Day 16, Year 9: Shop ‘Til You Drop Day
Date: Tuesday, November 5, 2013
Weather: Sunny with No Wind, but Still a Bit Chilly
Location: Brewer Fiddler’s Cove Marina, North Falmouth, Massachusetts
We picked up Ollie this morning and then drove to Quissett to pick up our friends Geoff and Chris. We then headed off Cape to do some serious shopping. It takes an hour to get to Brockton (two-thirds of the way to Boston) where there is an IKEA, a Home Depot, and a Costco. Chris wanted to find some area rugs for Shambala at IKEA, we wanted silver-backed bubble wrap insulation from Home Depot, and I wanted oats and Wild Alaskan Sockeye Salmon from Costco. We have resisted buying a membership at Costco for many reasons, but today we decided to cave. A membership costs $50 but in one shopping trip we more than paid the membership cost in food savings. We also have to factor in the cost of fuel, but normally we would only go there when traveling to or from Boston. But know that Chris and Geoff get very little opportunity to shop, we decided to make the trip today. Once Heather and Jed found out we were going, they added items to the list as well. So we came home with the back of the Taurus laden with goodies. And we actually had time to stop by the boat to take down the headsail on this gloriously windless day. Chris and Geoff helped Mark with this task while I stayed in the car with a sleeping Ollie. I ran back and forth from the car to the boat delivering the things we had bought, but eventually Ollie woke up and I stayed with him. But thanks to Chris and Geoff, one of the jobs Mark has been trying to get done for more than a week is checked off the list.
I’m afraid I bragged too soon about Ollie being healthy. When we got to Heather and Jed’s this morning we found out that Sam stayed home from school yesterday due to a cold and this morning everyone else in the household had runny noses and a cough. ‘Tis the season. But even though he wasn’t feeling quite up to par, Ollie was an excellent shopper today. He hung in there right up to the end. Tomorrow is Heather’s day off work, so hopefully he will get some good rest to help him fight off this cold.
Round Two . . . Tomorrow Mark has the first chemo infusion in this second round of treatment for his colon cancer. I worry. I anticipate all possible problems. And he just goes on as usual. He has always adhered to the philosophy of not worrying about something until it is a problem. You would think I might have adopted his same philosophy. But someone has to worry! He had no side effects during this first round of chemo until he was more than halfway through the regimen. This time the drugs are different, so we shall see if he is as resilient as he was the first time around. Hope with us that he is.
