Mending a 100-hole mosquito net? Not that absurd.
Posted by: adonis49 on: April 23, 2013
Mending a 100-hole mosquito net? Not that absurd.
Following the horrifying fiction story https://adonis49.wordpress.com/2013/04/13/what-is-to-be-done-short-of-clinical-testing-for-hormones-deficiencies/ I imagined what I could have done after the harrowing event.
I went down to my apartment and started mending a 100-hole mosquito net. Lately, we had a two weeks of hot weather and a couple of mosquitos got active. All you need is a single buzzing mosquito to drive you insomniac.
I had installed mine and mother’s net: They were in acceptable conditions, but my father’s net was a problem. My father keeps long nails and have to get up 5 times the night to go and piss…
Father’s 100-hole net is ideal for winter time: The net could bring these feeling of closure, warmth, and being tucked in…
Father is currently ailing: Last month, he spent a week in intensive care unit and another week in the hospital to recover from acute pneumonia. Actually, after a tiring month at home, of caring for him and encouraging him to start using the walker and… he is back to intensive unit with a resistant bacteria in the lungs. This bacteria is transmitted in hospitals, particularly via equipment and instrument, and he is being injected with the most powerful of antibiotics.
Father is not about to be using any mosquito net anytime soon, but mother is no longer in a shape to be mending and sewing: She is suffering from arthritis in her hands and finger and is forgetful. Mother thought that she had other mosquito nets in good conditions, but is not able to locate them.
I got used to mending socks, shirts, bed sheets… and now I am into mending mosquito nets, and this job was a welcomed task after the horror event that evening. I couldn’t stop mending one hole after another, hoping for my nerves to relax and appease my mind.
I think that I mended so many holes through the long night that I searched for a needle-sized hole as excuses to keep mending. I don’t recall what I was watching on cables.
The next afternoon, mother was cutting out the net in order to sew another one from the good portions. Mother favors appearances to functional nets, and the net should look brand new, even if nobody is about to investigate the status of father’s net.
Mother has been for a week on her net, and involving her daughter who has a good sewing machine. Mother is not satisfied with her son-in-law forgetting to bring a new belt for her old Singer. He did try to locate a belt and could not find any, and he told mother the situation many times. Mother is forgetful.
The net is installed, but father is still in the intensive care.
I am under the strong impression that what I thought was an achievement is barely noticed or appreciated. I may mop, do dishes, do laundry, hang curtains, vacuum, filter water, be used as a beast of burden… All these tasks on a daily basis don’t count.
The modern custom is: “How much money can you spare?” And personal contributions to the daily maintenance of life are not considered of much added value. People prefer the condescending “distribution” of small money, sort of giving in secrecy what your right hand gives out… Any amount of what you need to survive…
Life is a series of absurdities, and it does not help much to discover the forms of the series. Series of absurdities can take the form of geometric or arithmetic trends in progression, kind of forecasting the next absurd event. My impression is that the form of these series keeps changing, depending mostly on age.
Adonis Diaries 
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