Up at 6:30 to go to water aerobics. The water was positively warm today. Felt good. But the dressing room was frigid. There's a basketball camp going on in the gym this week, so I think they lowered the temp to keep it cooler for the players, but it was very uncomfortable for those of us in wet swimsuits.
Back home, I hopped in the shower and slathered my hair with conditioner. Suddenly, the water went off. Hubbie had no idea what the problem was. He checked the breaker, to no avail. Nothing for me to do but towel my hair the best I could and then dry it and get dressed. My hair was so limp and dull that it looked like I hadn't washed in a month. Naturally, I needed to go shopping today.
I helped Mother come over around 10 a.m., and she insisted on chopping veggies for boiling chicken. She's not up to par yet, but she's getting around better and is feeling well enough to help with kitchen duties, a thing she loves to do.
I called her doctor before lunch and made an appointment for tomorrow morning. We didn't do much else after that. Following lunch, Hubbie and I ran errands, and when we got back, Hubbie peeled potatoes to boil for mashed potatoes for supper, and I washed grapes and blueberries, and pitted cherries, for an evening snack later.
At lunchtime, we enjoyed slices of a nice sweet cantaloupe, grown in a town near us. While I was at water aerobics, Hubbie bought two of the biggest melons I've ever seen from a roadside vendor. The cantaloupes weigh about 10 lbs., around the size of small watermelons. The vendor didn't charge for one of the melons that was overripe on one end, because he knows our Shih Tzu loves them, and he would have had to dispose of the melon, anyway. Once that end of the melon was cut away, though, the rest of it was fine, so we sampled it. Shih Tzu didn't mind.
Near suppertime, Mother made gravy from the chicken broth, and I mashed the potatoes, and sliced tomatoes and cucumbers. Meal preparation is generally a community effort around here. Hubbie usually assumes the duty of dishwasher following meals.
The boiled chicken dinner was requested by Mother, who was in the mood for mashed potatoes and gravy. With the tomatoes and cucumbers, a side of English peas, and slices of sourdough bread, it was very good. Mother ate small helpings of all of it...more than she's eaten since she first got sick. So I'm hoping she's on the upswing.
After supper, I accompanied Mother home, Hubbie went out to work in the yard for a while, and I read one of the volumes of poetry we got at my 50th high school reunion. The volume is titled "The Spell of the Yukon and Other Verses," by Robert W. Service. It is a very old volume, dating back to 1907.
Tonight, I was especially touched by a verse titled "The March of the Dead," which tells of the triumphant return of troops following victory, and the joy of the flag-waving people welcoming them. But then the tone changes as the writer describes the ghostly march of the troops who died in battle, described as "the limb that trailed, the head that failed, the bloody finger tips!" And "...crimson wrecks of pride; with faces seared, and cheeks red smeared, and haunting eyes of woe." This verse and others are as timely today as they were over 100 years ago.
Later, Hubbie and I watched TV, including a Lifetime Movie Network feature called "Wide Awake." A narcoleptic woman works in a lab that has discovered a serum to cure the malady, but when it is tried on humans, they promptly die. The woman discovers a conspiracy, but can she stay awake long enough to solve the problem?
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