Tuesday, August 9

Up around 7:30 this morning, and did a treadmill session and weights exercises after breakfast. I didn't immediately shower and dress afterward, as I usually do, because I got a call from the Caring Hands Hospice coordinator, who wanted to confirm that we are to meet Thursday at a local nursing home to make greeting cards.

She also wanted to make sure I would bring all the needed supplies, since she doesn't have any. I told her I would do this and asked how many residents of the home we would be working with. She didn't know and said she'd call the activities director to find out and then return a call to me.

Since Hubbie was out running errands, I felt I needed to stay close to the land line until the coordinator called back. I should have given her my cell phone number, but I didn't think of it. Anyway, while I waited, I began putting greeting card kits together for the residents. I'm not sure they are up to trying to plan cards on their own, choosing from a dizzying array of papers, stickers, etc. So I cut and folded cards, cut background papers, and added elements, insert papers, and envelopes to individual packets that folks can choose from. Each packet has everything a person will need to create a card.

Later, the Caring Hands Coordinator called back to say that we can expect anywhere from a half dozen to 20 folks at the card making session...way more than I expected.

By this time, we had eaten lunch, and I'd made several packets, but I still hadn't showered and dressed. Finally, around 2 p.m., I got ready for the day, and then continued working on card making packets.

I ran out of steam by 4 p.m., after having put together a dozen packets. Mother tires so easily that she wasn't able to contribute much to the project. With my help, she did create a card, though.

Today, I decided to cut designs from calendars that a friend gave me to use as backgrounds for the card packets. I also used wallpaper samples for backgrounds. I punched decorative edges on some cards, and used rubber stamps on others.

Maybe I'll have time after water aerobics tomorrow morning to complete a few more packets, but I don't know if I can get 20 of them put together before Thursday afternoon.

This afternoon, too, I got an e-mail from the arts council director asking me to snap photos sometime this week during a Shakespeare workshop for kids. I advised her that the only free time I have is Friday afternoon, and maybe Friday evening during a performance by the kids.

I expected this week to be a little more relaxed than the past few have been, but it's queuing up to be every bit as busy! I laughed the other day when Hubbie's daughter commented that she can't wait to get to retirement age, so she'll have more leisure time. It's true that I can now choose my activities, but sometimes I think I'm busier now than when I worked.

Around 4 p.m., Mother put potatoes in the oven to bake, and cut up patty pan and yellow squashes to saute' with green onions, celery, and spices. She likes to cut up veggies, because it's an activity she can do sitting down.

The meal plan was to have these veggies with the leftover beans. But we were seated at the table before I realized that Mother had forgotten to get the beans out to heat. It was my fault, since I hadn't written the menu down for her. Even though we'd discussed the meal menu just an hour earlier, short term memory prevented her from remembering all of it. No problem...it took me only a few minutes to whisk the beans out of the frige and heat them.

Mother went home after supper, and Hubbie and I settled in front of TV. Tonight, we watched the 2009 movie, "Call of the Wild," starring Christopher Lloyd, Timothy Bottoms, and Veronica Cartwright. In Montana, a girl from the big city goes to stay with her grandfather. While there, a wounded wolf-dog finds it way to the grandfather's Montana farm. The vet wants to put the dog down, but the girl insists on keeping it. She attracts the attention of an evil stranger, though, who insists the dog is his. To settle the argument, the local sheriff suggests a dogsled race, the winner of which will claim the dog-wolf.

This is a story within a story: as the relationship of the girl and wolf-dog unfolds, the grandfather reads the classic Jack London book, "Call of the Wild," to the girl each night at bedtime.

Funny: today, Hubbie got a short note from his daughter who'd visited last Saturday. A sticky note sheet was inside a thank you card I'd made for her a couple of years ago. Knowing that we make cards for Caring Hands, she suggested I should recycle this card. It was a thoughtful gesture, but as the card lay on the table, I happened to notice that I'd spelled "Thanks," as "Thaks." Obviously, no one, including Daughter, noticed it, because I'd used leftover sticker letters of different sizes, placed this way and that, to form the word on a tag. "Thak you, thak you, thak you," Hubbie said, and we all cracked up laughing.

I did re-use the card by peeling the tag away from the fall-colors plaid background, and replacing it with a tag that says "Just a Note." A piece of jute through the hole in the tag, and big dark buttons glued to the background makes the card suitably masculine. I try to make several masculine cards, since the ladies who gather for sessions seem to make mostly feminine ones.