Wednesday, Dec. 17

I had trouble falling asleep again last night, and we overslept this morning, but I got a treadmill session in just the same.



Daughter called just as I was finishing with my exercises. She wanted to tell me that following a treadmill stress test, her doctor decided she should have a catheter test to check for blocked arteries. She's to undergo the test at 9 a.m. tomorrow morning. We want to be there when she has the procedure, so we'll need to get up in the morning by 5 a.m. in order to be at the hospital, about two hours away, by around 8:30 a.m.



For the rest of the morning, I put together food gift packs for our hairdressers, a member of the Extension Homemakers who gives us a gift of beauty products each year, and for the Cardiac Rehab team.



After lunch, Hubbie and I ran errands. There was still ice in our yard and on the driveway, but traffic and higher temps had cleared the roadways.



As we left our yard, we noticed a policeman directing traffic on the highway, in front of our driveway. Hubbie asked what the problem was, and the officer said there had been an accident just down the road from our house. Our errands took us in a circle around town, so we passed the accident site on our way back home. Apparently, someone slid in the curve of the road and plowed the ditch on the right hand side.



Our errands took us first to a jewelry shop to check on Hubbie's watch, which only needed a new battery. Then we stopped by the art gallery to leave an expense reimbursement report and a CD of photos of the kids at the graham cracker cookie Christmas house workshop. From there, we went to the newspaper office to pick up papers that had not been delivered during the past couple of days due to the ice storm. After that, we went to the pharmacy to pick up a prescription, and then to the florist from which I'd ordered a plant for tonight's visitation. Seems our credit card had been declined, but when we checked with the florist, we found she'd taken the number down wrong.



We went to the other store that has a sale every weekend, so that I could look for a new Christmas sweater, before we went grocery shopping at the WDCS. I found a cute brown sweater vest with Santas and snowmen on it in pinks and blues that match a couple of turtleneck shirts I have. The sweater was on sale, plus there was a senior citizen discount of 15%.



After shopping for groceries, visiting the bank, and filling the van with gas, we were finally ready, about supper time, to head home. On the way, just before we reached the accident site, I saw a gray-haired lady doing the splits on her icy driveway. Apparently, after she had checked her mailbox, she was attempting to walk back to her car, which was parked on a slight incline, when her legs slipped apart, and down she went, spread-eagle, until her hands touched the ground. We were traveling too fast to stop, so I hope she got control of herself, or that someone helped her. I'd bet she'll be pretty sore tomorrow, though.

While we were gone, Mother had prepared a spaghetti dinner, and we were all hungry and ready to sit down to it. After supper, we changed into dark suitable clothing and went to the visitation for the husband of our scrapbook club friend. Both the wife and the sister of the deceased were very happy to see us, and hugged us for a long time.



The widow commented that her plane had been delayed in Texas yesterday because of ice storms, and she just about panicked over the idea that she might not get home in time for the funeral tomorrow. She said she would have lost it, if a very kind high-ranking military man had not seen that she got a hotel room, and then returned in the morning to escort her to breakfast and to the airport.



This lady, who had to leave the bedside of her dying son to come home and bury her husband, was praying, saying, "Lord, You promise not give us more than we can bear, but right now You're getting pretty close."



It was obvious by the dark circles and puffiness around her eyes, that she is grieving deeply, but she still appeared to be coping. I don't think I could be as brave and strong as she is.



When we got home, we watched a movie about the life and death of John Kennedy, Jr. We chose a strange night to watch this film that points to the unbelievable number of tragedies suffered by the Kennedy clan.



But on a high note, we followed the movie by watching our favorite college basketball team win over their opponents.