Saturday, and just back from Wagna....

Whewww... I wasn't sure D would come through, but she did drive me down there. And back...

Actually, it was very nice of her. We left just before 3 pm. It is now 7 pm, the bells went off at all the churches nearby, and 'the Preacher' across the way will probably start singing Baptist hymns. Am hoping for 'Precious Hands'.... even HE can't completely ruin it.....

On the way down... I was a nervous wreck, not knowing what I would find there. So as usual, when I am nervous, I got into motor-mouth phase, and being 'entertaining', just idjit stories from my long-ago youth. Because I didn't know what I was going to see or how I would react....

Getting in was problematic. Cut-backs wherever you look, and no one in the reception area. And D said, I'll go look for a portier, and then I saw it.

They have a telly-phone, and if no one is on duty, you pick it up and get connected to 'someone'.... Like talking to 'God', and by gawwd, she's a woman. It went something like this:

'Yes?'

'My name is B, and I am in the reception area.'

'Are you hurt?'

'Nooooo... I am here to visit someone, and wish to know what room he is in.'

'Are you a relation?'

'I am his (big gulp and grimace,) Lebensgefährte.'

'Is he 71?'

'His date of birth is March 23rd, 1939. But I don't know his blood type or RH factor....'

(through clenched teeth...)

'He's in the men's ward on the second floor, room 311.'

'Thank you... ' (God... whoever you are....)

And D. was looking on ASTOUNDED, only hearing my end of the exchange, and I was grimacing, and shaking my head, and mouthing 'WHAA?' Because there were lots of long pauses there....

How do they RUN that place, hey? It's the province and all, but as Colbert says, 'Come ON!...'

Ok, that was the exciting stuff, all right?

Room 311 wasn't a single. But the people in there... Well, it's enough to depress anyone into the middle of the next election cycle. Yeah it is bad. And the patient next to him looks like he won't make it till the middle of next week, it is not pretty. He's on the tubes and shit. And Peter was being delusional, and scaring me to death.... except.... he isn't doing well AT-all...

No, Preciousses... he isn't. But a bit better than last time I saw him in Gamlitz, except----that isn't saying much. A bit. And cogent isn't really a word I can use here. He has loopholes in his cognition.

He looked scared, and a bit lost. That hurt me to see, but my eyes didn't sweat, at least. I held his hand for a while, and got some 'looks' from other visitors, but thought, 'Well damn you to Hell, and sorry I'm scaring the horses. I waited long enough to get there for cripes sake....'

A relief? No, not really. D was very nice. We did a tag-team approach without having said a word. It only took a look. After a bit as a double, I said, 'You know what, Peter? I couldn't smoke in the car, so I am going to step out and have a snigarette.' And when I came back, she said, 'Oh, I forgot something, just have to step out', so we both had some private time, and not wear him out. That was nice, that we were in sync.

We got kicked out of the room for a while, because the nurses were gonna 'do stuff' to the patients in there... that's standard. It was in front of the nurses station, and D. pointed to an 'in-box' behind the window, and said, 'Look'. Two packages of Tamiflu 20 mg. Donald Rumsfeld makes it to the boonies. In Austria, no less. He's a major shareholder.

So I asked, 'Do you think they are giving him that?'

She said, 'I don't know. Now show me where you go out to smoke on the balcony.'

Soooo... we did, and I did, and we had some earnest discussion, and I expressed how grateful I was. And we admired the scenery for a bit, it really is beautiful down there... Meanwhile the guy next to him was having a seizure of some sort, so it took much longer than I had expected.

So we went in as double, and said good-bye, he had gotten his evening meal, he said 'it was awful', and we said we were glad we hadn't raided the serving trolleys, and he was very needy. 'Will you call?' 'Of course I will.' 'Will you come visit me?' 'Of course I will, how could you doubt that?'

That seemed to calm him for the time being....

Herrgottnochmal...

On the way home, I had a very good discussion with D. About families, and all the quirks and tragedies that have hit us over the past few decades... It was a very calm thing, clearing up differences, and, I think positive.

So.... as Nestroy once said... 'First it comes differently... and secondly... than you think.'

That tickles me to this day. And goes back to the 1700's, I believe...

All I can think of right now is: you never know anything about anything. And the results can be satisfactory in spite of it.

Happy? Oh no, can't be. But not the horror I expected.... for now. Except it won't be long.