Uncorked

One of Lizard's favorite quotes is frequently uttered in admiration of someone else's accomplishment. When Disturbed covered the famous Simon & Garfunkle "Sounds of Silence", Lizard excitedly exclaimed (after listening to the song about eight consecutive times!), "Boy, did they uncork a big one!" I think that was the first time he'd described anything like that to me. I've always thought it's such a cute way of saying, "Wow!"

Well, now Lizard has uncorked a big one of his own. I wasn't sure we'd ever again get to travel more than about four hours. Being in a (tiny) moving vehicle is just too difficult for him. He experiences demoralizing tremors, anxiety and restless legs. As well as a few other unmentionable Parkinson's symptoms.

We wanted to do something special for our 20th anniversary, and I was looking for things within about a three-hour radius. When I discovered the public open house for the Farmington (New Mexico) Temple would be conducted right after our porcelain anniversary (yes, what a strange emoji for such a big accomplishment, right?!?), I asked Lizard how he would feel about a seven-hour drive, which we both knew probably meant about 12 hours for us. He was game. He knew it would be rough, but he wanted me to be able to go.

We made arrangements about six weeks in advance, and his anxiety got the best of him the night before we were to leave. He was up. ALL night. Which means I was up all night. And I would be the one doing all the driving...

The trip to Durango, where we would home base for three nights, took 11 hours. Not as bad as I expected, but it was incredibly hard on Lizard. We drove the hour to Farmington the next day, then the hour back, and because he'd had next to no recovery time, that short jaunt was difficult for him, too. The heat didn't help much. We took the next day as a rest day. He actually told me he wouldn't mind staying in the hotel all day. He didn't even want to go to the pool or hot tub.

I managed to drag him downtown for a quickie 20-minute walk. We hit his favorite Durango bike shop and the only remaining quilt shop. He got just about the best souvenir ever (a unique bike bag) (his favorite treat of all time is a Snickers), and he got pretty excited about quilting again because of a few quilts on display in the quilt shop.

He slept through the night that night, and the trip home took nine hours! We did it! We successfully uncorked a big one!!! And we both slept through the night back at home. Just that one night. But, man, we did it!

I decided not to take my laptop this trip. I decided I'd use my paper journal instead. I knew I'd probably have my hands full, be too tired to fire up the computer each night, and I didn't want to have to tote it around. I had not used my paper journal since I retired last year. It was so eye-opening to re-read what I wrote a year ago...

"I fired off bug bombs in the basement (because Lizard thinks the entire house is infested; it's not) before we left to spend the weekend with Lizard's mom. Lizard wanted to put up a sign to warn the *people* living down there. He thinks we have scores of homeless people squatting in our house, not paying any rent. I'd been telling him for three months the only way anyone can get in our house is if they come in under the front door, so they must be made of air. Typically, he blows them out the window like candles or tries to spray water on them. This time, I told him I want to poison the intruders. He thought about that for a while, then said, 'That's probably a good idea.' I couldn't help but giggle."

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