Countdown

I seem to be running out of topics for my blog at the same rate as my living space is shrinking. On my blog, I’m coming to the end of a ten-year tunnel and the dimensions of my world are closing in like the walls in Poe’s “The Pit and the Pendulum.” I haven’t written any Countdowns for over two months. It’s not that my life has gotten better, thus no need for a Countdown. Quite the opposite. My mental world is still as extensive as it’s always been, but my physical world is down to about 3200 square feet, pretty much the radius of a circle determined by my concentrator in the middle with my 32-foot oxygen tether. As my world narrows, my interests shrink. Favorite television shows can carry me only so far. Televised sports don’t excite me with Arizona teams stinking it up, and professional golf is taking its year-end vacation. Foods no longer tempt me. I’m not quite to the point where all items on a menu disgust me, but I’m moving in that direction. And now, with the Romaine lettuce scare, salads not only revolt me, they frighten me. Where am I, then, on my trip to midnight? Somewhere between 11:56 and 11:57.

Our Thanksgiving meal this year will be really simple: honey ham, potatoes au gratin, asparagus, soft rolls, and pumpkin pie with whipped cream. Sounds good and sounds really simple both in preparation and cleanup. That pretty much describes my life now—simple prep, simple cleanup.