This post appears on Saturday, September 12. An ordinary Saturday for most folks.

For me? This Saturday and tomorrow, Sunday, involves a marriage ceremony then 500 miles. Eh what?

I’ll begin with the mileage: My beloved spouse has been with his mother trying to care for her as she recovers from a broken vertebra in her spine.

I have to be honest, caregiving is very difficult for my beloved spouse. His mother is getting better, and with that, she is becoming, let’s say, “more challenging.”

The effects of the lingering damage to my spouse’s limbic system due to the detrimental and permanent effects of that awful three-year illness that he had cause his cortisol levels to be extreme. With that, his emotions become fragile. The “fight-or-flight” response that cortisol causes builds up due to a combination of stress that caregiving causes. He reached a breaking point on Wednesday night and called me in distress.

Change of plans… quietude in our home is required.

It is better for his health and ongoing recovery to let professional caregivers care for his mother and give him a break.

Instead of staying for two weeks as planned, I am driving to Pittsburgh on Saturday, cooking meals for his mother, and then driving my spouse back home on Sunday. His stay will be just one week, and will bring him, his mother, and me some relief.

Before I take off for Pittsburgh, I have an important thing to do for a close friend who is a local motorcop… attend his marriage ceremony with his partner and serve as their Best Man. He will wear a new pair of Dehner boots that I got for him for this occasion with his dress uniform. His fiance is a car cop, so no boots for him! He and his partner are the quiet sort, so no more about this matter, and no photos. His wishes will be obeyed, yes sir! But I am very very happy for the both of them.

500-mile round-trip. Drive up there, give some lovin’ to his Mom, drive back, and then give overdue lovin’ to my man.

Life is short: too short to let cortisol cause more stress.