A Thursday These Days

9:30 p.m.
              Just opened a bottle of Soliera Tempranillo, a collapso from the coop, so I'd better get on with this!

              I wakened up about six, but got back to sleep again and had a dream about this guy I know. Well, it wasn't really about him since he was already dead in the dream. I was chatting to his old man and such. Hope the bugger is still alive!
              I started meditating at the back of eight and then at just before half nine I went into the great granny's room and gave her a pill. You can't eat and for half an hour afterwards. She has to wait for the carer to come in and get her dressed, but we were expecting the district nurse before that.
              So I'm meditating here in the kitchen when the district nurse comes in. We discuss what might have to be done about the urine sample. We don't really know because you always come into the tail end of something and have to piece it together from great granny's sometimes confused recollections. But the district nurse knows the script and gets a sample as well as taking some blood, known as fast blood. This is to check sugar.
               When the carer gets in, I disappear upstairs and meditate there till she goes away again. She shouts a bye bye as she goes and then I come back to the kitchen and chat to the great granny, wash and put away the breakfast dishes. The gg zimmers about looking for something we couldn't find earlier, and finds it.
                 Then everything starts to calm down.
                  I meditate most of the time till lunchtime, but I have the netbook here and I'm on that sometimes trying to join discussion threads in the ridiculous notion that this way someone might find out about my ebooks. I will pack this in soon since I don't expect to see any money from this endeavour at all, and I'm just going through the motions. Soon, it will be an obvious waste of time. I don't really care, but I am the skintest evil bourgeois I know and would like to make some money for the kiddo. So she doesn't have to work. Some hope.
                  The carer is late at lunchtime, but when she shows up, I go upstairs again. By this time I might have meditated for about four hours. The great granny crashes out a lot.
                   When the carer goes away, I re-appear and wash the dishes, etc. I meditate till about three and then go outside to do a tai chi set. That's the first time I've been outside since I bought the cheap Independent compilation when I got up.
                     But at half four I go for a jog down towards Overton. This is the worst place to jog in. Makes me appreciate the beautiful, wonderful city. But since I've been losing weight and running up and down the path from the door to the gate - lots of stopping and starting - I've got a wee bit fitter. The jog takes me 35 minutes and I was expecting 40. I was very anxious free on this run, and really enjoyed it.
                     When I got back, I had a word with the carer - the really good thing about being here is the people. Folk in Edinburgh, apart from the working class folk, are mainly shits. These are wonderful, caring, funny people.
                       Then I had half an hour in the bath. I still hadn't eaten anything since breakfast and had a piece of bread with a bit of tomato then.
                        The great granny was in a good mood after her dinner. Her daughter and grand daughter are the same. These folk like their grub! We have wee jokes.
                          Then she starts crashing out again, and I meditate. But I did read a wee bit of the Dalai Lama book, but I'm meditating all I can. It's odd because you can't do the hour and a half on your ownio. You have to attend and watch out.
                           The last carer shows up about half seven and I go to the off-license, which is just across the road. The wummin behind the till is being funny. Nobody in that job is funny in the beautiful, wonderful city. Then I sit here, meditate, chat, and meditate, and the great granny is a bit knackered now and goes to bed at nine. Last night she stayed up till about half ten. I open the wine....
                            I know why I am here. I was going to wallow in the bliss, but I lack compassion and have to do the mahamudra meditations, with eyes open. So I am fortunate to be here. Fortunate indeed. Oh, what a fortunate creature, I am, I am! What a fortunate creature I am!!
                            What happens to the sweetie eating flatheids who cannot sit, Jack? They all go to hell, Hotboy. They all go to hell!