Up at 7 a.m., but skipped my exercises in favor of running errands before the heat of the day set in. Stopped first at the pocket park downtown, where several vendors had set up to sell garden veggies, flowers, and handcrafts. A country-western group was entertaining on the small stage.
I didn't find much that I was interested in, except radishes. For some reason that has baffled us for years, we are unable to successfully grow root vegetables.
From there, we went to the pharmacy/grocery store, the bank, and the WDCS. More and more, I am not able to find what I want at that large discount store. Today, I couldn't find the flavor of yogurt that Mother wanted. So we had to swing back by the grocery store for it.
Back home, after lunch, Mother agreed to try getting into the van for a ride to the community garden...a new project initiated by the city, under the guidance of a couple of Master Gardeners. Several raised beds have been established for folks to rent. Folks are gardening these with varying degrees of success. The best one is being tended by an 86-year-old man, who has planted beets around the inside edge of the plot, and tomato plants in cages, and okra, in the rest of the garden. It's very pretty, with the purple leaves of the beets, and the red of the ripening tomatoes.
On the way home, we stopped at the grocery store again to pick up a prescription for Mother. At home, Mother relaxed with her puzzle book, and I went to my office computer, where I finished a letter to a friend that I'd begun several days ago.
For supper, I fixed bagel pizzas and salad. Mother ate a half of one half of a bagel, and some cottage cheese with grape tomatoes from her garden. Hubbie and I had big salads, with spring mix lettuce, tomatoes, Vidalia onion, banana peppers from our garden, mushrooms, and the crispy radishes....yum.
Accompanied Mother home afterward, and then Hubbie and I watched TV. Started with an episode of "America's Funniest Home Videos," and then watched a Lifetime Movie Network feature called, "The Watch." As a child, a woman is traumatized when she is abducted and locked in a cellar. As an adult, she is in college and needs to write a thesis about dealing with childhood trauma before a deadline but she is easily distracted. So she agrees to become a watcher in a forest fire tower, because it is isolated. But after she arrives, strange things begin to happen.
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Friday, June 25, 2010
Friday, June 25
Up at 6:30 to go to water aerobics. The water felt wonderful, and I loved the workout. My friend brought me another bag of plums, too, which was a bonus. I sorted through them when I got home for ones to eat, ones to put in the freezer, and ones to discard.
Once I was ready for the day, I helped Mother come over to our house. Her wooziness seems to have abated, but she is walking very, very slowly. I sure hope she can gain some strength back in her legs soon. But since she sits almost the entire day, I'm afraid her muscles are atrophying. Also, she gets winded after a short walk, like from her house to our house.
Spent the rest of the morning doing laundry and other household chores. After lunch, I kept Mother company for a while, and then got ready to go to a retirement party for a woman Hubbie and I worked with before we retired.
It was a very nice gathering. The ladies had done a good job of decorating. The retiree is interested in gardening, so the tables were set with colorful little plastic watering cans holding flowers and flower seed packets. Fresh garden flowers were arranged in metal watering cans, set in the corners of the room. The refreshment table featured punch in a metal bucket, plastic wear in clay pots lined with colorful tissue paper, and yellow, green, and pink napkins.
Refreshments, besides the punch, was chocolate sheet cake, iced in the theme colors, a fruit and dip tray, and a veggie and dip tray.
The gift table included a large basket of gardening tools, gloves, seed packets, and other things, probably put together by the employees. The retiree questioned Hubbie on how to become involved in the Master Gardener program, so we hope she'll want to take the MG training in February.
Part of the festivities included gathering current employees of the agency, plus those of us who have retired, for a group photo. There aren't many current employees left that we know anymore...all the old ones have retired or gone on to their rewards.
Got back home around 3 p.m. Didn't do a lot for the rest of the afternoon. We had whole wheat pancakes for supper, after which Mother was ready to go home.
Hubbie and I spent the evening watching TV, of course. Tonight, we saw "Crazy Heart," from the pay-per-view channel...it was a free bonus offering from our cable company, given to us because when our DVR player had to be replaced, everything I'd recorded was lost.
"Crazy Heart," a 2009, R-rated movie, stars Jeff Bridges and Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Robert Duvall. A has-been, alcoholic country music star forms a relationship with a young divorcee and her four-year-old son. Just as his life starts to look up, it plummets again.
Note re: refrigerator: when Hubbie tried to use the microwave oven this morning, he discovered it wasn't working. So he checked the breaker, which had apparently been thrown in the thunderstorm yesterday afternoon. So now both the microwave and the fridge work. Good thing we didn't find and purchase a refrigerator we liked at the home improvement store last night!
Note two: am I the only one who has difficulty setting water resistance watches? My old watch quit working, so I unearthed one I'd bought several months ago and tried to set it tonight. I'd lost the written instructions, so I looked up instructions online. Followed them explicitly and still had difficulty. After 30 minutes of fiddling with it, I finally (accidentally) set it.
Once I was ready for the day, I helped Mother come over to our house. Her wooziness seems to have abated, but she is walking very, very slowly. I sure hope she can gain some strength back in her legs soon. But since she sits almost the entire day, I'm afraid her muscles are atrophying. Also, she gets winded after a short walk, like from her house to our house.
Spent the rest of the morning doing laundry and other household chores. After lunch, I kept Mother company for a while, and then got ready to go to a retirement party for a woman Hubbie and I worked with before we retired.
It was a very nice gathering. The ladies had done a good job of decorating. The retiree is interested in gardening, so the tables were set with colorful little plastic watering cans holding flowers and flower seed packets. Fresh garden flowers were arranged in metal watering cans, set in the corners of the room. The refreshment table featured punch in a metal bucket, plastic wear in clay pots lined with colorful tissue paper, and yellow, green, and pink napkins.
Refreshments, besides the punch, was chocolate sheet cake, iced in the theme colors, a fruit and dip tray, and a veggie and dip tray.
The gift table included a large basket of gardening tools, gloves, seed packets, and other things, probably put together by the employees. The retiree questioned Hubbie on how to become involved in the Master Gardener program, so we hope she'll want to take the MG training in February.
Part of the festivities included gathering current employees of the agency, plus those of us who have retired, for a group photo. There aren't many current employees left that we know anymore...all the old ones have retired or gone on to their rewards.
Got back home around 3 p.m. Didn't do a lot for the rest of the afternoon. We had whole wheat pancakes for supper, after which Mother was ready to go home.
Hubbie and I spent the evening watching TV, of course. Tonight, we saw "Crazy Heart," from the pay-per-view channel...it was a free bonus offering from our cable company, given to us because when our DVR player had to be replaced, everything I'd recorded was lost.
"Crazy Heart," a 2009, R-rated movie, stars Jeff Bridges and Maggie Gyllenhaal, and Robert Duvall. A has-been, alcoholic country music star forms a relationship with a young divorcee and her four-year-old son. Just as his life starts to look up, it plummets again.
Note re: refrigerator: when Hubbie tried to use the microwave oven this morning, he discovered it wasn't working. So he checked the breaker, which had apparently been thrown in the thunderstorm yesterday afternoon. So now both the microwave and the fridge work. Good thing we didn't find and purchase a refrigerator we liked at the home improvement store last night!
Note two: am I the only one who has difficulty setting water resistance watches? My old watch quit working, so I unearthed one I'd bought several months ago and tried to set it tonight. I'd lost the written instructions, so I looked up instructions online. Followed them explicitly and still had difficulty. After 30 minutes of fiddling with it, I finally (accidentally) set it.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Thursday, June 24
Up at 7:30 this morning and did a treadmill session and resistance exercises after breakfast.
Once I was ready for the day, I made spice bars. I made the bars in order to use a carton of cottage cheese that had gone south. With a blender, I whipped the cottage cheese to sour cream consistency, and added it along with applesauce, egg substitute, and white and brown sugar substitutes to flour, spices and chopped walnuts. Turned out pretty good. Both Hubbie and Mother commented that they are tasty. I prefer brownies, but the spice bars are okay.
After I made the spice bars, I walked Mother over to our house. Hubbie did the honors of making grilled cheese sandwiches for our lunch. Mother ate half a sandwich and a few fresh plums.
At 1 p.m., I met my haircut appointment. Back home, while Mother rested, I ironed clothes. Around 3 p.m., there came a thunderstorm, providing much needed rain and bringing cooler temps. Felt wonderful after the near 100 degree temps of the past several days.
Mother was ready to go back home after the rain, so I accompanied her. She's still walking very slowly, and isn't as steady on her legs as I'd like, but she's not experiencing the dizziness she had a few days ago.
Later, as I was preparing supper, Hubbie noticed that the refrigerator light wasn't working. Drat, the 19-year-old fridge was dead. Which meant we had to unload it and put the food in other refrigerators...an extra one in a storeroom, one at Mother's house, and one in the camper.
After supper, Hubbie and I went to a home improvement store to look at refrigerators. Nothing really suited us, so we'll continue our hunt tomorrow.
Later, we relaxed in front of TV. Tonight, we watched a DVD titled, "The Adventures of Milo and Otis," a 1989 film, rated "G." The film follows a mischievous cat and his friend, a pug dog, as they wander far from home and meet lots of animals. Narrated by Dudley Moore. Picked this movie up at the WDCS for $5, because Hubbie's sister recommended it as being cute. It is a Japanese made film, and there have been allegations that animals were abused in the making of it, since some believe that certain scenes could not have been made without abuse, but those allegations were never proven. I have to admit, there were times in the movie when I wondered.
Once I was ready for the day, I made spice bars. I made the bars in order to use a carton of cottage cheese that had gone south. With a blender, I whipped the cottage cheese to sour cream consistency, and added it along with applesauce, egg substitute, and white and brown sugar substitutes to flour, spices and chopped walnuts. Turned out pretty good. Both Hubbie and Mother commented that they are tasty. I prefer brownies, but the spice bars are okay.
After I made the spice bars, I walked Mother over to our house. Hubbie did the honors of making grilled cheese sandwiches for our lunch. Mother ate half a sandwich and a few fresh plums.
At 1 p.m., I met my haircut appointment. Back home, while Mother rested, I ironed clothes. Around 3 p.m., there came a thunderstorm, providing much needed rain and bringing cooler temps. Felt wonderful after the near 100 degree temps of the past several days.
Mother was ready to go back home after the rain, so I accompanied her. She's still walking very slowly, and isn't as steady on her legs as I'd like, but she's not experiencing the dizziness she had a few days ago.
Later, as I was preparing supper, Hubbie noticed that the refrigerator light wasn't working. Drat, the 19-year-old fridge was dead. Which meant we had to unload it and put the food in other refrigerators...an extra one in a storeroom, one at Mother's house, and one in the camper.
After supper, Hubbie and I went to a home improvement store to look at refrigerators. Nothing really suited us, so we'll continue our hunt tomorrow.
Later, we relaxed in front of TV. Tonight, we watched a DVD titled, "The Adventures of Milo and Otis," a 1989 film, rated "G." The film follows a mischievous cat and his friend, a pug dog, as they wander far from home and meet lots of animals. Narrated by Dudley Moore. Picked this movie up at the WDCS for $5, because Hubbie's sister recommended it as being cute. It is a Japanese made film, and there have been allegations that animals were abused in the making of it, since some believe that certain scenes could not have been made without abuse, but those allegations were never proven. I have to admit, there were times in the movie when I wondered.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Wednesday, June 23
Up at 6:30 this morning to get ready for water aerobics. The water was deliciously cool this morning...so refreshing on such a sultry hot day. When I arrived on the parking lot, I was met by my friend who has a plum tree in her yard. She had a bag of the fruit for me. I had told her I was perfectly willing to go gather the plums myself to save her the trouble, but she said she just wanted to get them out of her yard.
Lots of ladies showed up for aerobics this morning. While swimming in the deep end before the session began, my friend and I overheard a couple of ladies talking about their veggie gardens. One of the ladies is getting lots of summer squash, but my friend isn't, and neither are we. The lady said a lack of bees for pollination is probably the problem, and we should just use a brush to hand pollinate the plants, transferring pollen from male flowers to female ones.
Okay, Friend asked, how can she tell which flowers are male, and which are female? Just as my Sis said, the female blooms will have a little squash at their base. Well, neither our plants nor Friend's have any little squashes. Sis says all of our plants are male. Apparently, so are Friends.
Which leaves us all baffled. What should we do? Friend suggested maybe she should flirt with her plants...and maybe bend over and wiggle her behind at them. Too late for that with ours, I'm afraid...they appear to be gasping a last breath.
Back home from aerobics, I checked on Mother (Hubbie had already visited her this morning to make sure she was okay). She said she was fine and was doing some laundry. So, since Mother isn't well, Hubbie put color in my hair in anticipation of a haircut appointment tomorrow.
Once I was ready for the day, I helped Mother come over to our house. She walked more slowly than usual, because she suffered a Charlie horse in her left leg when she tried to raise it over the rim of the bathtub to take a shower this morning.
It was around 11 a.m. when she came over, and she was hungry, so I heated some macaroni and cheese for her. Then I sorted the plums...some to eat, some to put in the freezer. We'll juice them later for making jelly. The plums are sweet and delicious. I don't know why my friend doesn't like them.
After lunch, Mother rested while Hubbie and I ran errands...to a jewelry store to have a bracelet repaired, to the newspaper office to pick up yesterday's issue (we'd had it held, because we thought we would be camping Tuesday through Thursday), to the pharmacy, to a roadside vendor, and finally to the WDCS.
Back home, Mother asked for a cup of pudding and some coffee. I joined her in her afternoon snack with a big glass of lemonade over ice. Around 4 p.m., she was ready to go to her house, so I accompanied her. I left the remainder of the chicken noodle soup with her to have for supper.
For Hubbie's and my supper, I fixed fajitas, which we had with a spring mix salad that included cucumbers from Son's garden, and the first of the grape tomatoes from our garden.
Later, Hubbie and I watched the movie, "Iris," a 2001, R-rated (for some nudity and language) film that recounts the story of John Bayley, a British literary critic, and his spirited wife, British novelist Iris Murdoch, who descends into Alzheimer's later in life. The movie stars Judi Dench (as the elder Iris), Jim Broadbent, and Kate Winslet (as the young Iris). A very good and touching story of devoted love.
Note: following my exam at the cardiologist's office yesterday, the doctor requested that my water aerobics group do a rain dance, since the gardens are getting so dry. The ladies laughed when I told them of the request, but nevertheless, we whooped through some of the routine. This evening, the TV weatherman predicted a 40% chance of rain for tomorrow. Hm-m-m.
Lots of ladies showed up for aerobics this morning. While swimming in the deep end before the session began, my friend and I overheard a couple of ladies talking about their veggie gardens. One of the ladies is getting lots of summer squash, but my friend isn't, and neither are we. The lady said a lack of bees for pollination is probably the problem, and we should just use a brush to hand pollinate the plants, transferring pollen from male flowers to female ones.
Okay, Friend asked, how can she tell which flowers are male, and which are female? Just as my Sis said, the female blooms will have a little squash at their base. Well, neither our plants nor Friend's have any little squashes. Sis says all of our plants are male. Apparently, so are Friends.
Which leaves us all baffled. What should we do? Friend suggested maybe she should flirt with her plants...and maybe bend over and wiggle her behind at them. Too late for that with ours, I'm afraid...they appear to be gasping a last breath.
Back home from aerobics, I checked on Mother (Hubbie had already visited her this morning to make sure she was okay). She said she was fine and was doing some laundry. So, since Mother isn't well, Hubbie put color in my hair in anticipation of a haircut appointment tomorrow.
Once I was ready for the day, I helped Mother come over to our house. She walked more slowly than usual, because she suffered a Charlie horse in her left leg when she tried to raise it over the rim of the bathtub to take a shower this morning.
It was around 11 a.m. when she came over, and she was hungry, so I heated some macaroni and cheese for her. Then I sorted the plums...some to eat, some to put in the freezer. We'll juice them later for making jelly. The plums are sweet and delicious. I don't know why my friend doesn't like them.
After lunch, Mother rested while Hubbie and I ran errands...to a jewelry store to have a bracelet repaired, to the newspaper office to pick up yesterday's issue (we'd had it held, because we thought we would be camping Tuesday through Thursday), to the pharmacy, to a roadside vendor, and finally to the WDCS.
Back home, Mother asked for a cup of pudding and some coffee. I joined her in her afternoon snack with a big glass of lemonade over ice. Around 4 p.m., she was ready to go to her house, so I accompanied her. I left the remainder of the chicken noodle soup with her to have for supper.
For Hubbie's and my supper, I fixed fajitas, which we had with a spring mix salad that included cucumbers from Son's garden, and the first of the grape tomatoes from our garden.
Later, Hubbie and I watched the movie, "Iris," a 2001, R-rated (for some nudity and language) film that recounts the story of John Bayley, a British literary critic, and his spirited wife, British novelist Iris Murdoch, who descends into Alzheimer's later in life. The movie stars Judi Dench (as the elder Iris), Jim Broadbent, and Kate Winslet (as the young Iris). A very good and touching story of devoted love.
Note: following my exam at the cardiologist's office yesterday, the doctor requested that my water aerobics group do a rain dance, since the gardens are getting so dry. The ladies laughed when I told them of the request, but nevertheless, we whooped through some of the routine. This evening, the TV weatherman predicted a 40% chance of rain for tomorrow. Hm-m-m.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Tuesday, June 22
Up at 6:30, so Hubbie would have time to take care of the kittens with the eye problems, walk Shih Tzu, and fill the bird feeders, etc., before he left on a trip about 45 minutes from here to visit with his family. I needed time to check on Mother and see to her needs before I went to a 9:30 cardiologist appointment.
Since Mother has not been eating much, she was having tummy troubles. I had the necessary product on hand to help relieve her. I called the clinic and left a message with her doctor's nurse, but didn't get a return call before I needed to leave for my appointment.
My cardiologist appointment went well. I was a little taken aback, however, when I was escorted back to an exam room past a room where a woman was screaming and crying like a little child. The nurse said it was an elderly woman who didn't appreciate the insertion of an intravenous needle. I asked if the woman had dementia or Alzheimer's, and she nodded yes.
When we entered the exam room, the nurse asked me to strip to the waist and put on a gown. "What are you going to do?" I laughed, remembering the elderly lady's cries. The nurse explained that she was going to do an echocardiogram (ultrasound) of my heart, since it had been a year since the last one.
This is a painless procedure, except for the sometimes slight discomfort of the scanning instrument that the nurse manipulates around the chest and on the rib cage. I thought she'd never quit bearing down on that rib under my left breast. Apparently, it's difficult to get a good image of the heart through that rib and the lung.
By the time the test was completed...about 30 minutes, and then another nurse spent 20 minutes filling out forms and taking my blood pressure, and then I waited another 30 minutes before the doctor came in, it was around 11:30 before I got back home.
I learned a lot about each of these caretakers. The nurse who did the ultrasound was married at 16, and had her first child at 17. Now she had 11 grandchildren. One daughter is an emergency room nurse, and her son is career military, currently serving in Iraq.
The other nurse was frazzled today, since some folks didn't show up for work, and she was the only nurse in that part of the clinic. She also has rhumatoid arthritis, which was bothering her today. She's also worried about her 73-year-old mother, who is bent on dying. I mentioned that she is too young to think about dying, but the nurse said that there are folks who are young at 73, and folks who are old at that age, and her Mother is one of the old ones.
The doctor had her own tales...she is a very large person, who is having knee problems. Our conversation, though, mainly centered on her porch garden...herbs and okra plants in containers. Like all of us, she's having trouble in this extreme heat keeping her plants hydrated.
As for me, I appear to be in good shape, and will not need another appointment until next June. Yay!
Back home, I checked on Mother. She hadn't eaten much. I asked if she'd like to try to come over to my house, and she said she would. She's been craving "something creamy" to eat, so I researched the info on her antibiotic and learned that she isn't restricted from eating dairy products...the only caution is not to eat or drink dairy when taking her medication.
So I gave her an individual cup of chocolate pudding, and then made a batch of macaroni and cheese, and she ate a serving of that, plus some bread and butter.
Hubbie returned home around 4 p.m. At that time, Mother was ready to go back to her house. She made it fine, without visible dizziness. The nurse at the clinic called back around 5 p.m. saying the doctor doesn't feel she needs to see Mother just yet. She emphasized that Mother needs to hydrate, hydrate, hydrate, and then after she finishes the med, she wants to see her again. So it'll be next week before she goes back to the doctor, unless something unusual happens.
I checked on her around 8 p.m., and she seemed to be feeling better. She said she wasn't getting as dizzy when she walked, so maybe she's mending.
Since Mother has not been eating much, she was having tummy troubles. I had the necessary product on hand to help relieve her. I called the clinic and left a message with her doctor's nurse, but didn't get a return call before I needed to leave for my appointment.
My cardiologist appointment went well. I was a little taken aback, however, when I was escorted back to an exam room past a room where a woman was screaming and crying like a little child. The nurse said it was an elderly woman who didn't appreciate the insertion of an intravenous needle. I asked if the woman had dementia or Alzheimer's, and she nodded yes.
When we entered the exam room, the nurse asked me to strip to the waist and put on a gown. "What are you going to do?" I laughed, remembering the elderly lady's cries. The nurse explained that she was going to do an echocardiogram (ultrasound) of my heart, since it had been a year since the last one.
This is a painless procedure, except for the sometimes slight discomfort of the scanning instrument that the nurse manipulates around the chest and on the rib cage. I thought she'd never quit bearing down on that rib under my left breast. Apparently, it's difficult to get a good image of the heart through that rib and the lung.
By the time the test was completed...about 30 minutes, and then another nurse spent 20 minutes filling out forms and taking my blood pressure, and then I waited another 30 minutes before the doctor came in, it was around 11:30 before I got back home.
I learned a lot about each of these caretakers. The nurse who did the ultrasound was married at 16, and had her first child at 17. Now she had 11 grandchildren. One daughter is an emergency room nurse, and her son is career military, currently serving in Iraq.
The other nurse was frazzled today, since some folks didn't show up for work, and she was the only nurse in that part of the clinic. She also has rhumatoid arthritis, which was bothering her today. She's also worried about her 73-year-old mother, who is bent on dying. I mentioned that she is too young to think about dying, but the nurse said that there are folks who are young at 73, and folks who are old at that age, and her Mother is one of the old ones.
The doctor had her own tales...she is a very large person, who is having knee problems. Our conversation, though, mainly centered on her porch garden...herbs and okra plants in containers. Like all of us, she's having trouble in this extreme heat keeping her plants hydrated.
As for me, I appear to be in good shape, and will not need another appointment until next June. Yay!
Back home, I checked on Mother. She hadn't eaten much. I asked if she'd like to try to come over to my house, and she said she would. She's been craving "something creamy" to eat, so I researched the info on her antibiotic and learned that she isn't restricted from eating dairy products...the only caution is not to eat or drink dairy when taking her medication.
So I gave her an individual cup of chocolate pudding, and then made a batch of macaroni and cheese, and she ate a serving of that, plus some bread and butter.
Hubbie returned home around 4 p.m. At that time, Mother was ready to go back to her house. She made it fine, without visible dizziness. The nurse at the clinic called back around 5 p.m. saying the doctor doesn't feel she needs to see Mother just yet. She emphasized that Mother needs to hydrate, hydrate, hydrate, and then after she finishes the med, she wants to see her again. So it'll be next week before she goes back to the doctor, unless something unusual happens.
I checked on her around 8 p.m., and she seemed to be feeling better. She said she wasn't getting as dizzy when she walked, so maybe she's mending.
Monday, June 21, 2010
Monday, June 21
Summer Solstice! The longest day of the year, and one of the hottest in our town at about 100 degrees, with a heat index of between 105 and 110 degrees.
Got up at 6:30 a.m. to go to water aerobics. The pool was cool, as usual, but felt absolutely wonderful once I got used to it. Lots of women (and one man) showed up today for the session, including two new women. One of the women, a very large, not so young lady, was amply decorated with tattoos. As far as I know, none of the rest of us have tattoos. Not our thing.
I was sad to learn that one of the members found out over the weekend that her 51-year-old son has been diagnosed with prostate cancer, and it has not yet been determined how advanced it is. Apparently, her son hasn't had medical insurance until recently, so this was his very first wellness exam. What a shock to go all those years without benefit of annual physicals, and then have the first one reveal a terrible problem.
This lady and I share the common problem of heart disease, so we have become friends. She is the one who has a plum tree growing in her yard, and she doesn't like plums. So when the fruit gets ready to fall, she asks me and other friends to come gather them, because they make a mess in her yard and eventually draw flies. We are happy to take some of them for making juice to be used for jelly-making. We also like to eat them fresh.
Before I left for water aerobics this morning, I checked with Mother, who said she is about the same...still getting dizzy after walking a few steps. After I got back home, I tried to call her doctor, but it being Monday, the phone lines stayed busy. So I will just have to try again tomorrow.
Once I was ready for the day, I went to Mother's house to visit with her for a while. She requested a tomato for making a toast and tomato sandwich for lunch, so I brought one to her, plus a container of lemon pudding. She said she'd eaten toast with peanut butter for breakfast. I'm glad that she's eating, but her appetite definitely isn't back to normal yet. However, she did feel well enough to get dressed this morning, rather than staying in her housecoat.
At 12:30, Hubbie and I went to the art gallery to help take silent auction items to the restaurant where the Summer Celebration event is to be held. Then we spent an hour or so helping set up the auction area.
Back home, I visited with Mother for a while again, and then came back to relax, read the evening newspaper, and check e-mail messages, before getting ready to go the Summer Celebration at 6:30.
Funny: at the last visual arts committee meeting, I turned in the money and tickets I'd sold for the Summer Celebration, but I forgot to keep the two I bought for Hubbie and me. I mentioned this to the arts council director today, and she laughed, saying she had run short of tickets, and had sold my two again. So I collared the lady who will be taking tickets tonight and voiced my dilemma, and she laughed and said she'd let us in without tickets.
The Summer Celebration was fun. Entertainment included a former Vegas showgirl, a local Elvis impersonator, and a popular local band. Food was heavy o'dourves like chicken salad and ham sandwiches, dip and chips, stuffed mushrooms, mini-quiches, Brie cheese wheel, and fresh fruits, along with wine and beer. Each ticket bearer was provided with two drink tickets. We first tried the white wine, which tasted like shoe polish to me. So I requested a sweet wine, and got Zinfandel, which was much better.
There were silent and live auctions, too. This year, all I got at the silent auction was tickets to a dinner theater in another town. The live auction items included a vacation package at Boca Grande in Florida, and an antique pendant, valued at $1,400. Didn't bid on these, of course.
Following the auctions, there was a dance. Hubbie and I hit the dance floor for a couple of slow numbers before heading home around 9:30.
Got up at 6:30 a.m. to go to water aerobics. The pool was cool, as usual, but felt absolutely wonderful once I got used to it. Lots of women (and one man) showed up today for the session, including two new women. One of the women, a very large, not so young lady, was amply decorated with tattoos. As far as I know, none of the rest of us have tattoos. Not our thing.
I was sad to learn that one of the members found out over the weekend that her 51-year-old son has been diagnosed with prostate cancer, and it has not yet been determined how advanced it is. Apparently, her son hasn't had medical insurance until recently, so this was his very first wellness exam. What a shock to go all those years without benefit of annual physicals, and then have the first one reveal a terrible problem.
This lady and I share the common problem of heart disease, so we have become friends. She is the one who has a plum tree growing in her yard, and she doesn't like plums. So when the fruit gets ready to fall, she asks me and other friends to come gather them, because they make a mess in her yard and eventually draw flies. We are happy to take some of them for making juice to be used for jelly-making. We also like to eat them fresh.
Before I left for water aerobics this morning, I checked with Mother, who said she is about the same...still getting dizzy after walking a few steps. After I got back home, I tried to call her doctor, but it being Monday, the phone lines stayed busy. So I will just have to try again tomorrow.
Once I was ready for the day, I went to Mother's house to visit with her for a while. She requested a tomato for making a toast and tomato sandwich for lunch, so I brought one to her, plus a container of lemon pudding. She said she'd eaten toast with peanut butter for breakfast. I'm glad that she's eating, but her appetite definitely isn't back to normal yet. However, she did feel well enough to get dressed this morning, rather than staying in her housecoat.
At 12:30, Hubbie and I went to the art gallery to help take silent auction items to the restaurant where the Summer Celebration event is to be held. Then we spent an hour or so helping set up the auction area.
Back home, I visited with Mother for a while again, and then came back to relax, read the evening newspaper, and check e-mail messages, before getting ready to go the Summer Celebration at 6:30.
Funny: at the last visual arts committee meeting, I turned in the money and tickets I'd sold for the Summer Celebration, but I forgot to keep the two I bought for Hubbie and me. I mentioned this to the arts council director today, and she laughed, saying she had run short of tickets, and had sold my two again. So I collared the lady who will be taking tickets tonight and voiced my dilemma, and she laughed and said she'd let us in without tickets.
The Summer Celebration was fun. Entertainment included a former Vegas showgirl, a local Elvis impersonator, and a popular local band. Food was heavy o'dourves like chicken salad and ham sandwiches, dip and chips, stuffed mushrooms, mini-quiches, Brie cheese wheel, and fresh fruits, along with wine and beer. Each ticket bearer was provided with two drink tickets. We first tried the white wine, which tasted like shoe polish to me. So I requested a sweet wine, and got Zinfandel, which was much better.
There were silent and live auctions, too. This year, all I got at the silent auction was tickets to a dinner theater in another town. The live auction items included a vacation package at Boca Grande in Florida, and an antique pendant, valued at $1,400. Didn't bid on these, of course.
Following the auctions, there was a dance. Hubbie and I hit the dance floor for a couple of slow numbers before heading home around 9:30.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Father's Day
Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there!
Slept late this morning, until around 8 a.m. Didn't exercise today. As soon as I was ready for the day, I checked on Mother. She was sitting on her couch, and seemed in good spirits. But she confessed that she still has trouble walking without getting woozy. And she still has very little appetite. If she's not much improved by tomorrow, I'll be calling the doctor.
For Father's Day, I treated Hubbie to a steak and shrimp dinner at a local steakhouse. I had a chicken and ribs combo. I ate one rib and half of my chicken. Brought the rest home, along with some okra an a couple of rolls to have for supper later this evening.
Touched base with Mother, who said she'd eaten half a bowl of soup for lunch, and was ready for a nap. I checked on her again mid-afternoon. She said she was feeling better, but she was still getting dizzy...mostly when she stood in one place for very long.
Watched a movie this afternoon..."My Life in Ruins." Rated PG-13, the movie stars Richard Dreyfuss, Nia Vardalos, and Alexis Georgoulis. It's a romantic comedy set in Greece. An American tour guide, who is not very good at her job, eventually finds that underneath the scruffy, long-haired, bearded tour bus driver (Georgolis) is a hunk of a man. It's a cute, lighthearted movie, and the scenery and Greek ruins are stunning.
Followed this with a decidedly "down" movie, called "The Killing Room." This 2009, R-rated, film stars Nick Cannon, Timothy Hutton, and Clea DuVall. This is a psycological thriller, in which four strangers are recruited for a scientific study. They are placed in an sterile white room and handed clipboards of lengthy forms to fill out. The forms ask questions like: in the case of a catastrophe, who would you save first...yourself or others. But real experiments are soon conducted on the unwilling participants to test the breaking point of the human mind and find out how far they will go to survive. The movie is supposedly based on the CIA's "MK-Ultra" mind-control experiments of the 70s.
Note: today, Hubbie received a very touching Father's Day tribute from my son...a video of Brad Paisley singing "He Didn't Have To Be," about a stepfather's love for his stepson. It brought tears to Hubbie's eyes. He has always been very good to my kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids, treating them like his own.
Around 8 p.m., I checked on Mother again. She'd eaten another bowl of soup, some crackers with peanut butter, and a slice of lemon pudding cake. So her appetite is increasing. But the dizziness persists.
Slept late this morning, until around 8 a.m. Didn't exercise today. As soon as I was ready for the day, I checked on Mother. She was sitting on her couch, and seemed in good spirits. But she confessed that she still has trouble walking without getting woozy. And she still has very little appetite. If she's not much improved by tomorrow, I'll be calling the doctor.
For Father's Day, I treated Hubbie to a steak and shrimp dinner at a local steakhouse. I had a chicken and ribs combo. I ate one rib and half of my chicken. Brought the rest home, along with some okra an a couple of rolls to have for supper later this evening.
Touched base with Mother, who said she'd eaten half a bowl of soup for lunch, and was ready for a nap. I checked on her again mid-afternoon. She said she was feeling better, but she was still getting dizzy...mostly when she stood in one place for very long.
Watched a movie this afternoon..."My Life in Ruins." Rated PG-13, the movie stars Richard Dreyfuss, Nia Vardalos, and Alexis Georgoulis. It's a romantic comedy set in Greece. An American tour guide, who is not very good at her job, eventually finds that underneath the scruffy, long-haired, bearded tour bus driver (Georgolis) is a hunk of a man. It's a cute, lighthearted movie, and the scenery and Greek ruins are stunning.
Followed this with a decidedly "down" movie, called "The Killing Room." This 2009, R-rated, film stars Nick Cannon, Timothy Hutton, and Clea DuVall. This is a psycological thriller, in which four strangers are recruited for a scientific study. They are placed in an sterile white room and handed clipboards of lengthy forms to fill out. The forms ask questions like: in the case of a catastrophe, who would you save first...yourself or others. But real experiments are soon conducted on the unwilling participants to test the breaking point of the human mind and find out how far they will go to survive. The movie is supposedly based on the CIA's "MK-Ultra" mind-control experiments of the 70s.
Note: today, Hubbie received a very touching Father's Day tribute from my son...a video of Brad Paisley singing "He Didn't Have To Be," about a stepfather's love for his stepson. It brought tears to Hubbie's eyes. He has always been very good to my kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids, treating them like his own.
Around 8 p.m., I checked on Mother again. She'd eaten another bowl of soup, some crackers with peanut butter, and a slice of lemon pudding cake. So her appetite is increasing. But the dizziness persists.
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