Food for Dreaming

So...what sort of psychotic whacko has dreams about containers full of uranium hexaflouride gas? It was maybe a ten gallon plastic container, poorly wrapped for shipment in brown paper and packing tape. It wasn't mine--don't know who it belonged to--but I knew it would never make it in one piece, so I tore the wrappings off, in the process accidentally pushing a button that released a dose of the radioactive gas which I inhaled although I tried not to. Accepting that I might have taken in enough to cause lung cancer at some future point I, and someone I could not see who was in protective clothing, spent a lot of time and energy without much success trying to construct a container made of wood and plastic, much larger and sturdier than the wrapping paper someone had tried to use before.

Then I woke up.

My clock radio goes off at 6 and runs til 8 but I woke to silence having overslept both the BBC World News and an hour of Morning Edtion, I think because I was tossing and worrying all night long. Mom had another day of zero energy. They don't happen often (this was the third since I've been down here) but when they do it seems like she's ready to just give up. Usually, she not only eats right but insists on doing the cooking. These last couple of days she's only been interested in soup.

Last time this happened, I fixed some home-made sausage & peppers with a side of penne and a salad. I asked if she'd like a glass of wine to go with that and she said "Oh, that would be very nice," so we split a flinty little shiraz. She then asked if she could have seconds (of the entree not the wine) and I said "Of course." She then totally surprized me by accepting an offer of ice cream for dessert ("Well, if I'd known there was mint chocolate chip...").

I am amazed how many calories it takes to keep an old lady functioning.

This morning, before my (late) walk, I asked if she was feeling better and she said "Yes," but without a lot of enthusiasm. After I got home however, she chopped walnuts, mashed a banana and made banana bread, so I'm hoping things are better now for a while.

I'm going to take a nap before I eat my banana bread. In the meantime, if any of you heard a report this morning (Friday 2/5) on NPR (BBC or Morning Edition) about uranium hexaflouride, please let me know. I really hope that was just subliminal suggestion from the radio and not my own brain doing that.