Thursday, Sept. 23

Up around 7 a.m., but skipped my exercises after breakfast, in order to have more time to visit with Sis and Mother.

Once I was ready for the day, the four of us went to a recently opened coffee house. Our main reason for going was to see an unusual feature...a table, complete with place settings, and chairs, suspended from the ceiling. The table includes a working lamp, and a $20 bill laying beside one of the place settings.

I took several snapshots of the table and chair feature, as well as a cute neon sign that says, "Give me coffee, and no one gets hurt," and bud vases filled with coffee beans to hold flowers. Coffee bean sacks from various countries are mounted on the walls, and an old tabletop jukebox stands on a counter.

Antique tables in a variety of styles, with unmatched chairs,
provide seating. The shop offers specialty coffees and teas, as well as regular varieties, and an array of pastries. It also offers sandwiches and soup-of-the-day.

Mother and I shared a chocolate chip scone (they are huge), and Sis had one of her own, but asked that it be cut in half, so she could take part of it home. She and Mother had latte coffee, and I had mocha coffee. Hubbie settled for plain coffee. Since this served as a second breakfast, we skipped lunch later.

Back home, Mother, Sis, and I made greeting cards. We spent the entire afternoon on this project. Our goal was to make several birthday cards for Caring Hands Hospice, as requested by the Caring Hands volunteer coordinator recently. Sis also made a wedding card for a friend.

Later, we had a supper of leftover autumn stew, with biscuits and honey on the side. A little earlier, Mother was reviewing the calendar and saw a notation I'd made about a surprise 60th birthday party for the home medical services director at a local golf course club house. It was scheduled for 6 p.m., and I'd forgotten all about it.

Hubbie and I hurried to change clothes, so we could leave for the party right after supper. We arrived at the party right at 6 p.m., along with several other guests. Black balloons festooned the room, and a long table was laden with various foods, plus a birthday cake. Each table in the room had plastic bags of confetti at each place.

Because we were scheduled to go to a lecture at the college at 7:30, we were anxious to leave the party as soon as possible. But it was after 6:30 before the honoree arrived. As soon as he stepped into the room, several people tossed confetti at him. It was obvious he was completely surprised.

His wife had told him she needed to go to a meeting at this hour, so he wondered why her car was parked at the clubhouse. But that didn't alert him to the party. Apparently,none of us breathed a word of the party to him.

Hubbie and I talked with him for few minutes, wished him a happy birthday, and then quietly left. Several people were right behind us, headed to a high school football game going on at around 7 p.m. Another man, also a member of the advisory board, had to leave too, since he had an engagement somewhere else. This was a drop-in event, so hopefully lots of folks dropped in between 6:30 and 8:30.

Back home, Hubbie put the wheelchair in the van, and we headed to the college, where a quadriplegic man gave an excellent program about canine companions. He brought along his own companion, a Labrador/golden retriever mix named Auggie. These animals are remarkable in what they are able to do, after intensive training, to help people with disabilities lead independent lives.

The young man who spoke to us was paralyzed after breaking his neck falling on a rock in a river not many miles from our town. This river has claimed the lives of or critically injured many folks over the years. This past summer, a young mother lost her life when she got out of a canoe to help dislodge it, fell and got her head, face down, stuck between rocks. She could not be pulled out in time.

The speaker exited his canoe to retrieve a cap when the accident happened. He said he had to hold his breath a long time, hoping someone would rescue him...and fortunately, someone did.

He showed us a slide show and a couple of very moving videos of dogs at work with their owners, and he demonstrated how Auggie responded to commands. He even responded to the command to bark, which at one point might have been a life saver. During a cold March day, the speaker got his wheelchair stuck in the mud, and he could not move it. So he commanded his dog to bark, which alerted a neighbor that he was in trouble.

Someone asked if the dog is ever allowed to play, and the speaker demonstrated how he tosses a large stuffed squeak ball to the dog, and then commanded him to bring it back. He let the dog chew on the toy for a few minutes while he talked, but soon the dog was really giving the ball a workout that caused constant squeaking. The audience laughed at this, but the speaker decided it was time to take the ball away from Auggie and commanded him to bring it to him and drop it in his lap.

Back home afterward, we enjoyed the remainder of the peach cobbler, with ice cream, and cups of hot coffee. Mother and Sis went to Mother's house after that, and Hubbie and I headed to bed.

It was a busy but good day.