Sunday, August 19

Up late, around 8 am., then spent a leisurely hour and a half having breakfast and watching a weekly political discussion show. Postponed my exercises until later in the day.

Hubbie accompanied Mother to our house around 10 a.m., and I started lunch preparations...put a small ham and a half dozen sweet potatoes in the oven to cook. Hubbie located a freezer bag of boiled cabbage, to be heated later and served with the meal, along with slices of homemade whole wheat bread.

Spent the rest of the morning doing this and that. After lunch, Mother headed to the couch for a nap. Takes her a while to recuperate after an outing like the one we had yesterday, so she was plenty ready to sleep.

While she snoozed, Hubbie and I ran a couple of errands...first to a pharmacy store to use about-to-expire manufacturer coupons. Today, we were pleased to get AARP coupons back for $5 and $1 off our next purchases.

Went to a gas station after that to fill the van. From there, we went to the river for a brisk walk on the paved pathway.

At the river, a child's birthday party in progress. The birthday guests were thoroughly enjoying an inflatable water slide that featured steps going up one side, a slide, and a pool of water at the bottom

There were a couple of police officers at the fence near the river observing a guy fishing from atop the dam. Fishing off the dam is frowned upon by authorities. But despite a large sign warning folks against walking on it, they do it anyway. If they slide off the slick, moss-covered dam, they are in danger of being caught in the undertow of the river. We don't know what the officers did about this situation.

Funny: along the path, we met an older woman and her daughter walking a pug dog. They were walking slowly, since the pug was overweight and soon got tired. We were able to finish our walk and arrive back at the parking lot at the same time as the women with the dog. The pug trotted right up to the van door.

"Do you want to go home with us?" I laughed, before looking up and seeing that it wasn't our van, but a similar one parked right next to ours.

The younger woman laughed and said, "No, but do you want to go home with us?"

"Can I?" I smiled.

"Sure!" she replied, "but I think your husband would miss you."

Back home, Mother was still sleeping peacefully, so Hubbie and I settled in to watch old episodes of Matlock. Mother woke up around 3:30 and joined us in watching TV.

Around 4 p.m., there was a power brown-out, just enough to shut down the TV and DVR. This happened three times, and three times I had to fast-forward a show we were watching, since it returned to the beginning each time the power went off. It was comical.

The power brown-outs signaled a little rain storm. No lightning and thunder, but a pretty good downpour for a few minutes that dropped the temperature to the low 70s.

Hubbie and I had a sandwich supper around 5:30 p.m., but Mother wasn't hungry, since she and I indulged in fudgesicles earlier in the afternoon.

Once the rain had stopped, around 6 p.m., I accompanied Mother to her house, and then waited until she took a shower, before I came back home.

Spent the rest of the evening watching TV, including the 2008 sci-fi movie, "The Day the Earth Stood Still." An alien visitor and a giant robot visit Earth.