Well, currently sitting in my garage because it’s cooler than the front porch right now and I don’t wanna be inside. I just let the chickens out so that they could feel the grass between their toes… and eat all the ticks. Today is one of those days that I’m willing to risk having to deal with death so that the chickens can enjoy being chickens. (when you live in the woods… there are creatures that rather enjoy eating chicken for dinner… hopefully not tonight, though!) Yup, today I’m just going with the flow. It’s kind of what I’ve been doing for the last week or two… which has been both good and… well… aggravating on some fronts.
Independence Day was fantastic. A friend and I had a wonderfully Vermonty 4th of July with parades (well… a parade), swimming holes, creamies, grilled burgers, macaroni salad, homemade key lime pie (not my home), fireworks and all! It kinda sucked getting a flat tire on the way down to the fireworks… and having the wheel decide it didn’t wanna come off for a bit even though the lug nuts were on the asphalt… but the spare made it on and we made it in time to watch shit explode! Personally, I love the fact that we both sorta rolled with it. We tried something with the tire… didn’t work… I tried it again! Oh hey, my AAA is non-existent…?… let’s try yours! Once we actually got to the point that a tow truck was coming, I just started to kick one side of the tire and it popped off! So we canceled the wrecker, threw on the full size spare (thank God… or something… that it was full size), drove to the town just south of the parking lot we were in, and enjoyed the rest of the evening! Rolling with it!… until it cost me $303 to throw 4 old tires on the Jeep and to replace the sensor that the flat tire destroyed. (Actually still rolling with it at that point… just reluctantly)
A couple of days later, Saturday, I woke up with tears puddled up on my eyeballs and lids. Now… I just need to say… this was one of the stranger “Widower” experiences I have had. I guess it isn’t really all that strange, but it hasn’t happened to me much… if at all… until Saturday. Oh, I’ve woken up and then started crying… but this was different. There was accumulation of salty water on my closed eye lids! When I moved my head I could feel the streams roll over my cheeks into my beard and ears.
I don’t really remember what the dream was about, it wasn’t anything serious or big, but Kateri was in it… both of us were… together. The odd part for me was that I was sorta watching this dream as a third person. There wasn’t a big event happening or anything… it wasn’t like it was our wedding… Darren2 and Kateri were for the most part just going about their lives. It was the fact that I was witnessing these two people just plugging away… and it crushed me. Neither one of them had any idea of what direction their life was gonna take… they had no idea of the pain that they both would face. The physical, psychological, and emotional pain that cancer was gonna cause Kateri… and the pain of having to live a life I (he… Darren2) didn’t plan on… nor care as much for. Seeing Darren2 and Kateri happy without the big pile of poop… before the big pile of poop plopped down… just sorta crushed me in my dream… which is something I guess can make you cry while your asleep.
And now!… I’m gonna go do something else… where there’s less mosquitos! (I feel like mosquitos should stay out of garages! Little bastards.)
Widower Notes n Thoughts:
- The whole widower experience has this loneliness thing attached to it all the time… it’s just there… hanging with me.
- I found this card from Kateri yesterday as I was making two stands in the garage. It was in the coffee table that Trilla had given us eons ago. It didn’t hit me hard when I found it… I wasn’t emotionally floored or anything… it just kinda made me feel good. It felt nice to see her handwriting and to think about what was happening at that time (there was a reference because she always dated notes and cards). It was comforting. It was good to feel the love I have for Kateri take the lead… instead of the sorrow that comes along when you aren’t able to tell someone you love them because the world had other ideas.
- I feel like I just need to keep going… keep moving… I haven’t been doing that. I’ve been doing what needs to get done and that’s about it. There’s this lack of motivation which I think is feeding into the whole “not feeling so great” all the time. I’m thinking it’s still part of the whole overwhelming aspect of this life of one.
- I’m pretty sure I would be a good recluse… who welcomes visitors.
- I wish I didn’t love my house or have so many attachments to it. I would sell it in a heartbeat, load up the Jeep, and just start driving. That’s the challenge with living in a cute little schoolhouse as a widower… there’s no way I would ever be able to buy something like this on my own… so I’m not giving it up!… which means no loading up the Jeep… yet. (Hmmm, I wonder if I have lost it in the noggin enough that I would take Lil’ Bitch with me on a 6 month long road trip…? Just me and my chicken!)
- I bought a new phone!… and miss using my old one.
- Wow… this seems like a very Eeyore… ish post! Besides being somewhat overwhelmed, somewhat numb, and just kinda blah… life is actually pretty decent.
- FYI… I can hear my chickens pecking at the paint on the side of my garage. Awe… I’ve got smrt chickens!
6 thoughts on “Widower Day 2.78.443… The Fourth… Flat Tires… and a card.”
Jessica Brown
Thinking of you! and the chicken. I have room if you need to house them. 6 months on the road I am worried you would get hungry and eggs would not be enough! AND , you do have the coolest house in town. So, i guess your not moving anytime soon. Keep staying strong and blogging.
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Maggie
Darren, road trips are cool and with a chicken maybe cooler. But that old money thing would keep rearing its ugly head. Maybe take some short trips. I love Vermont. I almost took a job in Rutland once upon a time. Lots of orchards there. And pumpkins in the fall. I always wanted to go to the Trapp Family lodge in Stowe, too. Maybe I will make it back in the fall — I need a new leaf peeper t-shirt ( I am such a tourist!) Just keep on blogging. We are all here…
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Darren Lidstrom
You could run down the mountain singing “The hills are alive”!
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Maggie
I could, then someone would lock me up!
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kitdonnelly
Hey Darren. I don’t usually post on your blog, but have been reading along through this journey of yours. Even though I haven’t lost a spouse and at this point in my life I won’t have that life long love to lose, these words of yours have been so helpful to me on my particular journey.
I just wanted to share a story I heard on a podcast recently about a young woman that was diagnosed with leukemia. She spent four years in a hospital and amazingly enough she was given a cancer free diagnosis when she was like 27 years old. She said that when she heard that news, that is when the struggle began because she had identified with her illness, had made her community around her illness, and even created a blog where she was interacting digitally with people. Her only thought when she got out “in the real” world was to get in her car and drive. Maybe forever or at least until things made sense. She ended up taking that road trip, but she decided to visit all the significant people that she had communicated with on her blog and she met them and got their stories. She did this for a while before she decided she could settle into a home. Anyway, it certainly was more complex than I am making it here but I could so relate to this and I thought I would pass it along.
And I also wanted to say, if you ever want to road trip to cape may, nj (it’s just a little further south of atlantic city!), I would love to put you up. It’s a much better jersey shore experience than atlantic city!
And as a pss….thanks for putting your heart out there in such a vulnerable way. The world would be so much better off with people like you.
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Darren Lidstrom
Oh my gosh Kit… thank you. That was perfect! (and I’m 100% positive that Cape May would be a little nicer than Atlantic City… plus I’d get to catch up with you!)
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