Monday, Nov. 21

Up at 6:30 to get ready to go to water aerobics. This morning, Mother took care of her own needs and made her way to the den.

Around 6 a.m., I heard thunder and wondered if storms would roll in to prevent me from going to the pool. But by 7:30, all was well, so I headed to the college. The water was wonderfully warm, and I very much enjoyed swimming and water aerobics.

I was sad to learn from one of the members, though, that a fourteen-year-old youngster in a community about fifteen miles away was accidentally shot to death on a deer hunting excursion. This evening's newspaper reported that the boy and two friends, aged fourteen and sixteen, were hunting together. While the boy and one of his friends were descending from a deer stand, the friend's rifle discharged, shooting the boy in the back of the head. What an awful thing to happen at any time of the year, but particularly around holiday time. My heart goes out to the family.

Back home, I helped Mother take a shower, and then I got ready for the day myself. Sis arrived before lunchtime, and after lunch, around 2 p.m., Mother's physical therapist arrived.

At 2:15, I went down to the college library to meet my student. Today, the student brought her Mother along. Her Mother is visiting from Venezuela. Unfortunately, on the first night that her Mother arrived, she slipped in a motel bathtub and broke her arm. So of course, she was wearing a cast today.

Her mother is a very attractive 76-year-old woman, who speaks just a little English...enough for us to communicate somewhat.

An hour into our session, a librarian came into the study room to advise me the space was reserved for 4 p.m., and we would need to move to another room. We did, but at 4 p.m., I noticed a woman sitting outside the room intently gazing at me through the window. I asked if I could help her. She said she had the room reserved for 4 p.m.

Drat. This necessitated my going to the office to straighten things out. Seems somehow, though I'd reserved space for every Monday from 2:30 to 4:30, and I have been keeping those appointments since last May, someone did not record that information on their calendar. So they apologized and promptly got on the calendar for the rest of this year. I'll make sure we're on the calendar (If I have to post the info myself!) for next year, beginning in January.

Despite all the glitches, we covered a lot of ground today, including conversation using the words "asked," and "answered," "alone," and "together," "with" and "without," as well as how to express money amounts, such as $2.25 as two dollars and twenty-five cents, or two dollars and a quarter, or the more usual two-twenty-five.

She also learned the clothing fastening words of zipper, buttons, shoelaces, etc. Once again, she was briefly puzzled by the word "tie," which she has previously associated with an article of men's clothing. Today, the word was used in the context of tying shoelaces.

Back home after the session, Sis had heated leftovers from yesterday's beef roast meal, which was made better by the fact that Hubbie had cut the tough beef into tiny pieces that were easier to chew.

After supper, Hubbie peeled potatoes to be boiled and refrigerated for a beef hash supper tomorrow night. Once the potatoes were cooked, Hubbie, Sis, and I got ready to go to the nearby college to see a very entertaining and abbreviate interpretation of "A Christmas Carol." Before we left, I started a Hallmark Channel Christmas movie playing for Mother to watch while we were gone.

The play, a performance of the Children's Theater of our state repertory theater starred only two actors...a young man who played Scrooge, and a young woman who played all the other parts. The set and the costume changes were very clever. There was a lot of comedy in this interpretation, while still keeping to the basic story line.

The play was only about an hour long...just long enough to keep children involved. In fact, the troupe performed for 1500 school children this afternoon, and they must have loved it. I know we did.

We were back home a little after 8 p.m., in time for the movie Mother was watching to be close to the end. We treated ourselves to cups of homemade chai tea, with cookies Mother made before she got sick.

It began raining as we left the theater, and was stormy a little while later. But we enjoyed another Hallmark Channel movie before time to call it a day.