{"id":9693,"date":"2012-04-10T11:37:36","date_gmt":"2012-04-10T18:37:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/ClaireWolfe\/?p=9693"},"modified":"2012-04-10T11:37:36","modified_gmt":"2012-04-10T18:37:36","slug":"spring-sickness-and-home-improvement-therapy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/2012\/04\/10\/spring-sickness-and-home-improvement-therapy\/","title":{"rendered":"Spring, sickness, andhome-improvement therapy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saturday I learned that one of my dearest friends has inoperable pancreatic cancer. Even in this day of improving cancer treatments, the odds on that particular type are … well, better than the odds of winning MegaMillions, but worse than almost every other type of cancer.<\/p>\n

On the good side, she’s got a partner who loves her and is capable of taking care of her. She’s also got one of the world’s great daughters, who flew thousands of miles to be here as soon as she heard.<\/p>\n

But all things considered, that’s not much of a good side.<\/p>\n

It occurs to me that among the many, many hells of having cancer is being forced to deal with friends who are well-meaning but don’t know whether to give you space or smother you with love, offers of help, casseroles, egregious advice on alternative therapies, and weeping.<\/p>\n

—–<\/p>\n

Saturday I was angry-numb. Sunday, too. No Easter rebirth in these parts. Angry about J’s cancer. Angry at feeling unable to help. Then angry at myself for being so self-centered when my friend, and not my own feelings, should be the focus.<\/p>\n

Sunday evening I did something I never do — drowned my sorrows in not one but two<\/i> hefty bloody Marys. (I’m usually stupid enough after one drink.) Then I called another friend of mine (and J’s), a medical person who has a talent for bringing calm and good sense to bad situations.<\/p>\n

It helped.<\/p>\n

—–<\/p>\n

The weather, usually bleak this time of year, decided to be obscenely cheerful. So I went outside, took a claw hammer, and began ripping tatty old fiberboard shingles off the walls to uncover the cool 106-year-old tongue-and-groove wood beneath.<\/p>\n

That helped, too. <\/p>\n

(Oh yeah, and for you who recall my earlier posts on the topic of siding, it also helped that the junky shingles getting flung into a heap at the fenceline appear to be something cardboardish and not, I am blessedly assured, asbestos.)<\/p>\n

Doesn’t look very impressive now, but you just wait until I’ve painted the walls and trimmed the windows and corners with cedar. Meantime, it may look like heck, but deconstruction is doing my mood a world of good.<\/p>\n

\"Side<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Saturday I learned that one of my dearest friends has inoperable pancreatic cancer. Even in this day of improving cancer treatments, the odds on that particular type are … well, better than the odds of winning MegaMillions, but worse than almost every other type of cancer. On the good side, she’s got a partner who loves her and is capable of taking care of her. She’s also got one of the world’s great daughters, who flew thousands of miles to be here as soon as she heard. But all things considered, that’s not much of a good side. It occurs…<\/p>\n

Continue readingSpring, sickness, andhome-improvement therapy<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,14,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9693","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health-and-science","category-home-improvement","category-mind-and-spirit","ratio-natural","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9693","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9693"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9693\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9693"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9693"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.clairewolfe.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9693"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}