Day 8 of house arrest…ugh.
I can’t tell you how depressing it is to be stuck, alone, in an empty house for 8 straight days. It hasn’t stopped raining for more than 5 minutes in 8 days. I haven’t seen the sun since October 9. It is freezing cold here (as in my joints are sore from the cold, my hands are like ice cubes, and I spend all day in bed, not out of depression, but simply because being outside the blankets makes my limbs shake). My clothes have been hanging up drying for over a week now, and they are still damp. My internet is so slow it took me nearly 2 hours and 50 tries to post this.
I finally made it down to civilization today…I ran out of food and called the PC office and begged them to let me go to the grocery store. I was down to my final bowl of oatmeal and one package of crackers. They consented, so I managed to escape for a few hours. I stopped by the post office and picked up a postcard my friend Allison sent me. On the front was a herd of cattle being shepherded by a cowboy on the back of a comically large rabbit. The caption read “Howdy from Nebraska…Punching cattle on a Jack Rabbit”. On the back Allison wrote, “What the hell is this…What does this even mean?” I sat down on the curb and laughed and laughed. It was the first time I have laughed out loud in too many days. If two girls from Nebraska don’t know what this postcard means, how is any one who receives it going to know? No wonder people from New York and Los Angeles ask me if we have electricity in Nebraska…
I’m still holding out the rain will stop and they will lift the confinement restriction in the next few days. I just want to go someplace, any place, where I can see the sun for a few minutes. It also wouldn’t hurt to eat a real meal, have a beer or two (or 6…whatever), and converse with another human being in person.
In the meantime I am going to put on two layers of clothing, socks, sweatshirt, gloves, possibly scarf, and crawl under the covers. A restless night’s sleep last night gives me a killer headache and droopy eyelids, so I bet I will drift off to sleep right away. I’ll dream of crispy pizza with extra cheese, chocolate milkshakes with whipped cream, my comfy, fluffy feather-bed, and long sunny afternoons…
They say when you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on.
This is what tying a knot looks like….
Praying the raining stops and the sun comes out. Hang in there!
It makes me sad to read this. We complain about the weather here, but we don’t realize how good we have it until we read about your situation. I hope your weather clears up soon, and that the sun’ll come out tomorrow, tomorrow. Know that we are thinking of you and miss you so much. Love you bunches.
I sent you a card two days ago…it will reach you in approximately two months.
Know that I love you and am thinking of you. And hang on to that knot!