What a weird occurrence - I am out of town for a few days and at some point I just became super sad and depressed and kind of overwhelmed by a sense of helplessness and passage of time (it happens like twice a year or so, often completely unwarranted and without heads up, although it has to do with accumulation of negative thoughts and encounters (I did walk past the oncology clinic yesterday, so ...), so when talking reason or just pep talk didn't have any consolatory effect, the General stopped talking, picked up the phone, crossed the house, set the phone down in the kitchen and started doing dishes. No conversation, just a video of him doing dishes. I could see all my mugs and coffee and cats and him and could hear the dog and that was it. Suddenly of all the wonders of the world, that was the most comforting and home-like recreation of a soothing embrace he could possibly send me via skype. The brain really is the weirdest thing. I once half-drowned and passed out and they couldn't revive me until the village doctor's wife brought a plum pie to the people helping me. I woke up like *that*. Priorities, you know? :D