While waiting for Norm in the VA ER waiting room, I chanced upon one of the Harry Potter series. People donate old books to the VA, and they are scattered around the hospital waiting rooms on rolling carts and on odd shelves here and there.

It was one of the series I've never read, and it was just about at my mental level at that point. Anything more intellectually challenging and I would have been overwhelmed.

The characters were familiar from the earlier books, and, of course, from the films, making it twice as much a mind candy book. It really didn't need to be 600 pages long, but the inclusion of all the old characters, settings, plus characters' reminiscences made for cozy reading.

Except for grocery shopping and ordering Norm's birthday present online, I didn't do much else.

This is how I deal with a crisis (financial or otherwise): explode into a flurry of activity to deal with it, then retreat into a good book or sleep (or both). Going on and on about it, tearing my hair, rending my clothes, smearing my body with ashes--not my style. That kind of reaction wears me out, making me less able to cope; bores the hell out of me; and is ultimately corrosive.

Excuse me while I disappear again....