Wednesday, July 5, 2006
It's official, as of July 2nd we've been embraced by the Monsoon.
I thought it was too early. Then I thought it was coming from the wrong direction.
The Monsoon is always aftercast. It cannot be considered Monsoon weather until the winds cooperate, coming from the proper direction, and the average dew point three days in a row is 55%. I just heard that this all coalesced on July 2nd.
Although it's been cool and humid and there's been a bit of spitting today, no releasing rain, yet. Some years we don't get much of that. I'm still hoping for this year.
We're having company again; tomorrow through Saturday. I know, not much notice, but I'm still not upset about what often feels like an intrusion. This time, it doesn't. The short notice was accidental. MPS tells me she left a message for me last week asking about tomrrow through Saturday; probably during a time when I had the phone ringer turned off. I think the message was left somewhere besides here. I have all the back logged messages since 5/14/06 and no such message exists. Unfortunate, but she called today to ask if I'd "thought it over" and that message I received. And returned.
I'm feeling so mellow about the visit. It will be good for both Mom and me to relax and banter with MPS and MPNC. Even when I'm internally stirred, we always have a good time. And, since my explosion late this winter, I feel so much more inclined to let the chips fall where they may, offer no apologies and require none.
I'm really looking forward to the next two days. During the conversation with MPS today I talked about how I'm not wound up or stressing, that everything's been pretty peaceful, lately. She misunderstood me and thought I said something about getting cat food for Mom.
"Yeah," I said, "MPS, you wouldn't believe how much more peaceful it is now that I've got Mom on cat food."
She and I riffed on this for a couple minutes until we were laughing so hard we couldn't talk.
I could use some absurdity. And some long, hard, cry-and-wet-your-pants sister-laughter.
Besides, they have presents, she told me. Lots. Anyone with lots of presents is welcome any time.
Later.
The Monsoon is always aftercast. It cannot be considered Monsoon weather until the winds cooperate, coming from the proper direction, and the average dew point three days in a row is 55%. I just heard that this all coalesced on July 2nd.
Although it's been cool and humid and there's been a bit of spitting today, no releasing rain, yet. Some years we don't get much of that. I'm still hoping for this year.
We're having company again; tomorrow through Saturday. I know, not much notice, but I'm still not upset about what often feels like an intrusion. This time, it doesn't. The short notice was accidental. MPS tells me she left a message for me last week asking about tomrrow through Saturday; probably during a time when I had the phone ringer turned off. I think the message was left somewhere besides here. I have all the back logged messages since 5/14/06 and no such message exists. Unfortunate, but she called today to ask if I'd "thought it over" and that message I received. And returned.
I'm feeling so mellow about the visit. It will be good for both Mom and me to relax and banter with MPS and MPNC. Even when I'm internally stirred, we always have a good time. And, since my explosion late this winter, I feel so much more inclined to let the chips fall where they may, offer no apologies and require none.
I'm really looking forward to the next two days. During the conversation with MPS today I talked about how I'm not wound up or stressing, that everything's been pretty peaceful, lately. She misunderstood me and thought I said something about getting cat food for Mom.
"Yeah," I said, "MPS, you wouldn't believe how much more peaceful it is now that I've got Mom on cat food."
She and I riffed on this for a couple minutes until we were laughing so hard we couldn't talk.
I could use some absurdity. And some long, hard, cry-and-wet-your-pants sister-laughter.
Besides, they have presents, she told me. Lots. Anyone with lots of presents is welcome any time.
Later.
Recipe Up!
The Cherry Almond Scones recipe has been made, the product is cooling and posted at the Caring. About Food. site.
It smelled good enough while baking. It should be ripe by the time I rouse Mom and get her to the breakfast table.
I will, of course, report back, at the food site, at the end of the recipe post.
Later.
It smelled good enough while baking. It should be ripe by the time I rouse Mom and get her to the breakfast table.
I will, of course, report back, at the food site, at the end of the recipe post.
Later.
Well, once it got started...
...yesterday was a very low key day. I got in some very satisfying catloging. You'll find it interesting to note that my mother played Brain Age again yesterday, after breakfast, which looks like it'll become a habit. You'll remember that she played day before yesterday at the same time, although didn't play the day before. Yesterday it was as though she'd never seen or heard of the game. The game, I am pleased to report, is very forgiving. She even had trouble remembering how to hold and use the stylus. It was like all that had left her. Despite this, she pronounced the game a winner...didn't ask why there was already a profile for her; she thought she'd never played. She didn't flinch, either, when Dr. Kawashima welcomed her back. A review was necessary to remind her to read the left screen then look to the right screen as far as what to do next. It took a bit more coaching from me to get her through a short course of daily games. I was surprised but not taken aback. My reaction was, "Oh, okay. So, this is how it's going to work." At least she continually and enthusiastically reapproves of the game.
I don't think she thinks of it as a game because I draw a blank when I use that word. I'm not sure, yet, which word we'll use to identify it, which word will occasionally trigger memory.
We watched a spate of old movies, yesterday, the highlight of which was Yankee Doodle Dandy. I'm going to have to look for a copy of that movie. I'm not sure whether I should be ashamed to say this but at the end of the movie Mom and I were both in tears. This was not the first time during the movie that I teared up or Mom wiped her eyes excessively. During the first playing of "Over There" I sobbed (SOBBED), that this song was the greatest "go to war" song ever written.
I was already in one of my rare, I-understand-patriotism moods, put there by peripherally watching Mr. Smith Goes to Washington just previous to being captivated by Cagney. Did you know that his actual sister played George's sister in the movie? There is a striking resemblence. His unique dancing style and incredible leg power blow me away every time I see this movie.
Anyway, we weren't ready to dispell the mood, so immediately following two patriotic movies we decided to watch The American President. Thankfully, I was not in tears at the end of that one, although I would have been if we'd chosen to watch Dave. After all this patriotic stuff, I initiated a conversation about why I, of all people, was reacting so emotionally to these movies, the war movie in particular.
"I think," I proposed, "that I'm crying because I wish my president made me feel like this about my country. The U.S., you know, used to be considered generous...quick, yes, but elegant. Not true, anymore."
"Maybe it's just time for your period," my mother surmised.
I laughed. Could be. I'm still menopausal. Maybe I'm having yet another final hormonal hurrah. Wouldn't it be interesting if patriotism came down to hormones.
Is my mother patriotic? In a way. Deeply. In much the same way she is spiritual. Country is a value she takes for granted. Part of her pursuit of a Navy career was provoked, I think, by a quiet excitement about being An American.
Am I patriotic? Hmmm...that depends on how you define patriotic. I am more deeply aware, now, how fucking lucky I am to be a born-into-it U.S. Citizen. I am also more deeply aware of the global drawbacks of "being an American". I am as humble as I can be about those, which, peculiarly, is quite a bit more humble than most people because I lived in an environment, during my raising, in which I understood that I needed to apologize for being "An American". At the same time, Guam was begrudgingly grateful to "America".
One thing that I believe my experience is responsible for me understanding: We are not "Americans". There are many more "Americans" than us. We are citizens of the United States of America. We must try to remember that we are not any longer the only America. We've been stopped from expansion by some entrenched cultures. I don't care how many people give me the "oh, gag me" sign at this little feint to diversity. We can no longer ignore that we are also, and, maybe soon, even first, Citizens of the World.
My mother considers herself, provisionally, a citizen of the world. She considers that "Americans" have several keys to several cities. A practical attitude, I suppose.
Dementia certainly makes a contribution to her political profile, now, but, I ask you, when she answers the Quick Alzheimer's Test question, "Who's the current President of the United States?" with, "What difference does it make?" after 87 years of living under U.S. Presidents, I ask you: Dementia, or seasoned political sense? It is interesting to note that she noticed several times (a-boing-ga-a-boing-ga-a-boing-ga) that the flag, viewed through the window of the checkout office at the hospital (this was after the blood transfusion), was at half mast. Regan had died, I think a couple of weeks prior, before Mom entered the hospital. So, I reminded her several times, at her request, of this.
Each time she was reminded she'd nod and say, "Oh, well that's too bad. He didn't look good."
All in all, a very interesting (because it was serendipitous) way to spend July 4th.
Mom had very little energy. Atmospheric pressure was not steady, yesterday, but it didn't rain. It should have. As I type this I'm looking at the the radar: It looks as though we've got some rain coming. I hope it drops, today. It's supposed to. Significant temperature drop from yesterday. Chance of rain all day, 40%. Windy. I'll dress Mom warm today.
She's been copping more sleep than usual. I've been letting her do this, as I've been copping a little more alone time than usual.
Today is a good day for making those scones. It ended up, yesterday, being too warm for either of us to consider starting up the oven.
I hope it rains. No reason to go anyplace. I haven't decided whether to let Mom sleep in or attempt to rouse her at her 12 hour sleep mark. I'll peek in on her and see what sort of vibes I get.
Later.
I don't think she thinks of it as a game because I draw a blank when I use that word. I'm not sure, yet, which word we'll use to identify it, which word will occasionally trigger memory.
We watched a spate of old movies, yesterday, the highlight of which was Yankee Doodle Dandy. I'm going to have to look for a copy of that movie. I'm not sure whether I should be ashamed to say this but at the end of the movie Mom and I were both in tears. This was not the first time during the movie that I teared up or Mom wiped her eyes excessively. During the first playing of "Over There" I sobbed (SOBBED), that this song was the greatest "go to war" song ever written.
I was already in one of my rare, I-understand-patriotism moods, put there by peripherally watching Mr. Smith Goes to Washington just previous to being captivated by Cagney. Did you know that his actual sister played George's sister in the movie? There is a striking resemblence. His unique dancing style and incredible leg power blow me away every time I see this movie.
Anyway, we weren't ready to dispell the mood, so immediately following two patriotic movies we decided to watch The American President. Thankfully, I was not in tears at the end of that one, although I would have been if we'd chosen to watch Dave. After all this patriotic stuff, I initiated a conversation about why I, of all people, was reacting so emotionally to these movies, the war movie in particular.
"I think," I proposed, "that I'm crying because I wish my president made me feel like this about my country. The U.S., you know, used to be considered generous...quick, yes, but elegant. Not true, anymore."
"Maybe it's just time for your period," my mother surmised.
I laughed. Could be. I'm still menopausal. Maybe I'm having yet another final hormonal hurrah. Wouldn't it be interesting if patriotism came down to hormones.
Is my mother patriotic? In a way. Deeply. In much the same way she is spiritual. Country is a value she takes for granted. Part of her pursuit of a Navy career was provoked, I think, by a quiet excitement about being An American.
Am I patriotic? Hmmm...that depends on how you define patriotic. I am more deeply aware, now, how fucking lucky I am to be a born-into-it U.S. Citizen. I am also more deeply aware of the global drawbacks of "being an American". I am as humble as I can be about those, which, peculiarly, is quite a bit more humble than most people because I lived in an environment, during my raising, in which I understood that I needed to apologize for being "An American". At the same time, Guam was begrudgingly grateful to "America".
One thing that I believe my experience is responsible for me understanding: We are not "Americans". There are many more "Americans" than us. We are citizens of the United States of America. We must try to remember that we are not any longer the only America. We've been stopped from expansion by some entrenched cultures. I don't care how many people give me the "oh, gag me" sign at this little feint to diversity. We can no longer ignore that we are also, and, maybe soon, even first, Citizens of the World.
My mother considers herself, provisionally, a citizen of the world. She considers that "Americans" have several keys to several cities. A practical attitude, I suppose.
Dementia certainly makes a contribution to her political profile, now, but, I ask you, when she answers the Quick Alzheimer's Test question, "Who's the current President of the United States?" with, "What difference does it make?" after 87 years of living under U.S. Presidents, I ask you: Dementia, or seasoned political sense? It is interesting to note that she noticed several times (a-boing-ga-a-boing-ga-a-boing-ga) that the flag, viewed through the window of the checkout office at the hospital (this was after the blood transfusion), was at half mast. Regan had died, I think a couple of weeks prior, before Mom entered the hospital. So, I reminded her several times, at her request, of this.
Each time she was reminded she'd nod and say, "Oh, well that's too bad. He didn't look good."
All in all, a very interesting (because it was serendipitous) way to spend July 4th.
Mom had very little energy. Atmospheric pressure was not steady, yesterday, but it didn't rain. It should have. As I type this I'm looking at the the radar: It looks as though we've got some rain coming. I hope it drops, today. It's supposed to. Significant temperature drop from yesterday. Chance of rain all day, 40%. Windy. I'll dress Mom warm today.
She's been copping more sleep than usual. I've been letting her do this, as I've been copping a little more alone time than usual.
Today is a good day for making those scones. It ended up, yesterday, being too warm for either of us to consider starting up the oven.
I hope it rains. No reason to go anyplace. I haven't decided whether to let Mom sleep in or attempt to rouse her at her 12 hour sleep mark. I'll peek in on her and see what sort of vibes I get.
Later.
Tuesday, July 4, 2006
This one's for me...
...as in, I noticed I was feeling so good, despite a fundamental conflict with which I've been dealing over the extended weekend, that I wanted to sing a little, here; therapy, you understand.
The "fundamental confict" is that I went into this weekend deepdown wishing I was by myself. Maybe in the Pacific Northwest. I even recall sneaking in some sub-conscious day dreams about just picking up and going, how much it would cost, etc., etc.,...and, yet, I've had a perfectly wonderful time this weekend, as well, surprisingly even keeled (me and Mom and the weekend), I can say that I've truly enjoyed my mother's company even as I've been wishing that I was holed up someplace cold and drizzly and green, just me, maybe my computer, maybe not...
It seems that as the extended weekend approached I found myself needing to do some obsessive cataloguing...so I turned to my journals, the TOC of which is still a ways off and the guts of which need to be second-catalogued. I love doing this because it always causes me to reread posts, surprise myself, recall parts of my mother's and my journey...the thing is, while I'm not a nurturing person, never wanted to be, even had a native disdain, like a nasty taste on the back of the tongue, when around dedicated caregivers; and while I'm am not forgiving about the difficulties caregivers incur simply by caregiving avocationally in this society, I have to say, I seem to have a knack for taking care of my mother. I'm, more often than not, glad I'm doing this. On weekends like this, when I am split with competing desires and competing rewards and, not insignificantly, feeling good psychically and somatically, "when [I] can't be with the one [I] love, [I'll] love the one [I'm] with." [--thank you, Stephen Stills]
So, it's cool this morning, and humid, and it looks, as I gaze out the living room faux cathedral windows right now, as though we're gonna get rain. The weather report, lately, has been playing a trick on us...40% chance of rain has been less likely for us than 30% chance. Today the prediction is 30%, this afternoon. I'll wager we'll see drops before noon, today, and get some good rain this afternoon.
Later.
The "fundamental confict" is that I went into this weekend deepdown wishing I was by myself. Maybe in the Pacific Northwest. I even recall sneaking in some sub-conscious day dreams about just picking up and going, how much it would cost, etc., etc.,...and, yet, I've had a perfectly wonderful time this weekend, as well, surprisingly even keeled (me and Mom and the weekend), I can say that I've truly enjoyed my mother's company even as I've been wishing that I was holed up someplace cold and drizzly and green, just me, maybe my computer, maybe not...
It seems that as the extended weekend approached I found myself needing to do some obsessive cataloguing...so I turned to my journals, the TOC of which is still a ways off and the guts of which need to be second-catalogued. I love doing this because it always causes me to reread posts, surprise myself, recall parts of my mother's and my journey...the thing is, while I'm not a nurturing person, never wanted to be, even had a native disdain, like a nasty taste on the back of the tongue, when around dedicated caregivers; and while I'm am not forgiving about the difficulties caregivers incur simply by caregiving avocationally in this society, I have to say, I seem to have a knack for taking care of my mother. I'm, more often than not, glad I'm doing this. On weekends like this, when I am split with competing desires and competing rewards and, not insignificantly, feeling good psychically and somatically, "when [I] can't be with the one [I] love, [I'll] love the one [I'm] with." [--thank you, Stephen Stills]
So, it's cool this morning, and humid, and it looks, as I gaze out the living room faux cathedral windows right now, as though we're gonna get rain. The weather report, lately, has been playing a trick on us...40% chance of rain has been less likely for us than 30% chance. Today the prediction is 30%, this afternoon. I'll wager we'll see drops before noon, today, and get some good rain this afternoon.
Later.
Since today was another No Stat Day...
...I'll just go ahead and do a general report here. I decided before Mom awoke to forget the stats. I wasn't even sure, at that point, what I'd be serving her for dinner. It didn't feel like a cooking day.
She awoke on her own at noon. Needed a full bath. I ran the Oz evening by her. She seemed mildly interested.
After breakfast, which included a substitution of polish sausage for bacon, she sat at the table while I did chores and played Brain Age, for awhile, with minimal supervision. I hovered around her to guide her, as usual, through selecting her profile, but she chose her games from there and, as far as I know, never got stuck. She didn't do any reading aloud. When I finished, she was finishing up a "Low-High", although I can't imagine she did well on it. She may not have even understood it. I asked her if she wanted to read aloud. She thought I meant me reading one of our floating books aloud. I corrected her, but that sounded like a good idea so I read aloud from The History of Old Age for awhile (no, we're still not through the book...sometimes Mom's not in the mood for scholarly fare).
At 1600 I reminded her of the documentary on the making of Oz. I was right that she didn't want to miss that. It lead into the movie, which she continued watching about halfway through, then decided to take a nap.
Lunch, served between 1845 and 1900, was her usual V-8 juice and peanuts. She seemed, as well, chipper, even though I awakened her.
I thought, considering her mental exercise earlier in the day, I might be able to get her interested in a game of Scrabble, but she wasn't interested. She was, however, interested in trying The Wiz. She stayed with that, though only a half hour. Then, I put on Ghost, which carried her away until Walker, Texas Ranger. Despite her extreme desire to just sit, she was alert and we conversed throughout the evening.
Oh. At her suggestion, I served ice cream for dinner. It seemed to "work" a couple of days ago.
She retired at 0000, 7/04/06. I had forgotten to rub down her legs, which is unusual, so I reentered her bedroom and suggested she come out for her leg rub.
"No," she said, as she sprawled in bed with her book, "too much trouble." She was light on liquids, today, even including the ice cream, so I let her go.
I noticed her light was out at 0030.
Later.
She awoke on her own at noon. Needed a full bath. I ran the Oz evening by her. She seemed mildly interested.
After breakfast, which included a substitution of polish sausage for bacon, she sat at the table while I did chores and played Brain Age, for awhile, with minimal supervision. I hovered around her to guide her, as usual, through selecting her profile, but she chose her games from there and, as far as I know, never got stuck. She didn't do any reading aloud. When I finished, she was finishing up a "Low-High", although I can't imagine she did well on it. She may not have even understood it. I asked her if she wanted to read aloud. She thought I meant me reading one of our floating books aloud. I corrected her, but that sounded like a good idea so I read aloud from The History of Old Age for awhile (no, we're still not through the book...sometimes Mom's not in the mood for scholarly fare).
At 1600 I reminded her of the documentary on the making of Oz. I was right that she didn't want to miss that. It lead into the movie, which she continued watching about halfway through, then decided to take a nap.
Lunch, served between 1845 and 1900, was her usual V-8 juice and peanuts. She seemed, as well, chipper, even though I awakened her.
I thought, considering her mental exercise earlier in the day, I might be able to get her interested in a game of Scrabble, but she wasn't interested. She was, however, interested in trying The Wiz. She stayed with that, though only a half hour. Then, I put on Ghost, which carried her away until Walker, Texas Ranger. Despite her extreme desire to just sit, she was alert and we conversed throughout the evening.
Oh. At her suggestion, I served ice cream for dinner. It seemed to "work" a couple of days ago.
She retired at 0000, 7/04/06. I had forgotten to rub down her legs, which is unusual, so I reentered her bedroom and suggested she come out for her leg rub.
"No," she said, as she sprawled in bed with her book, "too much trouble." She was light on liquids, today, even including the ice cream, so I let her go.
I noticed her light was out at 0030.
Later.
Monday, July 3, 2006
It feels like Saturday to me...
...I guess it is, sort of. I'll almost be sorry to see the second Sunday going, although, well, there's very little difference between weekdays and weekends, here, unless we put our shoulder to the wheel and, sometimes, we don't bother.
Surprisingly, Mom did not play Brain Age yesterday. We both forgot it. We were too busy with Gone With the Wind, doing hair, celebrating Finally Bean Soup Day...I know Mom watched a fair amount of television but it was pretty interactive. We chose our shows carefully.
I was going to make the Cherry Almond Scones this morning but decided to wait, see how Mom's BG is. There's no way to hide the smell of baking scones, as there is hiding a vacuum wrapped package from Costco. I think, as the spice (got to have a spice) I'll use mace. That should word well with the cherries and almonds. I hope I find time to report the recipe, once I create it. I'm going to use a full-butter recipe...the liquid will probably be cream, maybe half and half. They'll be rich. I need to remember to increase the liquid only half as much as usual, as I'm sure the flour I'm harboring has plumped up considerably over the last week or so. I hope the new bag I haven't yet opened and didn't store in an airtight contained isn't infested. Funny, on Guam we sieved out what we could and figured the rest was sterilized in baking...a version of the "free protein" joke. Here in the States I am so unused to food invasions that they freak me and I am just as apt to throw out 10 lbs. of flour as I am to shrug my shoulders and sift out what "free protein" I can.
So, I'm feeling very good today. I hope Mom is, too. If she doesn't arise on her own before, I'll call her at 1300, her 12 hour sleep mark today.
I have no idea what we'll do with the day. The truth is, the humidity and afternoon downpours are not inclining Mom toward out of the house activity, which is fine with me. Hold on, let me shamelessly check the TV schedule (you can see what kind of a day I'm counting on)...Hmmm...TCM has an Oz festival going on today, starting at 1600, ending at, oh my, 2300 with a silent Oz short from 1910. Whoa! This is History of Oz day! Interesting choice. My goodness, the mail's here! I thought today was a holiday! Well, as far as I'm concerned, it is for us! So there!
It's still early, here, well, relative-to-Mom-ly speaking. I'll see what develops. Guess I should check to see what was in the mail. I wonder how many people are working today.
Later.
Surprisingly, Mom did not play Brain Age yesterday. We both forgot it. We were too busy with Gone With the Wind, doing hair, celebrating Finally Bean Soup Day...I know Mom watched a fair amount of television but it was pretty interactive. We chose our shows carefully.
I was going to make the Cherry Almond Scones this morning but decided to wait, see how Mom's BG is. There's no way to hide the smell of baking scones, as there is hiding a vacuum wrapped package from Costco. I think, as the spice (got to have a spice) I'll use mace. That should word well with the cherries and almonds. I hope I find time to report the recipe, once I create it. I'm going to use a full-butter recipe...the liquid will probably be cream, maybe half and half. They'll be rich. I need to remember to increase the liquid only half as much as usual, as I'm sure the flour I'm harboring has plumped up considerably over the last week or so. I hope the new bag I haven't yet opened and didn't store in an airtight contained isn't infested. Funny, on Guam we sieved out what we could and figured the rest was sterilized in baking...a version of the "free protein" joke. Here in the States I am so unused to food invasions that they freak me and I am just as apt to throw out 10 lbs. of flour as I am to shrug my shoulders and sift out what "free protein" I can.
So, I'm feeling very good today. I hope Mom is, too. If she doesn't arise on her own before, I'll call her at 1300, her 12 hour sleep mark today.
I have no idea what we'll do with the day. The truth is, the humidity and afternoon downpours are not inclining Mom toward out of the house activity, which is fine with me. Hold on, let me shamelessly check the TV schedule (you can see what kind of a day I'm counting on)...Hmmm...TCM has an Oz festival going on today, starting at 1600, ending at, oh my, 2300 with a silent Oz short from 1910. Whoa! This is History of Oz day! Interesting choice. My goodness, the mail's here! I thought today was a holiday! Well, as far as I'm concerned, it is for us! So there!
It's still early, here, well, relative-to-Mom-ly speaking. I'll see what develops. Guess I should check to see what was in the mail. I wonder how many people are working today.
Later.
Sunday, July 2, 2006
Well, what a surprise...
...no, not that Blogger is working, although that is a surprise...today's been a really good, really laid back day. We're celebrating The Making of the Easy Bean Soup with HoneyBaked Ham; with a spectacle movie. We're also celebrating the fact that last night's Just Dessert dinner of ice cream not only didn't elevate Mom's BG today, it almost seemed to reverse a trend. We're taking it easy, today, but I'm expecting good things. She's feeling good. She's even enjoying our rain. So am I. Today we've gotten a decent rain for a decent amount of time and it sounds like we might get more.
We did all of TCM's Gone With the Wind. We caught about half of it yesterday.
Everyone's napping off the storm. Except me. I'm revving up on coffee and enjoying some alone time.
Later.
Maybe tomorrow.
We did all of TCM's Gone With the Wind. We caught about half of it yesterday.
Everyone's napping off the storm. Except me. I'm revving up on coffee and enjoying some alone time.
Later.
Maybe tomorrow.
I'm taking it slower than usual, today...
...letting Mom sleep in, for her and for me. The day is beginning to take on the "July 4th" tinge. Already, two horse rigs who missed the Gail Gardner turn off to the rodeo grounds have turned around in our yard. We're handy for that. I'm sure some kind of July 4th doing is happening about two miles up the road from our house at Thumb Butte park; judging from the heavier than usual traffic and the absence of the usual weekend hiking and biking groups who take on Thumb Butte for exercise.
Yesterday was a blur. I didn't take stats so I'll report on it here. Mom was up fairly early...around 1230, I believe. I was ready for her.
Normal breakfast; only two meals but no missed meds or supplements. What did we have for dinner? Oh, yeah. Ice cream. Her choice. I had to go out and get it. She first wanted milk shakes, but changed her mind when I told her I was going to Baskin Robbins. Then, later, around 2330, she ate an entire bag of popcorn by herself. We watched old movies on TCM. She took a nap but it was almost not a nap.
She was pretty sedentary. She played Brain Age at the table after breakfast while I cleaned up, did chores, watched over her shoulder. She did pretty good. She was, again, delighted that the device "remembered" her. I suggested that she take on another reading aloud segment but she protested that she wanted me to sit by her while she read. I had an undivulged flashback to when, prior to entering formal schooling, I'd sit with my mother and read out loud to her but seemed unable to do as well when we weren't sitting side by side. Sort of like leaning on someone else's brain power. She got into my profile once then admitted that she was snooping when I tried to explain that she was in "the wrong profile". I have no idea if she played any games in my name. I'm sure she did it by accident, at first, or maybe out of a diffused curiosity, but she also discovered and mentioned to me that "the head" (meaning the computerized version of the doctor's head) says different things to different people.
She went to bed about 0030 this morning. Light out at 0055. I went to bed soon after. Didn't take any naps yesterday. Didn't even think about napping. Maybe I'm getting rested.
The rest of the weekend, however, still seems pretty vague to me. Not sure what I'll do with it...maybe just a bunch of get-'em-out-'o-the-way projects. I haven't decided whether to turn up the ringer on the phone. I'm not feeling standoffish, exactly, but I'm not sure I want to hear the phone ringing if I'm not ready to take a call.
But, things are going well with us.
Probably...
...later.
Yesterday was a blur. I didn't take stats so I'll report on it here. Mom was up fairly early...around 1230, I believe. I was ready for her.
Normal breakfast; only two meals but no missed meds or supplements. What did we have for dinner? Oh, yeah. Ice cream. Her choice. I had to go out and get it. She first wanted milk shakes, but changed her mind when I told her I was going to Baskin Robbins. Then, later, around 2330, she ate an entire bag of popcorn by herself. We watched old movies on TCM. She took a nap but it was almost not a nap.
She was pretty sedentary. She played Brain Age at the table after breakfast while I cleaned up, did chores, watched over her shoulder. She did pretty good. She was, again, delighted that the device "remembered" her. I suggested that she take on another reading aloud segment but she protested that she wanted me to sit by her while she read. I had an undivulged flashback to when, prior to entering formal schooling, I'd sit with my mother and read out loud to her but seemed unable to do as well when we weren't sitting side by side. Sort of like leaning on someone else's brain power. She got into my profile once then admitted that she was snooping when I tried to explain that she was in "the wrong profile". I have no idea if she played any games in my name. I'm sure she did it by accident, at first, or maybe out of a diffused curiosity, but she also discovered and mentioned to me that "the head" (meaning the computerized version of the doctor's head) says different things to different people.
She went to bed about 0030 this morning. Light out at 0055. I went to bed soon after. Didn't take any naps yesterday. Didn't even think about napping. Maybe I'm getting rested.
The rest of the weekend, however, still seems pretty vague to me. Not sure what I'll do with it...maybe just a bunch of get-'em-out-'o-the-way projects. I haven't decided whether to turn up the ringer on the phone. I'm not feeling standoffish, exactly, but I'm not sure I want to hear the phone ringing if I'm not ready to take a call.
But, things are going well with us.
Probably...
...later.
