Day Zero Plus Eighty-four – Guilt Trip to the Grange Fair

The Claus family has a long tradition of attending the Middletown Grange Fair on the Thursday of Grange Fair week each year.  My father judged guinea pigs and rabbits on Grange Fair Thursday for years and years and so our habit was formed.  Jeff was extremely disappointed when he realized he would have to miss the fair this year.  The crowds, animals, dirt, port-a-pots and chicken dinner (grilled, on the bone and served by several volunteers) are all forbidden for him – but not for me!  Jeff had hoped that the forecasted bad weather would thin the crowds, making it suitable for him to attend.  His nurses and family all insisted, “No!” 

I had been out to dinner – without Jeff, of course – only once since he came home from the hospital at the end of June.  I’d met my co-workers for dinner one night in July.  So I did not feel very guilty about going to the Grange Fair without him.  However, I completely understood his dismay at having to miss the festivities.  My mother had once signed me up for a two-week Girl Scout camp which kept me away from home during Grange Fair week; I’m not sure that I ever forgave her!  I told Jeff to think of it as his Girl Scout camp; he would just have to miss it this one year. 

As it turns out, Jeff had a rough day while I was at work.  He threw up his lunch and felt cruddy the rest of the day.  In addition to the magnesium Jeff gets in his IV, oral magnesium was re-started on Tuesday and it is upsetting his stomach.  He did manage to accompany Keith to traffic court (yes, another minor accident by our own darling “Crash”) in Hopewell Township, New Jersey.  Jeff’s mask and gloves saved the day, bumping Keith from Case #79 to the front of the line.  Still, it was a long afternoon for Jeff.

In the evening, Keith and I headed off to the Grange Fair.  Jeff was sore from sitting upright for much of the day.  I should have gotten something out of the freezer that we’d cooked earlier in the week but instead I had left a frozen dinner for him.  He isn’t allowed to prepare food so he is at our mercy, poor guy!   

At the fair, Keith and I met Kerry, Theresa, and Kim.  We saw many Claus family members, including Pop in a wheelchair and Mother in a walker with a seat – that is just how important this event is to our family!  We saw some friends we only see once a year, at the fair.  We saw some prize-winning photography by Cindy, a young woman I know from Rider.  We saw photography by Sarah, the daughter of a customer of Jeff’s.  We saw her rabbits, too, but we never found her pig or steer.  Our neighbor, Annie, won a blue ribbon for her beautiful cross-stitch piece.  And Hurray!  Becky’s beautiful blue prom dress had a matching Blue Ribbon!  Amy Lyn took a picture of the grand prize-winning low boy in the furniture department and she emailed it to her Uncle Jeff.  Kerry and Keith spent time in the tool vendor’s tent while Theresa and I saw the bunnies, guinea pigs and furniture.  We walked through the vendor tents with Judy, Mark and the young folks.  Of course, there was chicken dinner with corn on the cob, fresh tomatoes, cranberry sauce, boiled potatoes and Goodnoe’s ice cream.  Only horror of horrors!  They ran out of ice cream!  An unprecedented disaster!  I asked the family to tell Jeff that the meal was not very good this year.  I doubted we would fool him although Kim evidently did – with her stories of worms in the corn, smushy tomatoes, dry chicken…

There was a “flash mob” of barbershop singers which Mark noted was probably organized by aarp.net rather than through Facebook.  The evening’s main musical entertainment, the Dazzling Mills Family (Juggling, Unicycling and Comedy) promised to be wonderful.  Unfortunately, the sky periodically lit up with lightning and we decided to head out early and stop at Goodnoe’s for ice cream on the way home! 

I enjoyed the evening even though it was an abbreviated version of our usual fair experience.  Occasionally I missed Jeff and wished he could enjoy it, too.  It was good to be out, though.  In the car on the way home I suggested to Keith that we leave our dirty shoes in the garage.  I decided I would need to shower before I even kissed Jeff and certainly before I climbed into bed with him.  Visions of the fair’s wash stations near the cow and pig barns and posted warnings about hoof and mouth disease, made me feel like a transporter of dangerous germs.

When Keith and I returned home, we found Jeff eager to hear about the fair - who we saw, what we did, how was the chicken…  While we were gone, he had a flare-up of his GVHD rash and was itchy and his tummy was upset.  He said he did not feel like eating his dinner but he knew he needed to so he did.  I slathered medication on his rash; well, I dabbed according to doctor’s orders but it would be a lot easier to slather the many, many areas affected which included the tender skin very close to the eyes.  I rubbed his back as he drifted off to sleep.  He sighed and said, “It’s easier when you’re here.”