Early in July I started the process of getting Xavier’s goalie mask wrap done. It is now late September and we do not have a design yet. Initially I was informed that it would take 10 days and I had not heard back for a very long time. We had to start the process over again in mid-August and the process has slowed down as the person responsible for on vacation for a while. I have not heard anything as of yet and still waiting as his mask has been made and we are just waiting for design and to have it wrapped. I contacted someone else to see if they could do it in a rush job as it was they told me 8-9 weeks. I would like to get this all started before I start treatment. Through out the summer I did not put much thought to it, it was not a big deal and was a small detail that I could take care of later. Now that I am going to start treatment, they are threads left hanging in the wind. There are a lot of things that are insignificant that I am trying to take care of prior to treatment starting. I need to write some scripts for the servers in the event that power goes out and they need to be rebooted and do not start up properly. I will write some code to do checks and update things as we go. Mel and I spent time purchasing door handles, door hinges, drawer pulls. A lot of mundane details that we still need to do in order to finish renovations. I think of all of these things that I need to wrap up prior. I want to make sure it is done prior to treatment as my mental processing speed and endurance slows down a lot when after treatment has started.
Right now I am starting to notice a lot of the little things that you take for granted sometimes. Since we have started dating Mel has always gotten excited by small things and expressed joy in it. I use to tease her about it and told her not to change and to keep up that youthful playfulness. I see this trait in our kids and I am glad that it is present with them. Xavier likes to be extremely organized and for some reason that defies logic, the two of them love to organize their room. The difference is that once Xavier has it organized he leaves it completely pristine and does not like change. Mel will want to change things up every now and then. Olivier gets excited by small things like the dinner choice for the evening, or purchasing a food item for grocery. He cherishes the small things. He wants to savour it and treats it like it is the last one in the world. In regards to the food Xavier knows that if it is something that we enjoy that we will just go buy more. During treatment they give you a lot of instructions that may seem minor, but they help out with things. It may seem that if you do not do it then it is not a big deal. An example of this was mouth wash throughout the day. I used to set a timer so that I made sure I was on track.
The trick is not to get consumed trying to manage every little thing myself. As a leader you need to delegate and make sure you see the overall picture of things. Our kids have been fantastic and have started increasing some of the things that they do. The dishes after dinner, cleaning up after themselves and making sure that they do not make more of a mess. I think that Xavier has started to do the laundry as well. The small things will pile up once treatment starts and it all falls on Mel. With one adult out of the rotation of chores, the slack needs to be picked up by someone. Previously it was our parents, but it was Covid so it was limited. This time the kids are taking care of the small things. Mel has started to delegate tasks through the house and have people slowly adjust. Normally I always do the dishes at the end of the night and we have the chores divided. Now instead of Mel doing it all, the kids are taking up slack. What Mel and I need to do now is right down all of the things that we do not want to do and have the kids do it. Olivier and Xavier can take turns cooking. I think it will be interesting to see what they come up. Since I will not have any taste buds I think this is a wonderful opportunity and learning experience for them. If the food is inedible I can pretend it is delicious and we can gaslight Mel.