Last Wednesday was bowling night, as it is every Wednesday, and M and I were out there once again, hitting the lanes. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it, but a couple of the bowlers from his team decided to take the summer off, so I’m actually bowling this “season” in addition to helping M.
Since this was the week of July 4th, all the other bowlers on our team were on vacation this week, so M and I were the only ones there to actually post a score for our team – the others were planning to come in and “post bowl” over the weekend. It made the evening go A LOT faster, but it also meant that M and I were up to bowl much more quickly, and I had to pay attention and make sure he was ready and had the right ball and was at the right lane at the right time.
And, of course, EVERY SINGLE TIME, I have to remind him that he gets two tries to knock all the pins down. Every. Single. Time. I ought to just record myself saying “Look, here comes your ball back. You get another turn. Go back and get those last two pins.” And then I could just play it for him. A woman on the team we were playing against watched M and I interacting for a while and then she said to me, “You aren’t just having to bowl for yourself, you’re having to pay attention and bowl for him, too, aren’t you?”
Yep.
This weekend, M was happy because one of his favorite shows, The Incredible Dr. Pol, had a marathon going on. It was great, because it kept him occupied while I tried to get some things done around the house. The only bad thing about it was, the ASPCA has a new heart-wrenching commercial out to elicit donations and it hit M right in his newly-found tender heart.
Oh my goodness! The tears! The angst! Even if you haven’t seen these commercials yet, I’m sure you remember the ones from a few years ago with Sarah McLaughlan singing “In the Arms of the Angel.” They’re designed to tug at your heartstrings and to get you to open up your wallets. M was determined that we were going to save all those dogs and cats RIGHT THAT MINUTE!!
Keep in mind, he’s talking to the person that wants to adopt EVERY SINGLE Fox8 “Pet of the Week” that’s featured on the evening news and I’ve had to block certain people from my social media feed because they’re always showing adoptable dogs. I want to adopt every single one of them. Every. Single. One.
Yes, I have a problem.
So, when M is advocating for us to run out and care for all the dogs and cats in the world . . . and he’s saying it to the person with the softest heart for animals . . . and I have to be the one to say no?!?!?
This took some MAJOR adulting, that’s all I can say. I never dreamed being a caretaker was going to call for this kind of fortitude!
M decided to cap off our weekend this (Monday) morning by waking up in a mood. A very, very dark mood. I don’t know what prompted this, but he was a real bear this morning. He stomped into my room as I was drying my hair (I probably had about 20 minutes before it was time for us to leave the house) and he glared at me. I didn’t know what was going on, so I turned off the dryer and looked at him.
“Come on, we’ve got to go!” was his only comment, as he stomped back out of the room.
No, it wasn’t time to go. But somebody had a bee in his bonnet, thinking that we were late and that we needed to be in the car RIGHT THAT MINUTE.
It didn’t matter that I explained the time and that we didn’t need to leave the house for another 20 minutes. I even gave him a glass of water to drink, thinking he might be dehydrated and THAT was causing this unpleasantness.
The bad mood and general jerkiness continued until we were about a mile from the daycare center. All of the sudden, he was weepy and apologizing, saying he didn’t know why he had acted that way.
Sigh. I know he can’t help it. I know he doesn’t mean it. But it sure starts my day (not to mention my week) off in a crappy way.