Now would be a really good time for each and every one of you reading this to make sure that you have a good inventory of what you carry in your wallet, including the numbers to call if you need to cancel your credit cards, etc. It’s also a good time to edit out things you carry that you don’t need every day and that would be a pain to replace. Though I have such a list, when I turned to it on Friday because I’d lost my wallet, it was out of date.
How did I lose my wallet? Well, I took it out to pay a cab fare; the guy made a large mistake (in his favor) in making change, we ended up having quite a discussion about it. In the process, I must have forgotten that my wallet was in my lap and then not noticed when it fell into the street as I got out of the cab. Hours passed as I gave my presentation. When I was changing my clothes before driving home from Chicago, I couldn’t find my wallet. It was shortly thereafter, preparing to call and cancel all my credit cards, etc., that I discovered my inventory of phone numbers, etc. was incomplete.
So, if everyone could use my experience to update their personal safeguards, that would be a good thing. Did I mention that it was Friday the 13th?
This story has a happier ending than seems likely, as barely a half hour passed before the guy who found the wallet emailed saying he had it. He’d not only called our home number (as we discovered upon return), but tracked down my email address, so we were able to pick it up from him before we left the city. A miracle. Every single thing in the wallet was intact, including my stash of emergency money. How lucky is that?
In recognition of this good deed and in gratitude for the kindness of strangers, let us repay the universe by each of us taking advantage of this close call to get ourselves better documented and organized. If you haven’t backed up your hard drive lately, now would be a good time for that, too.
On the steroid tapering front, we’re considering we might have reduced too much too fast: the vertigo and balance problems are back, as is the constant thirst which had receded for a while. We’ll call Dr. Thoughtful’s office on Monday to check in, as we no longer recall either the likely source of it nor what to do about it. Among other things, too much water washes out one’s electrolytes, so bananas are on the diet these days, to try to keep my potassium up.
For a while, I found myself dwelling on the deficits lingering on after this strange brain surgery adventure. That is backwards thinking. What is most important here are all-too-possible deficits I don’t have and my extraordinary overall good fortune. There’s a list of deficits, and they’re frustrating, and they’re sometimes frightening. On the other hand, they’re pretty minor in the big picture, and with effort, every single one can be worked around.
I’m making progress on correcting the direction of my thinking. Otherwise, I’m still auditioning books for the course I’m teaching in the spring and need to decide soon so the book order can go in. Last minute nominations welcome.
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