Piping Down the Sun Part 13 - Lookin' at the World from a Wheelchair

Costco's got 'em. Little electric-power black jobs fronted by curiously small baskets. Discretely vroom-vroom.

Home Depot's are spiffier. Horns, orange flashing lights. Bright orange all around. But what's a Goddess doing at HD? The bruiser contractors filling their paychecks between jobs don't see damsels in distress that often. Which certainly explains the race to rescue. They've trained for this moment. They welcome the punctuation in their monotony. Backwards, forwards, here's the horn. Don't let me catch you going over five miles per. Never has a Goddess been treated so deferentially.

So today we will test out another retailer's form of alternate transportation. And mark another milestone as this Goddess goes horizontal.

Piping Down the Sun - Part 12 - Chemo-time Me-time

Waste not, want not - 0ne of the Suburban Goddess' 10 Commandments. And there's no bigger waste of goddesses' time than chemo-wrestling. Here are some creative ways to put a little more me-time into your chemo-time.

Think of it as art on a cart: A roving cosmetician tweaking your ever-changing skin and hair colors with 100% environmentally sound, chemically-free, 100% natural line of cosmetics. A little blush on the apples of your cheeks, a little swipe of gloss on your lips - a chemo-time twofer has you looking good until you're feeling better.

Same for a hair stylist. A snip here, the trim of an errant hair or two there. When you come up for air, you won't have to waste precious time in the shop. Wig test drive, anyone?

Goddesses are nothing if not head-to-toe. What better time for a mani-pedi and foot massage! Imagine looking down at 10 - or so - smiling pinkies, ready and willing to get you back on your feet in style.

Could chemo-day become the new spa-day?

Piping Down the Sun - Part 11 - Time

The blessing, the curse, the gift, the sentence, the enemy, the friend.

Everything but neutral. And hardly relative. The nights are too long, the time between naps, too short. The chemo-free days, too far away. Infusion dates, way to soon. There is never enough of it - often too much of it.

...Whether you are the patient or trying to be the patient one.

Piping Down the Sun Part 10 - Geezer Feet

Kidneys , check. Liver, check. Lungs, check. Heart, check. Ovaries, check. Pancreas, check. Gallbladder, check. Clotting factor, check. Bicuspids, check. Crows feet, che...who cares? Mental faculties, check. Roots, check.

While your sister is fighting for her life, your inventory uncovers...geezer feet! Worse yet, you respond. Like a drowning sailer to a liferaft, you race for Nordstrom Rack. One-point-five-hours later, you surface with not one but four pair of kitten-heeled sling-backs that will enable you - should you be able to find them in the bottom of your closet - to appear in public, Broadway toenail-less.

And what is this publicly-oriented opportunity? A FUNERAL????

Such an inconvenient truth. Your closet reveals three black dresses - seasonal options, the upcoming one not yet accounted for - with appropriate undergarments and overcoats. A blazer here, a racer-back there. You will be appropriately dressed when it comes.

But ready?

Piping Down the Sun - Part 9 - A Family Again

The Big C has penetrated our familial consciousness and is characteristically gobbling up our healthy cells. We've all had our colonoscopies - polyps extricated all around. But there are still kidneys, livers, gall bladders, pancreases, uteri and ovaries in some cases, prostates and testes in others, brains in still others. Some of us eat more vegetables, others drink more wine. And some exercise with more purpose. No one is not changed - no one is not excused - no one is alone.

Piping Down the Sun - Part 8 - Making it Up as You Go Along

There is a "we," sometimes just a "me." You've always been the leader - did you know following could be so harrowing? Each step counts - or is this lack of margin just of your making?

A close friend made even closer by your shared "sundown" advises: Take it one day at a time, one hour at a time, one conversation at a time, even one joke, TV commercial or passing thought at a time. Always spinning positive. Always adding energy. Always having a plan. Always having an answer for "what's next." Ever alert to change. One foot here, one foot there.

Piping Down the Sun - Part 7 - Running Away from Home

Bags packed, note written. Sister's testy bladder ensured we'd be back by dinner. There will be no running away this time. No insurance, no bags, no note. There's just she and me, stuck here.

This can't possibly be the living hell it seems.