THE RAIN, THE PARK AND OTHER THINGS

There’s a satirical expression, “The operation was successful but the patient died,” which is funny until it almost happens.  A while ago I went in for some minor surgery.  All went well and I came home the next day.  Then, due to a reaction to something or a combination of somethings, I found myself being hauled to the emergency room by DH and Beavis.  Things got kind of blurry after that.  Then I woke up in intensive care with:  an i.v. shunt in both hands, a blood pressure cuff on one arm, a catheter line taped to my thigh, a heart/blood oxygen monitor clamp on one finger and an oxygen line in my nose.  Beeping monitors went off every time I moved and every couple of hours a vampire came in and stole blood from my arm.  I felt like Gulliver waking up in Lilliput with a little hell thrown in.  When I finally got my hands free I discovered ekg stickers all over me.  'Did I have an ekg?" I asked.  "No," smiled my doctor. "We just like to put stickers all over people when they're out of it."

I stabilized over the next day and my surgeon told DH I could probably go home in the evening.  DH basically said he didn’t want me any more and they could just keep me.  By the next morning I was so crabby the hospital sent me home anyway.

 I’m feeling quite well now, and I’ve tried to behave myself during the last week or so.  But I finally got such a bad case of cabin fever…

…I escaped and went for a little walk this morning even though it was raining.

 To keep myself slowed down to a stroll I took my camera.

It’s just a short walk across the tracks to the park.

 The place was empty of people…

 …except for some hard-core runners and a few others out for a little fresh air.

 No sweaty university students on the basketball court.

 Nobody to feed picnic scraps to the squirrels.

 The drizzle and overcast skies muffled shadows and intensified colors.

The trees reveled in the rain.

 Everything in the park was bathed.

 A starling poked his bright yellow beak into the grass to stir up a little breakfast.

 

A breeze fluffed the feathers of a crow in the street.

 

Then, to make sure I didn’t stay out too long, 

my camera said its battery was dead.  So I had to go home.