Thank You, "Bug Man"

Started off this morning trying to track down my sister's caseworker. This wild goose chase started yesterday when I found she never arrived for her weekly meeting. We are leaving for a New Year holiday, and like "Groundhog Day," inevitably there is a pressing issue just as we zip up our suitcases. This past year has been full of such calls from my sister. A toothache, broken eyeglasses, marriage proposals (that's a story for another day) and other benign issues for most, that become earth shattering for someone with disabilities. So I began making calls late in the afternoon, in addition to emails, and started up again today as early as 7:30 a.m. The week between Christmas and New Year's is not the most ideal time to find people where they should be, so I felt a heaviness that this issue would not be resolved and it would hang over me like white on rice; breath on glass. If I drank, I would have shimmied up to a barkeep, thrown back a few and told him my troubles. But instead, by 8:00 a.m. I was doing laundry and opening the door for "The Bug man," who arrives punctually every fourth Tuesday of the month. He seems aware of  my mood, and trying to feign cheerfulness was a ruse he saw right through. Nothing escapes him. He comments when my daughter is late with her morning phone call; when a piece of furniture has been repositioned or a new piece has been acquired. I found myself talking to him of my frustrations, then moving on to his Christmas holiday and his family, and by the time he left toting his silver can of spray I felt lighter and really, my troubles didn't seem half bad. It's a pretty sweet deal when your house is not only bug free, but angst free as well.