Long Day's Journey into Night

I love my mother. When everyone around me looks at me like I'm an escapee from a TB ward, she waves them off and says "she's had that cough since she was a little girl..."

And I have. Every single time I get any sort of respiratory "thing," whether serious or trivial, the ultimately settles in my lungs and stays there for at least a couple of weeks, sometimes as long as month, gradually working itself out over time. And so it is that on the end of the Trip Bug, I have the traditional cough, something I have not had for a blissful 2 years. Which is OK because I am used to it, my mother is used to it. I know that it's not nearly as serious as it sounds and I also know that there is no medicine which will help break it up--in 66 years, I have tried 'em all, believe me!

But the down side, of course, is, first, that people look at you like you have the plague, and second, it's difficult to sleep when your body wants to turn your lungs inside out.

I took Tylenol PM last night, desperately needing some sleep and it worked. For 2 hrs. By 1 a.m., I was wide awake, but managed to get back to sleep until 3. This is becoming my new normal--sleep 2 hrs, then get up, go back to sleep for another 2 hrs and then be awake for the rest of the day.

It's not so bad when you have nothing to do for the day, but I had a full day ahead of me. In the morning I was going to my mother's to meet with her, her stepson, and her investment broker about the status of her account. I had hoped we could do this tomorrow, when I didn't have a show to review at night, but apparently this was the only day that would work. So I set off, armed with 100+ photos of the trip that I had printed for her, thinking we would have time to go through them all.

As I hit highway 37, the road that crosses the Delta, I hit really, really bad traffic as far as the eye could see, through all the vegetation.

I called my mother to let her know that it appeared I would do the 21 miles of 2-lane highway at 5 mph. (In fact, about 15 minutes later, it finally cleared and I got there quicker than I expected.)

Ed was there and I gave her the package of photos and she said she'd enjoy looking at them later (after I'd gone, which means she won't have a clue what she's seeing and I won't have the fun of reliving the trip with her through the photos).

We eventually had lunch and then took off for the broker's office, discovering when we got there that the office had moved years ago. My mother didn't remember the name of the company, only knew that her broker was named "David" and hadn't thought to bring any paperwork with her, so we drove back home again and called him. It turned out the office moved two years ago, but it was close to her house, so David came over and we went through her portfolio, I got some sort of an idea of what her financial situation is, we agreed to move some stuff around, and eventually David left.

I was already sleepy, but had to rush home hoping to get a nap before I had to go review a show.

Highway 37 was not crowded, but it's 21 miles without any place to pull over and it was such a horrible struggle to stay awake.

(NOTE TO SELF: Michael Connelly is great audio for driving; Dean Koonz not so much. Koonz uses rich language that I suspect is better suited to be experienced visually...It was putting me to sleep!)

It's about 25 miles from my mother's to the first McDonald's. I barely made it, but the Mocha Latte was just what the doctor ordered -- a jolt of sugar and a jolt of caffeine in a big cup filled with ice that kept me awake all the way home.

Coming home, I had an accident. I had pulled into the driveway and thought I had my foot firmly on the brake when I turned toward the passenger seat to disconnect the iPod and gather up all my garbage before turning off the air conditioner. Apparently my foot wasn't as "firmly" placed on the brake as I thought and I ran into the wooden structure that hides the garbage cans. I knocked over the structure and the garbage cans, but fortunately no damage to anything and no dent to the fender of the car.

I needed sleep.

Walt got home shortly after I did and I brought him up to date on my day (and the accident) and then settled into the recliner to get some sleep, which is when the cough, which the Mocha Latte had quieted, took hold and after about 30 minutes, I gave up getting a nap.

The show was OK. It apparently got rave reviews in New York, but I was lukewarm to it, and when it was over, I was very, very sleepy. So it's only 10:30, but I'm going to had off to sleep and hope that I can make it until 3 a.m. (because I know that there is little chance that I can sleep through the night!). I'll leave writing the review for when I wake up and can't get back to sleep again!