10th
July 2012
Dear Cassi,
The most frustrating part
of my life has to be that small things that should never be an issue tend to be
a major production. Such has been the case with the dishes. On Sunday Pickles
said he had done no dishes for two days. I started them after he went to sleep
and, taking them twenty minutes at a run, was still washing by six in the
evening. I’ll grant that somewhere in there I slept, I cooked; I did homework,
and laundry. Still I had to run the wash twice and wash most of it by hand.
This left a bitter feeling
in my gut and so when I returned home from work I had no want for food and went
directly to bed. I awoke at three in the hot afternoon and a pile of dishes
already waited in the sink. It was the plastic containers I had put frozen food
in so that Pickles would stop disgracing my kitchen with his cooking.
At four thirty I made
smoothies. The hot California air had dried my throat and made me lethargic in
my movements. I started this meal with red wine and berries which I made into a
froth so thick it had to be eaten with a spoon. This revived Pickles and I some
and gave us strength.
The next serving was
simpler, just cantaloupe and coconut water. I cut and froze that cantaloupe
when it was fresh and sweet so that the smoothie was a hair away from the melon.
With this I felt new life. The frozen nectar of fruit gave me some relief from
the heat and so I set about the house work again.
My life is a grind but who’s
isn’t these days. In the end I have to understand that if I want to live in a
clean house it just has to be up to me. The fact that out of Pickles and I only
one works is irrelevant.
Stay strong, little
sister,
Richard Leland Neal
