Damsel in distress

This blog is a place to rant and rave, a place to vent. If anything I say offends or upsets, I can only apologise in advance, it isn't my intention to hurt anyone's feelings. 

After years of feminist rhetoric I am supposed to say "a woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle", but the fact is that right now I need a man. If the truth be told I actually need someone, anyone or anything that can help me with the practicalities around the house. I can paint a wall, and at a push a door, but skirting boards are beyond me. The hallway has patches that need filling (thanks Tall) but I don't do ladders above a certain height, and definitely not ladders on stairs. The tap in the kitchen is dripping, but I don't know what washer I need, and I'm too scared to take it apart to try and find out. The list goes on. Helpful people say "get a man in", (everyone assumes it is a handyman), without thinking how difficult it might be for a lone female to invite a strange man into the house. 

Then there is the mattress. Our mattress needs its seasonal flip. I just about managed to top-to-tail it in June, but the flip isn't something I can do alone. "Get your kids to help you." Well I could, if they actually lived closer / were physically able to and I wasn't embarrassed by the state of the mattress. You see Tall was a stubborn man and refused to sleep on a waterproof protector. He was also ill. His low immune system left him vulnerable to stomach bugs, so along with his lymphocytic colitis, a side effect of his first SCT, there were times when he was caught short in his sleep. I did what I could to spot clean the small areas where the normal protector fell short, but the mattress was still marked. Sometimes despite him thinking his fistula had stopped bleeding, it would start again in the night. Tall's low platelets left him pouring sometimes, but they weren't low enough for the hospital to bother doing anything. Again I spot cleaned, but blood is a tricky foe. "Get a new mattress!!" Well I will one day, but for now I am comforted by being able to sleep on the bed Tall died in. I like to see the dip where he lay, and sometimes I lie in the hollow just so I can feel close to him. Yes one day I will buy a new mattress, but not today. 

I am a damsel in distress on many levels.