Pondering a random act

I've spent my day on the sofa, reading.  I'm not sick, just lazy.  I woke up today with the nominal intention of going for a hike, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it.  Back out there in the heat with the ticks?  And the poison ivy?  The couch is so much more appealing.

It's been a long time since I had a lazy day at home.  I'm not sure how long.  I can't remember it, at any rate.  Today felt nice.  I had a cat on my lap at most times, and a book by an author I hadn't read before in my hands.  My itchy, itchy hands.

What I thought was a bug bite progressed into something that looked a lot like poison ivy.  And then other patches started showing up here and there.  I actually put some topical anesthetic on the worst bits for some temporary relief today.  I'm lucky that I don't generally have a bad reaction to either bug bites or poison ivy.  So, while it is covering more and more of my skin, it isn't driving me insane, and it isn't big and blistery.  Yet.

If it IS bugs, they are voracious.

I suspect that something of mine came into contact with poison ivy, and then later that thing came into contact with my arms.  (And belly, so far.)  Likely the dog, the horse, or some of my hiking gear.  Since I'm not sure what exactly did it, the affected item is now just lurking there in my environment, waiting to be touched again.  I'm pretty sure I didn't have direct contact with poison ivy - otherwise the rash would have been more intense and faster rising.

Anyway, that's been my day.  Slouching about, reclining, reading, and itching.

While checking my list of blogs which I like to read, I find that I wish to perform a random act of kindness (RAOK).  The thing is, it's a really expensive RAOK.  $3500 worth.  I've only performed RAOKs up to $500 before.  And I'm not sure that this RAOK is really in the blogger's best interest.  She is disabled and living in subsidized housing, but the place isn't meeting her needs.  Mostly, it's the problem with smokers - she has a severe reaction to smoke.  The place is supposed to be smoke free but that hasn't stopped anyone.

So, there is an RV near her on sale for $3500.  She and her (also disabled) husband would like to buy it and live in there instead of the apartment, but they have no money to make the purchase.  I could solve that problem.  I wonder about the implications, though.  She loves to garden, and she wouldn't have a garden anymore.  She is constantly ill - how hard would life be while sick in an RV?  If they had plumbing problems while she were in the grip of an episode, it would be a nightmare.  I also don't know if living in an RV would fulfill residency requirements, which I'm pretty sure she needs to get the lifesaving medications she receives.

While it would get her away from a toxic environment, I think it would make her life harder in other ways.  And it's a lot of money.  And she doesn't know me from Adam.  So I guess I'm just thinking.

So if your life changed suddenly, what would you do?

Something bit me while I was sleeping last night and left me with a 3" rash on my arm.  So that was fun.  And also itchy.

On an unrelated note, I got to thinking about life, and what happens when it changes without your permission.  Generally speaking I'm going to say this is something most people don't welcome.  The unexpected changes seldom seem to be something good, like "I was a confirmed bachelor but I fell in love and now I'm so happy!" or "I somehow won a million dollars!"  They seem to be things like "I have cancer and about a year to do anything else I want to do with my life" or "My partner left me; now what?"

Observing my friends who have had radical life changes enacted upon them (for instance spouse divorces them, or dies) they have all seemed to carry on.  They have adjusted their lives to deal with loss, but their lives are very similar.  Same job, same house, same friends.  After a mourning period, of course.  But basically they keep a stiff upper lip and stay the course.

I don't think that would be me.  A) I am terrible at the stiff upper lip.  I'm a cryer.  I would cry, and carry on, and walk my dog in the rain, and generally drink a lot of beer and feel sorry for myself.  B) When one big thing in my life changes, I tend to reevaluate all of the other things.  Let's say my house burned down.  My first act would not be to find somebody to build a new house.  I'm thinking my first act would be to consider whether or not I really want to live "here" anymore.  Perhaps the house burning down is a convenient entree to moving to somewhere with a better climate.

And now that I'm thinking about it, there are probably other ways to deal with big change.  Probably if I had studied psychology rather than physics I wouldn't have to work these things out from first principles.  But then, I probably also wouldn't be aware of the concept of working things out from first principles.  And then where would I be?