The right foot

Mom fell last night. I fell last week. Mom's right foot has a bone spur, is healing from a fracture, has had lymphedema. She's off balance.

My right foot has tendinitis. The doc says, "Oh, it's a nuisance, do your exercises."

Mom cries that the bone spur is "ruining her life."

I feel off-balance, trying to balance her life and her needs with mine. It's a dance of patience, compassion, and boundaries.

We cleaned the garden today. Mary, Jake, and I harvested red beans that Molly planted in the spring. We harvested four bags of red and gold potatoes. There are still carrots in the ground, some kale and collards and we pulled some green onions. Tomorrow I'll make a soup from assorted vegis leftover from our abundant garden.

Ben rolled up all the drip irrigation and then burned.

We raked all the squash bugs into a pile with the straw. Actually, we didn't see squash bugs, but we did a few days ago. Fifty or so having a squash bug party on a pumpkin. It was gross looking.

Then while we burned, wondering if the local fire officials were going to come ticket us for burning after Oct. 15, we realized the neighbors squash bugs could easily invade, even if we burned the whole garden to a crisp.