Monday, July 26

Up at 7 a.m., but skipped my exercises, because I needed to get ready to go to a Caring Hands Hospice greeting card making session at 9 a.m.



Mother went with me. I parked in the usual area at the bank with closest access to the community room. But we were disappointed to find no handicap ramp. So Mother had to walk farther than she wanted to, up an incline part of the way, to the steps leading to the porch.



I had a rolling cart loaded with totes of stuff that had to be lifted up the steps. There are benches on the porch, and I advised Mother to rest a few minutes, while I wheeled the cart into the community room, and then returned to assist her.



Inside, before we got started on our projects, I went to the front of the bank and asked if there was handicap access to the building, and learned that there is a ramp at the main door, as well as handicap parking spaces. But they are a long way away from the community room.



Mother and I both enjoyed the card making session, and with what we made today and the others we made previously (some of which were blue ribbon winners at the fair), we contributed about 25 cards to Caring Hands.



We worked from 9 a.m. to noon, and the time just flew by. There were five women and four kids at the session, so we produced a lot of cards. The coordinator of the program said they use about 15 or 20 cards a month. She said she plans to have another session...in the evening...in a couple of weeks. Maybe it'll be on a night we can attend.



Last night, I called one of our scrapbook club members, who is also involved in making cards for Caring Hands, to tell her about today's meeting, but she said she had to attend a funeral. The funeral was for her deceased husband's nephew's wife, who at age 39 was killed by a fall from a horse. The reason she felt compelled to attend the funeral is that the woman was a sister to her son's wife. Ironically, her son's wife also died (don't know if it was by accident or illness) at age 39. Incrediby, these two sisters had a third sister, who also died at age 39 (don't know if it was accident or illness).



Back home after the card making session, I heated Ramen noodle soup for Mother's lunch, and leftovers for Hubbie's and my lunch. Afterward, Mother took to the couch for a nap, Hubbie went outside to do some chores, and I went shopping. I was interested in looking for a pair of navy blue house shoes, with soles, for Mother to wear when we go places, because it is getting increasingly more difficult for her to bend over and tie her shoes.



I went first to the store that has a sale every weekend, where the type of house shoe I was looking for was available, but not in Mother's size. I then checked at the other store that has a sale every weekend, where there were only scuff type slippers, and then at a shoe store that was having a 50% off sale. No dice. That store had absolutely nothing...in copious amounts. Lastly, I checked at a discount store, where I also had no luck.



My excursion included a visit to a book/video/music store. I wanted to see if they had a David Garrett music CD of rock symphonies. I heard this violinist play on a morning TV show, and was impressed. The store did have his CD, at a sale price, so I got it. I also picked up a CD of a Janet Evanovich novel for $2.99, and a magazine of ideas for making fall greeting cards.



At the checkout counter, I asked the clerk to tell me how much was left on two gift cards I had. One showed twelve cents, and we both laughed about that. The other one showed $20. So I only needed forty-nine cents more to complete my purchase.



It was thundering and lightening when I got in my car to head home, and then there was a cloudburst once I was on the road. Didn't last long, though, and it had stopped raining by the time I reached our driveway.



While I was busy running around today, Hubbie did some running of his own...to check with our cable company to see why phone call IDs are no longer being displayed on-screen. He was told they were having a problem right now, and they are working on.



He also picked up a prescription at the pharmacy, stopped by the bank, and did other stuff. At home, he bathed Shih Tzu.



Later, around 6 p.m., we went to a local restaurant, not far from our home, for a complimentary meal, sponsored by an outfit that will "save us money on our utilities." We already know what they are selling...a type of attic insulation...which can't be installed in our house, because of the way our crawl-space attic is built. Nevertheless, they are saving me the trouble of figuring out what to have for supper.

Our "invitation" stated that the company would foot the bill for two dinners, so we were prepared to pay for Mother's meal. But nothing was ever said about paying for hers, so we let it slide.

We've attended these "seminars" twice before, so we were familiar with the salesman (he didn't recognize us, however). He told basically the same jokes, showed short DVD presentations of the product, and demonstrated the product by using participant helpers. Whenever the salesman wanted a helper, he'd ask the person he chose if he was honest. At one point, Mother whispered to me, "I was when I got here."

She found the whole session to be entertaining, including this joke:

A die hard fan of (our state's football team) was attending The Big Game in the team's home stadium. On this day, the stadium was filled to capacity, except for one seat, right beside this fan.

A young man seated on the other side of him asked who the empty seat belonged to.

"My wife," the fan said. "But she died."

"Oh, I'm so sorry," the young man said. "But why didn't you offer the seat to another family member, or a friend?"

"I did," the fan said, "but they're all at the funeral."

It was 7:30 before we got our meals, so we were plenty hungry. Mother and I had chicken Monterey, with baked sweet potatoes, and Hubbie had steak, with regular baked potato. We all had salads and slices of Texas toast. Hubbie and I devoured our entire meals, but Mother had a piece of chicken breast left, which we brought home for Shih Tzu in an actual doggy bag. Usually, we are given Styrofoam containers for leftovers...this is the first time I've seen doggy bags, with cute cartoon doggies on them.

As we left the restaurant, we stopped by the dessert bar, where Hubbie fixed three ice cream cones, and I picked up several small brownies.

We finally arrived home around 8:30. Mother stayed at our house to have a cup of coffee before I accompanied her house. She needed the coffee to help thaw her out after sitting in the cold restaurant. She wore a knit shirt and long-sleeved blouse to the restaurant, but she wasn't dressed warmly enough for the very cold restaurant. So I gave her my corduroy shirt. She still got chilled. I don't know if I'll ever convince her to wear warm enough clothing to restaurants! I guess I'll just have to be sure to take one of my jackets for her when we go out. Since I gave her my shirt, my arms got a little cool, but I was able to tolerate it better than Mother.