WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU?

       It's an absolutely gorgeous day, and the shelter residents are taking advantage of it. We didn't have a huge crowd at lunch. We served pizza and fries, with chocolate candies on the side. It was killer. Tonight they'll get fried chicken, cabbage and scalloped potatoes.
       About mid-morning, Doug told Mr. A. and me that Gatekeeper had called to say she thinks our wheelchair resident has MRSA (staph infection)—highly contagious and sometimes deadly. She reportedly has "sores" on her body. I think this diagnosis came from another resident. RUMOR in that place is alive and well. Shortly after lunch, we observed the wheelchair zooming down the street behind the shelter. She had better places to be.
       My back hurts. It's come down to getting to know a surgeon a lot better than I'd like. Meanwhile, I deal with it, and around 11, Doug gave me a serious look and said, "What's wrong with you?" So I told him my back hurt and, yes, I had taken a pain pill.
      "Take another half of one," he advised. So I did. About half an hour later, Miss Joy was much happier, but still in pain. We do what we can with what we have.
       In late morning  the Christians brought their tons of loaves. I haven't seen them in months, but they've been there. One of their cohorts was coming on Tuesdays with a load of doughnuts, but Miss Lillian was not nice to her! She'd take the doughnuts only because to refuse them might cut off all contributions from that source, but she'd snap at the doughnut lady, "We don't need those things!"
       So I learned today that the doughnut lady brings her goodies in large aluminum baking pans. All she asks of Miss Lillian is that the pans be returned the following week, so they can be used again. Now hear this: Lillian was giving the lady dirty burned pans. The lady told Doug that if Lillian did that again, she'd yank her off the back porch and set her straight. Then she decided to just bring the doughnuts on a day when Miss Lillian isn't there.
       Today was the day. I was busy making PBJs when Doug dashed past me with a handful of clean pans, heading toward the back door. The exchange was about to take place. Being the prankster he is, Doug stopped at my table and smeared some peanut butter on two of the pans. Then I heard him tell the lady, "These are clean. All you need to do is rub a little soap on there."
       It was a fine joke for both of them, and I'm sorry I didn't get in on it earlier.
       We had no children with us today, and the diners were fairly quiet. That pretty lady I gave the bunnies to at Easter had a heart attack last week, and she's in hospital now. These things give one pause, and I'm getting a lot more pause lately than I'd like.
       Have a wonderful week, NO pause, and no pain.