On that morning, I was lying on the couch, having just stoked the wood stove in hopes of warming up the place a bit.
I was probably dehydrated. (I am terrible at that.) And I had not eaten since dinner the evening before. Finally, I suspect that I was having a hot flash just as you stepped onto the deck.
These hot flashes of mine have been going on for years as a consequence of various run-ins with cancer, and I barely notice them anymore (unless I’m grilling outside on the 4th of July with smoke in my eyes in the 98 degree heat and the full Texas sun…).
So anyway, that was the situation as I can best reconstruct it: dehydrated, hungry, in the midst of a hot flash. And then you came around the corner, and I jumped up from the couch to greet you at the cottage door.
You know the rest of the story. The guys from the volunteer fire department. Their oxygen mask on my face. The ambulance arriving a few minutes later. Their EKG sensors and wires attached to my body. The nurses in the emergency room and their second set of EKG sensors and wires. Your morning ruined while I lay there on a gurney for hours until the doctor said there was nothing wrong.
Nothing wrong. I just sometimes get stars in my eyes.