Sunday 12 February 2017

"How's he coping with the heat?"

For once I was the one asking the question. It is usually other people asking me how the Senior Cat is coping with the heat.
The Senior Cat is frustrated thank you very much. He's tired because he does not sleep well in the hot weather but he also hates leaving the air conditioning running as he doesn't like a breeze blowing on him while he is trying to sleep. But, he is a sensible sort of cat. He stays inside. He drinks a lot. He reads. He watches video clips about gardening, woodwork, and conjuring on his i-pad...and uses up so much of our download quota for the month so that I have to quietly  buy some more. (Middle Cat says "change the plan" but I know that we don't really need to. He will be back outside when it cools down. He is an outdoor sort of cat. I don't watch many videos on the internet. My work comes and goes as documents.) He still has to do something about the bookshelves and we didn't go through his wardrobe and toss out any more clothing with holes in it but never mind.
But there are other people I know who are not like the Senior Cat. They don't "do the internet". They don't read. They don't really have hobbies of any sort - unless watching sport on television is a hobby.
There is one person of particular concern to me at present. His wife is concerned. He has never been "a reader". He hasn't read a book since he left school half a century ago. His hobbies, if he has any, are watching sport on television and riding his motorbike. Even those two things have been curtailed of late. He had surgery for a  brain tumour. The outcome was good,  better than anyone hoped, but he has found he can't tolerate watching too much television yet and he has been told he can't ride  his motorbike until later in the year.
His wife, a patient woman if ever there was one, sighed. It was a sound of pure and utter frustration.
     "If only he had some hobbies....something other than keeping the place so well maintained. I know I'm lucky. Things get done. I never have to ask. He just does them but sometimes I wish they didn't get done, that he made things out in the shed or played chess or the trumpet or something. He's actually bored and that's making him irritable. I just want him to do something."
I wondered if he had enough energy to do anything but I also knew what she meant.
"Has he ever been fishing?" I asked. It seemed like a suitably mindless occupation for him. He could go and sit on the jetty at the nearest beach for a few hours when it cools down a bit tomorrow.
She looked at me, whipped out her mobile phone, pressed a few keys. Someone answered.
"P, it's J....you said you N was going fishing tomorrow....yes, I was wondering..."
She gave me a thumb up. Men can go fishing all day without needing to talk to each other. They can just sit there. At least it will get him out of the house for a bit if he agrees to go.
 

2 comments:

Jodiebodie said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jodiebodie said...

Audio books? Free from the library. Easier, less energy than reading words on a page. Can be perceived more as storytelling than actual reading if the thought of "reading" feels laborious.

Podcasts? Easily downloaded to mobile phone or mp3 player. ABC and BBC have many interesting and free podcasts.