotte. So I spent part of the day researching flights and car rentals to go to Charlotte. But it is a full 14 hours of driving without traffic to get there, or for me, two 7 hour days of driving one way and then two more days home. And if I drove down and flew home, a one-way car rental would be over $1,000, not including gas, and then I would still have to pay to get home. I finally gave up and will work on that another day. In the meantime, I decided I will stay here until I am feeling better and keep trying to manage from a distance. Just not easy.
I felt like I was treading water today, an exhausting activity getting me nowhere. Even when I went outside with Shadow, I just wanted to hide my head and get back inside. The high temp was 51 degrees F, but it was definitely winter coat weather for me. The pansies and lettuce plants I bought on Saturday are still sitting outside waiting to be planted, but I refuse to do it until I can be outside without my winter coat on.
Desperate for some bright spot for today, tonight I asked Google to tell me something joyous that has happened on this date, April 20, in some other year. What Google came up with was the lunar landing of Apollo 16 on April 20, 1972. There was one more lunar landing that year . Apollo 17 on December 11, and we are still waiting for the next one. But at least we got close last week with Artemis II. This made me think of Ollie down in Cape Canaveral, wondering if he felt or saw the launch at 3 am this morning. Thinking of Ollie always makes me smile, so that was the bright spot in my day.
