Page 20 - Discover Spring 2021

Kate’s Corner CONTINUED

I finally took the hint and got
up to help him. I grabbed a flashlight, and
moved both seats into the reclining position
so that we had a fairly clear view under each
seat...from five feet away...if we squatted
on our heels, which neither of us can do.
Instead, I sat down in a nearby chair, where
with a tolerable amount of pain, I could
double over and see under the raised foot rest
at his end of the sofa. Sure enough, there
the remote was...way, way back under his
seat amid chip crumbs, popcorn fragments,
and weeks of dust. We were only able to
reach it by lying flat on the floor and using
one of those arm extenders with the pinch-
ers on the end. That’s what the hospital’s
occupational therapist gives you after hip,
back, or knee surgery so you can pick things
up from the floor without bending. We have
three of them.

Exhausted, sweating, and breathing
heavily after finally retrieving the remote,
we both flopped back into our recliners. For
the first time in 25 years, I had the urge for
a cigarette. Instead, I drank the rest of my
wine, and he drank whatever he puts in that
monster cup. Putt, putt, putt.

Speaking of gas, did you know that
gastraea is an acceptable word in Words
With Friends? Well, it is. I have some very
smart friends. That word cost me a game.
According to an Online dictionary it is: “A
primeval larval form; a double-walled sac
from which, according to the hypothesis of
Haeckel, man and all other animals, that in
the first stages of their individual evolution
pass through a two-layered structural stage
or gastrula form, must have descended.”

Would you remember such a word for
use in future word competitions? Neither
Amaryllis
A ma r y l lis
will I.

18 Discover Smith Mountain Lake SPRING 2021