himmiHERRgottKruziFIXsakramenthallelujah! Peter ran away again

Which is swearing but not being profane.

Sometimes I really believe in a sort of collective consciousness. As if you feel something is in the air, and do something you normally do not do. Like a sort of telepathy.

Today is a case in point. I normally do not check my e-mail after five in the evening and wait till the morning when I fire up the lap top. But tonite, I had the urge to look, and whaddaya know... from my old work-place.

From my eldest colleague. 'Peter is here and waiting for you (in the hotel).' Good Gawwd!!!! was my only reaction. And 'WHAAA????' Well... after thinking for a moment which lasted five minutes with the little panic button having been pressed in my mind and all that was going on was 'Think! Think! Think!' I called the nursing home to see if he'd been kicked out or run away. Although I couldn't imagine how he'd get to Graz all the way from Gamlitz. Insane.

So that had to be first. And I got a nurse's aide, who passed me on to the head nurse, who passed me on to Juliana, and they were driving me crazy with me asking, 'did he go missing?' and getting no answer.

Juliana is where the buck stops, but the director was in the background, I know his voice. So I told her I'd gotten the e-mail, and where he was, and why, and that our former colleague had alerted me. Who he was? 'Chief Receptionist'. 'Oh, you mean Front Office'. (Curse you, Bill Gates....)

D. kept his cool. And he wasn't taking their word at face value for who they were, and asked that I call him to confirm it was really them. Kudos to D. for doing that.

'What's he dressed in? Is he in his wheelchair?' (We have to remember the LAST time he tried this he was only wearing a johnny, but landed in a long labyrinth of the cellar, so it wasn't an odd question. Red silk pajamas, and yes in his wheelchair. It's friggin' cold here still.)

Juliana was hemming and hawing all over the place, and the director would never have been there at that time of the evening, and was calling the hotel and the police from the home while we were talking. It's embarassing when your patients go AWOL, but I told her not to worry, I know how Peter ticks.

Up to the last, he was convinced I would run over there and see him. It took another moment that lasted ten minutes. How would THAT look to others if I didn't? Cold, selfish, and uncaring. Except I knew. If I had walked in there, and it's an easy ten minute's walk away, it would have made everything much worse. He would have cried and ask me to let him stay with me overnight. Jeebus, just the thought makes me cringe, let alone the embarassment.

The po-lice came and got him to take the ambulance back to Gamlitz. D. said he sighed, and said, 'That it always has to end with the police and the ambulance', and shook his head.

Am counting my blessings or serendipity that D. was there.... because most of the people working there wouldn't know us, and that he has my e-mail address, and that he is very calm. (I was known as 'Flipper'.) The three of us worked many years together. D. was consternated. But is a very good guy.

All's well that ends well.... once again. So tell me why I'm not happy about any of this. Gaawwwd.... Just another day in the life, hey.