I live in a box in the change of my life.  Here I have survived 17 years.
 
The change came very early for me, through an array of possible life
changing reasons, including multiple surgeries.  It was five years after
an invisible box of burning heat was placed around my body that the
doctors accurately determined the cause.  Before this..it was surmised
after much expense by a specialist that I had a brain tumor ... which
I subsequently wished on said physician on several burning nights.
 
So it is that each night, before the lights go out, the air conditioner
knob goes as low as it will go.  The ferrets fancy themselves colorful
mutations of the ermine and arctic fox, and pile their abberations under
one of the blanket piles on the arctic tundra floor.
 
The domesticated cat (unlike my feral border) finds her way beneath the
sheet to curl up next to me for shared warmth.  I resent any heat, but
am an obliging host.
 
Most mornings, this being no exception, I was awakened by my frozen
feline sitting on my head and talking away of how I must turn the heat
on Naaaooowwwwwwwwww.
 
I toe gingerly across the ice floor in the dim light through blurry eyes
to reach the thermostat..But wait.  No.  Snow?...the floor is covered
with snow?  Hundreds of small snow balls are all over the ground of my
bedroom.  .Well....all righty then.
 
The cat and I tumble back under the sheet and curl up in fetal position
until warmth creeps into my now chilled, not shaken, body.  As I drift
back to slumber, I hear the morning symphony tuning up.
 
Crash in the bathroom...sound indeterminable.  Not good.  I hear the
crinkle of plastic bags that are in the living room.  I hear the tipping
over of the large Rubbermaid garbage container in the hall ...hmmm.
 
In the hall?  Must be Mini-Me making her morning garbage inspections.
Every garbage container will be on its side by the time I arise..  I hear
the teeth connecting with the remote control above my head.  Then I hear
the clatter of its plastic casing banging its way to the hidey hole in
the kitchen.  Miss Daisy is up..with Mini-Me also prowling?  Brave soul,
bless her heart.
 
A smile creeps across my change of life face.  For the moment the burning
is gone, no doubt tormenting some other poor soul brain damaged by their
tumor. :-)
 
And I have apparently moved onto the winter of my life...surrounded by
hundreds of fluffy snow balls, as though a blizzard had flown across my
room in the frosty cold.
 
Through it all...this is what has kept me alive.  These little ones and
their magical inquisitive ways.  Snow in my bedroom.  They must have
dragged out and ripped through every bag of cotton balls I own.  Where
had I kept them, my mind murmured as I found a nose in my eye.  What a
wonderful way to greet the day.
[Posted in FML issue 4682]