How to salvage a messed-up day

Prednisone is hitting me harder this time around. I'm moody. Yesterday I basically told Anna, "Don't touch me, don't talk to me." That kept me from being too annoyed with her (through absolutely no fault of her own) but it didn't make her too happy. But we bounced through that day with only a few scrapes and bruises.

This afternoon we went out for a ski to the Jesse Lake trails. Our mistake was skiing there right from home, across the windswept expanse of the lake, rather than driving to the beginning of the trail. Well, then her back was hurting, and she was tired, and she was thirsty, and she wanted to know, 'are we were there yet,' and I made the grievous mistake of calling her 'slowpoke' once (I was being pulled by the dog with the ski-jor harness at the time). Anyway, we stopped in at drop-dead gorgeous Little Jesse Lake for a rest and some hot cocoa. Then we started skiing again, and Anna started to complain about the wind. She tells me that at this point I was too quick with my dirty look, because she was about to say how beautiful and sheltered it was in the trees. But I mouthed off something true, but ill-advised, basically saying, "Shaddap, I'm trying to have a nice day and all you're doing is complaining. Maybe if you had cancer you'd appreciate the cold wind biting your cheeks. Reminds you that you're alive."

Remember my first cancer post? I said something about raindrops falling down the back of my neck.

Then I skiied on, and considered just skiing all the way home without waiting for her. Of course, I didn't. I told myself, "No, she's my sweetie, I love her, I'll stop in a sheltered place and we'll work this thing out." And that's what we did. She was crying. She told me how I'd misread her earlier. I apologized. She apologized for being a wet blanket. We kissed and made up. Then we continued the ski, all the way home, even across the windswept expanse of the lake. We finished the day by heading up to New Liskeard for a date! Spicy Thai curries and a movie (Emotional Arithmetic) at the Temiskaming Film Society.

And that's how to salvage a messed-up day.