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We were busy after our return from Harriman.  I was focused on getting the house painted and working down the list of projects that I had created for myself to complete this summer after my retirement. 

The physical labor felt good.  I was close to my goal of inverting the time I spent inside while working to time spent outside while retired.  I, to the chagrin of my dermatologist, was tan, and to the delight of my family physician was losing weight is a measured, systematic way.  We enjoyed wonderful meals together with most of the ingredients coming from our garden.  Green beans marked the liturgy of season follow by blackberries, currants, pears, and fall raspberries.  I noticed that Sherry was moving slowly and carefully, but still attributed it to physiology. 

Sherry suspected that more was wrong.  She made an appointment with our family physician, and she talked with her physical therapist who assured her that the appointment with her doctor was a great idea.  She thought that a referral to a neurologist was likely and from the vantage point of September 11th, the appointment on September 18th seemed comfortable.  However, by Sunday the 13th, symptoms had become increasingly alarming.  Her left side simply wasn't working properly.  We went to Immedate Care.  Sherry's symptoms seemed to fall in the category of a stroke and we wanted to rule that out and determine if waiting until the appointment with our family doctor on the 18th was prudent.  At the time it seemed so.

September 14th was filled with home and garden activity.  I pretty much focused on my tasks--I hung a new rain chain, built a feeder for the quail and doves that had begun to frequent our yard, and generally busyed myself at home.  I granted myself a burger break late afternoon.  While retuning home detouring around the construction on 4th Street I turned left onto Miller Avenue heading west to Government Way to make my way home.  That ended up taking a lot longer than I planned.  A young distracted driver blew through the stop sign on 2nd Avenue and collided with the front driver side of our Taurus.  Because the collusion occurred a a relatively low rate of speed no one was injured.  I was the only person in our car, and the driver of the SUV was also alone.  Still, the Taurus was totaled, and I called Sherry to come pick me up after the police completed their investigation and report.  Sherry arrived and it was shockingly obvious how impaired she was as she struggled to get out of her mother's car and walked haltedly toward me talking with the police officeer on the cormer. 

We went home, ate dinner.  I cleaned up the kitchen and Sherry readied for bed.  While walking from the bathroom to the bedroom she crunched into the left door jam.  She reported seeing a row of flashing lights on the left side of her field of vision, and told me that she wanted to go to the emergency room at KMC.  We did just that.